Post Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:36 pm

Re: Cartann City

*Priya had been uncharacteristically quiet the remainder of the night and into dawn. The moment they had been released to their cell, she had slept the sort of disciplined sleep that one would have learned on the front-lines of an active battlefield, where a soldier learned to sleep hard and sleep fast when they could. Val must have awakened some time during the night, because the squib was already up when Pago had shaken her and forced food upon her.

Even as they loaded them into the armored transport, she said nothing, not a single sardonic quip. But the expression on her face was not one of distraut or despair. Rather, her jaw worked and her eyes were hardened with the deep, contemplative thought of someone trying to work out a complex mathematical formula.

They had been placed surreptitiously into a point of check on this game board, but she couldn't believe they were completely trapped, yet. There was always a way out. She had never failed to find an escape route. Of course, this was the first time she would have to look out for more than herself. Val, who had taken her as a friend with a quickness that was almost childlike in its naivete, and this contradicting Jedi who played dirty tricks and risked his life for the sake of justice and right (certainly not the meager pay). She'd grown dangerously fond of him. She'd do anything to get those two back on their ship.

She listened intently as Pago explained what, exactly, being condemned to The Gauntlet entailed. He made it clear to her that this was no simple rat race. This was an execution, a death sentence as guaranteed as a firing squad, only more cruel in its false hope. She didn't bother to ask what the survival rate was. She was already certain of the answer.

What made the entire affair impossible was the entire city knew the starting point of their prey. It was like declaring open season on penned-up cattle. After several long hours of saying nothing at all, Priya finally scoffed.*


"Where's the sport in slaughtering a caged animal?"

*She blinked to clear the stinging moisture from her eyes as the doors opened, then stood without hesitation, her eyes fixed on Kynan. Safe...so long as they didn't leave the building. But with a crowd like that, nothing would be getting in or out of the building safely until after the three of them were gone or dead. Which meant staying in the building would be holding officers like Kynan along with everyone else inside hostage, too. Knowing human nature, more than one prisoner must have attempted to stay within the building for as long of a time as possible to see if the crowd would grow bored. She murmured quietly to Pago as they were escorted out of the speedertruck and towards the Capital Building.*

"There has to be an access point to this place unknown to the general public to get food and amenities in and out unharrassed during events like this...unless there is a particularly strict time limit to how long we can stay inside of those walls?"

*Though she doubted that. If criminals were simply pushed out the door into a bloodthirsty crowd that tore them apart on the front steps, they wouldn't have called this method of execution 'The Gauntlet.' They had to be given the opportunity to run on their own.*