Before I got too comfortable where I was I pushed myself off the slick bathroom floor, gritting my teeth as my body throbbed and started collecting anything I dropped during the fight. I traded out the carving knife for two of Siavash’s throwing knives. I didn’t dwell too much on what happened. I knew what I was getting myself into the moment I turned back down the hall.
I went back into the stall and checked his pockets. The only thing of use I found on him was a key shaped like a fish. I forced a puff of air from my nose in amusement at the object and took one last glance at his body still face down in the toilet, an oddly comfortable silence hanging in the bathroom.
“Shit head.” I spat under my breath sarcastically and closed the door.
A faint movement behind me drew my attention as I scooped up my switchblade, a parachute hanging mid-air. I sighed in relief when I saw the first aid kit and painkillers inside, and the water was an extra bonus.
I went over to the sinks to start patching myself up, wincing as I unbuttoned my shirt to get a better look at the damage Sia caused. Glancing in the mirror I saw the left side of my face was burnt, blood and plasma causing it to shine under the lights bearing down from the ceiling. I told myself it could have been worse, even with the multiple stab wounds and bruises forming around my body.
I dug out the sheet from my bag and tore it into strips, running the water in the sink until it was warm and started cleaning myself up. The gash on my back was awkward to reach. Once everything was clean and bandaged I started working on my face. Wiping it down with water made me cringe and the ointment Aaru sent stung at first before the pain started to dull.
I threw all the bloodied rags into the sink once I was done. Through the mirror I saw Sherry watching me from the doorway.
“I’m happy you’re alive!” She chirped once I came out of the bathroom and shut the door behind me, “So, are we going to find Adam now?”
I took my blazer back from her and sighed, “Later.” I murmured, walking past her and down the hall to scoop up my key I had thrown. I didn’t have the energy to even entertain the idea of going on another hunt, much less do anything else right now.
The homey atmosphere in room #2 didn’t do much to alleviate that. I secured the door with strips of sheet I cut off and tied to the support of the nearest bunk bed before collapsing onto a bed and digging out the second half of my sandwich and a bit of the chocolate bar. I washed it down with water and a painkiller, then curled up on the mattress.
“Tomorrow then?” I heard Sherry ask from a top bunk somewhere in the room just as I was drifting off..
“Yea. Yea, tomorrow.” I said halfheartedly and passed the fuck out.
Ridding myself of room 8, I move out and look around the first floor of the college. I had yet another temporary setback fighting those mutts. It seems as though I can never find the right room. I must be either doomed, or purposely picked it. I don’t know why, I mean I’m a fun girl?
Coming around to room 2, I slowly turn the knob and peer inside.
Just as my eyes begin to settle on the pages of the blue book, I’m interrupted by the shuffling of feet and desks. I flick my eyes upwards in following the sound of commotion, spotting all three of the now alert test takers and their mangled appearance. I’m immediately both surprised and turned off, dropping the booklet by my feet. They appear ugly, and scarred. Something that has never walked the earth as a human before. Something created in a lab. Mutts.
“Ok, maybe I’m not your sub.”
Like a switch, they rise to their feet, armed to the teeth with makeshift school supplies as weapons. Each of them ready to destroy me. I move away from the desk in enough time and swing my bat out in a defensive maneuver. It luckily connects to the boy on the left and strikes his temple. The boy sways under the blow and tumbles to the ground.
“The answer to number 6 is Guam,” I call out.
Like the head of a hydra, two other mutts quickly move in replaces their fallen classmate. My eyes widen as both of them lunge at me with their sharpened rulers. I strike without thought and manage to break off the tip of their rulers. Before I could finish them off, I feel a tug and a slight burning sensation at my leg. I look down and notice the first fallen mutt is at my feet and haphazardly scraping my thighs with a half broken pencil. My bat promptly finds its way around to his head and repeatedly smashes into the middle of his face.
As he taps out like a bitch, I bring out the taser from my pocket and freely jump atop of the other mutts. They bow under my weight to which I place my boots on their heads and pin them down. I flip the taser to on and safely fry their ass to kingdom come.
Brushing my hair out of my face, I hop off the mutts and smile as all three lie motionless on the ground. Righteous. I pick up the fallen blue booklet again and carefully begin reading all of the answers to the test out loud.
With the girl from Eight out of the equation, somewhat, Elijah finally felt some semblance of tranquility, enough to feel confident falling asleep underneath the shelter of one of the tables. The pair had agreed to take turns sleeping but it wasn’t long before they were both sound asleep underneath a table on the cold tiles of the cafeteria floor.
It only seemed as if he’d been asleep for about five minutes before the sound of a bell awoke him. Elijah shot straight up and covered his ears with his hands. He barely tolerated school in District Three and having to relive it was almost as bad as any nightmare he could’ve imagined for himself while he slept. A.J. herself awoke from the sudden shifting of the body beside her. Elijah rubbed the crust from his eyes and furrowed them. All around him, he could see the legs of small children. Elijah blinked again, wondering if this was some sort of hallucination.
Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t.
Elijah made eye contact with A.J for a moment and she shared in his look of confusion. Fuck, he thought. Is this it?
He rose slowly from underneath the table, bow drawn, ready to fight. He was surprised, though, to see that the legs he had spotted beneath the table belonged to things that actually looked…human. It wasn’t long before the pair was spotted though, and suddenly a scream yelled with the force that could only belong to a teenage girl penetrated the monotonous sound of the footsteps.
“FOOD FIGHT!”
And just like that, the innocent faces of the teenagers surrounding them contorted into ones filled with pure, unadulterated rage.
This is definitely it, Elijah thought to himself just as a what appeared to be a hamburger flew over the top of his head. If they had any hope of getting out of this cafeteria without being covered in food they’d have to find some sort of cover - and fast.
Elijah ran towards one of the nearby teenagers and #snatched! the tray from their hands to use as temporary cover. He called out to A.J,
“We have to find cover!”
“Yeah!” A.J. said, trying very little to hid the smile on her face. Innocent chaos. “Come, on.” Just as she stepped away from the table, a large stream of white flew directly across her path, drenching her face and chest in cold milk. The culprit, a small kid, ran away cackling. The game was on. A.J. released Elijah’s hand, running all the way to the queue and jumping the serving table, dodging flying entrees that would be better suited for eating.When she returned, she was definitely dirtier than before, but armed with a tray piled with sandwiches, loaves of bread, unopened bottles of condiments.
While A.J stocked up on ammunition, Elijah was running through the crowd, trying unsuccessfully to dodge plates of food in search of decent cover. The chairs weren’t offering much protection but maybe something else would…
A.J. looked over the cafeteria, the formerly neat and organized sitting area, a complete mess of food, over turned tabled, and screaming children. She did not realize her companion had companion had left their table. That is, until she heard the screams of children followed by a thud towards the left of the room. She turned to see Elijah pulling a table up on its side. Yes, she thought. She liked her ally. A slew of something hot hit her on her back, the heat bearable due to the cover of her blazer. She ran, slipping through through mess of unrecognizable sludge on the floor. She slipped over the makeshift barrier and sat haphazardly next to Elijah.
“Nice.” She said.
“I got you covered.” Elijah responded, not sure whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation they were put in or run like the wind out of the fear of what this food could do to them.
“Yeah?” She said, looking over her body. “So does this milk and what, chili, I think?”
Elijah tried to hide a smile at her comment, “I actually think that’s baked beans and yogurt..”
“Perfect...” She looked over her shoulder, a piece of hard bread smacking her cheek as she turned. “Ow. Okay. Exit. Let’s go.”
“I push, you throw.”
As Elijah moved the table backwards, A.J. began tossing food at people close enough to hit them. A large piece of something hit the front of table, causing a mess of something liquid-y to splatter up.
Eventually the two fell into a good pattern, moving backwards, deflecting giant portions of food hauling ass through the air, and A.J. happily retaliating by throwing food at the more deserving of the children. By the time they reached the exit, they were both covered with food but not as bad as they would have been if they hadn’t used the table as a sort of portable cover.
Before they could get pelted any further, the pair darted out of the exit and walked northwest.
Ashton opened his eyes to the sound of a school bell and cheering children. Something was off. Things were different. He wasn’t where he was when he fell asleep. He did recognize something though, well two to be exact. Charlotte, the girl from his district, and another tribute. They seemed to have the same look on their faces.
By the way it looks, those two aren’t out for each other, Charlotte could easily take her out Ashton thought to himself. So, in Ashton’s mind he only had one option, especially with his available weapons…
When Charlotte came to, she was lying on her stomach, someone’s scrambling feet disturbing the wood chips beneath her.
“Celia, what–” She grumbled. She looked over at her friend, who had shoved herself back against a metal bar. What were they underneath of? When did they move? Charlotte shifted herself to sit up. “Are you okay?”
Aracelia’s eyes were trained elsewhere, like glassy blue missiles. Charlotte followed her line of sight, quickly finding Ashton sitting opposite of them. “Wait, what? When did you even–” A hand grabbed her shoulder, and when she looked over, Aracelia’s eyes were giving her a warning. Shut up.
Ashton was just as quiet, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two girls. They stayed like this, glancing at each other precariously until a fourth voice was chirping somewhere behind Aracelia.
“Hey!” All three of them whipped their heads, and a wave of realization passed over them. They were definitely underneath a jungle gym, the navy blue bars spread wide like a prison cell. Surrounding the bars were a hoard of probably first graders, all holding fistfuls of paper and pencils. “You won’t be allowed to leave until at least one of you is dead. Or more. More would be fun!” She flashed a toothy smile. “But one of you must die. Have fun, you three!” There wasn’t any time to register what she said before she was weaving backward through the crowd and her friends began throwing their things into the… Prison. Yeah, it was a prison.
“Fuck,” Aracelia breathed. She looked to Charlotte again. “What are–” But stopped when Ashton interrupted her.
“Charlotte, were from the same district. Wouldn’t it make for a more glorious show down if the last two were from the same district?” It was a desperate attempt and he hoped it worked. He waited for years for a response. “No.” It was all she said. “I really hoped you would say otherwise, just look at her! She won’t survive this! Every minute she’s alive is a lie YOU are telling her. Kill her now, take her stuff and leave. When the time comes we will have our moment. But not here, not now. What would your brothers say?”
“Don't you dare talk about my brothers like you know them!” Charlotte screamed and rushed towards Ashton with the bloodied bat in position to take off his head. Ashton was getting up as fast as he could, grabbing a handful of the playground sand, waiting for the absolute last moment to strike.
With the bat in both hands and lifted high above her head, Charlotte was ready to kill. The slight mention of her brothers made her see red and wanted revenge. She had become blinded with a hell bent rage that required a blood sacrifice to alleviate. She didn’t notice Ashton getting up. She didn’t notice the other tribute standing in confusion. And she didn’t notice what was in Ashton’s hand as she came down to swing on his head.
“Sand attack!” Ashton yelled as he threw a handful of sand in her face. She winced in pain at the sudden grit in her eye. As she bent over to rub her eyes Ashton, slammed his knee into her chin, knocking a tooth or two out and causing her to go crashing to the ground. Aracelia moved forward, cautious of Ashton now that he had proven himself a foe. She watched Charlotte get up and step back, her nose broken, one of her eyes swollen shut, and blood coating her mouth.
The girls shared another wide-eyed glance before peeling apart, Ashton filling the gap between them and racing past. Charlotte rolled to her feet with no problem, and found that Aracelia had done the same. There was no time to formulate a plan before the boy from Six was coming at them this time.
Charlotte swung her backpack over her shoulder to clock Ashton in the face while Aracelia ducked down low to swipe out her leg and kick him in the back of the knees, sending him flat on his back. He landed with a muted thud, hardly groaning as he jumped to his feet. He kicked his leg out high over his shoulder to try and get Charlotte in the temple, but damn, Aracelia was fast. Charlotte barely had time to register what her district partner was doing before Aracelia was fisting his tie and twisting yanking it backward, tightening it around his throat and throwing him back to the ground. He sputtered unintelligibly, the wind probably knocked from him, as Charlotte replaced the backpack and pulled the knuckle dusters from her shirt.
Ashton was quick too, though. He rolled away before he could properly collect himself, moving back up to his feet and plucking up a couple pencils in the process. His breathing was harsh and he looked disoriented as his gaze switched between the two girls. The three of them stood in a triangle, exchanging wary glances for a moment before one of the children volleyed a fistful of rubber erasers through the air, a couple of them landing on them. Aracelia whipped her head to look back at the children, a scowl gracing her features.
“I hate kids,” She muttered to no one. “Tiny demons.”
That seemed to knock Ashton from whatever stupor he was in, his feet kicking up wood chips as he vaulted himself towards them. Charlotte gasped, ducking herself down to try and kick Ashton in the knees again, but she wasn’t there in time to dodge his hands as he stabbed the graphite into the back of her shoulder. She seized underneath of him, and he drew out the pencil to stab her again.
Aracelia yanked him backwards by the elbow, swiftly pulling her knife from inside her blazer and gauging open the inside of his arm, just above his elbow. He screamed, stumbling backward and dropping the utensil to cradle his injury for a second.
“What the fuck?” Charlotte breathed, her eyes wide. “Where the fuck did you get that?”
Aracelia didn’t answer her, only yanked her to her ally to her feet and swung at Ashton again, who narrowly dodged her knife. He rolled away, sitting on his haunches and frantically looking for something else to use. He scrambled out for another sharpened pencil, only to have his fingers crushed underneath the sole of Charlotte’s shoe. He grunted, trying to yank himself away when the brute end of her knuckle dusters collided with his jaw. His head shot back, and he twisted his legs to the side to kick her ankles out from underneath of her. She slipped, taking some of the skin from his knuckles with her as she landed haphazardly on her knees.
Ashton hissed as he rolled himself away, moving to try and do the same with Aracelia’s ankles and only scraping his shoe against her calf before she jolted away. He rolled over his back in a somersault, swinging out with the pencil he still fisted and stabbing Aracelia in the back of the same calf. She cursed, jolting away again and landing on one knee.
Ashton tried to turn back while he had a moment, reaching out to blindly wrap his shaking fists around Charlotte’s neck. She grunted, kicking her feet into his stomach as he forced his thumbs into her trachea. One of her knuckle dusters hit him square in the nose, a resounding crunch sounding throughout the prison. He gasped, releasing her throat and moving to cradle his own face. Then, barely in Charlotte’s line of sight, a flash of blonde hair moved forward.
Aracelia swept in, going for the kill (literally) as her fingers clawed the back of Ashton’s collar and pulled him backward, plunging the blade of the knife into his throat, carving out a haphazard gash and dropping him to the floor. She kicked him forward and listened to the sickening gurgles he made as he tried to take his last breaths.
The girls turned to face the fucking demon children as their cheering grew rampant. Aracelia fisted Charlotte’s blazer and yanked her to her feet again, pointing to an opening just large enough for the two girls to get out. They both began sprinting away to put as much distance between the dead body and the demon children as they could.
Immediately as the lights went on, Polly felt cool air on places she hadn’t since yesterday. Quite similarly to her own high school experience in district eleven, her tiddy bresses were out in the open more than once within the last twenty four hours. As soon as it was announced that she was about to be a nude model, Polly couldn’t believe her ears. As much as she loved herself, she knew the terrifying haunted easels didn’t deserve to see her in all of her glory.
However, she decided to put on a bit of a show. Pose after pose, Polly let the Capitol see parts of her nobody ever wanted to see. But, oh, did she show them. Even without prompting from the voice telling her what to do, Polly pulled out all the stops. Knowing there were people cheering from home on her rockin’ body and that obviously nothing else was happening in the high school outside of her little art room, she owned every second of being that nude model.
So, when the time came for her to be allowed off the small raised stage, she pouted slightly before gathering up her clothes and redressing herself. Disappointed she couldn’t be brought to the Capitol to show off all of her lovely lady lumps, Polly continued to pout and stew as she gathered her things and left the art room behind.
I winced slightly as I pulled my jacket off to get a better look at the bite on my arm. The sleeve of my shirt was coated with blood. I didn’t have a first aid kit in my bag or see one in the room. I took the bag back from Sherry and poured some of the water I had left over the wound to clean it, then used the carving knife to rip off some fabric from the bottom of my shirt and fastened it around, and another small strip to wipe the roaches blood off the switchblade.
“There isn’t a nurse’s office around here, is there?”
I moved the desks away from the door and opened it a crack to check if anything had changed overnight.
