The Trials of Neo City [WINWIN • YUTA]

🖤 22. Underwood 🖤

Mark and Sicheng barricaded the doors of the building's second story with panels they'd found on other floors and thicker branches from the center tree. The tree was their way through the building, as it's old trunk twisted and broke through each floor's ceiling. Mark was surprisingly good at climbing for a tribute from District Three.

Sicheng emptied the contents of both Mark's and his own small bag onto the floor and sighed, no food rations in sight. Only two water bottles filled halfway, an empty plastic container, a cord of some sort, and a small, folded blanket.

Mark shook his head as well, whining to himself. His stomach hurt, and it was well into the night now.

"We need food." Sicheng whispered in the darkness. Only dim moonlight shone through the broken windows, mostly casting on their faces and the floor.

Mark shuffled from where he sat. "I dunno where food is. Like, there's not a ton of animals here. And we can't leave the building until the Career's move."

"I doubt they will." Sicheng snorted lightly. All day, he'd been looking for a chance to escape their building and run deeper into the city. But the Careers stayed planted at the city center, guarding their territory near the fountain.

Sicheng didn't blame them. The fountain seemed like the only real source of water in the entire city, unless someone was lucky like him and Mark to have found a bag with a water bottle already in it.

There was a distant rumble that shook the entire ground. Mark whimpered and curled in on himself, Sicheng running to the window to peer around as silently as he could.

In the distance, a building was collapsing. The structure was falling and the right side of it had fallen completely, bricks and beams falling multiple stories down with aloud crashes.

The entire building went down soon after that, reduced to nothing but rubble on the ground underneath where it once stood. A cannon sounded, which startled Sicheng and made Mark whine louder.

Sicheng beckoned Mark towards where he sat by the window. Mark crawled over as a toddler might and Sicheng opened his arms, inviting Mark in for a hug. Hesitantly, Mark let himself go limp in Sicheng's hold, sleepily trying to keep his eyelids open.

The Panem anthem began playing and Sicheng looked into the clear light sky to see the face of the pretty District Five boy with the dimples. His portrait smiled down at the city, then vanished and was replaced with Sungchan's.

Sicheng's stomach knotted up again, thinking about Shotaro's bloodcurdling screech from earlier, when Sungchan was killed in front of his eyes.

Next, the portrait of the tall boy that Yuta had stabbed earlier had flashed by, smiling cutely.

He exhaled at the realization that they were onto District Nine and they'd passed over Seven completely. That meant that Renjun was still out there somewhere in this arena. 

The boy that Johnny had shot an arrow at flashed next, nervous eyes peering forwards. They reminded Sicheng of a scared animal more than anything, like a rabbit or a mouse or something.

And then, lastly, was the little boy Yangyang had killed. His pouty lips and innocent eyes made Sicheng flashback to his murder and the pleas and cries the boy had made before getting his throat slit.

Bile rose up in Sicheng's throat, and before he knew it he'd doubled over and gagged rather loudly. Thank god the anthem was still playing, or the Careers outside would have heard him and killed him and Mark both.

Jung Jaehyun, District 5
Jung Sungchan, District 6
Kim Jungwoo, District 9
Kim Doyoung, District 10
Park Jisung, District 12

"Oh! Sicheng, are you okay?" Mark asked, holding onto Sicheng's shoulders as the anthem ended. Sicheng coughed weakly and nodded.

"I'm okay. I just got a little sick, that's all." He shook his head. He'd never gotten a flashbacks to anything before, never felt so quickly sick to his stomach.

That was the effect of the Games, he supposed.

"Homesick?" Mark guessed.

Sicheng shook his head, voice only slightly above a whisper. "Not quite. You?"

Mark thought for a moment, lip quivering. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I miss home." Tears welled up at the corners of his eyes and Sicheng looked on in pity, upset at how lonely this poor boy was.

"What do you miss about home, Mark?"

"I... um, I miss the hills. The sunshine in the fall and the foggy summers. I miss my friend, Wendy. And I... I miss my mom." Mark mumbled, wiping tears from his eyes. "Do you miss your mom?"

"I do." Sicheng's heart raced as the image of his mother in front of a firing squad had permeated his brain. Bullets flying through her chest, her arms, her skull...

Sicheng hadn't even realized he was crying. Mark gasped and took his own jacket sleeve to wipe the older boy's tears.

"If you win this, then like... you'll get to see her again. That's good, right?" Mark tried. There was silence for a few moments and then Sicheng spoke up, raspy voice thick and sad.

Sicheng swallowed a lump in his throat. "Mark, she's not here anymore. She... she died this morning."

Mark's eyes widened and he lowered his arm. "I'm... gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to assume anything."

"Everything dies." Sicheng shrugged, turning to Mark and patting his head. "We all experience loss, it's part of life."

Mark was quiet for moment, pouting and thinking. Sicheng looked up at the stars and by the time he'd looked back at Mark, the boy was asleep. He peacefully drifted off in Sicheng's arms, illuminated by only the dim moonlight. He looked for carefree and peaceful that if Sicheng hadn't known any better, he might have thought the boy was dead.

Sicheng smiled softly and moved Mark's blonde hair from his face, shifting slightly so that his back wasn't so strained.

"Guess I'm standing guard tonight, huh?"

He didn't mind it too much. He felt tired, but not so tired that he couldn't stay awake until sunrise. And Mark reminded Sicheng too much of Renjun, of course he wouldn't wake the boy up if he didn't need to.

It was quiet outside. The Careers must have quieted down, he thinks.

He looked up into the sky -into the arena's manufactured and fake starry night- and remembered exactly where he was.

He was in the Hunger Games.

Thinking about his mother and Jisung and now looking at Mark's sleepy face was a sudden reminder that everyone will die, like he said.

Because we all experience loss.