Chapter 44:

Intense pain jolts through Seraphim's leg as he hits the ground and he lets out an intense scream of pain as his vision goes black for a few seconds. The people crowded into the room only did so much to slow his fall, he still landed hard on his leg. And as his vision starts to clear, he reaches for his legs with slow shaking hands, only to get pulled back from touching it.

"Oh my God, I'm gonna be sick!" Cimmer yells out and turns just before vomiting, but with the tight quarters, he still ends up throwing up on Adonis's shoes. He lets out a disgusted cry as he steps back right into Farren, who shoves him back away from him and Kasada.

"Seraphim, fuck, why would you do that?!" Zephyr asks as he desperately grabs onto Seraphim's hands as the medic pushes over, trying to assess Seraphim's leg. "Why would you not save yourself?!"

"He died for me," Seraphim mumbles and grits his teeth as he lets out a painful cry. His vision wavers again as he looks down at his leg as the medic ties a rope around his thigh tight, his head spins as he catches sight of bone sticking out of his calf. "Oh fuck."

"Yeah, oh fuck is right!" Zephyr says, crazy look in his eyes out of the pure panic and fear he felt waiting down there for Seraphim, terrified he was going to lose him with no way to save him. His hands start shaking and he has to let go of Seraphim, shaking them out as he tries to calm down before his fear manifests into him doing something really stupid. But he still hits his fist on the floor as he watches the medic going through her bag of limited supplies, knowing he's useless. "Don't you dare leave me."

"I won't," Seraphim says as Zephyr moves over to pull his upper half into his lap, before hissing in pain at the needle going into his leg. He squeezes his eyes shut, once again wishing he didn't know all about medicine and injuries so he could be blissfully unaware of just how bad this is. But the pain dissipating has him sitting up, looking at the medic in confusion.

"Pain receptor blocker," she says without missing a beat as she works, searching through her bag for anything that might help. But the grimace on her face says enough, Seraphim knows it's bad. "Best thing I can do is try to splint it, but we need to get to the Capitol and you into surgery to fix this."

"Fine, do it," Seraphim tells her and sits there, letting her work quickly, before trying to push himself up just for Zephyr to hold onto him tight to keep him there. "Zephyr, let me up."

"I could have lost you," Zephyr croaks out quietly and Seraphim frowns, starting to regret the choice to let the tributes go first. "Don't you ever do something like that again." His fear turns to anger as he looks around the group and points at Julian, who at least has the self-awareness to look a little afraid. "You! I should fucking kill you for letting him stay up there."

"You could, but then who is going to help you escape all the mutts that are down here that my boyfriend created?" Julian asks and at that, he hugs his arms a little bit and lets out a sigh. Hopefully Magnus is still safe out there, and…hopefully he can get back to him safely. "Seraphim made me go."

"And did it not cross your mind to not listen to him?" Zephyr asks in disbelief.

"Stop," Seraphim says, trying to hold up a hand to stop him. "I made him go."

"Sure, I could have stood up there arguing with him and then we both would have gotten killed by the mutts up there and left you trapped down here with no way out," Julian points out, arms crossed as he stands back, watching and feeling a small bit of guilt for Seraphim being injured now. "And even if you did find a way through that door, then how would you contend with the mutts?"

"I don't care!" Zephyr says loudly and throws up his hands in exasperation. "I could have lost him, I don't give a shit about your life instead! He's the only one that matters to me and if I lost him up there, I would have climbed back up and killed after last mutt I could, and it still wouldn't make things better."

"Zephyr," Seraphim says quietly and puts a hesitant hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. "I'm right here, it's okay. We're going to get out of this, just…get me over to the screen by the door."

Zephyr takes a few deep breaths to try and calm himself down and when he looks over at Seraphim, the look of pain in his eyes makes Seraphim feel so guilty for scaring him like that. "You can't leave me like that again."

"I won't, I promise," Seraphim reassures him and after a few seconds – and a few more deep breaths – it seems like Zephyr finally has calmed down enough to start to believe him. "Okay?"

"Okay," Zephyr says quietly as he stands up before helping Seraphim get up, keeping weight off of his broken leg.

"The splint will allow some weight, but best to avoid it," the medic comments and Seraphim nods his head in understanding before hobbling over to the control panel with Zephyr.

Seraphim rubs his hands together and takes a deep breath as he stares at the screen, mentally preparing himself for hacking into his own system. "There's always a few fail safes," he comments as he starts working, getting into the Gamemaker view before squinting at some blocks. "Hmm, interesting. Oooh, okay clever, I see what they did, but not smart enough to outsmart me."

"Is he losing it from the pain meds?" Lobo asks the group as they stand back in the crowded space, watching and waiting for Seraphim to work his way through it. "Should we trust him right now?"

"Oh I didn't give him that kind of drugs," the medic comments with a quick laugh. "That's all him."

"And people say I'm crazy for nerding out at my work," Julian mutters under his breath with a little bit of annoyance.

"Shh!" Seraphim says and holds up a finger over his shoulder to them, before getting back to his typing. He knows he's getting somewhere, he just needs focus to override the rebels. And they were good, but he's better. "Bingo, we are in business!"

"Did you get it?" Zephyr asks, a little bit of hope slipping into his voice that he couldn't fight back.

"Trolley is on the way," Seraphim says and turns to look back at the group with a proud grin, before turning back to work on the doors.

"Hallelujah, we're not going to die in this room and be forced into cannibalism to survive!" Bez says and claps their hands together, before tilting their head to the side. "Ooooh, that would have made for some good inspiration though."

"Bez, maybe we don't consider cannibalism right now," Juno says with a huff and rolls his eyes, fighting back an amused smile.

"I'd eat Farren first," Chantelle comments with a shrug.

Farren lets out an offended gasp at that and puts a hand on his chest. "Rude! I wouldn't taste good!"

"Yeah, but you're beefy," Kasada says with a little chuckle and punches his stomach jokingly.

"Wouldn't the Capitolites be the most nutrious?" Cimmer asks curiously before shaking his head. "Not that I would consider it!"

"I'm not an actual Capitolite, just saying," Bez says and holds their hands up defensively – even though they know they are curvy and a little thick.

"I'm still Ten born and raised," Julian adds with a chuckle, already having an internal debate with himself over the best option.

Everyone looks over at Adonis – while Zephyr is rolling his eyes at the stupidity of this conversation as Seraphim works while muttering to himself. "H-hey, don't look at me like that!" Adonis whines and backs up a little bit. "I'm full of hormones? Yeah, sure, let's go with that! You don't want to eat meat all full of hormones, who knows what that would do to you?"

"Oh when you're desperate, you'd eat even the most pissy boy there is – full of hormones or not," Juno adds in and points at Adonis. "Meat is meat in survival situations."

"Give me a finger, just a little taste," Bez says with an evil laugh as they start coming over to Adonis, reaching for him.

"No!" Adonis screeches as he runs away from them, or at least tries to, and hides behind Farren in the corner. "Leave me fucking alone!"

"Are we done yet?" Seraphim calls over his shoulder at them, shaking his head as he keeps hitting the same error from different approaches. "Oh come on you idiots, it shouldn't be this hard – a-HA! Fuck you, ya stupid rebels, I win! It's my arena!"

Seraphim looks up with a proud grin as the door slides open and the group falls quiet from their little bickering. They all gather around a bit as they stare out, suddenly afraid once more and not so willing to joke now that reality is back. A harrowing reminder of the danger they are still in and have to try and escape.

"Why is it so…dark and creepy?" Ciana asks as she peers around Zephyr.

"Emergency lighting," Seraphim comments as the group starts looking at the red lights lining the ground, before fading around the curve of the tunnel system. What should have been a guiding light to freedom is now an eerie sight, hiding whatever might be loose with them. He squints as he checks the status of the trolley, tapping to try to get it to keep moving, but it's stuck halfway there. By what…he really doesn't want to find out. "Looks like we're going on foot the long way. Trolley isn't coming and I don't want to find out why it isn't."

"Oh fuck no!" Bez chimes in, shaking their head at that thought as they cling to Juno's arm. A few of the others echo them in agreement, but a couple of them look terrified and unsure about that. "You want us to just walk right into that death trap? No thank you!"

"How are we going to get everyone out with the injuries?" Farren asks, giving Kasada a concerned look. "We have quite a few hurt."

"And not to point out the obvious, but we have one guard and a medic," Ciana comments as she points at the two, before sitting back with an almost defeated look. "How are we getting out of here?"

"We're going to die down here," Rhiannon cries out and Ardent quickly puts his arm around her, trying to calm her down. "We're not going to make it out of here alive!"

"Not if you just fucking give up already!" Chantelle complains at her whining and rolls her eyes, clearly so fed up with her behavior already. "How you survived this long in the arena is a miracle."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ciana asks, standing up to get defensive over Rhiannon at the same time Ardent balls his fist at his side. "She survived this long because she's survived hell before getting into this arena! Sorry we didn't all have a posh life as careers before this!"

Vulcan lets out a single laugh at that and makes them look at them, but they just wave their hand dismissively. "Sorry, just laughing because that's so far off. But do go on."

"Alright everyone stop your fucking bickering and quiet down so we can make a damn plan to get out of here!" Zephyr says as he steps between the tributes, arms crossed as he glares at each one individually to make them understand. "We're not going to get out of here by arguing. Everyone needs to fight if we are going to get out of here alive. Seraphim? Any chance of that trolley getting here?"

"I could try bringing it around the other way," Seraphim offers, not really sure if it will work. He types a couple things on the screen and waits, trying to see if the little blinking light for the trolley will start moving, but it's completely stopped. "Nope. Whatever is there…it either knocked it off the tracks or it's swarmed."

"On foot it is," Zephyr comments as he starts lining up the group, trying to cover the front and the rear with the ones who can actually fight. And it's a mix of emotions across the group – fear being predominant in most of them, even the ones who try to hide it, but also a fire to fight and live in others. "However many of you live to make it out of this arena depends on you now. I don't care where you're from or what was happening before this, we work together to survive."

"We move quick, and quietly, communicate in hand signals and only speaking when necessary. No crying at how shitty this situation is, because if you do you'll end up in the even shittier situation of being dead," Julian speaks up, bringing the attention over to him questioningly, to which he just shrugs. "Kostas is one of my only friends, I've learned a couple things from her I can teach quickly."

"And then we fight if we have to," Zephyr says but he looks to Seraphim with a pained look, torn between fighting to get them to safety and also staying at Seraphim's side to protect him. And after a few seconds of internal dilemma, he goes to Seraphim and puts an arm around his waist, letting him support his weight. "We're getting out of here, I'm not letting anything happen to you."

Seraphim takes a deep breath as he looks around at their ragtag group while leaning on Zephyr for support to keep weight off his leg. Tributes from all different walks of life, from vastly different Districts. Tributes who were trying to kill each other mere hours ago, now working together to stay alive. A former tribute who clearly desperately wants to get out of the arena, again. A victor desperate to keep his love alive and to forget about everyone else. Only a single guard and medic, who is now one of the most important people for them to keep alive.

And himself, a former Head Gamemaker who never asked to get dragged into this war. Yet here he is, and he'll be damned if he doesn't try to save all of them.

"Let's get moving."

And thus begins the final escape from the arena. Stay tuned for this weekend for that update.

Countdown is down to 7 remaining! Still 2 to write, but hey, at least Memoirs is officially done and I'll get those last 2 done soon.