Retrace // WW Day 4

No faces in the sky that night.

Probably the most unsettling thing to see.

Nothing.

When the Capitol wanted blood, nothing was terrible indeed. It meant forced situations herding tributes to their doom. Disturbed by the lack of death, Curtis had stood quietly for a moment before continuing onward on the path before him, weaving between the statues carefully, so as not to touch any of them for fear of seeing them move, concentrating only on the rhythmic pattern of his footsteps and that of the girl trailing behind him and the boy on his back. That is, until he realized it had grown even quieter in the area. Turning slightly, he asked a question hesitantly to the air."...Doll?" The only answer was silence. Total and final. He spun around in a cirlce, looking at the shadows and the statues as he searched for his district partner. "This isn't funny doll. Where are you?"If the statues had anything to say about Alaska's whereabouts, they didn't answer. The girl from seven had vanished; continuing the trend of girls that were either up to something diabolical, or uncomfortable around Curtis’s sardonic nature. Or perhaps they all merely thought that consorting with a paralyzed tribute was going to make for unwanted baggage; though he wasn't sure why they would think so. Its not like any of them had offered to help him carry the kid.


That was a burden he had willingly taken upon himself. Maybe his motives weren't the greatest, but at least he could say he wasn't trying to intentionally screw anyone over. Did he have a real stratagem? Not exactly. Not much more than keeping himself alive, and keeping Bran on his back. He felt cold that night, which was odd given the absence of wind where they were in the statue garden. But cold was the only thing that made sense. The world didn't not care for other people. Especially not when money or blood was involved. Curtis continued on mutely for sometime, trying to wrangle his head around everything that had happened so far; and trying to figure out where the deathly pungent smell that seemed to follow them was coming from. More landscape fell behind them as he eventually realized from whence the smell came. Reaching into the satchel he kept hanging from his right side, he pulled out the rotting hunk of flesh that used to be his right arm. It was strange that no flies had come to bother it, but then again, everything in the Arena was artificial.

Grumbling under his breath about the loss of his limb, he cast it away, hurling it as far as his arm would let him, letting it land with a squishy thump that made his stomach churn. The arena took what it wanted from him, and it had no sympathy. Nor did he have any say. After that, they journeyed until the statues were naught but blurry grey shapes in the distance."We should be safe enough here."Slinging Bran off of his back as carefully as he could, he threw himself to the ground and took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts and preparing to articulate.

Wrapping his arm around the smaller kid, he sighed deeply and stared up at the darkness before speaking his mind.”Forget her Bran. Women. Can't live with them, Can't live without them. You'll understand when you're my...Curtis cut off abruptly, not wanting to misspeak and make his little friend feel worse about the whole thing.Never mind that. I...I won’t leave you. Not like your sister, not like Legs, not like the doll. We just have to keep going ya know? We gotta keep going until we can’t walk anymore. Well. I mean I know you already can’t... But you know what you do when you can’t walk anymore? You crawl. And when you can’t do that... you find someone to carry you. That’s us buddy. Us against the world. Sleep tight. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover tomorrow.” With that thought in mind, Curtis drifted off into an restless sleep plagued with dreams of evil chickens and moving statues that wept tears of blood,soaking the ground and churning it into a mud streaked with red. And standing behind it all, there was a group of female tributes laughing and pointing at the two crippled tributes that had no one at all.

No one but each other.

***

When Curtis finally woke up, he groaned, before looking around blearily and getting startled by the other tributes. The stone ones. Maybe it was just what had happened the previous day, but he was half-sure that they had all moved closer while they slept. Fear crept into his psyche again, and not for the first time, hw wondered what the other living tributes were up to; as well as which one would try to screw him over next. Trust was something he wasn't sure if he could see as something real anymore. Not after the doll ditched them. It was a harsh reminder of the everyone fro themselves mentality. Which meant that someday soon, he'd have to... cut his losses. But that wasn't a bridge he was prepared to cross just yet. Hefting Bran onto his back without checking to see if he was awake or not, he shook his head quickly to clear it and starting loping along, the pain in his leg having subsided during the night. Whatever was in the vial had certainly done its job in flushing his system.

“Time to get away from the deadish people.”The walk was one that gave Curtis some time to think as the statues receded back into the distance. Eventually, the ground gave way to plants and more foliage, the colors of which were rather familiar.“Hmph. Must have gotten turned around at some point. This is the meadow from before isn't it? Wouldn't be surprised if those statues herded us toward it or something.”Taking a moment to catch his bearings, he sighed again, something he had found himself doing more and more often as the hours wore on. Wonder if those chickens are around. Hope not. Not in the mood to dispute my place in the food chain right now. Wanting to get his mind off of such things, he dug the plants he had picked two days ago out of his bag. They were starting to wilt, but they tasted good all the same. Though they did little to fill the yawning cavern in his stomach.“Funny how life works out ain’t it Bud? You with the legs, me with the arm and the ear... The roar of trio of canons startled him into silence, and he raised an eyebrow as he stared."Well. That didn't sound good. What'dya think?"



OOC:
Curtis Ate Edible Plants
Curtis Gave Bran Edible Plants