Nobody ~ Friends in Strange Places
"I want you to know that I'm sorry for killing your friends with fire." Nobody said to the jabberjay.
Nobody was quite sure that he'd become too attached to Everybody, as he had decided to call it. It lay snuggled in Nobody's grey hat humming a soft hum of a woman's voice from someone's long off past life, completely disregarding Nobody's apology.
Nobody sigh and stroked the wounded bird's feathers with a gentle tenderness he hadn't known he was capable of. Despite the fact he now sat huddled behind a rickety old desk and trapped in a fight he could never win, Nobody felt a brief happiness swell his chest. Nobody was starving, he was thirsty and he was scared but at least he had a friend.
That was when the anthem began to blare out of nowhere. Nobody jumped in a slight shock as he had the previous two nights. The games were fraying Nobody's nerves with a frightening speed. He figured that pretty soon he would just be a twitching mess with the appearance of a morphine addict. It was a depressing thought.
Nobody craned his neck upwards and watched the faces of the dead flicker across the sky for just a brief second before they vanished forever. As Nobody stared he tried to identify what the feeling was that filled his chest, but what he felt didn't have a name. It was the spawn of anger, fear, guilt and relief.
Nobody lowered his head as the last face faded into oblivion. He waited for the darkness to overtake the arena but it never came. Instead the face of a man who was neither dead nor a tribute alit the room. "Tributes I know you are hungry, thirsty and tired." Nobody blinked as his brain recognized the man as the president. "To help alleviate this hunger and thirst, there will be a feast tomorrow in exactly 12 hours at the cornucopia." His face vanished, replaced a glowing red 11:59:59. "Although you are not exactly required to come we have been keeping an eye on your food supplies and none of you can afford to miss this."
Nobody felt irritation flood his chest, suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling of a caged animal. "I have a bird!" He screamed suddenly, his face snapping toward the camera embedded in the wooden edging of the desk. "I could eat the bird!" Nobody was very aware that there was no chance of him ever eating Everybody. "So. If I go to your stupid feast its because Everybody and I want to kill people." He added, his conviction fading with each word until his voice was barely a whisper.
"Good luck tributes, may the odds be ever in your favor." The president's disembodied voice curled from above, as if to mock Nobody's unplanned defiance.
"Fuck you, bitch." Nobody grumbled tearing his eyes from the glowing countdown and beginning to lay himself down on the cold floor to try and get sleep that he knew he could ever get, not with his life practically counting downward above him.
Everybody piped up suddenly, it's little beady eyes suddenly filled with a mischievous twinkle. "Fuck you, bitch!" It exclaimed joyfully, mimicking Nobody.
Nobody felt a smile stretch across his face, only to fade just as quickly. Tomorrow would be the first time all of the tributes were actually forced together. This was going to be the real bloodbath.
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Exactly 12 hours later Nobody stood in one of the long hallways that let into the huge circular room that held the looming cornucopia, just as the president had predicted he would. No one else stood in that particular hallway besides Everybody who sat perched happily on Nobody's shoulder.
Nobody felt a little sick as he waited tentatively for the feast to appear in the empty shadows of the cornucopia's mouth. He had no weapon, he had no physical advantage- in fact the only thing Nobody had was a loud-mouthed jabberjay who refused to stop uttering the profanities that Nobody had snapped at the president the previous night. Not 5 minutes could go by without Everybody gleefully chirping, "Fuck you, bitch." Nobody really hoped that there would be ducktape at the feast.
That was about when a grinding sound was heard and a massive pile of food rose into the arena. Nobody felt his mouth begin to water. He wanted to sprint but he couldn't bring himself to run yet, the fear restricting his body. Tributes began to dart from all outlets into the feast, sprinting with a speed that Nobody's mind warned him he could never match.
He had to go though. He really had no choice. He carefully removed Everybody from his shoulder and placed the squawking bird on the floor, he would come back for it but there was no sense in risking its life over something Nobody needed. With that Nobody's feet pounded against the tiled floor, propelling him to quite possibly his untimely death. His breath was ragged in his throat as he watched the fiery-haired boy from 2 grab the neck of a boy with short brown hair and begin pounding his skull into the ground like it was a walnut he was trying to crack. Everywhere around him people fought frantically, blood flew through the air like rain as tributes were cut down left and right. Nobody's chest felt as though it was going to explode, he jumped over the lifeless corpse of a sandy haired boy who looked as if he had drowned in his own blood.
He glanced over his shoulder rashly as he bent down and grabbed a backpack that he assumed was full of food. A arrow grazed his shoulder, creating a jagged line of blood that dripped down his arm like paint. He flinched and bit down on his tongue to keep from crying out.
His gaze locked with a fierce looking girl he didn't recognize. She raised her bow again to take aim, Nobody whipped the backpack around in front of him like a shield. Three arrows pierced it, he stumbled backward and then turned to run only to be tacked. His body crashed into the ground, his jaw cracking the hard floor sending rivets of pain through his nervous system.
"I'm sorry." A girl said tightly from where she straddled his back, raising her scythe above her preparing to drive it into her back. She hesitated. Hesitating is perhaps the worst thing you can do in the Hunger Games because that was all it took for something to hit her face, clawing at it with it's sharp talons. The girl cried out in agony as the creature that attacked her cried, "Fuck you, bitch!" The girl toppled to the ground trying to rip Everybody from her face.
Panting, Nobody shot to his feet and sent his boot barreling into the girl's neck in one fluid movement. He didn't have time to feel guilty as he slung his pack over his back and grabbed Everybody in his arms. "You shouldn't have followed me! You could have been killed!" He scolded the bird who only blinked at him innocently, shaking the shreds of the girl's bloody skin from it's claws.
Then, and only then, did Nobody run from the death that surrounded him on all sides. Death knew better than to chase him.
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