[DISCLAIMER: Ahem. Dani has reminded me upon every section of this that she reads that I'm totally screwing up her character. I apologize for that, but your essence is just so difficult to capture, Dani. Stop hissing at me, or I'll hug you again.
P.S. I know where you sleep. ]
Meanwhile, Dani heads across the Ped Mall. As she passes the dining hall, she notices that the door is cracked. She steps inside and scans the dark room full of scattered tables and chairs for life. A dim light shines from the kitchen. It’s the grill. The cheeseburgers have been set out for the day. Dani ducks under a table. She can make out the shadow of a person crawling near the vegetarian section. Curious, she inches closer by sliding from table to table. Upon reaching the furthest table, she recognizes the figure. Long, curly blond hair. Looking at the vegetarian food.
Olivia.
“If you’re that hungry already, you might as well take one of the cheeseburgers.”
Olivia jumps and turns around, still sitting in the floor. “I don’t eat meat.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to, pretty soon. Obviously, those cheeseburgers are the only thing here right now. Besides cereal, anyway. That’s always there.”
Olivia looks curiously at the cereal across the room, but quickly turns back to Dani.
“You’re not getting that cereal.” Dani says this so arrogantly that Olivia cannot help feeling a little bit insulted. She is a lifeguard, after all. She’s not completely incapable of surviving out here. She may even be taller than Dani. She stands up and looks the little half-Asian in the eye.
“Try and stop me!” Olivia lunges past Dani, hops over a circular table and reaches for one of the cereal-filled tubes. Dani, however, is right on her heels. She runs over, wrenches a tube from the wall for herself, and begins to beat at poor Olivia as she struggles to remove another giant cylinder. Just as she is about to free it, Dani lunges on her and knocks her to the ground. Olivia screams.
“What would happen if you ate meat, anyway? What difference does it make? We’re out here to kill each other. You might be able to get away with not killing people for a little while, but you have no moral obligation to animals. This is survival of the fittest! And I’M the fittest! Because I eat meat!” With that, Dani drags the helpless girl by her arm back over to the kitchen. She grabs a cheeseburger from the grill, unwraps it, and sticks it in Olivia’s face. “Eat it! Take one bite, and I’ll let you go. I’ll even let you have the cheerios.”
Olivia shakes her head, unable to speak.
“EAT IT!” Dani raises the tube of Reese’s Puffs in her hand, threateningly. She lets out a hiss. Olivia, still shaking her head, opens her mouth a tiny fraction. Dani takes the bait and shoves the sandwich into the girl’s mouth. “Chew!” Olivia chews, slowly, painfully. Tears stream from her eyes. Once she is certain that Olivia has eaten a bite of the sandwich, Dani takes it away and stands up, freeing her victim. “There. See? Now you’re just as immoral as the rest of us.” Olivia does not answer. “Olivia?” Dani nudges her with her bare foot.
Seconds later, the cannon roars once again. A third tribute has fallen.
YOU ARE READING
The Kairos Games
FanfictionIn this thrilling spin-off of the Hunger Games, twenty-six lonely college freshmen face up against their worst nightmare: death, at the hands of each other and cafeteria food. Who will win the dreaded Kairos Games? Will it be Becca, with her yellow...
