#apog17

Shamus was easily Levi’s toughest competition. He towered over him, far more muscular and seemed far more comfortable armed to the teeth with weaponry than Levi was. But Levi decided he needed to rely on what he had. He had a quick wit. A wit that, hopefully, might just save his life. He felt so small and insignificant next to the boy with the twelve in training, the boy who he knew would be the one to go home. It’d always been Shamus. And Shamus absolutely hated him for no reason other than that he was just spiteful. But could the good guy come out on top? Levi hoped that for once he could. Shamus glared over at Levi as they raced across the grass, getting closer to one another. The wind was strong and the rain was pouring down on them. The ground was getting soggy quickly and the slip on shoes they were wearing were not ideal for a race in the rain. Shamus wanted nothing more than to get his hands on the little clown, to teach him a lesson between jokes and insults. Levi’s fire wouldn’t save him now and Shamus knew he could overpower him easily. As they grew closer to each other Shamus noticed that Levi was nursing a severe abdominal injury, maybe some broken ribs. Levi noticed instantly when the two faced off that Shamus sported a number of wounds. Wounds worse than his, wounds he was thankful that Starling didn’t have to deal with as she stood nervously by.

“Aye, I’m gon’ get yeh, Levi. Bes’ jus’ stop yer runnin’ an’ let et beh,” Shamus called out, swinging his shillelagh as he ran towards the boy. Unfortunately for Levi, he slipped and fell into a puddle, landing face first in the wet grass and crying out as his ribs hit the dirt. Shamus ran up next to him and laughed as Levi attempted to get up, wiped the muddy water from his face. “Need a wee bit o’ help there fella?” Shamus teased as he kicked the boy in the ribs, sending him flying onto his back, landing on his pack. Levi held out a few arrows but had no bow. Shamus laughed as he closed in on the boy, tapping the shillelagh in his palm. “I been waitin’ a long time teh see yeh, Levi…” he cooed.

Shamus wound up and took a big swing at Levis knee but missed as the boy slipped out of his pack straps and rolled away. He stood up, squaring off to Shamus, a group of arrows in one hand and a taser in the other. His face was fierce, angry, as if Shamus had hurt someone he loved. “How could you?” he hissed.

Shamus’ brow raised questioningly. “Do wha’?” he asked.

“Walk right through her like she wasn’t even there!” Levi screamed. “Just push her over!”

Shamus looked around, confused. “Who yeh talkin’ ‘bout Levi?”

“STARLING!” he cried out, knuckles white as snow as he gripped his weapons angrily. Annoyed by Shamus’ games, Levi growled and charged.Levi lunged toward and swung again, letting the bat connect with Shamus’ opposite shoulder. The crack was familiar and satisfying, echoing over the sound of the rain like thunder. Shamus stumbled a bit, wincing at the powerful swing this kid had in his arsenal. Levi had something to fight for, as Shamus did. But to Shamus, Levi looked twitchy and confused as a little mouse. “You’re not going to hurt her!” He had to do this, had to kill Shamus to save the love of his life. He wasn’t going to hurt her. The look on the Levi’s face was pure agony. The ideas swirled through his mind of what Shamus would do to Star, strange recollections of her screams that he couldn’t quite make sense of. The line between the hallucination and reality was blurring and Levi was confused and muddled.

“She ain’t ‘ere, yeh crazy piece o’ shite!” Shamus countered as he swung his shillelagh into Levi’s ribs again. The boy groaned but managed to extend his arms out and strike Shamus with the taser, sending electric currents through his body. Although not amplified by the rain, the taser still brought Shamus to his knees. Levi started to laugh maniacally, possessed by a mind that was slowly slipping into insanity. Shamus dropped his shillelagh and twitched in the wet grass. The wind howling in Levi’s ears, he turned back and shouted something to his hallucination of Starling, tossing her the coin as if she would really hold onto it. Shamus, still feeling some effects, rolled over and stabbed Levi in the achilles with hunting knife, bringing Levi down into the grass with him. Shamus pulled out the blade and cut into the top of the boy’s foot, twisting it and breaking his foot, separating his bones.

Levi cried out and angrily shoved all 5 arrows into Shamus’ side. He kicked Shamus’ in the face with his good foot and pushed away, waiting for the poison to spread into Shamus’ bloodstream. He crawled slowly to his pack as Shamus struggled to yank each arrow from his flesh. He got on his hands and knees, crawling after Levi in the grass, not knowing that there was a bit of poison flowing through him. Unfortunately for Levi, the heavy rains had washed away much of the effectiveness and while Shamus was feeling weaker, he would not die from it… at least not in the amount of time that Levi was expecting. Digging through his pack for his baseball bat, Levi made plans with Starling to proceed onward, but Shamus had other plans. Creeping up behind him, Levi turned just in time to see Shamus rise onto his knees and plunge the hunting knife into his shoulder. The baseball bat in Levi’s hands connected with Shamus’ chest and caused him to falter a little.

Surprised that he had this much strength left, Levi swung the bat around again one-handed, connecting with Shamus’ ribs. The force was not great enough to do much between his ribs and the new wound in his shoulder. Shamus tackled Levi to the ground and sliced him across the back. Once again, face first in the same muddy puddle, Levi struggled as Shamus pinned him down, pressing against his arms and keeping him in place. Levi’s pack was wide open, his contents spilling out. Shamus spied the clown mask and yanked it out, laughing. “E’en the Game Makers though yeh were a bleedin’ joke, Levi,” he hissed into his ear. Thunder cracked above them, lighting up the sky. “Well the joke’s o’er, funny man.” He slid the clown mask over Levi’s face and pressed the back of his head down into the grass, splashing in the puddle. He needed no weapon to end Levi’s life, in fact he preferred none whatsoever in this moment. His knees on Levi’s arms, Shamus used his hands to press Levi’s face into the puddle. Levi flailed as he sputtered on water that entered his mouth, even through the mask. He was suffocating and drowning at the same time. Shamus didn’t know which notion he enjoyed more. As Levi struggled for a breath, Shamus just pushed harder and harder until the boy became still. He held him there until his cannon fired.

Getting up, he wiped the rain off his face and stroke his fingers through his hair. He felt weaker now and he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t have long until the poison would take it’s proper toll. He reached out for the coin that Levi had tossed to an imaginary Starling and slid it into his pocket with the other one. He called out for Liv, who he had instructed to hide while he took care of everything… and he’d done just that. Liv came out running through the rain, nearly in tears at the sight of her weak Irishman. He handed her all three coins to add to hers and went to kiss her, but stumbled. The poison was making him weak and he needed her help to reach the boat. She walked with him, his shoulder slung over hers, as fast as they could to the spot where they had left the boat. By the time they got there, Shamus was fading.

It was just like their battle on the obstacle course, Shamus thought. He would try any dirty trick he could to get Blair’s coin and keep Liv safe. Luckily for him, her night vision goggles prevented her from seeing 180 around her. He saw her coming as he hid behind a tree, waiting for her to pass before he chucked the flashlight at her to get her attention. Her crossbow attached to her back, she seemed to be relying on her shotgun to carry her to the finish line. Shamus knew per limited experience with weapons, that she would only have 2 shells inside the barrel. If she had more on her, she’d have to stop and reload, which would give him time to strike. She spun around on her heels, the rain not falling so hard underneath the cover of the tree.

“Who the fuck threw that?” she cursed, pointing her shotgun into the trees. Shamus let out a quiet but persistent laugh. Blair searched the tree with her night vision goggles and found Shamus perched up high, hunting knife in hand.

Blair stood across from Shamus, her shotgun poised in her hand. They were both soaked and cold, and ready to get off this god forsaken rock.  Blair took a few steps forward.

“Hello Princess.” He said, giving Blair a hard, cold glare.

“Hello yourself.”  She responded.  They were only a few steps apart now.

“We meet again.” He smiled.

“Fuck off, Shamus,” she hissed as she cocked the gun. “Ready to die you Irish prick?”

The rain blurred her vision and he was hard to make out against the night sky.  She took the safety off the gun, knowing she only had two chances to get this right.  She wrapped both hands around the trigger, and fired. Just as she pulled the trigger, Shamus dropped down from the tree. The shell exploded against the trunk, shattering bark everywhere.

“Aye, yeh should get yer aim checked,” he taunted her.  The sound rang through the arena but Shamus still stood, swinging his shillelagh towards Blair, but missing as he was not close enough.  She was slipping in the mud, her whole body slimy and wet.  She tried to focus on his shadow as he moved towards her.  Tears streamed down her cheeks, in pain from her wounds and wanting to get out of the rain and onto the boat. She cocked the gun again but before she could fire, Shamus rushed her pointing the gun to the ground with his palm and narrowly escaping the shell that exploded water, grass, and dirt into the air.

“Awww, no, wha’s the matteh princess? Out o’ shells?” She clearly didn’t know how to use the gun, the recoil alone that pushed her back a few steps was enough to tell Shamus that. We wrapped his fingers around the barrel and yanked it from her grasp, slippery in the rain. Using both hands, he brought the handle of the gun up towards her face, thrusting against her nose and breaking it if it wasn’t already broken in the first place, crushing the night vision goggles against her skin.

She stumbled backwards, falling onto the wet grass. Quickly removing her goggles, her face was a battered mess. “Aye, yeh look like yer mum. The apple don fall far from the tree,” he insulted her, as everyone in the district knew about her parents abusive relationship. Blair glared up at him, angry snarled onto her lips. “Fuck you, Shamus, I’m nothing like her!” she screamed, turning to dig into her pack for her crossbow. He tossed the shotgun to the side and came at her with his knife, but not before Blair corrected herself and sent a bolt flying in his direction. The shot was close range and penetrated his chest, just underneath his collarbone. He growled and jumped on top of her, knowing she had no time to reload her weapon. Two poor weapons to have in a close combat situation.

His blade found her abdomen as he lunged at her, knees landing in the wet grass as he collided with her. She screamed out loud as he twisted the knife into her body, desiring to cause as much internal damage as possible. Through the pain, she managed to bring the crossbow over her head and smash it down on Shamus’ head, causing him to let go of his knife and fall to the side of her. She had a decision to make. Pull the knife out or reload the crossbow. Blood gushed from her wound as she made the decision, she cried as her tears mixed with rain. Shamus recovered quickly and kicked out, hitting her hands with the sole of his shoe, causing her to stab herself again with his blade. He kicked hard again, plunging it deeper into her stomach as he rolled back onto his knees.

Taking a mighty swing at Blair with the rusty hammer he pulled from his pocket, she leaned back to duck away from his advance. Pulling the knife out of her stomach again, she slashed wildly at Shamus, thrusting the blade into his thigh and bringing him back down to his knees. Shamus retaliated by smashing her hand with the hammer, causing her to release her grip. Leaving the blade in, Shamus gripped her wrist and climbed on top off her, perched on her lap. She struggled against him, using her free hand to reach across and twist the knife inside his leg. He groaned, screaming in agony, as he clocked her in the jaw with the hammer. She spat out blood, her jaw instantly broken from the force of Shamus’ swing. Still she fought, digging the knife into his leg and hoping to find the artery so that he would bleed out. But she didn’t have enough time to do so as Shamus upper cut the sharp end of the hammer into the bottom of her chin piercing her jaw and tongue. She screamed, gurgling out blood. He yanked her close as he twisted her wrist, breaking it with his bare hands.