Interactive Hunger Games 4

Night 6: Reunion

- I K E -

"That's not good." Kable says, sighing. "Shit. They're not gonna let us go so easily."

"Just keep getting the flare ready." I instruct him. "We can't lose now. We've come too far."

He inserts a flare into the launcher, before pointing it to the sky and pulling the trigger. The red smoke emits off of the projectile, and it fires high into the air through the canopy of leaves. "We sent a call." Kable mutters. "Now we hope that the right person answers."

"What if the wrong person answers?" I ask nervously.

"Then we're finished." Kable responds, putting away the gun. I draw my bow, and he readies his shields. I could hear a faint sound in the distance, and it didn't sound good. Faint cries and shrieks were rapidly approaching us.

"What the fuck is that?" I ask wearily, and Kable motions to call Tender. I do, patching him through and putting my earphone on speaker.

"Ike!" I hear on the other end after a few seconds. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know." I say. "They just revealed my presence and I can hear shrieks approaching."

"Can you run?" He asks.

"No, I fired the flare!" I exclaim. "I have to be here if Maddox shows!"

"Damnit." Tender mutters. "Uh, ok. Oh, god, um, well.."

"Spit it!" I exclaim in frustration.

"Monkeys." He says. "Killer monkeys. Or killer bees. Either one is bad."

"Well, it's shrieking, so probably monkeys!" I say. "Fuck. Quick, Tender. I'm not budging from this spot."

"Ah!" Tender screams. "Go into the control panel on your arm and find the little switch that says 'wartime'."

"Uh.." I stutter as I search for the switch. I eventually find it, with the sound getting too close. "What the frick?" I exclaim as my robotic hand folds open, with my palm splitting and my fingers retracting. In its place is now a sort of metallic coil with small prongs on either side.

"It's why your arm is so advanced." Tender replies through the mic. "It's a prototype. It'll discharge energy like before, but a lot more from this."

"You couldn't have told me about this sooner?" I ask angrily. The monkeys were almost upon us.

"Look, I'll explain more later." He says. "You press the fire button next to the wartime switch and it'll shoot! You don't have an unlimited capacity, though!"

I look at in awe as I see the monkeys come into view. I push down on the fire button and aim the coil thing at the animal. The shocks radiate from the coil, flying into the primate and sending it into a tree. It falls to the ground charred and smoking, and I look to Kable.

"Shit!" He says, looking at the spectacle in awe. He then moves his shield around, catching a monkey on one and slamming it to the ground. It screams before he drives the other shield into its head, cracking the skull.

The next few minutes were chaotic. I watched my energy meter carefully as I blasted monkeys away. Kable was trying his best, but there were so many that him getting swarmed would be an inevitability at this rate. I also needed to conserve power, so I flip the wartime switch.

My fingers extend from the arm once more as I grab for my bow. The metal panels click into place as I draw an arrow with my augmented strength and land it in an eye of a primate. I continue on, knowing my arrow count would soon be zero.

I grab an arrow and try to use it as a melee tool, swiping at the never ending cycle and drawing blood quite often. The swarm was getting too intense, though. Way too many for us to fend off. There seemed to be no end in sight.

I know there is, though. They can't launch these forever. They'll run out eventually, I just need to make sure they're out before I am.

Kable swipes at another one, leaping up to take one down to earth. His shields make contact, making a disgusting sound of cracking bones as it falls from the sky. Another gets to him though, and he's soon overwhelmed.

"Too many!" He exclaims between breaths, punching away with no end. They were coming back faster than he could punch, though. I was facing my own problems as well, nearly out of energy and unable to use any more electricity.

Just then, arrows fly in from the jungle, landing straight through the heads of two monkeys. More fly in, giving us some breathing room. I grab an arrow and launch it into a primate, before grabbing it and stabbing another. Slowly but surely, we cleared the crowd.

"Ike!" I hear a scream from the trees, a voice I was all too familiar with. Maddox bursts from the tree line, and a smile breaks out on both of our faces. We run at each other and hug, and I realize for the first time how bad we both smell.

"I missed you so much!" He exclaims, and we pull away from the hug. He was crying, and I realized I was too. This was too amazing, and I'm overjoyed. "I thought I lost you."

"It's a long story." I reply. "But I'm here now."

"In hell." He laughs, crying some more and hugging me again. I see a girl behind us, laughing and smiling. Kable was to her left, grinning with his arms crossed.

"I was never going to leave you." I say, giddy with happiness. "How about we get out of here?"

"I'd love that!" He exclaims, elated. He then catches sight of Kable, and becomes visibly worried. "Did he.. help you?"

"He saved me." Kable replies, pointing to me. "But yeah. I'm not a monster."

"Okay." Maddox replies, obviously concerned. I didn't know what about. "You said something about escaping this place?"

"Yeah." I say, picking up the earpiece from the ground. "Tender? You there?"

"Roger That." I hear form the other end. "What's up?"

"I got him." I say. "He's safe."

"Yes!" Tender exclaims. "Wooooo! Alrighty then, I'll send Lyka in the helicopter. Her eta is an hour. Be at the coast."

"Will do." I say. "Cmon, Maddox."

"Wait, we're getting picked up?" He asks.

"Yes." I reply. "Like I said, long story."