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#23
District 4 Female
Name: Pearl Pinto
Age: 18
Training Score: 10
Odds of Victory: 3-1
Fact: She honestly couldn't stand the taste of sushi.
Pearl had heard many stories of what people thought about the Hunger Games. Some called them horrendous, and were often silenced for it. Some called them glorious and the way to the good life. Some called them necessary.
Either way they worded it, the point was they made people feel something for better or for worse. That was the main reason she had volunteered for the Games. Not so much the fact she figured she was strong enough to survive them or to spare someone else from the arena.
No, she just wanted to feel something.
For all her waking moments - and, she reasoned, while asleep as well - Pearl felt nothing. She could live just fine, but happiness? Sadness? Anger? She didn't feel it, she just felt perfectly neutral at all times. It was creepy, people often said.
She could crush a bug underfoot or break the neck of the dog that used to roam around the care home and not feel a thing. She could feel physical pain, but taking a fall on the docks didn't make her start to weep or feel scared.
She wore no mask, because she was the mask. There wasn't anything to hide with one.
Maybe the arena would fix that.
Pearl had hoped so, but after doing so well in training and lasting so long since the gong had gone off, she felt her hope - or, she thought it was hope anyway - was misplaced.
She felt the same now as she had from the very start. So, of course, she felt nothing.
She supposed she should, but she didn't. Beating the little girl from 10 to death didn't make her feel anything. Impaling the girl from 7 in the back with a trident didn't make her feel anything. Crushing the skull of the boy from 6 with a well thrown bear trap didn't make her feel anything.
Setting the young boy from 10 ablaze hadn't made her feel anything. Even seeing the tiny girl from 3 commit suicide right in front of her hadn't made her feel anything.
She was starting to doubt that even victory would make her feel something.
Apparently something was wrong with her brain, or so the doctor who had visited her at the care home on and off in days past had said. He'd used a lot of terms she didn't understand, but what she took away was that there was something wrong with her. Wrong with her head.
She agreed. Maybe the Capitol doctors could fix it after she won?
She'd take feeling the crushing guilt Museida had been consumed by since his own Games long ago over nothing. At least it sounded interesting, in theory.
But before then, she had to be the last tribute standing. That meant her allies, such as they were, had to die.
It also meant finding the last remaining outlier.
What did 'outlier' even mean anyway? District 4 was on the west coast, so that meant it was lying on the outskirts of the nation, right? Pearl thought it made sense. But… Pearl noticed her district had never been referred to by that word, at least not by her allies.
Maybe it was something only people who felt something could understand?
Still, if the grumbles and impatient muttering of Admirable and Clawdette was any indicator, maybe there were some emotions Pearl could do without? Impatience didn't sound like something she would benefit much from.
Well, if they were going to be impatient and huffy, Pearl supposed it fell to her to lead the way and find the 'outlier'. That was the benefit of being emotionless, she supposed. She had endless patience.
It was probably why she was the leader and these two weren't. Not that she thought they'd admit to such a thing.
She glanced back, just for a moment. Clawdette and Admirable were whispering about something or another.
'Probably plotting to kill me', Pearl thought, not caring about what this meant for her.
They'd barely managed any kills. She had. She could probably handle them if she had to. She was the one who scored a ten, after all.
She paused, seeing footprints on the ground. Kneeling down and observing them carefully, she… had no idea who they belonged to. Whoever it was, they didn't seem like they were particularly large in size.
Pearl whistled her allies over without delay.
"Footprints," Pearl said. "They lead this way. Let's follow them."
"How can you tell they're recent, or belong to the outlier?" Admirable asked, appearing doubtful.
"At least it's a plan," Pearl told him, "If we take too long then the gamemakers would just force us together, but why force their hands?"
Why indeed. Pearl got the sense that the gamemakers were just as impatient as her allies, perhaps even moreso.
Pearl led Admirable and Clawdette further down the tunnels. With such poor lighting and her flashlight almost out of power, it was hard for Pearl to follow the footprints.
They ran out soon enough, leaving only one particularly twisty tunnel to follow. Time passed, Pearl didn't know how much, but enough for her to start doubting the usefulness of the footprints. Maybe whoever left them was already dead?
Admirable took the lead soon enough. Pearl let him, not really thinking it mattered who was in front. So long as they kept moving, it was progress.
It wasn't long before Admirable came to a stop.
"Let's stop," Admirable muttered. "Water break."
"No, if we stop then the outlier's gonna just go hide somewhere else," Clawdette snapped.
"Eh, water sounds good," Pearl shrugged, quickly uncapping her bottle.
Pearl was strong, but like anyone she enjoyed a good drink after a solid workout, and hiking down a deep salt mine certainly qualified as a work out to her.
Admirable and Clawdette relaxed on the rubble as best as they could, while Pearl leaned back against the wall of the tunnel, sipping at her water bit by bit.
She felt it unwise to take her hand off of her trident, so she didn't.
Admirable was the first to finish his drink, soon standing up and starting to leave further down the tunnel.
"Where're you doing?" Clawdette asked.
"Taking a piss," Admirable told her. "I'll be right back."
Around the bend ahead he went and then only silence followed. Silence aside Clawdette noisily finished off her own water.
"You enjoying that?" Pearl asked, already knowing the answer.
"I guess?" Clawdette shrugged. "Who doesn't enjoy a good drink?"
"Me. I dunno what enjoying stuff really feels like," Pearl stated.
"...Maybe you have something wrong with your brain?" Clawdette remarked.
"Hmmm, maybe," Pearl said. No need to tell Clawdette how right she was. "Do you think the Capitol could fix it? Good emotions, bad emotions, I just want to feel something."
She did. She really, really did.
"Maybe winning will make you feel something," Clawdette said.
It was obvious to Pearl that her ally wasn't paying her much attention nor cared at all, but she nodded all the same.
"I hope so," Pearl said. "That's why I volunteered. People on Capitol TV say being a victor is a feeling like nothing else. Made sense to try and win."
"Well, too bad for you because I'm winning," Clawdette told her, as if it were a fact.
"Still three cannons left to fire," Pearl said, unbothered.
While Clawdette looked away Pearl set down her trident, putting her spiked gauntlets back on. It wouldn't do to attend the final battle without them. Dried blood of the girl from 10 still coated them all over.
Squeaking began to fill up tunnels. A lot of squeaking from what Pearl quickly knew to be a lot of rodents. No doubt mutts.
Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Admirable hurrying back towards them, his heavy footsteps pounding upon the rocky ground.
"Mutts!" Admirable yelled. "Rats! Rats!"
"Finally, some action," Clawdette grinned.
Action it was, though Pearl didn't feel remotely worried or excited about it. It was a task to be completed, no more or less.
It wasn't even a hard one, really. Impaling rat mutts with her trident was as simple as fishing. Pearl didn't see why Clawdette and Admirable made such a racket over it.
It was like most other things, it all came easily to Pearl. Just another thing to perform well at before moving onto the next thing.
She'd never understood why people didn't grasp things easily like she did. Watching past Hunger Games, she didn't see the issue tributes had with mutts.
'Just aim the weapon and thrust it forth, it's not hard', Pearl thought as she did exactly that to another mutt.
"Die you little freaks!" Clawdette sneered.
Pearl would've pointed out that the rat mutts probably couldn't understand them, so mockery was pointless, but that was when a trio of them flocked her and took her focus away.
It was easy to shish-kebab the three of them in one go.
Several minutes later the swarm was defeated and the final mutt ceased twitching. Blood was all over the tributes and their weapons.
Clawdette cheered, Admirable smirked and Pearl just didn't see the appeal. The rats were dead, that was that. It wasn't cause for a celebration, was it?
She just couldn't understand why. She just couldn't feel why.
"That was a work-out!" Clawdette laughed.
"Not the same as killing a tribute," Admirable muttered.
"Why do you think they just… stopped?" Pearl asked, glancing around in case more rats were about to show up.
Admirable shrugged as he marched onwards, stepping around the rats and their pooling blood. Pearl followed with Clawdette close behind.
"They're probably ready to end it and wanted some quick ratings before the finale. The outlier won't put up a fight, so why not send the mutts to spice things up?" Admirable said.
Pearl accepted this. It made sense. It was logical.
"I think our fight will be much better than killing rats," Clawdette said.
"Without a doubt," Admirable said. "But first, the outlier. They're around here somewhere…"
"Who do you think it is?" Pearl asked.
She'd lost track of who the tribute even was. Even recalling the faces of the scant few tributes it could've been was a struggle.
"Does it even matter?" Clawdette asked, shrugging.
Pearl considered the question, if just for a moment.
"No," Pearl admitted.
The journey through the salt mines continued, bringing the trio lower and lower. Pearl soon found there was a method to the slow madness. Just pick a path at random. If it was correct they'd pass without issue. If they were wrong they'd fight a lone rat mutt.
Pearl dispatched the mutts each and every time with a mere thrust of the trident. She had to wonder how people found this entertaining. If they wanted rats to die that badly, they could just visit a sewer or the garbage dump, surely.
The trek was long, enough for Admirable and Clawdette to grow impatient. Pearl paid them little mind; they were being led somewhere, wasn't that enough reason to keep quiet and keep moving? Large as the salt mines were, they weren't infinite.
The end was obviously near.
Pearl pictured herself wearing the crown, cheered for by hoards of people.
She hoped that doing it for real would inspire some flicker of joy in her, or anything really.
At last she led her alliance around a bend and instantly spotted someone up ahead. The very last tribute they'd been hunting; the girl from District 9.
Pearl wasn't jealous of the girl - she couldn't feel such a thing - but on some level she wished she was in her position. The way she wept, the way she rocked back and forth, the way she was terrified out of her mind… so much emotion. What must that be like? What a rush it must've been for her!
Even lacking one of her core senses, she still experienced more than Pearl possibly could.
It just wasn't fair.
Fair or not, Pearl had a task to complete. The girl wouldn't last long.
The girl from 9 saw them just as they began to move. In a flash she was running for her life down the tunnel, wheezing and crying in terror.
"Keep after her! She's getting away!" Admirable yelled.
"The gamemakers won't let her run for long," Pearl said, unbothered.
Pearl had to hand it to her, she was fast. But Pearl knew she had the sheer endurance needed to catch up to her. It was only a matter of time.
However, it was apparent that it was going to take more time than Pearl wanted. It was easy enough to keep the girl from 9 in her sights and remain a healthy distance ahead of her allies too, but she just couldn't narrow the gap.
It made sense that the outlier was so fast, Pearl reasoned. Unlike the rest of her allies she had paid rapt attention to the interviews, mainly in hopes that there might be a sob story that could tug at her heartstrings and maybe make her feel bad or something.
No interview had managed to pull it off. But she had learnt plenty about her competition, such as how the girl from 9 was a champion hover ball player back in her district, leading her team to a near-undefeated streak. Obviously she was going to be fast. Obviously she would be agile.
She wondered, briefly, how her allies hadn't thought to listen and learn. Perhaps in some way their emotions cut them off from using basic logic?
Strange.
The chase was long and fast, with Pearl almost tripping over rubble twice along the way. But she knew it wouldn't be long until the outlier finally ran out of energy.
She was so exhausted, it was clear.
But she kept running. She kept fleeing just like Pearl and her allies kept chasing her. They chased the shorter girl down a sloped tunnel that quickly became flooded with salt water and right around a bend leading to a sea cove.
The colours, so unlike the rest of the arena, were interesting. Pearl took it all in upon seeing that the girl from 9 was cornered and helpless.
That was when she noticed something at the side of the cove. A corpse. The girl from District 8! Just what had killed her? Another tribute? Or was something nasty lurking in the water?
She kept her trident at the ready, but was still taken off guard when three mutts of human and fish origin rose from behind some large clams.
They began to sing a strange melody. Pearl wasn't sure how to feel about it. She wasn't truly convinced she did feel anything about the music that soothed her ears.
She just knew that she suddenly wanted to get closer to the source. She wanted to be right there next to where it was coming from.
Pearl couldn't even concern herself with the girl from 9, even as she passed right beside her. She just had to hear more of the song.
She was snapped out of it when one of the mutts tried to slash at her wrist, only for the gauntlet to block it.
Pearl saw the girl from 9 running for her life and vanishing around the bend, and saw the danger she and her allies had been lured into.
'Did she do that on purpose? Did she know she'd be safe?" Pearl thought.
She decided it didn't matter. What mattered was taking down these mutts. Siren mutts, if she recalled correctly. They resembled the creatures in the stories old sailors would talk about over a pint for a captivated audience.
Not that Pearl was ever captivated, mind you.
While Clawdette and Admirable struggled against the power of the mutts, for once showing fear, Pearl kept a clear head and duelled the mutt that had gone after her. Without fear to get in the way it wasn't too hard to dodge its swipes and bites.
It wasn't hard to spike it in the gut with her trident either.
It certainly wasn't hard to grab it and slam its head repeatedly upon the nearest clam.
Her allies were screaming, Clawdette moreso than Admirable, but Pearl couldn't help them. Not when she'd just about gotten the upper hand over the mutt.
One good grab to its neck. One good twist to the side. One loud crack and the mutt fell down dead in an instant.
That was when Pearl noticed Clawdette had been killed, her jaw missing and her body mangled.
It was also when the mutt that had been going after her lunged forth, taking Pearl to the ground and biting into her shoulder. The trident fell from her grasp.
The pain was terrible, but Pearl still kept a clear head. Clear enough to punch the mutt in the face and send it staggering back. For a moment both tribute and mutt alike took several deep breaths.
Then they lunged at each other, fighting hard to bring the other combatant to the ground. The strain was immense for both of them, but Pearl was slowly gaining the upper hand. Just a few more moments and the mutt would be down, due for a broken neck.
Then Admirable's throat was torn out and the other mutt joined the first in the assault against Pearl. The combined force of them was enough to topple her to the ground. From there they began to bite and claw at her.
But even so, Pearl wasn't afraid. She wasn't anything. She just was.
She responded with two incredibly hard haymakers, one for each mutt. Both mutts were left to flail with broken, bloody noses. Bloodied herself, Pearl managed to get back up and lunge for the nearest mutt, snapping its neck.
She let it drop and rushed the final mutt, thrusting her fist into its jaw. The mutt screeched and wailed, no longer able to move its jaw properly.
"Can't bite me now," Pearl said.
The mutt could, however, use its claws. It slashed at Pearl with its remaining strength, just as Pearl continued to punch it with her own reserves of power.
Both combatants were bleeding badly, but the mutt bled worse. Finally it could take no more and began to slump backwards.
Right before it fell, it thrust its claws force one last time right at Pearl's head. One of the claws pierced within.
For a minute Pearl was only able to howl and wail, as if her head was going to explode. She looked down at her bloodied body, at the corpses of her allies, at the battered and broken siren mutts, at all the gore.
She screamed. She screamed and screamed, terror filling her mind.
"...I… I…" Pearl could barely get the words out. "I'm… afraid…?"
She reasoned that it had to be fear. Her pounding heart, the shaking, the stress making her want to be sick. The desperation to be anywhere but the arena.
Fear.
Had the mutt done this? Hit her in just the right place to make her feel something?
Wheezing and shaking, Pearl hurriedly grabbed her trident and staggered away from the bodies. Two cannons fired across the arena.
Just one left to go. But where was the girl from 9? She'd run off before the fight had started. She was probably still running off even now. Pearl staggered away from the cove, an arm to the tunnel wall for support.
She could still win this. She could go home, able to feel. She just had to find the girl from 9.
But she was so afraid. She was terrified. Each step was a struggle for her to make.
The upwards incline was a nightmare, reducing her to crawling to have a chance of making it to the top.
The salt water made her wounds burn so badly.
Pearl barely made it back to her feet. She continued to bleed and continued to die.
She couldn't stop shaking, suddenly afraid of everything. The distant squeaks. The light creaking of metal here and there. The distant movement of rubble. The fear of dying.
She felt like she was going to have a heart attack.
Sobbing and wishing she was home and safe, Pearl finally kneeled over and slumped back against a rusty minecart.
She saw her terrified, miserable, bloodied face reflected in a puddle of water.
"You finally felt something…" Pearl choked out. "...Was it worth it?"
Pearl took her final breath and closed her eyes, her body steadily going limp. Her last thought was that, no, it wasn't worth it.
The cannon went off and the sound of joyous trumpets echoed through the arena, overground and underground alike.
Teff Withers, the last tribute standing and half a mile up the tunnel, didn't know it. For her, everything was the same as it had been for the past two weeks.
Silent, dark and terrifying.
Tribute Deceased
Ranking: 2nd
Cause of Death: Bled out from wounds inflicted by Siren Mutts
Time Lasted: 13 days, 4 hours, 46 minutes and 7 seconds
The odds weren't in her favour
District 4 Eliminated
District 9 Victorious