thearena | There's a million ways to go

Entry tags:

There's a million ways to go

Who| Courfeyrac, Max, & Kevin
What| Courfeyrac's death.
Where| The Orchard
When| Week Three
Warnings/Notes| Character death. Blood. Gore. Kevin.

After his encounter with Ian a few days before, Courfeyrac had learned his lesson about the dangers of wandering out into the fog by himself. Needing more food and supplies for their little band, he would go out searching, but this time he would take a companion. Seeing as she was his shadow, Max seemed like the perfect partner for such a quest.

Knowing nothing of the strange fruit, he'd suggested that they make for the orchard to investigate the trees. If nothing else, the fruits would surely be edible. That would buy them all a bit of time before the next round of gifts came. If more gifts came.

"Come, sister. We must make haste. I do not wish to be out in this fog longer than is necessary." He said, reaching for Max's hand to lead her through the thick swirls of mist. "We should be near the orchard now. There will be trees, with delicious food to eat."

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Max was almost happy. Yes they were in a game where they were encouraged to kill each other and yes they often spent most of the time starving, but this was something Max had been engineered for; surviving, running, and killing (although she would never admit how much she enjoyed the fighting). Here with Courfeyrac there was none of that.

"I can see for the both of us." Her sight wasn't nearly as good as when everything had changed into something more horrible, but it was still perfect and the fog itself didn't bother her. "We still have some of the unmarked cans and if everything changes again I can go out and take supplies from the other Tributes."

Unfortunately for the both of them, there was someone else in the orchard...someone up in the branches, picking fruit and gnashing it between jagged, bloodied teeth. He couldn't see the newcomers, of course...but he could hear them speaking as they approached. For now, he remained silent, hidden amongst the leaves.

Just....

Listening.

"There will be no need for that," Courfeyrac said to Max, gently scolding her. "There is no need to take from others when we may survive without doing so. We can survive on our own, and we will be noble in doing so."

He was oblivious to the presence lurking above them in the trees, to the sounds of fruits being skinned and pulverized between shark-like teeth. Sure, Courfeyrac was on guard, but no more so than usual. Besides, he had Max at his side now, and together they could fight off any foe.

Or so he thought. Stupidly.

"Ah, here we are. The orchard. Can you see what kind of fruits these are, my darling?"

He was too nice. They all seemed to be too nice for such a horrible place that was this Arena. Max understood that surviving meant you couldn't always be good and noble. Noble people died while horrible people survived. She thought of poor Eva who had tried to stand up to Lydecker only to be shot down. Max did not want to watch Courfeyrac die because he was simply a good person.

Moving into the orchard, Max looked up at the trees. "Peaches? They smell like peaches but they look strange." She glanced back at her brother. "I don't think we should eat many unless we absolutely need to." She slowly moved further into the orchard, always making sure to keep an eye out for Courfeyrac.

For another couple of minutes, Kevin was still silent...until he decided he would much rather greet these new friends than sit and listen to them.

Max passed under the tree he was perched in, and he dropped a peach pit from up in the branches. Then another. Then another. Then he leaned down, holding a peach in his hand and offering it out to his new company. Who was it? Didn't matter! Sounded like a child, though. He just LOVED CHILDREN. Such young, potentially productive creatures.

"Well, hello there, friend!" His voice was high and smooth...his grin was broad and peeling at the edges. He was like the biblical snake in Eden - while the snake was shedding.

"Are you hungry?"

"Nom de Dieu!" Courfeyrac cried out, reaching to grab his poor little sister away, forgetting that when push came to shove she was the more capable of the two of them, forgetting that she did not need him to come to her defense. Chills went down his spine and he felt an urgent need to scoop up Max in his arms and rush the pair of them out of there. However, he was far too noble to turn coward and run. Instead, he played to his strengths and charm and called up to the reptilian voiced man in the tree, "What in God's name are you doing up in that tree, monsieur? Come down and show yourself!"

Max let Courfeyrac push her away from the new face. It was for sure an unusual face, but Max wasn't disturbed by the man; she wasn't about to welcome him either. She remained relaxed and calm, but mentally prepared to attack should it become necessary.

"We're looking." Not starving. Never let a potential attacker know that your party is weak. "And I'm not your friend."

"Just a second!"

The words came out in strange singsong - and he seemed to either ignore Max's words or simply not hear them. His filthy, blood-soaked hands came down first...then he hopped down, stumbling a couple of steps before turning to regard his company. His eerie visage was looking in the general direction of the strangers, but not quite. Blind.

He pulled his favorite lead pipe down from the branches, leaning on it.

"Why, I was only EATING!" Something strange happened to his voice just then - a warp, a quaver, something strange and almost shrieking. He didn't seem to notice.

"There is some DELICIOUS fruit up there. Would you like some, friends?"

Courfeyrac recoiled in horror, suddenly quite keenly aware of how very dangerous this situation had become. His first instinct was to get Max out of there, and fast. He would serve as a noble distraction, to keep this monstrous man's attention away from her. Gently, but with defined urgency, he started pressing at her again.

"We are not hungry. You may keep it all for yourself, monsieur, really." He then hissed to Max under his breath, "Run, my love! Go! Go!"

She wasn't going to run like some untrained civilian. Max wrapped her hand around the heavy wrench she had brought along and stepped away from Courfeyrac. "We are no longer hungry. In fact we are leaving." She regretted leaving behind the wire her Mentor had sent along.

Logic told her to run. Having Courfeyrac with her was a liability. Whatever this creature was before them, he was likely more than her brother could handle. The best tactic when the odds were not in your favor was to run. Like Hell if she was going to leave her brother behind.

"Oh, but there's PLENTY," the strange man chuckled, swaying a little strangely on his feet. He tapped his way forward a couple of paces, using the pipe like a blind cane.

"If you're hungry, you really SHOULD eat something! The fruit here is just lovely."

Another step. He was ignoring the obvious intentions to leave for the time being - but whether it was just out of naivete or malicious intent was a little hard to discern.

Then again, his hands WERE covered in blood.

"Let's go," Courfeyrac repeated, this time reaching out for Max but missing her wrist, grasping nothing but thin air. He couldn't stand the idea of running and leaving her alone to defend herself, but the way she was standing, he was certain she would not move.

Heart pounding from fright, he tried to grab for her again, this time turning on his heels to urge her to move with him.

"It was pleasant to meet you," he said, hoping his voice didn't have too much of a panicked edge to it. "But we really must be on our way. Darling, come."

This smiling man didn't seem the sort to simply allow them to leave. Max kept him in her sight as she let Courfeyrac pull her away. Her instincts were telling her that an attack was eminent, but people in the Arena had surprised her before.

"The others still need food." Tins of expired foodstuff could only last so long, and the others weren't suited to starving conditions like she was. They were leaving behind precious supplies because of that man.

"You see? The others still need FOOD," Kevin echoed, empty eyes widening. He pulled his weight from the pipe to his feet, lifting the filthy metal upward to inspect it between his grimy fingers for faults. A strange giggle escaped him, out of place, out of nowhere.

His attention turned, very suddenly, to Courfeyrac.

"I'm VERY hungry, myself."

The words come out strange, warped, distorted, all wrong - the pipe is swung outward, fast and hard, aiming for knees, shins, feet. Aiming to hobble, not kill. Not yet.

Courfeyrac was on the ground before he could even scream, falling face first and in utter shock before the pain set in. He had a delayed reaction to the shooting pain going up his legs and he quickly realized that he was going to be in seriously deep trouble.

He tried to call out to Max, to say something, anything to her, but the only sound that came out of his mouth was a horrified and strangle wail.

God, why was this happening to him? Why couldn't he get to his feet? And what the hell was wrong with Kevin's face?

"Run!" He finally groaned, grabbing a clump of grass and dirt from the ground to pitch it at Kevin. He was gasping and trying to kick away from the looming man with the pipe. "Max! Leave us!"

"Courfeyrac!" She saw him go down and knew in an instant that his injury wouldn't let him get back up. This wasn't fair. They weren't suppose to die like this, at the hands of this crazed man who smiled too sharply.

Max's heart raced and sentiment had her hesitating to leave. She knew he would die if she left him, but it was likely she would also die trying to help him. A voice that sounded like a horrible mix of Zack and Colonel Lydecker told her to leave him. Enjolras's voice told her not to be cruel. Would it be cruel to kill Courfeyrac before that creature could?

She couldn't do it. She loved him too much to hurt him even as faced a death certain to be horrible. She was a coward.

Max looked at the smiling man, memorizing his face once more, and silently promised herself that she would find him again and kill him.

Then she ran.

When Max ran, Kevin listened - and he could tell that she was fleet of foot, a difficult target as he was right at this moment. He elected to let her get away, turning his full attention to the man prone beneath him. The dirt and grass hit him square in the face, sending sediment into his teeth and empty eye sockets...but it didn't do much besides irritate the strange man, making him rub at his face with his sleeve. The motion scraped more peeling skin away from his cheekbones. He even stuck a grimy finger into his eye socket to try and get some of the dirt out. Courfreyrac would be able to pull away at least a bit, scuttle back - but it wasn't long before his focus was back and he was moving slowly to close the distance between himself and his prey. He knew there would be no running.

"So friend," he chuckled, his voice coming out muffled, strained through a speaker that just wasn't there, "What color is your hair? I can't see it, you know."

This may have seemed like a strange question.

Unless Courfreyrac noticed the bracelets around his right wrist, plainly braided from bloody clumps of hair that did not belong to him.

He'd been silently relieved when Max had finally left and now he was ready to face this destiny. His heart was racing, beating so hard that he feared it might burst out of his chest. Never in his life had he faced down someone so utterly horrifying.

"Just do it!" He cried out, fate sealed, unwilling to draw the game out any further. "I surrender to you. Just kill me!"

"Hey, now-"

Kevin brought his foot up, stomping it down in an attempt to pin the man's chest beneath his heel. The force was enough to break ribs, if his aim was true. Hard to aim for certain, though. He was blind. after all.

He leaned down, hands on his hips, voice growing more warped by the word.

"I just asked you a question."

Courfeyrac was in too much pain, he couldn't even attempt an answer. Instead, all he could hear in his head were the sounds of his own ribs crunching and the throbbing in his head that told him the end was nigh. Gasping back tears, he resolved not to cry further, not to speak, not to do anything but lie there and let Kevin do what he would.

"ANSWER ME, PLEASE."

Bloody hands shot down to grab Courfeyrac by the shirt, lifting him off the ground and close to his face. "YOU ARE BEING VERY RUDE RIGHT NOW." He shook the other man, hard - he didn't look like too much, but Kevin was wrong. Very strong. Courf was little more than a blood-smelling ragdoll to him, and he was about ready to fling him back down onto the ground.

Something in the back of his mind told him this wasn't him, this wasn't right.

Something else in him, however, was feeling very hungry, and the other man smelled very good.

There wasn't much keeping one something from drowning out the other, but he would still hold out for an answer all the same. At least for a minute more.

There was no mistaking the look of sheer terror in Courfeyrac's eyes as Kevin shook and handled him as though he were a broken, floppy little toy. He was in the jaws of the alligator now, it seemed, and as Kevin barked and bellowed, the Frenchman tried his damnedest to stay calm, serene, and not to panic in the face of inevitable death.

Of course, that wasn't exactly working well for him. So instead, despite his best efforts, he found that he was inhaling through clenched teeth, hyperventilating, shaking, and hissing out an answer at last. "Brown. It is brown. Now kill me, you bastard! Just do it!"

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There's a million ways to go

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