Fic: That Hunger Games AU (2/3)
Part 1
They've been walking through the forest for hours. They were supposed to be hunting, but by this point Mark's just sort of wandering along. Eduardo walks beside him, but he's not looking where he's going. His eyes are watching the cloudy sky.
“We should find shelter,” He states. “They're going to throw a blizzard at us in a couple of hours.”
Mark frowns. “How can you tell?”
Eduardo points to the white sky, then walks on in search for somewhere to shelter themselves.
“What? Did you learn about cloud patterns while you were training for the games?”
Eduardo pauses. His eyebrows meet and he watches Mark with a cold expression. “Actually, according to my father predicting the weather's a pretty useless skill for winning the games. I learned it because I like it,” He says firmly. Mark gets the feeling that this is something he's had to defend a lot.
He can see why. From the short amount of days he's spent with Eduardo, he's heard enough about Papa Saverin to know he's the cause for much of his son's stress. It's better to just drop it when he comes up in conversations.
“You're probably right about the blizzard. There haven't been any deaths since the avalanche, I'd say the audience are getting restless.”
Eduardo stops. “The blizzard would make us take shelter,” He states.
“Yes, we've established that.”
Eduardo turns to look at him, with a suspicious look on his face. “If all the tributes are taking shelter, then there'd be no fighting.”
Realization dawns on Mark, and his eyebrows rise. “Unless there's only one shelter for all of us to end up in.”
Eduardo nods. “We're walking right into battle.”
Mark knew Eduardo was good for something. Eduardo throws him the second spear so they'll both find the place ready.
“The others won't know about the blizzard until it happens. We could get a head start; attack them when they get there.”
Eduardo nods. He has the same reluctance he had when Tyler ordered him to kill Mark, but he can't go on just letting everyone live. Eventually it's going to come back and bite him in the ass.
They soon find the shelter where the Gamemakers are trying to lure them. They've been walking near the mountains for ages, and there's a giant cave waiting for them. The cave is dark and empty. It looks like it goes on in darkness for miles. No doubt there's hundreds of muttations in there waiting for them. Even if they do manage to kill all the tributes who come to the cave, there's not telling how long the blizzard will last. They could be trapped in there with anything.
Eduardo's thinking the exact same thing Mark is, from the hesitant look on his face.
“We could always see if there's somewhere else,” He suggests, but it's pointless. They both know there won't be anywhere else. This is it.
“Let's just go in and wait,” Mark says.
Eduardo sighs and nods.
-
The blizzard starts an hour and a half later, just as Eduardo predicted. It's almost scary, just how accurate he was. They wait near the mouth of the cave, so they can deal with anyone who comes running in, fleeing from the pouring snow. The blizzard comes down for ten minutes before Mark sees some one walking in slowly. It's the blonde girl from District 10. He shares a look with Eduardo, and they both prepare themselves for a fight.
The girl doesn't see them at first. She's disorientated by all the snow. Mark takes the opportunity to pounce at her. He throws his spear at her. It hits her in the shoulder, and she fall to the ground with shock and pain.
That was easier than he thought. He and Eduardo exchange looks before Mark goes to her body to retrieve the spear. She's not dead, but she's whimpering weakly. They could finish her off now. Mark rolls her over to get the spear out and suddenly feels like he's choking.
The girl was faking it. She has a rope which she's pulling as tightly as she can around his neck. Mark chokes and coughs. He's panicking. This is the second time that somebody's choked him in the last week and it's starting to really take it's toll on him. He pulls at the rope helplessly, wondering where the hell Eduardo is.
His eyes flit around the cave, and then he spots him. Eduardo's in the middle of a fight with the boy from 12 who stole Mark's food. Eduardo's taller, but the boy is fast.
Mark struggles. His vision is getting blurry and Eduardo can't come to his rescue. He closes his eyes, trying to urge his heart to slow the fuck down, and then sends his elbow into the chest of the girl behind him. It's enough for her grip to loosen slightly. Mark's still short for breath as he reaches for the spear still jammed in her shoulder. She catches herself and begins to choke him again. It's worse this time, and Mark's vision is going fuzzy. He uses all the strength he has left to stick the spear into her stomach.
He hears her cry out and drop him. His face is pressed to the cold ground of the cave, and he sees different coloured blobs moving around him. He hears mumbling. Then another scream from the girl, one that he didn't cause. Eduardo, he thinks, and then he passes out.
-
“Mark?”
Mark's eyes flutter open to see Eduardo's face right above his, looking worried. “Wardo?” He whispers.
“Are you alright?” Eduardo asks.
“Yes,” Mark says, but his throat is hoarse from all the choking.
Eduardo breathes out a sigh of relief anyway, and sits back. He extends a hand to Mark, and pulls him up into a sitting position. They're further into the cave now, and there's bloodstains where the girl from 8 had been before.
“What happened?” Mark croaks, and winces at the sound of his voice.
“I tried to help you, but I saw the guy from Twelve come in and ended up fighting him. Then when I saw you choking I let him get away so I could help you. You already wounded her pretty badly, and when I got there she was begging me to make the pain stop, so I, uh …”
Mark feels guilt wash over him. Eduardo hates killing people; avoids it if he can. And now he just murdered a girl. It feels like it was Mark's fault for some reason. Eduardo wouldn't have had to if Mark had done it. Or if Mark had just let her be. Mark feels sick.
Eduardo watches him with that trademark worried look. He gives him a small smile. “Did you know hovercrafts can fit in here? This is a really big cave. I think the entire mountain might be hollow.” He's trying to lighten the mood.
“What happened to the boy from Twelve?” Mark asks.
“He's in the cave somewhere,” Eduardo answers.
“You didn't go looking for him?”
“I told you, it's a really big cave. And I wasn't just gonna leave you here alone.”
Always so noble. Eduardo's too good for any of this. He shouldn't be here. He should be at home in District 4, living his life happily, always with that crinkly-eyed smile.
“So what now?”
Eduardo looks to the mouth of the cave. It's snowed so much that the snows pouring into it, and its at least halfway to the top.
“Looks like everyone's trapped in here for the time being.”
“What do you mean everyone?”
“The cannon sounded twice. Once for the girl I killed, and once for some one who got trapped in the blizzard. Unless there's another shelter somewhere, which I doubt, I think all the remaining tributes are in this cave.”
If two more died it means there's only five tributes left. And two of those are Mark and Eduardo, which means they're trapped in here with the three tributes they have to kill to win. The boy from District 12 is here. Whoever died in the blizzard was either Tyler, Christy, or Erica. He doesn't know how he feels about that.
“I think I'll leave soon,” Eduardo says. “So we won't have to …” He trails off. The words kill each other die on his lips.
“Why? One of us is going to die anyway. It's inevitable. I'd rather you kill me than Tyler or Christy,” Mark says bluntly.
“You can't say things like that,” Eduardo admonishes him.
Mark shrugs back carelessly.
“I don't think I could kill you even if I wanted to,” Eduardo says. He's avoiding Mark's eyes by staring down at the ground.
“Why?” Mark asks.
“Because we're friends,” He says, finally looking up at Mark's face. Mark holds his gaze for a moment. He feels a warmth flush through him, and suddenly he just wants to hide away. He doesn't want to look at Eduardo; doesn't want to see Eduardo's caring eyes watching him.
They can't be friends. Mark doesn't think he can take that. If they're friends, then he might have to kill his friend. He might have to watch his friend go, and hear a cannon announcing that his friend has been murdered. He can't afford to have friends in the arena. Even with Erica he agreed not to hold back if it was just the two of them, and he can't stand the thought of killing Erica. Erica's not even his friend.
Friendship is a weakness, and Eduardo … Mark needs him to not be his friend. He needs Eduardo to stop looking at him with soft eyes, and stop smiling at him like he's the best thing since fucking sliced bread, and stop making his head so confused, and his body flush with warmth, and his heart feel so … He needs to stop.
“We're not friends,” Mark blurts out.
Eduardo looks at the ground again. He cleans some blood from his spear, hiding the wounded puppy look that's taken over his face. It hurts Mark to even watch. “Well, that's handy for you then,” He mumbles, then stands up, not offering Mark a hand like he usually does.
Great. Now Mark's heart feels even worse.
If the games don't kill him Eduardo will, and he won't even have to try.
-
They walk further into the cave. Eduardo may have been right about the mountain being hollow. The ceiling of the cave rises far up above them. There are holes so they can see the sky, but mostly what they get when they look up is a face full of snow.
A small village could be built inside this cave.
Mark wonders where the others are. They must be pretty deep if they haven't run into any of them yet.
Despite the snow spilling in through the gaps, Mark can see it's getting dark out. Eduardo notices this too because he finally speaks for the first time in four hours. Not that Mark's counting.
“We should probably rest up.”
“Yeah,” Mark agrees.
They settle into a little secluded corner of the cave and Eduardo lays out the sleeping bag.
“You sleep first,” He says and then sits himself beside the sleeping bag with a knife in his hand.
“You're not sleeping?”
“Mark, we're trapped here with the last three remaining tributes. We can't risk both of us resting.”
He's right of course, but Mark still feels bothered by it. He gets into the sleeping bag and waits for sleep to come, but it doesn't. Instead he just lays there watching Eduardo's back.
The anthem plays, and Eduardo leans over to see the faces of today's victims. He remains expressionless as he watches, then sits back against the wall of the cave, staring at the knife in his hands.
“Who died in the blizzard?” Mark asks.
Eduardo jumps, so lost in his thoughts that he forgot Mark was there.
“Christy,” He mutters.
That leaves Tyler and Erica. Mark still doesn't know how to feel about that.
He remembers that Christy was from District 4 just like Eduardo. He wonders how Eduardo must be feeling. If he's going to admit of his life-long crush on her the way Dustin did with Stephanie. Or maybe he barely even knew Christy, and doesn't care. Or maybe Christy was just a vague acquaintance like Erica, until the games. They can't just be acquaintances now. They've been through too many of the same experiences.
“Did you know her well?”
Eduardo nods sadly. “I did a lot of training with her. I've known her since I was a kid.”
Mark doesn't know what to say. He's never comforted some one before. He tries to think what he'd want to hear in that situation, but honestly, he doesn't know that either.
Eduardo continues. “We disagreed on a lot, but …”
“Yeah,” Mark says. He gets it. He and Erica aren't exactly BFFs either.
“She volunteered with me,” Eduardo finishes, and finally turns to look art Mark. He looks a little lost. Mark really wishes he knew what to say.
“Why did you volunteer?” He finds himself asking, because the question's been plaguing him since he met Eduardo. This kind, caring boy is a mystery to him, because when he could have lived a happy life being kind and caring to others, he chose to come here and kill them all even though it's the last thing he wants to do. How does that happen to a boy?
Eduardo clears his throat anxiously. “My father,” He finally admits. It's so quiet Mark barely catches it.
“He made you volunteer?”
Eduardo shakes his head. “My entire life I've been working towards this. Lot's of people in my district do the same. But my father never thought I could do it. He always thought I was weak, and a disappointment. He never wanted me in the games, because I guess he thought I'd let him down.”
“So you came to prove yourself.”
Eduardo sighs. “Prove myself. Run away from him. Rebel against him. All three on a bad day,” he jokes. His laugh sounds cold and bitter. “I have to win.”
“Maybe he didn't want you to go because he didn't want to lose you,” Mark suggests. He's not sure if he believes it, but he wants to. Eduardo doesn't deserve a father like he has.
“He didn't try to stop me,” Eduardo mumbles.
-
They spend the next few days near the cave, hoping the snowstorm will stop. It only gets worse, and more snow builds up at the mouth of the gave. It's made a pretty solid mound of snow at this point.
There's been lots of tension between them. Eduardo's been quiet and distant, and Mark hates every second of it so much he wants to scream.
Why does Eduardo even want to be his friend anyway? One of them is going to die! Does he not get that?
“Why did you save me?” He asks on their fourth night.
Eduardo shrugs. “You seemed like you'd make it pretty far. You deserved a chance.”
“You could have let me die and had one less person to worry about.”
Eduardo sighs. “Yes, that would have been much easier.”
He turns to face Mark. His eyes are so intense, it's frightening.
“For the record I don't regret it. Even now that it hurts a little.”
Mark swallows. “I'm glad. I- I like doing this with you.”
Eduardo's face takes on something entirely new. He looks away, like looking at Mark is hurting him. I just might be, according to him.
Mark hates him a little for getting so tangled up inside his head. He doubts he'll ever get Eduardo out now.
“You should go to sleep, Mark,” Eduardo says. “You won't have a guard tomorrow.”
“You're leaving tomorrow?”
Eduardo nods slowly.
Don't go, Mark wants to say. Stay with me. We'll figure something out. We can both live in this cave for the rest of our lives if it comes to it. Please. I need you. He keeps his mouth shut. He's not an idiot. These are all silly delusions he can never have.
He ignores the pain in his chest.
-
Eduardo wakes him up halfway through the night so he can take his turn sleeping. Frankly, Mark's glad. He's been having bad dreams.
He stupidly wishes morning doesn't come. He wants it to just stay like this. This is better than nothing.
What if it does come down to him and Eduardo? What can he do then. He can never hurt Eduardo. Not with a spear or with a knife. He couldn't watch him suffer like that.
He wonders if Eduardo could. Eduardo said he couldn't kill Mark even if he wanted to, but maybe he's wrong. Mark saw the determination in his eyes. He remembers Eduardo saying, “When the time comes, I'll do what I have to.” What if killing Mark is what he has to do? Will he spare him?
Mark makes a decision there to fix the problem before it becomes a problem at all. He ignores the beating of his heart that keeps telling him don't don't don't.
He starts sorting their supplies, making sure they both get an even share of everything for when they split up. There's a pile for him, and a pile for Eduardo. A spear, a knife, and night-glasses for each. Everything can be divided evenly; soup, water, fish. And then there's the solution to all their problems. The poison.
Mark looks at Eduardo's sleeping body. He thinks of everything Eduardo's done. He's let the boy from 12 steal the Career's food. He put the girl from 8 out of her misery instead of leaving her to die. He saved Mark when he could have left him to freeze to death. Eduardo who is so inherently good. Eduardo who can predict the weather, and who thinks the games are wrong, but plays them anyway just to show his father that he can. Eduardo who is too good for any of this.
Eduardo, Mark's only friend. Who makes his heart hurt, and his stomach flutter, and his brain question everything it knows.
Eduardo who has to die.
He pours the poison into Eduardo's share of water. It has no smell. He'll never see it coming.
Mark feels like he's gonna throw up.
-
They walk together in the morning. Eduardo seems to have gotten over the not being friends thing because he's smiling at Mark every time Mark catches his eye. It makes Mark want to throw himself off a cliff. He just smiles back and hopes that Eduardo can't read the shame and guilt on his face.
They keep going deeper and deeper into the cave, and Mark just wishes Eduardo would leave already. Before he changes his mind and tells him what he's done.
They come two different passages. Mark can't see where either of them go. They both look identical, with pillars holding up the ceiling, and no more gaps to let the snow fall through.
“I guess this is it,” Eduardo says.
Mark nods.
“I, uh. Goodbye, Mark,” He says.
“Bye, Wardo.”
Eduardo hesitates for a moment. He takes a look behind him to the passage that he's going to take, then turns back to Mark expectantly. It's like he secretly knows, and is waiting for Mark to tell him about the poison.
“What?” Mark asks nervously.
Eduardo grins. “Screw it,” He exclaims, and pulls Mark in for a hug. Well that's unexpected.
Mark stuffs his hands into his pockets to keep from holding Eduardo there and not letting him let go. He takes in the way Eduardo smells. It makes it worse. All of it. Mark can't stand it. Eduardo needs to go.
Eduardo finally breaks apart, still grinning blissfully.
“Okay. Bye,” He says again. “Good luck.”
“You too,” Mark says. Eduardo turns to his passage.
“Wardo!” Mark's mouth calls out without warning.
Eduardo turns.
“I'm sorry about- you are my friend. The best friend I've had. Don't forget that, okay? No matter what.”
Eduardo grins. “Oh course. Goodbye, Mark.”
Mark watches Eduardo's back as he walks into his passage and is plunged to darkness.
-
The passage doesn't have any connections to the outside world, but lights have been set up every few meters apart. They've been done sloppily though. Like they only had a limited supply.
Mark wonders which tributes he'll come across, if he even comes across anyone at all. He keeps his spear prepared, just in case it's Tyler.
The more he walks though. The more he thinks it might be Erica. The lights are too simple to be made for an arena. Even if they were trying to make it harder, they wouldn't do it with such crappy supplies. These lights were made by some one who didn't have more to choose from. Unless Tyler or the boy from District 12 know how to make lights, it has to be Erica.
Mark might have to kill Erica. He's not sure how he feels about that.
He makes it to the end of the passageway and comes to a clearing. And then his heart drops, because Eduardo's passageway comes to the same clearing, and Eduardo isn't here. Maybe Mark walked faster than him. Or maybe he's dead.
No. The cannon hasn't sounded. Mark relaxes himself. He's still on his way. He still has time left.
But that's not really great either, is it?
Mark swallows it all down and looks around the clearing. The ceilings are high. There's gaps for snow again, and lots of large pillars to hide behind.
Large pillars to hide behind.
Mark sees a flash of blonde behind one, but it's gone in the blink of an eye. It's either Tyler or the other boy. He doubts Tyler is that good art hiding, so it must be the other one.
Mark prepares his spear, and pulls out his knife too. He hears a woosh by his ear, and sees an arrow bounce off the pillar behind him, and fall to the ground. Mark ducks out of the way, just as a second arrow flies past. The boy can't possibly have many. Not at this stage in the games. If Mark gets him to waste them all, he'd have the advantage.
He's about run to another pillar when a familiar voice interrupts him.
“Hello again.”
Mark turns to see Tyler Winklevoss glaring at him, and sporting an ax. The fingers on his left hand are blue from frostbite. He has bruises on his neck; he must have run into the blonde girl too at some point. He also looks absolutely pissed.
“Too bad Eduardo's not here to chicken out, and save your skin,” Tyler taunts.
Mark's knuckles turn white from gripping his weapons so hard.
Tyler swings his arm back to throw the ax at Mark. Mark gets up to run away, but Tyler looks like he could probably hit a moving target. Mark swings behind a pillar just in time to see the ax fly by the place where his head would have been. Mark has three seconds to catch his breath before Tyler comes barreling at him like a mess of muscle that grew a body. Mark throws the spear in his direction, but he expertly dodges it.
Mark runs past a pillar and sees a flash of blonde. The boy from 12. He ducks sensing there's probably an arrow with his name on it. Indeed one does fly by. Tyler isn't so lucky, and Mark hears him swear when it hits his back. Tyler turns to face the boy and Mark takes the opportunity to stab him with the knife. Tyler screams out again.
He swings around, knocking Mark over with his arm. He sees the bloody knife in Mark's hand, and glances to the blonde boy. Realizing he's their priority before they kill each other, he runs to Eduardo's passageway. The boy shoots another arrow after him.
He only has three left in his sheath. Mark could probably take him now. He seems to notice too, because he gives Mark a considering look, then decides on something else. He shoots a arrow up to the ceiling of the opening. Mark looks up to where it shot and sees a bomb. Erica's bomb.
The boy hops away after Tyler, and Mark barely gets to his feet before he feels stones from the cave come crashing down on him from the bomb going off. He runs as fast as he can, getting knocked down by a giant boulder in the process. Dust from the rocks lands on him. He ends up coughing through a fog of dust, accidentally hitting off pillars.
He manages to make it into Eduardo's passage. He can feel bruises forming all over and he's covered in dust and blood. He's panting for breath when he remembers all the tributes he needs to kill. He only has his knife left. The boy from 12 has two arrows, Tyler has nothing, who knows what Erica has, and Eduardo could be dying somewhere for all he knows.
He hears a scream. A girl's scream. Erica.
“Chris!” She calls out. It's high pitched and hysterical. Mark runs to it.
The passage is only half-lit. Erica must have started running out of supplies for it. There's a box by the wall, with the batteries to the lights.
Up ahead he sees shadows moving. The big one's definitely Tyler. The other one might be the boy from 12, Chris. Mark can't see Erica anywhere.
Tyler's has Chris with his arms behind his back. He pushes Chris into the wall, smashing Chris' head against it.
Mark spots Erica a few feet away from them. Her body is lying limp on the floor, and she looks like she's been bent wrong. Mark's eyes widen. Tyler snapped her neck, that's why. He feels rage fill up inside him.
Tyler can't see Mark. He's too far away, and too busy beating Chris to a pulp.
Mark spots Chris' two arrows and the bow Chris had, slung on the floor, near them. Tyler must have ripped them off before he got to him. Mark knows what he has to do.
He secures the knife safely, puts on the night-glasses, then sprints to the bow and arrows. Tyler doesn't see him until Mark reaches them. He drops Chris' body as the cannon fires, and Mark sets the arrow and shoots it at the batteries. He misses the first time, and Tyler's stepping towards him now. He fires the second and everything goes black.
Tyler stops. He looks around, his expression a mix of rage and confusion. Mark takes the knife out, and Tyler looks at his direction. Mark moves as Tyler runs to the sound. Tyler stops again, realizing Mark is gone, and the Mark sticks the knife in his heart. He pulls the knife down, ripping Tyler's chest wide open. Tyler screams out in pain and falls to the ground. He starts to convulse, and the blood pools around him in bucketfuls.
Mark doesn't stay to watch. He runs to Erica's side. She hasn't got a clue what's going on. Her eyes are wide, and scared.
“Erica,” Mark says gently.
“Mark?” Erica sobs. She twitches trying to move, but can't. Tyler paralyzed her. She cries harder, realizing the same thing Mark realized. “Make it stop, Mark. Please! It hurts! Make it stop!”
A cannon fires signaling Tyler's death.
Mark nods. He takes Erica's hand. She's holding a flashlight, but her fingers have gone loose now. Mark takes it and takes her hand again. It doesn't react.
Tears are running down Erica's face, mixing with dirt and rubble.
“Mark!” Erica sobs again.
“Close your eyes,” Mark tells her.
She probably can't see anything anyway, but she does as she's told and her eyes flutter shut. Mark takes a deep breath, then sticks the knife in her heart. She gasps, but she can't move away. Mark pulls it out and does it again. Anything to make her die faster. He just wants her to be okay.
Erica's eyes stay squeezed shut. Mark stabs her a third time. The cannon fires. Erica's dead.
Mark lets her go and takes off the glasses. He turns on her flashlight, and looks at her body. Covered in red. Still bent all wrong.
Tyler's gone. Chris is gone. Erica's gone. Three cannons. Three down.
Which leaves Eduardo.
“Shit,” Mark mutters. He stands up and turns to the entrance where Eduardo should have come from. He watches, like maybe Eduardo will emerge and kill him now, but nothing happens.
Mark feels wasted away like he's lived a hundred years. His heart is slow now. Tired and worn out.
Now it's really real.
Part 3
They've been walking through the forest for hours. They were supposed to be hunting, but by this point Mark's just sort of wandering along. Eduardo walks beside him, but he's not looking where he's going. His eyes are watching the cloudy sky.
“We should find shelter,” He states. “They're going to throw a blizzard at us in a couple of hours.”
Mark frowns. “How can you tell?”
Eduardo points to the white sky, then walks on in search for somewhere to shelter themselves.
“What? Did you learn about cloud patterns while you were training for the games?”
Eduardo pauses. His eyebrows meet and he watches Mark with a cold expression. “Actually, according to my father predicting the weather's a pretty useless skill for winning the games. I learned it because I like it,” He says firmly. Mark gets the feeling that this is something he's had to defend a lot.
He can see why. From the short amount of days he's spent with Eduardo, he's heard enough about Papa Saverin to know he's the cause for much of his son's stress. It's better to just drop it when he comes up in conversations.
“You're probably right about the blizzard. There haven't been any deaths since the avalanche, I'd say the audience are getting restless.”
Eduardo stops. “The blizzard would make us take shelter,” He states.
“Yes, we've established that.”
Eduardo turns to look at him, with a suspicious look on his face. “If all the tributes are taking shelter, then there'd be no fighting.”
Realization dawns on Mark, and his eyebrows rise. “Unless there's only one shelter for all of us to end up in.”
Eduardo nods. “We're walking right into battle.”
Mark knew Eduardo was good for something. Eduardo throws him the second spear so they'll both find the place ready.
“The others won't know about the blizzard until it happens. We could get a head start; attack them when they get there.”
Eduardo nods. He has the same reluctance he had when Tyler ordered him to kill Mark, but he can't go on just letting everyone live. Eventually it's going to come back and bite him in the ass.
They soon find the shelter where the Gamemakers are trying to lure them. They've been walking near the mountains for ages, and there's a giant cave waiting for them. The cave is dark and empty. It looks like it goes on in darkness for miles. No doubt there's hundreds of muttations in there waiting for them. Even if they do manage to kill all the tributes who come to the cave, there's not telling how long the blizzard will last. They could be trapped in there with anything.
Eduardo's thinking the exact same thing Mark is, from the hesitant look on his face.
“We could always see if there's somewhere else,” He suggests, but it's pointless. They both know there won't be anywhere else. This is it.
“Let's just go in and wait,” Mark says.
Eduardo sighs and nods.
-
The blizzard starts an hour and a half later, just as Eduardo predicted. It's almost scary, just how accurate he was. They wait near the mouth of the cave, so they can deal with anyone who comes running in, fleeing from the pouring snow. The blizzard comes down for ten minutes before Mark sees some one walking in slowly. It's the blonde girl from District 10. He shares a look with Eduardo, and they both prepare themselves for a fight.
The girl doesn't see them at first. She's disorientated by all the snow. Mark takes the opportunity to pounce at her. He throws his spear at her. It hits her in the shoulder, and she fall to the ground with shock and pain.
That was easier than he thought. He and Eduardo exchange looks before Mark goes to her body to retrieve the spear. She's not dead, but she's whimpering weakly. They could finish her off now. Mark rolls her over to get the spear out and suddenly feels like he's choking.
The girl was faking it. She has a rope which she's pulling as tightly as she can around his neck. Mark chokes and coughs. He's panicking. This is the second time that somebody's choked him in the last week and it's starting to really take it's toll on him. He pulls at the rope helplessly, wondering where the hell Eduardo is.
His eyes flit around the cave, and then he spots him. Eduardo's in the middle of a fight with the boy from 12 who stole Mark's food. Eduardo's taller, but the boy is fast.
Mark struggles. His vision is getting blurry and Eduardo can't come to his rescue. He closes his eyes, trying to urge his heart to slow the fuck down, and then sends his elbow into the chest of the girl behind him. It's enough for her grip to loosen slightly. Mark's still short for breath as he reaches for the spear still jammed in her shoulder. She catches herself and begins to choke him again. It's worse this time, and Mark's vision is going fuzzy. He uses all the strength he has left to stick the spear into her stomach.
He hears her cry out and drop him. His face is pressed to the cold ground of the cave, and he sees different coloured blobs moving around him. He hears mumbling. Then another scream from the girl, one that he didn't cause. Eduardo, he thinks, and then he passes out.
-
“Mark?”
Mark's eyes flutter open to see Eduardo's face right above his, looking worried. “Wardo?” He whispers.
“Are you alright?” Eduardo asks.
“Yes,” Mark says, but his throat is hoarse from all the choking.
Eduardo breathes out a sigh of relief anyway, and sits back. He extends a hand to Mark, and pulls him up into a sitting position. They're further into the cave now, and there's bloodstains where the girl from 8 had been before.
“What happened?” Mark croaks, and winces at the sound of his voice.
“I tried to help you, but I saw the guy from Twelve come in and ended up fighting him. Then when I saw you choking I let him get away so I could help you. You already wounded her pretty badly, and when I got there she was begging me to make the pain stop, so I, uh …”
Mark feels guilt wash over him. Eduardo hates killing people; avoids it if he can. And now he just murdered a girl. It feels like it was Mark's fault for some reason. Eduardo wouldn't have had to if Mark had done it. Or if Mark had just let her be. Mark feels sick.
Eduardo watches him with that trademark worried look. He gives him a small smile. “Did you know hovercrafts can fit in here? This is a really big cave. I think the entire mountain might be hollow.” He's trying to lighten the mood.
“What happened to the boy from Twelve?” Mark asks.
“He's in the cave somewhere,” Eduardo answers.
“You didn't go looking for him?”
“I told you, it's a really big cave. And I wasn't just gonna leave you here alone.”
Always so noble. Eduardo's too good for any of this. He shouldn't be here. He should be at home in District 4, living his life happily, always with that crinkly-eyed smile.
“So what now?”
Eduardo looks to the mouth of the cave. It's snowed so much that the snows pouring into it, and its at least halfway to the top.
“Looks like everyone's trapped in here for the time being.”
“What do you mean everyone?”
“The cannon sounded twice. Once for the girl I killed, and once for some one who got trapped in the blizzard. Unless there's another shelter somewhere, which I doubt, I think all the remaining tributes are in this cave.”
If two more died it means there's only five tributes left. And two of those are Mark and Eduardo, which means they're trapped in here with the three tributes they have to kill to win. The boy from District 12 is here. Whoever died in the blizzard was either Tyler, Christy, or Erica. He doesn't know how he feels about that.
“I think I'll leave soon,” Eduardo says. “So we won't have to …” He trails off. The words kill each other die on his lips.
“Why? One of us is going to die anyway. It's inevitable. I'd rather you kill me than Tyler or Christy,” Mark says bluntly.
“You can't say things like that,” Eduardo admonishes him.
Mark shrugs back carelessly.
“I don't think I could kill you even if I wanted to,” Eduardo says. He's avoiding Mark's eyes by staring down at the ground.
“Why?” Mark asks.
“Because we're friends,” He says, finally looking up at Mark's face. Mark holds his gaze for a moment. He feels a warmth flush through him, and suddenly he just wants to hide away. He doesn't want to look at Eduardo; doesn't want to see Eduardo's caring eyes watching him.
They can't be friends. Mark doesn't think he can take that. If they're friends, then he might have to kill his friend. He might have to watch his friend go, and hear a cannon announcing that his friend has been murdered. He can't afford to have friends in the arena. Even with Erica he agreed not to hold back if it was just the two of them, and he can't stand the thought of killing Erica. Erica's not even his friend.
Friendship is a weakness, and Eduardo … Mark needs him to not be his friend. He needs Eduardo to stop looking at him with soft eyes, and stop smiling at him like he's the best thing since fucking sliced bread, and stop making his head so confused, and his body flush with warmth, and his heart feel so … He needs to stop.
“We're not friends,” Mark blurts out.
Eduardo looks at the ground again. He cleans some blood from his spear, hiding the wounded puppy look that's taken over his face. It hurts Mark to even watch. “Well, that's handy for you then,” He mumbles, then stands up, not offering Mark a hand like he usually does.
Great. Now Mark's heart feels even worse.
If the games don't kill him Eduardo will, and he won't even have to try.
-
They walk further into the cave. Eduardo may have been right about the mountain being hollow. The ceiling of the cave rises far up above them. There are holes so they can see the sky, but mostly what they get when they look up is a face full of snow.
A small village could be built inside this cave.
Mark wonders where the others are. They must be pretty deep if they haven't run into any of them yet.
Despite the snow spilling in through the gaps, Mark can see it's getting dark out. Eduardo notices this too because he finally speaks for the first time in four hours. Not that Mark's counting.
“We should probably rest up.”
“Yeah,” Mark agrees.
They settle into a little secluded corner of the cave and Eduardo lays out the sleeping bag.
“You sleep first,” He says and then sits himself beside the sleeping bag with a knife in his hand.
“You're not sleeping?”
“Mark, we're trapped here with the last three remaining tributes. We can't risk both of us resting.”
He's right of course, but Mark still feels bothered by it. He gets into the sleeping bag and waits for sleep to come, but it doesn't. Instead he just lays there watching Eduardo's back.
The anthem plays, and Eduardo leans over to see the faces of today's victims. He remains expressionless as he watches, then sits back against the wall of the cave, staring at the knife in his hands.
“Who died in the blizzard?” Mark asks.
Eduardo jumps, so lost in his thoughts that he forgot Mark was there.
“Christy,” He mutters.
That leaves Tyler and Erica. Mark still doesn't know how to feel about that.
He remembers that Christy was from District 4 just like Eduardo. He wonders how Eduardo must be feeling. If he's going to admit of his life-long crush on her the way Dustin did with Stephanie. Or maybe he barely even knew Christy, and doesn't care. Or maybe Christy was just a vague acquaintance like Erica, until the games. They can't just be acquaintances now. They've been through too many of the same experiences.
“Did you know her well?”
Eduardo nods sadly. “I did a lot of training with her. I've known her since I was a kid.”
Mark doesn't know what to say. He's never comforted some one before. He tries to think what he'd want to hear in that situation, but honestly, he doesn't know that either.
Eduardo continues. “We disagreed on a lot, but …”
“Yeah,” Mark says. He gets it. He and Erica aren't exactly BFFs either.
“She volunteered with me,” Eduardo finishes, and finally turns to look art Mark. He looks a little lost. Mark really wishes he knew what to say.
“Why did you volunteer?” He finds himself asking, because the question's been plaguing him since he met Eduardo. This kind, caring boy is a mystery to him, because when he could have lived a happy life being kind and caring to others, he chose to come here and kill them all even though it's the last thing he wants to do. How does that happen to a boy?
Eduardo clears his throat anxiously. “My father,” He finally admits. It's so quiet Mark barely catches it.
“He made you volunteer?”
Eduardo shakes his head. “My entire life I've been working towards this. Lot's of people in my district do the same. But my father never thought I could do it. He always thought I was weak, and a disappointment. He never wanted me in the games, because I guess he thought I'd let him down.”
“So you came to prove yourself.”
Eduardo sighs. “Prove myself. Run away from him. Rebel against him. All three on a bad day,” he jokes. His laugh sounds cold and bitter. “I have to win.”
“Maybe he didn't want you to go because he didn't want to lose you,” Mark suggests. He's not sure if he believes it, but he wants to. Eduardo doesn't deserve a father like he has.
“He didn't try to stop me,” Eduardo mumbles.
-
They spend the next few days near the cave, hoping the snowstorm will stop. It only gets worse, and more snow builds up at the mouth of the gave. It's made a pretty solid mound of snow at this point.
There's been lots of tension between them. Eduardo's been quiet and distant, and Mark hates every second of it so much he wants to scream.
Why does Eduardo even want to be his friend anyway? One of them is going to die! Does he not get that?
“Why did you save me?” He asks on their fourth night.
Eduardo shrugs. “You seemed like you'd make it pretty far. You deserved a chance.”
“You could have let me die and had one less person to worry about.”
Eduardo sighs. “Yes, that would have been much easier.”
He turns to face Mark. His eyes are so intense, it's frightening.
“For the record I don't regret it. Even now that it hurts a little.”
Mark swallows. “I'm glad. I- I like doing this with you.”
Eduardo's face takes on something entirely new. He looks away, like looking at Mark is hurting him. I just might be, according to him.
Mark hates him a little for getting so tangled up inside his head. He doubts he'll ever get Eduardo out now.
“You should go to sleep, Mark,” Eduardo says. “You won't have a guard tomorrow.”
“You're leaving tomorrow?”
Eduardo nods slowly.
Don't go, Mark wants to say. Stay with me. We'll figure something out. We can both live in this cave for the rest of our lives if it comes to it. Please. I need you. He keeps his mouth shut. He's not an idiot. These are all silly delusions he can never have.
He ignores the pain in his chest.
-
Eduardo wakes him up halfway through the night so he can take his turn sleeping. Frankly, Mark's glad. He's been having bad dreams.
He stupidly wishes morning doesn't come. He wants it to just stay like this. This is better than nothing.
What if it does come down to him and Eduardo? What can he do then. He can never hurt Eduardo. Not with a spear or with a knife. He couldn't watch him suffer like that.
He wonders if Eduardo could. Eduardo said he couldn't kill Mark even if he wanted to, but maybe he's wrong. Mark saw the determination in his eyes. He remembers Eduardo saying, “When the time comes, I'll do what I have to.” What if killing Mark is what he has to do? Will he spare him?
Mark makes a decision there to fix the problem before it becomes a problem at all. He ignores the beating of his heart that keeps telling him don't don't don't.
He starts sorting their supplies, making sure they both get an even share of everything for when they split up. There's a pile for him, and a pile for Eduardo. A spear, a knife, and night-glasses for each. Everything can be divided evenly; soup, water, fish. And then there's the solution to all their problems. The poison.
Mark looks at Eduardo's sleeping body. He thinks of everything Eduardo's done. He's let the boy from 12 steal the Career's food. He put the girl from 8 out of her misery instead of leaving her to die. He saved Mark when he could have left him to freeze to death. Eduardo who is so inherently good. Eduardo who can predict the weather, and who thinks the games are wrong, but plays them anyway just to show his father that he can. Eduardo who is too good for any of this.
Eduardo, Mark's only friend. Who makes his heart hurt, and his stomach flutter, and his brain question everything it knows.
Eduardo who has to die.
He pours the poison into Eduardo's share of water. It has no smell. He'll never see it coming.
Mark feels like he's gonna throw up.
-
They walk together in the morning. Eduardo seems to have gotten over the not being friends thing because he's smiling at Mark every time Mark catches his eye. It makes Mark want to throw himself off a cliff. He just smiles back and hopes that Eduardo can't read the shame and guilt on his face.
They keep going deeper and deeper into the cave, and Mark just wishes Eduardo would leave already. Before he changes his mind and tells him what he's done.
They come two different passages. Mark can't see where either of them go. They both look identical, with pillars holding up the ceiling, and no more gaps to let the snow fall through.
“I guess this is it,” Eduardo says.
Mark nods.
“I, uh. Goodbye, Mark,” He says.
“Bye, Wardo.”
Eduardo hesitates for a moment. He takes a look behind him to the passage that he's going to take, then turns back to Mark expectantly. It's like he secretly knows, and is waiting for Mark to tell him about the poison.
“What?” Mark asks nervously.
Eduardo grins. “Screw it,” He exclaims, and pulls Mark in for a hug. Well that's unexpected.
Mark stuffs his hands into his pockets to keep from holding Eduardo there and not letting him let go. He takes in the way Eduardo smells. It makes it worse. All of it. Mark can't stand it. Eduardo needs to go.
Eduardo finally breaks apart, still grinning blissfully.
“Okay. Bye,” He says again. “Good luck.”
“You too,” Mark says. Eduardo turns to his passage.
“Wardo!” Mark's mouth calls out without warning.
Eduardo turns.
“I'm sorry about- you are my friend. The best friend I've had. Don't forget that, okay? No matter what.”
Eduardo grins. “Oh course. Goodbye, Mark.”
Mark watches Eduardo's back as he walks into his passage and is plunged to darkness.
-
The passage doesn't have any connections to the outside world, but lights have been set up every few meters apart. They've been done sloppily though. Like they only had a limited supply.
Mark wonders which tributes he'll come across, if he even comes across anyone at all. He keeps his spear prepared, just in case it's Tyler.
The more he walks though. The more he thinks it might be Erica. The lights are too simple to be made for an arena. Even if they were trying to make it harder, they wouldn't do it with such crappy supplies. These lights were made by some one who didn't have more to choose from. Unless Tyler or the boy from District 12 know how to make lights, it has to be Erica.
Mark might have to kill Erica. He's not sure how he feels about that.
He makes it to the end of the passageway and comes to a clearing. And then his heart drops, because Eduardo's passageway comes to the same clearing, and Eduardo isn't here. Maybe Mark walked faster than him. Or maybe he's dead.
No. The cannon hasn't sounded. Mark relaxes himself. He's still on his way. He still has time left.
But that's not really great either, is it?
Mark swallows it all down and looks around the clearing. The ceilings are high. There's gaps for snow again, and lots of large pillars to hide behind.
Large pillars to hide behind.
Mark sees a flash of blonde behind one, but it's gone in the blink of an eye. It's either Tyler or the other boy. He doubts Tyler is that good art hiding, so it must be the other one.
Mark prepares his spear, and pulls out his knife too. He hears a woosh by his ear, and sees an arrow bounce off the pillar behind him, and fall to the ground. Mark ducks out of the way, just as a second arrow flies past. The boy can't possibly have many. Not at this stage in the games. If Mark gets him to waste them all, he'd have the advantage.
He's about run to another pillar when a familiar voice interrupts him.
“Hello again.”
Mark turns to see Tyler Winklevoss glaring at him, and sporting an ax. The fingers on his left hand are blue from frostbite. He has bruises on his neck; he must have run into the blonde girl too at some point. He also looks absolutely pissed.
“Too bad Eduardo's not here to chicken out, and save your skin,” Tyler taunts.
Mark's knuckles turn white from gripping his weapons so hard.
Tyler swings his arm back to throw the ax at Mark. Mark gets up to run away, but Tyler looks like he could probably hit a moving target. Mark swings behind a pillar just in time to see the ax fly by the place where his head would have been. Mark has three seconds to catch his breath before Tyler comes barreling at him like a mess of muscle that grew a body. Mark throws the spear in his direction, but he expertly dodges it.
Mark runs past a pillar and sees a flash of blonde. The boy from 12. He ducks sensing there's probably an arrow with his name on it. Indeed one does fly by. Tyler isn't so lucky, and Mark hears him swear when it hits his back. Tyler turns to face the boy and Mark takes the opportunity to stab him with the knife. Tyler screams out again.
He swings around, knocking Mark over with his arm. He sees the bloody knife in Mark's hand, and glances to the blonde boy. Realizing he's their priority before they kill each other, he runs to Eduardo's passageway. The boy shoots another arrow after him.
He only has three left in his sheath. Mark could probably take him now. He seems to notice too, because he gives Mark a considering look, then decides on something else. He shoots a arrow up to the ceiling of the opening. Mark looks up to where it shot and sees a bomb. Erica's bomb.
The boy hops away after Tyler, and Mark barely gets to his feet before he feels stones from the cave come crashing down on him from the bomb going off. He runs as fast as he can, getting knocked down by a giant boulder in the process. Dust from the rocks lands on him. He ends up coughing through a fog of dust, accidentally hitting off pillars.
He manages to make it into Eduardo's passage. He can feel bruises forming all over and he's covered in dust and blood. He's panting for breath when he remembers all the tributes he needs to kill. He only has his knife left. The boy from 12 has two arrows, Tyler has nothing, who knows what Erica has, and Eduardo could be dying somewhere for all he knows.
He hears a scream. A girl's scream. Erica.
“Chris!” She calls out. It's high pitched and hysterical. Mark runs to it.
The passage is only half-lit. Erica must have started running out of supplies for it. There's a box by the wall, with the batteries to the lights.
Up ahead he sees shadows moving. The big one's definitely Tyler. The other one might be the boy from 12, Chris. Mark can't see Erica anywhere.
Tyler's has Chris with his arms behind his back. He pushes Chris into the wall, smashing Chris' head against it.
Mark spots Erica a few feet away from them. Her body is lying limp on the floor, and she looks like she's been bent wrong. Mark's eyes widen. Tyler snapped her neck, that's why. He feels rage fill up inside him.
Tyler can't see Mark. He's too far away, and too busy beating Chris to a pulp.
Mark spots Chris' two arrows and the bow Chris had, slung on the floor, near them. Tyler must have ripped them off before he got to him. Mark knows what he has to do.
He secures the knife safely, puts on the night-glasses, then sprints to the bow and arrows. Tyler doesn't see him until Mark reaches them. He drops Chris' body as the cannon fires, and Mark sets the arrow and shoots it at the batteries. He misses the first time, and Tyler's stepping towards him now. He fires the second and everything goes black.
Tyler stops. He looks around, his expression a mix of rage and confusion. Mark takes the knife out, and Tyler looks at his direction. Mark moves as Tyler runs to the sound. Tyler stops again, realizing Mark is gone, and the Mark sticks the knife in his heart. He pulls the knife down, ripping Tyler's chest wide open. Tyler screams out in pain and falls to the ground. He starts to convulse, and the blood pools around him in bucketfuls.
Mark doesn't stay to watch. He runs to Erica's side. She hasn't got a clue what's going on. Her eyes are wide, and scared.
“Erica,” Mark says gently.
“Mark?” Erica sobs. She twitches trying to move, but can't. Tyler paralyzed her. She cries harder, realizing the same thing Mark realized. “Make it stop, Mark. Please! It hurts! Make it stop!”
A cannon fires signaling Tyler's death.
Mark nods. He takes Erica's hand. She's holding a flashlight, but her fingers have gone loose now. Mark takes it and takes her hand again. It doesn't react.
Tears are running down Erica's face, mixing with dirt and rubble.
“Mark!” Erica sobs again.
“Close your eyes,” Mark tells her.
She probably can't see anything anyway, but she does as she's told and her eyes flutter shut. Mark takes a deep breath, then sticks the knife in her heart. She gasps, but she can't move away. Mark pulls it out and does it again. Anything to make her die faster. He just wants her to be okay.
Erica's eyes stay squeezed shut. Mark stabs her a third time. The cannon fires. Erica's dead.
Mark lets her go and takes off the glasses. He turns on her flashlight, and looks at her body. Covered in red. Still bent all wrong.
Tyler's gone. Chris is gone. Erica's gone. Three cannons. Three down.
Which leaves Eduardo.
“Shit,” Mark mutters. He stands up and turns to the entrance where Eduardo should have come from. He watches, like maybe Eduardo will emerge and kill him now, but nothing happens.
Mark feels wasted away like he's lived a hundred years. His heart is slow now. Tired and worn out.
Now it's really real.
Part 3