Writers Games; Alliances

D12 Female - Seaver Parish - Task 4 [AnonymousRice4]

  I feel pain coursing through the injection site on my left shoulder, where a needle was stabbed into my body and I was knocked unconscious. A strange sensation has come over my heart, it beats slower than it normally would and my chest – it seems to burn with an itch. My head swims as I try to force myself awake, terrified of what lie beyond my closed eyelids. If I wake, where would I find myself? My eyes finally flutter open, I fly up into a sitting position and immediately scan my surroundings; I’m in a room, well lit, beds surrounding me in every direction. I feel like this is a dream, like all of it is. From the time I stepped foot in the arena nothing as made much sense. I feel something rattling my right arm and twist my head around sharply, only to find Lumen, one of my allies, unconscious on the bed next to me. I trail my eyes down to find our hands have been chained together with handcuffs. I groan, already annoyed by my chosen companion. He’s an ally, I can’t kill him. I would, but then the others, they wouldn’t trust me. I’d be killed or kicked out of the alliance, and I can afford neither of those right now. So, I guess I’m stuck here with him. For awhile, at least.
    I hear moaning coming from all of the beds in the room as each tribute awakens from their slumber. Above us there is a balcony, upon which a painfully familiar woman with strawberry-blonde curls stands, gazing over us like her prize cattle.
     “Yes, that’s it, wake up my dears.” She coaxes in a motherly tone. I feel terror running through my body; didn’t I kill her last night? I could’ve sworn I did. Unless that was a dream, or this was. Oh, I’m confusing myself. Just shut up Seav! I whispered internally.
     “I’m sure a great many of you are surprised to see me.” She pauses, glancing around at some of the other baffled faces in the crowd. Her eyes grace over me very quickly, and I scowl. It must’ve been some sort of trick, she was never really there.
    “Well, it’s a new day, therefore I’ve presented you with a new challenge. I’m sure by now you’ve noticed the cuffs linking you to one another. And most likely you've felt the itch in your chest...” She trails off. My eyes widen, fear coursing through me; how did she know? What had she done?
    I hear a moan from beside me, and see Lumen trying to sit up groggily. “Where am I?” He murmurs.
   “Don’t know.” I reply. “But Occisora is giving a speech.” I nod to the balcony, and Lumen follows my gaze. He subconsciously scratches his chest, and reveals black strings under his shirt. Terrified, I gaze inside my own shirt, finding the same black strings. A scar runs down the center of my chest, the black strings are stitches holding it together. I begin to go cold, and feel my heart pumping faster and faster. What did she do to me?
    “I’ll get to that later.” She mocks, seeming satisfied to have made us all so angry. I get a rush of something through my body, anger, resentment, something – and it makes me want to kill her all over again. I’d do it in a heartbeat, I know I would. If only I had some sort of long-distance weapon, but unfortunately, there was no cornucopia, thus there were no weapons. Did she plan all this? No cornucopia for just this reason, to leave us helpless to defend ourselves against her? I snap back to attention as she begins speaking again; however cruel she may be, I don’t want to miss any of her instructions.
    “Through those doors is a forest in which you will have to survive until noon tomorrow. At noon you will gather at the flag, all of you, for the next portion of the Games. If you do not get there within the hour...” She pauses, again, listening to the murmurs of anxiety flowing through the crowd and reveling in it. She enjoys torture, I can see it.
   “Well, no need to worry about that now.” She finishes. “It may be difficult, believe me. Finding shelter, water, and to fight while you’re chained to another person – if you wish to be unlinked, I can help you with that.” Oh look at her, always trying to help people. It sickens me. Her kind of help is the kind you’d run for miles just to get away from. The kind that would leave you scarred, forever. It’s no surprise she became Head Gamemaker. That kind of twisted, sadistic mind belongs nowhere else.
   “The key to your troubles is within your reach. You didn’t think I’d provide you with a way out?” She laughs. “All I want is to help you, remember?” Tell that to last-night you, I feel like yelling. Was she trying to ‘help’ me then? I don’t see how threatening the only people left on the planet that I care about is helping anything.
    “The key,” she holds up a sample key of her own, circling it around so the whole room can see it. “Is in your chest. Or rather, your partner’s chest.” My jaw involuntarily falls open, and I look at Lumen in surprise. Will he try to cut my heart out to set himself free? Or was he concerned with the other allies as well? Perhaps he didn’t want to leave them so soon either.
   “The keys have been surgically planted inside of each one of you, close to your hearts. If you want to open your cuffs all you need to do is cut it out of your partner.” She smirks, tossing the dummy key out into the crowd and taking her elbows off the rail. “Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor.” She finishes, a terrifying look of pure psycho lighting up her features as she sweeps her long, ash-colored dress in front of us and disappears. We’re left alone, the next move is on us. What will we do?
   “You coming?” Lumen’s confidence breaks into my thoughts, and I look at him, he's ready to leave.
  “Uh, yeah.” I mutter under my breath, mentally making note that I will not hesitate to kill Lumen if he so much as looks at me wrong. I don’t care the consequences, I am playing to win. I have to see Djaq at least one more time before I die.
     “Let’s go then.” Lumen encourages, tugging me along. I follow without protest, and we zig-zag through the maze of cots.
   Tributes are now realizing that they could do something about their partners; nearly everyone is at everyone else’s throat, trying desperately to kill each other while their hands remain bonded. As we run, Lumen continuously scans the room in search of at least one of our other allies. But nobody is in sight. It slowly grows harder and harder to see as people leap off their beds and onto each other, running this way and that, fighting practically over everyone else. Several times someone bumps me in the head with their arm, steps on my feet, or crashes their full-body into me. It's a madhouse. Until finally, a familiar member of our team comes running our way; Lumen hadn’t seen him, but I did. I call and call to him, until finally, above all the nose, his ears perk up and he jogs my way between everyone’s legs.
    “Hang on.” I tell Lumen, as he continues walking. He impatiently stops in his tracks, dodging several punches aimed at someone else. Finally, the little black ball of fur reaches me, and I bend down, taking Lumen with me, and scoop him up.
    “Tobias would be heartbroken without him.” I note as Lumen stares at me disappointedly. He doesn’t say a word, though it looks like he wants to, and we resume our trek toward the exit.
   “Mira! Come!” I recognize Amabel’s voice, yelling from somewhere to my right. I cease to move, causing Lumen to halt as well.
    “What?” Lumen huffs irritably, obviously annoyed that I didn’t share his desire to be outdoors as soon as possible.
    “Just a minute, I heard Amabel.” I retort, standing on my tippy-toes to try and see her above the crowd.
   “Let’s just go, they can fend for themselves. If we stay here you’re going to get us killed, Twelve.” I roll my eyes, about to make a witty comment when somebody’s fist makes contact with my cheek. Caught completely off guard, I stumble backward and step on somebody’s shoe, tripping and landing on my butt. Meanwhile I had dragged Lumen down with me, the weight of my unexpected fall catching him off guard too. After a brief moment of confusion, I shove the dog into Lumen's arms and stand up furiously, swinging my fist back at the one who’d hit me. He ducks, and rams into my gut. I am forced to crash into the tributes behind me, before I can get a hold of his arms. I pull myself off the ground, bending my knee in order to get enough momentum to kick him as hard as I can in the groin. He screams, and drops me immediately, clutching his wounded area. Lumen catches my elbow so I don’t fall on the floor again. I thank him with a tiny smile, returning the dog to my own arms. I stare at the boy on the ground, crying out in pain; he wears his half of the cuffs, but the other half – I shudder – all that’s left of his partner is their hand, cut off well above the wrist. The bloody, freshly severed hand dangles like an unlucky charm, haunting me as I try to pry my eyes away from it, and fail.
  “Hey, come on. I see Amabel.” Lumen coaxes me out of my daze, and pushes me in Amabel’s direction.
   “No ‘I told you so’?” I question, still a little shaken by the creepy hand. It had been balled up into a fist, like whoever belonged to it clenched their hand in agony while their arm was being hacked off. I shudder again, imaging Lumen doing the same thing to me at night while I slept. Needless to say, I will not be sleeping until this thing comes off. Maybe we could pick the lock or something, does Lumen even know how to pick a lock? I hope so, and make mental note to bring it up later.
   “Amabel!” Lumen cries, successfully capturing her attention. Her head of blonde curls swishes back and she catches sight of us. She hesitates; I frown. What is she waiting for? We’re right here.
   “Hang on!” She yells in response, tugging her partner along. “I have to help Mira!” She points to the left, and we follow her finger until we see Mira’s head of blonde hair, fighting for her life against a younger girl with bleached hair. They’re handcuffed to each other, making the fight difficult or unfair to one of them.
    Lumen brings both his hands up to cup around his lips, shouting over the shrieks of tributes. “We’ll meet you outside!” I freeze; what about the others? Shouldn’t we help Mira too? Or find Tobias? Or Miles? The idea of being alone with Lumen causes me to shrink back, stroking little dog’s head. Lumen gives little to no time for me to react, and instead turns on his heel and begins running for the doors. I have no other options, I have to run with him. Holding Dog close to my body, so as not to drop him, I follow Lumen all the way outdoors. The sun breaks through the cracks as soon as it can, warming us immediately. I suddenly realize how cold it was inside.
    Lush, green trees meet our eyes off in the distance, a flat with grass up to our knees lies in front of us, with an occasional sunflower or poppy growing in patches. I watch Lumen gazing out over the scenery with a careful eye, making certain that he’s not going to snap my neck or something. I’m prepared, I can handle him, right? At least I think I can.
    I grow cold in fear and whip around at the sound of approaching footsteps, only to breath out my anxieties as I meet the eyes of Miles and Tobias. They run to us from the doorway, seemingly arm-in-arm, but I remember that’s only their chains holding them together.
   “Hey guys.” Miles greets us once they reach where we stand. I press a smile to my lips, not exactly in the mood to start chatting.
   “We need to find shelter.” Lumen says immediately. Tobias doesn’t seem to hear him, and steps toward me in an endearing way. I step back, then remember I’m holding his dog.
   “Oh, I uh, found him wandering the room. Thought you might like to keep him around a little while longer.” I inform him, tucking the small animal into his arms. I watch briefly as the dog wiggles his tail profusely, just thrilled to see his master again. I had no idea the extent of their loyalty, but a little part of me suspected he’d stay with Tobias til death did they part. A smile begins to creep onto my lips as I watch Tobias’ smile growing with equal excitement at seeing his pet again. I quickly wipe the smile off, hoping no one saw. I can’t afford to damage the image I’d created of myself as a strong, independent woman. I can’t be seen as weak or caring, especially in the eyes of Lumen, my inevitable enemy. What do we do now? How do we figure this one out? Tobias and Lumen had figured out the doors, we didn’t have to leave anyone behind then. We got through so much just to be torn apart now; was this the end for our alliance, which had really just begun? Or could we somehow manage to stay intact as the crazy, sadistic Occisora tried her best to tear us apart? The thought of spending weeks chained to each other, having to watch the other’s every move, being stuck beside someone indefinitely made me sick. And then the most important question ever asked surfaces, and my face slowly heats up and my heart races, pounding as if it will leap right out of my chest – how, I ask, how will we go to the bathroom with another person there to stare you down the whole time?