Survivor - Coriolanus Snow [1]

9

The morning of the second day in the arena came to happen and Dill the girl from 11 had died overnight from a complication with her tuberculosis. Coryo watched as the young girl died feeling horrible for her and remembering what it had felt like to be terrified when he had nearly died in the rebellion.

The screen shifted to Soteria still hiding under the stadium as the alliance rushed around and guarded the weapons and the supplies. Coryo took a breath as he noticed Reaper the boy from eleven heading towards the door that Soteria was in.

He barely listened as Flickerman spoke "well, after a long night, this is interesting. The boy from eleven is heading towards a confrontation with the girl from twelve." Coryo took in a breath as Soteria heard the sound of the metal door moving and instinctively stood up and hid.

Everyone held their breath whether in anticipation, worry, fear, or intrigue at what would happen between the boy from eleven and the girl from twelve. Coryo watched as Reaper walked the hallway that would lead him straight to Soteria. When Reaper walked into the alcove that Soteria was hiding in, he watched as Soteria grabbed a piece of metal debris to fight him if need be.

Coryo couldn't deny that he was proud of her in that moment. Everyone watched as Reaper noticed the movement and spoke "who is it?" Soteria adjusted herself and Reaper saw the color of her dress remembering that it belonged to the girl from twelve. "If it's the girl from twelve, I'm not going to hurt you."

Soteria stayed silent and unmoving before slowly peeking out from the place she was hiding. Coryo noticed that she moved out far enough that Reaper could see her but close enough that she could hide again. Coryo watched as Soteria looked at the boy from eleven "what do you want?"

Most of the people in the room including Dr. Gaul and Flickerman watched as Reaper saw her. He moved slowly toward her "I figured that we might be able to make these monstrosities of a game end quicker if we work together."

Coryo heard multiple people in the room gasp as they realized that Reaper was offering Soteria Baird an alliance. Soteria looked at Reaper in disbelief "why would you want to ally yourself with me?"

"Because you're from twelve," Reaper spoke like it was obvious. "Plus, I've seen your face since we got here. Defiance, you've never bowed down to the capitol or done anything they wanted you or expected you to do."

Soteria nodded "alright, you have an alliance for now." She then looked at Reaper as Coryo watched stunned that Soteria was going against his advice not to trust anyone or that's how it seemed to him. "What's your plan?"

"They're guarding the weapons right?" Reaper spoke quietly still aware that they could be found at any point in time. Soteria nodded and Reaper smirked, "if we can destroy their stash of weapons and supplies from their mentors then they have nothing to work with."

Soteria was silent as was every mentor and person who was watching in that room. Coryo watched as Soteria's eyes widened before she smirked "but what do we destroy their weapons with?"

Reaper wordlessly pulled out matches and a bunch of black powder. Reaper looked at Soteria "the black powder is gunpowder left over from the bombing of the building. We can set it around the supplies and cause it to explode." Soteria's smirk turned into a slow smile as she moved closer to Reaper.

Everyone in the viewing room including Dr. Gaul was stunned not believing that this was actually going to happen. Coryo shared a look with Sejanus who had just come in and Tigris who was across the room and all showed the same face. Disbelief.

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Soteria was still wary around Reaper but found him to be an okay ally as they crept through the halls of the stadium while waiting for nightfall. They hid in the grate watching the main arena as Sol the girl from five climbed the bleachers. Reaper flinched as he watched Coral, Mizzen, and Tanner approach, and then Coral spear her through the throat with her trident.

Soteria then watched as Jessup her district partner appeared foaming at the mouth. She watched as Jessup in the stands cornered the alliance before gasping in shock as bottles of water appeared in front of Jessup. She figured that the alliance's mentors knew that rabies was not a fan of water. She watched as Jessup freaked at the sight of the water causing him to fall from the stands.

Soteria covered her mouth at the sounds of his bones breaking during the fall. Soteria moved to leave the grate and go to him but Reaper grabbed her by the arm. She looked at him and he shook his head pointing to the stands. The alliance was still there looking down.

As the two sat in that grate and waited for night which wasn't very far away, Soteria couldn't help but think about the others the kids that had died. The more she thought about it the more disgusted she was with the capital. Night fell and she and Reaper looked out the grate for any of the alliance but they were all asleep.

Slowly, both of the tributes exited the grate and walked slowly to the supplies being careful not to wake the three alliance members. Soteria walked to Jessup who was dead now and used the handkerchief she had gotten from Coriolanus to close his eyes. Soteria spoke softly to Jessup "I'm sorry."

Soteria then joined Reaper at the supplies. Soteria shook her head at the three alliance tributes knowing that they had thought that no one would dare come after them. They were so confident in it that they left no one on watch. Soteria and Reaper each spread the gunpowder around and on the meager but there supplies before drawing a line back far enough that they would be able to get away before it exploded but close enough that it would explode before anyone could stop it.

Reaper and Soteria nodded before Reaper took a match and struck it dropping it on the gunpowder trail before both ran back to the grate hearing the sizzling and the eventual explosion behind them. If they were right, the explosion had taken at least one alliance member.

************

Coryo watched as the supplies exploded and Flickerman spoke "The supplies actually exploded. Ladies and Gentlemen, Reaper and Soteria are certainly putting on a show." Soteria had been smart enough to place the gunpowder around Tanner taking him out with the explosion. The other two alliance members were far enough away that they only got loud noise and some burns.

Mizzen and Coral though were pissed and wondering who would dare do anything to them. Coryo watched as Soteria and Reaper nodded to each other and split showing that the truce was over and it was a one-time thing. Coryo nodded his approval slightly when Soteria headed right back to under the stadium but in a different spot. He also smirked noticing that she had stolen food and water before she blew up the supplies.

There was one thing that Coriolanus couldn't understand and that's why she cared about Jessup when he was just an obstacle to her going home. He was also a little annoyed by her today because she did nothing he told her and nothing he could have predicted. She couldn't be controlled and that worried him.

The second day had come to an end and Sol from five was dead as was Jessup from twelve and Tanner from ten. Coriolanus had a bad feeling that Soteria was a lot smarter than he gave her credit for which worried him as she would be harder to control and less likely to do his bidding when she got out. It almost made him wonder whether he wanted her to win at all.

Author's note: The first signs of Soteria being a whole lot more dangerous than anyone ever expected. Not to mention the first time Coriolanus has some disturbing thoughts about Soteria. Does anyone recognize the parallels in this chapter? There are two of them.