Tw: Depictions of radiation poisoning. Fratricide in Jokull's pov.
Day Four of the Arena
July 5th, 2427
Brizio Nardolillo, 18
Everything can change so fast; Brizio knows that better than most.
He kneels down beside the body of Emery, his head sunk low as he laments in his failure. He arrived only moments too late to save him.
It's never too late to avenge him. That's what Emery's mother would have wanted at the very least, right? Brizio promised her that he would protect her son as she protected him on the last night in The Capitol. But he didn't. He failed. It figures - he wasn't hired to protect people back in District Four, he was hired to put a knife in them. He was hired to bring retribution - that he knows he can do extremely efficiently. It's how he put food on the table so that he and Tancred could survive.
Brizio pushes himself up, and grabs Emery's bag as he does it. He takes one last look at the face of the boy from Ten, who is barely recognizable after Romulus's mauling.
Brizio can do worse.
The assassin heads to the nearest house he can, which is really just four broken walls. He sits down inside and begins nurturing the bruise on his eye with a damp cloth.
He lets out a cough. He still hasn't recovered from his sickness, if he had been then maybe Emery would still be alive. He can't know for sure, and it doesn't matter; he never lived his life in retrospect.
(When he and Tancred escaped from his parents and The Bonannos, he never looked back.)
What he does know is when it's time to face Romulus for round two, he will be in peak condition. That means he will have to wait. That's okay; he's patient. In fact, he's deadliest when he's patient.
Suddenly, there is a footstep in the rubble to Brizio's left. The brooding young man immediately shoots to his feet, grabbing a dagger out of his bag.
But he lowers his weapon when he sees it is Geneve.
"Oh, it's you," he mutters, sitting back down.
She is the last person left in this arena that Brizio is willing to trust. However, he is starting to remember why he prefers to work alone.
"I'm guessing you're gonna go after him," says Geneve, stepping closer.
Brizio takes a sip of his water to help dull his cough. "You know it," he responds coldly.
Geneve sighs aloud. "I'm sick of all this macho bullshit… I lost someone too, you know. Somebody poisoned Aida and I still want answers."
Brizio remembers seeing Geneve and Aida hanging out a lot, but he never knew that they were that close.
"You really think I killed my own district partner?"
"No… not really." Geneve looks into the distance. "And truthfully, I don't think it was Romulus either."
"But he still betrayed us."
The tall girl holds her hand up. "I know and I won't stop you from killing him, but once we're through with Romulus, we're gonna find whoever poisoned those meds."
Brizio knows deep down that whoever poisoned the medicine is their true enemy; if it wasn't for them, then none of this would have happened. But he owes something to Esther Vandermast, and vengeance is the best he can do. As a mercenary, he always saw his contracts through to the end; she paid him by saving his life and he intends to pay her back by avenging her son.
Brizio nods and offers out his hand. "It's a deal then." An ironic smirk stretches across his face. "A killer and a detective… we're gonna make a pretty strange duo."
"Weirder things have happened already," Geneve chuckles. She sits down next to her last ally and then takes a swig of her own water.
Brizio prefers to work alone, but he's glad he's not alone at the moment. A lone career would be picked off by those three crazy boys or one of the other alliances - he thinks to himself.
"So how do you plan on finding him?" The One Girl asks.
Brizio stands up and hobbles over to the center of the room. He crouches down in the dirt and begins carving his knife in the dirt. "You're a detective, yes? Don't criminals often return to the scene of the crime?"
Geneve nods.
"I say we start in the hospital and enter from different sides to block his escape." Brizio finishes drawing a rough outline of the building in the dirt with his blade and then he looks up at the One Girl with ice-cold eyes. "He's a cornered animal now. We just have to finish the job."
"It'll be finished when all the other tributes are dead," Geneve replies.
She's right. Then, Brizio can return to Tancred with the winnings, and his brother can live a life that he never could - a life without looking over his shoulder in every alleyway.
Reese Haricot, 15
Reese can no longer hide how tired he is.
The last four days of running from monsters and other tributes, and surviving in this unforgivable place has left the alliance bruised, cut, battered, and exhausted.
(Although, Reese fears his deepest scars are inside his mind.
He cannot get the image of his dying friend handing him the bloodied birthday card out of his mind, nor the unrelenting noise of the swing in the park creaking back and forth.)
The daydreaming boy quickly refocuses his attention on the present. His three allies are getting ahead of him on the large, concrete bridge that they are crossing; it's an extra foggy day, and if Reese is not careful he'll soon lose sight of them completely.
After yesterday's adventure on the bus, the group decided to camp next to the murky, green lake. But today, they are heading deeper into the arena by crossing the bridge over the lake.
Reese skips forward to catch up with his other allies. Despite everything, he's glad he's not by himself. He can't imagine being alone right now. He'll forever be grateful to his allies for not letting him be alone in these dark times.
"Thank you," Reese blurts, catching up to his allies.
"Hm?" Auren mumbles in response, as she happens to be the closest.
Reese's mind scrambles to find an explanation for what must be a random comment to his friends. "For… saving me yesterday from those tributes," he says.
Auren shrugs. "Any opportunity to knock a few of that Eight kid's teeth out, I'm gonna take it."
Reese knows she didn't just come back because she wanted to fight Eight. He knows there's more beneath Auren's harsh exterior. There's another girl buried deep down, and he'd like to meet her... if only he could bring her out.
"Thanks… all of you," Reese suddenly finds himself saying. "You're the best friends I've ever had."
At this point, the Nines stop and face the Eleven Boy; they glance at each other with smiles on their faces. Reese was always good at putting smiles on people's faces, even at the gloomiest of times.
"Well… that's because I've never actually had any friends before. Eleven was erm… kind of a lonely place, you see," The freckled boy explains. "But even if I had, they wouldn't have compared to you guys!"
He's not entirely sure why he shared that with the group. He guesses that's what you do with friends - share meaningful things about yourself.
When they reach the other side of the wide bridge, they come across another dead and sickly wood. There is nothing beyond that, except a swirling haze which Reese guesses must be the force field that's at the end of every arena.
The Capitol is unlikely to let them stay this far out for long, but two cannons have already gone off today, so it doesn't seem like they are starved of action.
As the sky begins to dim, the group shares out some of their rations between each other as their "dinner."
Then, Briar and Chaney wander off to the edge of the lake and sit on the beach together, leaving Reese and Auren with only each other.
"Hey Auren," Reese utters while observing the Nine pair from afar.
"What?"
"Do you think they were friends before they arrived at The Capitol?" He ponders, placing his hand under his chin.
"You really think they're just "friends"," Auren responds.
Reese turns to her. "What do you mean?"
The Ten Girl shakes her head. "Nothin'." Then she returns to her project of sharpening a stick into a spear.
Reese perches near Auren on the log and lets out the longest yawn he can remember.
Suddenly, there is some rustling in the nearby bushes. Then, a very small animal leaps onto the log next to Reese.
The boy jumps back, knowing there are very few things in this arena that don't want to pluck your eyes out.
But his fear soon dissipates when he sees how cute the little creature is. It has the appearance of a squirrel, only with huge mutated eyes that are almost bulging out of its skull. The little animal adorns a thick, red, shaggy coat of fur to compliment it, turning it into a pure bundle of cuteness.
Auren shoots up in surprise, raising her makeshift spear at the animal.
"Wait!" Reese holds his hand up to his ally.
He offers out his other hand to the creature which then proceeds to sniffle his fingers until it feels comfortable.
"Be careful," Auren mutters.
Eventually, the squirrel creature allows Reese to tickle it under the chin, and it emits a deep, purring sound which makes the Eleven Boy giggle.
Reese can sense Auren relaxing as she lowers her spear. "What is it?" She asks, crouching down beside him.
"I dunno, but I'm gonna call it John."
"John?" Auren questions.
"I don't know. That's the first name that came to mind," Reese laughs.
"John it is, then…"
Reese then beckons his ally forward. "Try it."
Hesitantly, Auren reaches forward and tickles John under the chin. This time it purrs even louder.
Auren starts chuckling and a joyous glint shines in her eyes.
Reese knew there was a softer side to her. Turns out, it only took a cute animal to bring it out.
But John soon departs and hops off into the bushes as fast as it arrived.
Reese shakes his head, still laughing. "I never imagined the mutts in the arena to be like that."
"You can say that again," Auren laughs back.
The two of them sit back on the log.
"In my head, I always thought if I was reaped into the Hunger Games, the game makers would create dragon mutts for my arena," the Eleven Boy explains. His face suddenly turns red and he shakes his head, embarrassed. "It sounds stupid now, I know."
Why does he keep saying the first thing that comes to his head?
"It's okay," Auren offers. "I used to talk to bugs."
Reese looks at his friend with perplexed eyes. "What… you?"
"Yeah… you know… to help them on their bug adventures."
Reese bursts into a giggle. "I'm sorry. Just the thought of you doing that..."
Auren buries her face in her hands. "I can't believe I- just forget I said anything."
But Reese can't stop giggling, and Auren soon joins in with the laughter, still covering her face. "You're never gonna let me live that down now, are you?"
"Nope."
The Nines then return to base and are met with the laughter of their allies.
"Looks like you're having fun over here," Chaney comments, taking a seat on the log.
The four friends then watch the green bubbling lake under the grey, misty air together.
"Yo, serious question though. Would you pay me to go jump in that lake right now?" Chaney asks, pointing to the lake.
"You can go do it for free if you want," Briar replies. If Reese didn't know her, he would have thought she was being serious.
"Don't worry Chaney, I'll go with you," Reese chirps.
Chaney chuckles. "I appreciate that, dude."
Reese feels content for the first time all day, and he almost forgets he's in the Hunger Games. Even if he knows, he will probably soon be reminded.
Meridian Birdie, 18
Meridian doesn't like being out of control. They've spent most of their life not being in control.
Meilin and Liz can't have been gone more than an hour, yet it seems like much longer to Meridian. It's out of his hands now whether they come back or not.
Here he is again, with no control over the situation. The only thing he can do is sit in the corner of this underground bunker by Day's side as she groans in pain, blinking in and out of consciousness.
Since the girls left to go find the medicine, Meridian has been recounting the many adventures they and Day went on together back in their life in Dawning Avenue. It's the only thing he can think to do to help the situation - recount the last time he remembers being happy.
Before his eyes, almost like he's staring into a TV, he sees Day dragging him through the market stalls with the yellow glow of the sun reflecting off her eyes and a smile as bright as it on her face. Meridian was lost back then, but Day gave him a path. The first time he remembers smiling was on their last night at the community garden. If he could relive that moment over and over again for the rest of his life then he would.
They'd give anything to go back to a time before the stupid dam before their father ruined everything… before the Hunger Games.
"It's funny. Back in Dawning, it was always you that was stitching up me from cuts and bruises. I was like a fish out of water back there," Meridian recalls, smiling faintly to himself. "I was never as good at helping others… but I hope I'm doing okay now." He shakes his head. "I know I'm probably the last person you wanna be hearing right now."
That's why you can't die yet because I still have to make it up to you. I'll be lost without you.
But Meilin and Liz aren't back yet, and they already heard two cannons today. It wasn't their cannons, they'll come back with the medicine, and I'll have the chance to make everything right - Meridian assures himself.
But what if they don't come back or they can't make Day better? Meridian can't even begin to comprehend that. He'd be as lost as a lonely feather adrift in the wind.
Just then, the bolts on the door to the bunker click open. Meilin and Liz!
Meridian's heart jumps with joy as his other two allies charge in. Meilin has a bright smile on her face, and is a bag that Meridian hasn't seen before - it's brown, scruffy, and ripped.
Liz is behind the Three Girl but her movements are much slower and her face is almost sullen. Meridian doesn't have time to think why this might be.
The pale boy places their hands on both of Meilin's shoulders, looks her dead in her large joyful eyes, and asks "Have you got them?"
The small girl nods excitedly.
Meridian gives her a quick hug. "Let's not waste any time then."
Meilin hastily unzips the bag and takes out a bottle with the words "Anti-Rads" written on it. She kneels down next to Day, preparing to administer the medicine.
But the Amatore pushes Meilin's hand away and their bloodshot eyes widen with fear.
Meridian has rarely seen Day scared. She was always so resilient and maintained the same shining smile no matter what life threw at them.
"It's okay. It'll help," Meilin reassures her.
Eventually, Day accepts the help and takes the bottle from Meilin, who gently unscrews the cap for them.
Day glances at Meridian. He sends them a nod.
After a deep breath, the debilitated girl takes a big gulp of whatever is in the bottle.
At the same time, Meridian inspects another one of the 'Anti-Rads'. They can't deny there is something strange about the liquid inside. It's a dark green colour and appears so… unnatural.
Then again, nothing is right about this place.
But just as the anxious boy's fears are beginning to subside, everything starts to take a drastic downward spiral.
Day begins coughing, choking and wheezing more aggressively than she has yet.
"What's happening?" Meridian screams, dropping down to his district partner's side as their body jerks around in sharp movements like they are being electrocuted.
"I don't know!" Meilin screams back, also falling down beside the agonised girl.
Day is gasping desperately for a single breath; it's like something is squeezing her lungs from all sides.
Is it a side effect of the medicine?
Meridian clasps his district partner's hand tightly. "Day. Day. Day. Listen to me. It'll be okay. Just tell me what's going on with you, okay?"
But it's no use. She can't breathe, much less speak.
"Day, Day, Day, Day, Day!"
He can do nothing else but repeat her name like a broken record. It's out of his control now.
They squeeze Day's hand tighter. "Day, listen to me. I love you, okay? You're the most amazing person I've ever known. Please, I'm nothing without you. I'm nobody without you."
The dying girl doesn't respond to Meridian's pleading words, and the bright light that's always shone from her glowing eyes begins to fade like the sun setting on the horizon. They are the light of Meridian's life, they cannot set. Not yet. They have so much to say to her, so much to put right.
Meridian can't look into her fading eyes. The sight of the blood dripping from them is too painful for him.
Finally, Day's hand falls limp as their entire body goes still. The light has fully left their eyes.
A cannon fires.
"No… please," Meridian croaks. Then they begin to sob, allowing the tears to stream from their eyes.
Meilin and Liz are too stunned by what has just transpired to cry or mourn or say anything at all.
When the tears have stopped, Meridian feels his fists clenching, and blood rushing to his cheeks. He faces Meilin with a face as red as a burning flame. "You," he hisses.
The petrified Three Girl holds up her little hands. "W-what. N-no… I-I was trying to help. I don't understand what happened. Please, believe me…"
Was this "innocent girl" demeanour just an act from the beginning? Has Meilin been playing Meridian just like he played Day back in Dawning Avenue? They do say it takes one to know one.
As he looks into Meilin's eyes he realises - It's so obvious now. How could I be so stupid? How could I endanger Day's life like this? My father was right about one thing - you can't trust anybody.
(Only Day.)
"You've been planning this all along, haven't you? All that talk about science and medicine… you knew what you were doing." Meridian growls.
"No… Meridian… you know me… I'd never do this. I- please, just take a second." Meilin tugs at her black hair, swallowing back her tears.
"I don't know you! I don't know either of you!" He barks, darting his eyes between the two girls.
Liz is examining one of the poisoned bottles with shock-stricken eyes. "Someone must have poisoned them," she mutters.
"You can drop the act. Both of you!"
Meridian leaps for the machete in his bag and brings it out before advancing towards his two former allies.
Red mist clouds Meridian's vision and his hearing is deafened by the sound of his violent panting. But he can see Meilin and Liz, and he can see his knife, and he knows what he has to do.
Meilin finally breaks and erupts into tears, disappearing towards the door of the bunker.
The bloodlusted boy attempts to bolt after her but Liz stands tall in his way, holding a metal pole. "Take one more step, and I'll kill you," she says sternly.
Meridian has never seen Liz like this. That jokey, fun-loving girl has vanished in the blink of an eye. There are tears on her face, but not nearly as many as on Meridian and Meilin's. It seems as though she is fighting them like they are an enemy. She must have been the mastermind behind this, and somehow coerced Meilin into it - Meridian figures in his head.
"Why didn't you just leave? Why kill her?" The vengeful boy exclaims.
"It wasn't us! You guys are our friends!"
"Liar!"
Meridian swings his blade at the Eight Girl's stomach, but she narrowly backsteps out of the way before striking him across the temple with her metal pole.
A piercing ringing echoes in his head, stinging their ears. They collapse down to the floor, clutching their head in pain.
When they look up, Liz and Meilin have already escaped through the bunker door.
Meridian removes his hand from his head and then stares at his blood momentarily. They howl in fury and charge after Liz and Meilin.
But the two girls have already locked the bunker door from the other side, and are now presumably running through the tunnels.
Meridian slams his fist on the metal door. "I'll kill you!" They yell. "I'll kill all of you!"
Then, when I get back, I'll kill my father too.
Meridian Birdie will take matters into their own hands. They will finally be in control. All they have to do is unleash their fury.
A dam can only hold so much water - when too much is added, it is prone to break and flood the land below. Meridian is about to hit the world like a raging flood.
Jokull Askeli, 18
Flames spread around the corridors of the orphanage in every direction that Jokull looked; flames from the fire Jokull started. They practically kissed his skin as he pushed his way through the burning building.
His plan had gone off without a hitch. The fire engulfed the entire building in minutes, far quicker than he had anticipated. In minutes, the fire had cleansed Jokull's and Aki's lives of the people who had been making it hell since their parents passed.
When he let his rage run free, it exploded like a ton of bombs. When unleashed, his emotions solved everything.
Jokull dragged Aki through the collapsing orphanage. He held his brother's hand firmly, he's sure he did because he never remembered it slipping away from him in the middle of the corridor.
He burst out of the door, which fell straight off its hinges, and then threw his hands up in elation. "We did it! We're free!" He called into the ash-covered night.
After hearing no response from his brother, he glanced around. "Aki?"
Aki wasn't standing with him.
Jokull spun around and stared at the scorching building he had run out of. By this point, it was already an inferno with the foundations having completely collapsed to ash.
When the realization of what he had just done hit him, he fell onto his knees and let out a bloodcurdling scream that he's sure the entire district heard.
Ozias has been gone for almost an hour by now.
The time for games is over.
Ren is unusually quiet; the murderer from Eight is pacing up and down the dining room of the half-destroyed house, with a callous smile on their face. Is he one step ahead? He's never sure with Ren.
Jokull rises up from his seat in the corner of the room, taking his crossbow with him. He sits at the chair at the far left corner of the table and sneakily places his crossbow underneath it. Then, he turns his eyes to Zora and gives her a nod.
Zora sends her district partner a subtle nod back.
After Ren snapped at her earlier, Zora has been trying to act as inconspicuous as possible.
The Six Girl saunters over to the water bottle next to the bed that Ozias was resting on earlier. She sneaks the bottle into her hands, unscrews the lid, and empties the contents of another bottle inside. She then carefully screws the lid back on and places the bottle back on the bedside table, where she found it.
Suddenly, Ren lets out a deep exasperated sigh. "I'm growing very tired."
"Then take a nap," Jokull shrugs.
"Tired of lies, Mr. Askeli."
Did he really remember Jokull's surname? He'll say one thing about Ren and that is they are extremely observant, it's difficult to let any detail escape their notice.
Jokull snaps his head up, his eyes dart to Zora then back to Ren. "What are you talkin' about now?" He questions, feigning ignorance.
Ren doesn't answer. They head over to the cupboard above the sink and take out a glass. They then take a bottle out of one of the alliance's bags, before venomously slamming both on the dining table.
The Eight Boy snaps his fingers at Zora. "You." He points at the seat opposite him on the table.
Hesitantly, Zora steps forward and takes a seat at the dining table next to Jokull and opposite Ren.
The sadistic boy from Eight raises a victorious eyebrow and asks Zora "You thirsty?"
Zora shrugs.
"I don't know, I think you look thirsty," Ren grins. They tip the bottle in their hand into the glass and a dark green liquid fills it. They slide it across the table to the Six Girl. "Have some water."
Zora stares at the bottle by the bed.
Still grinning, Ren follows her gaze, locking his slimy eyes on the bottle.
"Oh, you want that water?" He says sarcastically. "But why? You two assured me that we only had one bottle of poison and that we used it on the careers yesterday. So what the hell is this?" He smashes the empty bottle on the floor and then yanks a knife out of his pocket.
Meanwhile, Jokull reaches for the crossbow under his seat and begins discreetly loading it.
"You have been telling me fibs from the day we met, haven't you Jokull?" Ren declares. "You two have been aligned from the beginning. Who knew District Six is full of fibbers."
"Clearly you ain't never read the district handbook," Jokull responds dryly.
"Very funny, but we'll see who'll be laughing in a few moments."
Ren snatches up Ozias' bottle. "Neither of you move! Jokull, put your knife on the table and slide it across." He barks.
Seeing that he has no other option, Jokull does what the dentist says.
Ren returns to the seat opposite the Sixes. "Now, let's drink," he grins.
Jokull hasn't finished loading his crossbow yet, if he loads it too fast then Ren will see him. So, he looks at Zora and nods.
Ren begins tutting sarcastically. "So quick to sacrifice her… and I thought I was cold."
Facing each other, Ren and Zora proceed to down their drinks at the same time. When they are finished, Ren tosses his bottle to the side and wipes his mouth in victory. "And to think your little scheme almost succeeded. Did you really think I was that blind?"
But the Sixes are as calm as ever, and a smile begins to extend across Jokull's face.
Ren's eyes widen in horror as they realise their mistake. They stare down at the bottle before clutching their stomach.
Zora leans forward, staring Ren dead in the eyes. "If there's a hell, then it was made for you," she proclaims.
The Eight Boy starts coughing violently as the poison infects his system. But he has lost none of his murderous streak. "You little!" They gasp aloud.
Ren lunges across the table at Zora stabbing their knife wildly, but at the same moment, Jokull's crossbow snaps into place as it finishes loading.
CLICK
The boy from Six fires a shot into Ren's shoulder, sending them flying back to the floor.
As Jokull stands up and begins calmly reloading his crossbow, Ren rolls around garling in agony from the poison and the bolt in his shoulder.
The murdering dentist has now turned purple and blood has begun dripping from his eyes. His words are slurred and hard to understand but Jokull can make out "I should have - you sneaky, treacherous, backstabbing, little…"
"Saboteur," Jokull finishes his sentence for him. He places his boot on Ren's chest, aims his crossbow directly at his head, and fires the shot. Ren's head bursts like a bubble and the contents of it scatter all over the floor.
A cannon sounds in the distance.
Jokull rests his crossbow on his shoulder and smirks down at his handiwork. He turns back to Zora, giving his district partner a triumphant nod.
"Plan out half of it, improvise the other half," she says.
It all started with a very simple seed of a plan, which grew out in the Six pair's minds into branches of complexities like a tree left to grow wild.
What none of the other tributes realised is that to Jokull, a pact is the strongest bond two people can have. On the streets, to break a pact is to pay with your blood; that is why a pact cannot be broken, unlike an alliance.
When Jokull and Zora first shook hands on the train and swore "For Kalila, and Aki," they became the strongest alliance in the arena.
Zora Iskra, 14
The plan was born all the way back on the first day of training. Zora and Jokull were standing in the plant section of the survival station. Zora knew that Jokull had never seen so much green in all his life, and that he'd never seen anyone examine and put together the pieces of the plants and herbs in a way that could create such a variety of remedies.
Zora knew that he might try to use her skills to further his own ends, but somehow, she trusted him. The moment they shook hands on the train, she trusted him. "For Kalila, and Aki."
"So you recognise everything in here? Like every single leaf?" Jokull asked while studying a mutated, orange-glowing cockroach behind a glass box.
"Yes… well, they don't usually look like this… The Capitol seems to have mutated them in some way," Zora answered.
"Mutated in what way?"
"I'm not sure, but I've never seen anything like it."
Zora spent the next hour showing her district partner how she makes the remedies for healing cuts and ailments, but as she was doing it, it slowly dawned on her that this could be the secret of how she or Jokull could win. If not her then him.
She knew too well that you only have to change some of the quantities of the ingredients or mix ingredients that are not supposed to be mixed, for the remedies to become poisonous. It's far easier to make poisons, and The Capitol wanted her to harm people not help them.
That fact ate Zora up inside far more agonisingly than one of her poisons could. Zora only ever wanted to use her skills for good, to help people. But at the same time, she couldn't hope to match the other tributes in physical strength or fighting prowess - those were never her forte.
She realised that this might be the only way she will ever have that picnic with Bexley in the park.
"Of course, there are other potions you can create with alchemy," Zora regretfully explained to her district partner.
"Oh?" The street boy raised an eyebrow and turned to face her.
Zora stared into her bubbling concoction. "Just after my sister passed, I started working on this remedy… it's not something that's taught to apprentice alchemists…. because of the risk. If you add and subtract a certain quantity of the ingredients then it could theoretically become a very potent poison."
"Potent?"
"Deadly," Zora explained.
"Ah. Can you show me?"
So, Zora made a few tweaks to her remedy and turned it into one of the most effective poisons known. She didn't enjoy a single second of the creation of the lethal weapon, not least because of what she had read of the terrifying symptoms - one of which was bleeding from the eyes.
Zora is a compassionate person and would never want to inflict that on anyone, but she knew Jokull would be prepared to. She creates the poison and he administers it, and then one of them may go home at the end - that was the plan. It's not a game she wanted to play but it was the one The Capitol was forcing her to.
After the process was complete, The Sixes stood in front of three bottles of poison in bewilderment at the death they had set in motion. Jokull requested that they split the poison into three different parts for reasons that Zora wasn't sure of yet.
The Six Boy stepped closer to the deadly substances and placed his hand under his chin. "It's clear… like water," he observed aloud, his voice tinged with surprise.
"Yeah, what were you expecting?"
"I don't know… not that. I think it might need one final ingredient."
Jokull walked over to the glass box that contained the strange, glowing cockroach, and brought it over to their alchemy station. He pierced its skin and let some of its murky, green blood drip into one of the bottles of poison; the liquid of the poison immediately turned the same colour as the cockroach's blood.
"I don't understand," Zora queried. "Won't that make it more obvious?"
"Maybe," Jokull answered. "But there will be a time when this comes in useful."
Zora had noticed that when Jokull was plotting, his eyes grew very narrow and intense. She didn't always understand his logic, but she trusted him. She knew science and he knew the streets. Together they could be a force to be reckoned with.
"So, we have the… poison," Zora whispered so that none of the other tributes could hear. "But how do you plan to get the other tributes to take it?"
Jokull wore those intense eyes again, as a scheme formed in his mind. Then, he faced Zora and started a long anecdote that confused her at first, but the longer he spoke, the more he made sense. "Back in the orphanage where I grew up, there were some winters so bad that even the rats starved. I used to watch them sometimes - when they had no other food, they would turn on each other and kill each other one by one." His eyes fell down as he recounted the painful memory. "One year, I noticed these two smaller rats waiting in the corner while the others slaughtered each other. They waited and waited and waited… the bigger rats were completely unaware they were even there. At the end of the carnage, when there weren't no other rats left, the two little ones emerged from their hiding place and feasted on all the dead ones. They were the only survivors that year."
"So you're saying… we have to be the two little rats?"
"Exactly. But unlike the rats, The Capitol won't allow us to hide in the corner. The only way to hide in the Hunger Games is to hide in plain sight."
Zora frowned. "How?"
"We each join our own alliance. I'll join the most dangerous outlier alliance and get them and the careers to destroy each other. Then, when they're least expecting it, I'll use your poison to take out the strongest survivors."
Zora threw her arms out. "But who would wanna ally with me? I'm just some kid."
"They will. Just show off your neat alchemy skills, and they'll come to you," Jokull shrugged with a meek smile.
"And then what? What happens to them at the end of it all?"
"Only you can decide that," he answered.
And Zora did decide. As the days in The Capitol passed, she got to know Fuma, Lilac and the two boys, and how similar they were to her, and how they were just kids like her with their own problems, she realised she had to help them. She wouldn't betray them, it's not in her bones to betray those she's close with.
She had to find a way to help them, and if she or Jokull didn't make it, then maybe one of her allies would.
However, it soon became apparent that the Sixes had a bigger problem - "How can we create the poison, if we're in different alliances?" Zora asked one night in District Six's apartment.
Jokull thought about the answer to that for some minutes. He took on his narrow and intense eyes. "During the bloodbath, we find each other, while everyone else is distracted by the chaos, then I'll leave you a bread crumb trail."
"We each collect as many of the ingredients that we can find. They'll all be scattered around the arena, otherwise, they wouldn't have put them in the training centre… we just have to look," Zora added.
Jokull nodded. "Then, each night, during our watch, we can meet and begin assembling the poison…"
"We'll both have to find a way to take the last watch in our alliances, so we have plenty of time," Zora said.
"For you, that should be easy, but Ozias and Ren ain't that trusting of me," Jokull placed his hand under his chin. "Hmm… I'll figure it out. Plan out half of it, improvise the other half."
And figure it out he did - he won the right to take the third shift of each night watch in a game he played with his alliance on the Free Day.
There was one piece of the puzzle that Zora still didn't understand - "Why did Jokull want to ally with me? He shook her hand before he knew about her alchemy skill. Why is he helping me?"
She asked him on the night before the games started. He had been standing out in the rain and she called him back inside before he caught his death. She made him tell her directly.
"My brother," he said. "You're a lot like him, you know. I took away any chance of life that he had… so the least I could do is give someone else a chance."
For the first few days of the games, their scheme went off without a hitch and they gathered all the ingredients they needed except for one; the one Jokull insisted that they added - the mutated cockroach blood.
Things only started to go wrong on the third day when they agreed to meet at the hospital to gather the final ingredient - the cockroach. Zora tried to be as discreet as possible, but unfortunately, her allies followed her inside. Then, Lilac fell to that monster from Eight. Killing Dario was one thing but Lilac as well? Zora never took pleasure in the idea of poisoning someone, but for Ren, she was willing to make an exception.
But Jokull intended to use the poison for Ozias, saying in his snarky voice "Leave Ren to me."
That was until Zora got captured... getting captured was never a part of the plan. The scheming Sixes were forced to speed things up.
Still, Zora managed to obtain the cockroach. She hid it under her sleeve and then, on the way to poison the careers, she walked purposefully slowly so that Ren would get aggravated and begin shoving her around. During his tantrum, Zora took the opportunity to sneak the cockroach onto his back for Jokull to collect with his knife.
Finally, their ultimate weapon was complete. They split the poison into three just as planned, two with the cockroach blood and one clear as the colour of water, hidden in plain sight, just like them.
Jokull helped his allies poison the careers. As the careers were falling apart they moved on to the next phase of their plan - poisoning the serial killer.
Zora swapped Ozias water for the clear poison and filled a third bottle with pure cockroach blood as a decoy. Everything would have gone off without a hitch but unfortunately, Ren had been suspicious of them from the very beginning. It was unfortunate for Ren… not so much for Ozias.
Still, there wasn't a single part of Zora that didn't find satisfaction in ending that murderer. She wishes there was, but there wasn't.
She drank the pure cockroach blood and they drank the poison that was meant for Ozias. The rest is history.
The moment Ren's cannon fires, Zora begins packing her bag to prepare to leave to find Fuma.
"Where are you going?" Jokull asks, stepping over the decapitated body of Ren.
"Fuma… she's still out there and she's probably looking for me. I have to find her… let her know I'm okay."
"Why do you think you can help her?" Jokull questions. "We're in the Hunger Games."
"Why did you think you could help me? You told me that I decide what happens to my allies and I'm doing just that…" Zora's voice starts to break. "I'm going to help her… I have to find a way. It's my purpose."
Jokull nods reluctantly. "Lead the way, then."
She's caused enough destruction to last her a lifetime. It's time to do what she was born to do.
Yes I did just kill off four characters in the last 2 chapters. The next few chapters should slow down a little if I'm feeling benevolent. Anyway I hope you had good-bad time with this. This is sort of the end of the first arc of the games I guess. I don't know how many I will be doing. Next we are onto the subplot interlude. See you then.
Deaths:
16th: Day Amatore: Killed by Ren, Ozias and Jokull - Poisoned. I loved writing Day, their backstory was so interesting to explore and so was their life in Danwing Avenue and after. I do hope I did her justice. Wiki, you requested on Meridians form that he fall apart and go insane and burn the world down and this is the best way I saw of doing that! Thank you for submitting Day! Side note, I struggled a lot with who to credit Day's death to but ended up on the murder trio since they were the ones to poison the meds, even if they didn't mean to poison Day.
15th: Morton Moreno: Killed by Jokull and Zora. Poisoned and shot in the head with crossbow. I had so much fun with this little rat, goldie, as you can probably tell. I hope you had fun too haha. In this cast of so many rats, murderers and criminals, Ren was able to stand out. I always saw them as the main villain of the first arc that causes a lot of chaos and destruction and then is eventually beaten by their own overconfidence. Thank you for the submission Goldie! This was the first and probably last of your kids I wrote and I had a blast!
Kill counter:
Geneve: 1
Romulus: 2
Aida: 1
Ren: 4
Chaney: 1
Auren: 1
Jokull: 3
Ozias: 2
Emery: 1
Zora: 1