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Jack fell, and he tucked his face beneath Ian's, almost wishing that he couldn't hear the voices, that the sensory deprivation would spare him from the horror. He couldn't save them all, and if he hadn't been already dead, it would have very likely killed him to leave anyone behind.

As it was, Shiloh'd used up all of his strength seeing Ian to safety, and he hated to leave him but he had to go, had to find Mark before he dissipated completely, leaving the artifact for lost. He had an inkling it was what had allowed him to help, and if Mark was here, Shiloh dared to hope that getting the artifact to him would see all of his friends to safety.

Shiloh lingered for just a second, his forehead pressed against Ian's arm. He wished him all the luck in the world, checking to make sure his hold was secure. Then he was slipping away, casting a remorseful glance at both Ian and Finn as he drifted off in search of Mark.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. He'd find someway to save them, all of them.

As soon as the water began to rush in, the other hunters had left leaving Jason to gather his thoughts and to run after them. kicking water everywhere as his long legs splashed through the quickly rising water. He could hear the splashing sounds of the others fade away quickly as he tried to follow, but only found dead ends instead.

The water was quickly rising, and soon enough he had to wade through it, but still he could not find the exit. At one point he head the tell tale sounds of a gunshot, but heading towards the sound proved futile. He then begun to panic as he found he couldn't touch the ground with his feet, and had to swim. He was utterly lost in the maze, with no one to help him.

"HELLO!!!" He shouted, realizing that he could now touch the ceiling. "IS THERE ANYONE THERE? HELP!" HEL-"

The water closed over his head, leaving the hunter to swim forwards blindly. Having exerted himself trying to find the exit, it didn't take long for his body to give out.

[In which Pach sits on her freezing cold back porch to steal a neighbor's internet for a roll for Solomon]

BetaPhi

This place kinda sucked a little bit less than the meat grinder room, Solomon felt. One second there was stabbity and every other second there was more stabbity and this was awful. But at least off to the side there was something for him to hold onto to prevent falling to death stabbities.

Every object that could kill him right now was going to be labelled as a type of stabbity until further notice.

Which included other-people-stabbities.

HE LIVVEEESSS

Delta & Omega

The switches were thrown, and everything was thrown into darkness. It made the shortest of the trio duck, hands coming up to cover her head to ward off a blow that never came. When nothing happened she straightened, letting out a shaking breath before lowing her hands and leaning on the console. Mark's bid to get their attention went, for a moment, unnoticed, but the urgent whispering dragged her attention around and a little spark of hope flared up to push back at the weight of hopelessness that had been building since she'd found herself alone in the maze.

The laser pointer showed them the way, and all of a sudden their little threesome more then doubled as another group stumbled into them. She listened as Mark rambled on, something about a plan, but what really caught her attention was the promise of meeting up with the others. Did that meet Solomon, or Roland? Where they still alive? There was really only one way to find out. "I'm going to keep going, try to find the others." she offered up to Taym and lucky, falling into step beside Stormy and Chels as she headed down the path. "Be careful."

One small hand groped into the darkness until she caught a hold of Stormy's arm, and she looped her arm with the other girl. "What have you guys had to endure?" She didn't want to know what fresh hell either girl had been through, but she really wanted to know who they'd been with. More importantly, she wanted to know who had already fallen.

DELTA OMEGA

For a moment, Lucky was sure that the sudden darkness was simply the end.

And then, there was Mark.

Or what sounded like Mark. Lucky could still hear enough shuffling movement to account for the group manning the switches. There was no point in questioning opportunity, so he too took off to follow, and garner what little information Mark had to offer.

When given the option, he chose to find the others. There was something to the idea of safety in numbers - and not directly antagonizing whoever was masterminding this. Bodyguard material, he was not. Plus, if Sam really was still out there... they needed to talk.

"L-lost Mimsy?" A familiar voice repeated behind Stormy. He thought his expression might be hidden in the dark, but for the girl with the night vision goggles, Lucky looked like he might have been in shock, unable to truly believe it.

OMEGA AND DELTA

Stormy slowed their pace when she heard a third voice. The first thing that came to mind was the list again, which in the madness of that ticking and the timer she had forgotten to reveal yet again. Lucky's name alone had been crossed out. Did that mean he had a weapon too? She wanted to know, but outing him in a group she wasn't sure would react well might spell trouble...And he looked so shocked that Mimsy had died.

But withholding information just made her more and more guilty. It practically had killed Mimsy as far as she was concerned.

She listened to Peyton's explanation without a word, glad no-one could see her expression. Stormy was in no position to judge her decision, but the implications were still gruesome. Taller, Moon, blond hair..."Maybe Jason," she suggested, saddened. He was a good guy, he didn't deserve to die...Neither did Kostya...

And your victim did? a little voice in her head asked.

"Yeah, Mimsy. I'm sorry." She winced when asked for a description but kept her voice steady. "Blond, glasses--looked like lab glasses. Life. There's something else, though. I found a list of names." She struggled to remember them but moved to her question in the meantime. "Lucky, your name was on it, but it was the only one crossed out. D'you have any idea what that means?"

The Dead

Solomon was very dead.

Because being dead was awesome.

Except not really.

His only post-death wish was that Taym didn't see this because he was an a*****e.

[ Group Alpha and ANYONE WHO FOLLOWED MARK] ]

Sam listened to Gale and Otto squabble, which was sort of like the revenge of the blonde midgets and rolled her eyes. Charlotte came back a few moments later.

"Did you find anything?" Sam looked up at the Moon assistant hopefully. Said assistant shook her head, paused, and then frowned. "What does it mean sacrifice one?" She pointed to her flashing bracelet.

"Oh that?" The Death Hunter smirked. "That's actually based off a cute trick Hunter candidates had to figure out one year. You could say I was a graduate of that class generation. 'One' doesn't mean any person, it means one person. It could be anyone really. Until that person is sacrificed the Hunger Games will not end." She smiled to herself a bit at the pop culture reference and honestly didn't seem that injured anymore.

Charlotte paused for a while. She too crouched down, looking defeated, glancing at Lawr-

Splash-

- Sam stared, stunned as Lawr's body fizzled as it sank into the pool below. "Did you- did you just-"

"Sacrifice one," Charlotte repeated, eyes determined. There was a look in her eyes, a glint. Not sadistic but the exact opposite. It was the expression of someone who had a little too much hope, of someone who really knew a little too well the cost of being a Moon Hunter at best. "We will sacrifice each other, and then-" she faltered, but composed herself - "and then everyone else will survive."

She was also holding a gun that looked similar in design to Otto's.

"Charlotte." Sam took a step forward slowly, "Put the weapon down. Look Mark will be-"

- "Mark will be what?" Piped a voice from next to Sam. The Death assistant bodily emerged from one of the pools, without even appearing wet, the remaining trainees who followed him behind him.

"Oh my god," Sam looked about ready to simultaneously hug and strangle Mark. "Where the <********> have you been?"

Mark raised an eyebrow. "I was at the-" and paused, eyes glazing over for a second as he corrected himself - "I was totally like DOING TRIAL JEDI THINGS AND KILLING EACH OTHER AND STUFF." This was said rather loudly and obviously.

"Okay, well, did you-"

-BLAM-

Sam stared shocked at Charlotte as Mark slumped over sideways. "Look, sweetie, this is a really bad-"

- "I'm okay!" The Death assistant gave a thumbs up and then curled into a fetal position.

It was at this point that the entire room began to shake - and then an opening, a staircase leading downwards appeared in front of the group. Charlotte seemed to consider her options and then slowly, quietly, put away the gun. It was hard to tell how many sacrifices it would take before it was considered too much.

"Well, no use staying here. Let's go kids." Carefully watching the Moon assistant, Sam picked up Mark and the two of them moved first towards the stairs. Anyone else who followed at the end of the stairs would find themselves in a large, bright hallway. Square tiles, five feet wide, six by six, spanned each direction. The sides of the wall had scrolling text, an obnoxious red, moving across.

Everyone has one choice.

Sam snorted. "Dying by our own game. Whatever, I hope you're happy now." She for some reason was addressing a corner of the room where absolutely nothing was there. With a great show of discontent, she took a tile in the center and practically dragged Otto to the one next to her, most likely to attempt to use as a meat shield if things went awry. Mark hesitantly picked the one next to Sam and Charlotte, watching the group just as carefully, moved underneath Mark.

That left 32 more tiles to choose from.