Papers, Pens & Daggers

Chapter Three

CHAPTER 3

---------JAYVIE’S POV----------

            My sleep was disturbed by the sound of voices and footsteps. I got up on my feet and camouflaged myself in the dried leaves. I heard the voices come closer.

“Ben, do you see anybody?”

“Nope, nothing Pat.”

“Oh shit. Jess is going to kill us if we don’t have anything good to report back.”

            It was Ben and Patrick. They must be in Jess’ alliance. Jess must have sent them on an early morning search-and-kill montage, very clever.

“Ben. Let’s go.” Patrick said.

            As they were leaving, I felt an itch on my nose. No, my allergies are acting up.

“Aah-aah…” No, I can’t sneeze right now. It will blow my cover.

“Aah-aah-chooo! Damn it.”

“Ben, did you hear that?” asked Patrick.

“Sounded like a sneeze, Pat.” said Ben.

“Yeah, I know that. Try and see if you can find anybody hiding.” ordered Patrick.

“Nope, can’t see anybody.” said Ben.

“Hmm… okay, let’s go.” said Patrick.

            Finally, Patrick and Ben left. The sun’s already up and I’m still starved from the lack of food yesterday. I was heading out when someone called out my name.

“Stop!”

            It was Marian, along with Jade and Alexyl.

“Now, don’t make us hurt you Jayvie.” threatened Alexyl.

“Give us your supplies and we might spare your life.” said a familiar voice.

            It was Jomar. It turned out that they were spying on me the whole time and I didn’t notice it.

“We saw how you hid from Patrick and Ben, you were lucky. Your dark complexion really helped you. Hahaha.” Jomar laughed. “Now…”  Jomar got his knife. “Give us your supplies.”

            There’s no way I’m going to let myself get mugged by Jomar. I got my bow and pointed it straight at him. He let out a girlish scream.

“Aaaah! Jayvie, what are you doing?”  asked Jomar.

“Killing you.” I answered. “Is there a problem?”

            Marian, Alexyl, and Jade already ran away and left Jomar and I alone.

“Jayvie, I was only joking. You can keep your supplies. Please, don’t kill me.” Jomar begged for his life.

“Hmm… let me think about it.”

“Please Jave, uhm… I love you.” Jomar said.

“What the hell, dude?!” I said, shocked.

            Flattered and disgusted at the same time with disgust overpowering, I took a step back, drew my arrow and released it. The shot made its way to Jomar’s nose line eventually killing him.

            I walked away and heard Jomar’s cannon fire.

“Four are already dead, forty more to go.” I said to myself. My stomach grumbled. I needed to find something to eat as soon as possible. I walked past Gauss and Mendeleev trying to find anything edible. Bless the heavens there was a canteen nearby.

            I approached the canteen with utmost caution, armed with my bow and arrow just in case.

“Kenneth, she won’t notice you unless you do something, y’know.”

“As if you could do better!”

            Familiar voices echoed the canteen from inside. I wondered whose they were. I carefully came up to the canteen’s door and peeked through it. It was Kenneth, Kennjhy, and Ace. This must be where they set up camp. No surprise there. Kenneth has a black hole of a stomach that needs to be filled up every two hours.

            Crack. Crap. I stepped on a dead branch. I hope they didn’t hear it.

“Who’s there?” Kennjhy called out.

            Damn it. They got up and were heading to where I was. I needed to get away from here. Luckily there was a cave like structure behind Einstein I could run to. I was light on my feet and sprinted as fast as I could. Eventually I lost them.

            Out of breath, I thought to myself, “Why was I running from them? It’s not like they could do anything to hurt me.” I pondered for awhile until I heard a voice.

“And what are you doing in our cave?”

            It took me a while to recognize them. It looks like that Cyrene, Jezreel, Elizabeth, and Lourdes seems to be coping up quite nicely in this game.

“Hey Jayvie, I suggest you wipe your feet before you go in here,” Elizabeth said. “I just swept, you know.”

“The doormat is over there.” Lourdes pointed me to the expertly woven doormat made of banana leaves and straw lace. I guess Elizabeth really worked hard on that.

            As I wiped my feet, I looked around their cave. Nice actually. They decorated the walls with anime posters and other Japanese stuff. I wondered where they got that.

“So Jave, you hungry?” Jezreel asked me. “Want some chicken?’

            I have been looking for food all day, so why would I say ‘no’ to that offer? “Yes, please.” I said. They seemed to be unarmed. No weapons, no anything. I think I’ll just stick with them for the time being. Plus, they have food!

            After lunch, Elizabeth and Jezreel cleaned the cave. I laid my back on a pile of leaves they swept up. Cyrene was writing something, and Lourdes was her usual noiseless self. The cave was still, so I decided to break the ice.

“So, how are you guys coping?” I asked. “You know, with the Games and all.” I waited for someone to answer me.

“We’re good.” Cyrene answered. “After the siren sounded, we immediately ran here. We knew this part of the school would be full of vegetation, but I guess it was just luck that we found this cave.”

“How come you don’t have weapons?” I asked again.

            This time, Jezreel answered, “We didn’t have a chance to get some. Well, Lourdes had a mace but it was too heavy, so she left it.”

            Just then, I heard dried leaves crunching outside the cave. Jezreel and the others hid behind the stalagmites forming, while I, reloaded my bow and got into firing position. I wondered who was out there.