Chapter Text
Del was taken out of her state when the avox knocked on her door. She opened her eyes to see the morning sun shining through the blinds. Del didn't want to get out of bed, she wanted to curl up so tightly into a ball that she disappeared.
But she got up, they'd force her to if she didn't. It was better to go with her dignity than without.
She was guided out, stoic Peacekeepers at both of her sides. Del was brought to the Hovercraft, and locked into her seat. The Capitol workers went past and injected all of the tributes with a large needle, containing their tracker. They stuck it in her forearm, she made a quick, involuntary, face in response.
She saw Mako freak out a bit, which was reasonable, the needle was very large.
"It's gonna be fine, it'll be okay." She mouthed to Mako.
He looked at her and shook his head frantically, needles, especially needles this large, were one of his biggest phobias.
The Capitol worker took his arm, Mako didn't dare move against him. The Capitol worker stuck the needle into his forearm, and Mako winced. He looked across to Del, she gave him a small smile and a thumbs up for reassurance. Mako gave her a little teary-eyed nod in response.
The Hovercraft ride felt like it took forever, but Del wouldn't care if it took years. She wanted it to, delaying her arrival to the arena was a very welcome idea. But of course that wasn't the case.
The tributes were all taken to their individual rooms, she said a silent goodbye to Mako as the two Peacekeepers herded her away. She walked into the room, and she saw Anastasia there waiting for her.
"Hello, Delphina." Anastasia handed her a bundle of clothing to change into.
"Thanks, Anastasia." Del gave a half-hearted smile.
Del changed into her outfit, it was a nylon black top with matching capris of the same materials, like a swimming suit. She was also given dark brown cargo pants with a complementary jacket to wear over them.
Anastasia put Del's hair into two braids. She yanked her head around and pulled on her hair too tight. It brought up memories of her father trying to do her hair for her after her mother died, before she had learned to do it herself.
The countdown on the screen reached ten seconds, she had to be in the tube by the time that the countdown ended. She stepped into the glass compartment, shaking with every step.
"I wish you the best of luck in the arena, Delphina." Anastasia spoke genuinely.
Del could not bring herself to speak, she gave a nod and a fearful smile. Her mind spun, her throat ached in worry, she felt her eyes water, but no tears fell from them. She looked out at Anastasia, who had her hand up to her face, nervously picking at the skin on her lips, paying no mind to her—now smudged—aqua lipstick.
Anastasia has been through this many times before, she expected for it to be easier by now. But it never did, she stopped letting herself get attached to the tributes she styled, but they were still little kids who she couldn't help but love.
The sliding door of the tube locked with a loud 'click!' and she began to rise up, her chest heaved, her throat was choked and her face was hot to the touch.
Del's pedestal finally made it to the surface, the familiar heat hit her the second she was above the ground. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the bright sun in the arena sky, but once they did, she was greeted with a familiar landscape.
It was a marshland.
Once all of the tributes were above the ground, the countdown started.
60... 59...
Del frantically looked around the pedestals, searching for Mako.
58... 57... 56...
She spotted him, in-between the District 12 girl and District 6 boy. She breathed a sigh of relief, as he was next to two tributes that weren't the careers, or really even strong contenders at all.
55... 54...
She waited for him to spot her.
53... 52...
Once he did, she mouthed to him "run away, I'll catch up". He nodded in response, his expression horrified.
36... 35...
Del spotted a trident, right in the mouth of the Cornucopia. That's what she was gonna run for.
24... 23...
The District 12 girl, Liverna, suddenly screamed.
"NO-"
Del quickly turned her neck to look at the girl, as her abrupt scream broke the tense silence of the arena. She had dropped the wooden ball that she had been fidgeting with. The girl's pedestal exploded, cutting off her shrill scream. Bits of her flew a few feet out.
18... 17...
Mako didn't know how to react, the girl had been right next to him. He wiped his face with his left hand, and pulled it down to reveal a splash of Liverna's blood. He looked over to Del, his face full of nausea and horror.
14... 13...
Del quickly shook her head at him, mouthing "Mako, it's okay".
12... 11...
Mako frantically shook his head in response, his eyes welling up with tears.
10... 9...
Del averted her gaze to Liverna's pedestal, she knew that she'd immediately regret it. The sand around it was concave, the explosion threw it into the surrounding area. But what sand was left was bloody. The scarlet liquid seeped into the ground, bits of black hair were blown about by the soft wind, some getting stuck in the chunks of flesh stuck to the ground. Which weren't even recognizable as human.
7... 6...
'Her poor family.' Del thought. Most people were tuned into the Games, she caught herself thinking too hard about how Liverna had people back home. How all the tributes—who she would have to kill—had people back home.
3... 2...
The countdown continued, Del exhaled, clearing her mind and getting ready to run.
1...
The loud sound of a gong banging filled the arena. Del immediately broke into a sprint towards the Cornucopia, not looking back to check where Mako was. The Careers and a few other tributes were running to it as well. She didn't let anything, or anyone, stop her.
She outstretched her arm to grab the trident, her fingers brushing the metal shaft. She was about to wrap her fingers around it when the hood of her jacket was yanked away.
"Shit!" She yelled.
Del fell onto her back, and Falco stood above her, about to bring his axe down on her face. The axe caught the Sun in a tantalizing glow, but the oppressively bright light struck Falco in the eyes. It blinded him for a moment, which gave Del the upper hand. She rolled out of the way, and he chopped off the end of her braid instead of splitting her face in two. The axe got stuck in the metal of the Cornucopia, and Falco tried to pull it out. But he decided to just kill Del with his bare hands instead.
"That axe too heavy for you?" Del quipped while taking the trident in her hands.
Falco grabbed a backpack from the ground, he violently threw it at Del, she blocked it with her arms. She grabbed the trident, which was now within range. She thrusted it towards Falco, he backed away from her, deeper into the Cornucopia. She finally picked the bag that he threw at her and sprinted away, faster than she ran to it. She ran to the area that she pointed to for Mako to go earlier.
"Mako!" She yelled.
She was caught off-guard when a spear, thrown by Lazere, flew through the air, a few feet in front of her. Whizzing past and slamming into the chest of Magnolia Gillespie, the District 9 girl. She crumpled to the ground and died immediately.
Del turned around momentarily, she watched the carnage unfold before her, Flint Sloan, the male District 11 tribute had his face chopped to bits by Rowan with her machete. Keeran Smith from Five took a bow shot to the head from Graham Dennis from Eight. Vaughn Dempsey from Nine, who was paralyzed in horror after watching what happened to Flint, pleaded for his life as he stumbled away from Rowan, who showed no mercy. She stabbed her machete through his chest.
"Fuck, oh fuck." Del muttered, she had to get away from the Cornucopia.
Del turned back around, she ran into the swamp, she had to find Mako, she assumed that he was hiding somewhere in the swamp—he had to be.
"Mako!" She yelled again. "Where are you!"
'Shit, shit, fuck, shit.' Del's mind raced.
"I'm over here!" She heard a small voice from behind a tree trunk.
She ran over to the tree she heard him from. He was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest and his face down.
"Holy shit!" She sat down on her knees, putting her hands up to his face to check if he was okay.
"Mako, it's gonna be fine. I swear." She comforted him, despite the fact that she was equally a mess as he was, she was just better at internalizing it.
"She- she-" He stumbled through his words. "She exploded!"
"I get it, I get it." She didn't know how to help someone after something like this. "But I swear it's gonna be fine. That's just one less person that we gotta get through."
Mako shook his head erratically, and he didn't bother to wipe the tears from his face. He shook like a palm tree in a hurricane, and Del freaked out when she realized how hard it would be to move him from his spot.
"Please, we have to go!" She grabbed him by his shoulders. "I can keep you safe, but not here!"
Nothing she said worked, and as Del looked back to the Cornucopia, she felt her skin crawl. The panic she repressed had begun to boil up, and without thinking, she yelled "You're so stupid, we need to move!"
She regretted her words immediately, but that didn't matter right now. Del grabbed Mako by his sleeve, and pulled him along with her as she ran away from the Cornucopia.
Mako gained his footing after a moment, and shoved Del's hand off of his sleeve. They had slowed down after a moment, but they were still focused on getting away from the Cornucopia.
"We can keep walkin' for a while, once we can't hear the fightin' in the Bloodbath, we'll pause to rifle through the bag I got." She turned around a bit to show him the bag that she wore on her back.
"Okey-dokey." He spoke with a flat tone, not bothering to look up at Del.
They traversed through the swamp, walking on the conveniently fallen trees. The breeze blew the smell through the air, and Mako scrunched his nose in disgust.
Del felt her stomach churn, but not from the smell. It felt as if they were using her home against her. She smelled the air, felt the breeze, and heard the birds and bugs chirp—all of these were meant to be indicators that she was safe.
And yet, she's never been more unsafe. She almost got her head split in two and screamed at a little kid.
She looked down at Mako, and realized how deep her words could have cut.
"Hey, y'know I didn't mean it, right?" Her voice came across as ingenuine, even though that wasn't the intention.
"I know." He said, bluntly.
"I'm- I was just scared." She stuttered around her words, trying to organize a proper apology.
It wasn't that she called him stupid, Mako was aware of his intelligence. It was more that it was coming from her.
Sometimes the kids at his school insulted him, and sometimes it was his parents or his grandmother. But it was different with Del, he wanted her to have a positive opinion of him.
"It's fine, doesn't matter." He glanced up at her.
Del nodded, but she knew that it did bother him, but she decided to let it go.
"What happened to your braid?" Mako inquired, moving on from the previous subject.
"The District 1 boy cut it off with his axe." She responded.
"Oh, are you okay?" He asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just hair." She lied, it did bug her.
Her braids were uneven, the uncut one fell past her chest, but the chopped one unfurled at her shoulder. She hated the fact that they were uneven, they were imperfect in the worst way.
"How'd it happen?" Mako was a tad nosy.
"I was grabbin' the trident when he pulled me to the ground and tried to split my head in two." She didn't make an attempt to sugarcoat it.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Mako's tone shifted.
"What're you apologizin' for?" She laughed a bit. "You didn't do anythin'."
"Well, y'know, it's scary."
"You don't need to worry about me." She promised him.
Mako was about to speak up, but he was cut off by a cannon.
"Bloodbath." Del pointed out.
The amount of cannons upcoming would represent the end of the bloodbath and the death of the tributes.
Del and Mako quietly whispered, counting the amount of cannons that went off.
"Nine." She said.
"That's..." Mako did the math in his head. "Fifteen left, thirteen other than us."
"Okay, let's..." Del looked around. "Let's climb up that tree, to look through the bag."
Mako nodded, and he motioned for her to start climbing the tree first.
"You first, I'll follow." Del laughed a bit. "Somethin' tells me that I'd have an easier time catchin' you if you fall."
"Maybe." Mako began to scale the tree.
Mako climbed the tree, and Del followed close behind him, making sure that he didn't fall. She struggled to hold the awkwardly long trident. They both sat on a thick tree branch, and Del swung the bag onto her lap.
"Let's see what's in here." She said.
Mako clung to the tree trunk tightly, scared that he'd fall into the swamp below. Del opened the bag, she pulled out a hunting knife, a flask full of water, some jerky, a packet of biscuits, a thin sleeping bag, and some fishing string.
"Hey, Mako," She turned to him. "Here, take this."
She held out the hunting knife to him, handle out.
"Really?" He seemed surprised.
"Yeah! 'Course!" Del smiled.
He took the knife in his hand, and carefully put it in one of the pockets of his cargos. Del put the supplies into the bag again, and swung it to her back.
"What's the plan for the day?" Mako asked.
"To do what Dorian said, to stay away from the other tributes for as long as we can." She responded.
"Should we keep moving then?" He implored.
"Let's give it a moment," Del looked around from the vantage point, making sure that there were no other tributes. "I think we're good for now."
Mako nodded his head in response. Del noticed how the swamp spanned a far distance, but there were also marshlands nearby with cattails.
She didn't notice how Mako anxiously flicked his nails and whipped his head around at every small sound. After a moment of sitting there, he finally spoke up.
"Can we get going now? I don't wanna stay here anymore."
"Yeah, sure, we can get goin'." She responded.
Del went down first, she clutched the trident tightly. Once they both made it down, they went in the direction away from the Cornucopia, to avoid bloodbath survivors.
They traversed through the swamp, trying to get out of the muck and into the marsh.
"At least the other tributes will have a decent disadvantage, with the marsh'n swamp'n all." Del remarked.
"You're talking, the West End doesn't really have swamps." Mako responded.
"Oh yeah, shit, I forgot about that." Del corrected herself. "But I bet that a bunch of 'em can't swim."
"Yeah, I bet you're right about that." Mako grimaced.
"Let's steer clear of the marsh, the Careers will probably stick to the Cornucopia, and the swamp is probably too far outside the comfort zones of the other tributes." Del suggested.
"Sounds great." Mako replied.
They traversed the swamp silently for about fifteen minutes, out of fear that they would be heard. Their silence was abruptly interrupted when a loud cannon shot sliced through the air. They both jumped at the sudden sound.
"Shit..." Del grabbed Mako by his upper arm and pulled him in closer to her. "Keep your eyes peeled."
They hadn't heard any other noises, so they assumed that the tribute couldn't have died anywhere near them.
"I wonder who it was." Mako remarked.
"We'll find out tonight, let's just hope it was a Career, or stronger tribute." She responded.
Hours went by, Del and Mako didn't come across any dangers, other than plant life that they didn't recognize and therefore feared to eat. As the sun went down and the arena got colder, they realized that they needed to find a spot to sleep that night.
"Could we climb a tree? Or maybe..." Mako thought. "I dunno, I can't think of anything else."
"The tree's a good idea, but we can't secure ourselves to a tree branch, unless you count the fishin' string." Del responded.
"Do we just find a clearing or something?" He asked.
"I think that's our best bet." She said.
The pair walked around, looking for an area that wasn't just murky water. Once they found one, Del pulled out the sleeping bag and sat down at the base of a tree.
"I'll take first watch, you can take the sleepin' bag." Del offered.
Mako wanted to protest, but he wanted to sleep more.
"Okey-dokey."
Mako got inside the sleeping bag, and set his hunting knife on the ground next to him. A bit after he fell asleep, the announcement came on that would show which tributes died on the first day. As usual, all of the Career tributes were unarmed. But, both District 3 kids were dead, both kids from 5, Maude from 8, both from 9, Isadore from 10, Flint from 11, and Liverna from 12.
Ten dead. Ten dead and it hadn't even been twenty-four hours, which meant that there were fourteen left alive.
Del looked over at Mako, who looked even smaller while sleeping, horrified at the thought that she'd have to let him die.
She could hear the thoughts in the back of her mind telling her to take everything and run. Mako had to die for her to go back to her dad. She tried justifying it in her mind by saying that Mako dying would save both her and her father.
But, she looked at him, his hair a mess of dark brown curls. There and then she knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she was complicit in his death.