there's a spider in my boot//[Vargas Gang vs Nesting Spider]

The blade etched a gaping wound in the spider's body, but it was still standing twitching its fangs at the boy. A shadow overtook them both and Erebus looked up to see Nocturne Vargas standing over them with a cooking pot. A cooking pot. Where the hell was his spear? Or any other item in this Arena that could be used as a weapon? It only took a swift blow to the head and the second spider crumpled to the ground as well.

Erebus jumped to his feet gripping his knife as if it was his last anchor to this universe. He wasn't going to let this mutt hit him or Nocturne again, this time he was prepared. After staring at the corpse for a few moments, Erebus answered Nocturne's previous question. "I don't even know."

Despite the stillness of the spider's body Erebus refused to turn his back on the enemy. The palm of his free hand was pressed against his stomach, covered in blood from the spider's attack. The boy knew his injury was nothing compared to all the damage Nocturne had taken so far but it was the most painful wound the Turner had ever had before in his life. He'd been bandaging paper cuts and nursing bruises his whole life, people don't get cut open all the time back home like they do here.

The body shuddered and yet another creature clawed its way out of the abdomen of its dead kin. It was much smaller but also faster, it managed to snip at Vargas once before Erebus brought his knife down.

[Attacks Nesting Spider]
pKM|1j1fknife
[Shallow Cut on Stomach -- 4.0 damage]

Eyes as wide as sauces were trained on the tiny corpse of the mutt. Not a single breath was taken or expelled, all was focused on the still shell of a mutant spider. Erebus stood in the hot sun for a long time before finally whispering "I think it's dead now."

Of course the boys were no dummies. The Turner boy kept an eye on all three bodies of the mutt and Nocturne had his own ways of dealing with the corpses. Cringing, Erebus ducked into the Saloon out of the dry heat and looked to the bar for something to drink. Left hand still pressed to his bleeding stomach, Erebus picks up various bottles on the counter only to discover that they're all empty. The Gamemakers went to the trouble to have all these dusty bottles made and set up in this building just to give a tribute false hope. Why can't things in this Arena just be what they look like? Why can't spiders die once and bottles have liquid in them! Frustrated and exhausted from three days in the heat and fighting mutts that refuse to let him have the last word, Erebus threw one of the glass bottles behind the bar sending it crashing into another display raining shards of glass all over the floor.

Lethe didn't have to put up with this. She fought a dog. A big one but it didn't have puppies climbing out of its corpse or anything like that. The Games had evolved but not for the better. Well, the better for the tribute the ratings must be through the roof.

Crunching glass beneath his boots, Erebus walked back outside, leaning against the Saloon's outer wall.

"Do they have stuff like that in District Nine?" he asked Nocturne, pointing at the spider's multiple dead bodies.

For the rest of the day Erebus mainly tried to stay alive. Pulling loose boards off the buildings and picking up ones that had fallen off before they arrived (or placed there by Capitol minions who knows). After the fire had some actual flames to it and not just embers, Erebus filled Nocturne's cooking pot (getting the thing away from him was a different matter) with their water from the day before until it was boiled. Hot water after a hot three days isn't exactly the tastiest thing in the world but it tasted better than dying of dehydration.

While waiting for the stuff to actually boil, Erebus took a look at himself. He was a mess to say the least, his shirt had a huge ripe in it from the spider's attack and the gash on his stomach wasn't too pretty. The bleeding had stopped but the skin around the wound looked almost green. The boy hadn't been feeling too well since the fight but he figured it was from the heat or exhaustion. This was something else, something beyond his knowledge on how to fix. The skin around the wound had been stinging from impact but it should have stopped by now. It wasn't until the boy started walking around and inspecting the other buildings did he noticed his fingers and toes going numb.

That thing, it was probably venomous he thought, glancing at the still dead bodies of the mutt. Am I going to die from a scratch from a mutt? The idea of such a dull ending did not sit right with Erebus. Sure he wasn't what one might call a daring person but if he was going to die in the Hunger Games he wanted to go out with some flair. Maybe he had been listening to Vargas for too long but he wanted his death to be something other than this. Preferably, the boy wanted it to be quick. Just enough time to realize it was happening, say goodbye to a cruel world and then float into death.

He had been listening to Nocturne too much.

A silver parachute landed right in front of the boy just before is thoughts got too dark. Opening the package he found a syringe that he just had to hope held the cure for whatever was growing in his veins. After sticking himself with the needle, the boy slipped the parachute and all in his satchel before Nocturne noticed anything. He had no reason to worry the other boy, besides mentioning that the spider that birthed other spiders after death was also poisonous wasn't the best medicine for a paranoid mind.

[Erebus Flees Mutt fight]


[gathers wood, boils two jugs of water, drinks water, performs first aid on self, receives antivenom via sponsorship and uses it on self, packs extra bundles of wood]