When Luck Runs Out

Let's Gather Round the Poor Excuse For A Campfire

We walked through the mall, which now had one more shop open for business.
"Sherlock that was so great, how you picked that lock, all of this luxury is from you." John pointed out.
"It's not an apartment building, but I suppose it will work." I shrugged.
"It's so much better than sitting out in the cold with nothing but a sleeping bag." John insisted. we walked out the front doors into the sunlight, but I wasn't as careless as I had been the last couple of days. I looked around, trying to catch any suspicious characters moving around, just to make sure we weren't being followed. I had a sneaking suspicion that John was right, and the arena was getting smaller. It seemed like something the Capital would do, make people relocate, make us all come together for one final battle. Especially in something like a city, where there was an overabundance of hiding spots, rooms that no one thinks to look in, basements to crouch in the shadows, it was the worst arena they could've picked if they wanted battles the whole time. John pulled the cover off of the manhole, descending the ladder with one of the electric lanterns Greg had gotten.
"Should I close it?" I asked.
"I don't see why not." John shrugged. "At least no one will be able to find our water supply."
"Good with me, as long as we can get it back open." I agreed, pulling the heavy iron circle overtop of the hole and making my way down to the ground. Now the lantern was the only source of light under here, making the pipe look very long and creepy.
"Feels like a horror movie." I decided.
"It is a horror movie." John pointed out, jumping into the pipe and scooping up as much of the water he could, but there wasn't much, and it was pretty difficult to get it into the bucket since it was on the ground.
"Need help?" I asked.
"I've got it." John assured.
"I wonder what Molly and Mrs. Hudson are doing right now?" I asked, thinking about them sitting on the couch, watching us work.
"Cry most likely. Or in the hospital from dehydration." John guessed.
"No, seriously." I insisted.
"Alright, they're on the couch, watching this, probably drinking hot chocolate, and now that they remember that we're thinking about them even from in here, they're crying." John guessed.
"That's a pretty accurate guess; I'm going to have to agree with you there." I agreed.
"I hope they'll be alright, if both of us do go down." John sighed.
"We won't one of us will make it." I pointed out.
"I'm just being logical here. I hope they watch out for each other, I'm worried about them." John insisted.
"I'm especially worried about Molly." I decided.
"Why Molly?" John asked.
"Haven't you noticed?" I asked.
"I haven't noticed anything odd." John shrugged.
"I have. I've always seen her as strong and able, the prime example of what you should look like after the games, but over the last couple of weeks she kind of reminded me of me after the games, just much better at hiding it." I pointed out.
"She does drugs?" John asked.
"I'd love to say there's no chance of that, but it wouldn't blow my mind at this point." I decided. "She has the nightmares, she has the issues, but she's not showing it."
"Then, when you get out, you have to make sure she's back to her normal self." John insisted, screwing on the lid to the water and walking back up to where I was waiting, leaning against the grimy sewer wall.
"Nothing is going to be normal, and I'm not going to be the one getting out." I insisted.
"Oh yes you will." John insisted.
"I don't think we should be talking too much about our personal life down here." I decided.
"And why not?" John asked.
"Cameras, remember?" I pointed out.
"It's a pipe." John insisted.
"It's the games." I debated.
"There's less of a chance of us being heard down here than up on that roof." John pointed out.
"They're always watching." I insisted.
"And Greg and Jeanette are up there." John pointed out.
"True, true." I agreed reluctantly.
"So, what are you afraid of?" John asked, starting back up the ladder.
"Oh, a lot of things, clowns, spiders..." I started.
"Don't make me think of spiders as I'm climbing this ladder." John insisted. "Hold the water." I grabbed the water from him and he pushed the cover up, letting sunlight flood into the tunnel and letting us escape, thankfully. When we got back up to the roof Greg and Jeanette were having a fun time seeing who could throw the most rocks into the large cooking pot.
"Got it?" Greg asked, throwing one that bounced off the rim and joined the other pebbles on the ground.
"Got it, just needs a little bit of time." John agreed, putting the large container by the others and going to sit in one of the folding chairs.
"This is great, I mean, it's not nearly as good as the apartment, but for the games, it's great." Greg decided. Jeanette threw a rock and it landed right in the pot with a loud clang.
"Keep it down, would you?" I groaned, sitting down in the chair next to John.
"No one's out there." Jeanette insisted.
"You don't know that." I defended.
"I can take a guess." Jeanette decided.
"Come on guys, really, I'm sure they can hear this noise from miles away." John insisted as a rock hit off the pot with a loud bang.
"Can I go to that bookstore and see if I can get it open?" I asked.
"Knock yourself out, but we were going to do some weapon training when you guys got back." Greg insisted. I sighed, but knew that the books could wait. They were luxuries, and fighting skills were a necessity.
"What is it going to be today?" I asked, getting up and observing the small pile of weapons.
"Well, since we got some more arrows, I was thinking archery." Greg decided.
"Oh come on, you know I'm rubbish at that." I insisted.
"That was your first try, and to be fair, it was much better than a lot of people's first tries." Jeanette insisted, grabbing one of the bows, the one from the real cornucopia, and knocking an arrow. There were three other compound bows on the pile, so we could all shoot at once. I grabbed a green one, knocking one of the arrows and trying to take aim.
"Don't fire yet, we still need to carve our little man." Greg insisted, but too late, Jeanette fired and hit the side of the heating unit.
"Oops." She muttered, lowering the bow and looking a little bit guilty. Greg just groaned, going up and carving the shape of a man around the arrow, and then pulling it out with annoyance. We all took turns shooting three arrows, and I had to admit, Jeanette was right. As I went on, my aim became better, my shooting faster, and I hit the man multiple times.
"I told you Sherlock, archery is totally your thing." John insisted as I lowered my bow, examining my hits. I had hit the man twice in the face and once in the stomach, a couple of fatal shots if you ask me. I went to retrieve the arrows, and let Greg and Jeanette take their turns. Of course they were a lot better than me, three arrows straight to the head, all bunched together in perfect precision. John was arguably the worst archer and even he hit the man fatally most of his shots, while one or two wandered to less fatal spots, or missed completely. When the sun was starting to go down we all had a couple of strips of beef jerky and dried apricots, deciding to save the peanut butter bread for when we needed a good, larger meal. We would've lit a fire, but since the smoke would be like a beacon, we all huddled together around the dark logs, cuddled in blankets, trying to preserve as much heat as we could.
"Nights like these remind me of the onetime my family tried to go camping." Greg decided.
"How could you go camping in District Five?" Jeanette asked with a laugh.
"That's the problem. There was this little park near our house, so we went and pitched a tent under the stars, it was lovely until about ten o'clock when the police kicked us out." he shrugged. I had to laugh, imagining a ten year old Greg with big eyes getting yelled at by police.
"In Twelve there is no camping, there is no happiness really, unless you're one of the few that had enough money to get by. There are no parks; everything is dead because it's covered with ash and soot from the mines." John sighed.
"That really sucks mate." Greg decided.
"Think about it, if we hadn't been picked, we would've been mine workers." I pointed out. John shuddered with the thought, and I couldn't even imagine it. The thought of me, working for a living, actually doing physical labor, it was enough to make me laugh.
"That's a horrible thought." John decided.
"I would've been working at some power plant." Greg shrugged.
"I could see you doing that, you've got enough energy already though." I shrugged, smiling and looking around to see if anyone had actually under stood my little joke. John cracked a nervous smile, but the rest seemed thoroughly unamused.
"That was pretty bad." Greg decided.
"Not my best, I'll admit it." I agreed, snuggling deeper into my blanket.
"Nights like these remind me of when Molly would have us over during the winter, everything was cold, and we'd keep the lights out and just sit by the light of the fire, snuggled in blankets, not a care in the world. We wouldn't talk, we'd just sit there, and enjoy the relaxation, and for a moment it felt like we had never been to the games at all." John sighed. I nodded in agreement, remembering those precious nights, with hot chocolate and marshmallows, it was the closest thing to happiness I've ever had.
"You guys over there seem like more than a family than a team." Greg decided.
"That's because we are a family." I agreed.
"It must really suck then, to send two of your three victors in." Jeanette sighed.
"I'm happy to be one of them." John assured.
"I'm glad too, that Molly wasn't one." I agreed.
"Why not?" Greg asked.
"I'm not sure how she could handle it. I mean, she's a strong person, of course, but I wonder if another games would break her shell." I wondered.
"Good thing we don't have to find out." John decided.
"Definitely." I agreed.
"We've got so many victors it's hard to keep count." Greg shrugged.
"We have what, twenty or so? And only two mentors, Greg was one, but I was living a nice peaceful life in our Victor's Village." Jeannette groaned.
"Our victor's village is terrifying, it's so empty, only five houses are occupied." I admitted.
"Why five? I thought you only had three victors?" Jeanette asked.
"It's so empty that they let the family have their own separate houses." John pointed out.
"Lucky." Jeanette laughed.
"We certainly dodged a bullet there." I agreed.
"Well, family can't be too bad." Greg shrugged. "I live with mine."
"They're fine, definitely, I mean, everyone hates their family in a totally loving way, but it'll be awkward if John's parents lived in the same house as he did." I shrugged.
"My parents hate Sherlock." John agreed.
"Why? What's not to love? All that sarcasm and pessimism, you're like a little Christmas present!" Greg insisted.
"We haven't found the real reason yet, but I'm sure it's because I'm a guy." I decided.
"Oh, so they're homophobes?" Jeanette clarified.
"No, nothing like that, they just always thought that a girl from my district and I would be perfect together, and that we were destined to fall in love. Well, as you can see, that didn't work very well." John pointed out. I smiled lovingly at him, blushing nevertheless.
"Don't let your parents get in the way; I know true love when I see it." Greg assured.
"You've never seen true love before Greg, shut up." Jeanette insisted.
"Only when my food comes at a restaurant." Greg pointed out, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"I have to agree with you on that one." I laughed.
"How about your family then Sherlock, what's their take on your relationship?" Jeanette asked.
"They're cool with it, they accepted John into the family, and they've got a framed picture of me, my brother, John, and Molly on their wall." I laughed.
"Aw, that's adorable!" Jeanette insisted.
"That's kind of dorky." Greg muttered, and Jeanette slapped him in the arm.
"I agree with Greg. But, like you said, we're family." I shrugged. Jeanette smiled happily at me, as if wishing her district was so close, but honestly we were only so close because we had no one else. We've all been through hell and back, and no one else in our district could relate to that.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm totally beat." Greg decided, looking back at his tent with yearning.
"I agree." Jeanette sighed, yawning loudly and getting to her feet.
"Well, I guess sleep sounds good." John agreed.
"I guess I don't have a choice, unless I want to sit out here like a loser." I decided.
"You are a loser." John insisted.
"Oh shut up." I snapped, and John just laughed. Greg unzipped his tent and slipped in, holding open the flap for Jeanette as well. John unzipped ours, bringing one of the lanterns in so that we could see properly. He also brought in a couple of swords, unless someone tried to attack us in the night. But we hadn't made too much noise, and the tents were far enough away from the edge of the roof that you couldn't see them from the road, I was sure we were safe enough. I followed him in, zipping up the tent and stretching a little bit. John had unzipped the sleeping bag all the way, so that it made a mattress instead of a burrito, and lay down on one end. Thanks to the luxury the store had provided us, we also had pillows, so that our heads didn't hang uncomfortably to the ground. I lay down beside him, pulling the blankets overtop of us and staring into his beautiful hazel eyes, which seemed to glow in the light of the lantern.
"You're okay, right?" he asked, pulling me closer and holding both of my hands in his.
"Of course I'm alright." I assured.
"That's a lie." He guessed.
"Ya, it is. But honestly, for being in the games, I think I'm doing a lot better." I decided.
"This is all the easy stuff, we haven't seen other tributes yet, it just kind of feels like prancing around in some abandoned city." John insisted.
"Are you saying the moment I have to fight I'll have another break down?" I asked.
"I don't know what the future holds, I honestly don't, but I just want to make sure you're alright for now." John insisted.
"I'll be fine." I decided. "How about you?"
"Like I said, this is the easy part." John insisted.
"Well, I certainly hope we make it to the hard part." I decided.
"As do I." John agreed.
"John, I love you." I said once again, feeling like a broken record, but the amount of opportunities I would have to say it was getting less and less. They were the words that are said too much, and the words that are said too little.
"As do I Sherlock, I love you just as much." John assured.
"I know." I agreed with a little smile, pressing a kiss on his nose since it was too much of a hassle to try to reach his lips from the way we were both laying. John giggled like a little kid, striking out and kissing my nose as well. I laughed, blushing like a flustered teenage girl.
"We're such dorks." I decided with a laugh.
"That we are Sherlock, that we are." John agreed, and with that he turned off the lamp and plunged our little tent into darkness.