Writers Games; Alliances

D10 Male - Tobias Haycraft - Task 5 [unobtrusive-]

 “Miles,” I whispered harshly, gently giving him a nudge. “Psst, Miles!” I hissed into the darkness once more.
   “Mmu-what.” The young man replied in a rather deadbeat drone, breathing his fruit-flavoured breath directly onto my nose.
    “Move over, would ya?” I begged, tired of sharing my sleeping bag with, well, with another boy. If we weren’t chained together I’d never be caught dead sleeping with a man. But unfortunately, our attempts to sever the chain linking us together or picking the lock had thus far failed. Somehow the Capitol managed to rig up an impenetrable metal. There would be no getting out of each other’s hair lest one of us should die.
   “Oh-mmmkay.” Miles moaned and shifted, causing the damp material to constrict around his body, thus pulling me closer to him. I groaned, yanking some of the covers back to myself. I wondered if this would be what it was like sleeping with Caira – I mean, a woman, once I was married of course. With my mind going in a completely awkward direction, I resolved to distract myself from any thought concerning Caira. I grew to miss her terribly over the weeks spent apart. I never truly realised how important she was to me – how important all of them were – until we’d been separated for so long. Wishing my body could be in a different place rather than just my heart, I carefully, so as not to wake Miles, pulled my legs out of the silk folds and sat in the grass next to our bed, keeping my arm just where Miles felt comfortable. I sighed, giving way to picturing home and the things which I missed. I felt a cold, wet nudge on my tied wrist, glancing down to find that my movement had woke Buck. He trampled over our cuffed wrists, causing Miles to stir but not wake, and onto my lap. I smiled, caressing his back gently, gazing over the orange and yellow sky, natures sign that morning was drawing near. I knew Lumen had volunteered for the latest watch, it must’ve been him I heard sharpening knives by a distant tree. Seaver slept soundly at his side.
    “Alright, everybody up!” Lumen shouted just as Buck and I were feeling comfortable. Sighing heavily as Buck jumped from his place to bark at Lumen for the disturbance, I too rose and coaxed Miles out of his slumber. Somehow this moment seemed like a boot camp, where we were presently being forced to participate in some sort of group exercise involving the cuffs linking us together. Perhaps our cabin master would be teaching us trust, or bonding or something. In fact, as I thought about it, perhaps Occisora was doing that very thing, bonding us, or testing the durability of our bonds.

   

   Several hours after breakfast had been caught and prepared – believe me this was no small task. Being unavoidably detained by another human being’s inability to hunt is never easy – Lumen decided it was time for us to go looking for this ‘flag’ Occisora spoke of at yesterday evening’s delightful assembly.
   “Why? We’ve got a couple hours before noon.” Seaver retorted as soon as the proposal was made. Lumen looked at her with brief indignation before explaining himself.
   “That’s exactly why I’m suggesting that we leave now. We’ll have to search for the flag Seaver, it’s not like she gave any of us directions or a map.” His voice sounded stern and almost to breaking point, yet he kept his cool and never lost it. Seaver, plastered with embarrassment for such a silly question, shut up right away and scuffed her shoe at the ground casually. Everyone else was in agreement, and so we were off, looking high and low for this flag. We came across several pairs of tributes along the way – some with no partner and smeared in blood – but for the most part none were hostile. We just carried on our way, pretending that we hadn’t seen each other or acknowledging the other’s presence but carrying on anyway.

   At last Amabel cried out to us that she’d spotted the flag. Good thing, as far as any of us could tell the sun was nearing the middle of the sky, and that meant noon. I shuddered to think what might happen to any tributes who didn’t make it to the flag in time. Poor souls. 
   At first, we all groaned to discover the flag’s location. But soon enough we all agreed we must continue our mission to it, or we’d all be dead by one o’clock. Lumen and Seaver led the way down a little incline just beyond the tree line, which was the direct route to the flag. Amabel’s partner had long since been killed, in his sleep no less, so she was at least absolved of her duties to a partnership. Mira still clung to hers, but only because she was a little girl, and besides Miles insisted we not kill little Ki. Something about her made me uncomfortable, however. Perhaps it was only because I didn’t know her and that she was a stranger, but she just, her innocence rubbed me the wrong way I guess. I felt like it was a deception. But what could I do? I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to kill her. Lumen didn’t seem all that interested, Seaver could’ve but not if it meant the alliance would betray her. Other than her, Amabel would be the only other one to take Ki’s life, and that’s only if things got out of hand or she needed to. The truth is, she would’ve hung onto Jasper awhile longer if he had not tried to kill her first. It was a game of chance to her. That brings us to Miles; his behaviour worried me. Whenever the matter of Ki came up, he got all defensive, like she needed someone to be her guardian. He hated that we even considered getting rid of her. For what reason he took to her so quickly, I hadn’t a clue. We could only go along with what he wanted for so long anyway, and then it was every man for himself. I dreaded that day with a fiery passion.