today it snowed. [day 4 | sundra & misfit toys]
Oct 30, 2011 18:18:22 GMT -5
Post by shrimp on Oct 30, 2011 18:18:22 GMT -5
She walks alone this time. The facade had ended faster than it had began, with Ember's quick death and the separation of the two "lovers" with simple words and simple actions. Denver and Aesop aren't with her now - rather, they're most likely back with their two comrades, ready to rough it up a bit more. Perhaps Aesop will return, perhaps he won't - both husband and wife seemed to be very parched by the time that they separated, and Sundra knows that she truly does need to drink something today, or her time here will be limited to twenty-four hours before the reaper arrives to carry her off into the afterlife.
The anthem plays, its obnoxious colors and cacophonous noise barely even surprising her today - she only glances up in time to see Damaris and Elise before the screen goes dark again, leaving only three females left in the competition. She wonders if the Gamemakers are planning to do this just so there will be variety in the victors (if so, then her odds are dangerously low, seeing that Lethe Turner, the District Five female emerged victorious over the likely winner last games); it's something that she wouldn't doubt that the Gamemakers would do, and it would liven up the rumor-mill in the candy-coated Capitol. But truly, it doesn't matter anymore, for she already knows that she's destined to die. It simply is the case of when and where that is the issue.
Sundra sobs herself to sleep again, and the dream reoccurs, except in tonight's nightmare the bodies of Trace, Aesop, Ember and Arden are easily seen strewn across the cavern, and this time she manages to grab onto both siblings, all of them teetering on the too-fragile rock, which finally gives way, sending the three of them tumbling downwards to their doom with screams and sobs of terror. She awakens without a sob this time, although there is a gasp and for a moment she truly doesn't know where she is in the mass of blinding whiteness that swirls around her as new, frosty flakes flutter into her eyelashes. Slowly she emerges from her feeble position, and finds that her tongue refuses to become moist with saliva, and her stomach cries out with sharp staccato stabs from being empty for days.
Desperate for nourishment of any kind, Sundra fights against the snow, grabbing low hanging, sticks from the trees that tower above her head, dumping them into a pile. Then, as quickly as she can, she begins to rub two of them together, the process taking infinite amounts of time before friction finally gives in, creating sparks that ignite into life-saving warmth (Sundra then proceeds to gather more sticks for later as well). She shoves handfuls of snow into her water bottle, then holds it over the fire, hoping that it won't melt with the heat (luckily it doesn't, although had she touched the red-hot material, it could very well have burned her hand off). And as she hears bubbling inside the bottle, she removes it from the heat, slowly sipping away at the oh my gosh so good liquid as it nourishes her body and fills her cells with fluid. She continues to hold her hands over the fire as it withers away, finally stopping when it has turned into ashes , and footsteps are barely audible against the environment.
At first, she thinks it's Aesop, and her heart lightens as she squints to make out his lanky frame as he walks closer. But it's not her husband (the word is still difficult to think about, and she has to strain to believe that she is actually Mrs. Sundra Alexandrieh Wie Bloom), whose presence would be anything but ominous and dangerous (Aesop Bloom is incapable of being dangerous to anything but the muttation who did not kill Ember Hilbrook). Rather, it's three other tributes, all of them armed and clearly allied. Quickly she stands up, bow in hand, arrow in the other, as she watches the three figures become discernible from the cloudy-background. There's the boy from nine, Shayde Truedhart, as well as Sawyer Monaghan from District Three. But it is the girl from twelve who makes Sundra's blood boil, memories of Arden's death resurfacing in her mind.
She stands there for seconds that feel like years, before she finally speaks in even sentences, eyes never glancing away from the three who could possibly have the so-called "honor" of ripping her life away from her, and the hope from the Wie family. "Hello," she says, eyes locking onto Shayde Truedhart, before sliding over to Sawyer and then resting on Ms. Harp. To Sundra, it's likely that she will not be leaving from this fight, and that these three teenagers in front of her will kill her not because they truly want to, but because they have to (or otherwise, they will die by her hand, for nothing will get in the way of her getting home to Europa and Io, to mom and dad). She blinks one, twice, before continuing with an "If you're going to attack me, then you might as well do it sooner rather than later. We'll all die of frostbite otherwise." Slowly she steps to the left, arming her bow, ready for the first onslaught of attacks.
Then, chaos erupts.
[sundra has drank a bottle of water and has gathered sticks for a future fire]