Hunger Games: Fandom Style

Home Sweet Home

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
"Six," Gimli grunted.
Eowyn nodded, face pale. "Which way now?
Gimli scanned the debris scattered street. Despite the rubble, Eowyn felt exposed. The street was too wide and with too few turnoffs. Someone could be right behind them.
Gimli's face lit up. "There! A mine!"
A faded sign over a complicated series of walkways announced the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. A rusted metallic track curled in and out of a faux wood building.
Eowyn doubted it was a real mine, but if Gimli thought he could fortify it, she didn't have any complaints. They headed up the ramp.

Elsa limped more or less north. Her palms tingled from her earlier theatrics. The rest of her just felt numb.
Failure. Monster. Freak.
The sound of falling water eventually caught her attention. She looked up to see a dramatic waterfall of polluted water crashing over a miniature mountain. As she got closer, the water started to freeze over until the whole thing was captured in icy splendor.
A twisting ramp led upward. She walked it, ice forming on the path behind her and trailing behind her fingers on the railing she was forced to lean on for support.
The walk was exhausting, but when she got to the top, she let loose an icy blast, her first intentional one for a long time. Ice formed a wall behind her. No one would be getting through that any time soon.
Railing separated her from a line of boats now frozen in the water, but one of the gates was open. She stumbled through it and laid down in the bottom of one of the boats.
Tears leaked out of her eyes as the sun's last rays disappeared. The sky suddenly looked very dark.
Trumpets blared. Faces started flashing across the sky.
Juliet Butler. Niall DeMencha. Molly Aster. Peter Pan. Hans Southson. Mary Moran.
The faces vanished after a moment, but it didn't matter. Their faces were carved into the icefall below. Forever captured, like the water, in one frozen moment.

Will slipped back through the doors to report the deaths to Cassandra. She sat clutching her ankle near the balcony of the second story. The rough binding Will had been able to do hadn't done much good.
He checked it one more time. "Is it feeling any better?"
"No." She bit her lip. "I can't run, Will. Not like this. I could barely limp here."
Here, Will knew was probably still far too close to the Cornucopia, but maybe it wouldn't matter. Nearly all of the Careers were dead. There might be no hunting pack tonight. Either way, it had been clear that Cassandra could go no further.
He tried to change the subject. "Did you get a sling, at least?"
"No. So I can't fight either." Her lips were trembling slightly.
"Guess it's a good thing I got the bow then," Will said with forced cheer.
Something rustled. A lot of somethings. Dark eyes glinted.
Will reached for his bow. Cassandra clicked up the flashlight she had scavenged to a higher setting.
Will relaxed. "Just bats."
Lots of bats. Hanging from the ceiling. Bats that were rather large.
A sudden sense of unease settled over Will. "Cassandra," he said carefully. "Do you think you could crawl towards that door to the kitchen?" He didn't want to risk standing.
She frowned but started forward.
Will was left with a harder choice. He couldn't crawl and hold his bow ready at the same time. He lowered it slowly and started to sling it across his back.
That's when they attacked.
A flurry of dark wings descended on them. Will jerked his bow free, but there was no time to grab an arrow. He swung it like a club and knocked a bat out of the air.
The others tried to settle on him. The force pressed him down, smothered him. He let out a shout and dropped to the floor rolling. They came loose, screeching.
Cassandra was screaming. "Go, go, go!" he yelled. He dropped the bow and drew his knives. He started slashing at the bats as they swarmed him.
One swooped towards him, claws extended. He dodged to the side and it slashed his sleeve to ribbons, just missing the skin.
He forced his way forward. Cassandra rolled through the swinging doors that led to the kitchen. He followed her, still slashing at the mutts.
The bats tried to follow them. Will ran for a table. He shoved it across the floor and against the doors. They shuddered but held.
A screech from behind him. He spun and threw one of his knives. It hit the mutt in the eye. It dropped and shuddered before going still.
Cassandra was lying beside it, hand gripping her arm. "It got me," she said through gritted teeth.
"Let me see." He knelt beside her. The sounds coming from the door were very distracting, but he pushed them away.
She moved her hand. A line of gashes had raked her arm. They frothed with something green.
Will swallowed down the urge to throw up. "Poison. Their claws are touched with some sort of venom."
"Are you hurt?"
"No. No, I'm fine. We've got to do something for your arm."
"What?" She looked at him hopefully.
Will looked around wildly. They had left most of their supplies outside. Even if Halt could and would get a sponsor, there was no way for a parachute to get down here.
Cassandra went through the same thought process. "Maybe it isn't deadly."
"Maybe. How does it feel?"
"It doesn't hurt," she assured him. "It feels kind of numb, actually."
Will felt cold. "Can you move it?"
She tried. Her fingers twitched. That was all.
She went pale. "It's spreading," she whispered.
No. No. No.
"We could - " Will swallowed and tried again. "We could try amputating it."
She closed her eyes. "I'd just die from blood loss." She was shaking. "I'm going to die."
"No," he said, more out of reflex than conviction.
She shuddered. "It's spreading fast, Will."
He wrapped an arm around her. Her skin was already fever hot.
No. No. No.
A small, detached portion of his brain thought things through. Paralysis. It had started in her arm and gotten into her blood stream. When it reached her heart, or her lungs, it would kill her.
He could see her fighting back tears. Her breath was coming in short gasps.
He wasn't sure how long it lasted. The bats kept thumping uselessly against the doors in a nightmare rhythm. Cassandra got weaker and weaker.
They talked. Private things that should have been between them but that were certainly airing all over Panem.
Will held her. He started crying at some point. Horace should be here. Horace should get to say goodbye.
But Cassandra just got weaker and weaker until suddenly the thumping outside had stopped and a short gasp came out of her lips and her eyes grew frantic. He could see her struggling to breathe. Trying and failing.
"Shh. Shh." A sob tore out of his throat. "Shh."
She went still.
A cannon cracked the air.
Sobs wracked out of Will. Bit by bit they stopped until only a thin line of tears trailed down his cheeks.
His eyes went hard. He laid Cassandra down gently and arranged her as best he could. He gathered up his knives and shoved the table out of the way.
He strode out the doors. The mutts were nowhere to be seen.
He leaned down to pick up his bow.
He very much wanted to shoot something.

The Gamemakers played with the footage, splicing moments for the highlights reel. The one in charge of the hovercraft stared in frustration.
"How are we supposed to get the body out? The least he could have done is take the body out!"
Halt stared at the man and imagined how he would look if throttled. "Somehow, I don't imagine he was thinking about your convenience."
He stormed out.
Halt didn't want the Capital to see him weep.