Breathing in the Chemicals // [Day 3 RK vs. GF vs. Rats]

[Noah Vau - D2 (Cato)]

R E V A N      •      A N T I L L E S

I'm stuck standing in the moment bruised and battered, and all I can do is watch Langley fall lifeless to the ground, and this time when I hear the bang, I know it's a cannon. My heart is in my throat, my mind is racing, and I don't even know what's happening anymore. Everything is quick, and the words of everyone blends together, and it takes every ounce of strength to remain standing. I barely watch the rats fall, but I see them out of the corner of my eye lifeless on the ground below, and it's in that moment I hear Nanette.

"Nanette, Flynn we have to go." My voice is quiet, and I don't know if it even registers in the midst of the chaos, but Nan isn't coming. She's kneeling over top of Langley's body pushing on her chest, and I know she's trying to bring her back to life. I turn towards Flynn unsure of what to even do, or what to say, but I just know we can't stand here all day. For a moment, my eyes are failing me, and tears are trying to escape the corners. I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't mean to ruin everything. Maybe if I had just focused, she would still be alive.

I remember the promise I made, and I quickly go behind Nan, and I wrap my arms around her pulling her away from Langley's body. We have to go. We can't stay here, and she's begging me to let her go, and it's breaking my heart more than I ever imagined possible. She's clawing at my arms, and I keep my grip wrapped around her tighter than ever before. "Nanette, we have to go. We have to." I'm pleading with her myself, but my voice cracks, and this is a moment I Was never prepared for.

And finally, I find the strength that's needed to pull her away, and I'm trying to be strong myself. I didn't come to the games to cry over people. I came to win. I came so my family could have a life, and this is a moment that I never prepared for. Nan goes limp in my arms, and I don't even know what to do, but I loosen my grip. All it takes is a moment, and then she's lifting my arm over her shoulder. I look back to Flynn, "Come on, Flynn, we have to go." I feel broken, but I try to keep everything together. I try to remain strong as I whisper one last promise to Langley. I'll make sure to get Nanette as far as I can. I promise. Everything else is just a whisper in the wind.

-Revan flees with assistance from Nanette and helps Flynn flee-

[Sunrise Rainier D2 // [Thundy]]

Even when you feel like you are finally standing still
You’re still rolling, just like thunder
Where ya going, don’t you wonder?

The thing about death is that it doesn’t usually happen instantaneously.

A cannon fires for the girl who fell to his fists, but she’s still... there, physically, tangibly there, her body a slump in the dirt, and then Coach’s strike takes down the last of the mutated rats, and it falls too.

What once was chaos is now only the panic of the aftermath. Tributes running, scrambling, panicking over the last breaths of their ally, and Syd’s just. Standing.

He’s here. And so is this girl. But she’s ragged, and he’s… not.

Just a minute ago, none of this was even happening. And now it’s done.

Syd drifts between the harsh reality of the moment and the hazy memory of the seconds that just took place, lost somewhere between here and then.

He’d made up his mind. He chose to kill her, and god, he followed through.

And now he’s just. Standing. Drifting. Lost.

The other group, they’re saying ”we have to go”, and Syd’s glad of it. He can’t fucking move from that spot. His feet won’t let him.

Then he looks back at the others. Coach, Belle, Benedict, all still standing.

He tries to remember why he’s here: to protect them. To help one of them make it home.

He tries even harder to forget that he could have just as easily allied with the girl dying in the dirt.

Nothing More Than Spinning by Fruition

[Syd flees slowly, thinkin' his thoughts]

[d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel]

F L Y N N        •        G A R N E R

”I am so sorry Langley.” I say as I honour her wish for us to flee as soon as she hits the ground. A sorry will not heal her wounds. A sorry will not bring her back. It is over for Langley but not for me. It is a part of the game. Losing. Twenty-three people must lose this game. But damn, I wish that were not the rule.

”I am sorry for not having your back.” I do not look at her killers as I follow Nan and Meathead. There is no point in turning and cursing at them like Revan’s district partner. They are just playing by the rules and well we might see them again tomorrow and I do not want to be on the wrong side of them before then. I can honour Langley’s death by getting out of here, by getting the others out of here and living for as long as we can. We cannot let her life go to waste.

Flynn flees

[d4 Panda Scope [Gayton]]

Bene tried. But he couldn’t follow through. I couldn’t hate him for it. None of us are born killers. Not even Coach, as much as he’d never admit it. Revan ran to his friends and hobbled away. I couldn’t catch him, my leg was still broken after all.

My allies were running too. Leaving me, for a moment, alone with this lifeless body of a girl I never spoke to. I’m not even sure which of my allies killed her. I don’t remember much of anything that just happened.

It’s as if a fog lifted from my head and I saw through the eyes I used to see Adam with. But whoever it was who killed that rat, and tried to kill Revan, that was someone new. Someone I’d never met.

I didn’t want to kill him to survive, I wanted to be vicious.

And this girl, I didn’t even know her name. And as much as I’m trying to, I didn’t care. And I wasn’t sorry that she was dead. I was glad Revan lost.

What have I become?

A beast.

[belle flees]

[sbeeg]

Benedict Nolan

And now we know why
And know what we must do

The second the fight lulls he's moving. Agony runs up his leg from the long broken bone and heat crawls up his neck from the break in his collarbone. He grabs his fish plushie from the ground and staggers after Coach and Syd. Belle pauses, almost as if she wants to stay and spill more blood but even she follows.

He's still clutching Alicia's photo and can't help but think there was a guiding hand in this encounter. So many times when a hammer would have broken his skull or a spear would have hit his throat. And they didn't.

He was supposed to die today and now he can't knowing something or someone was trying so hard to keep him alive. It may just be for one more day but it had to be worth it.

Benedict limps away alive.

Lyrics from Caffeinated Consciousness by TV on the Radio

Benedict Flees

[kap]

Filler flee for Coach

[Coach flees the fight]