NOBODY COULD TELL WHAT TIME it was, or how long they'd been sitting, waiting in the sweltering freezer for a single sign that the coast was all-clear. It felt like an eternity that they'd been holed up in here. After she'd guzzled down an entire water bottle and shakily ate her rations to replenish a fraction of her strength, Iko shut her eyes and went so still to conserve whatever energy she had left in the bank that Alex had to nudge her uninjured side to make sure she wasn't actually dead. Elias hadn't tried to radio them to ask their whereabouts, or why they were stuck out there for so long, so they presumed he was fine. Iko's shoulder screamed with a livid pain that pulsed in seismic waves in tandem with her heartbeat.
As much as she tried to tell herself that it wasn't fear that grounded them in this darkness, pressed them into the shelves like children hiding in the closet from a heavy-handed mother, each time the mutts let out bellowing cries, growing only more and more furious with each thud of their massive bodies against the barricaded door, Iko found herself squeezing Alex's hand like she used to when they were kids, and she had been too reluctant to go home out of fear of her mother's bitter tirades about her performance in the Academy. He squeezed back, and Iko couldn't tell if it was because he was afraid or if he was trying to reassure her.
It was dark, so the cameras wouldn't be able to see, so Iko allowed this small sliver of weakness to slither out of the floorboards of her perfectly walled-up fortress inside. Weakness that dredged up the embers of resentment at the base of her gut. Career tributes did not fear. Most of all, Iko had carved herself into the shape of the perfect monster. Years of hard work would not go to waste because she died in a freezer from a shoulder wound on the second day of the Games.
"Guys," Opal whispered, the deafening sound slicing through the silence. "Listen."
But there was nothing to listen to. Silence pounded against the walls of the room like a pulse.
"I don't hear anything," Titus murmured.
"Exactly!" Opal said, and then there was the sound of a hand hitting flesh, and Titus yelping in surprise. "I think the mutts left."
"Or they're waiting for us," Sage muttered. "The moment we're out in the open, they'll get us. They're just biding their time. What if they've figured us out?"
"I doubt they're that smart," Titus said, and if it weren't for the feverish layer of pain eating at her shoulder like a forest fire, Iko would've laughed.
"We need to get back to camp," Alex said, already standing to peek out of the shattered glass window in the door. "They aren't in the kitchen. I doubt they got through the barricade. We'll just have to find another exit. Maybe through the vents, if we can fit."
They scrambled to their feet as Alex unlocked the door and heaved it open, at first, just a crack, and after a beat passed with no sign of imminent danger, pushed it open enough to let the others out. True enough, the mutts were gone. The barricade still stood. They found an emergency exit that spat them back onto a dirt path on the other side of the building. The last dregs of daylight fell upon them, golden rays gilding the ferns.
Tension gripped Iko's muscles as she let Alex carry her rifle, since her shoulder was still ravaged in a searing agony. Her knives were still dangling from her belt, sheathed and at her disposal. Two of the slots were empty; one of them with Alex, and the other lost to the aviary, which Iko wasn't too certain about returning to just yet. At least, not until her shoulder was less of an inconvenience. Back in training, Enobaria had told her to stay a left-handed thrower until the time was right. But now that she couldn't lift her arm higher than a centimetre without sending bolts of painstaking through her shoulder wounds, Iko realised she was in trouble. It seemed Opal was aware of this, too.
"At least you can shoot right-handed, right?" Opal said in an attempt to be reassuring, while they trudged down the dirt path. Even though she was hiding her limp well, Iko could tell by the tension in her face and the slight falter in her breathing that her sprained ankle was a serious problem. Good. If Opal wasn't at her peak performance, then killing her when the time came wouldn't be a problem. (Though Iko knew the others thought the same about her and her mauled shoulder, too. But Iko trusted her mentors to draw in sponsors for her—she had to. At least someone in the Capitol had to like her, right?)
"Probably," Iko lied, the pain in her shoulder wavering her tone. Flicking a cautious glance at the sky, Iko raised her walkie-talkie and clicked the button on the side. A crackle of static burst through the whine of the bugs in the underbrush. "Ten, come in."
"I'm here," came the crepitated response on the other end.
"Are the supplies still secure?"
"Yes. But I need to show you something when you all get back."
"Good—"
"Do we have any medical supplies in there?" Alex interjected. Iko cut him a cool look. She would've preferred not to let Elias know about any of their injuries until they were back at camp. Call it cynical, but if Elias got the slightest inkling that any of them were critically injured, he might try to double-cross them, knowing they were in no shape to hunt him down and make a show of it. In such a crucial time as this, Iko didn't need an inconvenience caused by a tribute from a weaker district. Especially if he was sitting on all of their supplies.
"Just a sewing kit and some bandages. What happened out there?"
Alex opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Iko released the button and the walkie-talkie fell silent. He slanted Iko a deadpan look as she pocketed the device, but Iko didn't bother explaining. Alex needed to trust her decisions. Evander had said so himself—the only team that should matter was both of them. Not the Career pack, but the two of them.
When they finally made it back to camp, Iko stopped dead in her tracks.
"Where are our supplies?" Iko gritted out, stabbing emphasis into each word, as she glimpsed the empty space on the bank where their supplies once stood. An acidic feeling crept through her veins. Titus cocked his head, arching a brow at Elias expectantly, raising his rifle as though Elias might give him an answer he didn't like. Sage had run past them and dunked her head into the river, sagging against the sandy bank. Only Alex held onto his composure. Iko didn't understand how he could be this calm.
"That's just it. Hear me out," Elias said, holding up his hands in mock surrender, his eyes furtively darting towards her knives, then to the blood seeping through the bandage on her left shoulder. "While you guys were gone, I found something." He beckoned them, turning to the waterfall.
"This better be good," Sage grunted, following after him, Titus and Opal in tow.
Iko and Alex exchanged a meaningful look before doing the same. Elias led them to the base of the waterfall, where the water was a thunderous white noise, and Iko found it difficult to hear anything Elias was telling them over the deafening roar. Large rocks stuck out like a mismatched set of teeth from the riverbed, and the mist that clouded the air stuck to her skin like a smothering membrane. Finally, Iko spotted it. Elias pointed out a small gap between the water and the rock face it was cascading down. He darted through it, and so did they.
One hand firmly planted on her good arm, Alex kept Iko steady as they bounded over the slippery moss-covered rocks and disappeared through the slip of an entrance, emerging into a dimly lit cave where Elias had propped a torch against the wall, aiming it at the ceiling, that was just an inch above Alex's head. Just big enough for the six of them. A perfect hiding spot, deep enough to stay dry despite the mist kicked up by the waterfall, cool enough to fend off the persistent humidity, but not chilly enough to freeze to death. In the back, Iko spotted all of the crates nestled against the wall. Her lips curled, chest deflating as the anger fled her veins. No excuse to kill anyone today, she supposed.
"It took me all day to move the supplies," Elias said, having to shout a little over the roar of the waterfall, "we can take shelter here from any threats. I heard something this afternoon—"
"Mutts," Alex said, already rifling through one of the crates to procure the sewing kit and extra bandages.
"If they find us here, they'll have us cornered," Opal pointed out.
"I doubt they'd get past the waterfall, right?" Titus said, clapping Elias' shoulder in approval, a grin slashed over his mouth like a threat. "Nice work, big guy."
"Thanks," Elias murmured, flinching away from Titus' touch.
"Yes. Nice work." A poisonous smirk glossed over Iko's lips. Alarm flickered over Elias' face as Iko brushed past him, dropping her voice low enough for only him to hear. "Just so you know, if they do come for us, and if they do find us cornered, you'll be their first meal."
Alex sent her a curious look as she came to sit by him. Opal hobbled over to Titus, who was seated at the mouth of the cave, his bare feet in the water and his boots discarded behind him, while Sage declared she was going to swim in the river for a little while to cool down. Alex had the medical supplies laid out on his sleeping bag. "What'd you say to him?" He asked, arching a brow as he picked up a needle, a length of thread already attached to it.
"Nothing," Iko said, and offered no more.
Despite the flat expression he pinned her with, Alex seemed to accept her non-answer.
"Take off your shirt and sit in front of me," Alex commanded, gesturing for Iko to get a move on. When her lips twitched into a devilish grin, Alex rolled his eyes and flicked her on the back of her head. "Don't pretend you care about modesty now. It's me, idiot. We used to jump into the lake in our underwear, anyway."
"Yeah, yeah," Iko grunted, shifting so she could sit between his knees with her back to him, and peeling off her shirt in jerky movements. She eyed the gleaming needle on the
Once it was off, Alex unwrapped the bandages plastered to her skin by the blood. As Alex tossed the soiled bandages in a heap at her feet, the smell hit her instantly. For a second, Iko worried that the heat had rotted her flesh to the point of deadly infection. When she steeled herself and craned her neck to get a good look at it, Iko glimpsed angry, pink skin that looked heat-swollen, as well as yellow pus oozing out from the wounds. They hadn't completely scabbed, but there was a thin film of dried blood clinging to the corners of the gashes. Back in the academy, she'd sustained her fair share of bad injuries, but none to this magnitude of severity. Iko didn't have to ask to know that it was definitely infected.
"Here, bite down on this," Alex said, cramming a wad of clean bandages into Iko's mouth. He poured a bottle of water over Iko's wound to wash it out. It stung more than it had the first time he tried to dress her wound, and Iko clamped her teeth down on the bandages. When he was satisfied, he set the empty bottle down, wiped away the excess fluids, and set the tip of the needle to her skin. "This is gonna hurt like a bitch, but we don't have anything to numb the pain—"
"Just do it," Iko grumbled around the wad of cloth between her teeth, tensing up, bracing herself for the pain. While Alex wasn't exactly a medical professional, he was her only viable option. Plus, she needed to staunch the bleeding before she lost too much blood.
Alex grimaced and began stitching the wound shut. Pain erupted in her shoulder, a blinding heat that shot through her nerves, sending bolts of lightning down her body. Iko shut her eyes and bit down so hard on the bandages she swore she could've bit clean through them. She didn't know how long he actually took, since it felt like an eternity trapped in agony. Thankfully, by the time he was tying off the last stitch on the third gash, Iko hadn't passed out. When she opened her eyes, the world pulsed in and out of darkness and the ground began to spin. She spat out the wad of bandages in her mouth as Alex began to bandage up her stitches. Her shoulder still hurt like it'd been submerged in fire, but at least she wasn't bleeding to death anymore.
"If you die from an infection," Alex growled, just low enough for her to hear. "I will kill you."
"How can you kill me if i'm already dead?" Iko gritted out, mustering enough strength to smirk.
Alex tugged on one end of the bandage, tightening it a little too much, sending a jolt of pain down her arm. Iko hissed, and whacked him in the leg.
He laughed.
Just then, Sage re-entered the cave, red hair dripping wet, clothes plastered to her body. Iko had almost forgotten that she'd gone to swim in the river for a little while. In the dim light, Iko caught sight of a silver pendant—an anchor, Iko realised, upon closer inspection—poking out over the collar of her olive green shirt, attached to a grey cord of string around her neck. It was the first time Iko had seen Sage's tribute token.
"Guess what?" Sage mused, holding up two parachutes attached to two silver containers in her hands. They must've missed the beeping sounds of the parachutes landing, since they couldn't hear much over the waterfall. "Looks like you sons of bitches are in luck today."
She passed one to Opal, and the other, she handed to Alex, who immediately opened the container. Iko wondered how Sage made the distinction, until she saw her district number printed below the Capitol seal on the side of the container.
"It's yours," Alex said, eyes lit with relief. He lifted up a silver pot and tilted it so she could see its contents. It was some greyish substance that looked like translucent clay. Medicine. Their sponsors had come through. Someone in the Capitol did like Iko after all.
Opal opened her container, and gasped. She drew out what looked like a slim ankle brace. When she tried it on, it fit perfectly. They watched as she slipped her combat boot over the brace and made a few rounds around the cave, testing her weight. Relief broke over her features, and Titus bumped his fist against hers.
"Your turn," Alex said, and unwound the bandages around Iko's shoulder. He kept the stitches on. Those could be removed once the gashes had knit themselves back together. He slathered a generous amount of the medicine over the stitches. They stung immediately upon application, but the pain was bearable, and eventually, it dulled into a cool, prickling sensation. Iko let out a relieved sigh. A memory flashed across the forefront of her mind—the last day of training, when Alex had snuck into the girls' locker room to hold the ice to her bruises and apply some salve onto her cuts. That was the day she'd wondered, this morbid thought slithering to her head: what would it look like to have the light fade from his eyes?
"That might bring down the inflammation," Alex said, gently rebinding her shoulder. "How does that feel?"
"Great," Iko said, watching Sage dig through a crate and emerge with a bunch of ropes nearly spilling out of her arms. Iko stood and put her shirt back on. Mobility was still limited, and lifting her arm up to a certain degree sent an ache down the muscles of her shoulders, but it didn't hurt as much anymore. The medicine must have cooled her skin down to ease the pain. Still, until her shoulder was completely healed, she couldn't use her left hand for knife-throwing, and since Enobaria told her to keep some of her tricks—like her ambidextrousness—hidden up her sleeve until the moment she needed it most, she couldn't throw at all.
Sage cast Iko a glance and a hopeful look. "Wanna help me?"
"What're you doing?" Iko asked.
Sage sat down in the centre of the cave and spread the ropes out. "I was thinking we should set up some traps. It's a big arena, I know, but there are, like, five more tributes excluding us that need to be killed. Might as well lay some human snares around this area to ease the process."
Iko liked the sound of that. It was better than doing nothing. She was in no condition to hunt, and neither was Opal. Setting traps was their next best option. So she settled opposite Sage, and tried to recall the last few days in the Capitol, when Alex had forced them to pick up some skills from the survival stations. To her satisfaction, some of it came back, and both girls began working on a simple net. Sage had explained the mechanics of her idea for a snare. Iko understood most of it, and did her best to keep her knots neat.
"You're good at this," Iko remarked, observing Sage's efficient hands, her deft fingers adeptly fashioning the more complex knots that Iko wasn't able to do.
"My sisters and I used to sit around the table and make all sorts of fish traps and giant trawling nets for our father," Sage said, eyes shining with the memory. "You got any siblings?"
Iko shook her head. She wasn't in the mood for sharing. Especially when all she had back home was a bitter mother and a house she never wanted to return to.
Sage hummed. "Lucky. Living with six girls in a small house is tough. We're always fighting over the bathroom. Always fighting for space."
"I can imagine," Alex mused, coming over to join them. "I have three sisters and one little brother back home."
"Yikes," Sage grimaced. When Alex picked up one end of the net, Sage showed him how to knot the ropes together properly. "Here, do it like this."
"Thanks. I mean, living with a big family isn't that bad," Alex said, shrugging. "They can be fun."
It's no secret that the Ivanovich's were a loving family. Even Alex, who was expected to be modelled after every other exemplary Career, was bafflingly open with expressing his unadulterated love for his equally adoring parents, unafraid to hang his emotions out for everyone to see. Discard the stone cold killer masquerade — he was never legitimately one in the first place — and fill it with someone who loved wholly, and with all his golden heart. At first, Iko had been skeptical of his flagrant, guileless optimism and love of people. She saw it as a vulnerability, but, over time, she was it for what it really was. That underneath the shiny, buoyant optimist who only picked on the good inside, there was a realist and someone who knew how to put puppet strings on crowds with a quick flash of pearly whites and a good-natured joke before delivering the death blow.
Sage grinned. "Yeah. You got a favourite sibling?"
Alex scoffed. "I can't say. The rest would get mad. Live broadcast, remember?"
Iko knew the answer. Alex didn't have a favourite. Even if you held him at gunpoint, he wouldn't be able to pick.
Sage stuck out her tongue. "Coward. I'll tell you my favourite. Pearl. She's the middle child. Little bit of a monster, but the funniest one out of the bunch."
A feeling of discomfort crept over Iko's skin. In truth, she didn't understand what the point of this conversation was. Talking about home was uncomfortable enough. Talking to someone she was supposed to kill in order to get home was even worse. But Sage seemed determined to get to know them beyond their abilities and their chances in the Games. Reminiscing about family—Iko didn't think it was appropriate to bring up in the midst of a death match. It made them look soft. It made them look human.
"Well, what are the odds? I have a sister called Pearl, too. Total diva," Titus mused, looming over them. Opal was by his side, watching them weave their net. "What are we doing?"
"We're making traps," Alex said. He turned to Elias, who was staring into space, turning a packet of nuts over in his hands. "Come help us."
Titus shrugged, and sat down beside Sage. Opal settled beside Iko. Hesitantly, Elias joined them.
Sage relayed her idea to them. A giant net laid out on the forest floor, triggered by a trip-wire of some sort. It'd be hidden by all the ferns. Only they would know the location of the traps. They could set markers.
"It'd be easier just to show you guys when we lay the traps," Sage said.
"That's fine," Opal said, "just show us how to make the net."
Sage gave a demonstration. Outside, the sky began to darken, and soon, they were working by light of the torches propped up against the wall, aimed at the ceiling. It was still dimmer than Iko would've preferred, but it was enough to work with. Titus kept fumbling the knots, so Sage had taken over and directed him to do something else that better suited him. Their conversation about home went on. Iko tried not to divulge too much, and when Titus asked if Iko had anyone special back home, Alex stiffened. That's when she told them that training had taken over most of her life, and she had no time for relationships, nor did she want one when she could focus on the Games. Disappointed in her lacklustre answer, Titus turned his efforts elsewhere and began hounding Alex.
"You told Caesar you might have a girl back home," Titus pointed out, wagging a finger in Alex's face. "That true?"
Alex shrugged. "I'm not saying anything."
"Is she pretty?" Sage asked, a smirk etched on her lips. "What does she look like?"
Iko snorted. There was no girl back home. Not to her knowledge, anyway, and Iko knew a lot about Alex. She probably knew him more than he knew himself. He could say the same about her, too.
Alex met Iko's knowing look across their little circle, a gleam in his amber eyes. "I think she's pretty. That's all I'm saying."
"No!" Opal gasped, feigning horror. "No, you have to tell us more. What's she like? Where did you meet?"
"Live broadcast, remember?" Alex drawled.
"No, tell us," Iko said, barely suppressing a smug smirk as she watched Alex squirm under their scrutiny. "Do I know her?"
"You might," Alex said, flatly, pinning her with a deadpan look that read, thanks a lot, traitor. "Seriously, does the word secret not mean anything to you people?"
Sage and Titus booed him loudly as Opal protested his tight-lipped response. Even Elias cracked a small smile in amusement. Iko shot Alex a triumphant look.
"Okay, Iko," Sage said, "you've known Alex a long time, right?"
"Since we were kids," Iko said, but divulged no more beyond that.
"You notice him get close to any girl in particular?"
Iko shrugged. "Can't say. A lot of girls back home liked him."
"Have you?" Titus asked, a cruel expression on his face.
Iko slanted him a cold look. "No, and we're not talking about me here."
"That is so hurtful," Alex said, affecting a pitiful expression. He put a hand over his heart to really sell the act.
"Well I'm not your girl from back home," Iko mused, turning back to her mess of a knot.
"Speaking of," Sage said, a wicked gleam in her face. "What about you guys? Anything interesting back home? Any girlfriends? Boyfriends? Secret lovers?"
Opal shook her head, raising her hands in mock surrender. "Sorry, my life isn't that interesting either. I just live with my grandmother."
"I'm not really a relationships kinda guy," Titus said, but something about the way his eyes wouldn't meet any of theirs' told Iko he wasn't telling the total truth. It didn't matter, though. Whoever he had back home wouldn't be able to see him once the Games were over. Maybe it was better they didn't know.
"What about you, big guy?" Sage flashed Elias a sharp grin, pinning him in place with a piercing look. "Any girl waiting for you back home?"
A blush dusted his ears. Elias shook his head. "I spend most of my time on the farm. I don't... I don't get to talk to many girls. Just my sister. She turns eight today."
Titus raised his canteen of water in a mocking toast, glancing around the cave for any cameras. If there were any, they'd broadcast this. "Happy Birthday, Elias' sister," he mused, a languid smile scrawled over his lips. He knew that none of them would let Elias live. He wasn't one of them. He was smart, but he had a problem with killing. Iko had a feeling that deep down, Elias knew that, too.
"Oh, that's sweet," Sage said, pouting, even though it really wasn't.
"What about you, Sage?" Titus asked, resting his chin on his palm. "Anyone special?"
Sage smirked. "I'll tell only if Alex tells us about his girl."
Alex rolled his eyes. "Fat chance."
Sage shrugged, already getting to work on the next net. "Guess that settles it, then."
Iko was glad that they dropped the topic of home quickly enough, moving onto tomorrow's plans. Despite the entertainment factor, it wasn't very becoming of a Career to lay their feelings on the table like that. People needed to know that they were capable of killing—which meant any signs of weakness had to be eradicated. It didn't matter how innocent the feelings were. Innocent meant stupid. Stupid meant dead.
That night, they poked their heads out of the cave and watched through the gap for the Capitol seal in the sky, and as the anthem played, they saw the face of the boy from 5 flash by in the sky—the only death of the day.
That night, they turned off the torches, plunging the cave in total darkness. Alex took first watch, settling beside Iko, fingers stroking her hair while she slept.
That night, she dreamt of monsters. Bird-creatures swooping down while she was chained to the side of a mountain, their sharp beaks pecking at her, tearing through her stomach, biting her shoulder, unstringing her intestines. And the others—Alex, Elias, Sage, Opal, and Titus—just standing there, watching as she screamed and roared for help. Watching as the bird-creatures pulled her apart, tore through her flesh and took out chunks from her weakening body. Watching as her skin stitched itself back together, the relief short-lived as the mutts wheeled in the sky and dove back down to the ground, only to rip her to pieces and eat her organs again while everyone stood there, unmoving, enjoying the show.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
kind of a wholesome chapter to ground yall in the fact that they're still teenagers with feelings 🥺 and a ridiculous craving for gossip lmao
Throne AU:
EMT!alex and cagefighter!iko