Raleigh huffs, because he can fucking hear the lie in Chuck's voice, and he knew, knew that Chuck wouldn't believe him, but hearing it, and having it turned back on him, knowing Chuck would kill him hurts like things haven't gotten through Raleigh's wall to hurt in a long time. It makes him angry at himself, that he's invested so much of himself in Chuck, in too many ways.
He still can't even think of hurting him, though, so he keeps his mouth shut and keeps following Chuck back towards the beach. He looks over his shoulder every once in a while to make sure they're not being followed, and he doesn't see anyone, but there is a strange fog creeping from the back of the jungle where they had been.
Raleigh keeps going, picking up the pace a little, but the fog is closing in on them, creeping in from the sides of the trees too. It's not long before it licks at the side of his hand. His skin feels like it's on fire. He cries out and shoves Chuck forward.
"Run."
He pushes them, forcing Chuck to stay ahead of him. He's got to keep himself between Chuck and the fog.
Raleigh cries out and that actually scares Chuck more than the threat of the fog itself, because Becket's a goddamn buddha of placidness, that he's actually cried out has Chuck fucking moving, though he's checking back behind him to make sure Raleigh's coming.
In the moment, Raleigh's not his enemy. He's just another person fucked over by the Capitol, and Chuck's not ready to see him die yet.
"Move your fuckin' ass, Becket!"
Be a hero all you like, but if Raleigh falls back, Chuck's pausing too.
Raleigh's not falling behind. He is, in fact, nearly stepping on Chuck's heels pressing him forward. He pants and grits his teeth as the fog licks at his feet and creeps on his arms. Finally, he presses forward scooping Chuck into his arms.
"Don't stab me." He manages as he tucks his body around Chuck's and picks up his pace. He can feel the smack of the leaves around his legs and the fog seems to be growing, multiplying even as it moves. He's running faster, but the fog is catching up. It's burning at his elbows, his back, and calves.
Finally, he stumbled through the end of the forest and onto the beach. He can't see, can't breathe for the pain. The whole backside of his body is on fire. He drops Chuck to the sand and falls into the shallow waves. The water hurts, makes him start to scream before he regains the presence of mind to bite down on his hand instead. The sores are coming off, but Raleigh can't move to make it happen faster.
Oh, fucking christ. He's picking him up and Chuck is livid. He's not stupid enough to fight it while he's running because that would just mean Raleigh would trip and fall and they'd both die. So instead he lets Raleigh humiliate him on national television, only shoving himself away when he's dropped and at the moment he's so goddamn angry he doesn't give two shits who hears him. Raleigh's screaming, it was his bright idea to come out to the beach anyway.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Chuck screams, gesturing angrily. He has half a mind to just fucking kill him now and before Chuck can even think straight, he's got his weapon out and pointed while Raleigh scrubs at his hands and face.
"Don't you ever fucking touch me again! Do you hear me? Don't you ever put your filthy hands on me ever again!"
Cause so far Raleigh's done a really good job at making him feel inadequate and has managed to humiliate him in front of the Gamemakers (who will now think he's weak), potential sponsors (who are never going to send anything now that they know he's a goddamn pussy that needs ~rescuing~) and the rest of Panem.
If Chuck wins he wants it on his terms, not because he has a goddamn bodyguard.
...Killing Raleigh right now would prove otherwise. Chuck is seriously considering it.
Chuck's yelling at him, Raleigh thinks, as he looses his balance swaying and falling onto his back in the waves. They lap at his face and his skin, dispelling some of the odd sores and he slowly comes back to himself just in time to hear Chuck call his hands filthy.
Raleigh still feels nauseous and can't see straight, but he holds up his hand and looks at them. The sores are gone, they don't really hurt, just ache a little. He knows Chuck's not talking about that though, he's talking about what Raleigh's done in the Capital. He knows. He must know...
Chuck's asked him a question, Raleigh thinks, but he doesn't know what it was, or what he's supposed to answer.
Chuck's got no idea who or what Becket does in his spare time, that's what's funny.
Except it's not, and Chuck's pissed, and about five seconds from just running him through and calling it a day. It's the only way to salvage his reputation, the only way to get any kind of sponsors because at the moment?
Everyone on the outside thinks he's a complete fucking waste, that he's useless and won't make it on his own.
..Abruptly, Chuck pulls back, slams the butt of his staff in the sand as he looks at Raleigh, then he just -- turns around, and stalks back into the forest.
Someone else can kill Becket. Chuck can't bring himself to do it, but he's finished with him. If he can go it alone, and win out, then maybe--
Maybe it won't be so goddamn horrible on the outside. It's easier being alone, not being close to anyone. That way, it's not so hard to kill anyone.
Raleigh's not aware, not until he hears the sand shift and he knows Chuck's leaving. He curses out loud, and forces himself up. The poison's gone and he can hardly walk, but with every step he moves, he gets steadier and stumbles after Chuck into the forest.
"Wait-- it's not gone-Chuck-"
With a bit of vindictiveness he hoped Herc was watching this. It was a cruel thought, but it didn't stop Raleigh from hoping someone was hurting on his behalf and cursing Chuck along with him.
Chuck bolts when he gets into the forest. Raleigh's still a little bleary and Chuck uses that to his advantage, taking sharp turns and heading into the thickest part of the underbrush in order to avoid detection. With the racket they were making on the beach, they won't be alone long. Chuck doesn't intend to run into any careers.
He hears Raleigh say his name, and it just prompts him to move faster, to push himself harder, harder because he know he can, he's capable, he doesn't need someone saving his fucking ass. He's won this before, cut a swath through the other tributes last time -- he doesn't need Raleigh.
Raleigh can practically feel Chuck pick up his pace. It's what he would have done in his situation. He's only nineteen, but his body feels ancient. He can feel his old injury from Knifehead making his left arm twitch, which isn't good. He can shoot well with his right hand, but his left hand is his preferred arm and that's not going to be any kind of advantage for him if he's hurting.
He doesn't call again for Chuck. It would be stupid at this point. Sound travels fast over water, and even with the waves someone had probably heard him screaming. They didn't need him giving away Chuck's position or his own by continuing to call. Instead, he concentrated on tracking Chuck.
Raleigh thought he could hear him, his quiet breaths and jogging steps not far ahead of him, when lines sudden shot out of jungle and embedded themselves in his bad shoulder. An electric current ran through his body. He let out one sharp scream before he fell to the ground twitching. It was probably just enough to stun him on a regular time, but disoriented and wet from the ocean it's knocked him to the ground and made him vulnerable.
A camouflaged body moves in the trees, Raiju, the career known for this particular tactic of stunning his opponents and playing with them before he kills them. Raleigh can't get his limbs to cooperate with the current running through them. It hurts, fuck it hurts, but he can't scream, he can't get to his gun. He's going to die and Chuck's going to be on his own with no one that knows the plan and he's going to get left behind or killed.
Hopeless panic overwhelms Raleigh's chest, and he's back there again, watching the launchable trap clamp around Yancy's body and drag him away into the deep of their arena.
Chuck hears Raleigh’s scream and the steps behind him stop. Chuck’s good at
hiding in the underbrush; despite being obnoxious and loud and bitchy,
Chuck’s quite good and hunkering down and rendering himself invisible. He’s
actually not that far ahead of Raleigh; he’d slowed his pace not only to
keep the noise to a minimum but also because he’s confused.
Raleigh’s had a couple opportunities to kill him and he hasn’t so much as
pulled a single weapon on him. Sure, they’re allies, but even allies have
to kill each other eventually – Chuck’s really fucking aware of that. He’d
cried when he slid his knife into the belly of the girl he’d allied with
last time, and she’d held onto him while she died, babbling that she
forgave him and it was better that he made it out, because he was so much
stronger than her.
He still has nightmares about her, and the things he’d done to survive.
And now, Raleigh’s in trouble. Chuck knows he’s in trouble, and it’d
be easy to let someone else do the dirty work and kill him off.
But there’s something about that stupid blonde that Chuck can’t shake and
so he doubles back, keeping to the shadows. He eventually sees Raleigh but
he knows - knows - who he’s dealing with here and stealth and a
quick, fast kill is what’s going to be necessary if either of them are
going to survive Raiju.
Chuck’s patient, though. He’s as patient as Raiju and he simply watches,
breathing slow, even, and silent until Raiju passes right in front of him,
on his way to taunt and murder Raleigh.
Chuck doesn’t hesitate.
He comes right at him from behind, catching Raiju on the back and both men
hit the ground. There’s a quick scuffle and Chuck’s pretty fucking sure
he’s going to die, but then his switchblade is embedded in Raiju’s
neck, blood spurting like a geyser into Chuck’s face, and the man goes
limp, and a cannon booms. Shivering, Chuck pushes Raiju’s body off and
scrambles back, teeth chattering even though it’s anything but cold. He
stumbles over to Raleigh, motor functions still not up to speed, and grabs
his arm.
“C’mon, asshole,” he rasps, fingers digging into his bicep. “We gotta move.
Everyone on this fucking island knows where we are now.”
Chuck's fingers at digging into Raleigh's bicep and it's a miracle that he's not feeling the shock too, but maybe the suits don't conduct and it's only working on Raleigh because most of his suit was eaten away at by the fog. It takes just a second, but it's so hard to speak.
"Taser-shock points. Off." He needs Chuck to turn the taser off so he can pull the points out of his skin. Otherwise he's not moving anywhere. He can't even think enough right now to register the fact that Chuck came back for him.
"Thank you." Raleigh murmurs and that's when it hits him. Chuck didn't have to do this. They aren't actually friends or even real allies like Raleigh wants so badly to be. Chuck doesn't trust him a bit, but--he came back for him. He looks up beaming at Chuck, even as his hands keep rubbing his muscles down and he tries to get feeling back in his body so he can run.
"You came back for me." He says it like a revelation, and there's a kind of light on his face, that probably hasn't been seen since Yancy was still alive. No one had ever come back for since his brother died. They sent him to do their dirty work, to collect secrets and trade favors, and they locked him in, no one came back for him.
After a second he forces himself to look away from Chuck, because he knows his face his raw and stripped of everything and he hadn't intended on anyone seeing that, let alone Chuck and all of Panem through the cameras. Oh well, they'd eat it up. He pushes himself to his feet and shakes out his body, quickly looting Raiju's. He takes the taser, and miracle of miracles he's got a spile, which will be their new source of water once they get away.
"Excellent." He mutters. "Which way do you want to go?"
Chuck's covered in blood as he helps Raleigh, face splattered with the
remnants of his encounter with Raiju, his polymer suit smeared and torn
from the scuffle. He doesn't know what to think of the look Raleigh's
giving him - he doesn't even know Raleigh.
"Yeah." He says shortly, getting Raleigh to his feet once he's satisfied
with the looting of the body. They'll be coming to pick it up soon enough
and when Raleigh's finished, he comes right up beside him, arm around
Raleigh's waist to let him lean on Chuck because he knows after
being jolted like that, his arms and legs probably feel a lot like jelly.
"This way. We gotta get outta this sector, get somewhere dryer where we can
take a look at the fuckin' damage you've done to yourself."
Raleigh needs some medical attention. Chuck hopes that the man is well
liked enough that the'll be getting gifts sooner or later.
Raleigh's surprised again when Chuck actually touches him, wraps and arm around him to help him walk. He swallows hard, pulling back on his emotions because he can't afford to feel them for the moment. He leans on Chuck, not heavily, but certainly enough to help him a lot. He wants to object to the that comment about damaging himself, because the fog did most of it, and then Raju did the rest, it wasn't his fault, but he doesn't open his mouth. He doesn't want to give Chuck any fodder for dropping him.
"We can get water from the trees. He had a spile on him." Raleigh returns. They could drink up, rinse off a little, and regroup. Figure out if he was dead weight and maybe how close Mako and the others were. He needed to figure out how to communicate with Chuck without the cameras picking up on it.
He doesn't say much else than that, and instead focuses on getting Raleigh
to somewhere safer, a place that is far enough from the beach so that they
aren't spotted and aren't in danger of being ambushed.
It's a long, tense hike, and Chuck isn't satisfied with anywhere they pause
fora good long while. Eventually though, he eases Raleigh to the ground and
quickly scouts the area before coming back and squatting in front of him.
The blood has dried on his face at this point and he probably looks more
like a deranged wildman than a terrified fifteen year old, but he doesn't
care.
"How's the legs?" He reaches, grips Raleigh's shin with his hand, fingers
gently pressing into muscle.
Raleigh doesn't even notice the blood, really, it's just Chuck helping him. He bites back a pained groan when Chuck's fingers press into his muscles, but then he's grinning.
"Better. If we sit a while, till sun-up maybe, I should be fine." Well enough at least to run and walk as needed. He'd deal with the long lasting effects later. His more immediate concern was figuring out how to convince Chuck they needed to go back to the edge of the jungle. They needed to meet up with the others so they could break the arena and get out.
Chuck's fingers are pressing into him and it gives Raleigh and idea. He curls forward, too close to Chuck, but it puts their hands between their bodies and obscured from any cameras. Quickly, before Chuck can pull away or ask what the fuck he's doing, Raleigh traces out letters on Chuck's hand.
Keep moving your hands so it looks like we're doing something.
Raleigh makes a pained grunt as if Chuck's hand on his calf has his a particularly pained spot.
We're going to break the games. The victors from three invented most of this technology and they know how to fuck it up. Herc knew. We didn't expect you to volunteer and the less people that knew the better. We're trying to get our group out alive. Mako, Chueng, Sasha, Aleksis, Newt, Hermann, you and me. But we need to find Sasha and Aleksis. Help protect the 3s from the careers or this will end like every other games.
He whimpers at some point in the middle of his tracing a couple of times and drops his head to Chuck's shoulder, pretending to be weak enough to show the pain he's actually in.
Chuck keeps moving his hands, rubbing at Raleigh's legs, fingers working
into tense, tight muscle as he reads Raleigh's handwriting.
Break the games.
Get them out.
It's an act of war, because that is what this will lead to - there is no
other alternative. It's a long time coming, Chuck knows, and he can't say
he's surprised. He'd be more pissed if he'd been kept in the dark
purposefully, but he can see sense and reason when it is there, and Raleigh
has not had an opportunity to tell him - and couldn't, even if they were
alone. There are cameras everywhere.
Raleigh drops his head to Chuck's shoulder and he plays the good nurse,
pressing his cheek against blond hair and continuing to massage.
"Tonight you sleep," he says out loud, smearing his hand so the writing
smudges and turns into nothing but a dirt stain. "Tomorrow..."
Raleigh nods, so relieved that he'd been able to explain to Chuck what their goal is. They'd be working together now instead of at cross-purposes, and maybe Chuck would trust him a little more. It would certainly make things easier. He settled with his back against the tree and refused to think about what it meant to him that Chuck came back for him. He doesn't really sleep, of course, but he dozes and rests, at least until a scream echoes through the forest.
It sounds older, but the older victors' pictures had flashed at midnight. They were already gone. It didn't make sense. And beyond that, the voice wasn't only older, but familiar to Raleigh. He looked towards Chuck to see if he thought they should ignore it or look into it.
Chuck has no intentions of implicitely trusting Raleigh -- he could be
lying. Chuck doesn't think he is, but it's possible.
The scream jerks him out of his thoughts, though and he frowns, and cants
his head. He's inclined to let it go, but if Raleigh's telling him the
truth, it might be worth investigating.
Raleigh shakes his head, pushing himself to his feet. He's by no means at one hundred percent, but working at his muscles and resting for the hour had helped him become functional again. He could walk, run, and fight if he needed to. The screamed echoed again and he frowned turning towards it.
"We shouldn't split up if we can help it. I'm fine now."
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He still can't even think of hurting him, though, so he keeps his mouth shut and keeps following Chuck back towards the beach. He looks over his shoulder every once in a while to make sure they're not being followed, and he doesn't see anyone, but there is a strange fog creeping from the back of the jungle where they had been.
"We might need to move quicker. Look."
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Or at least, he'll try. Chuck's completely clueless about what Raleigh thinks about him, and right now, he could fucking care less.
"The fuck is that--"
Whatever it is, it's coming quick.
"...'S just fog."
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"Run."
He pushes them, forcing Chuck to stay ahead of him. He's got to keep himself between Chuck and the fog.
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In the moment, Raleigh's not his enemy. He's just another person fucked over by the Capitol, and Chuck's not ready to see him die yet.
"Move your fuckin' ass, Becket!"
Be a hero all you like, but if Raleigh falls back, Chuck's pausing too.
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"Don't stab me." He manages as he tucks his body around Chuck's and picks up his pace. He can feel the smack of the leaves around his legs and the fog seems to be growing, multiplying even as it moves. He's running faster, but the fog is catching up. It's burning at his elbows, his back, and calves.
Finally, he stumbled through the end of the forest and onto the beach. He can't see, can't breathe for the pain. The whole backside of his body is on fire. He drops Chuck to the sand and falls into the shallow waves. The water hurts, makes him start to scream before he regains the presence of mind to bite down on his hand instead. The sores are coming off, but Raleigh can't move to make it happen faster.
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The hell is Raleigh talking about--
Oh, fucking christ. He's picking him up and Chuck is livid. He's not stupid enough to fight it while he's running because that would just mean Raleigh would trip and fall and they'd both die. So instead he lets Raleigh humiliate him on national television, only shoving himself away when he's dropped and at the moment he's so goddamn angry he doesn't give two shits who hears him. Raleigh's screaming, it was his bright idea to come out to the beach anyway.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Chuck screams, gesturing angrily. He has half a mind to just fucking kill him now and before Chuck can even think straight, he's got his weapon out and pointed while Raleigh scrubs at his hands and face.
"Don't you ever fucking touch me again! Do you hear me? Don't you ever put your filthy hands on me ever again!"
Cause so far Raleigh's done a really good job at making him feel inadequate and has managed to humiliate him in front of the Gamemakers (who will now think he's weak), potential sponsors (who are never going to send anything now that they know he's a goddamn pussy that needs ~rescuing~) and the rest of Panem.
If Chuck wins he wants it on his terms, not because he has a goddamn bodyguard.
...Killing Raleigh right now would prove otherwise. Chuck is seriously considering it.
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Raleigh still feels nauseous and can't see straight, but he holds up his hand and looks at them. The sores are gone, they don't really hurt, just ache a little. He knows Chuck's not talking about that though, he's talking about what Raleigh's done in the Capital. He knows. He must know...
Chuck's asked him a question, Raleigh thinks, but he doesn't know what it was, or what he's supposed to answer.
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Except it's not, and Chuck's pissed, and about five seconds from just running him through and calling it a day. It's the only way to salvage his reputation, the only way to get any kind of sponsors because at the moment?
Everyone on the outside thinks he's a complete fucking waste, that he's useless and won't make it on his own.
..Abruptly, Chuck pulls back, slams the butt of his staff in the sand as he looks at Raleigh, then he just -- turns around, and stalks back into the forest.
Someone else can kill Becket. Chuck can't bring himself to do it, but he's finished with him. If he can go it alone, and win out, then maybe--
Maybe it won't be so goddamn horrible on the outside. It's easier being alone, not being close to anyone. That way, it's not so hard to kill anyone.
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"Wait-- it's not gone-Chuck-"
With a bit of vindictiveness he hoped Herc was watching this. It was a cruel thought, but it didn't stop Raleigh from hoping someone was hurting on his behalf and cursing Chuck along with him.
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He hears Raleigh say his name, and it just prompts him to move faster, to push himself harder, harder because he know he can, he's capable, he doesn't need someone saving his fucking ass. He's won this before, cut a swath through the other tributes last time -- he doesn't need Raleigh.
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He doesn't call again for Chuck. It would be stupid at this point. Sound travels fast over water, and even with the waves someone had probably heard him screaming. They didn't need him giving away Chuck's position or his own by continuing to call. Instead, he concentrated on tracking Chuck.
Raleigh thought he could hear him, his quiet breaths and jogging steps not far ahead of him, when lines sudden shot out of jungle and embedded themselves in his bad shoulder. An electric current ran through his body. He let out one sharp scream before he fell to the ground twitching. It was probably just enough to stun him on a regular time, but disoriented and wet from the ocean it's knocked him to the ground and made him vulnerable.
A camouflaged body moves in the trees, Raiju, the career known for this particular tactic of stunning his opponents and playing with them before he kills them. Raleigh can't get his limbs to cooperate with the current running through them. It hurts, fuck it hurts, but he can't scream, he can't get to his gun. He's going to die and Chuck's going to be on his own with no one that knows the plan and he's going to get left behind or killed.
Hopeless panic overwhelms Raleigh's chest, and he's back there again, watching the launchable trap clamp around Yancy's body and drag him away into the deep of their arena.
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Chuck hears Raleigh’s scream and the steps behind him stop. Chuck’s good at hiding in the underbrush; despite being obnoxious and loud and bitchy, Chuck’s quite good and hunkering down and rendering himself invisible. He’s actually not that far ahead of Raleigh; he’d slowed his pace not only to keep the noise to a minimum but also because he’s confused.
Raleigh’s had a couple opportunities to kill him and he hasn’t so much as pulled a single weapon on him. Sure, they’re allies, but even allies have to kill each other eventually – Chuck’s really fucking aware of that. He’d cried when he slid his knife into the belly of the girl he’d allied with last time, and she’d held onto him while she died, babbling that she forgave him and it was better that he made it out, because he was so much stronger than her.
He still has nightmares about her, and the things he’d done to survive.
And now, Raleigh’s in trouble. Chuck knows he’s in trouble, and it’d be easy to let someone else do the dirty work and kill him off.
But there’s something about that stupid blonde that Chuck can’t shake and so he doubles back, keeping to the shadows. He eventually sees Raleigh but he knows - knows - who he’s dealing with here and stealth and a quick, fast kill is what’s going to be necessary if either of them are going to survive Raiju.
Chuck’s patient, though. He’s as patient as Raiju and he simply watches, breathing slow, even, and silent until Raiju passes right in front of him, on his way to taunt and murder Raleigh.
Chuck doesn’t hesitate.
He comes right at him from behind, catching Raiju on the back and both men hit the ground. There’s a quick scuffle and Chuck’s pretty fucking sure he’s going to die, but then his switchblade is embedded in Raiju’s neck, blood spurting like a geyser into Chuck’s face, and the man goes limp, and a cannon booms. Shivering, Chuck pushes Raiju’s body off and scrambles back, teeth chattering even though it’s anything but cold. He stumbles over to Raleigh, motor functions still not up to speed, and grabs his arm.
“C’mon, asshole,” he rasps, fingers digging into his bicep. “We gotta move. Everyone on this fucking island knows where we are now.”
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"Taser-shock points. Off." He needs Chuck to turn the taser off so he can pull the points out of his skin. Otherwise he's not moving anywhere. He can't even think enough right now to register the fact that Chuck came back for him.
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Cuhck also still has his gloves on. He feels prickling through the material, but immediately drops Raleigh when he speaks.
"God, you're a fucking pain in the ass."
He picks his way over, hunts down the taser, and fumblse with it for a moment before he turns it off.
Then he can pull the points out -- and Chuck's not exactly gentle about it, either.
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"You came back for me." He says it like a revelation, and there's a kind of light on his face, that probably hasn't been seen since Yancy was still alive. No one had ever come back for since his brother died. They sent him to do their dirty work, to collect secrets and trade favors, and they locked him in, no one came back for him.
After a second he forces himself to look away from Chuck, because he knows his face his raw and stripped of everything and he hadn't intended on anyone seeing that, let alone Chuck and all of Panem through the cameras. Oh well, they'd eat it up. He pushes himself to his feet and shakes out his body, quickly looting Raiju's. He takes the taser, and miracle of miracles he's got a spile, which will be their new source of water once they get away.
"Excellent." He mutters. "Which way do you want to go?"
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Chuck's covered in blood as he helps Raleigh, face splattered with the remnants of his encounter with Raiju, his polymer suit smeared and torn from the scuffle. He doesn't know what to think of the look Raleigh's giving him - he doesn't even know Raleigh.
"Yeah." He says shortly, getting Raleigh to his feet once he's satisfied with the looting of the body. They'll be coming to pick it up soon enough and when Raleigh's finished, he comes right up beside him, arm around Raleigh's waist to let him lean on Chuck because he knows after being jolted like that, his arms and legs probably feel a lot like jelly.
"This way. We gotta get outta this sector, get somewhere dryer where we can take a look at the fuckin' damage you've done to yourself."
Raleigh needs some medical attention. Chuck hopes that the man is well liked enough that the'll be getting gifts sooner or later.
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"We can get water from the trees. He had a spile on him." Raleigh returns. They could drink up, rinse off a little, and regroup. Figure out if he was dead weight and maybe how close Mako and the others were. He needed to figure out how to communicate with Chuck without the cameras picking up on it.
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"Good."
He doesn't say much else than that, and instead focuses on getting Raleigh to somewhere safer, a place that is far enough from the beach so that they aren't spotted and aren't in danger of being ambushed.
It's a long, tense hike, and Chuck isn't satisfied with anywhere they pause fora good long while. Eventually though, he eases Raleigh to the ground and quickly scouts the area before coming back and squatting in front of him. The blood has dried on his face at this point and he probably looks more like a deranged wildman than a terrified fifteen year old, but he doesn't care.
"How's the legs?" He reaches, grips Raleigh's shin with his hand, fingers gently pressing into muscle.
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"Better. If we sit a while, till sun-up maybe, I should be fine." Well enough at least to run and walk as needed. He'd deal with the long lasting effects later. His more immediate concern was figuring out how to convince Chuck they needed to go back to the edge of the jungle. They needed to meet up with the others so they could break the arena and get out.
Chuck's fingers are pressing into him and it gives Raleigh and idea. He curls forward, too close to Chuck, but it puts their hands between their bodies and obscured from any cameras. Quickly, before Chuck can pull away or ask what the fuck he's doing, Raleigh traces out letters on Chuck's hand.
Can you understand this?
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Raleigh leans forward and Chuck nearly jerks back, but Raleigh's got hold of his hands and is...
The hell is he doing.
Chuck squints, looks down, and leans forward, top of his head brushing against Raleigh's.
He gives a brief, barely perceptible nod. Yeah, he can read it.
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Raleigh makes a pained grunt as if Chuck's hand on his calf has his a particularly pained spot.
We're going to break the games. The victors from three invented most of this technology and they know how to fuck it up. Herc knew. We didn't expect you to volunteer and the less people that knew the better. We're trying to get our group out alive. Mako, Chueng, Sasha, Aleksis, Newt, Hermann, you and me. But we need to find Sasha and Aleksis. Help protect the 3s from the careers or this will end like every other games.
He whimpers at some point in the middle of his tracing a couple of times and drops his head to Chuck's shoulder, pretending to be weak enough to show the pain he's actually in.
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Chuck keeps moving his hands, rubbing at Raleigh's legs, fingers working into tense, tight muscle as he reads Raleigh's handwriting.
Break the games.
Get them out.
It's an act of war, because that is what this will lead to - there is no other alternative. It's a long time coming, Chuck knows, and he can't say he's surprised. He'd be more pissed if he'd been kept in the dark purposefully, but he can see sense and reason when it is there, and Raleigh has not had an opportunity to tell him - and couldn't, even if they were alone. There are cameras everywhere.
Raleigh drops his head to Chuck's shoulder and he plays the good nurse, pressing his cheek against blond hair and continuing to massage.
"Tonight you sleep," he says out loud, smearing his hand so the writing smudges and turns into nothing but a dirt stain. "Tomorrow..."
They find Aleksis and Sasha.
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It sounds older, but the older victors' pictures had flashed at midnight. They were already gone. It didn't make sense. And beyond that, the voice wasn't only older, but familiar to Raleigh. He looked towards Chuck to see if he thought they should ignore it or look into it.
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Chuck has no intentions of implicitely trusting Raleigh -- he could be lying. Chuck doesn't think he is, but it's possible.
The scream jerks him out of his thoughts, though and he frowns, and cants his head. He's inclined to let it go, but if Raleigh's telling him the truth, it might be worth investigating.
"...I'll go check on that."
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"We shouldn't split up if we can help it. I'm fine now."
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