| FINALE | Interactive Hunger Games 6

Day 4: Blind Leading The Blind

- I K E - P I N T O -

     I put on my headphones, listening to the conversation over again.

     "An all out attack on the Capitol." Commander Matson had said. "The arena was too far away to rescue the tributes."

"The same shit that's failed twice already!" Dawn exclaimed. "If this is what you 'rescued' me for, you might as well have left me on that train."

"I have to agree with her." Maddox piped up. "E-even if I h-hate her."

"Too bad." Commander Matson said. "The plan is already drafted. We in the upper ranks unanimously voted in favor. We already have the device to kill their comms for weeks."

"What about the people?" I had reminded him. Even in the recording, my voice was still sharp and angry. "Everyone whose lives were made worse by our back-to-back failure? What happens to them?"

"They fight with us to a glorious victory!" Matson declared fiercely. "We make history, Ike! We liberate Panem!"

"They won't fight with us!" I had pointed out. "It's been five years, damnit!"

"Enough back talk!" He yelled, slamming a gavel down with full force. "This is our legacy, Ike. All of ours. This is our fight, and if you try to defy me again, there will be consequences."

I pause the recording, fuming internally. Lyka and Tender has already retreated to their room, pissed at the Commander and pissed that their opinions hadn't been considered. It had dawned on me that they were using me a pawn. Me and my family.

My rage is cut short when there's a knock on my door. "Come in!" I say, looking for who it is. It was Maddox. He slides it open, walking in and closing it behind him.

"Y-you alright?" He asks, seeing my contorted face.

"I wish I was." I say, noticing my arm was about to go into attack mode. I disable it by pushing a button on the forearm. I pull a chair up so he can sit. "God damnit."

"We gotta get out of here." Maddox suggests, unsure of his conviction.

"And go where?" I counter. "It's not like our other option is any better. At least here we aren't the most wanted criminals."

"We-we're not free either." Maddox points out, and all I can reply with was a sigh. We were between a rock and a hard place, just as I had been saving him from the arena. Just as I had been, after being betrayed by Eli Tylers in my own games. Damn.

They really had been using me as a pawn this whole time. Like when they sent me to 10 and I had to kill those people. They were peacekeepers, sure, but they were still people that I chose to kill. Chose to shock.

"Look, I'll.. figure something out." I promise it to him, but I didn't know if it was one I could keep. Now, we didn't truly have the backing of either side. "Some way to beat the odds. Again."

     "Honestly," he begins, his voice full of remorse. "I just want to open that damn bakery."

     I chuckle a bit, before nodding with him. "Same here. What do we call it?"

     "VanHolt-Pinto." He suggests, and I have a little laugh.

     "Any reason why your name is first?" I ask, and his face locks up. "No, it's fine. If that's how you'd like it."

     "Thanks." He says.

     Back in my mind, my plan was slowly hatching. Every detail. "No problem." I tell him.

- L Y K A - S T O R M -

"I'll see you around, no?" I ask Mack, and she nods back at me. All of us were tense as hell from that announcement. I thought the resistance commander would listen to his soldiers and assistants, but no; that little ass briefed an entire plan with no regard to us or the citizens of the districts.

     "Yeah." Mack says, concerned. "Think about it, will you?"

     "Of course." I reply. "I already am."

     I walk out of the room, and towards Tender and I's. I had to talk with him about this; it was crazy.

     I stride down the hall, trying to avoid eye contact with people. I brush past some, nearly push others, but finally make it to Tender's room. I open the door and slam it shut once I'm inside, anxious as all hell.

     "Babe?" He asks from behind me. "Lyka? Are you okay?"

     "Of course not, Tender." I say, a bit more snappy then I would've liked. "Aren't you?"

     "Not the best, no." He admits, and I finally turn around. He was lying in bed, reading some sort of book. "You want to talk about it?"

"Yeah." I say, walking to him and lying next to him on the bed. "We just got betrayed, Tender."

"Yeah." He agrees. "But what do we do? We can't leave, our neighbors are only worse."

"Maybe we can." I propose, thinking out loud. "Head somewhere we haven't been before. Make a trip to the other side of the world. Find our own way."

"Thinking big, huh?" He asks with a laugh.

"I'm serious!" I exclaim to him. "There's so much to see out there. Quite frankly, I've been itching to go find it."

"I like it." Tender says, putting down the book and beginning to take a nap.

- J P - H E A D GM -

     "That fucker Cameron seriously flashed his dick?" I exclaim, talking to Bruhm Omen. He was in my office to give me some sort of info. "So indecent of him."

     "Agreed." Bruhm says. "He was nice in our interview, too. "He went two-sided."

     "Eh, I'll kill him in a few days. No worry." I say, incredibly annoyed at Cameron's refusal to cooperate. We'd get him soon enough, but hey, you could never be too sure. "We have his family all in custody, anyways."

     Bruhm doesn't respond, and so I look at him again. "So, why did you come here, again?"

     "Word is around the Capitol that your favorability is dropping." Bruhm says. He was a statistical genius. "You need to do something about that."

     "Oh please." I scoff, shuffling his folder of data away. "An empire won't fall because of one guy. Why would I need to do anything?"

     "You're right." He starts, taking the folder back. "But, when one drafts their own children for a Hunger Games, he loses the trust of his people."

     "You are dismissed, Bruhm." I say coldly, showing him the door. He quickly leaves, knowing not to disobey me. None of what he was talking about was my fault. Snow made me like this, and that's why I sent her daughter in.

     And soon, I'd have my revenge.