Jessie Cabello- A Night to Remember D2F
It was eerie how much smaller the hospital seemed. Someone had sealed off the seventh, sixth and fifth floors, and various other rooms on the remaining floors had been sealed as well. It was weird thinking about entire empty floors just sitting there above us.
I swiveled my head at a distant noise.
"Do you hear something rolling?" Fable whispered as she looked down the hall with confusion.
"Sure sounds like it," I whispered back.
"You think it's a mutt?" Fable asked. We both stuck close to the wall as we slunk forward.
"What kind of mutt has wheels?" I asked.
"Some sort of horrible mad scientist mutt who already caught someone else and is rolling them to the surgery room," Fable whispered. There was an incongruous glint in her eye as she went through the other horrible possibilities she could imagine. She really was aptly named.
"That's lovely," I whispered dryly. We got into position, Fable behind me at an angle as I reached the corner of the hallway. She tapped me on the shoulder, indicating she was ready, and I burst out into the hall.
Even though I knew Fable's conjecture was just idle silliness, I'd still partially been expecting to see some ghoulish mutt when I rounded the corner. Instead I saw Gaius, Maxson and Toddward. I would have been nervous, since there were three of them and they were strong, but I was focused on something else. The three boys were indeed the clear source of the rolling noise, because Gaius was in a wheelchair. It might possibly have been some game the three of them were playing out of boredom, but since Gaius didn't stand when he saw me (and Fable, who came out behind me), I could only assume he was actually paralyzed. I couldn't begin to imagine the sequence of events that had led up to that, but it couldn't have been long ago. A paralyzed Tribute wouldn't last long in the arena, as Fable and I were about to show Gaius.
Toddward ran around Gaius' wheelchair to stand in front of it, fists raised. "Stay back!" he yelled. Maxson nervously assumed a similar fighting stance. Gaius didn't move. Is he paralyzed all the way up? His arms rested limply under the blanket on his lap. I wasn't even sure he saw us- his face hadn't moved at all. Were Maxson and Toddward just rolling around their brain-dead friend, hoping they could maybe find him a cure? That was more ghoulish than Fable's story. It was probably best for Gaius if that was the case. It would make this quick.
Gaius McClellan- No Way Down D12M
If Fable and Jessie thought I was paralyzed, there would be no need to hide. They could come out, knowing Todd and Max would either run away or try to protect me. If they ran away, Fable and Jessie could walk right up and kill me as I sat helpless in my chair. If they tried to protect me, Fable and Jessie could pick them off and then walk right up to me as I sat helpless in my chair.
The overhead light glinted off of Fable and Jessie's swords as they slid them out. Jessie took the lead, walking toward me with a businesslike gait. I waited until she was less than ten feet away before I reached under the blanket and took out the shotgun between my legs.
Jessie Cabello- A Night To Remember D2F
A metal tube raised up from Gaius' lap. I knew what it was a moment before it happened. The thought came to me slower than it might have, since I was trying desperately to shove it down. I didn't want to know there was a shotgun levelled at my face. If I just didn't let myself know it, maybe it wouldn't be real.
Fable Anders- A Night to Remember D1F
The blanket slid off Gaius' lap, falling in folds onto the floor as the shotgun pulled loose. I saw Jessie's eyes go panicked. In her last hopeless moment, training took over and she pulled her sword up across her face, like she could block the bullets. The shotgun roared, a deafening clamor that seemed to push me back with the force of its concussion. I fell back, almost landing on the ground at the force and the dozens of tiny knives thudding all across my left side and hip. I gasped, choking back tears, as I opened my eyes after the blast. I was just in time to see Jessie crumple to the ground, revealing Gaius behind her, his wheelchair still rolling back slowly from the force of the shotgun recoil. Jessie was gone. I had no time to even start to process it before Gaius raised the gun again. I dove to the side just as the shotgun went off. The sound deafened me all over again as bits of shot roared over my head, some of them tangling in my hair. I shoved myself forward and rounded the corner of the hall. I could hear Maxson and Toddward running after me.
I lurched to my feet and took off. I sprinted down the hall for the stairwell, too afraid of the gun to even try to make a plan.
"Max!" Todd yelled from behind me. I noticed then that there was only one set of footsteps chasing after me. I looked over my shoulder to see Todd beckoning at Max- calling him back to go get Gaius, no doubt. Max stopped, glaring after me for a moment before he turned to go back to his allies. I tore into the stairwell at the end of the hall and ran downward, picking the direction at random just so that I'd be farther away from the gun. I was three floors down before I stopped, lungs burning, to catch my breath.
Shinju Matsushita- Heart of Darkness D3F
I could smell it. The smell of blood was so enthralling to me now that I couldn't even remember what it had smelled like before. It was like water to someone crawling through the desert. Maybe someone got wounded and now they're somewhere else, I told myself as I followed the scent. They'd gotten wounded and bled a little and they'd left a glittering, dark-red puddle behind. I could lick it up off the floor and feel it smearing over my tongue and down my throat and into me and I wouldn't be hurting anyone.
The red trucks in the open garage-like room taunted me with their bloodlike color. The scent, so strong now I felt drunk, was coming from underneath and ambulance that was crashed into a rack of supplies in the center of the room. I crouched down alongside the truck and salivated at the little red rivers running out every which way from the boy pinned underneath.
He must have been dead. It must have been that he'd died just in the last few minutes and I'd missed his cannon. I'd come by just at the right time, before some drone or hovercraft would come for his body. I put a hand to his cheek and shuddered at how warm it was against my room-temperature skin. He was so fresh.
I lay atop him as I drank, relishing the chance to lose myself in the feeding without guilt. I sucked and lapped at the blood flowing from his neck, gripping him with clawed fingers. Slower and slower it drained out, until, for the first time since I'd been changed, I felt full. I leaned up from him, smiling down at him as I wiped him from my mouth. I was smiling as I left the room. I hadn't felt so clearheaded in days. Everyone was safe for at least a day as I digested what I'd taken. No one had even gotten hurt. As far as I knew, anyway. I didn't stay long enough to see the boy under the truck raise his arm.
15th place: Jessie Cabello- shot by Gaius
It could have been either her or Fable. I decided to save Fable this time, but Jessie was just as cool. I knew I wanted this scene for Gaius to be a wheelchair badass since that's cool, so either Fable or Jessie had to go since they're the only alliance left large enough to attack the Stadwatch. I think Jessie and Fable had a cool run this time. They had their separation and finding each other and all that, and they had a lot of fun. Jessie and Fable both know how the Games always turn out, but they never stop finding each other.
Okay I know I JUST said Shinju's vampirism isn't contagious, but then I had this idea and it was really cool, so I decided to retcon myself to where it IS contagious but only if all the blood is drunk at once. Vampire Braddock will be a cool addition and foil since Shinju is a nice vampire and Braddock... will not be.