Author Games: Dacnomania Nexus Accourt

Task Five - 'Little' Pests - Females

District Two - Bellona Blake

“Well I wouldn’t want to be them. Now, I could really go for a drink. Where’s the bar?” Khave’s voice says.

I can’t even blink before the bugs attack.

I grab my sword and begin slicing away at the bugs. I manage to keep them away, only, I suspect, because of Laurent hacking away besides me and the fact that the entire swarm isn’t upon us yet.

Just barely I can see another part of the swarm a couple dozen meters away. They’re doing something, but I can’t see what.

Some bugs die and fall to the ground, but some don’t. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the bugs that die are the ones that are sliced in half. Somewhere, a cannon fires.

Out of the corner of my eye I spot them. I don’t see who it is, but I see the flash of the radiation suit by the other half of the swarm.

Of course I think, the other half is attacking another tribute.

“Laurent!” I say as loudly as I dare while still slicing at the bugs, “Move toward the other swarm.”

“Are you crazy?” Laurent hisses.

“There’s another tribute over there smart one,” I snarl back. But I can understand his hesitation- the half of the swarm attacking us is slowly but steadily thinning, and the last thing either of us need is to take on the next half of the swarm.

I’m torn. I already told Laurent to go toward the tribute, and backing out now would make me look weak. Yet the wiser decision seems to be to stand my ground at the bugs now, and do my best to escape. Not to mention, if I change my mind Laurent would likely never let me forget it.

The decision is made for me when a cannon fires. But I’m not out of the woods yet. The part of the swarm that was focused on the other tribute now turns to Laurent and I.

I fight as hard as I can against the bugs. A couple times one comes close to piercing through the crucial and vulnerable fabric of the suit.

The sound of panting reaches my ears through the humming of the bugs, and the sharp sounds of bugs being sliced. Another tribute. Trying to escape from the bugs no doubt.

And instead of escape, they run into more bugs. And me.

The tribute skids to a stop the moment they catch sight of Laurent and I and the bug swarms. But they are still close enough for me to grab a hold of their suit, and yank them closer. Laurent and I shove the tribute – Atilius- right into the center of the swarm.

Then we run.

I run toward the Cornucopia, Laurent following suit. But on the way, I nearly trip and fall over a body. The body’s suit is ripped and the flesh exposed is a shade of blue and swelling.

Clearly there’s nothing on the body that can be saved, so I step over it and keep running toward the Cornucopia.

Atilius’s cannon fires.

The bugs attack Laurent and I once more right at the mouth of the Cornucopia. But Atilius didn’t go down without a fight, and took a decent portion of the bugs down with him.

I slice the bugs with my sword. Now I am used to killing the bugs and know the best way to slice the bugs to kill them.

It is only a few minutes, but it feels like hours when the final bug drops dead.

Later, the faces are shown in the sky.

First Luminio. Then Tommy. Then finally, Atilius.

District Three - Dayta Sparke