The Fiction Games

Chapter Eighteen - The Wardrobe

"When lightning struck the tree, Katniss wound the wire around her arrow and let it loose," Peeta said. "It struck the force field, and the whole thing exploded. Bits of the dome came down in fireballs. Katniss made it out safe, but for me, I was taken to the Capitol where they tortured me, made me convinced she was the enemy. Nearly took her life."

Wiping fresh tears, Peeta said no more. The others, circling around Peeta in a frozen patch of grass,  stared at him, astonished. Katniss was lifted out of the arena hours ago, leaving the arena on a hovercraft.

"This man," Harry Potter asked. "President Snow. He controlled the country you lived in, correct?"

Rick Grimes consoled Peeta, "You don't have to answer if it hurts. We don't want to push you unless you're comfortable with it."

Peeta nodded, saying, "Yes, he was supposed to be dead, too. Now he seems to be running this place."

"What you're saying is we can escape my destroying the force field with an arrow and a lightning bolt? Then we all go home and forget about this god forsaken place," Jack Sparrow said.

Shaking his head, Peeta said, "Snow wouldn't make the same mistake again. The force field must be at least ten times stronger."

"We need something more impressive, then," posed Hermione, lighting up like a bulb. "I'm sure there's a spell to do it! The Dark Lord destroyed Hogwarts' defenses with a single curse, although he had the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand on earth."

"You tend to ramble on nonsense, don't you?" Percy asked. "We do have a gigantic green monster loose in the arena."

"Unless he's dead," Michonne mumbled.

Blood dribbled from Bruce Wayne's lips. Once he coughed, red vomit corrupted the white snow. Katara promptly came to his aid, but he pushed her hands aside. He mouthed something to Peeta before spewing a few drops of blood on his chest. Michonne whispered to Rick, "He's suffering."

"There..." started Bruce, wiping his mouth. "There...there...is a machine."

"What machine?" several people asked at once.

"It could..." taking a breath, he continued, "It could deteriorate...the force field."

"Where would it be?" 

It took a second for Bruce to respond. "The cornucopia."

Rick Grimes collected Bruce and dashed through the frozen wood. Jack handed him the compass, which he helped Bruce hold. "Think hard on what where it is," Rick said. "It will point us in the right direction." As soon as he said those words, the compass spun a sharp left, making Rick switch paths. Although the fluffy snow swallowed his feet, Rick persisted towards the cornucopia. Michonne, hacking off walkers that dared to cross their path, shouted, "I think I see it!" Dodging a few walkers and trees, the forest thinned, and a golden horn protruded from a white pasture. 

The rest caught up in a few seconds. Hermione searched for another wand inside the horn and began making invisible enchantments around the perimeter. Inspecting every inch of the cornucopia, Katara said to Hermione, "He was turned to stone over there, and his name was missing in the sky!" 

"He wasn't petrified, was he?" Hermione asked, looking over at a patch of weeds sprouting from a patch of snow.

Katara shook her head, "No, his whole body was covered in stone, solid as a statue!"

"Excuse me!" Hermione pounced over to the leaves covered in icicles.

"Where is the machine, Bruce?" Rick asked.