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#12
District 3 Male
Name: Mouse Robinson
Age: 18
Score: 4
Odds of Victory: 25-1
Fact: Fried nerves from electric shocks meant he couldn't feel pain in his left hand.
"Careful, you'll break your neck!"
"I'm fine, you just get ready to catch!"
On the one hand Mouse felt he could've done a lot worse in terms of the arena he'd ended up in. OK, sure, he would have preferred a ruined city or maybe a gigantic computer if that were even possible, but it could've been worse. The island was at least better than the garbage dump of the first quell or the sewers two years ago.
Surely it was better than the swamps of the 10th Games.
On the other hand, Mouse wished that his only ally wasn't so prone to taking risks and being so reckless. It hadn't been a full two days and already Ratchet had taken so many gambles that Mouse was lost as to why she wasn't already among the fallen.
He'd babysat her for three years already, being her neighbour and all. He wasn't even sure why he was surprised by her antics, but she kept one-upping herself again and again.
Hiding within the cornucopia during the bloodbath? Madness! Jumping over a cliff to a lower platform? Insane! Climbing to the top of a twenty foot tall tree for fruit? What was she thinking?!
Sure, the fruit up in that tall tree was probably delicious. Yes, they needed more supplies to last the two of them over the next few days. Yes, he couldn't get up there himself.
And, of course, this was still better than resorting to cannibalism like that maniac in the quell.
But did Ratchet really have to risk her life so many times in such a comparatively little time? Mouse did not think so.
Quite like his namesake, he was a bigger fan of hiding and remaining safe in a hole somewhere. All he needed to be content were his parents, his friend group he could count on one hand and the sparrows in the nest just outside his bedroom window.
He could win and see them again. He would win and see them again. He could do it by keeping himself out of needless trouble the whole way through.
It was just too bad the girl he'd grown a soft spot for in the time he'd looked after her back in their district wouldn't make it out with him. It was a shame anyone had to die.
He rubbed his arm, flinching from the sting of the bruise the boy from 7 had given him. One moment he'd been running to grab a backpack not too far into the chaos, then some other tribute had grabbed him and thrown him into the boy from 7. It was sheer luck an axe had been beside him when he fell.
It was luckier still that, when the girl from 1 ran over, she had deemed the boy from 7 to be a bigger threat than himself, giving him the chance to run.
Mouse yelped as a large watermelon splattered down beside him.
"Hey, I said get ready!"
"...What's a watermelon doing growing in a tree anyway?" Mouse asked, lost.
"Who cares? So long as it tastes good we'll just have to live with that," Ratchet snickered.
For a moment Mouse looked up at his tiny, copper-black haired district partner and wondered if it would be possible for him to die of a watermelon dropped on his head.
He paid a lot more attention to catching once that thought passed through his brain.
"Got it!" Mouse called up after he caught the first watermelon.
"Good, now catch the next four!" Ratchet called down.
Four dropped watermelons later, only two of which Mouse was able to catch, and the tributes from 3 were off on their way further inland. Mouse had little past reference for islands, but as far as they went he didn't think this was a particularly good one.
It wasn't even tropical or a summer paradise. Just rocky cliffs, long fields of tall grass and wheat, trees of fruit growing in reasonable numbers. If this was nature, he didn't see the appeal.
"You're staring into space again," Ratchet noted.
"Just thinking," Mouse said.
"All tributes from our district think. Wat'cha thinkin' about?" Ratchet insisted.
"Just that I clearly wasn't missing anything by always being inside all the time. Y'know, back home," Mouse said. "If this is the great outdoors…"
"Not my favourite arena," Ratchet said, nodding along. "I liked Pi's arena better, at least it had dinosaurs and we won that year."
"Not like it mattered in the end," Mouse said.
The tributes went quiet at the thought of their second victor's suicide a mere few years earlier. If anything, the thought had them both moving faster.
"How long are we gonna walk for?" Ratchet asked. "I want one of those watermelons."
"Give it another hour, maybe? The further away we get from the careers, the better," Mouse said, speeding up as he spoke.
"Can't we give it five minutes?" Ratchet asked, hopeful. "Climbing that tree wasn't easy, buster."
"You had fun with it, don't deny it," Mouse said.
"Fun can still tire a girl out," Ratchet giggled.
"I still can't believe I let you do something like that. It's not safe," Mouse said, more to himself.
"You 'let me'? Mouse, I'd have done it whether you let me or not," Ratchet told him.
"Yeah, that's… that's true," Mouse relented, sighing.
The tributes kept moving for half an hour until Mouse relented and let Ratchet stop for a break. Ratchet wasted no time in getting one of the watermelons out and carving it open with her knife.
For a few minutes there was only peace as the tributes from 3 ate the watermelon.
"If I win, I'm gonna buy one of these every damn day," Ratchet said between hungry bites and slurps. "So, so, so good!"
"Yeah, if you win," Mouse repeated. "You can't take too many risks if you want that to happen."
"Well, you can't just go taking no risks either," Ratchet shrugged. "Also, you can into the bloodbath as well."
"Risks work when there's a good reward for it. I wasn't there for long and didn't go too far in. It was worth the risk," Mouse said. "Hiding in the cornucopia and only getting away because the career pack got distracted by a body? Not worth it."
"I dunno, it got me these jumper cables," Ratchet teased, holding them up.
"You love those things, huh?" Mouse snarked.
"More than my cat," Ratchet admitted freely.
Neither tribute said much after that. Mouse was too busy thinking of what to do next; what was the safest possible choice that they could make? As far as he saw it, staying in a field of wheat wholly out of sight would work, but what if they were driven out?
Well, they'd have to keep moving. Where else was reasonably safe? The cliffs? No. The beach? No. The mines Ratchet saw the girl from 8 running into? Definitely not.
Maybe they could travel in a loop between the wheat fields and the grassy areas? At least then they'd be moving and not going overly close to the cornucopia. With the fruit trees, why would they have to go back? It was a plan Mouse quite liked.
Too bad Ratchet was unlikely to feel the same way. That girl and her reckless risk taking. Sure, that boy from 2 that won last year had gone out of his way to take risks to make his victory harder… for some insane reason Mouse couldn't begin to claim to know or understand… but that was just it, that boy had been insane.
Mouse was not insane, and debatably neither was Ratchet.
Although he was starting to wonder if she was after what she'd done so far, including waking him up the previous night by snapping the jumper cables in his face once she'd tracked him down. It was lucky he'd realised it was her before he'd been able to swing his axe.
"What do we do if we see someone?" Ratchet asked.
Mouse paused to finish his mouthful.
"We run. No need to fight them if we don't have to," Mouse said. "We'd be better off-RUN! RUN NOW! RUN!"
Mouse took off with Ratchet running right beside him. He didn't dare look at what was coming their way, and she didn't need to look to know that if her ally was afraid, she should be too.
The sounds of laughter and jeering filling the air behind them made it all to clear what, or who, had managed to find them.
The careers were on the hunt. The cats had found their prey, their mouse.
Mouse cursed the irony, rushing for the wheat field with Ratchet. If they were lucky then they could perhaps crouch out of sight and hide from the trained killers.
Perhaps that would've been a good plan had the wind not picked up, taking away plenty of the wheat stalks with it.
"What now?" Ratchet yelled.
"Just keep running!" Mouse screamed.
So they did. So too did the careers. The chase went on for several minutes until the land sloped downwards, the terrain soon transforming from fields and scattered wheat to twisted and rocky cliffs at the island's centre.
The path leading forth split two ways. To the right was a flat, dusty pathway leading around a large pond of evil looking black water. To the left was the pond itself, with a few large rocks poking out from the water.
Mouse hurried along the path. Ratchet leapt upon the rocks, making quick leaps between them and barely nailing the landing each time.
"What're you doing?!" Mouse yelled. "You'll get yourself killed!"
"Shortcut!" Ratchet exclaimed.
Ratchet reached the other side and kept running. A few moments later Mouse reached where the paths rejoined. The careers were still chasing them, still laughing and jeering.
Up ahead Ratchet came to a cliff. Mouse saw it too, along with the next split in the path. Either they would have to jump down the cliff, or otherwise would have to hurry to a ledge and carefully head down a twisted path.
Ratchet jumped before Mouse even reached her.
"Ratchet!" Mouse yelled.
"I'm fine!" she called from below. "C'mon!"
Mouse only had to glance down the cliff for a fraction of a second to know jumping it was too risky. He veered to the left, heading down the ledge as quickly as he dared. It, again, took him several moments to clear it.
The girl from 2 fell beside him, having tried to take it at a run. Mouse left her behind to spit out dirt and endure the teasing of her allies.
He grimaced, his chest starting to burn and his legs doing the same. He could survive this, he would survive this. Ratchet was further ahead now, her risk taking paying off.
Maybe it was time for Mouse to risk a shortcut as well?
Running forth, Mouse came to the next split, the way forward surrounded on both sides by rocky walls. On one side was a solid, albeit small, path that he knew he could shimmy himself along.
Ratchet had gone the other way, making dangerous leaps between outcropping foot sized platforms. She reached the other side and was on her way.
"C'mon, faster!" Ratchet yelled.
Mouse couldn't. Not for a shortcut like this. He began to shimmy along as fast as he could force his terrified body to go. The careers were getting closer now, their laughter ringing through Mouse's big ears.
He reached the end of the path and fled on his way, lungs aflame. One of the careers was very close, having taken the same shortcut Ratchet did. The others had fell back, deciding to shimmy across just as Mouse did.
Ratchet was getting distant, her tiny legs powering her forwards. She suddenly vanished from his sight, sliding down beyond where he could see.
Rushing forth, wheezing, Mouse saw it was a choice between a steep slope with branches and a set of rocks vaguely resembling stairs leading down below.
Ratchet was already rushing to the wheat field up ahead. Safety was close. Mouse knew he had the time to get down there and take cover in the wheat.
The gamemakers weren't even blowing it away. The wheat field was his permitted safe haven.
Mouse ran down the stairs, taking them three at a time, before he reached the lower ground. He almost skidded over as he turned to the field, but managed to remain upright.
He bolted towards cover.
The boy from 2 jumped down from above, right in front of him. Mouse had no chance to dodge or pivot away before the stronger boy slashed his sword. Blood stained the blade and the ground as a nasty cut was opened across Mouse's hip.
Mouse fell to the ground, whimpering and struggling to crawl. He hauled himself a few inches forth, only for the boy from 2 to kick him hard enough to flip him over.
Mouse squeaked like his namesake as he looked up into the steer grey eyes of his executioner. The boy from 2's rock solid jaw was set into a sneer as he circled around Mouse.
"Please…" Mouse tried to say, coughing up some blood.
"What's that?" the boy from 2 mocked him. "Please make this kill memorable? Well, since you said please…"
The other careers were hurrying down the rocky stairs, but the boy from 2 wasn't in the mood for sharing. He reversed his hold on the sword, clutching it around the blade.
It fit into his protective gloves with ease.
"No, no…" Mouse begged, wheezing.
"No, no!" the boy from 2 mocked him. "The more you beg, the more I'll make it hurt!"
He began to strike the sword's hilt down upon Mouse's chest again and again, smirking all the more as Mouse's cries of agony grew more despairing and weak.
"Not like you'd have won," the boy from 2 sneered. "Even if you somehow did, you'd have just killed yourself like your victor who died after the quell! Go say hi to her for me, clod!"
At last, with the tributes from 1 and the girl from 2 looking on, the brute bought the sword right through Mouse's ribcage, crushing the bone and splattering the organs and flesh beyond.
Mouse coughed his last and lay still, his final thought being a wish to have taken more risks.
The cannon boomed and the rain seemed to fall just a little harder. None of the careers noticed over their bickering.
"That one was mine Panzer!" the boy from 1 complained.
"Whatever, Admirable. Not by fault if you couldn't keep up," Panzer shrugged. "Not sure how you didn't with those long legs you've got."
"That's what you get from tributes who only score an eight," the girl from 2 laughed.
"Well, at least he didn't eat dirt," the girl from 1 muttered.
"Shut up," the girl from 2 hissed, working to quickly loot Mouse's corpse.
"He got anything good?" Panzer asked.
"Not much. Nothing we don't have or can't easily get," the girl from 2 replied. "You want this? It must've been his token."
She held up a ring with a topaz within it. Panzer grinned, quick to claim it as his own and put it upon his left ring finger. He held it up, admiring it.
"Who says only tributes from One can appreciate a bit of jewellery?" Panzer laughed.
"Nobody says that," Admirable muttered.
Panzer ignored him, pointing forth to the wheat field with his sword. His hands were stained with blood from the splattered hilt.
"Alright, let's go. If we're quick then we can hunt down his little bitch of a district partner as well," Panzer said.
The rest of the pack cheered their agreement and followed Panzer into the field of wheat.
None of them noticed Ratchet. She had snuck out of the wheat field while the careers were talking and hidden behind a large boulder.
With the careers gone she made her way over to Mouse's corpse. Sniffling and hurt, she gently shut his eyes. For a while she just quietly wept.
"I'll make them pay," she promised, wiping her tears away.
Fury joined the hurt. The sort of fury unfitting for a young child to feel.
"I'll make them suffer," she vowed, near-hissing.
She'd make it happen. All it would take would be a little risk…
Tribute Deceased
Ranking: 13th
Cause of Death: Chest caved in with sword hilt (by Panzer)
Time Lasted: 1 day, 13 hours, 14 minutes and 2 seconds
The odds weren't in his favour