The Kairos Games

Chapter 7

Night is falling fast. The tributes wander about, searching for shelter. Many of the buildings are locked. This does not stop them, though. David and Kenton find an unlocked window on the first floor of Medlin and settle down in the bare dorm room. It is furnished with two beds, two desks, and two dressers. Upon entering, they lock the door and barricade it with a desk, then barricade the window with a dresser. The beds are stripped of all but a mattress. This, however, is enough for the two helpless tributes. A safe place to sleep is all they need.

    “Hey Kenton. Do you want to make out? Not in the way you’re thinking; get your mind out of the gutter. I mean make out like a couple of bosses. You and me. We can take everybody else. Me with my milkshake, you with your brawn. Should be pretty easy.”

    “Yeah, sure,” Kenton mutters as he digs his face into his lack of a pillow.

    “We should gather up any resources we can. We can steal from the others.”

    “I don’t want to steal from other people…”

    “We steal music all the time. What’s the difference?”

    “I don’t know. Go to sleep, David.”

Meanwhile, other alliances are forming. Becca and Amanda have claimed the SMC. The baseball bat is useful for breaking windows, as well as bones. As they are exploring the desolate building, they happen upon a ladder to the bell tower. They climb to the very top, where they can see over the entire campus. The floor is virtually nonexistent, just a few wooden beams crossed over each other, but they settle comfortably into the cracks, nonetheless.

    “How many people have died already? Three?” Amanda asks.

    “Yup. Kaylee, Avery, and Olivia.”

    “Yeah, I saw Avery… Do you know what happened to the other two?”

    “Uh… yeah? I walked past the dining hall and saw Olivia fighting with Dani. I’m assuming that’s what got her. Dani was walking out towards Simmons when I reached the SMC.” 

    “What about Kaylee?”

    “She tried to take my bat.”

    “So you killed her?”

    “Uh-huh.”

    “Ooh. Nice one, Becca.”

    Becca turns and raises her eyebrows at Amanda as if to ask, “Really?”

    Amanda shrugs. “What? Are the bodies still out there? That’d be gross. What if they just leave them there and make us watch them decompose? Then we can just take it all in and imagine that we’re the ones decomposing as we inch closer and closer to our deaths. It’d be so dramatic. Wouldn’t that be great?” She says this with not quite enough sarcasm.

    “Amanda! That’s sick! Stop being so depressing!”

    “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I supposed to be thrilled that we’re out here killing each other for the rest of the world’s entertainment? My bad.” She sighs and rolls over. Her rope is coiled underneath her into a pillow, but it keeps sliding around. Not that it was all that comfortable to begin with.

    Becca crawls across the tower to the far window. “David and Kenton are in Medlin. They found an open window. We’ll probably have to wait until they come out looking for food.”

    “Oh…” Amanda sighs. “Food… I wish we had some food. Have you thought about what we’re going to do for that? I’m starving, and I haven’t seen any food ANYWHERE. Didn’t you say the dining hall had cheeseburgers?”