Chapter 39:
Hour Two
Juno Ladair, 18, District Four
"Stupid bastard," Juno mutters to Julian as they heft him up on his shoulder again, starting to regret knocking him out. Especially since the mutts just aren't listening to them like they listened to him. "Why couldn't you be a normal fucking person?"
"Is anyone from the Capitol normal?" Ardent asks, his face as red as Juno's surely must be from the strain of carrying the two while running and dodging mutts. But at least between the pack of dogs, the thunderbirds swooping down occasionally, and Ciana with the gun, they have a path.
"He's not actually," Juno says, before clarifying at the look Ciana gives them. "Not from the Capitol, I mean. Obviously he isn't normal."
"What do you mean? How could he not be from the Capitol?" Ciana asks, clearly not believing that – or Juno at all, really. "You still haven't explained why you were helping him."
"What, don't want to trust a career?" Juno replies right away with a smirk as they glance over at Ardent, who Ciana gives a weary look. "Ah, I get it, ooo we're big scary careers. But some of us made foolish decisions for money and now it's biting them in the ass," they sigh at that as Julian starts shifting a little bit, clearly coming back into consciousness way sooner than Juno would have liked. "Come on, let's take five minutes while this idiot comes to."
"A break sounds great," Ardent says, voice strained but he hurries with renewed energy at the prospect of setting down Rhiannon and Cimmer for a bit. He sets them down gently when they get inside a broken building, but Juno just dumps Julian onto the ground.
"Alright, explanation time," Ciana says, standing firm in the doorway with the gun, and Juno raises an eyebrow at her in surprise, before chuckling a little bit. This just makes Ciana point the gun at them for a moment and they raise their hands in defense. "It's not fucking funny, asshole!"
"I know, I'm just remarking at the difference between you a week ago when you arrived at the Capitol compared to now," Juno tells her and watches as she considers this for a moment, before slowly lowering her gun back down. Juno gestures at Julian, who's groaning a little bit as he moves a bit. "He was blabbing about being back in the arena, which was pretty suspicious if you ask me. Also, I've never heard anything about this man before this year. So I asked if he was from the Capitol, and he just had this stupid little smirk on his face."
"You're the one with the stupid little smirk," Julian says with a loud groan as he rolls over, holding his head in pain. "Fuck off, I should have gone alone."
"Hey, who are you actually?" Ciana asks, kicking Julian's foot lightly before jumping back when he tries kicking her back. "You can't expect us to follow you blindly."
"How about Juno tells you what they've gotten up to first, then I'll spill my secrets," Julian replies, dragging himself up to a sitting position. Juno doesn't feel bad at all about the lump on his forehead that's bruising already, that bastard deserved it. Julian glares over at them and Juno just gives him a finger wave in return. "If it was up to me, I'd let the mutts have at you right now."
"But thankfully, it's not up to you," Juno replies before turning back to the other four tributes, who are all watching them with various levels of curiosity and concern. They sigh as they sit down, taking a sip of water as they debate actually opening up to them, gross. "I got mixed up with both sides just trying to earn some money for my sister, and got caught. That's it, nothing special to my backstory. Just wanted to keep my sister from dying from her illness, sue me."
Julian is quiet at that as he rubs his head – shockingly quiet – and the others don't seem to know quite what to say. "I had a sister once," Julian says quietly and they all look over at him in surprise. "Bird flu took her, I know, ironic for me. The bastard doctor wouldn't treat her without confirmed lab diagnosis, and we just didn't have that kind of money." He bawls his fists on his lap, his face going from sadness to anger. "Later I made sure he knew what it felt like to lose a family member he cared about. But someone caught wind of it and the research I was doing, and I wound up here."
"Here?" Ardent asks, looking around them in confusion. "How did you end up here? I didn't think they reused arenas…"
"I don't mean this arena, you dumb meathead," Julian replies with a roll of his eyes and Juno snickers a little at the look of offense on Ardent's face. "A different arena, fourteen years ago. But apparently my research to the Capitol was too valuable, and they faked out my death, and here I am now."
"What the hell?" Ciana asks, completely in shock at the thought of the Capitol keeping someone alive from the arena. Juno, meanwhile, is just smug that their suspicions were confirmed. "Why would they do that?"
"Those birds," Cimmer speaks up for the first time since his wails turned into whimpers. He looks at Julian, his face full of understanding. "Shams said she heard rumors about them…in Ten…"
"Not just rumors, they were there," Julian says with an unsettling grin that makes Cimmer look away. "That's where we did our pilot study before moving to the Capitol. And now look at those beauties!"
"I don't think I would call those monsters beauties," Ardent says and Julian puts his hand on his chest with a gasp of offense.
And he's about to say something, but he's cut off by the radio.
"We have Sonya," Vulcan's voice comes over the radio, and Juno blinks in surprise at Vulcan being there.
"Affirmative," Seraphim's reply comes through. "We're closing in on the Masou siblings. Julian, what's your position?"
Juno raises the radio to reply and Julian snatches it back from him with a glare. "Currently dealing with a bunch of prissy bitches who don't appreciate my work," he tells them, glaring at the group, before going to glance outside and letting out a loud sigh. Juno follows him over and when he sees the large group of mutts wandering aimlessly outside, they glance back at the group nervously. "We're in a building somewhere in the Twelve sector with lots of mutts swarming. It ain't looking great, chief, but my babies should be able to handle it."
"Standby if it isn't safe and we'll come for backup," Seraphim tells him right away, and Julian just shrugs. "Keep us updated."
"Please don't tell me you want to run through that," Juno tells him, not at all trusting that crazy look in his eyes. "Do you have a death wish?"
"Maybe once upon a time, but now I actually enjoy my life," Julian replies with a shrug before looking around the group. He seems to debate taking the gun back from Ciana, before waving his hand at her. "Alright keep the gun, you look much more comfortable with it than me. And I've got my mutts. Now everyone gear up, it's go time."
"Hold up, we can't go out there!" Ardent says, gesturing at Rhiannon and Cimmer, who Juno can admit are pretty useless right now.
"We need Ardent fighting, not carrying those two," Juno tells Julian, still looking outside and trying to get an estimate of just how many mutts there are. "Otherwise we're not making it, and I don't care how many mutts you have."
"I would prefer staying here and waiting for backup," Ciana offers and Julian gives her an annoyed look at that, since she's the one with the gun. "Also you didn't tell us who you actually are, and I'm not going anywhere until you do."
"I'm Julian Avis, head of muttations research in the Capitol for the last five years," Julian replies, standing up straight in pride. "But prior to that, I was born in District Ten, reaped in the 137th Hunger Games as Sissel Wetherburn, came in fourth place after being quote-unquote killed by Asha Kader of District Nine – who, I might add, I took out before she could take me out. And now here I am, rescuing you idiots because the idiots in charge sent me in because I have mutts and I've been in an arena before. Now, shall we get to that hovercraft so you all can live without faking your own deaths?"
Juno shares a look with the others in the group, who all seem shocked at that information, while Juno is not quite as surprised. Of course he was that crazy bastard. "No, I think we're going to wait for backup like Seraphim suggested."
Julian sighs loudly at that and shakes his head in disappointment. "I don't think whatever backup we get is going to help us. And last I checked, I'm the one in charge of this mission, so let's go."
Bezel Dorsey, 18, Capitol
Bez can't stop pacing in the hovercraft, wringing their hands together and just itching to do something. If only they had paints with them, just something to put this energy into so they wouldn't keep pacing. "This isn't right," they say again, having said it so many times already. They swivel on their foot and point at Adonis, who gives them a look of disgust at getting singled out. "We should be out there doing something!"
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Adonis asks with a scoff and Bez pouts at that. He gestures around the hovercraft, where in the back room Karter is getting stitched up, with Lobo refusing to leave his side. "We're safe, Bez. Why the fuck would we want to go out there and risk our lives again?"
"I don't know, Adonis," Bez replies with a huff at him. And really, they don't know, and if they could just paint, maybe they could actually sort out whatever the fuck it is they're thinking and feeling right now. "We're careers and we're the only ones sitting here while the rest are searching for tributes. Doesn't that say something?"
"Yeah, it says we value our fucking lives," Adonis scoffs at them and rolls his eyes, which Bez flips him off for. "And I would hardly call ourselves careers. You're an academy dropout and I'm a fucking Capitolite. We don't belong in the arena, so I will stay right here where it is safe, thank you very much."
"That's how you've lived your whole life, being safe!" Bez complains to him with a groan. "Your fathers have done nothing but love you and support you your whole life, spoiling you with love and all the affirmations you could ever want. While I was out in fucking District One forced to eat, sleep, and breathe training, push down any sort of personality or identity for myself. Maybe I'm not the career they wanted, but here I am. And yeah, I should be out there."
"Doing what exactly?" Adonis asks, cocking an eyebrow at them with a look that makes Bez want to just slap his stupid face. "Bez, why do you want to risk your life so bad out there?"
"Because they're out there!" Bez says and throws their hands up with a loud cry of frustration before resuming their pacing once more. "I just…I don't even know what I'm feeling! I'm in here, they're out there risking their life, and I don't know why I'm wishing I was out there too!"
"Oh, please," Adonis scoffs at that and Bez turns to him with a pout and crosses their arms. "Juno would sell you out for a cornchip if it meant their life over yours."
"Well they're way better of a person than you are!" Bez snaps at him, hands on their hips as they stop pacing once more to face him. "They wouldn't do that to me, because they're actually a good person! And you know what, you're a fucking pussy." Bez can't help but feel vindicated by the look of hurt on his face. "Yeah, I said it! You're a fucking pussy! You would rather cower inside in safety than actually do something. You try so fucking hard to be this perfect man but you're not that at all. You're a scared little boy who would rather hide."
Adonis just sits quietly for a few seconds and crosses his arms as he glares up at them, lower lip sticking out. Oh yeah, they struck a nerve. "You don't know a damn thing about me."
"No, I think I have you figured out," Bez replies and waves their hand dismissively as they start their pacing once more. "Scared little boy trying so hard to prove himself to everyone around them. News flash, bud, once you stop giving a shit what people think about you, you're so much more free. You go from black and white to all sorts of colors!" They shut their eyes at that, picturing all the colors in their head of emotions they've felt ever since they got out of District One and away from their shitty family. And yeah, they were struggling there for a while to find their art, but now…they found it again, but not from the arena. So they open their eyes to face him again, shaking their finger at him. "I thought the fighting and death would get me my art back but you know what has? Juno. So I'm gonna get out there and find them so they can get back here to safety, and – what is that?"
"What is what?" Adonis asks, swiveling around to try and figure out what Bez is staring at.
"That," Bez says unhelpfully as they point under the seat near where he's sitting and go over to it, crouching down to take a better look at it. Adonis, still unable to let Bez get the upperhand on anything, has to crouch down with them to look and they give him a shove to back off when he gets too close. "Is there supposed to be something with a countdown on it under the seats?"
"No, Bez, there isn't," Adonis says, his voice going into a panic as he scrambles to back away from it while Bez is just watching it as the time left gets under five minutes. "That's a fucking bomb!"
"Ooooh, that does make sense," Bez says and nods their head for a moment, before it clicks what he said and they too fall backwards in their scramble to get away from it. "Fuck, a BOMB?!"
At their yelling, one of the guards comes into the room, gun raised as they look around assessing the scenario. "What's going on?" he asks, lowering the gun as Bez can only point at the timer, directing his attention to it. He immediately curses and starts running to the other rooms, pulling an alarm as he goes. "EVERYONE OUT, NOW!"
"Fuck you, I'm going," Adonis says right away, scrambling to his feet and hurrying towards the exit of the hovercraft immediately. And Bez is about to follow him, before they look back towards the rooms and just know there are others on here who need to get out.
"Oooh, I don't like trying to be a good person!" they yell as they hurry back to the makeshift operating room, finding the doctor quickly trying to stitch up whatever they were doing with Karter as Lobo looks on in panic. "We gotta go, move it! Get your asses out or we're going to explode!"
"Karter's not ready to move," Lobo says, going to stand between him and Bez protectively, until Bez just shoves him aside and he cries out in surprise. "Stop! Leave him fucking alone!"
"Move it little boy, I'm saving your boyfriend!" Bez says which makes Lobo start sputtering about that as they go over to Karter laying on the table, all doped up on drugs. "Sorry doc, cutting you short because we gotta bomb on board."
"Give me one second," the doctor replies as she is tying off a suture and as soon as she cuts it, Bez scoops up Karter while the doctor quickly throws off her gloves to start grabbing some supplies. "Move it, Lobo!"
"Be careful with him!" Lobo complains to them as Bez kicks open the door, hurrying through the hovercraft as one of their guards is trying to stop the bomb, but the time is still ticking down, getting closer and closer to zero. "Fuck, you weren't kidding."
"Nope, we're about to blow this bitch," Bez says with a deranged laugh because they're sleep deprived and losing it from the stress of the arena, and also Karter is fucking heavy. "Bruh, why did I volunteer to help him? He's fucking heavy."
"Then give him to me," Lobo says and tries to get him back, but Bez turns so he can't grab Karter and keeps moving. Look at them go, doing something useful for the rescue mission! Juno is going to be so proud of them!
"Look at me go!" Bez declares loudly as they are starting down the ramp with Karter, slowing a bit to not slide and drop him. They stick their tongue out at Adonis since they can't flip him off, but he's still just hurrying to put some distance between himself and the hovercraft.
"Everyone keep moving, go!" the head guard yells at them and Bez starts hustling at that, huffing at Adonis ahead of them. And when the bomb does go off, exploding the hovercraft, the shockwave knocks them down and they drop Karter unceremoniously, unable to help it as they fall to the ground.
They groan as they roll over and stare up at the sky, ears ringing again and feeling the heat of the hovercraft on fire. "Fuck me," they mutter as they try to sit up but just get to their hands and knees, and vomit a bit before looking over at the ruined hovercraft.
"Well that can't be good."
Seraphim Lukianas, Former Head Gamemaker
"Damn it!" Zephyr yells out when the dogs lead them into another empty room of the building and he slams the door shut. He starts searching around, trying to find any sign of the tributes as Seraphim just leans against the door, catching his breath and trying not to lose hope at this point. "They have to be here, why else would they lead us here?" he asks as he keeps searching, throwing aside broken frames of beds. "Farren! Kasada!"
"They're not going to answer their name, they think they're in the Hunger Games still," Seraphim says quietly as he pushes himself off of the door to follow after him and stay close. And if the dogs can't even find them, what's the point of all this? "You should know that tributes don't answer to a career calling for them."
"This is different," Zephyr grumbles as he goes over to where the dogs are sitting and alerting to something. He crouches down as Seraphim slowly shuffles after him, looking over his shoulder to see what it is. "Blood," he comments as he reaches down to touch it and brings up his fingers, rubbing them together. "Still fresh, they have to be close."
"And hopefully not dead," Seraphim points out, but it's enough to give him a little bit of hope that maybe they might find the siblings. He puts a hand on Zephyr's shoulder, giving it a squeeze before letting him stand up. "Come on, we have to keep searching."
"We'll find them," Zephyr says as he grabs Seraphim's arm to stop him from moving away just yet and give him a look so full of confidence that he can't help but believe him. "We will."
"Yes," Seraphim nods before turning to the dogs. He whistles to get their attention before giving them their command. "Keep searching, we're not done yet."
The dogs start moving right away at that, heading out of the room and the two follow after them slowly, Zephyr taking the lead protectively. Could the siblings still be in this building? Are they even still alive? At this point, how many tributes will they actually manage to get out alive? Sure, they've found a few, but half of them are injured or not in the right mental state to survive this disaster.
"Seraphim."
At hearing his name, Seraphim blinks a couple times and looks up at Zephyr, who has paused to look back at him in concern. "What?"
"Stay focused," Zephyr tells him quietly, and Seraphim finds himself nodding in agreement right away at the deep concern on his face. "Getting distracted in the arena means death, and I'm not fucking losing you now. You hear me?"
"I do," Seraphim nods because the reminder is enough to scare him a little bit. He doesn't want to die here, nor could he survive watching anything happen to Zephyr. "I'm trying, it's just…it's hard to keep hope right now."
"If you're feeling that way, how do you think the tributes feel? You can't lose hope because we're their only hope," Zephyr says, a little bit harsh, but Seraphim needs that right now. "So come on, chin up, pay attention to our surroundings, and-"
Zephyr is cut off by a loud boom in the distance and shortly after, the whole building shakes a bit. Seraphim quickly grabs Zephyr's arm, trying to stay steady and giving him a panicked look at some of the groans the building is making as it rights itself. "What was that?" he asks once the building is steady and pulls out his radio. "What just happened? Everyone, report!"
"The hovercraft exploded, sir," one of their guards comes through first and Seraphim's blood runs cold in a panic that all this effort was for nothing. The tributes were there, he took them there for safety. And…and now they are trapped! "Bez noticed the explosive and we were able to evacuate just in time. But the craft is destroyed, sir."
"G-got it," Seraphim stutters before the other groups start reporting back, but he can just lean against the wall and slowly slide down in a growing panic, putting his face in his hands. "W-what are we going to do?" he asks Zephyr desperately when he crouches down in front of him and grabs his face. "We can't get out."
"Seraphim, we will get out, I swear it," Zephyr says as he holds his face tight and forces him to look at him. "We will."
"I-I…" Seraphim says as he looks at him and starts breathing quick in a panic that he is going to die here.
Zephyr takes the radio from him and stands up, looking around the hallway as he talks. "All groups report back to whatever remains of the hovercraft. Try to salvage anything from the wreck, we need to report back to the Capitol. We've done what we can here."
"B-but the other tributes," Seraphim says as Zephyr puts an arm around him and forces him back to his feet, leading him towards the stairwell. "We can't leave them."
"They volunteered knowing only one of them was going to make it out alive," Zephyr says a little harshly, but it's the truth. "They're lucky we were able to save any of them."
With that, Zephyr pushes open the door into the stairwell and immediately stops when he hears screams echoing from it. Seraphim is pulled behind him as the dogs start racing up the stairs. "It's them," Seraphim says and gives Zephyr a pleading look to at least try to save them. "Please."
Zephyr stares at him for a few seconds before letting out a loud sigh as he takes his hand and starts up the stairs, holding on tight and dragging Seraphim with him. "You stay back and let me fight, got it? Don't even fight me on this."
"I will," Seraphim agrees, too winded from running up the stairs to argue with him further.
When they reach the top, Zephyr throws open the partially open door all the way and it slams back against the wall loudly, startling both the two tributes and the mutts up there for just a moment. And it's enough time for Zephyr to start gunning down the zombies cornering and attacking Kasada, but the bullets just ricochet off the crystal mutt attacking Farren as he fights it off on the ground. It keeps trying to tear into his neck as he holds it back, his hands bleeding from trying to grab at it and push it off.
"Fuck!" Zephyr yells as he starts running over to try and help them, and Seraphim is left struggling with doing what he was told or helping. But it only takes one instance of watching Zephyr get thrown back by the mutt for him to jump into action, knowing how to defeat the mutts from Magnus.
"Stab it inside its mouth!" Seraphim yells as he runs over to them as Kasada screams at the mutt clawing and tearing open Farren's chest. She throws herself at it without a second thought, grabbing onto it and yanking it off of him as she rolls to the side with it, crying out in pain as it flails and slices into her with its whole body.
"NO!" Farren yells as he pushes himself up and scrambles for a knife to get to her and kill the mutt, before Zephyr steps up with his gun, aiming at the mutt's mouth. Kasada notices this and grabs its jaws, wrenching it open as she screams from the pain of her hands getting sliced up by its teeth, and Zephyr fires a quick gunshot into its snarling mouth, ending it. "Kassie, no no no," Farren mutters as Zephyr kicks the mutt to the side and grimaces at the bleeding from both of them.
"Fuck," Seraphim mutters as he sees all the blood and immediately drops to his knees to get out the first aid kit from his bag. His hands shake as he tries to find the spray bandage, anything to temporarily stop the bleeding until they can get help, but the bottle falls out of his hands to the roof. "Shit, fuck, okay, it's fine."
As he reaches for it, Zephyr grabs it for him and puts out an arm to keep him back as Farren is desperately putting his hands over the worst gash on Kasada's stomach. "I got it," he tells him, pulling off the cap as he kneels at her side. And all Seraphim can do is just sit back as his stomach churns from the reality of seeing someone dying right in front of him. He thought he was prepared for this, he was in fucking med school! But that taught him clinical wounds, healing people in a sterile environment, performing elective surgeries. This is raw, gaping wounds that they might not even be able to fix, all because he was fucking weak and delayed searching for them.
"Step back," Farren yells at Zephyr, just trying to protect his baby sister as she gasps in pain, and Zephyr just pushes him back easily with one arm before he starts moving aside the tattered remains of the shirt to get to the wounds. "What are you doing?!"
"Saving her fucking life! Now hold the wound together!" Zephyr snaps at him but Farren finally has a moment to realize they are not tributes, and he sits there dumbfounded. "Seraphim! I need you or she dies!"
"No," Seraphim says as he shakes his head as he crawls over to him. "No more death," he mutters as he tries to control his breathing before he starts hyperventilating. But there's so much blood, he kneels in it as he presses the sides of the wound together and Kasada screams in pain.
"Kassie, I'm here," Farren says, snapping out of his dumbfounded staring at her scream. He hurries over to her, grabbing her hand tight and holds it to his bleeding chest. "I got you."
"You stupid idiot," Kasada tells him, shaking her head as Zephyr snorts at that before groaning at the pain of the wounds as he starts spraying them shut. "You jumped in front of me."
"And I'd do it again," Farren replies right away and Seraphim can tell he absolutely means it. "Why would you tackle it off of me?!"
"Because you jumped in front of me first," Kasada chuckles before groaning as she shuts her eyes when Seraphim grabs another wound to hold tight. "Fuckers!"
"Hey, we're saving your fucking lives," Zephyr tells her, but Seraphim can see the doubt on his face that she can actually be saved.
"We are," Seraphim says, mostly telling Zephyr this. And with a couple more controlled breaths, he can at least push the panic of seeing death first hand aside to focus on what needed to be done, and he looks up at Farren, pointing at him. "Spray his chest, we closed the main ones here."
"No, help her first," Farren says, trying to swat Zephyr's hands away but he's too weak from his time in the arena to really fight him off. "No," he pleads quietly as he squeezes his eyes shut and tears fall down his cheeks as Zephyr tries to start closing his wounds. "Save her first."
"We're saving both of you," Seraphim tells him as he starts digging through his bag again, getting out bandages to put over the smaller ones. And…he gets out one of the few bags of blood they packed, originally planning to use them on themselves in an emergency, and he quickly uncaps the needle and tosses it aside, making his decision then to do everything he can to save these two.
"I am not letting you die on me," he tells Kasada as he grabs her arm, straightening it out as he tries to find a vein with her dehydrated. "You will survive this arena and live a long life together."
Riley Roomer, 15, District Three
Higher. She has to keep climbing higher, get farther away from the mutts that were chasing her. She thought she could just go up a few feet, but they still tried following her, so she kept going up and up, until the floors of the broken building were gone, leaving just behind the framework. High enough that the mutts were far below her.
But not high enough to escape the guilt from what she did to Sonya.
It's just how the Games work, as terrible as it is. But it doesn't mean Riley feels good for what she did to someone else. Sonya had a family, one that is now mourning her. Just like her own family is mourning her baby sister back home still…
"Stop it," Riley mutters to herself and lightly smacks her forehead, trying to keep strong. She has no idea when the cameras might be on her, and she can't be weak now. Especially since from her height up here, she can see the pair of tributes heading her way, seemingly being lead straight to her. Was it not enough what she did to Sonya to make the Gamemakers happy? She stabbed her and left her behind, just like she's supposed to do. She's fighting in their stupid Games.
But then again, there was never a cannon. Maybe they're upset with her for not finishing things. But also, how has Sonya even survived this long with all those mutts chasing them?
It just doesn't make sense. It's a puzzle that she can't figure out, and that just makes her want to figure it out even more. So the sky went red, the mutts went wild, she stabbed Sonya and ran, and now she's here, hiding out high in an abandoned building, five, maybe six stories up, with two tributes being led her way.
So now what to do? Should she go down and try to attack them before they spotted her? That might be what is necessary to win the Gamemakers favor. Her brain starts running through the different options of just what pairs it could be. But before she can even figure it out, she can see a big ball of flame go off near the cornucopia, followed by the boom and the whole building shaking.
Riley cries out as she desperately holds onto the metal frame as it shakes back and forth, eyes squeezed shut as she waits for it to stop. "Please stop, please stop, please stop," she mutters as the building settles back into place and she lets out a sigh of relief at that. That feeling of the building moving was terrifying.
But she doesn't have much time to relax as she can hear the building starting to creak and groan, sounds that she knows are definitely not good when she five stories above the ground. And when she hears a piece of cement break off and fall down a couple stories below her, she knows she's in big trouble.
"Shit, shit, shit," Riley mutters as she starts trying to climb down the framework, terrified that she isn't going to make it out of it in time. Maybe she's overreacting, maybe the building is fine. But the continued groans of metal don't sound fine to her, and her hands shake as she tries to move as fast as possible while being careful. But her feet still slip and she cries out as she hands from the metal frame.
Her arms shake as she holds on desperately, dangling in the air maybe halfway down the building. No, she can't die now, she has to figure out how to get out of this. So she shuts her eyes for a moment and takes a few deep breaths to try and calm herself so she can think. And when she opens her eyes, she looks around for somewhere she can either climb to or drop down to, because no way her arms will pull her back up now. And a short distance away, there's still part of the floor that she can drop down onto and just hope she won't break her ankle landing.
She shuffles slowly along, wincing at her hands getting cut up a bit by the metal, but she keeps moving because if she stops, she'll die, she knows it. And when she gets close enough to the platform, she pauses for a moment to catch her breath, before she starts swinging her body to get some momentum, before letting go in a leap of faith and just praying she made the right calculations.
And her feet land on the piece of stone and she tries to grab onto the nearby wall to get herself steady. Her ankle throbs a bit from not being used to being used this way, but she at least made it.
But her celebration is cut short when the piece of stone cracks off from the wall, sending her tumbling down screaming and desperately trying to grab anything to stop her plummet. Her body slams into the ground hard, knocking all the air out of her and she screams in pain from bones breaking. And her screams continue as other parts of the building start falling down, and a large piece of stone lands on her body, pinning her there and squeezing her lungs.
Riley can't even scream anymore, instead gasping for air as she tries to push the stone off of her, terrified that she can't feel her legs right now. But the stone is so heavy she can barely make it budge, and the panic builds and builds in her, her already short breathing turning to hyperventilating. No, she doesn't want to die.
Yet all she can do is hyperventilate and cry as she tries to escape, before eventually giving up and just lying there limply. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, she was supposed to save her family, not make them mourn another child…
She lays there for who knows how long, struggling to breath and feeling so trapped. But then she starts to hear voices calling her name, and wonders if she's hallucinating or already dead.
"Riley! Riley, are you there?"
Riley knows she knows the voices, but she's so desperate for help that she tries to call back to them. "I'm here," she croaks out.
"The dog stopped here, she must be here."
"In this ruined building?" Another voice, higher than the first. "Do you see it? She's-" Gunshots fire for a few seconds, before they continue speaking. "She's dead if she's in there."
"Well maybe not," the first voice answers and Riley is so closed to placing them, yet she can't.
"Do you want to miss our chance out of here on a maybe not?" the second voice says, and they sound so close to her. If she could just tell them she's here, they could help her escape! "Vulcan, don't be stupid."
"I'm not stupid, Chantelle," Vulcan replies sassily and Riley's blood goes cold. No…careers trying to find her… They aren't going to help her, they want to kill her! "Riley, if you're there, the Games are done. The rebels attacked, that's why the arena is all whack. If you hear us, say something!"
Rebels…the Games done? Is this just a lie to trick her? But what if it isn't a lie? She's going to die if she can't get out, so on the small chance she can live…
Riley gasps for air, desperate to call out to them for help and to find her, but she can't get enough air in her lungs to do more than let out a feeble croak. "H-help."
"We can't stay any longer, Seraphim said to go back," Chantelle says, so close to her, but no, they can't leave her here to die!
There's a long pause before Vulcan finally answers her. "Alright, we tried. They did say the dogs would find them, alive or dead. And we have to get Sonya back."
Sonya. Sonya is alive? But…but Riley isn't dead! She wants to scream and yell at them that she's right here, but they leave her there, struggling to breath, unable to move her legs, and the stone way too heavy for her to lift.
Yet she still tries and tries, until the another round of creaking comes from the building, and the rest of it collapses on her.
This chapter is sponsored by the mini cupcakes I made with Celtic yesterday while we discussed our stories and it got me motivated once more. Here's to hoping the motivation can stay this time, because I'll be honest, I was planning on typing up a summarization doc to either get me excited or just finish it off. But here I am, and I'm going to seriously plan stuff out for the remainder of the story so we can get this wrapped up properly without getting summarized. Celtic is the real mvp for getting me motivated again lol, go thank her for getting this actual update.
Eulogies:
Riley Roomer [3] - crushed by building: Ah, another casualty of the arena and rescue mission. I'm such a sucker for people facing consequences for their actions despite doing what they thought they were supposed to do, and that's exactly what happened to Riley here. Riley was a great character, I loved her motivation for helping her family, but with having already achieved that with the deal from the Capitol before the Games, she accomplished what she wanted to do. Thanks so much chcolate for her!
Well, another chapter done. I'm going to really try to be more diligent about at least trying to write when I have the time for it, because I don't want to see this story end with being summarized. So next chapter, I really hope will be sooner, and then I should hopefully have an estimate for how many chapters are left. See y'all soon, bye!
