Wesley Carter's P.O.V. (D12)
"Alright," Sabrina says, sweeping up her sword, "I think we've done enough waiting around for people to come to us. It's time for us to come to them."
"Oh, come on, Sab," Emma complains, "Some tributes stumbled across us yesterday, so it could just as easily happen again today."
"Yeah, but we aren't prepared for it. Remember how all of the tributes from yesterday got away?" Sab points out, "Only Wesley was able to land a shot on one of them with his bow, and it wasn't even fatal!"
"Hey!" I say in a half disappointed and half offended tone, "At least I actually got him."
"But we can do better if we weren't sitting around here all day."
"She's right," Dylan says in agreement, and Emma nods reluctantly, "We aren't running into half as many tributes as one would expect, and eventually, the spectators are going to get bored."
"It's only day four, what can they do?" I ask.
Dylan gestures to the jungle around us, "Clearly, the Gamemakers didn't mind making some changes earlier in the Games, why not now?"
"Because they don't want the Games to be over in just a few days. It's got to be longer, have more action, survival, you know? Whatever makes it more interesting," I explain, but judging by their faces, they don't care.
"Then let's make it more interesting, shall we?" Sab says as she tosses my bow to me.
Ace Dawford's P.O.V. (D2)
I wake up to the sound of laughter. It sounded joyful at first, but then it changes into more of the laughter you would hear coming from a maniac. I sit up and immediately find the source of the laughter-Elsa and Kara?
What confuses me the most is that they are both doing it together. I can see Kara laughing like a maniac, but Elsa too? Something is up. Even Fynn and Scarlett are giving them weird looks.
"Um...you guys okay?" I ask, but they just keep laughing and walking around the inside of the cornucopia. It's like they didn't even acknowledge me.
I stand up and march over to them, "Hello? What's so funny?"
Elsa suddenly stops laughing, her joy-filled expression transforming into a serious, fixed glare on me. Something is very wrong. Even Kara stops laughing now, and I notice her choose a knife from a rack of weapons. I take a step forward, and Elsa reacts by finding a curved sword and pointing it at me.
"Stay back! Or I swear, I'll run this right through you!" she threatens, giving me the coldest glare I've ever been encountered with. It's like she's trying to burn a hole through me with it.
I glance at Kara, then back at Elsa. They are both pointing their weapons at me. They're working together?
"I can't believe this!" I say, mostly to myself, "Of all people to team up with, Elsa, you choose Kara?! I thought I knew you better than that. We were friends once, you know."
She suddenly throws herself at me, swinging her menacing, curved blade through the air. I sidestep and hear the clang of her sword meeting the hard ground of the cornucopia. I consider selecting a shuriken from my belt to use against her, but decide against it when something inside me tells me not to. I can't kill Elsa. I would never. We've been friends too long for that.
She looks at me with a tinge of craziness in her eyes as she prepares to strike again. I think Kara has given up on fighting. She's currently banging her head against the wall. They've gone mad!
"Elsa, stop, you don't know what you're doing!" I say, raising my hands in defense.
"What are you talking about? You're the crazy one!" she shoots back and slashes her sword at me again, rather sloppily though. It kinda feels like I'm fighting a zombie. Her attacks are extremely weak and inaccurate, and her arms are flopping around at her sides.
"A little help, Seven?!" I call to the siblings, who are just standing on the sidelines watching.
Fynn dashes over at my command and gets a hold of Elsa, easily knocking the sword out of her grip. Then Scarlett gets Kara, holding her hands tightly behind her back, but it's not like Kara's fighting back, which is strange for her. Elsa, on the other hand, is squirming and struggling, trying to break free from Fynn's hold. I know that won't be an easy thing to accomplish for her, judging by Fynn's build.
"What should we do with them?" Scarlett asks.
I start dumping bins and crates, searching for a syringe or something that can knock them out for awhile. Finally, I find several capsules of sleep syrup. I take the lid off one of them and force every drop down Kara's throat, which also isn't that difficult. Then I get another one and bring it to Elsa.
Once she sees what it is, she starts kicking and screaming, trying to get away, but it's useless. I get her to drink it in no time.
Seconds later, she relaxes in Fynn's arms and slowly slumps to the ground, unconscious. Kara is laying beside her.
"Now what?" Fynn asks.
I scratch my head, "Not sure. I suppose we wait for the syrup to wear off, which will be in at least several hours. Maybe they'll be out of their funk by then."
"Yeah, maybe," Scarlett agrees.
"Attention tributes!" a Gamemaker's voice booms through the arena, making all three of us nearly jump out of our skin, "As many of you have already learned, some of you appear to have lost your minds. This is because of a disease that has infected those tributes. If any of you have come into contact with the water in the last twenty-four hours, you have been infected with this disease. I assure you, the water is perfectly safe to swim in now, but if you are experiencing fluctuations in your emotions, feeling impulses to defend yourself, and have enhanced senses, you have indeed been infected. The next thing that will happen to those infected, is that they should get an excruciating headache, followed by coughing up blood and fevers, which might or might not lead to their eventual death. Honestly, you would probably prefer the former. Is there a cure? Yes, and it will be presented this afternoon. The only downside to it, is that there is only two vials of it that has been produced. Bugger for you, since there are at least four infected tributes. The cure will be presented on a new island that will appear at a random spot in the arena. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!"
We listen with extreme attention until the broadcast has ended. There is a long moment of silence as the three of us try to comprehend what was just said.
"You guys didn't go swimming yesterday, did you?" I ask the siblings, and they promptly shake their heads 'no'.
"Good, cause I'm going to need your help for this."
Just then, I hear a steady beeping sound coming from the sky, slowly becoming louder.
A parachute.
Maybe a sponsor just went ahead and bought us one of the vials. That would save us a lot of trouble, but I know that it's probably impossible.
The parachute lands on the ground outside the horn an Fynn picks it up, opening the metal pouch attached to it. He frowns as he peers inside, then hands the container to me.
"I believe those are for you."
A little surprised and curious, I accept the container and take a look inside. I can't help but smile when I see what's inside, "Finally, something I can really do something with."
I reach in and pull out an elaborately decorated box made of a thin metal. I open it up and pull out a full deck of cards. Metal ones. I spread all of the cards over the lid of a crate, examining them one by one. Each card is different from the others. Well, that's how it is in an ordinary deck of cards too I guess, but this is different. First of all, each one is made of metal, but then they are characterized by serrated or razor edges. What I like the most about them is that you could still play card-games with them. It would just be difficult to shuffle them without cutting your fingers open.
Fynn let's out a low whistle, "Wonder how much someone paid for you to get those. They probably had them specially made and everything."
"Looks like someone wants to see more action from me," I say as I slide all of the cards into their case, "I'm sure they'll be happy to know that they're gonna get it."
Geofrey Santer's P.O.V. (D5)
The announcement shuts off and Jada and I immediately turn to look at Clark. His eyes are wide in shock as he looks at us. We are all thinking the same thing.
Early this morning, before Jada and myself woke up, Clark went out into the water to go fishing. That was within the past twenty-four hours. That means...he must be infected...
"Clark...how long were you in the water? Maybe it didn't effect you because you weren't in too long," Jada suggests.
Clark shakes his head, and with a grim expression says, "I'm sure it was long enough...I know I was in there for at least half an hour."
I mumble a curse and Jada puts a hand on his shoulder, "Well then we'll have to get one of those vials for you. Maybe you can even come if the virus doesn't take effect by this afternoon."
"Wow, way to think on the bright side with that one," I say.
"What was that, Geo?" Jada whips around to face me.
"Nothing..." I mutter, then turn away to retrieve our weapons, "They said the cure would come on an island that will appear at a random spot. Obviously, that random spot will be in the ocean, so maybe we should get a head start. I'm willing to bet the island will appear somewhere between this island and the cornucopia island, that way the Careers would be able to see where it is."
"Good thinking," Clark says, but I can hear the slight shakiness in his voice.
We have to get one of those vials. It'll be a challenge, I'm sure, since the announcer said there are about three other tributes who are infected, but I have a good feeling about it.
Maybe we'll get lucky, and turn out with one of the vials. Hopefully, we can just get to the island once it appears and be the first to arrive. Then we can just snag the cure and get out of there before anyone else arrives.
No problem.
~~~~~
My apologies for yet another unedited chapter. Maybe one day I'll get around to fixing up these chapters, but don't feel shy to make corrections right now.
Expect lots of chapters to be sailing your way for the next few days. I get to have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas off school. (I'm homeschooled, so I don't get as much of a break as a lot of people unfortunately) I could be wrong though. Maybe some of you do actually do school on those days too. If you do, you have my sincerest condolences.
:)
~MK