Who: Shimmer Flux [d1] and Shad Simmmons [d4] What: Nothing ever goes according to plan in the Games When: The final day Where: Alto - Cloud 9 Warnings: Hunger Games, etc.
Shimmer chewed on strips of jerky as she and Shad walked along the island, looking for the feast the Gamemakers had promised. Rationing was no longer on her mind, knowing that this was it.
Her stomach had little butterflies, adrenaline already beginning to pump in anticipation of the fight to come. She felt almost weightless, as if she were walking on literal clouds, as they traversed the misty landscape, treading a familiar path back toward the Cornucopia and beyond.
Four tributes. Shad was suppose to be Fannie, and even though he wasn’t, she knew their fragile alliance was the only chance she had against Pompeia, whose superior sword skills and intimidating figure would best her in her current state. Hoping she was more injured was a futile exercise, so she didn’t bother to.
“It’s like we’re on the way to a funeral,” she joked, dark humor laced with an genuine smile.
Shad snorted. He was also feeling tension from nerves, slowly winding tighter and tighter until he had no choice but to spring into action. His eye was on the prize now, with three tributes with whom to vye for the victor's crown. Although he was still dealing with bouts of stomach cramps from the damn plants he'd eaten, he felt confident about his standing. He was in better shape than Shimmer, and he didn't see the girl from Six being a problem. Pompeia was the main competition, and he wasn't sure how she'd fared against the wolves, let alone in the time afterwards.
His knives, which had suited him more than well up until this point, would be an interesting match against Pompeia's sword, and even Shimmer's spear, if it came to it. Ruminating on his disadvantages wasn't going to do him any favors, however, so he dismissed those worries, seizing on to Shimmer's joke with a little too much enthusiasm.
"As long as it's not mine," he said. "I know you feel the same way." He glanced over at her. "What're you thinking? Take out Pompeia first?"
Shimmer grinned. She very much planned for it to be Shad’s, but was inevitable they both wanted it to be the others so she only nodded. “Yes. Kill Pompeia, then it's anyone’s game,” she offered. She knew the only other person alive was the girl who’d ‘helped’ her with the cow-mutt thing a few days ago. The one who’d cried so much in training. It confused her a little that the Gamemakers hadn’t killed her off yet, really. “Maybe the crying girl will get lucky, and we’ll kill each other so she wins,” she added less seriously.
"Let's not do that," said Shad. "Does Six really need another stroke of luck like last year's?" If anything, he thought it should come down to a fight between the three Career districts. They'd trained for it. It would be a waste of each of their individual efforts if it went to an outlier district. "You can kill her," he added. "I'll wait." And possibly get her from behind as soon as he knew the girl from Six wouldn't get back up. Shimmer just hummed at Shad’s suggestion, deciding to put Six’s fate out of her mind for the time being.
As they started crossing the bridge back to the Cornucopia island, she eyed the sides of blue sky and shrouded earth below. Unlike some, she was actually a little relaxed on the cloud highway, really appreciative of the effort made to give them the illusion they were crossing the sky. “My family makes this back home,” she said, letting the butt of the spear hit the glass with a loud click for emphasis. A wisp of a smile played on her lips, which the audience probably interrupted as for her family, but was actually because she thought the display here was breathtaking.
His attention turned to the bridge they were walking across. The bridges always made him uneasy, though he'd tried not to show it. He was a kid from the sea-level, and the altitude they were at already made him lightheaded and uneasy. He hadn't wanted to be the joke of a tribute to fall over the edge, and the loud girl from District Ten's death had only solidified that.
"Yeah?" he asked. "You make it this sturdy? For bridges?" Shimmer did seem oddly comfortable on the thing. "Or is this a Gamemaker special?"
“Usually we make really fine glass, for the pretty things they like in the Capitol,” she replied. “But we’ve made tempered glass before. Not much at once, because our furnace isn’t designed for a big load, but every once in awhile it’s needed for something.”
She had a hard time fathoming who had actually created these bridges - they were one of the only glassworks families she knew of back home, but it hadn’t been them. Even if she had spent most of her time in the morgue over the last few years, the amount of time and the quantity would have drawn her attention even on her most dreamy of days.
“Wanna race?” she joked, picking up her pace only slightly. Her short laugh was cut off by a small grimace as the move irritated her sprained ankle - which was still painful despite her best efforts to wrap shreds of Almond’s jacket around it and a useless swathering of healing cream. Shimmer had been about to make a dry joke about it when the sound of something breaking caught her attention. Her eyebrows rose as she looked to Shad. The low groan was unlike anything she had ever heard before and the large cloud of dust that rose up behind them made her ask, “Did the Earth just burp?” all the while trying to speed up and away from it.
"I don't know." Shad was frozen, trusting only to turn his head from side to side as he surveyed the area. He noticed that instead of pausing, Shimmer had hastened her pace, so he quickly followed suit. "But if that sounds coming from either end of the bridge, we are in a hell of a lot of trouble."
His footsteps echoed against the glass. He could hear Shimmer trying to catch up, but she was not moving as quickly as he could. And in another world, in a different situation, he might've offered to carry her. But this was the Hunger Games and he only cared about himself. There was another low, grinding groan from somewhere, and then he really began to sweat.
"What's happening?!"
“Not a clue,” Shimmer confessed, as she broke out into a run. Her ankle protested angrily about it and although she couldn’t catch up to Shad, she seemed to be staying ahead of whatever was happening. A shot of jealousy and desperation surged through her when she saw him reach the solid ground on the other side and it felt like she had only barely made it when the bridge began to crack and shatter, falling away from them effortlessly in a matter of seconds.
Eyes slightly watery from the pain in her foot, she slowed way down, limping along before stopping all together and taking a moment to look back at where the bridge had been. “Guess we’re too slow,” she commented dryly. Shimmer had seen tributes get chased to feasts in the past, but they often tended to be the unwilling participants. The crowd must be getting restless, she thought.
Just when she started walking again, intent on catching up to Shad, the ground beneath them rumbled and shook, and she almost lost her balance. Sticking the spear into the ground gave her something to hold onto as she jerked violently against the tremor. “Lets -” she began but the rest of whatever she had wanted to say was swallowed up by the crumbling of the ground beneath her as both she and it plummeted to the unknown below.
"HOLY SHIT!" Shad cried. He was in a half-crouch, balancing against the rumble of earth. One minute Shimmer had been behind him, and a second later she was gone. Shad's eyes flew open and his expression was almost comical in its shock. His jaw had dropped about as swiftly and low as the ground she'd been standing on, and then he snapped it up, a cannon exploded in tandem.
He didn't need the hint. Efforts redoubled, he turned and ran, imagining the earth crumbling at his heels. He was too afraid to look, though, and too preoccupied to think about what Shimmer's death meant, once he reached his destination.