Diamond Kai- Res D1F
I hadn't felt so normal in… even without the resurrection thing, a long time. Other than the arena thing, it felt almost like a bunch of high school friends on a class trip. Margo could tell a mean dirty joke, and once you coaxed Arielle into not pretending she wasn't listening, she knew even more. Cyrene was a bit more cool, but sometimes she laughed along, though I suspected she didn't even know what the jokes meant and was just trying to fit in. Tulsi could do impressions and would say some ridiculously low-class thing in a perfect Capitol accent. We all talked trash about the other Careers and about the outliers, and sometimes at night we gossiped about the handsomest Tributes. Later at night I would sometimes sit up thinking about Rapture and how easily I'd moved on, but in the daytime I could forget.
When Cyrene told us the idea, I had to admit it was pretty smart. Poison was frowned upon by most Careers- stupidly, if you asked me, since dead is dead- but in a crowd this large, we just plain needed to thin the ranks. As for people who looked down on poison, well wouldn't the smartest Tributes be the ones to figure it out? We were just picking out the best competition for the final fight.
"I've never heard of Telston V before," Talise commented as we headed for the staircase.
"Have you heard of most normal germs?" I teased.
"No," she admitted good-naturedly.
"I think it was engineered," Cyrene said. "Maybe during the Dark Days."
"No wonder they won," I said, then looked around nervously. It hadn't been a very prudent thing to say- it might look like I was maligning the Capitol. "It's good they didn't let things drag on," I added for good measure.
"Hope some of the strong ones live, so I can get them," Talise said, stabbing her sword into the air.
Cyrene rounded the corner and her face went angry. I stepped up behind her just as someone- from the muscular frame and dark hair, I thought it was North- disappeared down a corridor perpendicular to ours.
"It doesn't matter," Cyrene said. "We'll get her all the same."
As we started up the endless flights of staircases, I had an uncomfortable flashback to stair drills in the Academy. Sure, they were great for lung capacity, but they sucked. We were in no rush, though, and comfortably moseyed upward.
It wasn't hard to recognize the ominous-looking thick round door that marked the hazardous materials vault. It had a bank vault-style twisting bar handle and was labeled HAZARDOUS MATERIAL- AUTHORIZED PERSONS ONLY.
"Oh well, we're not authorized," Talise said, playfully shrugging.
"Yeah, you'd think it would be locked, but I guess they want people to use it," I commented. Cyrene grabbed the handle and it easily twisted open. It gave me a heavy feeling in my stomach, thinking of what must be in there along with what we'd come for. Rabies? Anthrax? Things neither Margo nor I had heard of? There must have been enough in there to kill an entire District.
Zibby Spooley- A Night to Remember D8F
It was a toy store. The arena was a toy store. I'd never dreamed I would have access to some of the things I'd been playing around with like they grew on trees. Sodium hydroxide. Powdered carbon. Cyanuric acid. Bunsen burners, autoclaves, incinerators. I could have made any chemical known to man. I already had one in mind.
After an hour of 600 degree heat, the mixture was done. I crushed the chunks into powder, added sodium bicarbonate, and stirred for another half-hour. After a few more steps to up the potency, my creation was complete. It was death I sifted through with my gloved fingers. I hadn't needed to take any of the Capitol-provided vials or pathogens. I'd made death with my own hands There was so much more I could make with what was in this room.
I was turning over a petri dish of antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus when the visitors came. I heard the door opening and looked up, unworried. I was glad to see Cyrene's face. As excited as I'd been to see the effects, I'd felt just a little guilty. I wouldn't have to worry about that anymore. I looked up at the doorframe at the scalpel I'd taped to the top of the door.
Cyrene's face shifted as she saw me. Her hand went to her knife at her side. Then the scalpel popped the rubber glove filled with powder and the air I'd forced in to increase the pressure. Cyrene hopped back at the noise and looked up int a face-full of powder like snow, snow that exploded over her and the two girls behind her.
"What?!" Cyrene said, wiping at her face angrily. She looked at me with venom for a single instant before her expression shifted to panic. Behind my surgical mask, I smiled. I'd heard cyanide worked in seconds. I'd always marveled at something that worked that fast. Now I got to see it.
At the intake of breath after her word, I felt Cyrene flinch at the burning, shearing pain in her lungs. She coughed reflexively and I leaned forward to look at the foam that sprayed out onto her lips. She leaned back, her eyes tearing up, and pitched forward onto her face.
I shouldn't have been so careless, but I had to see it up close. Cyrene and her friends were too far gone to hurt me anyway. I nudged the door open to see them as they lay on the floor. Diamond was tearing at her throat. Her fingers were hooked in her mouth like she could rip her own lungs out and wipe them clean. Talise was convulsing, her arms twitching as she tried to turn her head to the side and cough out the powder. As I watched, I jotted down notes on the pad of paper I'd found. This was a science demonstration most people never got in their entire lives.
Talise Cicero- Swing Vote D4F
The merman was going to outlive me. It was my last coherent thought before all I knew was death tearing me up from the inside and that I could never get it out and I only had seconds it would be too late too
Diamond Kai- Res D1F
What is it what is it why does it hurt get it out of me can't breath it's burning me up am I all burned up inside no throat no lungs just blood and flesh dying dying dying get it out tear it out can't breathe can't see
Cyrene Longuemare- Let The Good Times Roll D4F
How could I have been so stupid? Smart Cyrene, always ahead of everyone else. So clever to think of asking the computer where the most dangerous things in the arena were. So stupid to think that no one else would have that idea, and they might have it before five days had already passed. Emmeline, Yttria, Zibby, so many Tributes who knew chemicals. So many Tributes whose best chance at survival was using the weapons the arena gave them. But of course I was so strong I could just kill them when I found them. Unless I couldn't walk. Unless I was dead before Zibby could even finish jotting down her little note.
Visenya Lloyd- Descent into Madness D9F
Vulpes was lying to me. It wasn't like Linden to leave during his watch. Vulpes could make up some story about how he'd just vanished, how he had no idea what had happened, but he was lying. The Games had changed Linden. It tore out pieces of him and left him half-empty. He was afraid to be alone. He was terrified of the dark. And he would never leave me.
I'd been sitting on it these last two days. I didn't want to assume it of him. Vulpes might have changed since I first died in the Games, but I didn't want to believe he was the person some people thought he was. He was always so gentle with me. Every time I looked at him, I saw the little boy I'd played with in the fields. He'd been so carefree then. If he was different now, it had to be the world that had made him like this. Just let him see people like me cared about him, and he'd remember the good kid he was.
But he wasn't acting like that. The first thing that sat wrong with me was the way he treated Walcott. I knew he didn't believe her weird obsession with vampires. At first I thought he was humoring her, which was condescending but understandable, but I couldn't lie to myself anymore. He was using her. I saw the way he poured himself into his agreement with her, only for his face to shift to boredom and contempt when her back was turned. They say what a person does when someone's back is turned, that's what they do to you when your back is turned. I didn't doubt Vulpes that far. I still believed he cared for me. But I might be the only one he cared for, and a person like that wasn't a friend worth having.
I waited until we were on watch together to broach the topic again. I was trying to be casual about it. It might be I was entirely wrong, and I was just paranoid and blaming Vulpes for the stress and fear he had nothing to do with.
"So, what do you think happened to Linden?" I asked, like I was just idly curious.
"I dunno," Vulpes shrugged. "Got scared of being in so big an alliance, maybe. Felt like he was safer on his own when he could hide more easily."
It was so natural. He said it like he really meant it. I knew if I said anything against it, his confusion and hurt would seem just as sincere.
"He didn't say anything to you before he left?" I prodded.
"He barely talked to me," Vulpes said easily. "Did he say anything to you?"
"No," I said. That's the problem here. He wouldn't have left without saying something. There was no way Linden would leave without saying something.
"Can we try to find him?" I asked.
Vulpes looked up at me. "He could be anywhere," he said.
"If we don't find him, we don't find him," I said. "But we should try."
"Why? He left. Clearly he doesn't want to be with us," Vulpes said.
I felt something fall away between us. It wasn't that Linden didn't want to be with us. I saw so clearly then, that Vulpes didn't want him to be with us.
"Yeah. I guess not," I said, and pretended to be interested in the nutrient shake I was holding.
"I'm sorry. I know it's hard," Vulpes said, laying a hand on my arm. My skin crawled. He did everything right. Every defense, every comforting word, every gesture of friendship, it was all so real. Like slipping into someone else's clothes, he slipped into acting like he cared, but inside it was empty. Had he been like this as a boy, too? And I just hadn't seen it? I didn't want to believe it of him. I didn't think any little kid came out of the womb already wrong. But I didn't know how early it had started, or how deep it went. I certainly knew I wouldn't be able to change him. He might be able to change, but it wouldn't be because of me. People only changed because of themselves. It was so hard to want to. It was so hard, when the entire world made you what you were, and it got you so much. Vulpes had his alliance, the only girl he cared for, a loyal underling, and his enemy gone. Why would he ever want to change?
96th place: Cyrene Longuemare- Cyanide poisoning by Zibby
Sometimes you get the outlier, sometimes the outlier gets you. Zibby's been in the dangerous materials vault since pretty quick after the Bloodbath, generally nerding out and doing experiments. Cyrene IS really smart, but chemistry is Zibby's THING. Funny thing, Cyrene was designed not to win, but to make lots of trouble. Had she gotten to the poisons, she certainly would have. Luckily Zibby's more interested in experimentation than killing and would prefer to be able to observe her kills.
95th place: Diamond Kai- Cyanide poison by Zibby
They all three died within seconds of each other, but I put Cyrene first because she walked in the door first. Diamond had to deal with some rough truths this time. She finally admitted Rapture was past her help and started focusing on herself. Then she died RIP.
94th place: Talise Cicero- Cyanide poison by Zibby
Indirectly, Talise died because Cyrene picked her as a confidante. That's rough, buddy. This was one of those things you can't really fight, which always sucks for a Career. It WAS Zibby, at least, and she's pretty dangerous.