eat your canaries; hotties, day 3

[tick 12a / calla]

The tunnel's still distantly crumbling. There was another fork in the path, another support beam falling, Sage veered off to the right, pulling Inga pulling Izzy, while the boys went left. The rockfall abruptly cuts off the sound of their voices and dimly, the only thing Inga can think is good riddance.

And with the cave-in behind them, they can finally slow down. Inga stops and turns, breathing hard.

Her ankle feels like a dull flame, radiating up to the back of her leg. She can tell just by shifting that it's swollen.

So what if she didn't get the fight that she wanted. They've got bigger problems now. She's vibrating a little, still way too tense, still holding herself like a bowstring. Not panicked, not alarmed, just a little more strained. Like one of those big cats from the documentaries, hunters long, long extinct, teeth the size of a forearm.

"We need to find a way out."

If they're in a dead-end, then air is going to eventually be a problem.

Maybe that was the Gamemakers' plan - not crushed to death, but sequestered. How fast do you turn on someone for one more breath.

It's darker now that the tunnel's closed. There isn't even a speck of light in the wall of rubble. The rest of the quaking sounds like far away thunder. Depth goes funny in the dark like that. The rest of the tunnel could go on for miles.

Dust on her face, all along her neck, in her hair. The grit of it itches, but can't reach up to wipe it away. That would mean letting go of one of them. It's nearly pitch black enough that they could get lost without the connection.

scavenges mines exit [1/2]
LbNKNthMX51-7
5. Insulated Coveralls (-2 weather damage)

mount attempt with lasso (rope)
1-2
denied xx

1-7·1-2

[maverick hale 🌧️ d5 [nyte]]

With bitter grit between my teeth, I grind up rage with the minerals. I'm unfamiliar with the feeling, a tingling heat the settled in the top of my chest. Not something that runs deep - like sorrow and grief - nor does it seize my muscles like a tenuous fear. It's a scream that builds, that begs to be heard. I'm frustrated that we've run for what feels like hours and ended up nowhere.

"We need to keep moving." We've barely caught our breath and Inga says it like it's the simplest thing in the world. There's earth on all sides of us and we're closer to dying than we are living. Stealing oxygen from each other's lungs in greedy gulps. She's right, and I'm angry that she's right. That I cannot afford to fall to my knees and bury my face in my hands. To go somewhere else in my mind where none of this bullshit exists.

Armed to the teeth, with wounds weeping blood I look at Inga and for the first time that she is fragile. Like Izzy, like me. There's a good chance that we'll all die down here. Strength doesn't much matter if you're lost to madness and catacombs.

I still think I'll be the first to go. It's a small comfort they might mourn this mediocre girl.

"Dunno how you do it, Sharky." There's a fish in my arms, so I pretend I'm talking to him and not the predator with far more teeth. "Don't you ever just wanna give up? Let your spine curve a little?" Ruined by the collapsing mine, this is the closest I've come to seeing her undone. I drink in the sight, a little greedy.

In spite of my words, I pick a path ahead kicking rubble aside and finding catharsis in the way displaced pebbles cause little avalanches. "The Gamemakers promised treasure, but this is just a load of boring rocks." I laugh hollow, "Hey, Ivan, if you can hear me! Fuck you buddy!"

[scavenge!]
QITKYKdDxV1-7

1-7

[lucius branwen / 10 — fox]

🌱

you know what they say in Six when kids misbehave? you could be in Twelve.

kids in Twelve wish they could live in your room with the peeling wallpaper and the corners of black mold clinging to the window. kids in Twelve wish they could eat your wet, gray cafeteria lunch. but kids in Twelve can't, because they're in the mines, they haven't seen sunlight in three weeks, they sleep on slabs of rock.

be a little grateful because you're bottom of the barrel, but at least you're not bottom of the barrel in Twelve.

always hated that. might believe it now though. the air's dry with the tint of darkness, taste of coal grinding against my teeth. the low glow of a flickering light turns Inga's hair burnished beneath the dust. and it's quiet now, except for the ragged sound of breathing. she pulls forward.

“we need to find a way out.”

Sage kicks the rubble off the path. the sound of loose stones rolling.

i breathe deep, most of it dust, but the adrenaline settles, steadies. feels like i've been living night to night anyway. the dark's just fine.

“hey, maybe the treasure's the pals we made along the way.”

think Inga could kill me if she had a free hand. i'm holding it though, Sage's got the other.

there's the scrape of shoes, sudden yelp in the dark, i've got a fist around the pike, but Sage’s picking herself up, fishnet like a big cobweb around her. the glint of the tripwire stretches along the path. i crouch down, pull at the wire, splinter of sharp bone pieces scattered on the ground, spine thicker than my arm. it's still the colour of pearl.

“guess someone was here. can't be the wrong direction if they made it out alive.”

scavenging mine exit
P9Sn1jrIPr1-7

mount with lasso
1-2

1-7·1-2

[tick 12a / calla]

When Sage starts yelling at Gamemaker Korsch, Inga clocks back in. She squeezes her hand, feels the dark close in a little tighter because they're obviously watching.

She thinks of Gamemaker Hale in that elevator. Her presence had taken up the whole little space and then some. You can all me Maryn. She'd known just where to stick her claws while Inga had burned away in the corner.

She'd said Willem, used it life a knife, and Inga wanted to wrench the doors back open to do something stupid.

So maybe it's a little karmic, the way that Sage trips and Inga pulls her back by the hand, balancing them all through the strange shuffle.

"Thought I told you to stay up." She murmurs.

Another limp down the tunnel, one step closer to hopefully something brighter. Hopefully fresh air. Hopefully they're good little pals. Inga starts up a fantasy of sending darts through the boys' eyes. A vertebrae crunches under her heel.

"We don't know if they made it out alive." She says darkly, voice carrying back to Izzy. "They could still be in here."

Dead or alive. There could be another set of tributes waiting around any of these corners. There could be more traps. Or something even worse.

And their first line of defense -

"Sage," She calls out, quieter now, but still everything seems to echo. She tugs on her hand to bring her back a step, "Let me lead now."

scavenges mines exit [2/2]
tMos6KKwtw1-7
1. Coal

mount attempt with lasso (rope)
1-2
DENIED XX

1-7·1-2

[lucius branwen / 10 — fox]

🌱

by the wire, there's the soft shine of metal, half-buried in the rubble. leave the bones on the ground, and i pick up the handle of the axe instead, pulling it out with a small avalanche of debris shifting. it's weighty, and i rest it over my shoulder with one hand.

Inga moves to be in front. i drag her back again.

"girl, your ankle."

it's dark, but it's the sound of the steps, it's the drag of it on the stone. i know what it's like, listening to the creak of weight in the middle of the night. yeah, what is she gonna do, limping through the tunnels, if there's another trap? fall?

so i pull forward, raise the axe a little. grip tightening, and how hard could it be? feels like swinging a bat.

i let her go, reach for Sage, fingers locking, our girl sandwiched in the middle now.

no more falling the rest of the time we're alive.

"i've got it," said easy, swallowing any other feeling. it's how i've done anything for half my life when i had nothing but nerve all these years. "don't even worry."

scavenging mine exit
Yt7ZnhXCvS1-7

mount with lasso
1-2

1-7·1-2