"Running Out of Time"
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Winter's fingers drummed against the desk before her as she sat, eyes watching as Coral's group searched for their next victim.
Two tributes had been killed while she was gone. Lamina from Seven and Tanner from Ten. She was glad she had missed it. She hadn't known Lamina, she had never spoken to her but she had seen how the girl had refused to partake in the fighting, had lost her District partner to Coral and her group and had freed Marcus from his suffering.
She didn't need to know her to see that Lamina was a good person. Someone who, in the end, had lost everything and remained true to herself.
Tanner was a different kettle of fish. He had been a part of Coral's group, he took part in tormenting the other tributes but he still didn't deserve to die. Winter knew that everything he had done in there was to keep himself alive, to secure his way back home to his family.
They were just children after all. Children being forced to pay the price for a rebellion that ended ten years ago. The District's had lost and yet the Capitol just couldn't let it go. They had to remind them of it yearly by brutally killing their most innocent.
Holding someone accountable for their actions in the arena was a stupid thing to do. Winter had no idea what it was like for them, she had no idea what she would do in that situation, and to judge would be to go against everything she stood against.
Like Lamina, Tanner didn't deserve to die. None of them did.
"Seven tributes remain," Lucky announced to the cameras with a smile. "Merciless Mizzen, Cunning Coral, Treacherous Treech, Dill, Reaper, of course, and the lone wolves, little Wovey and Lucy Gray."
The waiting made Winter more and more anxious by the second. She wondered what was going through Reaper's mind. She hoped he had an idea of what he was going to do. She had told him it had to be a dramatic scene, an act of defiance but she had no idea how he would even go about that.
It was a difficult task, she knew it was. She and Dolon had thrust a mountain of pressure onto him by telling him that he had to be the one to set it off. But she had faith in Reaper, she knew that he was capable of doing it. He was probably the only one who could.
It was an easy fee to pay. An act of defiance in exchange for his life being saved.
When the idea had been brought up to him he knew he'd be foolish to decline. He had come to the Capitol with the mentality of showing them that what they were doing was wrong and that he wouldn't be a part of their mess. Everything had changed when he met his mentor. Winter had given him the one thing he never expected to get when he had left his home.
She had given him hope.
She had offered a reward for something he was willing to do for free and he had accepted after little consideration. There were no strings attached, no hidden clauses in her words. She trusted him to stick to his word, to make the Capitol look foolish, to pull a stunt so earth-shattering that it would rip the city apart from the inside. He trusted her to keep him safe, to allow him to do whatever he needed to do and to be there to get him away from whatever repercussions came after.
The plan was going to work. It had to work.
The sound of coughing echoed through the arena and into the broadcast room as Dill slowly made her way out from behind a big pile of rubble, Winter leaned further over her table to watch.
"And who do we have here? Ah! It's ill Dill. Tuberculosis on legs." Winter shot the man a look of disgust after hearing his attempt at a joke before turning back to the screen.
Dill looked worse than she had before. She was paler and weaker, it was clear she had grown sicker.
The small girl stumbled her way into the center of the arena and straight over to a bottle of water that was sitting on the ground. With Felix still in hospital she hadn't been receiving any food or water. Winter hadn't sent any yet. It was only the second day, and she hadn't wanted to out of Reaper's hiding spot, to compromise him, to force him out and into battle.
Other than Dill the arena seemed to be clear now. It was the ideal moment for her. The girl on the screen dropped to her knees and uncapped the bottle as Winter loaded up some water to send.
"Miss Highbottom gearing up to send in a drone."
Before she could however her eyes caught the screen again. She watched as Dill placed the bottle she had just drank from back down, let out a cough and lay on the ground.
What was she doing? Winter's brow pulled into a deep frown. She looked as if she were resting, but surely she realized that the middle of the arena was the worst place for her to be doing that.
"Get up." She muttered under her breath softly to the girl. She knew she couldn't hear her, but there was a tiny part of her that hoped she could.
"Dill?" Winter felt her heart jump at the sound of the familiar voice. It was Reaper. The boy exited from the same spot his District partner had come from, a long knife in hand as his eyes scanned the arena before they quickly found her. "Dill, wake up!" He jogged over quickly, dropped his weapon and knelt by her side. "Dill, come on, it's too dangerous out here." He scooped a hand under the girl's shoulders and turned her onto her back with all intentions of carrying her back to their hiding spot but when he moved her hair from her face his body grew stiff.
Winter realized by the look on his face that Dill wasn't resting.
"Dill? Dill?" He settled the girl over his knees and took her face in his hands, giving her a soft shake, her pale face now in clear view of the cameras. Her eyes were closed, her chapped lips were parted, and there was a trail of blood leaking from her nose. "Dill, hey, wake up. Dill!" Winter leaned back in her chair, her hands instantly coming up to her head as she watched the screen through tear-filled eyes.
She was gone.
Dill was dead.
Winter was sure she was having a heart attack. Her chest was tight and ached like she had taken a blow to it, she felt hot and panicky and she couldn't stop her breathing from reaching a rapid point.
The agonizing cry that left Reaper's lips only made it worse and sent tears flooding down his mentor's face.
She had done this. She had failed him. She had broken her promise of getting Dill out.
If she had just told Dolon that she was sticking with her original plan if she had just got them out before the Games even began none of this would have been happening. Dill would have still been alive, Marcus too, probably, but she hadn't. She had listened to Dolon, she had let Reaper go into the arena and now the consequences of that had struck her like a fast-moving car.
Dill was dead. Marcus was dead. And it wasn't Sejanus or the Capitol's fault. It was hers.
She had killed them. Not directly but she might as well have. Their blood was on her hands and she knew no amount of scrubbing would rid it. It had tarnished her flesh, it would be a constant reminder of how foolish she had been and it made her want to peel the skin back to her bones. She knew it would be less painful than what she was experiencing now.
Winter had always thought she was nothing like the people here. It was the only thing about herself that she took pride in but now she wasn't so sure. If she was good then why had she allowed them to go in there in the first place? If she was truly good then why hadn't she stopped this sooner?
She couldn't stop the way her body reacted. The tears, the trembling lip, the shaking hands. She knew her face would be splashed all over the screens for the citizens of Panem to see. They'd either think of her as a stupid little girl. A crybaby. Or they would be moved by her genuine reaction to the girl's death.
Winter didn't care how they saw her. She didn't care about anything at that moment other than Reaper.
She was sure this how her mother felt before she died. The feelings she was overcome with must have been same ones that had killed her mother.
Was she living out the woman's last moments right now, sitting in a chair surrounded by her peers?
She was sure that they were. She hadn't been there, she hadn't seen her mother in her final moments but she knew that it couldn't have been too dissimilar to how she was feeling right now.
Like Gaia, Winter saw no way out, no way to scrub the pain, no end in sight to the guilt.
The Games had killed her mother. Winter was sure they were killing her, too.
Another cry left Reaper's lips, this one was louder, angrier than before as the buzzer sounded for the girl, his mentor's head dropping into her hands.
Coriolanus felt bad. He hadn't expected to when he had given Lucy Gray the rose compact filled with rat poison, but that's when he had thought it would be used to kill any of the other tributes. That had been its intent. She had dosed the water for Coral and her pack not for Dill.
Dill was not a threat to his tribute, she hadn't been the target and now the death of the innocent little girl would forever weigh heavy on Lucy Gray's heart. On his.
His eyes found themselves back on Winter once again, watching as she lifted her head, and thick, hot tears rolled down her cheeks. He couldn't stop the frown that pulled over his face.
Dill hadn't been her tribute. Why was she reacting this way?
Yes, it was sad. It's always sad when one of the younger tributes died but her reaction was dramatic. Over the top.
She's playing it up for the cameras, he realized as he watched one of them turn in her direction. She's doing this for attention, to gain sympathy, and to earn more sponsors for her tribute.
Reaper's wet face quickly turned into a look of anger as his eyes caught the camera before they flicked back down to the girl. Carefully, he scooped her up, one arm cradling her head, the other under her legs as he got to his feet.
"What is he doing?" Coriolanus muttered to Winter, she hadn't heard him, she couldn't take her eyes off the screen.
Reaper carried the girl's body over to the place where Lamina and Marcus lay, gently placing her down on the ground beside them as he dropped back to his knees. He took his cap from his head and held it against his chest as Winter sniffed. She had seen this before. At her mother's funeral, the men who had arrived in hats had taken them off as a sign of respect.
He then shuffled over slightly and carefully turned Lamina onto her back, moving her arms to rest over her chest, delicately closing her eyes with his fingers. He did the same for Marcus, moving the boy's body until it mirrored the girls before he pushed himself to his feet and headed over for Tanner.
He scooped the boy up with ease, his face filled with determination as he carried him over to lie with the rest. He took the weapon from Bobbin's hand and hauled the body of every dead tribute over to where he had placed the others, repeating the process of carefully laying them down, placing their arms on their chest until they all lay in a collective huddle.
He got to his feet, used his sleeve to dry his running nose and hung his head in a show of respect before he took off again.
Winter's breath jammed in her throat as she realized what she was looking at.
A graveyard.
Their bodies had been scattered and discarded around the arena and had been left in the place where they had been killed. Reaper had scooped them up, had taken the weapons from their hands and closed their eyes. He made sure that they finally had the chance to rest.
Loud cries of outrage filled the hall as the students of the Academy jumped to their feet, watching as Reaper's hands found the ends of a banner flag that had been displayed on a wall and gave it a hard yank, letting it tumble to the ground.
That had been the thing that had outraged them. Not the fact that were watching children fight to the death.
Winter found her feet too as she watched him adjust his grip on the ends of the flag before setting off again.
This was it. This was their sign. An act of defiance.
Her glassy eyes instantly found Dolon in the madness. He was already looking at her. His face was stoic, gave no inclination of how he was feeling, the complete opposite of her and he nodded softly. It was meant to reassure her, to tell her that yes, this was their shot, but it only made her worry more.
The young man took the moment of distraction as his shot. He quickly turned on his heels, scooped up the black duffel bag that he had stored off to the side of the room and left undetected.
The countdown had begun. They had half an hour at most to get this whole thing going. To get out, get to the arena and flee. They were working against the clock. Running out of time with each passing second and yet, Winter found herself unable to move.
Her eyes were back on the screen in an instant, watching as Reaper dragged the long flag across the dirty ground, back over to where he had placed the bodies of the fallen children.
"He just tore down the flag..." Lucky muttered into his microphone, like every other person in the room his eyes were stuck to the screen.
Coriolanus' eyes only moved from the screen when he caught a glimpse of red pass by. When he located it he saw that Winter had moved out from behind her desk and was now standing directly in front of it, eyes rapidly moving over the large screen as she watched her tribute.
He frowned as he watched her. It was hard to gauge her full reaction when he could only see the side of her face but she didn't look shocked. She didn't look angry. In fact, he was sure he could see the faintest of smiles tugging on her pink lips. Surly she must have realized that her tribute was not only landing himself in hot water but her, too. She must have known that Gaul wouldn't have let this slide. Why did she look almost happy about it?
Winter sniffed and took a step closer to the large screen as her skin pricked with goosebumps. She watched Reaper pull the flag until it lay over the bodies of the tributes, arraigning the edges to ensure every part of them was covered. Protected from prying eyes.
This was more than just an act of defiance, she realized. Reaper had not only disrespected the flag of Panem, something the people of the Capitol were immensely proud of, by pulling it down and dragging it through the mud, but he had tarnished the honor behind it.
Covering the bodies of the tributes with the flag gave them the dignity that they deserved. It kept them safe. It would serve as a constant reminder to the people of the Capitol every time the camera panned over to what he had done that this had been because of them.
Reaper had done far more than Winter had ever expected him to do. He had just committed the ultimate crime against the Capitol.
Reaper Ash had taken the flag of Panem and had turned it into a symbol of rebellion.
He had made sure that the flag of Panem, something that flew so proudly in the Capitol, would now, and forever more, be associated with the innocent lives it had taken.
The boy turned his body until his back was to the tributes, his eyes locking onto the camera showing his anger-filled, tear-stained face. His arms raised beside him as if to offer himself up to them.
"Are you going to punish me now?"
His voice was cold as he addressed the cameras. He had nothing left to lose. He knew that dealing a final blow would cement his point further. Would rattle them even more. Winter's sad expression had vanished too, instead, her face now mirrored his. Cold, angry, determined. She sucked in a deep breath, pride flooding through her veins at the sight of him, rebellion oozing from every word that left his mouth.
Winter would be there to get him out. Reaper knew that she would.
"ARE YOU GOING TO PUNISH ME NO-"
The sight of Dr Gaul's face splashing over every screen in sight jolted Winter back, a horrified gasp leaving her lips, breaking her out of her intense watch, forcing her to blink hard to make sure what she was seeing was real.
It was.
"Capitol citizens." The woman's face was hard, her eyes filled with a burning anger and it instantly set panic flooding through Winter.
No. No, no, no no!
This wasn't the plan. This wasn't supposed to happen.
"I'm afraid I must interrupt our Games to announce a tragic loss, one that affects us all-" Winter's wide eyes darted around the room to look for Dolon, not realizing he had already left. Her chest fell and rose rapidly, her panted breathing was easy to hear. "Felix Ravinstill, son of our beloved President...has, this morning, succumbed to his injuries sustained in the rebel bombing."
No one turned to Winter as she forced her feet to move. No one bar Coriolanus who tore his eyes from the screen and watched as she sprinted out of the broadcast room. It was clear she had been distressed, he had heard her heavy breathing as if it was directly in his ear. He knew that her reaction hadn't been for the death of Felix. She didn't even like him.
Something was going on with her. Something that had started the moment that Dill had died in that arena and he was desperate to know what it was.
Winter's legs didn't stop running despite how weak her knees felt. She was out of the building and down the massive flight of stone stairs as fast as she could go.
She had to get to Reaper now. She'd run all the way to the arena if she had to. However, as she reached the bottom of the stairs a black car pulled up before her, forcing her to stop.
Gaul knows. She's sent someone to take me.
Relief washed through her when the figure sitting in the back of the car tossed the door open, revealing themselves to be Dolon.
"Come on!" He ordered watching as the girl stood there. "Winter, move!" The girl quickly hurried down the last few steps and forced her way into the back of the car, tossing herself down into one of the fine leather seats. The door slammed closed and the driver instantly took off again.
"Gaul interrupted the broadcast." She breathed. "She's going to do something."
Dolon's eyes moved from the driver and over to Winter. He knew what Gaul had planned. He had known all about the snakes and had done for months. Telling Winter that right now was not a good idea. It would panic her more, so he kept it to himself.
"Everything's still going to go the way we planned." He assured her, his hand landing on her arms. "You need to calm yourself down. We're going to get him out."
Dolon had greatly misjudged Reaper. He had thought his death in the arena would have made Winter rebel more. He now saw it in a different light.
The act of defiance that Reaper had pulled had gone above and beyond anything Dolon could have ever imagined, and it made him realize that getting Reaper out alive would do more than make Winter happy.
Getting Reaper out of that arena and taking him to Twelve with them would spark more hope into the Districts than he or Winter ever could. And that's all he wanted... To inspire hope in them. To show them that anything was possible. To incite a second uprising... After what he had just witnessed, he knew that Reaper would make the perfect candidate to join their cause.
He could only hope that they got to him in time...
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
A/N:
you know i had to leave you on a cliffhanger...
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