Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
MORNING CAME WITHOUT MUCH EVENT. Zea's back popped as she sat up with a groan, the sunlight from above waking her before her body would like. "I think I slept better in the zoo," she mumbled, rolling her head. Lamina cringed at the cracking noise, and her ally paused, whispering an apology.
"Think we'll be done after today?"
The question woke Zea the rest of the way up. The girl beside her had a point— just about half the tributes were already gone. At that rate, they might wrap it up soon. But only one would live.
"Probably, with how enthusiastic Coral seems to be." At the bitter tone seeping through, Lamina bit her tongue. There was no reason now to remind her of their circumstances.
She didn't need to respond, the familiar whirl of a drone approaching from the window across. The object moved quickly, headed straight for the two.
"Duck." Zea reached out, laying a hand on Lamina's wrist as the two folded as much as they could.
The drone, headed for Lamina, slammed one of the support pillars. The blades met the hard rock, crumpling into a useless pile below—the small pack of food fell as well.
Both leaned over, staring at the food.
"Well..." Zea blinked, "These drones aren't very good." She straightened back up, cracking her knuckles dramatically. "I'll just go 'en and fetch it—"
Her words fell away as the silence was broken by desperate cries. Both girls looked about rapidly from their place, coming to rest on the frantic figure of Lucy Gray, scrambling away from...
"Why is Jessup going after her?" Lamina questioned gently, a frown falling on her soft features.
While Lucy Gray's motions were clumsy and panicked, the stumbles of Jessup were far different. His limbs seemed almost separate from his mind, legs folding under him as he shouted after her, "Stop running from me!"
"I think... I think Jessup is really sick, Lumberjane." Lucy Gray managed to find a pile of rubble, which she began to climb without much thought, Jessup's accusations falling away as she swore her innocence.
The sad scene played on for another moment before the telltale whirl of a drone neared, heading straight for Jessup. The boy barely had a moment to process as the glass bottle of water shattered against him, his limbs flailing about like they had been burned. Over the edge they took him, down the pile and onto the concrete below with a sickening thud.
"I'll go now—" Zea turned on her heel, hands set on either side of the beam.
"What? Zea it's not safe—"
"Lucy Gray won't try to attack me, at least not while Jessup is laying there dying. I'll be fine." She turned slightly, allowing her hand to graze that of Lamina's. "Promise." Still, she waited until her partner gave a tip of her chin before climbing down.
