The 23 Cannons Trilogy

The Spider and the Flies

The moon was now high in the sky, shining down on the arena, casting a silvery glow on everything as the tributes all slowly fell into a comfortable slumber. However, not all tributes were fast asleep on the second night in the arena: those with larger alliances erred on the side of caution, and kept one member on watch.

For the Careers, this tribute was Dixie. She was leaning against the mouth of the Cornucopia, holding her spear and whip in each hand. It was fairly mild out, so Dixie didn't have to worry about the cold: the only thing that was bothering her was both tiredness and boredom.

She sighed: today had been a slow day, with nothing happening at all. But this was to be expected in the arena; in no way was everything going to be action-packed all the time. Still, why was Dixie the one on guard? If something were to happen, surely it would be better if she was also rested. Although, she couldn't really complain: Dixie was just an outlier at the end of the day, and wasn't seen in the same light as the other Careers, especially by Dylan. But she was fine with it; she was with the Careers for survival, not friendship.

Dixie glanced back behind her. There were seven tents laid out in a row, all but one of them containing a sleeping tribute. There were no signs of torchlight, meaning that the Careers were most likely asleep. And then Dixie realised just how vulnerable they all were: despite the image they gave off, at the end of the day, the Careers were still just human beings, and could be just as easily killed as any other sleeping tribute. Suddenly Dixie's role seemed infinitely more important: it was up to her to ensure that no Careers died tonight, and if anyone was going to attempt to kill her allies, it would be over her dead body.

Dixie yawned, and leaned back against the Cornucopia. It was getting late; it had been around four hours since the anthem played, showing zero deaths had occurred since yesterday. Twenty eight hours since the first blood was spilled. The Games were progressing, but so were the tributes. And Dixie feared that pretty soon the Gamemakers would make things a lot harder for them if somebody didn't die soon. The Careers would probably get somebody tomorrow though; Dylan was raring to go, despite Osiris' attempts at pacifying him. District 2 males seemed to be like that, though, Dixie noted: they were charismatic, but had incredibly short fuses. Which meant that if Dylan ever were to lose his cool, then he could potentially get out of control. And if that happened, something like last year would go down: the boy from 2 snapped, and if it weren't for the boy from 1, then he would have killed all the Careers. But Dixie was confident that she would be able to take on Dylan if he ever were to get that dangerous.

The other person Dixie was concerned about was also from District 2: Kylee. Something about that girl was off, but Dixie couldn't pin it down. Kylee was definitely playing games with the Careers, but the purpose was unknown. But Dixie had the feeling that Kylee was aiming to create tension among the Careers, causing the alliance to implode. And then Kylee would walk out of the carnage, completely innocent. This was already evident with Dylan and Osiris, but Topaz, Ren, and Annabell seemed to still be getting along with the others. But only Topaz really counted: Ren and Annabell were like the backup members of the team: they stayed behind when the Careers went out, and generally seemed to be close. It was probably because they were young, and lacking the skills that the older, more confident Careers had. Topaz, however, was in this category, yet still got along with Kylee. Perhaps it was because Topaz was close to Ebony, the boy from 1 last year, who was involved with the Careers as they fell apart. Perhaps she was just trying to prevent the same mistakes, which was also what Dixie was aiming for. If the Careers managed to stay together harmoniously, then they'd stand a chance at victory. Of course, in the end, Dixie was only going to look out for herself, but for now, she was part of the team for sure.

Dixie froze suddenly, listening. A rustling sound had reached her ears, but she wasn't sure of the source. She searched the area around her, looking. The noise sounded out again. Dixie looked behind, and saw that it was just the flap of one of the tents scraping against the grass in the breeze. Nothing to be worried about in the slightest. Dixie sighed in relief, confident that the Careers were safe. And they still would be safe so long as she was guarding them.