Cassia had hardly set her sleeping bag down when a resounding boom rang out across the store. A boom that sent her flying forward in a mess of limbs, debris, and dust. There wasnât even a moment to process what had happened before it was over. Well, other than the horrible buzzing noise that was still ringing in her ears and head.
âOw,â Cassia muttered as she tried to sit up after the explosion. She could move her toes and fingers, so nothing was probably broken. It was hard to tell between the fresh lacerations, bruises, and scrapes that were scattered across her body. Her head hurt too from whatever had collided with it.
âLucky?â Cassia called out softly still trying to orient herself. Her friend had to be okay, she had to. âPixelâŚ?â
In her fog, her brain told her she needed to be on the look out for the trap setter, but her conscious thought hadnât caught up to that thought yet.
When the explosion happened, Pixel fell forward onto the ground. Perhaps it was actually from the force of the trap, or perhaps she was just playing up any kind of incident that happened to her at this point. By now she wasnât quite sure where the line was anymore.
Pixel coughed up debris after the explosive went off, hacking up dust that sheâd inhaled and wiping stuff from her eyes.Â
âIâm⌠Iâm okay,â Pixel said weakly, then she paused and thought for a second. Clearly this was headed for a fight. There was no way Lucky and Cassia were going to just let this girl from Twelve go after the explosion. She was a risk to all of them. But if this girl managed to kill the two of them, that meant Pixel wouldnât have to. And if she didnât, well, Pixel would still be safe in this tentative alliance for the moment.Â
Pixel tried to pull herself to her feet, then dropped dramatically back onto the ground. âMy ankle. I think⌠I think I injured it more. Iâll just be in your way. Let me watch over the food and stuff, Iâll take it outside, by the railing. Iâll be waiting when youâre done.â
She slowly pulled herself up onto her feet, grasping at the wall to keep herself steady. âYouâll be fine, guys. And⌠thank you. For taking me in.â
Luckyâs feet left the ground as the force of the blast threw her forwards. Her hands went out to catch the brunt of the impact as she fell back towards the ground, tossing her bag of hot food away in the process.Â
She took a moment to brush the dust from them onto her jacket. They were skinned and sore, but sheâd had worse.
âThanks, Pixie. Youâre a real star.â She looked around for her food, picking the paper bag up and holding it out to her. âKeep this safe. Iâve been lookinâ forward to it.â
She took her swiss army knife out of her fanny-pack, flicking through to the blade before looking up at Cassia and smiling. âGuess we have a fight to handle?â
Turning to face the rest of the shop, Lucky took a deep breath before calling out, âI donât know who you are, but Iâm cominâ for ya!â
freya was surprised when she heard sounds of distress after the explosion -- guess it wasnât so worthless after all. or maybe the grunts and hushed talking were just effects of the ringing in her ears from the explosion -- and a bit of shrapnel that might have caused warm blood to run down her temple. but she thought she would be in the clear. after all no one had made a move further into the store and who would want to chase down an explosion?
until she heard a voice shout a threat. great. freya stayed in her crouched position with her swiss army knife blade out and waited for the other tributes to find their way further into the store. thankfully, some of the mannequins had tipped over and clothes were strewn about so freya wasnât left standing completely exposed. but, quietly hiding was never her strong-suit.Â
a slew of curses flooded freyaâs mind and she knew she had just royally fucked up.