HUMANITY'S FAULTS, f. odair

007. the sound of the cannon

( 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒔 ).
seven.『 the sound of the canon 』

𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐑. But sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, without her sister lying in the next room, knowing that the next day would be the start of the battle for her life, left her but and staring at the ceiling, eyes not closing once knowing that there would be people coming to get her, and she may meet her death the next day. She tossed and turned throughout the night, unable to find the will to let her eyes close and sleep take over. Despite her knowing she'd need it in the end. This might be the last chance she got for a good nights sleep, which she would crave in the games.

The little sleep she did get was disrupted by Stephanie coming in and shaking her awake, telling her that they needed to head to the hovercraft that would take her away to her fated doom. It was silent between the two as they ride the elevator down, and Indie could feel waves of emotion rolling off of Stephanie, but she couldn't tell if they were sad or worried or anything.

"Just don't run straight into the Cornucopia, if you can, grab something and get out of there. If you're lucky, you may run across a dead body with knives on it." Stephanie said as they reached the bottom, the doors opening.

"Yeah, lucky." Indie muttered giving Stephanie no time to talk as she walked out to the awaiting hovercraft, seeing a few people already on, and one walking towards it much like herself. She did her best to remain confident, and like last night just think of her sister and what her sister would do.

As soon as she entered the hovercraft, she was told where to sit and they poked a needle into her forearm, which caused her to bite back a noise of pain seeing the tributes from two watching everyone with great interest, each time they inserted the tracker. She winced slightly, but other than that, showed no pain, and the boy and girl's eyes passed over her, to whoever was next. She let out a sigh of pain, slightly, as she touched where the tracker had gone in.

Once everyone was on, and had their tracker embedded into their skin, the aircraft began to rise slowly. Indie glanced to the window in the front of the aircraft and made an important discovery. She did not like heights. Feeling sick she looked straight forward again, letting the aircraft move through the air without her wanting to puke.

Indie didnt know how long it took, but with each passing second she felt herself grow more and more nervous. Today could be the day she died. Or might she get one more day to live? Or would — with the slightest bit of luck — she got out, alive and well. Each thought scared her. If she were to die, there were obvious reasons for being scared, but she saw the youngest of the lot, a boy no more than twelve. If she ended up alive, she would remember who was dead. That little boy? The one who looked so scared. She looked around. If she didn't make it out, who would it be that killed her? The girl from one with her menacing glares she was sending everyone, or like the woman had said,would it be simply from exposure. Today was the beginning for her battle for life. And she wasn't too fond of the thought of either choice.

She wished she had a token with her, as she looked around and saw Mark playing with his own. She should've brought her necklace she wore to be each night, that was filled with sage that groaned behind the butcher's house that she had since she was a little girl, and told it would keep her safe from dream demons that would haunt her. It wasn't here now. And dream demons weren't the only thing she needed to fear, as she noticed the boys and girls sitting around the hanger, either in fear or in confidence. Half may not even survive the first day, she knew from watching the games in previous years.