thearena | Welcome to the final edge

Entry tags:

Welcome to the final edge

Who| Felicity & Jet ; Felicity, Jet, & Kevin.
What| Felicity is badly injured before killing Nasir. Jet tends to her. Later, Kevin kills them both.
Where| Near the Orchard
When| Immediately after this.
Warnings/Notes| Violence, gore, character death. Fee & Jet can thread for a bit, Kevin can have his own thread with the pair of them!

She didn't know how long she'd slept against Nasir's corpse. There was no real concept of time inside the Arenas and the only thing that woke her was the arrival of the robots come to snatch his corpse away. He was going cold by then and rigor was setting in and it was time for her to let him go, but she still fought them a little.

Eventually however, she realized she was too weak to put up a struggle. Even worse, she was too weak to stand up. Felicity was broken and helpless, badly beaten by Nasir and now drenched in both her own blood and his. From what she could tell there were a handful of Tributes left. It was only a matter of time before someone found her and put her out of her misery. Until then, all she could do was lie silently in the grass and wait for death.

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He didn't know how long he'd been walking. He'd lost track of time since leaving the last person he'd seen. There'd been monsters and even another time when his cybernetics had come back, but this time the rage-driven haze that had driven him and Albert to murder two people and hurt others hadn't come with it. It had taken him some time to realize the fact he wasn't eating dried monster-dog meat was the reason, but it hardly seemed to matter now.

He fought when a monster threatened him, but he was on autopilot most of the time. He hated to admit it, but he'd all but given up when his jets had failed to ignite and prevented him from saving Albert from the grip of gravity for the first time since they'd been created. If the ground fell out from under him right this second, he wouldn't fight it.

It was that shock of blonde mixed with bright red that had him slowing to a stop. At first he wasn't sure what it was, until he'd moved close enough to make out her features. A life and energy he hadn't felt in well over a week sparked in him as he went to his knees at her side and pulled her into his arms. For all the blood on her, he thought she was dead, but the very subtle rise and fall of her chest made hope spring in his own.

"Felicity? Fee, can you hear me?"

Fee could hear something, but she couldn't tell who it was. There was blood dripping into her ears. Everything was starting to muffle. Her eyes flickered open though, but she didn't make a move to get up. Even if she'd wanted to, she probably couldn't.

"Ngh--" Her answer was little more than a gasp or a gurgle. It certainly wasn't English. Gingerly, she tried to move her head to look at her new companion. It took a moment for her eyes to focus clearly and for her to recognize Jet. But when she did, she let out an almost relieved sound. A sigh, with a hint of a laugh. Thank God for this foolish little American. Thank God for him.

He tried to smile for her when he saw she recognized him, but it was strained and didn't last long.

"You look terrible, Fee..."

He reached up to brush the blood and hair out of her face, eyes darting from place to place on her to try and decide where he could possibly start trying to help his friend. There was just so much blood. Too much for it to just be hers, surely, but a lot of it probably was.

"You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna take care of you."

He shifted her so she was propped up against his knees, freeing his arms up so he could get into his pack. He went for the water rations and got the last bits of curtain fabric he had left over from helping that guy. The fabric got pressed to the worst wound he could find while he started to open the water container.

"Can you swallow? You should drink something."

"Jet," she said, voice cracking due to her dry throat. She was thirsty, but everything else ached so badly she hadn't even noticed. Her whole body seemed to vibrate as he'd shifted her weight onto his knees. Her ears still rang from the blows she'd received from Nasir, and to be frank, her eyesight was still fuzzy. No amount of water was going to patch her up again. She could recognize as much. "N-No. Don't waste it."

"'M not wasting it, just drink the damn stuff. It either goes in your mouth or on your wounds, your choice." He knew it was a lost cause, anyone with eyes could see there wasn't enough in his supplies to patch her up well enough to keep her going. But that didn't mean he was going to give up on her either, he'd take care of her until she was gone, no matter how long that was or who came along.

"Besides, I don't need, so I might as well share it."

Whether it was a conscious decision or not, he'd just about given up and dead men didn't need water, but dying close friends did.

Fee wasn't sure she even could drink, but she couldn't exactly mount a resistance in her state. Wheezing a little, she tried to hold her head up so that she could get a little taste of the water. But it was so difficult a task. Her head felt like it was made of dozens of heavy rocks. She could practically feel her brain rattling against her skull.

"It hurts." Her breathing was irregular and far too loud. Slowly, then all at once, her head seemed to roll around her neck. "I can't keep it up."

"It's alright, hold on."

He set the container down and shifted her so his hand and arm were supporting her head and neck, his other hand brought the water back to her lips and moved slowly so she wouldn't choke or try to drink too much at once. As it was, he only allowed for a few sips before setting the water back down and laying her down gently with it. Hopefully that made things a tiny bit better.

He wasn't just going to give up, though, he took what few supplies he had left and started work cleaning her up and trying to apply pressure to her wounds. It might not do anything, but that didn't mean he had to leave her the way she was.

"Just lay still."

She obeyed him, not because she wanted to but because she had no other choice. She could not move, even if she'd wanted to get up and leave. All she could do was lie there beside him and watch him try to work magic.

"I'm dying. I've felt it before." She closed her eyes, willing the agony to just fade away. "It's no use."

It seemed like every time he stemmed the flow of blood on one wound, he'd find another that needed tending. The most frustrating thing was the fact he knew she was right; he knew she was dying and there was nothing he could do for her. It was this frustration flaring that made his voice grow harsh and his tone biting.

"So what do you expect me to do, give up? Leave you here to bleed out and walk away? Not gonna happen so just--!" He glared at her but looked away when his eyes started to sting.

A second went by, then another, before he leaned over her and rested his forehead to hers, his frustration still clear on his face but his tone softer and tinged with emotion that said he was sorry for snapping since his words didn't.

"I'm trying to make it easier. I'm not going to leave you alone."

"It is easy," Fee said, laughing a little. The sound was hollow and it died in her throat. "It doesn't hurt as badly as last time. At least, it does not hurt my pride any to have you here with me."

He scoffed lightly. "Well there's that, at least."

Even if he couldn't say it, that did mean something to him and he hoped it showed in the way he continued to cradle her, supporting her head so she could breathe a little easier.

"It's you and me to the end, Fee." He smirked a bit. "And when it's all over, I'll see you on the other side.

The orchard was gone, more or less.

By now, the trees were wilted, slow-burned husks of what they used to be, the fruit useless for consumption. Kevin was the poster child for why the consumption of the fruit was a bad idea, anyway...but it had become instinct, habit now to come here. He was hungry, so hungry...and even the shriveled bits of fruit he could find were scooped promptly into his warped mouth, poking through the shredded flesh of his cheeks.

But through the oppressive heat, he could smell something other than rotted fruit now - blood. Two people.

Food.

Static rumbling in his chest, the monster that was once Kevin began to stalk in the direction of the scent, crouched low to the ground, using the disembodied arm he carried to help balance on the cracking ground.

Felicity was still too weak to move. Instead, she lie in the grass beside Jet, breath rattling in and out in her chest, alarmed by the quaking sound of her breathing. It was a strange feeling, understanding that she was going to die. When it had happened before, she'd been in shock, so afraid that she'd tried to fight it. Now, she understood the process and was accepting of it. It was too late for her to be spared, but at least she could go peacefully and with her friend there to see her off. At least she would get a pleasant death and not one from some stranger.

Smiling faintly, she reached for Jet's hand, unaware of the danger lurking in the trees mere feet away. Even if she had noticed Kevin, she could not have run.

"It's so calm here," she said, coughing a little. "I should like to die here, I think."

Jet was equally unaware of the danger as he took her hand and slipped their fingers together. His other hand supported him as he leaned back in the grass and stared out in front of them.

He'd made her as comfortable as he could, but now there was nothing left to do but wait. Wait for Felicity's breathing to become more strained until it finally stopped and Jet was left with his friend's corpse till those machines would come to collect her. It was morbid, but there was one thing she was right about: sitting there like they were, he could almost pretend they weren't stuck in an arena, facing their inevitable demise. It was calm and more peaceful than any other time he could remember since the arena had started.

"Yeah...there's worse places. Think I'll stay here a while too." At least until something or someone found him and dispatched him.

Edited 2014-07-16 07:19 (UTC)

Unfortunately for the two of them, the calm was not going to last.

Kevin stalked closer and closer still, the sound of static hissing through his throat and out through too-many teeth. His prey was prone, relaxed, unprepared. One was even wounded, the smell of approaching death thick on her like a mantle.

Hungry. So hungry.

He crept up to a nearby tree, climbing up into it. Giving himself a great ambush point from which to pounce. He was going to tear down from above, descend and devour. The branches swayed and shook, his monstrous, decayed face visible if one was looking through the dying leaves.

Gathering himself for his strike.

So hungry.

She exhaled in a short, raspy breaths, lying close to Jet, comforted by the steadiness of his pulse and his breathing. She thought she might fall asleep listening to him and let the constant rhythm of his body lull her off into death. She was anticipating this notion gladly when something deep with in her screamed out that she should open her eyes.

That's when she spotted him, high in the tree above them, looming like a devilish serpent from hell. Too exhausted to properly cry out, Felicity let out a choked gasp. "Look out! Up! Up!"

Jet turned and stood in one motion, eyes searching and finding the threat perched in a tree with a cheshire's smile pasted onto a demon's face. It was horrible, just as bad if not worse than some of the somnua they'd faced on Mocawa, but unlike when he'd faced down what had once been Alpert, there was a tightness in his chest that was only getting tighter that told him he was facing his death.

It was too big, had too many teeth and seemed too menacing to be anything else.

Jet stepped over Felicity and put himself between her and it, only kneeling down a moment to set his knife in her hand, though his eyes didn't leave the creature. Then he picked up his pipe and Albert's shovel and stood waiting. There might be no way he was walking away from this, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to fight tooth and nail.

"Whatever the hell you are, get out of here. I'm not gonna make this an easy kill for you."

He briefly wondered if he meant Felicity or himself, but decided it didn't matter. He was going to protect them both as long as he could.

The monster heard speech directed his way - he had been spotted. This was all right. It didn't matter.

It didn't matter what was being said, either. If he were more present of mind, he might at least pause knowing there would be a struggle - that there was someone here with strong will, a fighter, daring him to come close. He might at least try to be strategic. But Kevin was not present, and he was hungry.

Launching himself from the branches, he bounded towards Jet in uneven, careless strides. His mouth opened wider as if in anticipation. and the excess teeth protruding further shredded the grayed skin on either side.

His aim was to pounce like a wildcat - to tackle, to shred, to tear. He went right for Jet.

Felicity could wait.

He didn't hear much movement from her.

Edited 2014-07-28 03:23 (UTC)

Horrified, Fee was too weak to even scream out Jet's name. Instead, the sound she made was like that of a trapped animal, forced to watch as the others of her pack were slaughtered senselessly. She cried out, gurgling pathetically, trying to summon up enough strength to move, to run, to fight back, to do something. But she could do nothing. She was paralyzed by something other than fear. All she could do was watch as Kevin leapt toward Jet. All she could do was moan as the two connected in a mess of teeth and steel.

Thought fled him as he watched the thing bound towards them, everything became sensation. Fear and disgust gripped his stomach tightly as all those teeth tore at the skin around them. He heard Felicity and the desperate need to fly them away from harm wedged in his chest, but he was human, not a cyborg and even if he were, he'd broken his systems too badly to help them.

He rarely regretted being human since his humanity had been returned to him, but in the moment when the creature leapt and he raised his weapons to strike at it, he was hyper-aware of just how fragile humans were when not mixed with metal.

The metal smashes into the thing but it hardly seems to matter as it and Jet crash to the ground. Searing pain too sharp and overwhelming to pinpoint floods him as teeth tear through skin and muscle, straight into bone. Deeper and worse than that somnua Lady tearing the skin from his arm with her teeth, yet slower than feeling his flesh melt from the heat of falling through the atmosphere. He can hear a shout, a sound of pain, but it's too distant in his head to recognize as his own. And still he fights back.

His hands reach up to grip at anything they can in an attempt to cause pain back while he writhes to get a leg between them so he can kick at the thing and get it away.

Jet manages to get a grip on the last clump of hair still clinging to Kevin's scalp - it tears away with a sickly squelching sound, barely causing a reaction from the monster atop him. Further struggles, however, could net him a sturdy grasp on too-thin upper arms, and he seemed oblivious to the leg as it pressed distance between their bodies.

No, Kevin doesn't notice any of that. He is too busy tearing out the hunk of flesh he had his mouth around, all-too-visibly chomping it down between far too many teeth.

Making Jet watch him eat his flesh and skin.

Still grinning that forced echo of a grin.

Felicity couldn't look away. Her eyes were wide and fixed in an expression of horror and agony, and no matter how she tried to scream or kick or move or get up, her body just wouldn't listen. She was stuck there, paralyzed, and with no way of helping Jet at all. She was useless, and all she could do was watch her dearest friend be devoured by the most hideous of men.

It was enough to make even the strongest of souls want to faint.

His hands found arms that felt too weak, too fragile to be able to hold the thing up, but it was enough for Jet to try and break at least one with the last of his strength. Both hands curl around one of the limbs and work to force them in opposite directions.

But whether he succeeds or not never reaches his awareness as strength leaves him and his hands fall. Everything is fire and pain and all he can see and hear is the thing eating him alive the horror of the act alone is hard to process, but he isn't given much time to attempt it as his body slips into shock.

He tries to call out to Felicity, to tell her to run even though his mind knows she can't, but his lips don't form words, only struggle to move as blood bubbles over them and bright blue eyes go dull, leaving a limp and broken corpse in Kevin's jaws.

The arm fractured, but it was too late - Jet was falling away before a real break could happen, the soft sound of bone cracking drowned out by the squelch of flesh tearing up and out. Kevin doesn't stop, not for an instant; he chomps and chews and rips Jet's corpse to shreds, too-strong jaw even cracking through bone.

And then he noticed Felicity was still there, her scent strengthening with fear.

Static rumbled low in his chest again as he advanced towards her, very low to the ground like an animal....

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Welcome to the final edge

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