Wangari Kariuki- Res D2F
Take care and may
I'd thought the message was an obvious fake. I'd been in the middle of rolling my eyes when it vanished while I was still reading it. One second it was there and then it just poofed so fast it felt like I'd blinked. There was no "delete comment" button, just a "publish" one. The writer hadn't deleted it. The Gamemakers had.
Is this actually for real? I still wasn't convinced. Anyone could write something on a message board. The writer certainly didn't seem like a Gamemaker. There were plenty of rumors in the comments, from people saying there would be a doctor mutt to someone insisting the arena would explode on day fifty. None of them were true (maybe the explosion one, I suppose. We'd have to wait and see). But then… none of them were deleted.
Know what? I'll split the difference. Probably it wasn't true. Maybe it was. If it was true, and the Gamemakers were going to start sniping people soon, they wouldn't pick the people who were entertaining them. I'd step up my hunting a bit more. If I got someone, they wouldn't need to pick one of us. If I didn't, they wouldn't pick me. If it turned out to be not true in the first place, I hadn't lost anything. Maybe a big burst of energy would get this place cleaned out faster anyway.
It was late enough in the Games that I could let myself dream about what I'd do if I got home. The first thing that popped into my head was that I was going to buy some new clothes. I was sick to death of this bland hospital gown and also it was bloodstained, which was kind of gross. And I wanted to wash my hair with my shampoo, not the weird super-gentle stuff in the hospital showers. I could finally comb all the rat's nests out of my poor curls.
And you could have another kid.
I shoved the thought away. It had been there, lurking in the back of my head like a dangling sword, for a long while. I was still young- younger than most people said you should even have a kid. I so badly wanted to feel my baby in my arms again. But how could I do that? What if the baby was like Kamau? What if he wasn't like Kamau? Would he live his life thinking he was a replacement? Would I not be able to love him because he'd remind me of the son that was still lost? It was too much.
I felt bad for smiling when I saw Camille looking into a cabinet in a supply nook set in between two rooms down the hallway in front of me. The cabinet door blocked her view of me. It wouldn't take more than a few seconds for her to finish looking and close the cabinet, so I moved fast.
On the linoleum floor it was hard to move completely silently. Camille heard one of my footsteps squeak a little and bolted without even closing the door to see who was chasing her. I slid my backpack down onto my arms and slung it at her legs. It landed just between them as she was mid-step, tripping her enough she had to take a few stuttered steps without moving forward. I came up behind her and stabbed her in the back. The sword hit bone and didn't go all the way through, but it was still a mortal wound.
Camille grabbed the sword blade barehanded as she glared at me. She stayed on her feet, despite the blood pumping out of the wound. Everyone else I'd killed had been afraid as they died. Camille just looked contemptuous.
"Proud of yourself?" she spat, and then quite literally spat on my shoe. Only then did her legs give out. There was a serene dignity in how she first sat on her folded legs, breathing heavily, and then put one arm out to ease herself to the ground. She didn't bother to look at me as she faded away. As I stood watching, ready to stab her again if she seemed to be lingering, I realized I wasn't proud at all.
Maxson Deloria- Swing Vote D6M
Wow, I must have been really out of it. I didn't even remember pulling the blanket down off the bed. I lay still for quite some time before I carefully sat up, afraid of pulling the bandage loose. I very slowly curled myself up to look at it and was happy to see it wasn't as bloody as I'd been afraid of. I didn't feel great, that was for sure, but I wasn't dead.
I slowly stood up, expecting to get lightheaded, but managed to stand without too much difficulty. I felt weak and a little tippy, but if I didn't make any sudden moves I should be fine. It seemed almost miraculous until I put together that I might very well have been sleeping for 24+ hours. I shuddered at my blind luck. It was the only reason I wasn't dead.
Clearly I was going to need somewhere to hide for a while and rest. I could walk, sure, but my muscles and my thoughts were both a lot slower than normal. I could keep hiding in here, but it wouldn't be long before Tuesday or- who's the other Career left?- found me. They were probably already on their way, since we only had the two floors and basement left.
Unless… The stairwell was only four rooms down the hall from me. What if I went up? There was nothing up there but sealed doors, except for one very noteworthy room. The Careers hadn't been able to seal the hazardous chemicals lab, since it had a huge vault-style door and Zibby had locked it from inside. There might even be some useful things in there. The explosion probably didn't destroy everything.
After a long, exhausting climb, I was back in my old digs. Zibby's body was long gone, so it was just me and the rubble. In between the glass and bits of melted plastic, there were a few unbroken bottles and flasks. I browsed through them, hoping I'd find something I recognized and could use.
Dimethylmercury, the tiny bottle read. It was clear and unassuming, like a little bottle of water. EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS! The skull and crossbones icon had already suggested that. Employees must wear complete PPE when using. Report any spills immediately. High risk of dermal absorption.
All those years studying Latin at religious school hadn't gone to waste. "Dermal" meant skin. This stuff was absorbed through the skin. The Careers were out looking through every room that was left. It would be disastrous if they were all poisoned…
I rested another day before I went out to start laying traps. I still felt weak the next day, but the edges of my wound had started to knit enough that I wasn't afraid a sudden movement would tear them. I slunk back to the second floor and stood outside the last few doors near the stairwell. I didn't even have to get them all. The Careers would reach here eventually. I could just poison a few and then sneak back to the hazardous chemicals room to rest more. I put on the goggles, gloves, and extra-strength mask I'd taken from the lab and poured some of the liquid onto the knob.
Gabriel Farad- Power to the People D5M
How treat infected bite wound
The avatar popped back onto the screen. Sorry, I'm not allowed to assist Tributes.
I folded my arms in annoyance. It made sense, but it was still annoying. Looked like I was on my own.
It wasn't that bad, really. It wasn't oozing pus everywhere. It was just very clearly infected. There were two swollen little red nubs on my arm that clearly marked out where Braddock had bitten me. I didn't want to know what sort of gross germs vampires had, and that was in addition to just normal human germs. It seemed like I wasn't going to turn into a vampire, so that was nice, but I could still just die of a boring infection.
Okay. This is a hospital. There have to be some antibiotics around here. I searched the office I was in and came up with a tube of neosporin. That would have been good to have right after the bite, but it was a bit late now. I'd have to go out, then. I knew from the hospital floor plan- which was available, even though it seemed like a great assistance- that there was a small pharmacy on this floor. It was just a matter of getting halfway across the floor without anyone else noticing me. I just needed another sneaky plan.
Hours later, I was starting to think I might have run out of sneaky plans. I'd started the Career war, I'd found myself an assistive device, I'd rigged up the smell bombs… how many ideas could one kid have? How much longer would the Games even last? It was just a little infection, as far as I could tell. Maybe it would take longer to get serious than the Games would take to end. Maybe it would just go away on its own. I didn't have any sneaky ideas. A really dumb one did come to me, though.
Hey Panemians, I typed into the comment box. It seemed really formal, so I erased it. Hey everyone. That was better. Is there anyone out there who might send me a little antibiotics? I don't think it's that bad, so it won't take much. Maybe it won't be as expensive as normal since we're in a hospital? I know I'm a bit of an underdog but if I win I bet I'll pay out like a ton to whoever bet on me, so maybe help?
I smiled a little as I sent it. No one would send me anything. I was from a Games forty years ago and I wasn't even the most memorable one then. I laid my arms in my lap, wincing a little at the heat in the infected one. No one knew why it was so tempting to poke at an infection. Maybe it felt like you were doing something to help it, even though you were actively making it worse. You could also tell yourself it didn't hurt much and therefore it must not be bad. People really did think perception was reality.
Well, guess I should figure something out. I leaned back in my chair to brainstorm. A minute or so later I felt something tickle my hair, like a fly or something. I reached up and felt the corner of a sponsor package as it drifted down just behind my head.
No way. Really? I opened the box and found a tiny tube of cream, along with a note.
I didn't even bet on you. I just hope you win :)
I didn't expect it to mean so much to me. I just hadn't imagined anyone was actively rooting for me. I expected plenty of them probably said they did, since they wanted to root for the poor disabled kid, but to actually put their money on the line? Maybe people were pulling for me. At least, one person out there was. That was really cool.
7th place: Camille Igawa- stabbed by Wangari
A ton of chapters back I looked at Camille in my doc and thought wouldn't it be funny if I picked one person to last way longer than you'd expect based on her amount of focus in her original story? So that's why Camille is here. I dove in further and let her be more than just a filler. She still wasn't my chosen Victor, though, so RIP. I like to highlight groups people tend to look down on. Whether you're a furry or a therian or an emo, I'll take you at face value. Camille was a teen doing teen things and she deserved to see what these phases would have matured into in her adult life. She stuck with her principles to the end, even if it hurt her odds. Camille died but she wasn't defeated.