thearena | Arena 12 - The Spaceport

Arena 12 - The Spaceport

As usual the Tributes are woken up early for the start of the arena, leaving the Tribute Centre before dawn. A few hours ride in a hovercraft delivers them to their destination where their excited prep teams will outfit them in skintight suits that are colour coordinated by District (D1 is White, D2 is Red, D3 is Orange, D4 is Aqua, D5 is Purple, D6 is Pink, D7 is Light Green, D8 is Blue, D9 is Yellow, D10 is Dark Green, D11 is Lavender, and D12 is Black) over which they will be put into what is instantly identifiable as a spacesuit, complete with oxygen tank and helmet before being loaded into the tubes.

They rise up into what appears to be outer space and immediately upon emerging from the tubes Tributes will find themselves floating upwards with a length of rope the only thing holding them to their podiums. The countdown crackles out from speakers built into each Tributes helmet.

20

19

18…

The Cornucopia sits in the middle of a dusty crater with buildings surrounding it, made up of a number of chained down cases and cubes in limited numbers. Cubes which sharp-eyed Tributes will note look like they fit into the slots beside the doors that lead into the spaceport.

8

7

6…

The mirrored visors of the uniformly white spacesuits make it impossible to tell friend from foe. Tributes fighting for goods will have to risk harming their friends but the alternative, floating off into space or suffocating when their oxygen runs out, leaves them little choice.

3

2

1…

The gong rings out and the countdown’s voice announces, “the Arena is now open” before the line goes dead. The Games have begun.

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Nick opens his mouth to protest when Clementine declines, but stops when he hears Luke give his answer backed up by some form of logic that Nick wish hadn't existed. If it weren't for the fact that the pipe's rather heavy, he'd have given it to Clementine already. There are many things he wants to say and he gives Luke a challenging glare (what makes him think it'll take only a minute? Anything can happen in a minute!). Despite the lack of time, he inclines forward to assert that he'll be fine without a weapon, but stops when he hears thumping noises...from the vents?

"...you guys hear that?" His eyes trail to the open vent from earlier.

He'd think it'd be another tribute but those noises definitely are not human.

"We need to get the fuck out of here!"

Clementine's glad that Luke backs up her refusal. Better yet, that has the same line of reasoning that she was thinking for why Nick should keep hold of his weapons. As much as she wants to help she's the weakest out of the three of them and she's not going to be stupid enough to pretend otherwise when they're lives are on the line.

"Right, so let's--" she freezes up at the sounds, jaw clenched and her eyes flickering at every corner of the corridor they're in. She can't tell exactly how close it is. "Crap!"

Her voice is very low as she turns to run, "This way!"

That protesting look Nick shoots him doesn't go unnoticed -- and, of course, after twenty years of knowing one another it's nothing new. But it’s forgotten when that clanging and screeching of something thrashing its way through the network of ventilation shafts has him stopping to listen helplessly for a second. Breath bitten back and wide, searching eyes turned ceilingward. It’s the closest the sounds have ever been and he feels an icy trickle of dread through his gut, adrenaline surging, crackling, through his sinews to his tingling fingertips.

There’s no debating Nick’s logic this time. It's fucking flawless.

“A’right, c’mon!” He whispers as he takes off, voice sharp with urgency. But there is no speeding ahead on his part, not when his top priority is ensuring that everyone keeps up and keeps close. No one would be left behind.

The sound of metals clanging and thrashing about is different from the slow and sluggish pace of lurkers knocking over boxes as they roam. The groaning is now replaced by a screech that will surely reach Nick's nightmares. Either way both things gets his heart beating fast and his legs going faster. He keeps himself behind Clementine, looking back every now and then to see a set of teeth (always fucking teeth...) snapping at him every time he does.

They could probably lose it if they enter one of the labs and barricade the doors. He opens his mouth to offer the suggestion, but nothing comes.

Nothing for Luke and Clementine to hear except for the sound of Nick's guttered scream through his teeth. The pipe burns his hands but he can't drop it - he can't even fucking move as the electric currents surge throughout his body. He finally falls over with the pipe dropping onto the floor with a clang, his body showing no signs of moving as the alien salivates from the side of the wall.

"Oh--!" Clementine hears that screech and see's those teeth and damn it, why did they have to be fast mutts this time around? She's pushing herself as fast as she can with her shorter stride to keep up with the two men, all of them hampered by having no idea where it was they were going within the base.

There has to be somewhere safe up ahead, somewhere they can hide from these things, they just have to get there first. What are the chances the mutts can actually open doors? She opens her mouth to say so when Nick screams.

Clementine puts the brakes on immediately, skidding to a halt and almost falling as she calls out, "NICK!" No need to be quiet, not when the mutts are already on their tails. "Oh God!"

She doesn't think, just grabs what looks like a broken panel off the floor and throws it at the alien that's about to kill her friend.

Luke isn’t sure what to expect when something bursts out of a ventilation shaft with a force that busts the grate wide open and sends it flying, clattering to the floor. ‘Not human’ had been the vaguest and safest of guesses -- and as he makes the mistake of looking back, eyes going wide, he realizes it’s certainly one way of putting it.

“Oh shit!”

There’s a law for this, he knows there is, for the times when everything that can go wrong at the worst possible moment does. But his mind goes blank at the gurgling, lock-jawed scream, terror gripping him by the heart as he twists around in time to see Nick crumple to the floor and lie unnervingly still. And that thing -- half-insectoid, half-reptilian, and all predatory grace -- is all too eager to investigate.

A slab of metal flies past Luke from the edge of his vision. He sees it connect with the alien’s face and by some miracle it’s enough to have it rearing back some. His eyes dart around and he finds a brick-like hunk of metal and severed wires – some sort of button panel ripped from a wall, maybe -- hurling it with everything he has. It bounces off its shiny, oil-slick-black helmet of a skull and it snarls, tossing its head. He'd like to think it's more hurt than pissed off but the two seem to go hand in hand.

All he knows is there's no time to waste.

“Keep throwin' anythin' you can find! Jus' buy me a little time!” Heart thudding hard and fast in his throat, Luke goes for Nick, dropping to hitch his arms under his. He jerks him up onto his feet faster than he thought possible with the help of a huge surge of adrenaline, grunting as he manages to maneuver Nick up across his shoulders.

The alien’s hissing, shaking off its dizziness –- and Luke sees a pair of tributes slip out of a set of sliding doors up ahead and rush right past them, to his surprise. Only to stop cold at the sight of the alien's bared, spit-slick teeth.

Luke moves as fast as Nick’s weight allows - a speed-walk at best -, hearing a scream from too close behind him. The jagged, high-pitched scream of someone being tortured in the worst way imaginable. His lips pinch tightly. He doesn’t look back.

“To your left!” He calls out to Clem after a moment, hands full. "Maybe we can lose it in there!"

Edited 2014-12-31 18:10 (UTC)

"I -- got it!"

Clementine bends down and scrabbles for every broken piece of metal she can find, filling her hands and standing back up to throw them at the creature again. She misses as much as she hits and tries not to shake as the mutt's attention turns to the little human that's trying to hurt it. The creatures makes some kind of hissing sound that chills Clem down to the bone.

It's going to come for her, it's going to. "Luke! Hurry!"

He has Nick and that's all it takes for Clementine to start backing up in a hurry, throwing the last couple pieces she has in her hands until Luke's level with her and then, then they're not alone. "Don't!" she tries to call out to the other Tributes, too late and there's nothing she can do but try and make an escape with her friends.

Clementine runs, keeping pack with Luke as he carries Nick on his shoulders. She see's the door as he points it out, "On it!"

Quickly she works to get it open and waves him inside the moment it is. Once Luke's in Clementine will follow.

The air crackles with static, nerves tingling. His gaze makes a quick sweep across the room he’s no more than a few paces in, soaking in information. No vents (good); a set of doors opposite them, which meant they weren’t trapped; a cluster of crates, metal barrels, some blinking machinery. He half-turns back, sweat crawling ticklishly down his sides.

“Clem!!”

For the breathless split second he’s left waiting for her – a time that seems to stretch an eternity – his brain is suddenly overrun by a noisy, vivid images of the creature catching up, the creature slamming her to the floor and tearing screaming, bleeding, too-red chunks out of her. A cold sickness roils in his gut, lingering even as she hurries in and the doors are jammed shut behind her.

Luke crouches by a corner, easing Nick off his shoulders and onto the floor before hurrying to help block off the way they came. The crates feel like they’re loaded with cinderblocks - too heavy to lift and stack without straining something or other in the process, he figures - so they make do with shoving several flush against the door as fast as adrenaline-fueled bursts of strength allow. The effort leaves him panting softly, fresh beads of sweat gathering at his temples.

“Okay-- okay, I think that’ll hold,” ‘But we probably shouldn’t stick around too long to find out’ is what’s implied and left unsaid as Luke looks away and turns his attention back to Nick, moving to his side. Kneeling, he takes him gently by the shoulder and gives him a shake.

“Nick—“ He tries while briefly looking him over, his voice low, urging. “Nick, c’mon. We--”

The rest dies in his throat as his thoughts come to a sudden, screeching halt, crashing together. Nick’s body is all too still – a realization that doesn’t quite click until he thinks to bring the back of his hand to Nick’s lips and waits to feel the heat of his breath lap his knuckles. He feels like his own breath is being crushed out of him when nothing comes.

"Oh Christ...” He gasps out. Icy tendrils of fear snake, plunging into the hollow of his chest. Stunned, he presses fingers into Nick’s throat under the hinge of his jaw, only mildly reassured by the presence of a pulse. Thready, but there. He doesn’t waste another second trying to guess at how many minutes have passed since Nick had collapsed.

It comes back to him - first aid training for his stint as a summer camp volunteer and, more recently, the brief refresher Carlos had provided - and muscle memory kicks in. He watches himself pinch Nick’s nose shut, tilting his head back and chin up with an unexpected, confident steadiness and to his hands. Pulling in a breath, he then ducks to press his mouth to Nick’s and forces air into his lungs.

Once.

Twice.

He glances tensely to Nick’s chest after the second, watching it deflate. It doesn't rise.

Fuck.

He shares another breath - and then another and another and another, fighting to tamp down the panic trying to rise into his throat and pretend this was just another training dummy. Not his best friend lying motionless and edging ever closer to that place of irreversible brain damage.

C'mon, don' do this to me, man--

Edited 2015-01-03 16:30 (UTC)

"Is he alive?!" she doesn't mean to demand but her heart is in her throat and she needs to know as soon as they're done blockading the door. "I didn't hear the cannon!"

Yes. She didn't hear the cannon yet. Or maybe she missed it in her panic at the creature and the screams from the Tributes who go in its way instead of them. Clem wants to believe its the first option, no cannon fire and Nick was still alive but... but she watches Luke's face, then looks down to Nick, her dark skin going paler as she see's the same thing Luke does.

"No... no!" Clementine's on her knees beside Nick's body in a second, her small hands grabbing onto and shoving his shoulder, then pushing at his chest but she's took weak to apply the force needed for what she's trying to do. "C'mon Nick! Breathe!"

She looks back up at Luke, "You have to help him! Do CPR!"

“Yeah, I’m workin’ on it!” He huffs after the third set of rescue breaths, unease balling up tight in his chest. But it isn’t until Clem’s hands thrust into his field of vision and he sees them push frantically against Nick that he snaps out of the bubble of his thoughts, losing focus.

He suspects she hasn’t the muscle to exert the pressure needed to start a grown man’s heart – or stop it – but the smallest possibility is enough to put him on edge. Carlos had suggested that compressions on a beating heart could do damage, but whether it did or it didn’t they just couldn’t take that risk.

“Don’t!" Luke’s voice is tinged with desperation, fingers pressing lightly against her hand. “We don’ need to push -- his heart’s beatin’, it's fine, he jus’—“

‘Just.’ There’s no such thing as ‘just’ when a man lay dying and he recognizes the poor choice of word the moment it slips from his mouth. “--he ain’t breathin’.”

He regrets not having said so from the start what with the poor girl so ready to help. God, does he ever know what it’s like to be fiercely anxious, buzzing with pent-up energy, and yet so powerless to do anything with it. “I need you to keep a close eye on him for me,” He dips, pinching Nick’s nostrils and readying him for another breath. “Tell me if you see him movin’ or breathin’ on his own.”

Wouldn’t hurt to have a pair of extra eyes on this.

At once Clementine pulls her hands back as if burnt from underneath Luke's, looking exceptionally young in that moment as she realises she could have been making things worse, not better. She's trying hard not to panic, she is but if Nick dies so quick...

The fact that he won't really be dead isn't a comfort, especially with the looming possibility that he could come back as a Walker in the arena, a Walker that Clem and Luke would have to deal with. No, she can't think about that, she has to listen to Luke. Luke knows what he's doing, she believes that.

"O-okay, yeah, I can do that."

Swallowing thickly she looks down at Nick, willing him to go ahead and breath. "Please, Nick..."

Voices, he hears voices. Before everything went blank, all he heard was the sound of their footsteps and his heart beating like mad. He remembers feeling heat and burning as if his insides were on fire. The sounds of something not human fast approaching them comes back to him. Clementine was shouting his name.

Oh shit.

Eyelids twitch for a few seconds before they finally shoot open with Nick rising up, he'd say their names but is quickly interrupted by a coughing fit. He coughs into his hand without thinking and pulls it away when he feels the blistering sting. It had been burnt by the pipe earlier. Is this the Gamemakers' way of telling him that he should be more convincing? Would've been god damn easier if an alien wasn't sprung onto them.

He looks at them both, grateful that they're both in one piece but too dazed to formulate proper words. With the look on his face though, it's easy to tell that he's saying "sorry", like he let them down.

Edited 2015-01-05 01:58 (UTC)

He can feel his throat ache dully as he catches the look in Clem’s eyes – startled and sorry and too young for any of this – and he wishes more than anything that he could tell her that it’ll be okay, that Nick’ll gasp for air and they’ll be safe forever, and have it be true. But she deserves better than sweet and gentle promises that are destined to be broken. And as much as he wishes he didn’t, he knows it in his bones that she has seen enough of the world in all its lawlessness and ugliness to know a lie when she hears it. So he says nothing at all.

Nearly all his energy is sucked into the desperate struggle to shove aside the growing hopelessness threatening to crush him under its weight -- and he’s so absorbed in the cycle of filling and refilling Nick’s lungs and pausing briefly between sets to eye his chest that he almost misses the flicker of Nick’s eyelids.

His heart jumps with a shiver of fearful hope.

“Nick…?” Luke draws back, staring – and just in time, it seems, because Nick’s sitting up faster than he expects, coughing and coughing. Definitely not walker behaviour. He presses a hand against Nick’s back for support, ducking his head a little to look into his face.

It's impossible to gauge the level of pain he might be in. But Luke is convinced that he'd at least have a pretty a good idea if Nick were dipping into shock.

His voice drops low, careful, gentle. "Nick, jus'... lie down a second. Or lean up against this wall. Catch your breath." He rubs at his back unthinkingly, glancing to Clem. They could spare a few minutes. Hopefully.

Edited 2015-01-05 06:39 (UTC)

"Nick!" her relief and happiness flows out in a single syllable and Clementine sits back, dazed with it.

He's not dead, he's alive, for now he's alive. Thank God. She bites back the urge to cry and takes deep calming breath. They're not out of the woods yet, they won't be for weeks, not until the arena's over and they've come out of it one way or another. It's a dark thought but true, Clem's gone through this enough times now to know it.

At least this moment is a victory. Nick isn't dead despite the Gamemaker's best attempts to kill him so early on, Luke saved him and that's something. "You're okay, Nick, we got away." she tries to reassure him, "We're safe for now."

The door is sturdy and there's no sound of anything else coming at them.

Feeling Luke's hand on his back has him realize just how sore his entire body is from the spasms. Still, he wordlessly obeys, instinctively backing up (almost forgetting not to do so with his burnt hand) to lean against the wall behind him. He takes the moment to breathe as if to make up for the times he had forgotten to do so.

His heart's beating faster than it ever had, maybe even more so than it did when they all walked through that walker horde. He blinks away those thoughts - he's supposed to calm down after all. Clementine's reaction is unexpected but not unwelcome, though mostly out of his own sense of self-loathing than it is her. The girl is tough, but also good. She and Luke both went back for him when it was smarter to just leave him behind. That's what he thinks anyway, but he's grateful still. Hopeful, even.

"Thanks guys," he says with a look that is also apologetic. What happened may have been out of his control but he doesn't intend to let them down or put them in danger because of his shitty luck. He looks at his hand again making a face at the blisters already forming and the skin wanting to peel off.

"Well, I'm off to a fuckin' good start."

Nick’s not only responsive, he’s forming sentences as coherently as ever -- and Clem’s joyful relief is echoed in the way Luke lets out the breath he had been clutching so fiercely in his lungs, the knots in his shoulders loosening inch by inch.

“You’re alive,” Luke emphasizes with a tone that leaves no room for any diminishment of the fact. Nasty as Nick’s hand looks, all bubbled up with blisters like batter on a griddle, it’s far better to see him in pain but alive than the alternative. This they could actually attempt to treat granted that they found the necessary supplies.

“Jesus Christ…” Hushed incredulity. He shakes his head as the events of the last few minutes wash over him, his pulse still pulsing wildly in his throat. “That shock knocked the breath right out a' you... thought it might a’ stopped your heart. It wasn't lookin' too good for a while.”

There’s a shift of his jaw and a pained, worried knit to his brow, his lips pressing tight just a moment. And it's all the emotion he’s allowing himself - all that he can - before he swallows away the thickness in his throat and blinks his eyes clearer. “How’s the rest a' you doin'? If you start hurtin' pretty bad while we're on the move, jus' say somethin', okay? We'll figure somethin' out."

Edited 2015-01-08 02:01 (UTC)

Clementine doesn't think he's got anything to apologise for, he's alive and that's enough. None of them can be prepared for what they're going to find in here from the start, the Capitol makes it that way, wants them to be surprised and taken off-guard so they die in the most entertaining ways possible. It's not Nick's fault that he didn't expect to get electrocuted and then jumped on by some horrible muttation.

"I'm glad you're alive." she says, adding her own voice to what Luke said. "We can probably stay here a little longer if you need to."

A little longer but not too long. They have no food, no water and Clementine is willing to bet those resources in the arena are probably finite. If they don't hurry up and find some the other Tributes might take them first and going out that way sounds worse than any of her other deaths.

It's not a death she wants for her friends, either.

For now, he'd add. But saying shit like that doesn't help anything. Instead he attempts a chuckle, though another cough escapes instead. "Yeah, I can't believe it either."

Something about the shock tells him that the Gamemakers could've made it stronger, but they only needed him just barely, dead to let those mutts get to him. Assholes, all of them. There isn't much they can do about it now. They're doing even less just sitting here and Nick isn't going to let the group slow down on his account.

"I'll be fine," he tells them both, moving to stand while ignoring the brief dizzy spell he just got. "Could use some medicine if there are any."

But he can move, and that's what matters.

Edited 2015-01-10 09:42 (UTC)

To no surprise, Luke and Clementine share the same line of thought. As much as he’d let Nick rest a half hour longer at the very least, they’d be increasingly hard-pressed to find shelter, food, water, and supplies -- and with only one survivor destined to emerge victorious he can’t see any of it being available to a great extent or for very long. Time was siding against them and every second that slipped away only stacked the odds higher against them.

Keeping to a room with one of the exits blocked off wasn't the safest either, he muses. There's no knowing who - or what - might enter from the other side.

“Okay y’all,” He looks between Nick and Clem, seeking their attention, their agreement. It comes as a relief when he doesn’t have to urge Nick to his feet prematurely – though he does eye him, prepared to steady him if need be. “Keep your eyes open for anythin’ that seems like it could be useful - we'll probably have to get creative here. We’re lookin’ for food, water, better weapons, an’ medical supplies. Someplace to rest would be nice.” Then, to Nick: “We'll see if we can find somethin' for that burn.”

Clementine stands up as Nick does, her hands half-raised like she could catch him if he started to fall. People like them, people who had gone through what they had, they learned how to push past what other people wouldn't as a matter of survival. That doesn't mean Clem doesn't still worry for him.

"Yeah. Okay." she turns her head and looks at Luke, nodding. "Let's keep moving."

Turning round she picks up a piece of metal from the floor, it's as good a weapon as she'll get for now. "There has to be something around here."

Maybe if they're lucky there'll be sponsor gifts soon, she thinks, not yet realising that there'll be none of that in this arena. Until then they just had to keep moving.

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Arena 12 - The Spaceport

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