So we meet again? [C/P v E/K day 6]

ELLEXIAS
we live, we die
we steal, we kill, we lie
just like animals
but with far less grace

They reunited long before the sun sank below the horizon. An unexpected turn of fate led Katelyn back to them, unharmed and empty-handed. Lexi didn’t care whether she had reached the peak of the ice column or not, she just wanted Katelyn to be safe and sound. The final cannon of the feast had vibrated beneath the clouds and reverberated in her bones, lighting every edge of her on a painless fire. It shocked her heart into a stutter and she nearly stumbled in their trek because the paranoid aspect of her healer’s conscience worried that it had been Katelyn. She could’ve plummeted to her death from the pillar, or had a hatchet buried in her skull from that maniac boy. She had prayed and prayed to fate (such a silly thing to do) that it wasn’t Katelyn. For once, her prayers were answered.

It was a chance happening, she knew that. It wasn’t about her wills or wishes – Katelyn had simply managed to escape the final fleeting moments of chaos. Fate was too abstract of a concept to believe, yet there were doubtful parts of her that wondered if it was chasing her wherever she went, watching her. Lurking behind corners and waiting for the proper moment to strike. She had murdered three people in this arena alone, and many more back home in the underground laboratory. She couldn’t lie to herself and claim that it was all her supervisor’s fault. She played a role in it too; lives were gambled, suffering was caused, and over-ups were forged. She was responsible for all of it.

She knew her luck was about to run dry.

They settled in open land. Blankets of snow were their only shields, but with so little numbers remaining she wasn’t worried about someone stumbling across their pathetic campsite. Lexi sat in a snow pile and chewed her apple for comfort. Her body craved nourishment, her stomach twisting itself into heavy knots after days and days without so much as a crumb. The Captiol had tormented her with meals that filled her belly to its brink, only to thrust her into a barren landscape with no appetizing food to gather. This apple and one can of tuna was practically a miracle. The tart of the apple was an explosion of sensation. As she nibbled it to its core, she watched the sky dim. It was beautiful if not for the horrors that obscured her lenses. She couldn’t cherish it like she had in District Six. Beauty was only beauty when she felt at home with her father and her coworkers. Home was warm and alive with birds and crickets. Here, it was dead and freezing.

Marc fell asleep within minutes, and Katelyn quietly announced her decision to separate. The sunset was only a backdrop now, a bringer of darkness and death. A reminder that the Games were a cycle. After tonight, more fighting would commence. Perhaps she would die, perhaps Katelyn would die.

Everyone would die, all but one. It could be a stranger. It could be a friend.

Lexi was grateful for everything Katelyn had done. Without her, she couldn’t imagine where they would be. They had all needed and relied on each other like a true, genuine alliance, and now the priority had shifted. Now they had to avoid each other at all costs. When Katelyn set off into the unknown – cheeks damp with tears – the anthem announced four deaths, which signaled six tributes remaining. Her friendship with Marc and Katelyn accounted for half of that. The chances of fighting either of them were high, and now the Game was about betrayal and desperation. She had to stumble upon anybody but them, yet Marc was still here by her side. At any moment, they could become the final two contestants.

The weather was dreary. She was numb to her bones, and her mind felt frozen in time. She couldn’t process Katelyn having departed, or where she would end up. She couldn’t think about anything but where she was now, sitting beside Marc. What would happen if she stayed? She idly began to pack up her things. Marc was still fast asleep, and she couldn’t disturb him. She couldn’t worry him with goodbyes and explanations. He was rather temperamental, but he could figure it out. Anybody could. ”This might be a bad idea, I don’t know,” she whispered, ”But I think it has to be done. Goodbye, Marchello.” And may we never see each other in this place again.

She smoothed the hair from his forehead, and stood up in silence. She walked until she couldn’t bear the winds anymore. Darkness offered nothing but terror and confusion. She didn’t see the tree towers as anything but looming shadows, and propped herself against one of them. Her hands were shaking and her teeth chattering, not from the cold but from terror. She was regretting her decision already; she was vulnerable, unreliable. Nothing could be trusted, but she had to weigh the consequences. Spend a night in the dark, or risk fighting Marchello? She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It was time to show true bravery, time to suck it up and do what was right.

She slept until daylight without disturbance.

It was strange to wake up with no responsibility. There was nobody to nudge awake, there were no wounds to check. Hers were already scabbing over with no sign of swelling, and the snow had burned the aches and pains into a numb, tingling sensation. She promptly stood up and headed further into the forest. She had to keep as much distance as possible between herself and Marchello.

She didn’t know what the Gamemakers’ plans were. Somehow, they always shoved tributes together in the end. The final six were never reserved for mutts. They were the finest entertainment, so she didn’t anticipate growls or claws. She listened for footsteps instead.

Two pairs found her.

She gulped and considered the odds of stumbling upon two tributes instead of one when only six remained. Seconds too late, she realized her mistake. They charged her at once and she tried to maneuver between them, both of their weapons scraping sloppily against her left leg. She didn’t stumble. Instead, she backed herself into a tree, lit her tar-prepared axe on fire, and sprang forward without another moments’ hesitation. With two of then, there was no time to strategize. Any moment lost they could use to corner her.

She refused to die in those circumstances.

[uses jar of tar and lights axe on fire]

[attacks Prism – axe]

3Vb8SeaDaxe
Shallow Cut on Left Forearm -- 3.5 damage

fire
”1-50”
extinguished

ELLEXIAS
we live, we die
we steal, we kill, we lie
just like animals
but with far less grace

I’m dead.

Even if she managed to kill one of them, the other would overpower her quickly. She knew what she was capable of and it wasn’t this. This was a battle molded for careers, not for the inexperienced. Her previous fatal encounters all felt like a streak of luck. She knew the basics of offense and defense, and had wielded them to her advantage. It worked because she didn’t think, she didn’t worry. It was all robotics and instinct, something ingrained in the human race’s genes. Now she was too far along. She couldn’t simply bury an axe in somebody’s skull without remembering the horrifying sound. She couldn’t aim low for somebody’s leg to cripple them because there was guilt embedded in her subconscious. She had lived too long, longer than she had ever hoped or expected.

This was her downfall. To be outnumbered was to die an animal’s death. Nobody expected her to succeed, and these two boys knew it, too. She could see it in their hungry eyes. One of them was the boy who had been throwing hatchets left and right yesterday. More than one had been lodged into Alexis’ body. If he was capable of practically slaughtering a career, then she was nothing. Now he wielded something longer, something deadlier. A serpent-like weapon she would expect a career to master.

She anticipated the end.

”Lexi!”

Wind doused her fire, but there was an unmistakable ribbon of red on the boy’s leg. She had left an insignificant mark, but that wasn’t what held her attention. Jogging through the slush, she glanced up and found a familiar blonde head of hair. ”Katelyn!” Her surprise was evident in her exclamation, and there was no hiding the edge of relief in her tone. As much as she had wanted to distance herself from her friends, she needed them now more than ever. Should she feel guilty for having dragged one of them into this dangerous situation?

Katelyn confirmed an answer when she hurled a flaming axe into the boy’s leg. It could very well cripple him if he wasn’t careful. The flames flickered and died against his flesh, but she didn’t care about some sponsored chemical that promoted the cremation of bodies. What she cared about was Katelyn’s loyalty, her willingness to risk her life. She expected last night’s goodbye to last forever. Katelyn was supposed to never be seen by her eyes again, so she could either win or die trying just like everyone else. This change of pace was both alarming and comforting. Katelyn shouldn’t be here, yet she was.

She was okay with it. For now.

”Long time no see,” she joked, breathless. She wanted to dissipate the tension and destroy her fear. It didn’t work.

One of the boys was laughing, and she didn’t understand why. This was no laughing matter. There was no irony. An insanity plea could be made for anyone surviving in his frozen hell, but the sound still made her nerves spark like wires. To be laughed at in a situation like this wasn’t humiliating, but it was degrading. A demeaning death was always one of mockery, and although she shouldn’t care, she felt she deserved dignity. Her life would be wasted, after all. All of her efforts would be for naught. Her father would be without her, broken until he eventually wasted away. It wasn’t fair, but it was real. It was inevitable. The least she could do was die ferocious instead of cowering.

The maniac boy charged her first, and she dived to receive only a quick sting on her upper arm. It exposed a strip of her skin to the cold. It bled and she barely felt the trickles. She focused instead on the inflation of her lungs and the trembling of her leg. ”Guess you both really don't like me huh?” The blonde boy asked, and she watched his every movement. She wouldn’t fall for a diversion. "No matter, I never wanted people to like me anyway."

”This isn’t about like or disl—“

He barreled like a bull and she darted. Her attempt to make a getaway to Katelyn ended with a mouthful of snow. The wind left her lungs in a harsh puff and her ribs ached from the fall. She scrambled to pull herself up and then she felt it, the skewed balance. The lighter weight. She rolled to her side and searched.

The pain dropped like a slab of concrete. Like a train hitting the end of her bone until the center split and the marrow leaked out.

She screamed.

And then the rational end of her panicked subconscious noticed the boys’ lingering presences, and activated her defenses. She scooted clumsily back into a tree, panting like a woman in labor until tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. She slung her arms around the tree – relying on Katelyn to guard her back – and hoisted herself up, leaning on her axe when she was halfway there. When the blonde boy was within range, she didn’t think. The blinding pain shoved her forward and she grunted with newfound rage.

[attacks Prism – axe]
V8yjkgPHaxe
Deep Gash on Neck -- 10.0 damage

ELLEXIAS
we live, we die
we steal, we kill, we lie
just like animals
but with far less grace

”Get away from her!”

Pain blurred her vision. She had witnessed patients submit to unconsciousness from the influence of agony, but she couldn’t fall prey to it now. If the fire consumed her she would burn to ash beneath their blades. Perhaps she wouldn’t register the steel puncturing her skin, but she wanted to wake up again. The next time her body rested in this snow she wanted to sleep and dream and await another day. As excruciating as the Game was, she wasn’t prepared to die. She would rather experience more haunting imagery than submit to death. Fear of the unknown was a plague. Nothingness would be upon her, and she wasn’t ready. She was young and intelligent, inexperienced and passionate. What a waste of a life it would be.

Endorphins assisted as a buffer. It cushioned her pain until it was a dull throb, and in combination with the chilling winds it began to numb. Yet there was no method of ignoring it entirely. She was struggling to balance on one leg, and each time she wavered to one side the severed nerves in her leg fired like an alarm system, warning her of her newfound limits. She managed to lunge forward and rake the edge of her ice pick across the blonde boy’s neck. An ugly slit appeared and sprayed blood, and for a petrifying moment she thought she had severed his jugular. A moment later she realized there wasn’t enough blood. She had wounded him to a great extent, but she hadn’t killed him. It was close, but that wouldn’t cut it. Close was not surviving.

One of Katelyn’s flaming axes soared in the midst of the quartet. It was a lick of unpleasant heat that made her teary eyes blink rapidly. It landed in the snow after it scraped against the blonde boy’s thigh, ripping open another red ribbon of pain – except the fire had singed the edges a grotesque ashy color, and the terrible odor of burning flesh invaded her nose. It triggered her gag reflex but she didn’t react, she couldn’t. She gulped and tried to focus. The pain was too real, the reminders too overwhelming. She didn’t want to see him burn, but she would have to see him die somehow. There was no sign of a change of heart in either of them. They were in it until the end, until Lexi or this other boy died. Perhaps both of them. Perhaps all of them.

She had nearly forgotten the other boy in her moments of frozen agony. He was laughing like a maniac, clearly disturbed whether he had been born with a conduct disorder or had simply lost his sanity to the arena. At this point, it wasn’t important whether she cared about his fragile mental state or not. The disabled were murdered in this arena, and so were the mentally ill. There were no exceptions to make.

A young girl had died here too. Twelve years old. What kind of life was that? Short and sweet, ending sour and brutally.

When he stepped into her range for another swipe it was difficult to maneuver away from his path. Using her ice pick as a crutch, she ducked as best as she could and fell against another tree. There was a new incision in her right arm, but it was an ant bite among panther punctures. It was insignificant. If anything was going to drain her or eat her insides from an infection, it was her exposed stump.

The blonde boy was approaching again, and she raised her axe in a pathetic attempt to deflect his strike. What happened instead she missed in a blink. Her axe disappeared. Blood trickled down her arm in wide rivulets. When she tried to grip her weapon she felt a fresh onslaught of pain pressing her nerves together, tearing her sanity apart when she realized her hand was missing. She curled her injured arm to her chest and cried out, more strangled and weak than her previous scream, and tried to stumble away from her attacker. Her missing leg was forgotten and she tumbled into the snow. Her shoulder ached from the harsh impact. Her ice pick was only a few feet away from her, as was the hand that once held it. Blood leaked from the wrist.

Tears crawled down her pink cheeks. A shadow loomed above her and she twisted in a panic, but it was only Katelyn. She quickly grabbed her weapon and let Katelyn hoist her up by her arm, leaning her weight into her. When she was upright, she stifled a sob and dove for the blonde boy again. She didn’t care about what he had to say. All that nonsense about not being ready – she didn’t care anymore. The fire was inside of her, pouring from her wrist and from her knee.

Her mind was fog.

[attacks Prism – axe]
rLY5KB4Kaxe
Shallow Cut on Left Bicep -- 3.5 damage