Dani is about to give up. She’s been on the hunt for four days now. Madeline is probably looking for her. Honestly, where is everybody? It seems that everyone has just decided their best chance is to hide and hope they don’t run out of food before everyone else. She wanders past the ringing clock tower into the ped mall. No Madeline. But what is that? Over by the entrance to Tharp? It looks like a metal trash can… with weird, colorful buttons. Must be something the Gamemakers thought up. She raises the yellow bat that she found in the rubble of the Humanities Building and tiptoes over to the trashcan.
Upon closer inspection, it is not a trash can. It actually looks a bit like R2D2. Is it a robot? She notices an acronym on the front of it. Bombardment Exhibitioner Category Code And Navigation.
Beccan.
A slit opens up on the head of the robot revealing two all-too-familiar eyes. One, blue like the sea after a storm, covered by a square-ish monocle. The other, dark, almond shaped… foreign. Dani takes a step back from the machine. How is this even possible? Is she dreaming? Have the Gamemakers finally found a way to literally get inside her head and mess with the functioning of her brain? Could they possibly have the guts to try something so disgusting, so disrespectful, so downright inhumane? WHY is the sad Cebu SAD?
Suddenly, the robot sends out an arm and grabs the yellow bat. “Give. Me. My. Bat.” A chill runs down Dani‘s spine. The voice is muffled, robotic, but still clearly hers. Becca, in a twisted, mind-boggling way, has come back to life.
“GIVE IT TO ME!” The robot wrenches away the weapon, this time taking on the voice of… is that an old man from Oklahoma? Nope. It’s Ethan. Becca… Ethan… Beccan… This robot is starting to make way too much sense. Dani lunges for her bat, desperate to not let this robot stand in the way of her prize.
“I HAVE TO WIN! GIVE ME BACK MY BAT OR I’LL BITE YOU!” The robot is apparently impervious to bites. It maintains its hold on the metal, and proceeds to whack Dani on the back with it. Dani kicks it and lunges again, but the robot is stronger. Beccan reaches out with a third arm that just came out nowhere and pulls her leg into the air. Dani screams in rage as she hangs upside down from the grip of the monstrous being. She appears to be drawing a crowd with her screams. Andrea is walking towards her, carrying a lizard and a pile of sticks.
“Dani? What is that thing?”
“It’s BECCAN!”
“Beccan?”
“IT’S A ROBOT! IT HAS THE VOICES AND EYES OF BECCA AND ETHAN! AND IT HAS A REALLY STRONG GRIP! AAARGH!” She bites into the metal a few times, kicking and screaming as much as she can. Andrea wanders over to help.
“Well, does it have an off button?”
“Why the HECK would they give it an OFF button?!”
“They have to turn it off eventually. When the games are over, anyway. What’s it running on? Batteries? Fuel? I bet I can find a way to turn it off. Oh, look! It was made in Korea! That’s kind of cool. I didn’t know they shipped things in from Korea for the games. Kind of makes me feel important.”
Dani continues to struggle for the bat, ignoring every word from Andrea.
“Do you happen to have a screwdriver?”
“NO!”
“Okay, well, hang on. Here, I’ve got a pocket knife. This should do it.” Andrea pulls out the knife and reaches for the arm holding Dani’s foot. “I can’t find the off-switch, but it looks like you can just screw the arms off. Keep distracting it. This should only take a minute.” Andrea opens the knife and starts unscrewing the first bolt, but the robot is aware. Beccan drops Dani on the ground, inviting a hurl of unseemly insults, and turns it’s attention to Andrea. It swings the bat at her head, but she ducks just in time. “Dani! Distract it again! Throw something at it!”
Dani stands up and looks for something heavy. She grabs one of the metal chairs and hurls it at the machine. She manages to leave a dent where the two C’s cross its chest, but the robot is unperturbed. Andrea jumps into the alley, avoiding another blow. “Run away, Francisco! Mommy has to fight a robot, okay? I’ll be right back.” She throws Francisco into the bushes and wishes him luck.
“ANDREA!” Andrea turns around to see Dani scrambling past the tables towards the administration building. “RUN! IT BREATHES FIRE!”
Of course it breathes fire. Andrea turns to see the monster turning towards her. A slit opens up, much like a VCR, [For you kids that don’t know what that is, it’s the thing you played movies with before DVD’s and iPods existed. Yeah. That’s right. I’m older than iPods.] where the mouth should be.
Andrea runs for her life. She reaches the bell tower in seconds and turns to watch the monster. What she sees, however, is soon to be the most traumatizing incident of her life. There, sitting on top of the robot’s head, is her best friend.
Francisco.
Andrea watches in horror as her beloved Francisco crawls across the face of Beccan. He dives straight into the mouth of it and is never seen again. The robot lets out a blast, but the flames scatter. The focus of the flame has been thrown off by the presence of a once-living creature in its throat. With the flames only able to reach three or four feet in front of the robot now, Andrea and Dani are able to escape to safety… for now.
The tributes sigh in relief. Their deaths have been avoided once again. Andrea sneaks up to the stalker window of Simmons and watches as the robot heads towards Alumni. She makes a vow to herself in that moment, that if she somehow makes it out of here alive, Francisco will be remembered as a hero. A slimy, green, fried hero.
YOU ARE READING
The Kairos Games
FanfictionIn this thrilling spin-off of the Hunger Games, twenty-six lonely college freshmen face up against their worst nightmare: death, at the hands of each other and cafeteria food. Who will win the dreaded Kairos Games? Will it be Becca, with her yellow...
