Firecracker: The 99th Games Book One

Arena, Day 5 Part 2

It was getting exceptionally boring being alone in the arena. And worse than that, Uriel was out of things to distract herself with now that the two boys had left.

Whenever she was stuck in silence, her programming seemed to exert more control. It felt like she was actively fighting the urge to seek out people to save, and the voice of a girl long dead kept shouting in her code to do something.

Not helping was another piece of her fun robot memory puzzle: a desire for love. Seeing Faqir and Haruka act so obviously affectionate together was sickening, and it brought back to the surface that dead girl's intense desire to find her old flame. The nostalgia for this piece of sh*t gave her mixed feelings of forced sadness and more natural anger. All of this was so stupid it was driving her mad.

She had to do something. Stir the pot, give herself a new conflict to meditate on, redirect her code to something more productive. She didn't want to risk getting herself caught, but would it really be so bad to poke the bear just a little bit?

The last she knew, the Careers had been on the plateau, stalking the ruins. Maybe it was time she paid them a visit.

Itching with old images she shouldn't have known and the ingrained urge to play hero, Uriel took along a backpack with some mutt meat, a belt of knives, and a spear to make some new friends. She hiked through the jungle in relative silence, honestly too annoyed to bother paying attention to what animals were lurking in the shadows. She followed the river to the cliffs, noticing Faqir and Haruka had already had the same idea when she spotted them ducking into the ruins.

Well, that blows. But if the lovebirds were in the ruins, that meant the Careers had to be elsewhere, right? Uriel hadn't seen or heard any sign of them in the jungle, so maybe they had gone into the caves. It was worth checking.

Now hurrying in an attempt to beat Faqir and Haruka into the open, Uriel ascended the steep mountainside and jogged to the nearest cave mouth. A pile of mutt corpses marked one cave on the far side of the mountain as important; grinning, she advanced to it and stepped around the bodies to get inside. A chorus of voices sounded from somewhere deep inside. Relieved, Uriel adjusted her grip on her spear and rolled her shoulders. Time to stir the pot.

"Hey, Careers! Nice hiding spot, p*ssies!"

The cheerful voices stopped. After a moment, the District 2 tributes rounded a corner, followed shortly by the infamous Adel Beck and her pet moron from District 10.

The tiny District 2 boy raised his bow and notched an arrow, glaring silently at Uriel. His district partner crossed her arms, eyeing the spear Uriel had brought along.

"Ooh, I need a new one of those!" she exclaimed. "This is perfect timing. We'll take it off your corpse!"

"Whoa, whoa," Uriel said, lifting her hands, "who said anything about killing anyone? I just got bored. Figured you guys would be fun entertainment. Y'know, because supposedly you're all murder machines. Except then I found you hiding in a cave like bats and now I'm not so sure you'll be worth the trek."

"If you didn't wanna fight us anyway, why do you care if we're doing murders or not?" the District 10 boy asked.

"Because you're the Careers! God, respect the sport a little!" Uriel huffed. "Hey, can I give you some advice? Why not go search the ruins again? I bet you'll find something interesting!"

The District 2 girl narrowed her eyes at Uriel, concentrating on her. Uriel met her gaze, raising an eyebrow. After a moment, something like a subtle fear flickered in the 2 girl's eyes; she took a step back, wary.