ARENA 10-Placid Hollow

[etcircenses]

The Tributes are taken early in the morning, most of their support teams seeming in good cheer as they dress them in warm clothes, getting them to their tubes. There is obvious comfort in the familiar for the prep teams, and they chatter with, or in some cases, over the heads of their Tributes as they get them ready and load them up.

20

19

18…

If the Tributes could see the area they are passed up into, they would see a deeply overgrown, dilapidated town green, with a large bandstand rotting away in the middle. The spoils of the cornucopia are not gathered in one spot, instead scattered throughout the thigh high grass and weeds around the town green.

Around the edge of the green, the old business stand a silent sentry, looming out of the fog as it thins and winds into them, providing much desired cover.

8

7

6…

But the Tributes cannot see the ground around them. The fog, thicker even than it will be in the rest of the arena, makes the world small around them. The sound of the count down echoes strangely, the tributes seeming too close as the fog brings sounds of their breath, their coughing, the snap of twigs under their feet right to ears of the other Tributes. But with the fog bringing visibility down to only a few feet, it's hard to tell what is a true danger, and what is only the fog playing tricks on them,.

3

2

1

The gong rings out, and the countdown's voice announces "the Arena is now open". The Games have begun.

Comments

[onlyimmune]

This arena was fucked. Ellie shouldn't have been surprised - the last two hadn't exactly been cakewalks - but after having escaped the cornucopia with some gear, found Clem and then ran into some fucking walkers, she was already done with this place. They'd found a building to hide out, and Clem had gone off to deal with some shit, which meant that Ellie was alone.

Or at least she thought she was alone. She heard a noise, somewhere off in the blank whiteness, and she grabbed her knife instantly.

"Clem?" She called out in a hiss. "That you?"

[ecphrasis]

Noise is not something Molly should be making right now, but she can't help it. She'd gone down hard, and had let out a curse or two. Gravel crunching beneath her as she attempts to get up doesn't help. When she hears a young girl's voice call out she freezes, swallowing. Oh no. No, no, no. This person doesn't sound like they want to see anybody but this Clem person. Or maybe they don't want to see Clem at all. Neither is a good option.

But Molly knows that lying down isn't going to help, so she continues getting up, gripping the prybar tightly. "N-no!" The call is quiet, but carries through the fog well enough.

[onlyimmune]

She stepped forward, carefully, knife at the ready. She didn't recognize the voice, but the stutter was impossible to miss - which only meant one thing, really. A new tribute.

"Relax," She says, a quiet whisper back. "If you aren't out for blood, neither am I." She finally makes her way close enough to catch sight of the person - older than she expected, with the voice, but obviously terrified.

And armed.

[ecphrasis]

Once Ellie is close enough for Molly to see, her brows furrow--she's just a child. With a very large knife. Molly is standing now, the prybar still held in front of her, but her body language doesn't scream threatening. "I'm not," she replies, her voice luckily not sharing the same tremble as her hands. "I'm really not."

[onlyimmune]

"Good," She says, though she only lowers the knife a fraction. "You're new here, right? I haven't seen you in one of these before."

Hadn't seen her face in the sky, calling out her death.

"I'm Ellie."

[ecphrasis]

Molly nods warily, but lowers her weapon as Ellie does. She manages a smile, even in these circumstances. "I'm Molly. Yeah, I just got here. This is--this is my first arena." It sounds so strange to say aloud, and makes her fidget a little. "I'm a doctor," she blurts. It's just so absurd for her to be expected to kill people, doesn't it?