thearena | (no subject)

Who| Ian and open
What| Hanging about in the rain
Where| Somewhere in the vicinity of the caves
When| Week 2
Warnings/Notes| Dehydration and possible mention of various bodily functions. Also death (in the thread with Cindy).

Ian would have happily stayed hiding in the caves until he died. But he'd underestimated just how bad not eating or drinking anything would make him feel. Despite eating a lot before the arena, and being on the plump side when he entered it, he was already horribly thin. The skin hung around his bones, with no moisture in it to keep it supple.

He'd heard the rain and although he wanted to die, not drink it, listening to it was driving him mad. So he wandered out, shivering in the cold air, with nothing to keep him warm beyond the clothes he'd entered the arena in. But he welcomed the rain, feeling the moisture on his body and he kept walking, although it was a slow, stumbling walk. By the time he thought to look where he was, he was lost, unable to remember which way he'd come through the jungle.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There was an easy and simple reason why Cindy was heading north, after dealing with the after-math of the cornucopia, and trying to figure out where the best place to go would actually be. She had plenty of supplies, so it was logical for her to find somewhere to hang out, and hope everyone died before her. Which, in her opinion, could happen at any time, so the other advantage would be to make sure no one found the supplies when she was gone.

But honestly the reason that she headed north, was because she'd gone west in the last arena, and north was next on the list, if the compass was a clock. Cindy knew that other people were going to be heading in the same direction (there were so many people, it was staggering, really), so she had an eye out, protecting her ribs as she went.

Something that was thrown to the side when she saw someone she knew who wouldn't attack her. Unfortunately, it looked like he was dying. Couldn't really win with this one, huh.

"Ian?" Cindy called out as she came over a small hill, holding a hand to her stomach as she tried to run faster and not slip from the rain. "Ian!"

Ian spun on hearing his name, but turned too quickly and ended up sitting down on the ground, blinking away the dizziness. He smiled when he saw who it was though. "Cindy," he said, although it came out as a whisper.

She pressed the hand to her stomach tighter, before she finally made it up the hill and over to him. The lack of good food and water combined with the actual injury, and the paleness of her face was both from the pain, and the fear.

No, she'd just found him. He couldn't die on her, not now. Not when she was there, crouching down next to him.

"Hey. Hey, come on, I'm here now, it's going to be okay. What happened?" He has to be okay. He better be okay.

"Nothing," he croaked. He reached out with a hand that was bonier than usual to take her hand. His grip on hers was light.

"I'm playing the game." It just wasn't very pleasant that was all. "I'll be better soon."

He was so fragile. She'd never thought of him as fragile, not really. But maybe it was with the fact that he looked like he should have been dead a long time ago. And once again, there was nothing she could do.

She hated that feeling. "I can see you're playing the game." She swallowed hard, trying not to hold on too tightly. Trying being the key word.

"You will. You will be better soon. Let's get out of here, we can hole up somewhere. Wait things out for a few hours."

"All right." He smiled at her, glad she believed him. He didn't feel like he could carry on like this for a few hours, but he said, "I can wait."

He tried to stand, but his muscles were weak. He managed to get on one knee, but then his legs shook. He still had his pride, so he wasn't going to ask for help and instead pulled on Cindy's hand for leverage. Since he weighed far less than usual, he wasn't in any danger of pulling her down and she would end up needing to pull him up.

"You better wait." Cindy went for a joking tone, but it came out a little too tight to be anything like a joke. Still, she smiled, and held tight, helping him up. Always have to keep that pride in check, and it doesn't hurt that despite her weakened condition, some strength from the stories was still there.

Once he's up, she puts her arm around him. It's a little bit of a struggle, keeping the other pressed to her stomach and keeping him up. She'd manage.

"We're close to some kind of cave, it's maybe ten minutes of walking. Fifteen if we take it super slow. We'll take it slow. We can exchange war stories, it'll make the time pass faster."

"All right." It came out as a very quiet croak. He tried not to put too much weight on Cindy and put one foot in front of another, but it seemed to involve a lot more effort than usual.

"You tell a story first." He didn't think the energy to manage speaking and walking. As it was, as they went along he got heavier as he put more of his weight on Cindy, and his steps got slower, his legs shaking as the effort wore him out.

One foot in front of the other. That's all they could do for right now, and Cindy knew that they weren't going to make it. They weren't. He definitely wasn't, but she could.

She wasn't even paying attention to the rest of the world; it was just them two right now. "Me first. Okay. Well, back in '87, I was in Switzerland. And it was freezing. I'm talking forty below cold, and I was outrunning these two guys down the slopes. I was on a snowmobile, and they were too, two of them on one, and me on the other." One step, two steps, and he was getting heavy. "And they were yelling at me in Russian, which I've never been great at, so I couldn't really understand them."

Cindy was good at telling stories, talking while they steadily came to a halt. "So I'm getting away, and they've got these machine guns, right? And they're loud. So loud, and I feel this rumbling and--" They sink to the ground. "Shit."

"Cold," Ian whispered, lying on the ground. Although whether he was talking about himself or her story was hard to tell. He managed to reach a hand up to Cindy's cheek, together with a fond look.

But then his hand dropped and his eyes closed. He wasn't dead yet, but it wouldn't be long. In the meantime he wouldn't wake up or be able to swallow any water - although it was too late for that to do any good.

There wasn't anything she could, and Cindy had to accept that. She did accept it. All she could do was make him comfortable, but she couldn't even do that, here. It was cold, drizzling, and all she could do was sit there.

"Don't worry." She smiled, still feeling his hand on her cheek. She moved his head to her lap, and she looked down.

"Don't worry." She repeated, leaning down and pressing a kiss to his forehead. "It's going to be warm soon."

She didn't care if they(she) could be attacked right now. She'd wait till he was gone, and then she would go.

(no subject)

If anything needs to be changed, let me know!

Re: If anything needs to be changed, let me know!

back and good to go!

Re: back and good to go!

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Aaaaaaand finish?