The Bloodbath

The part of me that had told me Yaa wouldn't be impressed had been right, and I watched as she yanked her arm from Mikhail's grip to give me a questioning glance. "No need to be so huffy; Mik was only being logical. But - " Her words knocked me down a peg, though I felt like I was already below the bottom of the ladder with her. When her eyes met mine I tried to keep my expression as neutral as I could, but the connection made me feel like I might not be as unimportant as I felt. "When exactly are you guys going to be ready to die? Once our items are used or ruined and we're starving or bleeding somewhere in the trees? What about tomorrow? Frankly, I might be ready now, but that doesn't mean I want a pile of snakes to spring out and tear my face to shreds. But in a few weeks or a few days or a few hours, if I'm bleeding out of my ears and dying in the dirt, I'd like to die knowing that I wasn't a wimp."

Her long spiel made me want to retort parts of it, and I found those parts were more the things about her dying than about the main premise of her speech so I just bit my tongue. As it was, Mik and Andal beat me to it. I heard Andal mutter something, barely catching it because he seemed to just be musing to himself, "Are we cowards for trying to stay alive, then?" Mikhail's speech, however, was clear as day. "Yaa. Do you know, that you are not the only one in this. This whole thing, its not about only you anymore. What about me? Or Andy? Or Deimos? Do you think we just fought through all that, killed all those people, just to be killed the next moment? I know I didn't I’m not dying. Not yet. Move away from the chests. Now." We had all noticed that she was now making her way toward the chests, key sparking slightly in her hand as she started to reach for the nearest chest.

She wasn't listening to the two of them, and I doubted she would listen to me at this point either but maybe I should try. I could always attempt to intercept her. But that was when Mikhail started to speak again, grabbing something from off the ground by our pile of stuff before returning to stand near Yaa. He was holding the thing behind his back and I wasn't able to get a view of it, I wanted to know what he was planning. "Hey Yaa." His voice was full of a joy that made me suspicious, but I didn't do anything except for take a step forward. "You go near those chests. I am going to have to challenge you to a duel." A duel, what the heck was Mik doing? I opened my mouth to say something - whatever I might come up with - and took another step forward but I was too late as Mik swung the thing in his hand up to hit Yaa across the face with it.

I didn't know what had happened until I saw the hand fall to the ground. It wasn't Mik's hand, or Yaa's hand. It was the hand Mikhail had severed from that one girl, the one that Yaa later killed. I balked a bit at it, a feeling of anger bubbling up in me as it sunk in that Mik had just hit Yaa with a severed hand. Taking the two last strides between us I had do everything I could to not shove or punch him. That would just result in a fight, and we didn't need one right now. It really didn't help that Mik was now on his knees, laughing like he was insane. Maybe he was, after all the Games can change people. Still, I hoped he regained himself, or I might just do something I'd regret later. For the moment, I just wanted to retaliate but as to how I had no idea. That was, until I once more caught sight of the key in Yaa's hand, her grip loosened because of the shock. "Mik!" That was Andal, but I didn't pay attention to him as I moved forward.

I reached for it, trying to touch Yaa's hand as little as possible as I plucked the key from her and went over to the chests. I kicked the first and second ones over, deciding I didn't want to open those ones, before inserting the key into the lock of the third one and twisting it so it clicked. Then, thinking that if this one held the snakes I would just throw them at Mik, I flung the lid open. I wasn't jumped by snakes, so I supposed it was safe and peered in. Lucky me, I had picked a good chest, there were a few good items in here and yet another one of those stupid walkie talkies. That added a few more things to our pile to pick through. At the bottom was another armored vest, and I knew exactly who would get it.

Pulling it from the chest, I held it up and out to Yaa. "Think this might fit you?" I thought I'd give her the opportunity to take it first, but I knew of all of us the two vest should go to Andal - which everyone agreed on - and Yaa - who I knew would probably fight me the entire time about it. I shoot a quick glare at Mik, knowing that I didn't want him to have it after what he had just done. Why do I always get so bothered when things happen to Yaa? And why am I giving her this vest, when I could use it and give myself more protection? I bit my tongue, turning my eyes back to Yaa as I tried to put a friendly smile on my face - though it might have looked more like a worried one.