IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY LAID OUT THEIR SLEEPING BAGS in front of the Cornucopia, Iko put out the fire, watching as the embers died in a hiss of smoke curdling like milk. Their sleeping bags were heat-reflective, insulated enough to keep them warm throughout the night's subtle chill. Darkness, cut into fragments by the silver glow of from the thumbnail crescent moon, drenched them in shadows. Iko took first watch while the others slept.

Leant against the wall of the Cornucopia, Iko unsheathed her knives one at a time, holding them up against the beam of moonlight pooling by her feet to inspect her inventory. From her pocket, she drew out a sharpener she'd snagged from the crate of miscellaneous supplies Elias had pointed out to her and set to work.

Sprawled across the makeshift bedding, Alex tilted his head back to spy Iko, endarkened like a bruise in the shadows dancing over the campsite, obsessively filing away at the gleaming blade on one of her knives. Most times, she reminded him of one—small, deadly, and a certain cutting edge to her appearance. Iko Moriyama was an entity reminiscent of certain death, deceptively delicate features, and a killer uppercut. Unfocused on any eminent threats to eliminate, Iko always looked deceitfully innocent, like she was withholding pertinent information for a price. Strikingly pale and unapologetic. But, in all actuality, far from innocent. A wolf in woodcutter's skin.

As though she'd sensed his stare, Iko flicked him an unimpressed look. Eclipsed by shadows, Alex couldn't exactly distinguish her expression, but he knew. He always knew.

"You should be sleeping."

Alex scoffed. "You're being loud, it's disrupting my beauty sleep."

She stopped sharpening her knives. "There. Satisfied, your highness?"

"Much," Alex said, unable to contain his mirthful grin.

He heard the whistle of the knife slicing through the air before it embedded itself in the spot next to his head. Bemused, Alex yanked the knife out and slipped it under his sleeping bag. "You'll get that back when you learn to stop being an asshole," Alex said, smugly.

* * *

DAWN BROKE OVER THE ARENA, the rising sun a glaring egg yolk in the sky, and with it, a heat that clung to their skin like an animal that wouldn't come off. At midnight Iko had shaken Opal awake to take next watch, laid out her sleeping bag next to Alex out of force of habit, but didn't try to get her knife back. When the darkness bleached from the sky and the light crept back into the arena, it was Opal's turn to wake Iko, who woke Alex, who woke the others up. After they rolled up their sleeping bags and shoved them into their backpacks, they puzzled over the instructions manual crammed into the bottom of the box and tested the walkie-talkies that crackled with static each time they pressed the right buttons and then went radio silent when they released the triggers.

The plan was to move camp down to the river. Since the waterfall was the arena's biggest water source, and probably the primary one, they'd be in control of both the food and the water. Alex's reason was that it would be easier to flush out the other tributes, and since they were in open terrain, they'd be able to see everything. Nobody could dispute his logic, even though the immense risk of being too exposed loomed over their heads. Of course, Iko knew Alex had contingency plans. Incompetence did not a Career tribute make, and as soon as they'd settled by the waterfall, lugging the crates through the forest and down the steep slope and into the cave behind the waterfall, Elias volunteered to stay behind to guard the supplies, agreeing to radio in if he ran into trouble or if anything came up.

They were twenty minutes down the river, weapons hanging from their bodies like silver teeth, rifles in their hands, fingers on the triggers, when Sage asked, "Do you guys really trust him to stay behind by himself?"

"He's one of us, isn't he?" Titus mused. He glanced over his shoulder, spotting Sage's dubious deadpan look, and rolled his eyes. "What?"

A red dragonfly as big as Iko's torso, with a wingspan of almost six feet zipped between them, invoking a disgusted cry from Sage and a troubled frown from Opal. Instinctively, Iko flinched away from it when one side of its wings batted against her shoulder.

"It's not about trust," Alex said, still ahead of the group as they trudged down the embankment, following the tide of the rushing river, footfalls crunching in the sand. "It's in his best interest to stick with us for as long as he can. And even if he tries anything. If he tries to run with whatever supplies he can make off with, he knows we'll hunt him down. There's no way he'll survive on his own."

"It's not just that," Iko said, her voice a low rumble of thunder as she scanned the tree line for any visible threats. In periphery, she caught a sliver of movement as a leaf shook violently. She raised her rifle to shoot at it, but out hopped a red-scaled lizard with a leathery mane the size of a rabbit. She lowered her weapon. "He might be a part of this pack, but he isn't really one of us. He knows that. He's not a killer. That's probably why he stayed behind."

As she relayed her theory, Iko thought back to the previous day, just moments after the bloodbath. Elias hadn't let go of the District 7 girl's gun—the weapon that'd almost killed him. He didn't hold it like he was about to use it—and Iko seriously doubted that he actually did. He held it like it was memorabilia. A reminder. Killing was a necessity in these Games—that's what Iko had been raised to believe. What she'd capitulated her humanity for. A small price to pay for a reward that'd guarantee her respite. To Elias, life meant something a little different.

"She's right," Opal said. They took a left turn into a slightly damp dirt road that wound through the forest, wide enough to let a vehicle through. "Yesterday while you were all out hunting, we spoke a little bit between cataloguing the supplies. I asked if he was comfortable killing, and he said that he'd do it if he had to. You're right in that he's not one of us, really. Killing to satisfy bloodlust isn't something he can quite acquire the taste for. But he isn't above doing what he needs to do to survive, no matter how savage or inhumane. Killing in defense, I think he can live with as long as he can justify it, and there is a lot to be justified when it comes to us. We shouldn't underestimate him."

"We singled him out for a reason," Alex said, coming to a halt. Sage and Titus shared a puzzled glance as Alex crouched down to study something on the ground.

Rounding the group to settle by Alex's side, Iko saw the footprint in the mud as Alex brushed a finger over it. He turned to her, eyes sparking with a vicious hunger, and raised his dirt-smeared finger.

"It's fresh."

"And look—" Sage gestured to the prints following the trajectory of the dirt path, snaking between a thicket of giant trees, until it curved off-road into the underbrush— "they were nice enough to leave us directions."

"Looks like they started running from here," Titus said, scrutinising the prints through narrowed eyes. "The top half of the prints are all deeper depressions in the ground than the heel part."

"Maybe they were down by the river and saw us moving camp," Alex said, straightening up. "They probably ran before we could spot them. We should radio Elias."

In a crackle of static feedback, Opal lifted her walkie-talkie and relayed the discovery. Elias agreed to keep an eye out for anyone coming down to the river, although Iko would've pushed for shooting on sight, Opal made no such agreements, much to Iko's chagrin. And then they set off after the trail, adrenaline thrumming in their veins, a sudden electric energy pulse over them like a tide as the roar of the river grew more and more distant, as they crashed through the underbrush at a steady jogging pace uphill, never losing sight of the trail, Iko touched a finger to her knives. Finally, after too long, she'd get to play. One step closer to her promised glory.

As they kept on chasing the trail, ascending the hill at a rapid pace despite the burning in their calves, it became apparent that the tribute hadn't stopped running, even though the river was well out of reach, now a distant hush in the background. Almost a mile away, and they were already past the Cornucopia, well onto the crest of the hill, rising onto flatter land. Iko had noticed the prints were all consistent. Deep impressions on the toes, lighter or almost non-existent on the heels. How deep into the forest did they have to be to feel safe from the Career pack? What else were they running from? There weren't any more tracks other than this sole set of prints, and they must've been travelling light to be able to outrun the pack.

Eventually, they burst out from the tree line onto another dirt path that went straight across the top of the ridge. Through the trees, Iko could make out the hill on the opposite side of the river. It looked lower than this one, which meant they were on higher ground. On the other side of the dirt road, a jungle of stout trees with waxy palm leaves sprouting from the tops of the pudgy trunks springing from flat ground, about the size of two people stacked on top of each other, that seemed to span for miles, stretching until the greenery ran into a two-story dilapidated stone building the length of five mansions in Victor's Village put together. Where she expected a dip, there was only forest. Iko didn't understand the topography of such a strangely crafted arena, since hills were meant to slope back down at some point even if this one didn't seem to, but it seemed that the Cornucopia and the waterfall must've been situated on one corner of the arena rather than at the centre.

A flicker of movement in Iko's peripheral vision caught her attention.

"There!" Iko hissed pointing towards the sudden burst of motion as a dark blur darted out from a cluster of the stout trees, straight through the trees. Another tribute.

They were heading towards the building.

Without wasting a second, Iko and the others surged into the jungle, leaping over roots and underbrush, crashing through large ferns crawling along the jungle floor. Adrenaline kicked in as she broke into a sprint, leaping over fallen logs, the extra boost lending her step a deadly precision. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, a climbing tide beating in tandem with her footfalls. Baring her teeth, Iko pressed forward at the head of the group. Behind, Sage let out a thrilled cheer. Ahead, the boy tribute—District 5, Iko could see now, printed on the back of his shirt—veered right abruptly. Iko skidded, overshooting a little, but recovered before she could lose him to the jungle. Over the sound of her blood rushing in her ears, she barely heard the others thundering at her heels, weaving through the obstacles. Her body was starting to protest, muscles aching in protest, but Iko didn't stop. Didn't care. Another kill was what she wanted.

His fair hair flashed in the sunlight as he cut another right through a set of purple ferns, startling a large rodent into her path. Iko raced after him, bounding over the animal. With no supplies and no weapons for almost two days, the boy from 5 should be slowing down soon. Right now, he was operating on the fumes of pure primal instinct, relying on his survivalist's intuition to keep going, keep pushing, but at some point, that, too, would expire. He couldn't run forever. At least, not at this speed for long.

"You'll get tired before you can outrun us!" Titus crowed, matching Iko's pace. He raised his rifle and fired a few rounds into the underbrush, but the boy from 5 was nimble enough to dodge them. The bullets ricocheted into the dirt and the ferns, and the boy accelerated. Iko pulled ahead a couple more paces, her gaze locked on her target as she unsheathed a knife from her belt.

A small stream flashed by, bubbling through a concave depression in the ground that ran into a huge glass dome a couple paces from the building. The boy darted through a jagged opening in the glass wall, like a cargo truck had bulldozed through it, and a faded sign that read NO UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL ALLOWED in bold red print hung beside it, escaping destruction by a mere margin. Inside, the jungle seemed to stretch vertically. Towering rain trees loomed over them instead of the stout palm trees behind them, and a bridge, enclosed in a glass tube, bisected the glass dome along the canopy. The stream continued snaking through the jungle, emerging into an open clearing.

There was no time to take careful aim, and Iko didn't need to. As they approached the end of the tree line, into the open, as Iko was gaining on the boy inch-by-inch, she realised she had a clear shot. No more trees to hide behind.

The moment the boy broke into the clearing, Iko let the knife fly.

Before it could sink into the back of his knee, a shadow swooped over them, and an ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the glass dome as a large bird-like creature materialised out of nowhere and snapped its sharp beak around the boy's head. Her knife pinwheeled through the air and landed in the ground, lost amidst the dense underbrush. The boy let out an agonised shriek as the bird-creature flapped its wings, jerked its head upwards, and snapped the boy's neck with a sickening crunch. The canon went off, pronouncing the boy dead. Shock icing her veins, Iko skidded to a halt, stumbling forward when Titus bumped into her back.

"What the hell?" Titus hissed, backing up as he pinned the creature with widening eyes. Frozen in place, they stood there and stared—pure, unadulterated fear wiping Opal's flushed face of all colour as Sage let out a string of acidic curses, Alex blinking in disbelief at the sight before him, and Iko's chest heaving violently, her breaths coming up in panicked pants—at the bird-creature, as it wrestled with the boy's limp and lifeless body, blood pouring down his broken neck. It was huge. Bigger than any bird Iko had ever seen in her biology encyclopaedias back at school. More vicious, too. Its seed-black eyes were beady, and the more she stared, the more Iko was convinced this wasn't a bird at all. Its wings were thick curtains of leather, its fore-claws sharp as its pointed beak, shredding the boy's body to ribbons. Blood bubbled to the surface, gushing in rivers of crimson streaming down from the deep gashes in his torn flesh as the bird-creature took him apart, growling softly.

Slowly, Iko backed up, and noticed that the others had, too. Until she spotted movement on the ground. Shadows. She glanced up, past the canopy. That's when she noticed the roof of the dome had been smashed through. Like a glass egg that'd been clawed out of. And three more of the bird-creatures with their giant wings, a translucent orange against the sunlight, outstretched, oil-black shapes gliding against the bright white sky, wheeling in formation. Muttations the Gamemakers had designed for them. Usually, the Gamemakers only unleashed the mutts when there was little to no action, or when the tributes were spread too far apart and they needed some way to force them all back together.

Not daring to take her eyes off the mutt in front of her, Iko felt a calloused hand on her elbow guiding her backwards.

As she took another step back, a twig cracked under her heel and a loud snap sliced through the silence. The mutt went still as its piercing gaze locked on the pack. Iko's blood turned to slush.

Horror flooded Alex's face as he watched the bird-creature toss the boy's bloody body aside like a sack of rocks.

"Don't move," Alex murmured.

Iko wanted to scream at them to get out of the way, clear a path so she could run. She was the one closest to the mutt. The one most likely to get shredded to ribbons or skewered like a piece of meat by its beak. Everything she had worked for would be lost then. And on day two of the Games, too. How embarrassing would that be? Resolve solidifying like cement in her gut, she fought to hold onto her composure.

And then the mutt opened its maw, displaying tiny rows of vicious little teeth lining its beak, and let out a furious shriek.

Up in the sky, the three other mutts responded with equally blood-curdling cries of their own.

"Run!" Sage screamed.

Adrenaline flooded her body, pure primal instinct kicking her into action as she pivoted and broke into a full sprint out of the dome, back through the hole in the glass wall they'd come through, not daring to look over her shoulder. The others followed. She could hear them crashing through the underbrush next to her as they barrelled through the jungle, fuelled by the unadulterated need to survive. Her vision warped. All she was was the green of the forest, the edges of her vision tinged with a darkness as she ran, feet pounding the dirt, kicking up loose soil. Behind, she heard the sound of glass exploding, and the four muttations letting out livid screams that carved through the air.

Opal cried out as her foot snagged on something. Just as she was about to trip and fall flat on her face, Titus caught her, cussing vehemently.

A dark shadow fell over Iko. Hazarding a brief glance up, Iko spotted the four mutts through the thin canopy pulling ahead in an organised formation. They folded their wings, collapsing into dark shapes that plummeted towards the ground, sharp beaks pointed straight at the Careers. Panic icing her veins, Iko dove out of the way, rolling clear as one of the mutts broke through the canopy, hurtling downward. Before it could hit the ground, its wings unfurled with a sharp snap, and it pitched itself upward with a powerful flap.

Iko raised her rifle and pulled the trigger, pumping a few rounds into the mutt's midsection. It recoiled with a furious shriek, but the bullets seemed to bounce off its leathery hide. It let out a cry of pure rage. Iko noticed that the others were dealing with the same luck fending the relentless assault off. Running back to camp wasn't an option. It was too far. At least a whole afternoon's trek, and they couldn't lead these monstrosities to their most secure location. So far, Elias hadn't radioed about any trouble, so they assumed he was fine. But they weren't. And they needed to get to shelter. Fast.

"Get to the building!" Iko roared, veering a hard right as the mutt lunged at her. Its beak snapped around empty air as she ducked under a low-hanging branch. There was no time to waste. Without thinking twice, Iko grabbed Alex's wrist while he shot at the mutt dogging at his heels, pulling him away from the mutts.

"We can't kill them," Alex yelled as they thundered blindly through the jungle towards the building based on pure memory.

"Then we have to lose them," Iko snapped. Her lungs were burning, and she could feel her head getting light from the lack of hydration and food, but her footsteps didn't dare falter.

The building she'd spotted earlier didn't seem to be anywhere near, and irritation was just starting to work its way under her skin until Alex's hand flashed out and shoved her out of the way just as one of the mutts swooped down, hind claws extended to snatch her off the ground. It barely missed. Pain exploded in her shoulder as its sharp claws nicked her, the sound of her shirt ripping and her skin tearing ringing in her ears. Iko hissed in agony, tears springing to her eyes instantly. She blinked them away, trying her best to push out the harsh sting, ignore the blood seeping into her shirt, slashed open at the shoulder.

Fear licked at her chest. In such a terrain, there would be millions of bacteria attacking her exposed flesh. Infection was inevitable. Unless her sponsors could gift her a miracle. Those came few these days, and Iko was never one to believe in such fickle phenomenons, but Iko was slowly coming round to counting her blessings. Especially now, when the volatility of the arena was starting to grow hostile.

"This way," Alex barked, and hoisted Iko back onto her feet. The mere action sent a lightning bolt of pain down her shoulder and Iko didn't want to check out her wound for fear of how bad it could be. What if the mutt had cut her down to the bone? As she ran, her vision went black for a moment and she stumbled, momentarily blind until she tripped and hit the ground on all fours. A ringing in her ears drowned out Alex's pleas for her to get up and get moving as the mutts in pursuit of them shrieked with all the hatred in the world. Alarm drenched her guts in black tar. She was losing blood. She let Alex pull her back up again as the world crackled back into view.

"Where's the damn building?!" Iko heard Sage shriek. A flap of wings and a sudden gust of wind nearby had her pushing ahead, teeth gritted, heart hammering, vision swimming. She leant some of her weight on Alex as he guided her through the underbrush, half-carrying her at this point.

Frustration raked its talons down her insides as Iko crashed through a set of large ferns and almost tripped again, catching herself just in time to see Opal unsheathing her sword and jamming it into the mutt's gaping mouth, the blade slicing through its throat. It let out a gurgling scream, blood frothing at the back of its maw, and crashed to the ground with a great thud. Opal didn't stop to grab her sword. There were plenty more weapons waiting for them back at the campsite, anyway. But right now, they had three more to deal with.

Three more angry mutts out for their blood to avenge the demise of one.

"I see it!" Titus barked, wheezing a little. "We're almost there!"

Through the thicket of trees, Iko spotted the entrance of the white building. Clenching her jaw, clinging to the last bits of her thinning strength, Iko pushed forward as far as she could, Alex's arm still secured around her waist as he lugged her towards the building like she weighed nothing. When they broke out of the jungle and onto another wide dirt road. Over the dusty path, a hand-painted sign read WELCOME TO JURASSIC PARK. A broken statue stood atop a stagnant stone fountain leered at the group. Vines and moss crawled over the walls of the building. Inside, a broken skeleton of some giant animal lay scattered over the floor, its label on the plaque still mounted to what must've been a display that'd been knocked over.

Hanging from the ceiling, a tilted banner that read "WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH" swayed on a single, thin wire.

With no time to waste, they darted through the first set of doors they spotted underneath a winding staircase leading to the second floor. Already, the winged mutts were gliding through the entrance, their beaks opened in a furious shriek.

"Get in!" Opal commanded, holding one of the heavy oak doors open as Iko and Alex stumbled in after Sage and Titus, and promptly throwing them shut just as Titus slid his sword between the bars to barricade it shut as before one of the mutts threw itself against it, almost sending the doors off their hinges. They scrabbled to shove everything they could find against the doors to keep them the mutts outside from getting in. They seemed to be in some sort of restaurant. Tables that were once placed evenly spaced from each other were quickly pushed against the trembling door that threatened to burst open as the mutts kept throwing themselves against it. Further down, Iko noticed a set of metal doors were situated across the large hall-sized room.

"We need to get in there," Iko rasped, weakly, catching Alex's attention before he could set her down on a chair and rush off to help the others. One of the mutts had its front claws forced through the crack in the doors that the sword jammed between the bars allowed, scratching vehemently at the wood, leaving pale scars behind. Sage slammed the butt of her rifle against the claw until it retracted and the door fully shut again. Pain pulsed in hot waves from the wounds on her shoulder. Blood soaked the right half of her shirt to the sleeve, dripping down to the hem. "That door looks a lot sturdier if we're going to wait them out."

"That'll hold for now," Alex barked sharply. Everyone looked to him in confusion, pushing against the quaking doors. He gestured to the metal door in the back. "Get through that door. We'll be a lot more secure, and it'd buy us more time if the mutts got in here."

Once they were satisfied with how much they'd piled against the door, they made for the metal doors. To their immense relief, it swung open inward when Sage pushed it open, and they spilled into a large kitchen that smelled suspiciously of compost. In the back, another metal door was left ajar. A circular window overlooked a dark room. A hole was punched through the glass. It didn't look like it was occupied, so they piled in and shut the door, plunging themselves into total darkness.

They fell silent, not daring to move as they listened out. Through the roar of her own blood in her ears, Iko could faintly hear the mutts from all the way in here. Still shrieking and trying to force themselves against the barricaded door. They sounded far off, but just in case they'd found a way in, the group stayed as quiet as they could. Even though they saw it coming, even though the Games were promised to keep them on their toes, for the first time since they were locked in the arena, they felt fear. Pure, untamed, genuine fear. The strangled laugh Sage let out was a testament to her frayed nerves.

Titus drew a torch out from his backpack and swung the beam around, taking inventory of the room. A loud click resounded within the room as Alex bolted the door and pushed his full weight against it to test its durability. It looked like they were in some sort of freezer, though there was no power to run it, so the cloying air was humid and musty, the dust accumulated from many years of misuse a thick layer on the shelves. The others pulled out their torches, too.

A wave of fatigue washed over Iko as she slumped against the shelves, unable to keep standing any longer. Her shoulder screamed in agony, and it was boiling in this room.

"Oh, boy," Sage murmured, pointing her beam of light at Iko's shoulder, "that does not look pretty."

"She's lost a lot of blood," Alex said, urgency creasing his tone, gently untangling the strap of her rifle and her backpack from her shoulders. He dug through his pack and pulled out a roll of bandages and a bottle of water. "Someone get a light on her."

Sage trained her torch on Iko, careful not to shine them in her eyes.

"Opal's hurt, too," Titus said.

"I can wait a little longer, it's just a sprained ankle," Opal said, wincing as she settled down on the ground. She rubbed her thumb over the cross of the necklace around her neck, pressing it to her lips.

Iko hissed as he peeled her ruined shirt off, and let him wrap an arm around her firmly as she slumped against him. Involuntary tears flooded her eyes as he tipped the bottle over and emptied a small stream of lukewarm water over her wounds. White-hot pain cleaved through her torso, sending sparks down to her legs. She jerked against his hold, biting down on the inside of her cheek to suppress a shriek. Now, she could see them—three clean gashes slashed over her left shoulder. They were deep, reservoirs of blood welling in them, but not enough to expose bone.

"You'll be okay for tonight," Alex assured her, and the confidence in his tone had her almost believing his statement as he wound the clean bandages around her wounds. Iko flinched from his touch as the cloth grazed her stinging shoulder. When he was done, he helped her put her shirt back on slowly, careful not to touch her bandages. Without their supplies, there wasn't much they could do about it.

"That mutt stole my kill," Iko muttered murderously, rage creeping in through the haze of her head.

Shaking his head, Alex set a bottle of water in her hands and a stick of dried meat. "Just drink your water and eat before you knock out."

Iko shot him a withering look.

"If only our sponsors could reach us in here, huh?" Sage mused. She put her water bottle to her lips and drained all of it in desperate gulps. "Should we check in on the supplies?"

Alex shook his head, glancing briefly at the door. Nothing had tried to force its way in, yet, so it could be assumed that the mutts hadn't broken down their barricade. They fell silent, listening out again, as the loud slamming of the mutts pounding against the wooden doors cut through the air like canons. He switched off his torch.

"From now on, we go dark," Alex said, as the others followed suit, one-by-one, their torches flickering off until they were drenched in darkness once more. "Nothing that would attract attention. At least until they leave."

AUTHOR'S NOTE.
sorry if this chapter is a little lacking in quality but like it's all i have bc i'm seriously in a writing slump and the only way to get out of it, personally i find, is to try to write a little bit everyday. this was born over the course of almost a week, i think? i told myself that even if it came out horrible and choppy i'll still post it to get the momentum going so.... prithee be gentle 🥺 i'll edit when i complete the story bc i feel like this is one of my best works on this hellsite.