Craig was happy that his experimental traps had been a success. There was quite a lot of fauna in this arena, or maybe there were a lot of animals around because they set up camp right next to a flowing stream. Over the passing hours of the first day, he caught two rabbits, which were now on a makeshift spit roast over their small campfire. While Evan and Jon were out, he had also taught Tyler how to catch fish out of the stream, so there was also two fish to share around.
The evening made the campfire the brightest object around the four tributes, illuminating their faces as they ate the prey Craig caught. As Craig was turning the skewered and skinned rabbit over the fire, he felt a strange sensation on his shoulder. He turned his head a bit and saw a mangled, clawed paw scraping along his jacket. Craig let out a shriek as his blood went cold and he curled into a ball. What WAS that on his shoulder?
Suddenly, Tyler on his other side started cackling with wicked laughter. Craig slowly eased his arms away from over his head and eyed his companion, why was he laughing? Tyler drew his arm back around from the other side of Craig and revealed the disembodied rabbit claw. He dangled it in front of Craig's face, laughing as the smaller man's face screwed up.
"Not scared of a rabbit's paw, are you Craig? You shrieked like a banshee!" Tyler got out before collapsing into another fit of laughter, this time Evan and Jon joined in. Craig shoved him, but ended up rocking himself more than his tormentor.
"You're such an asshole, you know that?" Craig mocked. He snatched the paw from Tyler's hand and threw it back to him so it smacked him in the face. Tyler picked it up to throw it back but a loud noise echoed out over the arena. A fanfare of horns and bright lights above drew the alliance's attention to the sky. That's what it was, Craig thought as a face flashed in the sky, it was the ceremony for the fallen tributes.
Craig recognised each name and face as they flashed in the sky:
"Steven Ze - District 2"
"Cody Racing - District 8"
"Max Gassy - District 8"
"Anthony Panda - District 9"
"Anthony Chilled - District 2"
"Mark Johnson - District 7"
"Jay Blue - District 11"
The districts were all out of order, so Craig figured that the game makers are showing tributes in the order they were killed.
"Hey, wasn't Steven the one that jumped off the podium early? Do you think it was intentional?" Evan asked.
"Yeah that was him, kind of a dumb move don't you think? I don't think it was intentional though. If anything, I thought Cody was going to be the one to step off early, especially after what he was saying during his interview," Jon replied. After finishing his sentence, Jon rested his head on Evan's shoulder. Craig watched Evan's face for signs of emotion, but Evan reacted as though Jonathan's movements were perfectly normal. Evan even leaned into Jon's contact, resting his head upon his district partners. Craig eyed Tyler, not only to gauge his reaction, but to wonder what it would be like if it were those two cuddling instead.
***
Marcel wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his right hand. The four of them in the alliance: Marcel, Scotty, Smitty, and Kryoz, the latter two quickly growing accustomed to their new nicknames, had finally finished their gruelling work setting up a temporary shelter. If there was anything Marcel knew, it was that besides water, shelter was the best thing to acquire to survive in the elements. The four boys slumped in their shelter made of fallen branches and leaves, exhausted from their work with no food or drink to replenish themselves.
"Smitty, are you sure we actually have no food? Did you check every inch and pocket of every bag we grabbed?" Scotty asked, eyeing the paler boy suspiciously. Smitty nodded in response.
"I'm dead sure, Scot, the only thing we had was a single flask of water and we already used that. We'll need to a fresh water source quickly or we won't stand a chance," Smitty explained, head sinking with the grim connotations. Marcel's stomach flipped with the nerves that shot up his spine. Only one of them here could potentially survive.
"I'm going to recheck all the bags myself this time, we need to come up with a plan to get basic fucking necessities," Scotty frowned. He lunged forward to the two backpacks Marcel grabbed earlier that day. The weapons and medicine Scotty had were laying to the side. As Scotty rifled through the bags he pulled the contents out, creating a pile of seemingly random junk to Marcel.
"Wires? Gunpowder? There's nothing we can do with this junk-" Marcel started.
"Hold on." Kryoz surged forward to grab the miscellaneous items. Marcel could practically hear the cogs turning in his head as he tried to fit the bits of junk together. "I think I have a plan."
There was silence after Kryoz said this, minus the clanging of the metal together.
"Well don't just leave us hanging, what do you have in mind?" Scotty pestered, eyeing the skittish man. Kryoz looked up with a strange level of confidence Marcel had never seen in his eyes before.
"Those boys are surrounding the cornucopia, are they not? I didn't see them making any attempt to leave the place. They're also stockpiling heaps of food that they could never finish in a week," Kryoz started, looking around the circle and meeting each of the boys' awestruck gazes, "it just so happens that we have all the materials to build a decent sized bomb."
Marcel gasped before clearing his throat to cover the noise of surprise. Smitty did the same, and Scotty nodded in approval.
"And how do you know this will work?" Scotty asked. Kryoz let out a bark of laughter at his friend's skepticism.
"Please, Scotty, I'm from District 5. I think I know what I'm doing, I've worked with electricity my entire life. Just let me prove it to you all tomorrow when we have three dead tributes due to my bomb." Kryoz grinned at his alliance, and Marcel felt a chill up his spine at the foreboding words.
***
Brock watched down at Brian with glee as the man struggled to scale the tree. Brock suggested the pair slept up a tree and tied themselves to the branches to protect themselves from ground-dwelling predators. Brian initially agreed, but instantly regretted his decision when he discovered he could barely get a metre from the ground. Brock found it way too amusing watching his boyfriend sliding down the trunk, failing to catch any friction on the tree.
"Brock, stop laughing at me and help, you bastard!" Brian shouted up at him. This only made Brock laugh harder. He only stopped when he realised that his loud laughter could alert surrounding tributes of the duo's presence and location. Brock quickly whipped his head up from the beautiful man metres below him and scouted the surrounding area to see if there was anyone lurking nearby. It seemed like no one was in the vicinity.
"Brock I'm doing it! Grab my hand so I don't fall back down!" Brian shouted, regaining Brock's attention. Brock bit back a mocking comment that could make Brian lose his focus and fall back down the tree, losing their current progress, and he instead reached out a hand while using the other one to keep his balance on the branch. After many grunts of effort from Brian, he hoisted himself up onto an adjacent branch, the same height from the ground as Brock's.
Once Brian was firmly straddling the branch, he rested his forehead against the trunk and bear hugged the tree, fearing he'd just fall back down again.
"Love, you don't need to hug the tree so viciously. I'll tie you in, you're safe when I'm here," Brock soothed his lover. He leaned over and began tying rope around the branch and Brian's legs, tight enough to keep him in place but loose enough to keep his blood circulating in his legs. Brian took in a ragged breath, Brock could sense his fear.
"You won't fall, I'll make sure of it."
"No, Brock it's not that," Brian stopped to take another shaky breath, "do you remember, it was years ago, when that one couple fell in love in the arena and they both survived together? We both weren't born to witness it, and I don't know if it's just a legend or actual fact, but my parents used to tell me about them all the time." Brock froze, taking in Brian's message.
He remembered that tale, he really thought it was just a myth, but he was brainwashed to think that by the peacekeepers in his district. The elders in his district treated the story as gospel, and swore they witnessed that particular year, and the hope they all felt when two people became victors. Brock also remembered the part of the story where the Capitol was briefly overruled and there were no games for a while, until all of the traitors where executed and the games continued.
"Yeah I do know that story, would be pretty amazing if it was true. Why did you bring it up?" Brock questioned. Brian met his eyes, and Brock could feel himself slowly drowning in their icy colour.
"Do you think we could do that?" Brain asked, hope gleaming in his eyes, but also masking something darker, like doubt.
"We'll just have to wait and see Brian, I hope so because I know I could never live without you."