Zora Iskra, 14
Zora is awakened by a flicker of light through the window of the room she slept in last night. This room in this hellscape of an arena could easily be her bedroom back at home - the size is roughly the same, the window is situated behind the bed just like at home, and the closet next to the door is almost identical to hers.
But unlike her room, this one is stark and hollow and devoid of any life… other than herself.
Zora lets out a sudden cough and then clutches her stomach from nausea. She hasn't felt right all night, and consequently, she's only managed to sleep for a few hours at dawn.
She's been sick before, but this is different. She knows what she thinks it is… it's ever since she drank that mutated cockroach blood.
There's no remedy that she knows of that will help with radiation sickness… none that she can put together with the ingredients she has here, anyway. So, she will have to soldier on and fight through the sickness with pure willpower. You can do it, Zora. That picnic is still waiting.
She steps out of bed and heads straight for the stairs. The uncanny similarity between the room she slept in last night and her own room, back at home, almost makes her think will have to face the dread of walking past her sister's room. But when she glances at where it would be, there is nothing more than a grey concrete wall. Her heart relaxes. That's the one thing this place has got over her home - she thinks.
Downstairs, Fuma is already awake and munching on some of her rations for breakfast.
The two girls make eye contact as Zora walks past but they say nothing, nor do they even smile at each other as friends or family would.
Something has changed about Fuma; the girl that Zora met back in training would have stopped at nothing to protect her allies. Zora believes that she still would - the question is whether she still considers Zora her ally.
The alchemist scoops two protein bars into her hand - one for herself and one for her district partner, who's still lying outside on the rubble.
She saunters outside to Jokull, holding her head low, and wishing she could do something about his current predicament.
But the resilient boy appears unfazed from sleeping on a pile of rocks; he rubs his eyes and stretches his arms out as if he's just awoken from sleeping on a bed of clouds, high in the sky.
"You managed to sleep?" Zora mutters inquisitively and surprised.
Jokull nods nonchalantly. "I've had worse."
Zora tosses the lean boy one of her protein bars. "I think you need it more than me," she quips.
Jokull chuckles faintly and then begins devouring the protein bar.
"I'll try to get her to let you in today but urm… no promises," Zora says, glancing back at the house.
"It's aight. I'm right where I need to be," the Six Boy replies, staring down at his food.
Jokull is playing things close to the chest, again. He must be scheming - Zora thinks to herself.
Strangely enough, she trusts him most when he's scheming. It's the pair's scheming that's got them this far, after all.
Suddenly, Zora begins coughing again, but this time much more violently, and it feels as though her lungs are tearing with each wheeze.
Jokull raises both his eyebrows with concern. "You good?"
"I'm fine."
But Zora can tell by Jokull's deadpan expression that he doesn't believe her for a second.
"No you ain't," the Six Boy protests, standing up and stepping closer to her. "I was… scared this would happen, come on, we gotta go inside and tell your ally."
Just as they are trudging back inside, something seems to click inside Jokull's head. "Ah, wait."
As he begins unzipping his bag, Fuma suddenly appears at the doorway in a stern posture. "Get away!"She yells at Jokull. Then, she points to the rubble where he has been sleeping. "Don't move from that spot and no more talking to each other!"
"But Zora… She's-"
"I don't wanna hear anything more from you!" Fuma grips her hatchet tight, narrowing her eyes.
"Just do as she says. It's okay," Zora mutters with a cough.
In Zora's head, Fuma's actions make sense. They are in a life-or-death situation where only one of them can survive. But she can't reconcile that with how she feels.
She knows Fuma wants Jokull dead, and if Zora's gone then there will be nothing to stop them from killing each other.
Accepting defeat, Jokull backs off in defeat. He sits back down on his pile of rocks and crosses his arms.
Zora stumbles back inside. Her coughing grows more painful and more frequent… It's happening practically every second now.
She begins to feel faint. She holds her head - It feels like it's burning.
She stumbles forward, and only just manages to catch her fall on the table, but everything has become blurry.
Zora hits the floor with a hard thud.
Chaney de Kuyper, 17
They left early to head for the feast - in the hope that they would arrive early to Ground Zero before any of the other tributes got there. The plan is to bust in, grab food and supplies, and then leave; just another successful heist.
It'll go off without a hitch, just like it always does.
The morning light is incredibly dim as a mist hangs low and crawls in between the narrow streets of the town.
Chaney and his allies cut through a particularly narrow alleyway to avoid the larger, more open roads. Here, it's so dark that Chaney is forced to use Reese's leaf-green suit and bright red hair to guide him through the street.
The Nine Boy can't stop himself from glancing back every five seconds to make sure Briar is still behind him.
(The thought of losing her seems to be stuck with him lately.)
(Losing people seems to be an unavoidable fate that follows Chaney wherever he goes like a shadow. He can't lose her like everyone else in his life.)
(He won't.)
As the alliance moves closer to their destination, the air around them changes to a more sickly hue. The number of houses and ruins of houses become much more scattered and sparse.
The group's radiation detectors begin to make quite the ruckus. So, they quickly fasten their masks over their faces. The only downside to the masks is that Chaney can no longer use Reese's hair to guide him. Oh well.
The ground beneath them starts to slope downwards into a large crater. At the center of the crater is a metal dome that shines through the thick, smoggy air. Beyond that, there is nothing.
"So… that must be the famous "Ground Zero"," Chaney mutters to anyone listening.
Reluctantly, Chaney and his friends proceed inside the structure with the help of Reese's keycard. I'd almost forgotten about the keycards - Chaney thinks to himself.
As they tread covertly through the first, almost pitch-black corridor, Chaney glances behind again to make sure Briar is still there - she is. He can just about make out her features underneath the visor of her mask.
He wants to hold onto her hand as they get deeper into the facility, that way he would be sure that he won't lose her. He knows she'd probably insist she's "fine" but Chaney doesn't trust fate to be that kind.
They enter into an elevator and after a swift discussion, Auren taps the button for the zeroth floor. The elevator proceeds to drag them all the way down to the bottom, where the only lights are the occasional flashing, orange building lights.
The orange flashes make Chaney realize that the walls of this place are lined with glass pods with a thick green mist behind them. What's beyond that, he doesn't want to know.
He wants to turn back. He feels trapped in this place, but if they go back, they will starve and dehydrate. So, they must press on.
Eventually, when they arrive at a wide, open area, it becomes much more clear around them. In the centre of the room are two gigantic, metal cylinders. In between them is what Chaney and his allies came for - a raised platform containing a host of food, weapons, and supplies.
The feast.
"Well.. bon appetit," Chaney murmurs.
The group dashes straight for the ladder that takes them down to the bottom of the facility; after descending it, they dart for the supplies and food. Thankfully, they are alone, for now.
Auren immediately begins distributing new much-needed weapons between her allies, while the others focus on gathering as much of the food and other supplies, including first aid, as they can carry in their backpacks.
Chaney stops himself from gulping the first bottle of fresh water that he comes across; his throat is as dry as sand, but it'll have to wait. The water wasn't always clean back in Nine, and after Chaney's dad left, there wasn't always easy access to tap water. So he has gone some time without drinking before. He can wait.
Their radiation detectors have become silent down here, which allows Chaney and his allies to remove their masks to get a clearer view of their exit route.
They can't have been in this facility for more than an hour but Chaney has already been here long enough for one lifetime.
"Me and the game makers are gonna have a little chat after I get out of this place," Chaney groans as the group makes their rapid exit.
But just as everything seemed to be going to plan, fate rears its ugly head once more. Two tributes leap out from behind the two cylinders, flanking the alliance of four on either side, with their weapons raised.
The Nines and Reese are unprepared for the ambush and so are caught weaponless. They have become too complacent.
However, Auren has a baseball bat already in her hand and is able to fend off the shorter tribute with the curly brown hair, and light blue eyes that matches their outfit. Chaney quickly recounts them as being from Five. He saw their district partner's face in the sky not too long ago.
On the other hand, Chaney and Briar are met once again with the tall, dark-haired boy in the orange hazmat suit with the intense, dark, killer's eyes that could burn through Chaney's skull; the boy from Fourteen - Ozias.
Chaney brushes the dried blood of the slash on his forehead from the last time they met. He doesn't really care who this boy is, all he knows is that he's fate's newest attempt to reach out and snatch everything from him.
This becomes even more apparent to him as Ozias steps towards Briar with his machete raised.
Not this time - Chaney tells himself.
The red mist covers Chaney's eyes again for the first time since the blood bath. He loses control of himself, crashing into Ozias like an avalanche.
Ozias groans in surprise, caught off guard by the sudden attack.
Chaney takes advantage of the other boy's confusion and slams him into a glass tank containing a dark green substance that emits an almost blinding glow.
Chaney's new axe quickly finds its way into his hand. Without thinking, he swings directly for Fourteen's head but the surprisingly nimble boy easily ducks underneath the blade of the hatchet - he's clearly somebody who's had experience in scraps before, not too different from Chaney.
Although, if Chaney recalls correctly, this boy is a dangerous serial killer, incarcerated in the most high-security prison district. It would make sense that fate would bring such a ferocious force to take everything from Chaney; he's going to have to be even more ferocious to stop it.
Chaney might have missed in his swing, but he did manage to embed his axe into the glass tank of dubious-looking liquid. The glass is thick and sturdy, but cracks quickly begin to splinter through it.
When Chaney manages to dislodge the axe, the tank bursts and there is a sudden flash of light.
The Nine Boy ducks out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting covered in the substance.
A blood-curdling screech of agony follows soon after.
Chaney glances back to find Ozias clutching his face. He can hear the searing of the young man's flesh as the substance from the tank burns through his skin.
It's only then that the red mist clears from Chaney's eyes. He could finish the job to put the boy out of his agony, but something stops him. He is frozen in place, and Ozias stumbles away, holding his burning face.
As the Fourteen Boy vanishes into the shadows he yells something that Chaney is sure will stick by him forever - "I'll kill them in front of you!"
Suddenly, Briar seizes him by his hand, and before he knows it he is being dragged out of the room and back into a corridor behind his three allies.
Chaney wishes he could say that he spared that boy out of mercy, but in truth, he wanted to see him suffer. He almost took everything from Chaney, and he needed to feel the pain that Chaney would have felt.
(Would Briar even say yes if she knew this?)
(That's not the Chaney she knows and loves.)
Alarms begin blaring and red lights flash all around. At least they snap Chaney back to reality as Briar drags him through the corridor in the direction of the elevator.
Every few seconds an automated voice then announces- "Radiation leak detected. Lockdown procedure commencing in ten minutes."
Whatever this lockdown procedure is, Chaney knows it's nothing good.
Reese guides them through the series of corridors that lead to the elevator - he seems to be the only one who mapped the place out in his head. Yay for Reese.
Suddenly, the red-haired boy freezes in front of the glass containers on one of the walls. They click open and start rising up to reveal dark silhouettes of four-legged creatures emerging from the green mist.
The creatures are a plain, grey hue with thin, decaying skin which almost makes them look like nothing more than skeletons. Their bodies are slender, and their limbs are long. Their bony fingers are lined with razor-sharp claws and their jaws with jagged teeth.
But the main thing that stands out about these mutts to Chaney is their faces; some are flat and human-like, while others have narrow eyes and long snouts like wolves.
"I knew there was nothin' good hiding in there," Chaney sighs.
"Five minutes to lockdown procedure."
"Come on! Quickly!" Reese exclaims.
They charge straight through the middle of the creatures and the wall of the corridor, barely avoiding their claws.
Then they run, faster than Chaney has ever seen any of them run before. Yet, it is still not enough. He can feel the rank breath of the creatures on the back of his neck and hear their snarls growing louder and louder.
"Two minutes."
Is this Chaney's moment? His moment to prove himself to Briar? His moment to convince her to say yes? What he did to that Fourteen Boy and the Seven Boy certainly wasn't it.
He snaps around to face the pursuing mutts, lifting his now glowing hatchet. He brings it down hard on the first mutt, which screeches in response. Then, he proceeds to do the exact same to the next two. The glowing axe seems to carve through them like butter.
"One Minute."
Briar's voice ricochets between the walls - "Chaney!"
But when her lover turns back around, he finds that his allies have disappeared through another corridor to his left, unaware that he had stayed behind to fight the mutts.
"I'm comin'!"
He charges back down the corridor, which goes on for far longer than he would have liked. Will this corridor ever end?
He pivots sharply to the left. Briar is standing and staring at him, wide-eyed. She, Reese, and Auren are behind what looks like four corners of a doorway that's waiting to close.
Chaney runs faster than if he and Briar were making an escape to their getaway car, carrying a bag of money.
But he's not fast enough.
"Lockdown commencing."
A glass panel shoots up over the doorway just as Chaney reaches it, cutting him off from his allies.
Briar remains wide-eyed and motionless behind the glass like she's fallen into a waking nightmare.
Finally, she presses her hands on the glass, and Chaney does the same on his side - placing his hands over hers.
The red lights of the alarms reflect off of Chaney's eyes. Everything is silent, save for the continuous sirens.
He curls his hand into a fist and slams it against the glass in fury.
Before Chaney even has time to think, the decaying, slender mutts are closing in around them on both sides of the glass.
Briar is dragged away from him to the elevator by Auren, who would have had an easier job moving a boulder.
The Ten Girl yells something in Briar's ear that Chaney guesses is "We have to go!"
Chaney backs up to the end of his corridor, and darts right, to escape from the relentless mutts.
He doesn't know where he's going. He's lost without Briar; he always has been.
Now he's alone again, and it's like he's lost a part of himself.
He'll get back to her, even if it's the last thing he ever does.
(Will she come back for him? She wouldn't abandon him, would she?)
Auren Demerre, 16
After escaping Ground Zero, and losing the horde of vicious mutts that were on their tail, Auren, Briar, and Reese pause to catch their breath, behind the wall of the remains of a house.
Auren doesn't get a chance to sort through all of their loot from the feast because Briar is already fastening her backpack on her shoulders and heading back toward Ground Zero with a katana in her hand.
"Wait!" Auren shoots up and dashes over to Briar. "What are you doing?"
"I'm going back," the unwavering Nine Girl states.
Auren already knows deep down there's nothing she will be able to say that will convince Briar not to go back into that building.
"Let's just talk about this for a minute." She drags Briar back by the arm, but her ally shoves her hand away. "Even if he's still alive when you get back inside, how are you planning to reach him? The place is sealed!"
"I have to try!" Briar insists, her voice is stern and filled with determination. "Look, I know the chances ain't in my favour but I have to go back for him. I have to. You two don't have to follow me. It's your choice."
Auren looks at Reese to find him heading in the same direction as Briar with a smaller knife in his hand. "Auren… come on… it's Chaney," he says, pleadingly.
Auren sighs, placing her hands in her pockets. If only Reese knew the truth about their two friends from District Nine… he deserves to know before he follows Briar into any foolhardy escapades. She knows there will be no way of convincing Briar to stay, but maybe she can convince Reese.
She can't lose everyone in one day; Reese, Briar, and Chaney are the only true friends she's ever had.
"Aight," Auren nods. "But if you're gonna go with her then you need to know something..."
Briar snaps her head at Auren.
"Are you gonna tell him, or should I?"
"What's that gotta do with anything?"
The clueless boy from Eleven furrows his eyebrows, glancing between the two girls. "Tell me… what?"
Auren inhales. "Briar and Chaney… they were dating back in Nine. It's why Chaney volunteered in the first place."
Reese faces Briar. "Is this true… you're what? Girlfriend and boyfriend? That's…" he swallows, clearly unsure of what to make of the revelation.
"Soon to be engaged," Briar adds with a resolute smile.
Auren raises an eyebrow. "What?"
"And yeah… what I'm doing isn't logical. I get it. But maybe not everything has to be… nothing in this damn world makes any sense anyway. Why were we all put here? In this arena? Can you answer that? Hm? Is there any logical reason for it?" she questions.
"I remember you telling me once that you think with your head, not your feelings," Auren counters.
"Yeah, and maybe that's where I've been going wrong. Maybe that's where the whole world has been going wrong." Briar's voice is starting to break but she takes a deep breath to maintain her composure. "Maybe… love is some kind of guiding force, helping us along the way… to make the right decision." She throws her arms out. "Maybe Chaney felt it when he volunteered for me. Don't tell me that that was meaningless… I refuse to believe that! There has to be some meaning behind it even if we don't fully understand it!"
Everyone is silent now, except for Briar who is panting heavily.
"Call me crazy, I don't care." Briar stares off in the direction that Chaney is in. "I'm choosing to follow my heart. If either of you wanna come with me then that's up to you."
Reese's eyes fall downwards. He stares intently for a moment, contemplating his decision. But it doesn't take him long. "I'm going with you, Briar," he declares with a light smile. Then he turns his gaze to Auren.
The Ten Girl rolls her eyes. "Ah, fuck it. That was a pretty good speech, I'm not gonna lie." She steps towards Briar. "But we can't just go strolling back into a building full of monsters and murderers without preparing, ya know."
Auren tips some loose junk out of her bag - a rusty watch, some velcro straps, and some empty bottles.
She freezes for a second, still in disbelief about the insane mission that she's about to embark on. But she soon shakes it off and pulls the watch over her wrist. "A lifeline," she explains to Reese. "In case we get stuck down there and need to know the time."
More importantly, it's to know if you still care - she thinks. She doesn't say it though. She doesn't need to.
She then places three mini-bottles in between her fingers before tying them to her knuckles with the velcro straps. She smashes the ends of the bottles against the wall, giving her three serrated glass spikes on her fists - a method she used to use for intimidation during some of her "jobs" for Letta.
She lifts a scimitar, which she found at the feast, in her other hand, and with that - she's ready.
Briar and Reese take less time to prepare with Reese slipping a little makeshift slingshot into his pocket that he constructed back at the lake.
The three allies then trudge on, back in the direction of the hordes of mutts and gangs of careers and murderers.
Briar strides steadfastly at the front, and the other two struggle to keep up with her. Reese is in the middle, while Auren is at the back.
The sturdy Ten Girl starts to linger at the back. What she's doing right now is completely counterintuitive to her - walking back into a death trap to save some boy she's only known for a couple of weeks, yet she's doing it.
She has weapons, food, and water now. She could go off by herself and then hopefully she wouldn't have to see any of her friends die, and someone else would kill them so she doesn't have to.
It was a mistake getting close to any of them - she realises that now.
Yet, still, she walks on with them. What does she have waiting back in Ten that's better than Reese or Briar or Chaney? Certainly not Letta.
She's caught at a crossroads with no clear path to take.
Romulus Ryker, 17
The voices that he started following yesterday led him to a strange underground complex that's hidden beneath a silver, dome structure.
Romulus believes he heard mention that the feast would take place here - where he will undoubtedly find Brizio and Geneve, and his reckoning will finally be complete.
He trails the girls from Three and Eight down a collection of staircases, careful to keep his footsteps soft on the metal gratings. They are totally oblivious to his presence.
When their purpose has been fulfilled and he puts them down, he'll try to make it as painless as possible.
Three and Eight pivot around a final corridor and Romulus follows suit.
He suddenly finds himself on a bridge platform, standing above two large metal cylinders.
He lifts his fists, readying the pair of blades made of scrap metal that are attached to his forearms.
He takes a large step forward to charge, which makes a louder thud than Romulus intended.
The two girls spin around to find the huge career sprinting at them, his two bladed fists raised and his eyes wild with bloodlust.
The taller girl from Eight who, Romulus noted is the bolder of the two, steps in between her ally and the charging boy from Two.
Romulus slams his heel into the Eight girl's gut - the same blow that he gave Emery. She hurtles across the metal bridge and is left crumpled in a heap. Her friend, the smaller girl, from Three, frantically attempts to pull her to her feet but Eight can't move. All she can do is clutch her stomach, wincing in pain from the blow. She's winded.
Romulus closes in for the kill, but then, many unexpected things happen at once. Luckily, he was always taught to expect the unexpected.
First, the entire complex shudders from far below Romulus's feet. The muscular boy is tossed to the side, but the railings shield him from falling directly into the pitch-black abyss of one of the two giant cylinders.
Moments later, the building turns even dimmer, except for the red flashing of alarms.
"Radiation leak detected. Lockdown procedure commencing in ten minutes."
Romulus glances back up at the two tributes. The Three Girl did not get as lucky as him. Her tiny frame was thrown through the gap in the railings and now she is hanging off the edge for dear life.
Suddenly, Romulus isn't staring at the Three Girl anymore, he's staring at his sister - Lucia. Her eyes are stricken with panic. That's the last thing on Earth he wants to see.
"Sis!"
The savage career subconsciously makes a choice that he wasn't expecting, and he discovers himself hauling Lucia back up onto the ledge. It's only then, when she is safely back on the bridge, that he's staring into the face of the Three Girl again - her large, mono-lidded eyes are not wide with fear but wide with shock.
Then, she slips away from Romulus with her ally, and they are gone.
The career shakes his head and flutters his eyelids, trying to make sense of what just happened.
But, he isn't allowed time to contemplate.
(He never was in his life.)
Under the ringing of the sirens around him, there is a muffled patter of footsteps behind him; the footsteps of an assassin. He knows those footsteps.
Romulus shifts around. There he is. Brizio stands motionless with two, long pointed blades in either hand. With each echo of the alarm, a red light illuminates the Four Boy, revealing a face as stone-cold and expressionless as ever.
Romulus's veins tighten all over his body and his hands curl into fists. Suddenly, the rage returns as a killer instinct at the sight of his nemesis.
But Romulus knows that his rival was never one to play fair. Behind him, Geneve also appears with a shortsword in hand.
Romulus knows there's no running, nor does he want to. He wants to tear them apart, and he's going to do just that. Whatever it takes.
He doesn't even remember exactly why he hates them anymore. He has a convulsion of memories of blood stains all over his white t-shirt, then he betrayed someone and volunteered against his academy's and district's conventions. Then, he saw the sly Four Boy for the first time at a parade. Then, there was sparring, jackets, a parking garage, a pie maker from Ten, and a whole lot of pure loathing. But it doesn't matter. All he knows is that he hates him.
Does a cat know why it has to tear apart a mouse? - Romulus thinks to himself.
Romulus narrows his eyes at Brizio, and plants his heels firmly on the metal gratings, ready to charge.
He's ready to face his reckoning.
Brizio Nardolillo, 18
Brizio grinds his teeth together, facing down the brute from Two.
The vengeance that he promised Esther is almost complete. Forget the Inner Table, that contract was between Brizio and Emery's mother alone and he will see it through until the end.
"You're a long way from home. Are you lost?" Romulus calls across the bridge.
"Not as lost as you," Brizio calls back.
The Two Boy purses his lips. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Are you?"
The tension finally hits boiling point and Romulus charges straight for his opponents.
Brizio braces himself, lifting his two daggers up to protect his face.
Brizio has been studying Romulus since the moment when they first met - back in the parade. When Romulus is only a few feet away, he casts his mind back to the first day of training.
His eyes fall shut.
Brizio began circling the Two Boy, the tall, slim career gripped his spear and narrowed his eyes. "You finally got the right sword, I see," he jabbed.
"Not brought your teeth, this time?" Romulus retorted.
The hench boy from Two immediately swung for Brizio's head, which caught him off guard. Brizio pivoted back, the tip of the dummy sword grazing his cheek.
As Romulus swung again, Brizio closed in, striking fast like a viper. After that, the boys ended up locked in an exchange of blows.
Brizio opens his eyes and his mind is taken back to the present moment. Romulus is right in front of him now.
Just as he did while they were sparring on the first day of training, Romulus goes straight for Brizio's head - swinging his bladed fist with a furious haymaker.
This time, Brizio is ready. He slides back, and Romulus's fist sails past his head. Then, he closes the distance and the two boys begin exchanging blows.
One of Brizio's strikes finds its mark in his enemy's shoulder. Romulus howls in pain as the knife pierces his muscles and slides into his bone.
But Brizio does not pull away fast enough, which allows Romulus to punch his left blade-fist into Brizio's own shoulder. The Four Boy groans in surprise but manages to fight through the pain.
Just then, Geneve steps in from behind her ally, swinging her sword at Romulus's throat.
But Romulus acts fast. Using his strength and bulky physique, he is able to force Brizio over the railings of the bridge, along with himself.
All of a sudden, Brizio is free-falling backward, and for a moment he wonders if this is it. It doesn't feel like it should be. Whatever life has thrown at him, whatever demons he's had to face, somehow he always found a way through. He's adapted.
His fall is cut short when the boys crash onto another metal bridge, only a few meters below the last.
It's not my time yet.
In the chaos, Brizio lost sight of one of his daggers, but the other one lies only a few inches from his feet.
But as it stands, he has no chance of getting to it as Romulus pins him to the bridge; he bears his teeth like a wolf, his face is as red as a flame, and his veins throb so much they look like they are about to burst.
This is familiar.
Brizio hit the training mat of the gymnasium with a crash, and Romulus bore down on top of him.
"What's the matter? Did you lose your balance?" His adversary taunted with a smirk.
Romulus raised his fist to strike Brizio across the cheek, but the slippery boy managed to swivel out of the way. He managed to get a firm grip of Romulus's arm, and put him in an armbar. He could have broken his arm there and then, but it was only a friendly sparring match.
Not anymore.
Romulus raises his bladed fist up to put it through Brizio's face. The boy from Four swivels to avoid it, once again. But this time when he has a hold of Romulus's arm in an armbar, he doesn't hesitate to hyperextend it until he hears the bone snap.
Romulus cries out in agony. But pain and one broken limb do not halt his assault. He flails his non-broken arm, the right, at Brizio's face, as he staggers back to his feet.
Brizio does not have time to avoid this attack. His cheek is cut open by the blade, and blood begins gushing out.
Romulus attempts another right cross to finish the boy off.
But this time, Brizio is lightning fast. He pivots and catches Romulus's right arm. He then yanks him down and plants his knee into the other boy's shoulder, whilst twisting his arm.
CRACK
With that, both of Romulus's arms are broken, and he is left on his knees, his head sunk low in defeat. His arms hang loosely by his sides.
Brizio slams his foot into Romulus's head with a roundhouse kick to put him down. Then, panting heavily, he retrieves his knife from the floor before pinning his opponent down.
He narrows his eyes and grits his teeth, raising his weapon up to pierce Romulus's chest multiple times.
The bested career beneath him closes his eyes, preparing for the worst. It's as though Brizio is staring down at a helpless child.
Brizio lowers his knife and makes the choice that Romulus didn't three days ago.
By now, Geneve has found her way down to the lower bridge so Brizio pushes himself up off of the defeated boy, and sends her a nod.
Geneve nods back. She kneels down beside Romulus before taking a handful of his thick, brown hair with one hand and running her sword across his throat with the other.
She nudges his limp body off of the bridge and lets it fall into the large, metal cylinder below.
Romulus's cannon can be heard moments later.
BOOM.
"Three minutes until lockdown procedure."
Those words are Brizio's and Geneve's cue to run as fast as they can to the exit.
They cross back into the labyrinth of dark corridors, and only just make it through the barrier before a glass door is sealed behind them.
The two sweating careers place their hands on their knees to catch their breaths. They glance at each other, and the same smile adorns both of their lips.
"The last two… who'd have thought," Geneve pants.
Brizio straightens up, wiping the sweat and blood from his face, and holds his wounded shoulder. Who'd have thought? - he repeats in his head.
The career that was blackmailed into being here, used, betrayed, and left to die. Yet still, he finds a way. He's playing their game his own way which is the biggest middle finger he could possibly give the Capitol at this point.
"Let's get outta here. Unless you enjoy being in creepy, underground corridors," Brizio says.
But just then, as they are both to make their hasty exit, Brizio senses another presence.
He turns around and peers back through the glass door. There is a silhouette of a tall boy with long hair in the corridor, taller than even Brizio's and Geneve's six-foot frames.
As the silhouette steps closer, an uneasy, cold shiver runs through Brizio's spine.
The silhouette steps into the path of one of the flashing lights which illuminates half of his face; he has his hand over the other half. That's when Brizio recognizes him - the boy from Fourteen… Ozias… Emery's ex.
The half of Ozias's face that is visible displays an animalistic, primal fury. He gives Brizio a spiteful death stare. "Em… was it you?" he snarls, his voice raspy like it is fighting through agony.
Brizio shakes his head. "The one that did… we killed him."
Ozias suddenly lunges forward and thumps the glass door with his fist, simultaneously revealing the other half of his face.
The hardened assassin from Four almost steps back in shock. The left side of Ozias's face is charred and burnt through almost to the bone, giving it a skeletal appearance. The flesh that is still there hangs off in flakes, and the boy's left eye is completely closed over… or gone.
"No! He was not yours to kill!" Ozias growls.
"Revenge… is not in our hands," Brizio retorts.
"You think you knew him? Didn't you!? You think you were close? You didn't know shit!"
Brizio inhales. "Maybe… but I did know one thing… something that he said you needed to know."
"What? What could you possibly tell me?"
This might not be the best time to tell Ozias what he's about to tell him - he doesn't look to be in the most stable state. But, he has no idea if he'll ever get the chance again, and he gave Emery his word.
"There was this fire. Emery's father burnt his entire restaurant down… himself with it. Emery was the only survivor-"
"Wrong already!" Ozias laughs dismissively. "His father kicked him out."
Brizio shrugs. "That's what he told you. That fire… it was on the same day that you lost your family… It was the same fire."
Ozias slams his fists at least a dozen times into the glass door. "Lies!" He screams.
He continues to scream and smash his fists into the glass as Brizio and Geneve back off through the corridor and make their escape to the elevator.
As the elevator rolls up, Ozias's furious and agonized screams still echo through the complex. "Lies! Lies! Lies! Lies! Lies!"
The shouts continue as they step out of the elevator, and they keep reverberating through Brizio's mind, hauntingly.
Well… hope you enjoyed! I wish I could say it gets better in the next few chapters but I can't. Yeah day 7 will last 3 chapters, it just makes it easier for me with so much going on and it needing to take place around the same time. See you next time!
Deaths:
14th: Romulus Ryker: Killed by Geneve Ardelean - throat slit. I had a really good time writing Romulus and his spiral, the pieces were set perfectly for me in his form with his outbursts of anger. Honestly I had him going a lot further in my early planning and really struggled for a bit when coming up with placements in the second arc. But with a lot of people spiraling, I decided to end his arc here. I wanted the part of his humanity to shine through at the very end like it can with a lot of people especially as it fits in with a common theme I have been building in the last few arena and subplot chapters. Thanks for the submission OHGD, I really enjoyed writing your troubled son!
Kill counter:
Geneve: 2
Romulus: 2
Aida: 1
Ren: 4
Chaney: 1
Auren: 1
Jokull: 3
Ozias: 2
Emery: 1
Zora: 1