Deep Shadow (Based on the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins)

This is just a fan made story based on The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Even if you don't feel like reading the whole thing, leave a comment anyway! Thanks, enjoy!

Prologue:

                Panem, the name given to the once known United States of America, now only resides 12 out of 13 districts of people living across the nation under the control of the once known government, now calling themselves “the Capitol”. Ran by a devious, evil yet genius man, President Snow lived through the rebellion of the United States against the government. Ever since the rebellion came to a halt, and the Capitol was victorious, it was decided that each year for the rest of time, an annual “Hunger Games” would take place, sending in 2 tributes from each of the 12 remaining districts, a boy and a girl, ages 12 to 18 to fight to the death. Making the total amount of tributes 24, a public “Reaping” will be hosted in each district to decide which children from each district will be chosen to be casted into the deadly arena made by the clever Gamemakers, known for their brutal and exciting ideas that come to life in the arena to cause the deaths of the tributes and to create said arena, ranging from a cold, wintery landscape to a raging hot desert, to a deep forest, for the tributes to find various ways to survive during the Games. Anyone willing to rebel against the Capitol to keep the Hunger Games from returning annually will be held subject for execution in front of their whole district, and on national television so all other districts can set an example for the nation to never rebel against the Capitol again.

 

Chapter 1:

                I was sitting in my basement watching the news, while my mother and father were upstairs making preparations for my mother’s birthday party, which was to be held this Saturday at my grandparents’ house. She was turning the big five O’, and I was only 18 years old, only one more year of being legible to participate in the sickening Hunger Games. My sister, Arabella, being 15 years old, had 3 more years to go until she was free of guaranteed death. Fortunately for me, no one in my family has been sent into the Games yet. My closest cousin Clarice is 17 years old and has been dodging the Games just like I have been since we turned 12 years old. My youngest cousin Violet is 11 years old, so she still has one more year of peace before trembling in her bed, sweating, dreaming about being sent into the Games. Putting your name into the Reaping ball more times gives your family more food, depending how many times you wish to re-enter it, which my family and I could use. We live in District 12, which is the poorest district to live in. Our other family and friends live in the other districts, so we don’t really see much of them. Which in this case, is a good thing. If I were to see my family every day and then had a family member I was close with sent into the Games with me, I wouldn’t be able to kill them even if it meant them killing me and bringing honor to our family. Even though cousins of mine living in other districts wouldn’t bring much fortune to my family living in District 12, it would still bring our name fame and hope if one of us were ever to be sent into the Games once again.

                I was just about to flip the channel when I saw the preview movie for the Hunger Games yet again. The Capitol has been playing it every day for the past two weeks, since Games season has started. Everyone has been on edge, but we pull each other through every day and ignore it. There surprisingly haven’t been any executions from any of the other districts due to the fact that it’s also very early yet before people start getting anxious. But can you blame them for acting out in such way? What the Capitol is doing is terrible, and worth fighting for. But here in District 12, there really isn’t anyone who could lead a rebellion and gain the power and trust from all the other Districts to lead a charge of fire against the Capitol. Besides, with all the weapons and force the Capitol has against us, we wouldn’t last a week without more than half of the Districts being blown to pieces in a matter of days.

                About 45 years ago when my mom was just five years old, a rebellion started in District 7. Till this day, no one forgot how the 12 year old girl from District 7 was brutally betrayed by a girl from District 1, who so happened to be a Career. A Career is a boy or girl who is raised in the more wealthy districts such as Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4. They are brought up training for the Games and as soon as the Games come around each year, when they are of age, they “volunteer” to go into the Games, already fully trained and ready to kill and bring fame and fortune to their district. It’s sort of sickening; really, that their parents allow them to train with real weapons and fight against one another in a training academy, only to be killed themselves in the arena. As tough as Careers may be, normally they all die because they are too over confident and underestimate all of the other Tributes fighting against them in the arena. When the girl from District 1 slit the 12 year old girl’s throat in the arena while she was sleeping, District 7 never forgot and never forgave District 1 for being so cruel and cheering on the Career girl from District 1.

                Before I could turn off the Capitol’s message explaining why there is a Hunger Games each and every year, my sister, Arabella, came downstairs.

“What are you watching?”

                I clicked the power button and looked at her, ready to tell her exactly what I was watching, but decided I probably shouldn’t since it would cause her unrest for the next week and a half until the Reaping was over. I was a very good liar, which would be a great help if I were ever sent into the Games.

“Nothing, just the news cast for today. There was a uprising in 7 again, they keep trying to overthrow District 1 and make them never forget what happened 45 years ago. Kind of stupid really, half of the people who were alive during those Games are now dead. I guess it’s just their way of having hope…you know?”

                Arabella, even though she was only 15 years old, could read people very well. But luckily for me and my brilliant lying skills, she could never penetrate my wall of lies that I was forced to tell her by choice or when it was demanded by my parents to protect her sanity. She was completely against the Games, and it upset her every time she saw the video the Capitol would play in honor of the Games.

“Oh, well yeah they probably should just forget. It’s not worth starting a rebellion again; it would just draw us into it.” She said, pulling herself away from trying to read through my lie and opened the small fridge that we have to grab her glass of water from this morning’s breakfast.

“It’s warm…the fridge isn’t working again.” She said, still gulping down the remaining drops from the glass. “Do you want to come with me to the river and get more water? Mom asked me to do it earlier but I was too lazy to do it myself. I’ll give you some of my candy bar that I got from school yesterday.”

                I smiled, “Yeah I’ll go with you, but no I don’t want your candy bar. You keep it, you earned it. Besides, you never know I might need to be on a good diet if I were to be…”

                I stopped myself right away. The words I was about to say would have just upset her so I pretended to cough for an extended period of time, trying to act as if I was choking on my own spit.

“Sorry,” I said looking at her while pretending to wipe my “teary” eyes after coughing so much.

                She just laughed and continued her way upstairs. She shouted to our parents that we were going to get more water from the river and asked how many buckets we would need. She found my parents in the living room, still trying to figure out party arrangements for my moms birthday.

“Just bring home about four big buckets, two from the each of you. We could each have one until this weekend where we will need to get more.” My dad said, pointing to the corner of the room where there were already four empty buckets waiting to be refilled with fresh spring water.

“You keep an eye out for your sister, okay?” My dad demanded to me, waiting to speak until my sister was out of the room. “You know what next week is…people are going to start acting out and doing stupid things. She needs to be kept safe because if something happens to either of you two, the Capitol will think that me and your mother did it to…”

                I rolled my eyes, “I know how they work Dad, I’ve lived through the Games for eighteen years now. She’ll be fine.”

                With that, I walked out of the house telling my sister to stop so I could catch up with her. We walked outside of our house and followed the long dirt path to the edge of the forest where the path continued down to the river. Each part of every district has five different paths to the river, so people far away from the paths that weren’t near the homes could have a shorter way to get to the river for fresh water.

                There weren’t hardly any people outside today. It was already five o’clock anyway, so people were probably eating already. If anything, there were usually a few younger kids outside playing football or soccer, or practicing for the arena in a small fenced in area made of wood, where we could practice sword training, archery, survival skills, and other fighting techniques. No one really uses it anyway, because we try not to be like the other districts that crave the sight of their kids being sent into the Games to represent their district and their family. Besides, usually the only people if ever that go are the older kids, who just want a good work out or truly want to know for a fact that they have a chance in surviving the Games.

“Do you think you’ll pass through again once more this year? It is your last year you know…you’re lucky.” Arabella said, breaking the silence as we walk past the training arena where there were four 17 year old boys practicing sword fighting with their fathers.

“I don’t know, Bellabear. We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”

                Bellabear. That was her nickname that my mother gave her when Arabella was just a kid. It was because Arabella was always like a stuffed teddy bear when she was just a baby, she never moved but she always showed so much love and always wanted to be held.

“Yeah…I guess so. But you might have a chance of winning if you get picked…you are really good at archery. Everyone knows it!”

                I laughed, “That doesn’t mean there aren’t better archers in the other districts. But thanks Bellabear.”

                We stopped talking about the Games after that. I could already tell that talking about me going into the Games was upsetting her and so I decided to bring up a topic that would most certainly change her mood.

“So, how are you and Peyton?” I asked, causing an immediate reaction on her. She smiled big, obviously trying to control it.

                Peyton was also 15 years old and in Arabella’s class. They sat next to each other for the past 3 years now in school, which was different than it was before. As soon as you turn 16 years old, you turn to your family for work and payment, if any was offered. Like my sister was saying earlier, I’m good with a bow, so I occasionally will go out into the restricted part of the woods where all the best game lives, such as deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds, and sometimes even bears. If I were to ever get caught, I would be immediately executed. I’ll bring my game, if any, to the market where I can sell it for money to buy more essential things. But you have to be careful, because if the Peacekeepers or the C.E.L.L. operatives, (Capitol Enhanced Lethal Lieutenants) notice you bringing home all these new things and adding additions to your house, they’ll inspect you and keep a close watch on you and your family and friends.

“He’s good I guess.”

                I looked at her and noticed that the smile on her face was slowly fading, and asked her what was wrong. I know that Peyton was never really in the best of spirits when Games season approached, but judging from Arabella’s face, something else was happening.

“He’s moving to District 10. His family finally found enough money to find a home there and start over.” She said, becoming sadder by each moment that passes.

                I didn’t know what to say that would help her cheer up as much as I would if it was something not relating to Peyton. It was good that his family could finally move higher up in society, but I could see that Arabella didn’t want to wish them that gratitude.

“You’re happy for him and his family, aren’t you?”

                She shrugged, but then nodded her head. “Yeah I guess, but I won’t ever see him again. And the only time I’d be able to see him would be during District trading day when him and his dad come back to District 12 to collect food and family heirlooms for their new home. Which would only be once every five months.”

“Yeah, that’s true…but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to stop liking each other. The thought of you and him together could bring you guys hope, which in this case now with what the world has become, isn’t such a bad thing you know.”

                She nodded again, but didn’t continue the conversation. We were almost at the river when we spotted a bear a few yards ahead of us. Arabella shrieked and I pushed her against a large enough tree to drown out the shape of her body.

“It’s okay, don’t worry. They’re just passing through, there’s a hole in the fence leading off to the woods I hunt in. They’re probably just searching for new food or a cub that might have gone running off.”

                It took a few minutes for the bear to move. I took a stone large enough to create a loud enough impact sound so the bear would be startled when it heard it. I threw it and it hit another tree many yards down and caused a fluster of birds in that tree to fly away, creating a sound containing all their wings together when they flap them to fly. The bear was startled and moved away from the path.

“That was close.” Arabella said.

                I laughed, “Not really, you’re just a chicken. You should see them when they’re only inches away from you.”

                She laughed, knowing that I had many close encounters with dangers such as bears when I went hunting. One day I went hunting with Clarice, who’s trained with daggers, or small knives. She can throw them very well, and when it comes to close combat, she’s almost unstoppable. Sometimes there will be small “Twelve Games” where we mimic the Hunger Games to test out our skills as Tributes. Against 18 year old boys with swords, she can take them down in a matter of minutes and still win. When we went hunting, I was cornered against a tree by a bear and I didn’t have enough arm and elbow space to draw my bow, and right before the bear could attack me, a knife found its way through the bears skin and pierced its skull. I looked over and saw Clarice laughing at me, as she came over and drew her knife from the bears head. If it wasn’t for her constant training and winning in the “Twelve Games”, I probably would have been killed or greatly injured, possibly leading to death. I could never participate though, because I use a bow and arrow as my weapon of choice, and you can’t really train against people with that, so I join hunts with other district boys and girls using the bow, and we see who can hit the most targets within a certain time range. I’ve never gotten lower than 3^rd place, which brought a loaf of bread to my family’s dinner table before.

                “Look, there’s Clarice and Violet!” Arabella shouted, pointing down at the river. Indeed, there they were. We walked faster down the path which was now slanted on a hill, and found ourselves next to them.

“Oh hey guys, getting water too?” Clarice said, lifting her second bucket out of the water and planting it close to her feet. “We were about to eat dinner before we noticed that our buckets were empty. My dad was supposed to get them but he took a nap instead. He was up all night working on the house.”

“Why did he have to work on the house?” I asked, confused. Normally people have to fix up their houses after a Capitol bombing or if a wild animal attacked it late at night.

“Some jerks picking up coal from District 5 last night threw these huge rocks at the house and it put a hole through our windows. It shattered everywhere during the night, we thought an animal was trying to find its way into the house. Then Violet didn’t sleep for the rest of the night because she was startled and had night terrors about…well you know. It just wasn’t a good night I guess.” Clarice said, bringing Violet’s bangs behind her ears since they were covering her face when she got up with a full water bucket.

“You know how this week affects me Clarice! It always has, and don’t say it shouldn’t because I’m only 11 and not able to participate yet! They’re night terrors about you!”

                Violet began to get really upset and trailed off onto the path by herself with the two buckets full of water in her hands. Clarice huffed and picked both her buckets up, then looked at me with some annoyance and tiredness falling over her face. “Gotta go, my mom will be pissed if we’re not back soon with the water buckets for dinner. Wanna meet at the training arena tomorrow? I want you to judge me and see where I need improvements.”

                I nodded and agreed to meet her there tomorrow at 12, where I would also practice shooting. Clarice normally throws up old chicken breasts that no one ever ate and has me shoot them at different angles and heights. We figure it’s better than just shooting at targets, because penetrating skin and foam are two very different things. And if I were to get picked this year to go into the Games, I’d need every skill and lesson I can receive.

                Arabella and I filled our buckets up with water and trailed off into the forest on the path, all the way till we got to the house and walked in the door with the fresh water, seeing dinner was already placed onto the table. But only this time, there was someone else joining us.

                Peyton.

 

Chapter 2:

When my sister laid her eyes on Peyton there was no emotion. I was waiting for a “Hi” or “Hey” but nothing came out, from anyone. It was really awkward, because I think my sister was the only one who didn’t know the real reason why Peyton was joining us for dinner. But I didn’t think he would be leaving until after the Reaping, not so soon. Finally, Arabella said something.

“What are you doing here?”

                Well, it was a start. I think she was starting to catch on that he was leaving tomorrow by the looks of my parents and the way Peyton looked at her and responded to her question.

“Arabella…I’m leaving sooner than I had thought. My parents were told we have to be moved out and leave before the Reaping. Capitol rules I guess.”

                Arabella set down the water buckets right where she stood, almost carelessly to the point where some of the water splashed out and went onto the floor. The dinner table was set up with a nice dinner of chicken that I had caught when I went hunting the other day, corn, beans, and a few cranberries. It wasn’t much, looking at it, but it would have to do for tonight. Especially since this was going to be Peyton’s last home cooked meal for a few days, my mom figured that cooking him our good food was the least we could do not only for him, but for Arabella as well. To have a happy, and good memory before Peyton leaves.

“But you said you wouldn’t be leaving until…” Arabella began, but my mom had stopped her with a glare meaning, “Accept it for what it is, and move on.”

                Arabella nodded and said, “Of course, I don’t want you or your family getting in any trouble.”

                With that said, no one spoke of Peyton moving anymore. It was a good dinner, as usual. It’s very rare that we have these sorts of dinners, maybe once every two months. Usually it’s just whatever we can find in the house because whenever I go hunting, I always sell it in the market for other essential, more important goods. It was nice to know my hard work paid off in some sort of way.

                After dinner Peyton and Arabella went off for a walk before it got dark and then Peyton had to go. I sat at the dinner table talking to my parents when she came in and sat back down, without Peyton. She began to get really teary eyed, but didn’t want to cry in front of us so she decided she could release all her sorrows later.

“He’ll be okay, hun.” My mom said, rubbing Arabella’s back. “Be happy he’s moving to a better district. 10 is known for keeping out of trouble. He wouldn’t be as safe here than he would be over there.”

                Arabella got up and started getting angry. “I don’t want to talk about it! I’m going to bed, leave me alone until tomorrow morning. I don’t feel like talking to anyone.”

                She stormed up the stairs and went to bed. Since our house was made of wood you could hear her creaking through the floor boards. I decided it was time for bed too, since I had to wake up around 10 tomorrow and fix up my bow before I went to meet Clarice at the training arena. My guess is she would be there early, to practice before I evaluated her on her throwing skills with her knives.

                I was right. The next morning when I woke up I walked downstairs, got breakfast, strung my bow up tighter, sharpened my arrows, and walked over to the training arena around 11 where I found Clarice throwing knives left and right, over her shoulders, twisting and throwing in all directions. I was sometimes even afraid to match her up in a fight with a sword, let alone knives. She was one of the best fighters in the district, but there were others just as good as her. Clarice just always had a way of doing it all better and making it fancier.

“Knew you would be out here practicing before I got here! How do you think you’re doing?”

                Clarice jumped because she didn’t see or hear me coming, and when she did she almost threw a knife right at me which I swear would have hit me square in the face. She turned around and didn’t answer me, too engaged in her throwing. When she lifted up a knife to throw, I quickly loaded my bow, pulled the string back, and when she threw the knife I released my arrow and saw it soar in the air, making contact with the knife and watched it take the knife to the center of a target.

“You sure you wouldn’t want to just volunteer for the Games? I’m pretty sure with skills like that you could seriously win…” Clarice said, walking over to the knife and arrow cobab. She pulled the arrow out and caught the knife which dropped as soon as the tip of the arrow came out of the blade. She threw the arrow back at me and I caught it, stringing it back up in my bow. I looked over my shoulder and saw a haystack underneath a pavilion and shot my arrow directly into the target. It was going so fast it must have went directly into the haystack whole, because I couldn’t find it when I went over to look for it.

“In all honesty, if I could avoid being in the Games one more year, I’d take that over any skills I may have with a bow. It isn’t worth it.”

                Clarice laughed a little, “Yeah I guess you’re right. I sometimes just feel like it’s a waste that we train so much for nothing. I want my training to pay off, you know? Hunting is getting old…speaking of, after we train, do you wanna go hunting? We haven’t gone together in a while and besides, real moving targets is good practice for you instead of me always throwing up these dead chicken breasts.” She said, walking over to me with a white bucket full of bloody chicken breasts. “I carved them this morning before I came to the training arena. They should be pretty fleshy, so it’d be good practice in case you ever have to…you know.”

                In case I ever had to kill someone. She was right, the fleshier the skin the better, because I can find out exactly how strong my shot has to be to do some real damage to someone. Hoping it never has to come to that, I tell her I’m ready to evaluate her.

“How do you want to do this? Any suggestions?” I ask her, and watch her walk away from me while pacing back and forth, thinking of good training strategies.

“I want you to set up the targets behind me. And when you do, don’t tell me where they are right away, and then I want you to shout the direction of the target. Not exactly where, just say like left, right, above, you know, things like that. Okay?”

                I nodded and watched her walk away towards the fence where her sharpening tool was. She sharpened her knives while I set up the targets. When I told her I was done, she walked backwards until I told her to stop. I pulled up a haystack to sit on and made sure no one else was around just in case things got a little crazy. Not seeing anyone in targeting distance, we began.

“Left.” I said simply, and watched as she whipped around faster than I had expected and saw a knife fly from her hand and directly into the middle of the target. She threw it so fast and hard that the target fell down.

“Perfect, just like hitting an actual person.”

                I laughed and shouted, “Right!”

                Again, the same thing happened. Knife hits the center of the target, target falls down, repeat. This went on for about a half hour until she was satisfied with all of her throws. Now it was my turn to be evaluated. Clarice pulled the bucket of fleshy, bloody chicken breasts and told me to close my eyes and draw my bowstring loaded with an arrow.

“I’m going to throw up the chicken breast and when I do, I’ll shout go. You’ll open your eyes and shoot the breast. Got it? The trick is you won’t know where it is until you open your eyes.”

                Challenge accepted, I thought. I nodded and loaded an arrow on my bowstring. I closed my eyes tightly and felt my hand holding the arrow and the string together touch my chin. I lifted the bow and waited for Clarice’s command. As soon as she said “Go!” I opened my eyes and found the chicken breast lower to the ground. I shot it and got a direct hit, and watched blood spurt from the breast as the arrow pierced its skin.

“Wow, nice!” Clarice said, impressed. “I honestly thought you were gonna miss that, normally I start with ones higher in the air.”

                I laughed, “No I’m glad you’re switching it up, who knows maybe if I get sent into the Games someone will come up from the dirt…” I said, teasing her.

                She lunged and threw a chicken breast at me and I took an arrow from my sheath and pushed it forward, stabbing the chicken breast and feeling the cold, bloody skin against my hand as it slid all the way down the arrow shaft near the feathers, where my hand was holding tightly onto the arrow.

“Hey! What was that for?”

                Clarices turn to laugh and tease. “I was testing your reflexes.”

                Fair enough. I never thought of it that way. I closed my eyes again and waited for her go. She yelled “Go!” and I opened my eyes and found the chicken breast to my far right. I shot my arrow and watched as it only skid the side of the chicken breast, taking only a little meat with it.

“Still count or no?” I asked, sort of ashamed with myself.

                Clarice shrugged, “Well, you still hit it so that’s good. It wouldn’t kill someone, but say they had a weapon in their hand, you might have just disarmed them.”

                True. She yelled “Go!” again and I opened my eyes and got a direct hit this time, watching as the arrow flew right into the chicken breast and took it soaring in the air and right into the pavilion. It stayed up there and looked sort of like a decoration for the training center.

“I think we should just keep it up there.” Clarice said, and watched as I nodded and closed my eyes again. She threw the chicken up but this time didn’t say go, but the sound of her movements made me open my eyes and I shot the chicken breast square in the stomach, and watched it soar past the fence and into the cropping fields.

“Testing my senses that time?” I asked, and watched Clarice nod.

“Yeah, what if you’re sleeping and you hear someone coming at you. If you combine what we just did, you know how to hear something with your eyes closed and as soon as you open them you’ll be able to spot them sharply enough to get a direct hit.”

                She was smart, I’ll give her that. I never thought of any of this until now. She was being completely serious about training me for the Games. Everyone started approaching the training center and just watched as go back and forth, shooting arrows and throwing knives until it was time for someone else to come in the training center and take their turns practicing with their weapons.

                A twelve year old boy came in with a sword made of wood, and led his dad into the arena with another wooden sword in his dad’s hands. They practiced slowly and then as they progressively got better, the twelve year old boy was actually pretty good. He was fast, agile, and could counter any move that his father had made.

“Reminds me too much of a Career, glad to know he’s in our district though.” Clarice said, leading me away from the arena. “Ready to hunt?”

                I nodded and we made our way to a secret path that lead us to the forbidden part of District 12 where we would hunt. We hadn’t been back there together in a while, so it was sort of nice to be hunting side by side again.

“Don’t get attacked by a bear this time okay?” Clarice teased as we were walking into the forest now, not quite at the fence yet.

“Yeah I won’t.” I said laughing, and then started double checking my sheath to see how many arrows I have. There were eight in my sheath so that means depending on what I get, I’ll have to limit them. I could use a single arrow for squirrels, maybe two for deer depending where I hit them. If I hit a deer in the face, than it’s an automatic kill and only one arrow would be necessary. But if I miss the face and hit the body, two would be needed to take it down. Birds are too risky because they fly away as soon as they sense something, and I would be wasting every arrow I shoot if they are in packs today. A bear would need three to four arrows to take down, so I’m figuring that if I see one today, I should probably have Clarice try and stick a knife or two in it, and then I could make for a head shot with an arrow. We’d both conserve a lot of energy and ammo that way. After I told Clarice all of these strategies, she agreed and then pointed ahead of her.

“There’s the gate!”

                There was something wrong though. It looks as if the gate was fixed, and the hole that we usually climb through wasn’t there anymore. And considering this is an electric fence now, we could be electrocuted to death if we stayed onto it for too long trying to climb over.

“Is there a power box nearby?” I asked, and saw Clarice look around as I did the same. We walked a few yards along the fence, trying to remain near the forest just in case a Capitol ship flew over us and saw us. If that were the case, we might as well just volunteer into the Games because we would be dead in an instant if they were able to get a clear shot at us.

                When we continued walking, we finally found a tall pole in the forest where the fence was still going, and found the power box all the way on top of it. There was a ladder, but the pole was on the other side of the fence.

“Stand back.” I said, pushing Clarice behind me. I took an arrow from my sheath and loaded my bow. I aimed directly at the power box where the lock was and shot my arrow after taking a deep breath. The lock flew off its hinges and the power box door flew open. I shot another arrow at the controls and watched it spark, and after a few shorts seconds, we could no longer hear the electricity running through the fence.

“You just wasted two arrows on a stupid power box.” Clarice said, sort of jokingly but I still heard the seriousness in her voice.

“What other option did we have?” I asked, making my way towards the fence with her beside me.

                She laughed, “Maybe walk away and not do something illegal.”

                We both laughed and disagreed with each other on the thought of not doing something illegal, especially since things that are illegal are the only way to have fun now a days in this society. The Capitol made sure of that, taking away all sporting events, movies, music, and anything that would be considered fun for kids and adults. They were all about the Games and work.

                When we hopped over the fence I made my way up the ladder and to the power box where I took my arrow out of the control system. The tip was burnt just a little bit, but it would still puncture skin. I lost my other arrow when it took the lock for a trip in the air through the forest.

“One casualty saved.” I said when I made my way down the ladder.

                Without saying another word, I loaded my bow and Clarice got her knives ready. We walked slowly, and carefully in the forest, not wanting to alert any animals or make ourselves noticeable to any animal. Clarice spotted a few squirrels and threw her knives at one of them, catching it right in the middle of its body. She took her game back, walked over to it as I shot another directly in the face, and we skinned the animal until all we had was its fur.

“Do you want to save the meat for dinner for our families tonight?” I asked, because sometimes we just discard the meat and keep hunting for more fur. But considering this was free meat for a dinner, we decided we’d take the meat back to our families after making a trip to the market to sell the fur for money or essential items. I took my arrow and cleaned it with a cloth I brought, clearing off all the dark spots of blood from the tip of the arrow and some of its shaft that got bloodied.

“That was a messy kill; I need to aim more carefully before it just explodes the next time I shoot one.” I said, making Clarice giggle a little.

“I’m surprised my knife didn’t cut it in half when it penetrated the little thing, look how small this one is!” Clarice said, holding up the fur and then the skin in the other hand. We designated two cloth bags for the meats and the skins and continued on into the woods.

                We kept striking down squirrels at every opportunity we made, which was easy because the sun was now pouring into the forest through the tree tops, causing the ground to be lit immensely.

                Before we could make another shot for more squirrels, a deer pranced its way past us and stopped perfectly enough for me to get a shot to its head. Clarice made actions out quietly telling me to breathe in and out and be calm before I shoot so I shoot straight. I knew all this already, of course, but she wanted me to be sure because if we caught this deer, we could possibly use it for dinner for my mom’s birthday party this Saturday, in two days.

                I drew my arrow and saw as Clarice got ready to throw a knife just in case something went faulty during the shot, this way we’d still have a chance in hitting it. I took a deep breath and stared the deer in the eyes, even though it wasn’t looking directly at me. I released my arrow and the tip of it found its way through and into the neck of the deer, where it fell over dead instantly.

“Awesome! Venison is on the menu for Saturday!” Clarice shouted, running over to the deer and began immediately carving it. We had to work fast just in case something went down or we were caught by the Capitol. Chasing us in the trees would be hard for them to do, but if they were to drop hounds onto the ground we would be dead in minutes because the Capitol created these mutts to never stop running until their prey was dead. So in reality, we would give out before the mutts would by miles.

                When we had our meat and skin ready to go, we placed it into the bags and made our way further into the forest. We were able to get more squirrels and surprisingly a fox, and were satisfied with what we had gotten.

“Alright, I think it’s about time we head back.” I said, carrying the meat bag since it was a heavier weight than the fur bag that Clarice carried. I put my bow across my body with the string in front and the bow shaft behind me so I didn’t have to carry it. When we found our way to the fence, we stopped immediately when we found a body of a boy singed on the ground near the fence.

“Oh my god!” Clarice shouted, but put her hands over her mouth as soon as she had done so. If the Capitol was here and had fixed the fence before they got back, how come they didn’t come searching in the forest for us?

“I must’ve only hit a minor power cord with my arrow…maybe the backup generator went on or something. But there isn’t time to figure out who this kid is because the Capitol is probably…”

                Before I could finish my sentence the ground started getting gusts of wind soaring across it and the trees began to move side to side faster than a normal wind storm would have caused them to do. We looked above us and saw a Capitol ship flying above us, and quickly ran towards a bush and crouched down. Luckily, the only thing that happened was two claws were launched from the bottom of the Capitol ship and found their grasps around the dead body of the kid, and lifted the body all the way up inside of the ship. We recognized the 15 year old boy to be the son of the baker in the market town. What was he doing all the way out here? Surely his father would be put out of business now, or possibly killed for the minor trouble of trying to get food for their starving family. The 15 year old boy’s weapon of choice was a spear, which the Capitol left on the ground.

“Do you think they’re going to come down and investigate?” Clarice asked nervously, and saw me shrug my shoulders.

“No I don’t think so, I’m sure this happens almost every month in every district where kids are trying to go hunting for food. They won’t waste their time, especially when they are preparing the Reaping and the Games next week. It would just be a setback to investigate the death of the boy.”

                When the Capitol ship had flown far away, I climbed up the ladder and turned the power off for good. We climbed over it and saw blood stains on the steel cords of the fence and when we dropped down onto the ground where more blood was located; we saw the wooden spear with a sharp metal tip laying on the ground, ownerless. I picked it up and we walked towards the path without saying a word.

“We’re taking this back to the kids father, and letting him know what happened so the Capitol can’t make up some bull reason why his son was killed. We’ll give him the fox meat in return for our condolences.” I said. I didn’t have to worry about Clarice disagreeing because she was thinking the same thing.

“Poor kid…” She said, not being able to come up with any other words to sum up how shocked she was feeling.

                We made our way onto the path to lead us home and walked in silence all the way until we made it out of the forest and back home.

 

Chapter 3:

                I still had the spear in my hands when we approached my house. Conveniently, Clarice’s parents were also at my house, talking with my parents. They seemed frightened. When we walked in they saw that we had our game bags filled with meat and fur, and we also noted to them that we had venison and that we’d like to cook it for our meal this Saturday for my moms birthday party. They completely ignored our comment about the venison and immediately began yelling at us.

“What happened out there!? We know you went to go hunt! The Colins told us they saw you leaving the training arena and walking towards the path that leads to the forbidden part of the forest where you two outrageously like to hunt! Than what do I notice all the sudden? A dead body being lifted into the air by a Capitol ship! It almost gave all of us a heart attack!” Clarice’s mom shouted at us, seeming to take the words right out of all the other parents mouths.

“To be completely honest, we didn’t know that anything would happen. The fence is usually untouched and broken, but when we went it was fixed and they changed it to an electricity powered fence. The boy who was killed by the fence was the bakers son, in the market. This was his spear.” I said, holding out the spear to them.

                My dad got up and tried making a movement to take the spear, but I stepped backwards, shoving the spear behind me so it was out of his reach.

“We’re taking this back to the boy’s father, along with fox meat that we got. To show some respect for his son’s death. That is, if he hasn’t been already killed too…or captured. Either way, we’re going. We have to go to the market anyway to trade all these furs and meats.” Clarice said, trying to back themselves up against their parents so they understand more clearly.

                My mom was not in the slightest bit happy. It looked like she had been crying earlier; she must have thought that the body was either mine or Clarices since from afar you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was a boy or girls body that was being lifted into the Capitol ship. Although they wanted to put up more of a fight against us going into the market, they knew that we needed the money and materials that we could get from our game that we hunted today. They weren’t so skeptical about us taking back the spear to the father, but they allowed us to do so anyway, because it seemed like the right thing to do.

“Be careful you two, I wouldn’t bring your weapons with you either. That’d be too obvious especially with the amount of meat you have in your bags. They’d know you went hunting almost instantly, the Peacekeepers and C.E.L.L. operatives that is.” Uncle Ryker said, mainly to me since Clarice could hide her knives easily, but I can’t really hide a sheath of arrows and a bow completely out of sight from the Peacekeepers.

“Okay, agreed.” I said, dropping my bow and arrows onto the floor near the door. We laid the venison on a plate that my mom had gotten from the cupboard. They decided that we would eat it for her party.

                Walking out of the house was also awkward, considering they just stared at us the whole time. We saw Arabella and Violet running up towards the house, clearly oblivious to everything that just happened. Arabella also seemed very upset still, which was why she was probably with Violet, so Violet could offer her some words of comfort. Which was a good thing, because they would be running waters down their cheeks if they had seen the body and didn’t know whether or not if it was mine or Clarice’s.

“Where are you guys going?” Arabella asked, Violet trailing up behind her. “We were just looking all over for you!”

                Luckily, they still hadn’t said anything about the dead boy from the market. We tried avoiding telling them we were going to the market, because we didn’t want them to create any attention to us while we were there.

“We’re going back to the training arena,” Clarice said, not thinking clearly since we didn’t have any weapons on us.

                Violet got annoyed, “Seriously guys? No you’re not…you don’t even have any of your weapons on you.”

                Clarice opened up her leather jacket and there was an arsenal of knives inside of it. She zipped it back up and smiled at Violet, in a teasing “I told you so” sort of way. I didn’t say anything because I thought it would be better if I didn’t add anything to it, because asking why she had the weapons would only cause her to have to explain herself which could lead to them knowing where we were really going.

                Before Arabella or Violet could answer back to Clarice’s jacket display full of knives, my mom called them inside. They rolled their eyes and slowly walked towards the house, not looking back.

“That worked out perfectly…and I told myself a few seconds ago I wasn’t going to ask you about that nice little arsenal of knives you have, so should I keep that promise to myself or do you want to tell me why you’re a walking knife stand?”

                Clarice shrugged her shoulders, “Just as a precaution I guess. We might have gotten recorded on camera back in the woods, so if the Peacekeepers try to arrest us at least one of us can put up a fight before they take us away.”

                Even though fighting wouldn’t really help our cause that much considering the Hunger Games were already next week, I figured we had nothing to really lose. We walked a half a mile until we were only a couple yards from the market where all these wooden and hay stands were made, where the sellers of their products would stand behind, shouting deals and prices for their products out at everyone who walked past their stand. Our first objective was to reach the bakery, so we could drop off the spear. The ground was completely made up of dirt and hay from all the stands and people walking through, and of course. There were two packs of Peacekeepers here today. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all…

                But still, we continued to walk. “What are they going to do, arrest you for having a wooden spear? Anyone could make one of them. For all they know we just practiced in our training arena back home. We’re fine.”

                Before I could reply, we walked further into the market and turned the corner where we would find the bakery. It was on fire.

“What happened!?” I shouted, running through the crowd and asking the same question over and over.

“I knew it! I knew they were going to punish his family!” I yelled at Clarice, who seemed just as worried and angry as I was.

                Truthfully, it didn’t come as a surprise that they were going to burn down the bakery. But, it was a surprise when I saw the boy’s father standing outside of his bakery, tears streaming down his face as he watched his pride and work burn to the ground. Everyone else that was standing near him didn’t know whether or not they should comfort him, because he had just lost his son and also his only thing he had left, his workplace. His wife had died last year, when the Peacekeepers stormed the bakery when they were drunk. His wife tried kicking them out, and one of the Peacekeepers had shot her down, multiple times and then pleaded to the Capitol that it was “self-defense” and that she was always a dangerous, and troublesome woman and that by killing her he had rid District 12 of “another crazy”.

                Right when I was about to approach the father, a voice, a cold and evil sounding, yet mighty and powerful voice spoke out of the speakers that were surrounding the market on top of poles. It was President Snow, addressing the situation with the boy who was hunting in the forbidden part of the woods.

“Citizens of District 12, I’m going to make this short and simple. You know the rules of your district, for there are truthfully only a few. No one is to hunt for meat or game in the forbidden part of the woods, and to retaliate against this act of punishment you are angered by will be considered treason and you and whoever else helps you to try and infiltrate the Peacekeepers stationed in the market will all be nationally executed on TV, as another precaution to the other districts thinking of rebelling against a government that so dearly cares about their greatest interests and well-being.”

                Without saying another word, the speaker went off and the Peacekeepers started to form a line to push back all the angry citizens away from the burning bakery.

“How are we going to feed our children without any bread!? If we can’t go hunting there is nothing else to use to feed them! You monsters!” A woman shouted, and was immediately arrested and taken back behind a shed where a gun fire was shot multiple times.

                I looked at Clarice and we both decided that to give the spear to the father would only cause him more unrest, so we approached him with the fox meat and gave it to him, saying and expressing our deepest sorrows for him and his family.

“Thank you, kids.”

                It was all he could muster, which was completely understandable. He was standing in the same spot ever since the fire had taken ahold of his bakery; his second home, and did not move once. Something surged through me, like hot liquid fire, and I walked over to the Peacekeepers and threw the spear down onto the ground in front of them. I could tell that they knew exactly whose spear it was, and after staring at it, glared at me. Before anything could happen, Clarice grabbed my arm and we walked away from the scene, where the Peacekeepers decided to stay and not follow.

“Not what I was expecting. Let’s trade our stuff and get out of here.” Clarice said hastily, stopping at the clothing stand, dairy stand, and the food stand. Our deer fur got us a basket of apples, two knitted shirts, a pair of pants, and two cartons of milk.

“Thank you.” We both said to each stand as we proceeded away from the market.

                When we got back to the house we told our parents what had happened, but left out the part where I threw the spear down. We thought it would upset them and ruin the mood that everyone was in when we shared our new belongings with each other. We had dinner together and played some trivia afterwards, and then Clarice and her family left for the night.

                Time passed quickly and Saturday finally came. My dad was busy running around the house making sure we had everything packed for the party so my mom didn’t have to worry about doing it herself. I got ready and dressed and walked downstairs. Clarice had stopped over yesterday night before she went to bed and told me to bring my bow and that when everyone was just talking and the kids had time to do whatever they wished, we could train at the training arena.

“Don’t go hunting again or I’ll be the one to kill you both!” My aunt shouted after us, right when we got through with greeting all of our neighbors, grandparents, and other random people that came over to my grandparents’ house for my mom’s birthday party. “I’ll call you in when it’s time to eat and sing happy birthday!”

                With that all said me and Clarice walked over to the training arena which was only a couple yards down from my grandparents’ house. Some of the younger kids wanted to come watch us, and we didn’t have any problem with that. We didn’t get into any extensive training, we just sort of did our own thing and shot and threw at the targets. We nailed them every time, so it got kind of boring after a while. We went over to the pavilion and sat down in between two high stacks of hay and sat our weapons down beside us and just talked.

“So tomorrow they place the names for the Reaping into the glass balls. Then Monday is Reaping day.” Clarice said, playing with a stick and running it through the dirt on the ground, making random shapes and signs.

                I looked up at the sun and blankly said, “Yeah…do you feel good about it this year?”

                Clarice shrugged, “I’m not sure, I don’t think anything is going to be any different than what it always is. It’s just always nerve racking the day it comes. Isn’t it for you? Arabella, Violet and I get to stand together and you’re by yourself with all the other guys.”

“Eh, I don’t mind. Jake and Alex will be there tomorrow, so I’ll stand with them.” I said, realizing that my two friends were also 18 and this was going to be their last year of being Reaped for the Games. It was exciting in some way, to finally be able to live a life other than that over weighting anxiety of whether or not you’ll be picked to participate in the gruesome Hunger Games.

“I just don’t like the way the Peacekeepers looked at us yesterday…like they recognized who we were.” Clarice said, still looking down and playing with the stick in the dirt. She had her chin in her knees now and sort of wondered off in her own imagination.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused. I clearly must have missed these glares that we were receiving from the Peacekeepers.

                Clarice lifted her head and looked at me, “When you were approaching them they sort of looked at each other and then back at us, and laughed. It wasn’t like a laugh that anyone else would make if we thought something was funny; it was like they know something. I don’t know, I could have been just imagining all of this stuff because of how chaotic everything was, but you never know.”

                If this was the case, then Clarice was probably wrong to be second guessing herself. The Peacekeepers are always hinted things here and there when the other ones hear things, and if they were truly looking at us and laughing in a matter that was nowhere near good, something was up.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, if they wanted to do something they would have already. What’s the worst they could do anyway?” I asked, hoping to God I wouldn’t regret just asking that question.

                Clarice shrugged and the conversation ended. Clarice’s mom fetched us and the other kids for dinner and cake, so we dragged up our weapons and walked towards our grandparent’s house. We sang happy birthday and had dinner and cake and by the end of the night before the crack of dusk, everyone but mine and Clarice’s family were gone. Our grandparents had asked us if me, Clarice, Arabella, and Violet wanted to spend the night since it was tradition before every Hunger Games that we would spend the night just in case something were to happen to any of us. It used to be mainly for me and Clarice since at one time me and her were the only ones legible to be picked to be a tribute in the Games, but now Arabella was legible so our grandparents nerves were sort of all over the place.

“Yeah, sure Grandma! We’d love to!” Violet said, happily. She never really knew the real reason why we stayed over, which was the best way for it to be.

                Me and Clarice walked over to our houses and grabbed our things, and then walked back over to our grandparents house. Once we were all settled we stayed up and played some games and then Grandpa told us a story about one of the Hunger Games that he never forgotten, which was the full lengthen story of the time when the District 1 tribute betrayed the girl from District 7. It was a scary and intense Games, something I would never want to live through.

                The story ended the night for everyone since it was getting really late, and I went upstairs to mine and Clarice’s quarters in the house and we both fell asleep on the bunk that grandpa had made us when we were kids. I got the bottom, Clarice got the top.

                The next morning you could tell all over District 12 people were quiet, and starting to become really nervous. I decided that I was going to practice more today just in case tomorrow went against anything that I had hoped for. I asked Clarice if she wanted to train and she said no, that her mom wanted to spend the whole day with her for the same reasons. I decided that it was best to hang out with my family too so I shot about fifty times until every single one was bulls eyed and went back to the house. My mom began to cry as soon as I walked in with my bow and arrows and came over and gave me a hug, which caused Arabella to cry.

“Mom, stop. You’re upsetting Arabella. I’ve been lucky enough to never get picked, and this is the last year. It’s going to be okay.” I said, trying to calm her down. But the only thing it got me was space to breathe because she continued to cry. My dad sort of laughed at them because they were being completely ridiculous, and he knew I was right. Besides, if it was my last day to spend in District 12, I did not want to spend it with them crying.

                We all went for a walk into the market and I was afraid that the Peacekeepers were going to be there, but they weren’t. Hardly anyone was, besides the lady running the clothing stand.

“Can I help you find something?” She asked my family and I, who decided to look around just for the hell of it, and because there was no one else around to give her any sort of business or human interaction. I found it sort of odd that she wasn’t spending time with her family before Reaping day tomorrow, and I guess Arabella did too because she asked why she wasn’t spending time with her family.

“I don’t have any family to spend time with, my son was killed two years ago in the Games and my daughter got married and moved to District 4 with her rich husband. She hasn’t spoken to me since she left.” The woman said, seemingly weird as if it didn’t bother her at all besides when she mentioned her son being killed in the Games.

“I’m sorry, it really isn’t any of my business.” Arabella said, walking away to another rack of shirts that she found interesting.

                When I walked over to another station that seemed to sort of be hidden, as if it were for older people above 18 years old, I asked her about it. All I saw was ink and a needle.

“What’s all that for?”

                She smiled and walked over to it, happy to finally be of assistance to one of us since we were just looking around to make her feel good.

“Tattoos.” She said, smiling up at me as if gesturing a question to whether or not I wanted one.

                I didn’t hesitate, of course I wanted one. My parents didn’t care either, because I was 18 and considered an adult now. I could make my own decisions.

“Do you have any idea of what you want?” She asked me, and I had no idea. She proceeded with another question, “You’re good with a bow and arrow, aren’t you boy?”

                I nodded. She grabbed my hand and told me to close my eyes. I could feel her drawing something on both my arms, and when I opened them when she told me to do so, she had drawn a shield on my right arm which I use to fire the arrows with, and it was split down the middle with a lightning bolt looking crack to it. And then I looked over to my left arm and it showed a target symbol, with an owl stretched across it.

“The owl and target is for good accuracy and sight, while the broken shield is for powerful shooting and death. Maybe these will give you the power you need to remain in control if you were ever sent into the Games or just out hunting. Sort of like good luck charms…do you like it?” She asked me, and I nodded and smiled, then said, “They’re really cool, how much?”

                She shook her head and smiled, “Free of charge, my dear boy. I saw what you did yesterday with your cousin, you’re very brave.”

                Trying to avoid my parents weird looks and possible questions that they could be asking at any second, I changed the subject with thank you and asked her about her son.

“What was it like for you, watching your son fighting in the arena?”

                She told me how nervous she was at the Reaping, and that when her son was picked she almost fainted and had a heart attack to the point where someone behind her had to sit her up right. She cried for nearly a day and a half straight, even when she went to visit him in the Justice Building, where parents and friends had only about three minutes each to visit their loved ones before they were sent off into the Capitol to train and get ready to fight to the death in the arena.

                My mom exchanged looks with my dad, in a sort of agreement of how she would react if I were to be picked. He put her arm around her and kissed her head, trying to make her feel better and not think about it too much. Arabella had found some shirts and pants she had liked, and after the prickling from the needle came to an end and my tattoos were finished, they looked amazing. She gave Arabella the shirts, asking for only 25 cents for all the clothes, since the tattoo was free thanks to my brave act that might just get me in trouble some day.

“Thank you.” We all said to the woman as we walked back to the house. I could not stop staring at my tattoos, even when it was time for bed. They were so cool, and before I went to bed I went to the washroom and cleaned myself up. I went back to my room where I laid on my bed, dreading what tomorrow was. Reaping day.

 

Chapter 4:

 

                Waking up in my bed with sweat on my clothes wasn’t exactly how I had been planning on starting off the already gloomy, unwelcoming day. It was officially Reaping day, and last night’s night terrors weren’t any help in remembering myself of it. My mom walked into the room to make sure I was up and told me that breakfast had been served and that after I was immediately to return to the washroom and get ready for the Reaping because we did not want to be late. It was 9 o’clock in the morning and the Reaping starts at 11 o’clock, and anyone who is late after 10 minutes is considered a runaway and is automatically killed on sight.

                I walked downstairs to find Arabella had already eaten her breakfast and was now just laying on the couch, trying to get another half hour of sleep before she had to get ready for the Reaping. My dad was sitting down at the kitchen table having his black coffee and some toast, while bacon and eggs were laying on a plate in front of my seat.

“Where did you get the bacon from? I didn’t bring any pig game home.” I said, surprised but excited about the mysterious bacon.

                Mom smiled, “Your grandparents gave it to us at the party as a little surprise to have before the Reaping. Hurry up and eat, Aunt Carlita wants to meet a few minutes early and go together. She’s been really nervous this year, says she had a bad feeling about this one.”

                Of course, I didn’t think anything of it. I have missed out on the “amazing” opportunity to participate in the bloody Games for the past 6 years, and I think I’m on good shoulders again for this one. If I was, than it was officially over for me, but the nightmares and anxiety won’t go away, because Clarice still would have 1 more year, Clarice would have 3, and Violet would have 6. It won’t be over until I’m in my late 20’s when I can finally say that the Hunger Games won’t affect my family anymore, until I have my own family to take care of and introduce to the Games. My parents were lucky enough to avoid the Games all years as well as Clarice’s parents, so I’m going to hold onto that family luck and see if it gets everyone by again this year around.

                It was 9:45 and time was going faster than I had thought. I went upstairs to take a shower in our tub with our water basket for washing our hair and body, and the wash cloth that we had to wash and then use every time. When I was done I got dressed into appropriate clothing for the Reaping, which wasn’t too formal, but no one showed up looking like a bum either. Capitol rules, I guess. Getting all nice and ready just to be Reaped into the Games where you die in a matter of minutes, hours, or days. How exciting. I can see how it all makes sense…

                It was finally 10:30 and we were ready to leave and meet up with Clarice and Violet. We spotted them at our Grandparents house, who were also ready as well. Even though they were senior citizens, they were forced to go to the Reaping just in case their grandchildren had been picked. Some people use it as an excuse to get out of the Games, which their entire family wasn’t there to be with them, and that’s when the Peacekeepers usually execute the whole family, including the chosen tribute.

                Clarice and I looked at each other and instead of greeting each other like we usually do with smiles or sometimes jokes, we glared at each other with such grim faces that one could think we hated each other or were depressed. But, we have as many reasons to be depressed, after all. Today was the Reaping, not Christmas.

“Everything is going to be okay, you hear me?” Aunt Kyra said to Clarice, rubbing her back. Clarice shrugged her shoulders which caused Aunt Kyra’s hand to come off her back.

“Don’t even tell me that.” Clarice said, walking ahead of everyone. I understood how she was so upset, but she didn’t have to be so dramatic and hate on her mom so much for just trying to comfort her. Everyone noticed my tattoos and loved them, thinking that they were good “mental support” for me when I’m shooting my bow. Which I agree, it definitely gives me more confidence in my shooting. Just thinking about it I can already see some improvements, but it was all mental help. I don’t know how I would do physically with just tattoos on my arms, the magic behind it would probably fade away if I ever came close to needing to actually kill something, or someone.

                We were a mile away from the Justice Building, where the Reaping was held. When we got closer, we could see the workers already fixing everything up, such as the screen that plays the Capitol video showing the reasons why we have the Hunger Games and that it was to be acknowledged as law, not some sort of payback for rebelling against the government. But we all know how much bull that really is.

                When we approached the entrance to the Reaping, there was a separate line for adults and children. The children who weren’t eligible to participate in the Reaping were to go with the parents, and the legible participants were to go in one line to get their finger pricked with a needle so they can be identified with their blood.

“See you after.” Everyone said to me, Clarice, and Arabella in their own different ways. We gave our last hugs and kisses before separating into different lines. Our moms were already crying, and so was Violet. Some of the 1^st year participants were shaking and tearing up at the same time, but they were never able to actually cry because of how much shock and fear they were in.

“Be calm, and don’t think about it. Okay?” I said to Arabella, which I told her every year.

                She nodded as we entered into the Reaping grounds and walked over to the pricking station. They called out our names alphabetically by last name, so Clarice, Arabella, and I all went together. After being pricked, we made our way into the guys sections and the girls sections. Clarice and Arabella found their own spots next to these girls that they always stand next to, who live in the other side of the district. Jake and Alex were in their original spots, and greeted me as I walked over to them.

“One more year, wonder what’s going to happen?” Jake said, clapping me on the back. Alex seemed more terrified this year than every other year, but I don’t know why.

“What gives?” I asked Alex, and he shrugged his shoulders and avoided conversation.

                Before we could get into an in depth conversation about the boy from the bakery and President Snow’s message he gave the citizens who were in the market, a strange woman who dressed in exotic colors and had a big, curly pink wig with a bright purple bow on the top left side of it appeared on the stage. I looked over at Clarice, who made instant eye contact with me. We both nodded and I mouthed, “It’ll be okay.” To her, and she tried managing a smile, but instead nodded and turned her head to the stage where Effie began tapping on the microphone.

“Welcome, welcome…to the 74^th annual Hunger Games! Like we always do, we’re going to start off with a special presentation brought to you all the way from the Capitol!” She said, with the biggest smile on her face. She was always weird and creepy about the Games, but somewhere deep down I could see that it bothered her having to manage the Reaping for District 12. Seeing how helpless and poor everyone is just made it worse that we were about to offer up two people that people love, that two families love, that friends love, that the whole district loves.

                The movie always started off with a creepy picture of a pile of skulls. Than President Snow’s voice echoed throughout the whole Reaping grounds.

“War…terrible war. This is what the Districts of Panem brought to our nation. Man turned on man, brother turned on brother. Motherless children, orphans, widows…this is what the rebellion against the government brought to its people. But, safety and prosperity found its way into sunlight once again…”

                As the video continued, I could see everyone now starting to get antsy and nervous. They knew that the Reaping was officially, about to begin at any moment when the video was over. The good thing is, it’s fast and to the point. They don’t drag it out longer than they should, which would just be cruel. Not that the Games enough aren’t cruel, or making families wait for the loved ones to be Reaped, but it was better for me that it was fast and not slow.

“…So the government come to decreed, that each year an annual Hunger Games will be hosted by the Capitol and the Gamemakers, and that a public Reaping would be held in every district in Panem, where a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 will be chosen to train in the training arena in the Capitol, and learn how to fight to the death, in the Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor…”

                The President’s voice echoed one last time and it was time for the Reaping. My heart was pounding faster than it did when the bear attacked me and Clarice had to save me in the woods when we went hunting. I couldn’t imagine how scared the 12 year olds who’s first year of having the chance to be Reaped. Luckily for me, ladies went first.

                Before Effie could begin, a woman ran into the Reaping grounds screaming, “I’m here, I’m here!” It was the mother of some 16 year old boy named Jack, who was late to the Reaping. For causing such a disturbance, the Peacekeepers took her behind the shed that was inconveniently placed in the Reaping grounds, and you could hear fists hitting pure flesh. Jack couldn’t do anything because if he did, they would both be shot. Since he was so close to me, I reached over to him and told him to remain calm and focus, and that as soon as the Reaping was over, they would stop beating her. Which was true, since she was only a few minutes late, they weren’t going to execute her. Plus, she was Jack’s only family left, and a parent must be present at a Reaping, so they can feel the same pain the Capitol’s people felt when the rebels of the Districts rebelled against the Capitol and killed its children.

“There seems to be something wrong with the girls containers with the names, some additions need to be put into the glass. So this year, we will start with the boys.” Effie said, walking over to the boys glass bowl full of names.

                My heart started to pound even faster. So much adrenaline and fear was rushing through me all at once that my body went into a shock and my hearing went out completely. I saw that Effie placed her hand into the glass bowl and swam through all the names with her hand and finally picked up a slip of paper. She unwrinkled it and said the name.

                Since I couldn’t hear, I had hoped it wasn’t me. Then I began to see a sign of relief on mostly everyone’s faces in the boys section, but then I saw their attention turned to me. They all looked at me, and Jake placed his hand on my shoulders and gave me a look. What was happening? Had I been picked?

                I looked over at Clarice, who was trying her hardest not to cry, and saw Arabella trying to push her way through Clarice, who was also holding her back. She was screaming and crying. But since I couldn’t hear well from everything that was going on inside my body, I saw two Peacekeepers coming my way and grabbed my arms so hard that I was automatically forced to try and lose their grips by shrugging them off. They didn’t hit me or say anything to me when I did so, because I participated with them accordingly. I didn’t bother looking for my family, because I did not want to see how they were reacting to this. It felt so weird that I was actually picked. I was not expecting it at all, and when I walked up the concrete stairs of the Justice Building, I found myself on stage with Effie and the Capitol senators behind us, sitting in chairs, a few feet apart, emotionless.

“Figures…” I thought to myself, as Effie walked over to the glass bowl full of girls’ names and apologized to everyone for the inconvenience. Someone began to shout nasty things at Effie, but everyone seemed to ignore it because since the voices were coming from inside a crowd, giving attention to the shouter would identify him immediately, and he would probably be executed.

                Effie picked a name out of the glass bowl and walked over to the microphone. She unwrinkled the name and just stared at it, obviously puzzled. She didn’t speak, which left the whole district on edge. She looked behind her and whispered something to the head Gamemaker, who had to be present during the Reaping.  He shrugged his shoulders and gave her an okay to say the name. She looked at me before speaking and then happily said, “The girl representing District 12 in the 74^th annual Hunger Games is… Clarice Dacanay!”

                My heart sank to my stomach. How could this happen so conveniently? Somehow it had to be rigged…it had to be. I began thinking of how much of a chance we might have to winning the Games now that we were partnered together, which I began to feel like a Capitol person who thrived at watching the Games and got immediately disgusted with myself. I almost shed a tear when I saw Clarice walking up to the stage with the Peacekeepers, and then got a slight view of my family. My dad was on his knees, having lost all strength in his legs, and my Uncle was leaned up against the fence that was directly behind them, his back facing us. Arabella was being carried away by Jake and Alex after attempting to run onto stage and get us off, while our grandparents hugged each other and sobbed. Our moms were holding each other and crying, while Violet hugged her mom and was bawling her eyes out. People started to crowd around them and tried comforting them, but nothing would ever calm them down after this. Nothing would ever be enough to forgive the Capitol for throwing in two children from the same family, nothing. My family wasn’t the only people who felt this way, either. When I was standing on one side of Effie and Clarice on the other, and we were facing our District, everyone began to shout awful things at Effie and about the Capitol. That’s when I saw it. The woman who gave me the tattoo’s held up a large, flag like cloth that had my tattoo carved into it. Except, there was an addition to it. The shield with the lightning bolt crack going down it, causing the shield to break into two pieces, was also breaking through another symbol. It was the changed symbol of the eagle you find on the back of quarters, the only difference being the eagle is clutching a bunch of arrows in both claws, representing war, and only war. The seal of the Capitol.

 

Chapter 5:

                Before a mob could take place, Effie grabbed onto mine and Clarice’s shirts and pulled us into the Justice Building, placing us into the same room since we were family. Normally, if the two tributes aren’t related in any way, they place them in two different rooms. Luckily for us, we got to see our families together considering that’s why we were placed in here in the first place…to say our final goodbyes before being sent into the Games.

“I don’t think we were picked together by chance…” Clarice said, looking at me walking over to the window to look at all the people rioting. I could see our family being escorted by the Peacekeepers into the Justice Building, so I backed away from the window and stood next to Clarice and simply said, “We’ll talk about this on the train ride to the Capitol. We don’t speak of this to our mentor, or to Effie because who knows who we can trust now that we’re officially in the Games. Great, here they come.” I finished as my parents walked in, then Clarices, then Arabella and Violet, then our grandparents. Everyone exchanged hugs and kisses and then my dad looked at Clarice and I with the most serious face I’ve ever seen him have.

“You both know very well how to survive in these Games. Use your weapons, and do not…do not go for them as soon as the timer runs out and everyone runs to the middle of the Cornucopia. That’s suicide waiting to happen, because once you get there and get what you want, the minute you turn around, someone who was faster than you will be just finishing their swing with a sword to your necks. You get right into the forest and leave everything behind. Find food, find water, and make shelter if you need to. No fires during the night time.”

                Clarice and I nodded as he finished his sentence and everyone gave final hugs and kisses before the Peacekeepers gave anyone else a chance to say some advice to us before we were shipped off to the Capitol. Once our families were escorted out, Clarice and I looked at each other and did not say a word until Effie came in and asked if we were ready to go. We both nodded and she grabbed us by the arms, leading us out onto the stage of the Justice Building to say goodbye to our district and then had Peacekeepers follow us three to the train just in case someone was going to start rioting and try to take us away, or possibly do us a “favor” and kill us. Three years ago a girl was killed after being picked to participate in the Games by her father because he didn’t want her going, thinking she didn’t have a chance. Statistics show that if she went into the Games, she would have had a 75% chance of winning. He was arrested immediately and then committed suicide himself in the Capitol prisons after hearing the statistics that the doctors told him.

“You two are just going to love the train ride! You get to experience all of these Capitol goodies that no one else does!” She said, with a big, bright smile on her face. She obviously is completely oblivious to the fact that we just said our possible final goodbyes to our family and the last thing we want to do is hear about how the Capitol is spoiling us till our deaths.

“Great…” I said, walking into the train cart and heahearing it slam shut as soon as Effie walked in. The Peacekeepers did not follow us into the train cart, because they had their own. Our mentor was no where to be found when we walked into the lobby where all the food and drinks were. They even served us alcohol. It was all a trick. Even though we’re not in the arena just yet, the Games have already started. Drinking alcohol and eating all of these delicious looking food would cause us to gain weight and drain our stamina greatly.

“Don’t eat anything besides nutritious food, and drink only water.” I said to Clarice, as she nodded. I could tell she just wanted to sit in silence for a little while, which was okay.

                All of the furniture was stainless steel it seemed like, or a very shiny glass. The alcohol was died to different colors such as lime green, dark blue, purple, yellow, orange, red, and brown. The candy and baked goods looked delicious, almost impossible not to crave, but we fought our hunger as best as we could until the maids served us dinner on the train, which was okay to eat because it was chicken breasts, bread, corn, and green beans. A hearty, healthy dinner.

                Clarice said a couple words here and there, but that’s when our mentor, Haymitch, a drunken victor that won the Hunger Games years ago, during a Quarter Quell year, came into the train cart where we were. All she really did was introduce her and me, and then sat back down and stared out the window.

 During a Quarter Quell, President Snow picks additions that are added to the Games every 25 years, creating the Quarter Quells. Haymitch’s Hunger Games had 48 tributes, instead of 24. He won, and ever since then, he hasn’t been the same. He’s no longer happy unless he’s got drink with him, and he remains mostly in a protective, sarcastic and smartass personality realm. There’s no going back after you’ve been changed from the Games, and Clarice and I knew that; so we respected it and just asked favorable questions that would help us in the Games. We started off with the most obvious question imaginable that he must have been asked millions of times, considering once you win the Games, you can become a mentor; which is a profession that allows you to train and mentally prepare tributes for their own Games, so they’re ready to face the brutality and death of the arena.

“How do you stay alive?” I asked, and Haymitch didn’t answer. He walked over to the whiskey cabinet and poured himself some more whiskey. He looked at me after taking a swig from the bottle and said, “Don’t die, dumby.”

                I looked at Clarice who got up and walked out of the compartment. After all, it was already 11 o’clock and everyone, including Haymitch, was probably tired. And besides, there was plenty of time to prepare for the Games. We had another day and a half on the train ride, and once we were off the train ride, we were going to be washed and shaved and then taken to dinner, which will have the Tribute Parade to follow up, which means that our costume designers were going to show us off to the world.

“But how are they going to show us off…we’re from District 12. Our district is in charge of Capitol coal, that’s not anything really exciting.” Clarice said to Haymitch and Effie the next morning when we woke up and sat at the breakfast table.

“Yeah, all the other years the tributes were boring from 12.” I said, trying to add in the fact that there really was no hope in us looking anything great to gain the sponsors attention.

                Sponsors are people who watch the Games and are very wealthy. They are hired by the Gamemakers and their job is to send help in any way, shape, or form to a tribute that they favor to help them live throughout the Games, and possibly win.

“Let me see your tattoo, boy. The shield.” Haymitch said, after pouring whiskey into his coffee. I rolled up my right sleeve and revealed the tattoo that the market woman gave me before Reaping day. That’s when I remembered what she did. She defied the Capitol by flying up that flag with my tattoo carved into it, with the Capitol seal being broken into two pieces with the shield by the lightning bolt crack. She was probably whipped in front of the whole district, or killed. My guess was that it was her last real chance to stand up to the Capitol for taking her son from her. If only people were half that brave, maybe another rebellion could happen…and maybe, just maybe, we could win this time.

“Ah, Cinna will have some brilliant ideas with this, kiddo. Keep your head up and try and be helpful to your cousin here and win sponsors to yourselves. You both need as much help as you can get, because my guess is that every tribute that was picked already knows you’re the favorable pair, considering you’re cousins. And what better way to start off the Games by slowly killing family members? The other districts will love that.” Haymitch said, then being smacked on top of the head by a rolled up paper by Effie.

“That’ll be enough of you, Haymitch! To fill these kids heads with such thoughts isn’t going to want them to leave the train at all, let alone fight and protect each other in the Games!”

                She marched out of the lobby and went into her own train cart to get ready to show us off to the Capitol. She gave us these soft clothed outfits to wear, that were plain and simple. A lightly tanned button up shirt, along with faded jeans. The number 12 was on the back of the button up shirt, so I’m guessing each and every tribute that was approaching the Capitol at this moment was also getting into similar outfits, representing their districts with their district numbers sewed onto the back of their shirts as well.

                Another hour went by and as we finished getting ready, we went under a dark, long tunnel and as soon as we appeared out of it, we could see it. The Capitol. It was huge, and very futuristic looking. All of the buildings were either white, or concrete. I never saw anything like it.

“You live here?” I asked Effie, and she nodded.

“Oh yes, isn’t it fabulous? Wait till your inside! It’s truly breathtaking.” Effie said, with another huge smile on her face.

                We approached the train station where it seemed all of the Capitol citizens were waiting for our arrival. They wore very weird clothes like Effie did. They had multi colored wigs on, some people having blue ones, purple ones, orange ones, green ones, red ones, pink ones, the list goes on. Their clothes generally were the same color or shade of color that their wig was, along with their pants and shoes. Some of them had weird eyebrows that extended past their nose, some had colored eyebrows that matched their clothes, along with their lips being colored and some went so far as to color their whole body a lighter or darker shade of their clothes.

“These people are weird.” Clarice said, and I noticed Effie give Clarice a dirty look. I couldn’t help but laugh, which Effie caught on quickly. She huffed and walked to the operating car, where the driver was. She told them to park us in the center of the train station, where the most people were. She did us a huge favor because the more we waved to people and smiled like we wanted to be here, two family members ready to face 22 tributes and even each other in the infamous arena, was spectacular to them. Something that they could never forget. The hard part was that Clarice and I both knew that we weren’t going to kill each other, and that if it ever came down to the two of us, I would have her kill me instead of us fighting, so she could go home and share the wealth with our whole family. But we weren’t planning on that happening, we wanted to stick together during the arena because we could kill people faster and smarter with the two of us and our skills being put together as one, but doing that would doom us to that fate of her having to kill me to end the Games. There had to be another way.

“Remember, smile and wave. Act like you want to be here and you can’t wait to face off in the arena. Believe it or not, those thoughts will keep you alive, and gain you sponsors.” Haymitch said, hiding from the citizens as he finished getting his fancy blue overcoat on with his tanned pants and black dress shoes. At least he dressed somewhat normal, considering his hair was just naturally long and blonde. Not long enough to go past his shoulders, which I would automatically assume it, would be a wig if that were the case.

                Effie put Clarice’s hair into a fancy braid and had her show it off to the citizens as she waved to them when we finally were able to get off the train and walk on the Tribute Carpet, which would lead us directly into the Games Penthouse, where we were housed while we stayed in the company of the Capitol.

                As we walked down the carpet, Clarice and I waved to all of the citizens that we could. We agreed with some of them when they asked, “Are you prepared to kill one another in the arena?” which brought many of the citizens to scream with excitement. How sickening, I thought to myself as I fake smiled to everyone and waved even more. I could see other tributes walking a few yards ahead of us, doing the same thing. Except the Careers, the tributes from Districts 1,2,3, and 4, who were happily signing autographs and taking pictures with the citizens.

“Great, looks like we all know who’s getting all the sponsors.” I said to Clarice, but before she could answer, Haymitch interrupted her.

“Don’t think like that, they do this every year. Just because they’re taking pictures doesn’t mean you guys don’t have anything to offer the sponsors.” Haymitch said, patting both our backs as we finally made it to the end of the Tribute Carpet. We walked inside the Games Penthouse which was awesome. The Games Hallway was the first tour we went on with just Effie and Haymitch, since the other tributes went through with their mentors as well. We saw pictures from all the other Games, some bloody and gruesome, others just self-portraits of the victors from all the previous years. We saw Haymitch’s picture, but he walked past it without saying a word. Once we were done with the Games Hallway, Haymitch and Effie lead us into the lobby where a big statue of a man and a woman was standing, in the middle of the lobby with chairs and tables all around it on the marble floor. They were facing off, the man having a trident and the woman an axe, and on the stand of the statue it said, “Welcome, Tributes of the Districts of Panem, to the Hunger Games. May the odds be ever in your favor.”

                We passed the lobby to the elevators that took us to our washrooms, where hired men and women of the Capitol were to shave us and wash us, to make us look “presentable” in their eyes, since we weren’t from the Capitol and they believe that we didn’t have the same hygiene as them. I was taken to the boys area, and Clarice was taken to the girls, naturally. After we were shaved, bathed, and made presentable, we were taken to our penthouse designated to District 12. Since we were the poorest district, we got the best penthouse in the whole Games Penthouse building. We walked in and there was furniture and tables made of stainless steel, with different colors to compliment the steel. I don’t know what it was about the Capitol being big on colors, but it sort of looked pretty cool.

“Now, dinner is going to be served after the Tribute Parade. Cinna and your costume crew will be arriving in approximately any minute to introduce themselves and share their ideas with you. Of course, your costumes are supposed to be a surprise to you too, so they won’t reveal everything.” Haymitch said as Effie walked over to the waiters and waitresses in our penthouse, and told them to bring us some waters and fruits to hold us over until dinner time. When they got back from bringing us our refreshments, we saw they brought the cleanest, freshest looking water I’ve ever seen, and lots of different fruits which were glazed over with sugar crystals, along with a complimentary tray of a dozen different fruit dips.

                We munched on them for a few minutes until Cinna and the costume crew came in. Cinna was a short, tanned black man and his crew members Fulvia, Cressida, and Harley had their skin colored. Fulvia had a olive green look to herself, Cressida a pale, but great looking white skin tone, and Harley having a light cobalt color to herself.

“If we weren’t in the Capitol I would think we were at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” I said, which no one else laughed at besides Clarice, because that was a movie that took place in District 12, which was supposed to make fun of President Snow and the Capitol citizens.

“I know how hard this may be for you both.” Cinna said, placing a hand on both mine and Clarices shoulder. “It is very rare, if at all, that two family members are picked to fight against one another from the same district. Did you two cause any trouble for your district before the Reaping?” Cinna asked us.

                We thought and only came up with two things. Hunting in the restricted part of the district and maybe getting caught on camera shutting the electricity off the fence, and then me throwing down the spear that the baker’s boy carried with him to hunt in front of the Peacekeepers. We also told them about the lady from the market’s flag, which showed off my tattoo with an extra addition being torn apart: The Capitol Seal.

                Haymitch laughed to himself when we explained everything, reminding himself again of how much he hates the Capitol and wishes he had taken part of all those things with us. Effie was shocked and drank more wine to try and calm herself down, over reacting as usual. Cinna smiled and nodded, “Perfect. No wonder you both were picked, Snow is trying to set an example to the districts that even family plotting together against the Capitol won’t be spared. And if that’s truly the message that he’s sending, considering this is my last year as costume designer, I’m going to go out with a never forgetting bang with your costumes, since you can’t be charged for what I do to you guys. Only I can, and quite frankly, I’d love to see Snow’s face when he sees what I’ve done to your costumes.”

 

Chapter 6:

                I don’t know if I should be excited or worried about Cinna’s idea for mine and Clarice’s costumes for the Tribute Parade. He is right, on some extent, that President Snow can’t really do anything to Clarice and I in the real world since it would all be Cinna’s idea, but he could certainly have the Gamemakers take it out on us during the Games if he really felt the need. I asked Haymitch about it and he told me not to worry, that worse things have happened before; including someone trying to assassinate President Snow when he came on the balcony of the Tribute Parade’s hallway. The results of that were gruesome to say the least.

“Just let Effie and I worry about what Snow does, okay? You two need to mentally prepare for the Tribute Parade, and get your game face on because this is where most of the sponsors choose the tributes that they’re going to help keep alive during the Games.” Haymitch said, giving us walkie talkies. “These are fir emergency use only, got it?”

                We both nodded and ate the rest of the fruit that was on the platter that the waiters and waitresses brought out for us. As soon as we had finished the first one, they kept refilling it which gave us the urge to keep eating more. By the time we were done eating the second platter, we told them not to bring out another one and that they could relax for the rest of the night while we were at the parade. They nodded and smiled, then poured each other some drinks and went down to the living room in our penthouse and turned on the TV and watched previous Hunger Games which featured their own favorite tributes. Unfortunately, most of their favorite tributes were killed, some very brutally to where no description of the death could not make anyone want to throw up immediately after hearing it.

                Effie walked in with Cinna and told us that the time for the parade was ready, so we got off our seats and brushed our teeth, since our breath probably smelled like a mixture of all the fruits and dips that we just had, and washed down our spit with some cold water. Cinna gave us a mint leaf to suck on while we were walking down our penthouse hallway and to the elevators, which were stainless steel on the outside, but gold on the inside. It also had 12 with a circle around it on the ceiling of the elevator.

“I feel special that everything seems to be dedicated to us.” I said, but was quickly turned down by Haymitch who told me that that’s exactly what the Capitol wants us to think, that they like us and want us to feel like we’re special, which we’re not. Only a piece in their bloody Games, and that was it. If we made it out alive, than we could consider ourselves somewhat special.

                We made it to the basement of the Games Penthouse where all the other tributes were being dressed and fitted into their costumes. Some stylists were running around frantically, after just finding out that one of their tributes doesn’t like the way they look in their outfits or if they’re missing a very essential piece for their costume. We walked past District 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and that’s when I saw him. But I thought for sure that I might have heard something about him, or that Arabella would have said something. I saw Peyton and the girl tribute from his District, which was District 10, suited up in their golden metal costumes, which made them look like Spartans from the Middle Ages. When they stood in their chariot together, they were equipped with fake metal golden swords that were linked together to form an X, which showed how they were fighting as one, as a team, in the arena. Can’t say I was impressed, since it was sort of original and mostly every year District 10 does something with golden metal. I just don’t know whether or not I could actually kill the kid in the arena if it ever came down to it, considering Arabella would probably hate me for it. During these thoughts is when Clarice interrupted them and pointed Peyton out, since when I spotted him I didn’t say anything to her.

“Yeah I know, I wonder how Arabella is holding up.”

                That’s all I said. I didn’t mention anything about killing him, because I know how much he means to Arabella and how Clarice probably would say the same thing as me. If it came down to it, we would kill him if there was no other way of surviving, but we were hoping someone else or something else would kill him off before that opportunity was handed to us. We didn’t know any of the other names of the tributes, but would find out eventually in a matter of about ten minutes when we all rolled out into the big, wide platinum hallway where citizens of the Capitol and the tributes mentors were sitting in seats on both sides of us. At the end of the hallway, is where the balcony was, which is where President Snow is currently sitting, with the other head members of the Capitol. I hated them so much. If I ever got the chance to kill Snow myself, I would in a heartbeat. An arrow directly in the middle of the face would do great pleasure after everything he is about to put my family through, and many other families as well. Especially if I’m forced to kill Peyton in the arena, my relationship with Arabella would never be the same.

                Everyone else’s costumes were pretty cool, and unique. That’s when Cinna handed us our outfits to try on, which were a jet black, made so light could collide with it, giving the jet black a weird, but cool dark glow. The outfits, just like everyone elses, were tight to our bodies. I slid the jet black jacket on my chest and fitted the pants onto my legs. I slipped my feet into the jet black boots as well. When I looked at Clarice’s I saw a design that was engraved into her back, which is when Cinna pushed my face away.

“Don’t look just yet, it’ll be better if it’s a surprise.” Cinna said, almost warningly, as if I would disagree entirely with what he had done to our costumes. This made Clarice look at me weirdly, as if she was worried about our costumes too. What has Cinna done?

“Now, I’m going to turn on your costumes and everyone is going to see it. No matter what you hear, do not look at the back of each other’s costumes. Got it? You’ll see on the TV screens made of cloth hanging from poles as you pass down the Tribute Hallway, okay?” Cinna said, almost excitedly.

                We both nodded and climbed into our chariot, and that’s when Cinna turned on our costumes. From looking down at our sleeves, the whole costume was glowing and fading in and out, sort of like embers at the bottom of a fire pit, only more enhanced. That’s when the glares came at us. Some of the stylists covered their mouths and gasped, others laughed and said, “You’re good as dead in the arena, 12!” District 1 had the courtesy of saying that.

                We were then all assembled and lined up into positions. Chariots were following each other by district number, so 1 being first, 12 being last. Great, we were going to be the last chariot people would be viewing, which meant that they would remember us the most. Especially since some of the tributes were still giving us glares.

                “What is the problem with all of them?” Clarice asked, and I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know,” I said, “but I can’t wait to see Snow’s face when he seems whatever it is Cinna did to our costumes. The sponsors will either love it, or hate it.”

                A whistle blew and before we could continue our conversation, we were being hulled out by the horses into the Tribute Hallway. First, District 1 was out.

“And here they come ladies and gents! The Tributes putting their lives into the 74^th Annual Hunger Games! Starting with District 1, as always, we have Keaton and Kadence in their stunning turquoise outfits, along with a complimentary silver crown, Keaton having the left side of the crown, and Kadence having the right! Show’s partnership and cockiness, which District 1 has the right to show off!” Caesar Fleckerman, the official spokesperson of the Hunger Games. “Then we have District 2, Grayson and Harper with what seems to be tridents in their hands and a glowing red costume, showing off their fiery and rage! Very cool, next from District 3 are Ashton and Cecilia with a bright yellow and blue ensemble, with wings attached to their backs and feet! Shows endurance and fatigue, very nice!”

                So far I could already make out who the good ones are going to be, because after they announce District 4 who are Blaine and Sierra, Caesar doesn’t describe Districts 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9’s costumes very enthusiastically, almost as if they were already chopped meat. I did catch District 7’s names though, Griffin and Piper. They seemed almost glad to be here, as if they had volunteered for their chance to fight in the arena. They didn’t look the tough type though, but I’m not under estimating them either, because one of them could kill me or Clarice. Peyton’s name was announced as we came closer and closer to appearing out of the tunnel we were in before entering the Tribute Hallway, our embered costume lighting up the whole tunnel around us.

Our hearts began to race and plunge into our stomachs. We were scared for what Cinna had done to our costumes. Soon, District 10 went out and their names were announced, and so was 11’s. That’s when our chariot had appeared out of the tunnel. We felt something hot on our backs, which meant that Cinna was probably lightning up whatever was engraved in our costumes. I was right.

                Left and right people were screaming, chanting, smiling, yelling good and bad things, gasping, fainting, drinking more and more as they watched us, and some laughing, but the laughter was overtaken by the amount of fuss that was being spread around by our costumes. Clarice and I looked up with so much anxiety and curiosity that we too almost fainted at what Cinna had done to our costumes. On my jacket, the left side of my broken shield tattoo was lighting up with small flames, and the right side of my tattoo which was on Clarice’s jacket, was doing the same. When it began to fully connect, we saw what else had been added into the tattoo. The Capitol seal was burning in flames as well as the rest of the tattoo. The tattoo on the jackets were divided simply by the lightning bolt crack, which determined which side of the tattoo Clarice and I had. When we stood close together, the tattoo formed as one and on the giant screen ahead of us, hanging below the balcony where President Snow was watching us directly, the tattoo formed to create a burning shield broken in two, by a crack in the shape of a lightning bolt, along with the Capitol seal burning and broken in half by the lightning bolt crack as well. Caesar wouldn’t say this directly to everyone, but my tattoo now officially stood for the breaking of the Capitol and its defense. Ever since the woman from the market held up that flag, I feared that my tattoo would soon become the face of something greater than the Games itself. I feared that it would become the face of a rebellion, which my tattoo had just sparked onto the entire nation of Panem.

 

Chapter 7:

                Realizing what Cinna had just done, I feared getting assassinated on the spot when we pulled up into the Tribute Circle diagonally below the balcony where President Snow stood, glaring at me with such calm, but growing fury in his eyes. Clarice caught glimpse of his eyes staring at us and looked away immediately, being easily intimidated by his evil glares. I, however, glared back, realizing that what was done was done and there was no backing down now. I wondered if the woman from the market had this all planned out, from the beginning, when she gave me my tattoos. I wondered if she knew that the shield being broken by the lightning bold shaped crack would soon have a Capitol Seal also being cracked down the middle, representing the falling of the Capitol. If she did, she set me up for something I don’t know if I can carry out. Cinna obviously was in on it too, since he had time to make out our costumes. He couldn’t have just done it after seeing the flag on the screen, making those costumes took time and effort to get everything perfect.

                Before I could many anymore of the situation at hand with our costumes, President Snow tapped on his old fashioned silver microphone and calmed down the audience from screaming, shouting, laughing, drinking, talking, and any other activities that could take his spotlight away from him. He began with placing both hands in front of him to completely silence the crowds of sponsors, citizens, and mentors, and then began his welcoming speech.

“Welcome, tributes. Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be, ever in your favor.” He began. When he said that line he glared at me and Clarice again, causing some unresting feeling in my stomach. It’s not even like I had a choice if I wanted to start this rebellion or not, I mean yeah everyone in the Districts, well mostly everyone, were against the Games and would love to see it crumbling down in the Capitol’s face. It’s a matter of finding someone to do it, and acting upon it. Little did I know they had an 18 year old boy and his 17 year old cousin as the leaders in their heads. But as important as it is, it’s not important these next few days. I have to focus, and be ready for the Games in four days, after three days of non stop training, and at the end of the third day, our rankings were to be decided, which meant going in front of the Gamemakers and showing off our “special skills” with our “special weapon”. During training you’re not supposed to show off your real skill with the weapon of your choice, because someone could use that knowledge they know before the arena about your skills and try to adapt to it, knowing how to kill you. Pretty much, if  I show my skills with my bow, and Clarice with her knives, someone could purposely take both those weapons in the arena so we can’t use them, or grab them instead of us whether or not they are also trained with those weapons, and use them against us, leaving us with weapons we barely know how to use skillfully.

“Over the course of these next four days, you will be trained in the Training Academy, and then evaluated and given results of your evaluation on live television so people can make bets on which one of you are going to walk out of the Capitol and back to your district alive. Once all of this is completed, you will be given that night to train more, sleep, or think of a plan for whatever is left of your lives. The coming fourth day will be when the Games will officially begin…Thank you, tributes, and costume designers for putting on an…interesting show.” President Snow ended, giving me one last glare and walking out the door up on the balcony, back into the lounge where he awaits the tributes for the Tribute Parade.

                We were wheeled back into the room where we first began the parade and hopped off the chariots. We were greeted by Cinna, Effie, Haymitch, Fulvia, and the rest of our prep team. They congratulated us on our performance and had us walk to our penthouse for further planning, considering everyone was giving us glares as well. If looks could kill…

                Once we were back in our penthouse, we got washed up and changed into comfortable night clothing and all sat down for dinner. Effie had us toast to a good performance during the parade and Haymitch counter toasted it with Cinna’s “amazing” costume design. I wasn’t all happy with Cinna’s all the sudden choosing of me and Clarice to be rebellion leaders, especially when he knew that we weren’t even in the Games yet. Why would he do all of this, while knowing we might be killed in the arena? What was so important about us being the leaders of the rebellion that me and Clarice weren’t informed about? All of these questions began pouring into my head, and the only thing that sputtered out of my mouth was “Why?”

                Everyone looked at me and Cinna jumped the gun before anyone else could comment.

“We have reason to believe that President Snow purposely had the names in the glass bowls rigged so only yours and Clarice’s names would be called. It’s just a theory, because normally, there aren’t two tributes from the same district who are chosen to be tributes in the Games. It’s actually never happened before, which is why people are reacting the way they are when they found out you’re cousins. Citizens in the districts who are old enough to remember Snow’s vicious cycle of killing important members of the Capitol secretly with poison or hit men know how he operates, whether or not it’s broadcasted or not. Some are already convinced with what we believe to be is true, but whether or not they’re going to say anything is unknown to us.” Cinna said.

                We’re dead. As soon as me and Clarice enter the Games we’re probably going to be automatically executed before the Games actually start.

“So what happens if we die in the arena? Does the rebellion still live on?” I ask, wondering why I keep asking questions about the rebellion. If I do survive the Games, and there is still a rebellion sparking, that’s the time to worry about it. Until then, I told Haymitch and Cinna that whatever they have to say about the rebellion is to be kept among them. I can’t be over thinking all of this while trying to survive the Games. They agreed and stopped the conversation immediately.

“So tomorrow training begins?” Clarice asked, swallowing the last of her calamari before another plate was brought out to the table. The waiters and waitresses did their rounds and refilled everything that was emptied on the table, including everyone’s water and wine glasses.

                Haymitch nodded, “Which is why you both need to hit the sack pretty soon, training begins at 7 in the morning. You’ll have only six hours to rest. Best get going.”

                Clarice and I excused ourselves from the table and walked into our separate rooms, not speaking of any rebellion or Games business, just relived we had some alone time to ourselves until training the next morning.

                It came quicker than expected and I found myself awakening to the alarm clock, which had a hologram of Snow’s face which muttered the woods, “Training.” I jumped in bed after seeing his face, which was already a terrible way to begin my day. It’s like Snow doesn’t want us to forget who’s in charge, and by placing that hologram in our alarm clocks to wake up to every morning, it sure was going to work.

                I got out of bed, showered, and got dressed and made my way into the dining area of our penthouse, where Clarice and Haymitch were sitting at the table eating breakfast. There was a limited choice of foods for the morning, including just fruits and vegetables.

“It’d be better if you ate something healthy and something that’s going to benefit you. You have a long day of training ahead of you, so you need to be full on nutrients and vitamins to put on good performances.” He said, after seeing my facial expression when I noticed all that there was to eat was fruits and veggies.

“Yeah, c’mon code, eat up. He’s got a point you know.” Clarice said as I sat down and forced mouthfuls of fruits and vegetables in my mouth.

                After we gulped down some more food and a couple glasses of water and milk, Haymitch took us down to the Training Academy, which was a floor above where the chariots are placed for the Tribute Parade. We saw the other tributes with their mentors, and saw Peyton as well. He tried avoiding our looks and stuck to himself. He didn’t really talk to anyone much, and when we were told to enter the training room, which was very big filled with all sorts of weapons, some of which I’ve heard of or seen, and some of which I never knew existed. On the ceiling there were rows of thing rope crossing each other in all sorts of directions so we could practice surviving in high grounds, there was a station where you could practice camouflaging yourself with paint, a station where you can learn the most important survival skills like learn traps for forest animals to obtain food, a station to create fires, to memorize different leaves and trees, and of course the combat stations which included sword fighting training, archery training, knife training, short sword training, axe training, spear training, fist fight training, and all sorts of other extraordinary weapons which we could train with. The ground of the training arena was black, and so were the walls and the ceiling. There was a red stripe going around the room of the arena in the middle of the wall.

                We walked in a line file which was by district number, which meant Clarice and I were last. We were all given suits to wear, which were made of stretchy, tight, thick fabric which adapted to the shape of your body and muscle weight. They were all black suits, with two red stripes going down the short sleeves with our district numbers sewed on top of the two lines on both sleeves for the shirts, while the bottoms were all black. We were then given these uni-sex black leather combat boots which rose about eight inches from our ankles. The boys were then given bandanas to wear, which we had to wrap around our heads and tie the knot, so the front, which each had our district number on it, with a silver circle around it, was showing. The girls got the same outfit and boots, although they were given ribbons which were black, with their district number on both tails of the ribbon.

“Now that we’re all dressed, please form a circle around me as I instruct you on what you will be doing while you’re down here today, and the next two days.” Atala said, the head trainer. She was a black woman in her early thirties, maybe late twenties.

                We all formed the circle around her and awaited her to speak. She put her finger on her ear and said, “Okay.” She was communicating with the Gamemakers who were watching us in an open window room, where they had all these refreshments and seats to enjoy while watching us train to kill one another.

“Welcome to the Capitol. I’m Atala, I’ll be your head trainer for the next couple days you’re in here. You may choose not to come, whether or not you do is your decision. So while I have you all here…”

                While Atala was speaking, I could see that Keaton, Kadence, Grayson, and Harper all formed their Career alliance, while a second Career alliance was formed by Ashton, Cecilia, Blaine, and Sierra. They were all eighteen, which also means they were deadlier. Now that we could see them closer to us, we noticed things about them. Keaton was a tall, had dark brown hair, and was very built. Kadence was very pretty, in good shape for a girl, and had long blondish hair. Grayson was average height and was thin, but cut. Harper was a short black haired girl, with a few freckles on her face, and always had some sort of intimidating, angry look to her. On another note, Ashton has scruffy dirty blonde hair, and was built, Cecilia was a pretty black girl, long black hair and had a thoroughly toned body, Blaine had dark brown hair and had the biggest built of muscle out of everyone in the arena, and lastly Sierra had short blonde hair and had no muscle showing on her body, but was rumored to be deadly with a short sword. They were all ignoring Atala and peering at all the weapons, hungry to start training and show off their skills to intimidate everyone. Clarice seemed to notice this too and looked at me and laughed, “I think they already know who our alliance consists of.”

                The two of us. Against these 22 other tributes? The odds didn’t necessarily look to be in our favor, but I could see that everyone else that wasn’t in an alliance had already formed one with their tribute mate as well. Except the boy and girl from District 5, because the boy was 18 and the girl was 12. He was not really the nicest kid, almost seemed really shady, and told her pretty much that she was on her own. He had a decent muscle tone to him, but wasn’t as big as Blaine or Keaton. We got a glimpse of Griffin and Piper, the kids from District 7. Griffin had short blonde hair and was average height like me, and had a decent toned body like me as well. Piper was just as tall as me, and had blonde hair that reached down to her shoulders. Clarice wanted to introduce ourselves and have her join our alliance, but that would be unwise. We can’t gain any feelings for any other human in this arena while we’re in the Games, it’ll hold us back. We have to stay an alliance of two, and remain an alliance of two if we’re going to survive. We’ve already adapted to our skills when fighting with each other, which gives us an upper hand like the Careers have. Including someone else would only confuse us and maybe get us killed if the newest member of our two man alliance were to mess up.

“…there is also a fire station, and last but not least all of the weapon training stations. I’d advise you to ignore the weapon training more than you would the survival skills, you’ll have plenty of time to test your skills against each other in the arena. Most of you will die from natural causes such as freezing to death, starvation, dehydration, disease…” Atala continued, and then finished by giving the percentages of who will die of natural causes and from weapons. Once she was done, she showed us physically each station, and then left us to train by ourselves.

“What do you want to do first?” I asked Clarice, as we watched the Career packs immediately go for the weapon training, and everyone else scatter to join the Careers in weapon training or the survival skills. Clarice decides we should learn some survival skills, since we already know how to use our weapon of choice very well, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to learn some of the skills. We walked over to the fire making station, and it took us two hours of scrubbing stones and sticks together until we sparked a fire. We learned how to make deadly traps for animals roaming around in the forest, and then learned traps for humans, which took longer, but had the same idea to them as the animal traps. It was all a matter of just tying knots in designated areas and tightening them.

                I heard a faint scream and me and Clarice whipped around and saw that two boys, Keaton from District 1 and Blaine from District 4, were on the ground brawling. The girl who screamed was the 12 year old girl from District 5.

“It’s normal for the two head Career boys to get into heavy arguments the first day, each wanting their Career packs to have this station and that station. Don’t focus too much on them if they intimidate you, learn your skills.” The trainer from the knot tying portion of the survival skills station said.

                We both nodded and left the knot tying station. We then moved to the tree climbing station, which we really learned how to climb on a rock wall. We weren’t harnessed by anything, because what would the point be to try and climb with help, when in the Games you’re not going to have any help at all besides the training you learned here. It took me no time at all to learn how to climb masterfully, but Clarice slipped once or twice and was then good to go for tree climbing. By the time we reached the monkey bars, which were to help us train how to keep strength while climbing in between branches or hanging onto a cliff if we were to slip on an edge, the first day of training was already almost over. We had three more hours to finish up at least two more station and then go back to our penthouse to rest and for dinner. While I was waiting in line, I looked down and saw the boy and girl from District 7, Griffin and Piper, training with spears. Griffin took one step back, adjusted the spear in his hand, and threw it so accurately and straight, that it sank right into the target that was 50 feet away from him. He threw a few more and sank them directly in the middle of the targets. Ashton, the Career tribute boy from District 3 and Sierra, the Career tribute girl from District 4, each from the second Career pack, came over and watched Griffin throw his spears. They nodded and muttered to each other, “Not bad.” And walked towards their Career partners, Blaine and Cecilia, whispering something to each other. They all nodded and walked away towards the survival skills training.

                The first Career pack watched Griffin too, but didn’t make any comment towards his performance besides a few nods of approval. Next up was Piper, who could wield two axes at the same time and fight with them simultaneously. She grabbed two rubber ones next to the real, but blunted all shiny silver metal ones, and walked over to a weapon training specialist that specializes in axe training. Piper and the trainer got real close, and began fighting. They swung at each other left and right, criss crossing the axes while they swing, ducking and lunging back to avoid slice swings. The trainer used his left hand to swing his left axe at Piper, but stopped during the middle of the swing and instead tripped her when she was unhinged off her feet, focusing on the axes. While she was on her back, the trainer lunged forward and struck an axe down to her face, where Piper criss crossed her axes to form an X, and blocked the death blow. She then twirled her waist around and moved her legs so quick and sharp, that the trainer didn’t see it coming and was tripped to the ground where Piper sprung up and jumped on top of him, putting both rubber axes to his neck. That’s when he smiled, tapped out, and Piper got up off of him and put both axes in her left hand and swung her right arm out to the trainer, who grabbed it and pulled himself up.

“Holy…s**t.” Clarice said, which seemed to be many of the same reactions on everyone else’s faces. This time, the first Career pack nodded in agreement and then actually had Keaton, which I guess was now the official leader of the first Career pack, the most deadly out of everyone in here, approach Piper and move her to the side.

“What’s he doing?” I asked Clarice, while we were still waiting in line. The person who was on the monkey bars held the line up for so long because he was watching Piper’s practice fight with the trainer. Everyone did, it was amazing.

                When Piper smiled and shook hands with Keaton, who then turned around and put two thumbs up to his Career partners, they smiled and nodded and all left the training arena early to relax.

“Looks like they just added another member to their vicious Career pack.” Clarice said in a sarcastic tone. She’s always thought that the Career packs were stupid, and that everyone involved in them were too full of themselves. “Wait till they see what you can do with a bow, they’ll be asking you to join them next.”

                I laughed, “And you’ll be asked once they see your skills with knives.”

                It was her turn to do the monkey bars and she went through them swiftly, not missing one. When it was my turn, I was able to do them just as well and we figured we had that skill down already, the rock climbing wall helping us greatly keep our momentum and strength in our arms.

                We decided to take a break from training and sit on the benches below the open windowed room where the Gamemakers were watching everyone train, taking brief notes down on everyone. We decided to watch both Career packs train with their specialized weapons, which Haymitch advised us not to do. But since they were all in Career packs, the most deadliest kids in the Games this year, they didn’t care because who was going to try and stop them from getting their weapon of choice? No one. Everyone was too scared.

                We watched Keaton, the muscular tall kid from District 1 and leader of Career pack 1, making him the deadliest out of all of us. He picked a long sword out of the sword rack that was hanging from the wall near the station. He picked the real sword, naturally trying to show off his “bravery” and lined up with the special swords trainer who chose a real sword as well. They stood face to face and began during quick and agile movements with the swords, which then became a real fight as Keaton noticed his skills improving. The special swords trainer actually had to tell Keaton to stop, otherwise he feared Keaton would fight him till one of them got hurt. He took the sword from Keaton and told him to leave for the day, and we all watched Keaton storm out of the training room screaming profanities.

                Next up was Kadence, the pretty blonde girl from District 1 who specializes with a spiked mace, which was a ball of steel with sharp spikes coming out of it. She swung it from dummy to dummy and knocked heads off, created holes in every dummy body there was, and ended her training with it by throwing it at a target, hitting the target directly in the face. She then dismissed herself, pleased with what she had done, leaving the mace in the target. Next we watched Grayson, the Career boy from District 2, come along side with five placed in front of him. He grabbed a long axe, which was an axe with a bigger, rounded blade and a very long handle, as big as someone’s leg, and watched him swing it many different fluent ways, chopping arms, legs, and heads off of each dummy around him. Once he was done, he pulled over a long axe specialist in the room and went to the back of the training arena to have a quick private lesson to enhance his already very enhanced skills with a long axe. Next was Harper, the black haired girl from District 2, who’s weapon was a dart pole. She stood at the archery range where more targets for her weapon were, and grabbed a dart pole. She took the long silver pole with one opening for the darts and one small hole to blow into, and put a dart in the pole. She raised it to her mouth, aimed, and blew into the pole. The dart was launched from the dart pole and found its way to the center of the target. She did this a few times before she thought she was set, and then did something else. Instead of blowing into the dart pole, she loaded the dart pole with multiple darts, raised the dart pole up and across her body, and swung it diagonally across her body, not letting go of the dart pole. Six darts flew out of the dart pole and all found themselves homes in each target open.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before.” I said to Clarice, who was amazed as well. Only skilled dart pole fighters could master something like that. She must have had to be training since she could walk.

“I’m glad we’re watching all of these, I feel a little more comfortable with knowing how all of them work.” Clarice said, and I nodded. “Where’s that girl from 7? Piper.” I asked her, but she must have left with Griffin because they both were not in the training arena anymore.

                We watched a little bit of the 2^nd Career group’s training and noted down that Ashton, the scruffy blonde haired boy uses a weapon called a trident, a long pole which has three thick, metal spikes on top of it, Cecilia, the pretty black girl specializes with axes just like Piper, Blaine, the muscle head of the whole arena uses two small warhammers, and Sierra, the girl with short blonde hair, uses a short sword.

“So that covers the fire training station, the traps station, tree climbing, and monkey bars. And we’ve noted down what all the deadlier kids weapons are. Should we call it quits today and leave?” I said, rubbing my hands together under some water near a fountain in the back of the room where all of our normal clothes were in duffle bags. Clarice looked around and we both noticed that both Career packs were gone, including Griffin and Piper, and the only ones left were the 18 year old boy from District 5 who we later found out was named Gunner, the tributes from District 6 and 8, and Peyton, who was at the survival skills training.

“I want to play around with some knives, why don’t you shoot some arrows or something just casually so you don’t really show what you can actually do, and we can call it quits.” Clarice said, walking over to the knife station which was a couple stations down from the archery station.

                I walked over to the archery station, picked up a bow, and started messing around with my shots. I didn’t want to make myself look bad while the Gamemakers were looking right at me, of course. So I shot multiple targets one after another pretty quickly, and hit my targets directly in the face or in the center of the target. From the looks they were giving me and each other, they were actually pretty impressed with what I could do with a bow. They haven’t seen nothing yet.

                When I was done I walked over to Clarice who put down the knives she was training with, and from the holes in the center of the targets, I could see she was thinking the same thing. What was Haymitch thinking when he said we shouldn’t use our preferred weapons in the training arena until evaluation day? Stupid.

                We made our way to our duffles, got changed back into our original clothes, and put our training suits into the duffle’s. We swung the duffle bags over our shoulders and walked out the training arena, hearing shouts of anger from Gunner every time he swung a sword around and saw glimpses of the red and orange sunlight coming into the windows of the training arena from the sunset that was leaving us after our first day of training.

 

Chapter 8:

“Like I said before, DO NOT show them everything. You have time to do that in the actual arena, they will take whatever they can away from you if you continue to use it in the training arena. They’ll notice that if you’re too good, and look like a possible winner, they will use that against you and take your weapon of choice out of the Games to make everything even.” Haymitch said cautiously as we sat down and ate breakfast that next morning. The way he was looking at us, you could tell he was being quite serious. We both just nodded, trying not to continue a further argument, and found ourselves walking down to the training arena for day 2 of training. When we got in there, the second Career pack including Griffin, the boy from District 7, were already training their hardest at the survival skills. Ashton and Blaine were practicing their sword fighting, with plastic poles that had huge foam padding at the tips of them so they could actually hit each other.

“Watch where you’re swinging, idiot! You almost took my face off!” Ashton yelled to Blaine, who raised his arms up. “Sorry dude, I just got way too into it I guess.” Blaine said, with only what seemed to be half an apology.

                The rest of the training arena consisted of Gunner, his district partner the little 12 year old girl, the boys from District 6 and 8, and both tributes from districts 9 and 11. Peyton was also there, learning how to tree climb. I didn’t bother saying a word to him when we walked past his station, not wanting to create any sort of conversation that could lead me into possibly feeling regret for maybe needing to kill him. I don’t care what my sister will think of me, if I have to save Clarice or myself from Peyton, I’ll shoot him dead in a matter of only seconds.

                All of the tributes in both Career packs gave Clarice and I glares, including Griffin and Piper. We just ignored them and went over to the plants station, where we learned how to detect poisonous plants, poisonous berries, and many other lethal things that the Gamemakers throw into the arena that look harmless.

“Be careful of these bugs,” the trainer said, showing us a holographic picture of a black bug that was rather fat, and had two large claws. “If you step on them, they’ll set off explosions all around you, and you’ll be dead in seconds. We almost didn’t have any victors a few years ago because of these guys.”

                With mostly everything learned from this station, we moved to a station where you have to hop from platform to platform. The Career girl from the 1^st group, Kadence, walked over to the station and stood behind us. She began to laugh quietly to herself, so Clarice turned around and looked at her.

“What are you laughing at?” Clarice asked her, causing Kadence to look around like she didn’t do anything wrong and then looked back at Clarice. “Are you talking to me?” Kadence said sarcastically, setting Clarice off, but before she could say anything, Kadence spoke again.

“I don’t care if you’re cousins, brother and sister, boyfriend and girlfriend, or any of that s**t. I’m going to kill you whenever I get the chance, so be ready.” Kadence said warningly to Clarice, who I forced to turn around and look the other way.

“Wait till the arena to fight, not here. Haymitch doesn’t want us to get any bad marks against ourselves.” I said, watching as Clarice huffed agreeingly and when it was our turn, we jumped from platform to platform, while some were standing still and some were moving and disappearing into the ground. It reminded me of a little kid obstacle course.

                When we were done with training at that station, we began to train each other with our weapons of choice. I was going to learn to throw knives, and Clarice was going to learn to shoot a bow, just in case one of us dies we can use the others weapon and fight our way to survival.

                I take a knife in my hand and throw it, hitting the target but not in the middle where Clarice hits it every time.

“You’re forcing it too much, just let it go through you as if it’s nothing. Concentrate.” She says, as I raise my arm again, cross it over my body, and swing it, letting go of the knife. It soared and hit the head of the dummy target, so it wasn’t a bad shot. But I could still improve.

                After an hour of throwing knives, I walked Clarice over to the shooting range where we found Peyton. Clarice picked up a bow and grabbed a couple arrows, and walked over to the platform where you’re supposed to stand when you shoot. Naturally, shooting a bow and arrow isn’t hard at all, the aiming and consistency between your shots are. You can’t get ahead of yourself, and you can’t get too far behind your shot or you’re going to mess up. She ended up getting the hang of it after a half hour of practice and we noticed that the Gamemakers were jotting things down while staring at us, so we put the bow back not wanting to risk it being banned from this year’s Games.

                A few running exercises and fist fighting training and the day was finally over. There wasn’t much tension today between all the tributes, considering mostly everyone just wanted to concentrate on their training and figure out ways to survive. The only thing that ever interrupted the silence was the sounds of swords clanging against one another, arrows being shot, bodies falling towards the floor if someone slips, and the shouts of the Career packs when they yell things at each other or become really good at something that they took time to master in the training arena. Weirdly, Griffin and Piper didn’t bother shouting things or even cheering when they found something they were good at. They mostly stuck to themselves, and often talked amongst each other. A few times we caught them looking straight at us, muttering things about us most likely.

“I don’t know, they’re a weird pair. But they must be good if the Careers want them on their side.” I said to Clarice, who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah I don’t know, we’ll find out in the arena just how good they are. So far all I know is Griffin is good with a spear and the girl Piper I think her name is is good with a couple of axes. Whether or not she can throw them good I don’t know.” Clarice said, trying to read every tribute one more time before we walked back up into our penthouse and awaited dinner.

                When it was time to feast, we all gathered along the table and waited for Effie to join us. She was in a meeting with all the other mentors including Haymitch, who decided to skip the meeting.

“That was rather rude of you, Haymitch. I’m going to send my sincere apologies to the Capitol when I get a chance! They prepared a nice feast for you!” Effie said, walking into the door waving a Chinese fan in her face.

                We sat down for dinner and talked about training day 2, and told them it was duller than the first day since everyone was so used to the training stations. We decided to skip day 3 of training, since most people do anyway considering Clarice and I already feel fully trained and ready to go. Haymitch takes us down to the Capitol Library where we are planning on watching old tapes of previous Hunger Games. At least, the most important ones. When we get to the library, Haymitch decides its better to rent the videos and watch them in our penthouse, so no one else can make strategies with the video tapes we’re going to be watching.

“I think these 25 or so Games should do well. Watch them carefully, and take notes on how everyone acts when they first get into the arena. You’ll notice it’s always the same emotions, no one is ever really eager to run to the Cornucopia and get their weapon. They’re all scared, and I absolutely do not want either of you to run to the Cornucopia. It is a blood bath; I don’t care if you see your knives, or your bow,” Haymitch says, pointing his fingers at Clarice and I, “Because if you go there, and get your weapons, someone could easily come up behind you and kill you much faster. Your odds won’t be in any sort of favor for you by doing that. It’s suicide. Got it?” Haymitch says, really drilling in our heads that it would be the worst idea imaginable to do so. Nearly 12 victors always die in the blood bath of the Cornucopia.

“We got it.” I said, as we walked back to our penthouse and put in the first five Hunger Games until we wanted a break.

                Haymitch was right. Everyone who goes into the middle of the arena to get to the Cornucopia to find their weapons gets either killed or injured in some aspect. Usually the Careers are the ones who obtain most of the weapons and kill the most people. Haymitch wants us to stay away from them as much as we can, including Griffin and Piper. We note not to go into the Cornucopia blood bath, and to make way for trees or shelter if anything is around us. Maybe try and grab a little backpack that the Gamemakers provide us usually with small items such as matches, flashlights, thermoses, sleeping bags, rope, any stuff along those lines.

                When we were through watching the rest of the Hunger Games movies, we gave them back to Haymitch who returned them the next day. Today was the day before the Games began, which meant we had our interviews. Cinna walked into the room a few hours before to show us what we will be wearing. He promises that nothing special and surprising was going to happen, and we all sort of laughed about it. But he did want to propose something to me that I had no idea was going to be asked of me.

“Haymitch and I were thinking of…making additions to your tattoo.” Cinna said, smiling while opening a book of sketches. He drew out my original tattoo, the shield being split apart by the lightning shaped crack, and then flipped the page to reveal the same tattoo, only with the Capitol Seal in it. Now this was a surprise.

“No! Absolutely not, by doing that it would condemn my family to death and anyone else I love! It would be practically shouting out at President Snow, ‘Hey look at my tattoo! I’m being totally serious about this rebellion!’”

                Cinna laughed and said that Snow won’t see it unless I take off my Games jacket that I will be given tomorrow before entering the arena. If the Gamemakers were to see the tattoo, they would probably throw a fireball right at me and singe me to death. Anything to stop something from happening to their precious Capitol.

“I don’t know, I think you’d look stupid if you didn’t have it. I mean, now that everyone has seen our costumes and that woman from the markets flag, you might as well just get it added to your tattoo. Otherwise, all those hopeful families out there who are waiting for something to happen, some sort of act to bring their kids deaths to justice, will fade away if they see you’re not supporting your own rebellion that we started.” Clarice said, trying to sound convincing.

“Unknowingly!” I shouted, but Haymitch came into the room and raised his hands, gesturing to calm down.

“Do you know what importance you two may be to some of the people out there waiting for something to happen? Something good for once? You’re the hope that these people need. By adding that to your tattoo will most definitely upset the Capitol to the point beyond return, if they know you’re all for a rebellion. But they won’t do anything until you’re out of the Games because if they intentionally kill you, in front of the whole nation and it’s noticeable that your death was staged, they’re going to have an uprising on their hands either way.”

                Haymitch was always so logical…so damn right. I thought about it for another fifteen minutes before I came to the conclusion that I wanted it to be done. So after my interview in front of the whole Capitol tonight about the Games, I’ll be given my addition to my tattoo.

                The boys were to wear tuxes and the girls gowns. We slipped into our dress clothes and made our way down to the Capitol Entertainment Building which was across from the President’s Building. When we got there, we saw both Career groups, Griffin, Piper, Gunner, the 12 year old girl, Peyton, and the other tributes from the rest of the districts. Clarice and I were to go last, considering it was by numerical order. By the time District 12 was ready, I wasn’t. I didn’t know what Caesar was going to ask me, and how I was going to answer it. But when my name was called, I walked onto the stage and looked to my left, seeing camera flashes everywhere, hearing people shouting, and hearing laughter among small groups of sponsors up in the higher levels of the auditorium.

“Welcome, Kade, from District 12!” Caesar shouted to the crowd, who clapped as I sat down next to Caesar.

“Thank you for having me,” I said, a little overwhelmed with all of the people staring at me, waiting for me to say something funny or about the Games.

                Caesar calms down the crowd and asks me another question.

“Are you ready for the Games tomorrow, Kade? Is it going to be tough with your cousin in there with you, fighting to the death with 22 other tributes?”

                I laughed, trying to play smart to make it seem like I wasn’t nervous at all. Which was of course one of the biggest lies I’ve ever said.

“I mean knowing anyone personally in the Games is terrifying, because you don’t want it to get down to you two being the last tributes, or you don’t want to kill them. My cousin and I have already decided that if we had to kill one another to end the Games, we could do so.”

                Yet again, another lie. Lie, lie, lie. That’s all that was coming out of my mouth at the moment. Thank god Caesar didn’t ask anything about the rebellion that he most certainly knows is cooking up throughout Panem at this very moment, but to ask such a question about one of the biggest crimes imaginable on live television, especially with me being the person that has to answer, would be a big mistake, because than I would be brutally honest about everything, on purpose. Wait, no I wouldn’t. That would just get everyone killed before we had a chance to even do anything. So therefore I would lie yet again, maybe even be so dumb and blunt and ask, “What rebellion, Caesar?” but it might turn the heat and excitement out of the Games and we wouldn’t get much sponsors if Clarice and I were just ordinary sponsors. So I decide to try and avoid any mention of the rebellion at all costs.

“That’s good to hear! Although it would be very tragic, of course, to see one of you fall at the others hands, it would make for good television! What do you think folks?” Caesar shouted, and people screamed back at him with such excitement that it was sickening.

“Unfortunately I can only ask you one more question because we have to stay on schedule! So my question is…if you could say anything to your family right now if they were watching this, what would it be?”

                I looked at the camera and already knew what I wanted to say. What I’ve been wanting to say.

“I would tell them not to worry, and to have hope. They’re just games, nothing else. And that all the Capitol wants is a good show, and that Clarice and I will give them the best Hunger Games that they have ever seen, and show them that even small families from the poorest district in Panem can outlast every other district out there. I would also tell Arabella and Violet, my sister and cousin, not to put their names in the glass bowls for any food, because it isn’t worth being Reaped into these sadistic games.”

                There was mere silence in the auditorium and Caesar ended my interview. Clarice came on and was asked questions about the Games and who she thinks would win if she were a citizen watching the Games, and what she thinks her odds are of winning. When her interview was gone, we both met up with Haymitch and Cinna to be taken to the room where I was to be given my new addition to my tattoo. When I got there, Effie was there standing by the door making sure no Peacekeepers were going to walk in and see what was about to take place. Haymitch and Cinna guided us to the doorway and we saw Fulvia with a tattoo gun ready in her hand. I took off my tux and rolled up my sleeve, and felt the prickle of the needle go into my arm. After about a half hour, Fulvia was done with the tattoo. I looked down at it and was very impressed. Now it was official. I was the leader of a rebellion that could potentially take place after the Games if I survive. And if I do, there will be only one motive in my life.

                Taking down the Capitol.

 

Chapter 9:

                Before the night could end and take us to the next morning, Games day, we had one more trial left. Evaluation. They normally do evaluation during the day after the third day of training, but they had to postpone it because the Gamemakers were behind on organizing everything for the Games. My tattoo was still healing on my shooting arm, so I feared that going in and shooting a bow would be tough.

“Just put an ice pack on it right now before we go, we still have about an hour and evaluation only lasts like fifteen minutes anyway, right?” Clarice told me, finishing her statement with a question to Haymitch, who nodded.

“Yes, I think your arm should be fine. Since it rightfully is your evaluation, you do have a choice of what exactly you want to do. But you have to make it good, because if you are ranked anywhere below a 6 out of 12 on the scoreboards, you will be automatically targeted first in the Games because everyone will think your easy prey.”

                I thought about what Haymitch said and found a loophole through what he stated. There was no possible way out of anyone targeting us.

“Haymitch…if we score higher than a 9 everyone will want to target us first because once the highest scorers are out of the way, the competition gets so much easier…same with us being given low scores. If we score low, people are going to come after us anyway. Not even including the fact everyone wants the chance to be able to kill Clarice and I as a package deal. Killing the two cousins who were  mysteriously picked together to fight in the arena. The two cousins who were made control of a brewing rebellion. Killing us would bring so much honor to whoever tribute does the job, not to mention their district and family. Snow will probably even award them greater than he normally does if they win the Games and kill us. We’re pretty much screwed left and right on this one.” I stated back, hoping he understood where I was coming from. Cinna certainly did, because when I finished speaking, he had a look on his face as if he wanted to counter my counter towards Haymitch, but got lost for words and shook his head, looking to the floor, hopeless for words.

“He is right, Haymitch. No matter what they do, they’re going to be targeted. The only source of luck is if the Career groups want to eliminate all competition first and then go after them to increase the intensity of the Games. Career groups vs. the faces of a “hoax rebellion”, is what some Capitol citizens are calling it now. They all think it’s an act to win sponsors for being “brave” to make such a lying, thundering statement just to win support. Although, if you two didn’t feel up to being the faces of a rebellion, which Haymitch, a group of others, and I are definitely in to do, than I guess we could call off the buzz and say it was just for popularity reasons. This would save you some neck in the Games, if some of the tributes were to buy it. They might have already caught on to the fact that you guys might say it’s not real to turn off some of the heat on yourselves.” Cinna said as I walked to the freezer to take out my ice patch. Setting the ice patch on my tattoo felt amazing, the burn from the shadowing of my tattoo disappeared almost immediately.

                Haymitch was all over the place with our comments. He agreed with every one of us, and just told us to do as well as we could in the evaluations in front of the Gamemakers and depending on our scores, we’ll make a decision. He asked me if I had any idea what I was going to do, and I had to think about it for a good few minutes until I came up with something good. I didn’t want to just shoot arrows at targets and get bulls eyes all the time, because it wouldn’t look as skillful as moving targets. Yes, I’m going to have a tribute trainer go in with me and throw targets in the air and snipe them down with a bow. It would show accuracy, motivation, skill, and maybe even aggression. I’ll even try to land a ‘2 birds with 1 stone’ act, only it would be called ‘2 targets with 1 arrow’. After sharing my idea to Haymitch, he agreed it would definitely be better than just simply shooting arrows at targets. He even suggested shooting an arrow past the head Gamemakers face, but we all knew that was too much.

                It was time to go. Clarice had decided she was going to just simply throw knives at the targets, since copying me wouldn’t really have much of an effect on her score. It would also give hints to the Gamemakers that we were working together, or discussing what we were going to do after I already stated we “could kill one another” if we had to in the Games. We can’t show we’re working together until we get into the Games, because as far as Snow and the Gamemakers are concerned, we are pretty much untouchable.

                It was nine o’clock and evaluation was ready to begin. The higher districts went first, naturally. All the tributes in the Career groups came out of the training arena with smiles on their faces, or gave thumbs up to the other members of their Career group. Career group 1 never gave any sort of emotion to Career group 2. Keaton made sure of that. He told his group that if they ever spoke to anyone from Career group 2, they would be his number one target in the arena. He focused this statement specifically on Piper, since her district partner was Griffin, who was in Career group 2.

                When the boy from District 6 came out, he had what looked like blood all over his hands. Surely it was just red paint, because they did provide that in the training arena for evaluation if someone wanted to show off their camouflaging skills for evaluation. People were known to get pretty high scores based off of that, but by the look on the kids face, something was wrong.

“I don’t think his evaluation went exactly as planned.” Clarice said quietly as he walked by, staring at him without making it obvious.

                I laughed, “That, or maybe it went too good that he was so amazed with himself.”

                Districts 9, 10, and 11 went and finally it was our turn. Clarice went first, and I sat by myself for fifteen minutes. I went over to the closed door to try and hear something going on, but all I could hear was her saying, “Clarice Dacanay. District 12.” Obviously formally introducing herself, making it known who she was. But the Gamemakers knew exactly who she was, Snow made sure of that.

                I could then hear her throwing knives at targets, and heard a loud piercing sound of metal against metal. What was she doing?

                When I heard a small bell go off, I knew her evaluation was over and I quickly ran over to my spot on the bench where we all sat before being called into the training arena just in case Peacekeepers at the door saw me listening in, which is against the rules. Surely enough, when the doors were open, Clarice was escorted out by two Peacekeepers and then said, “Last tribute, they’re ready for you.”

                Clarice walked past me and gave me a smile and thumbs up, hinting that her evaluation must have been good. When I walked in, they weren’t done cleaning the place up from her evaluation. I saw that every target she threw a knife at, was directly in the middle of the target. Bullseye every time. The loud piercing sound of metal against metal was revealed as I saw Clarice ended up throwing a knife into another knife that was already in the center of a target, getting a double bullseye by throwing the knife perfectly into the end of the first knifes handle, so one was sticking out of the other. How could I top that? That was perfect.

                I walked over to the trainer inside who was there for tribute support, and told him what my plan was. He nodded and walked into a back room where he came out with ten sacks of flour, with targets printed onto them. Except, the targets weren’t red circles with a giant red dot in the middle. It was the Capitol Seal, since these flour bags were property of the Capitol.

                Perfect. I laughed to myself because the Gamemakers were probably thinking the same thing as me, making connections to my tattoo and then what I was about to do, which was shoot arrows right through the Capitol Seal. It was ballsy to do, but how could I have known the flour packs were going to have Capitol Seals as the targets? Maybe they weren’t really intentionally supposed to be the targets, but every time the trainer threw the bags of flour up left and right, up and down, criss crossed, I shot my arrows directly into the middle of the Capitol Seals. Instead of hitting two targets with one arrow, since that was relatively similar to what Clarice did with her knives, I lined up a shot perfectly so when I released my arrow, it struck through the flour bag with the Capitol Seal on it, and flew right into the center of an actual target, landing a bullseye. That will have to do for now.

                The trainer gave me an odd look of acceptance of my performance, and slightly laughed because he knew exactly what I was thinking the whole time when I shot the flour bags, making the connection with me being the face of the “hoax” rebellion, which was in fact very real, because I did want to take down the Capitol any way I could, and shooting arrows into a Capitol Seal many times, ending my performance by shuttling one of the flour bags into a bullseye on an actual target. The Gamemakers said nothing to me, as I didn’t to them, and watched me as I shook hands with the trainer for helping me out in my performance and then saw me being escorted out by the Peacekeepers.

                When I got back to the penthouse, everyone asked Clarice and I what had happened. Clarice explained how she just threw her knives as she would in any sort of training day or back at home in District 12 in our own personal training arena. Then she added her twist by nailing another knife with the last knife she had. Everyone applauded her and said it was exceptional. When it was my turn, I noted to everyone how the flour bags had Capitol Seals on them, which made everyone laugh because of the irony. I then told them about how I nailed one of the flour bags into a target with an arrow, which they found extraordinary. We succeeded with our evaluations farther than expected.

                When an hour went by and the Gamemakers were done scoring us on a scale of 1 to 12, we turned on the TV and switched the channel to the Capitol station, where the Capitol Seal was spinning around and around on a black screen, keeping everyone anxiously waiting for their results. When the Capitol anthem played, the program began with Caesar’s voice broadcasting live, welcoming everyone to the final event before the 74^th Annual Hunger Games began.

“Welcome, everyone! Tributes, Districts, and Citizens of the Capitol, we are gathered this hour to be revealed to us the scores of the 24 tributes from Districts 1-12 on their performance in front of the Gamemakers only hours ago! Let’s start off with District 1, as usual.” Caesar said, his cobalt blue hair and eye shadow glowing in the camera. I always found it weird how the “style” in the Capitol for girls and guys were the same. Guys wear makeup, and obviously so do girls. It’s just unnatural.

“…Keaton from District 1 lands  a score of… 10! Congratulations! Next up we have Kadence from District 1 landing a score of… 9! Congratulations to the both of you with very high scores! Next we have District 2 starting with Grayson with a score of… 8! Very nice! Runner up is Harper with a score of… 9!”

                Okay, so the first Career group got very high scores. Grayson being the lowest, which was weird, but I guess there wasn’t really much you could do with a long axe besides chop things up, which anyone could do. Maybe he just didn’t feel the need to show off all his skill, maybe it was just part of a bigger plan he had for himself. Who knows.

                Caesar continued, “Next we have District 3 starting off with Ashton, with a score of… 10! Following Ashton we have Cecilia with a score of… 8! Congratulations to both of you! Next up from District 4 we have Blaine, with a score of… 11! Wow, very good! Next we have Sierra with a score of… 9!”

                Blaine, getting an 11? I guess the odds were in his favor anyway, he was the biggest muscle wise out of all of us. The Gamemakers probably took his strength as his weapon, since he was pretty much good with every weapon probably. Caesar continued through Districts 5 and 6. Gunner landed a 8, not too bad. I thought he would get at least a 9 though. The 12 year old girl who was district partners with Gunner got a 6, naturally, since it was obvious she wasn’t going to get that high of a score. The boy from District 6 got a 3…that, I don’t understand. Haymitch said he would explain after. Something bad obviously went on in that room. The boy was 14 years old, so I figured that maybe he had a good shot at staying alive for some time in the Games, but with this score, he was lucky if he made it through the first hour. Next up was Griffin and Piper, who both landed 10’s. Then it was District 12’s turn after the rest of the District names were announced. Peyton got a 7.

                We were all silent and waited for Caesar to flip the page in his scoring packet. He read the scores and stumbled for a moment, and then said out loud. “From District 12, Kade, landing a score of… 11! Congratulations! Next we have Clarice from District 12, finishing up with a score of… 11 as well! Congratulations to both of you, and the rest of the tributes for their participation these last few days! Good luck in the Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor! Goodnight!”

                The TV immediately turned off and Clarice and I both looked at each other and congratulated one another. Everyone else in the room, Haymitch, Effie, Cinna, Fulvia, Cressida, and Harley all congratulated us and after we toasted to good scores, Haymitch spoke.

“Let’s just hope those scores weren’t on purpose…scores like that, both tributes getting 11’s, is not very common, actually it has never happened in many years, besides 1 year. I think it was the 35^th annual Hunger Games, where both tributes got 12’s. But they were Careers from District 1.”

                Clarice and I nodded. We didn’t care whether or not it was on purpose, we both felt good with how trained and ready we were for the Games. Then we asked Haymitch what happened to the boy from District 6, and what he said shocked us to where we were left speechless.

“He apparently took a knife, and cut his forearm and with the blood, painted your tattoo on one of the walls. The rules of the Capitol is that Gamemakers and trainers are not allowed to interrupt with the evaluation acts, but they really did a number on the boy from District 6, who pretty much threw his life to the Gamemakers by doing this. I guess our message of rebellion through my tattoo was spreading fast like wildfire, to the point where some of the tributes were ready to die for us to continue on, and take down the Capitol as much as we could. And importantly, open up a doorway to victory in the Games, which were approaching in less than 12 hours.

“The odds are nowhere in his favor. He did you a favor, and is definitely going to die for it whether or not by the hands of the Gamemakers through their wicked tricks in the Games, or by a tribute. That boy has no chance of survival.” Haymitch said, getting up off the couch and pouring more whiskey into his glass. He gulped it all down with one swig, cleared his throat, and took a deep breath. Effie and Cinna left the room after this, and noted to us before they left that Haymitch always gets extremely intoxicated the night before the Games every year. It was his way of poorly coping with the events that he went through with his Games. After being noted of that information, Clarice and I left the kitchen and left Haymitch and his bottle of whiskey alone to be with each other for the night. Clarice and I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch by ourselves, discussing plans for tomorrow.

“We’re not running to the Cornucopia. We have to survive this, and by going directly into that blood bath is like throwing a bloody body in the middle of a shark tank. We would have no chance of getting out of there in one piece.” I said, and Clarice agreed for the most part.

“But we need weapons, Kade. I know Haymitch said not to go, but what if we can get them and get out alive and untouched…”

                I shook my head, “If you even have to say ‘what if’ there is no chance we can. We can’t base our decisions on ‘what if’s. There are more important things than victory and our lives on the line right now. You heard what that boy from District 6 did; he could have bled to death in there if he didn’t finish his painting with his own blood in time. He was already willing to die before even entering the Games for us, for our cause…for our rebellion that we started. Not him, not our family, not Panem. Us. I know it was unknowingly, but we have to take responsibility of our actions. And if we called a hoax on our rebellion, the Capitol wouldn’t care. They would still find a way to get payback against us for sparking an idea of a rebellion.”

                Clarice sat there in silence and thought to herself. “You’re faster than I am…” And I cut her off, giving her the same speech. Running into the center of the arena was for idiots and Careers to do. I also noted to her that if we’re not the center of attention in the blood bath of the Cornucopia, than maybe some of the Careers will kill each other off for us. But if we’re there, everyone is going to focus on killing us; and we certainly can’t let that happen. No matter what happens.

“How confident are you on making snares and traps and what not?” I asked Clarice.

“I can definitely do a good enough one to get something out of it. Fires are easy to us now anyway, so we don’t have to worry about that. But we need to make a rule…fires are only good in the daylight. We can’t risk doing one in the dark when anyone in the arena could see us. While we were practicing with the fire in the training arena, I overheard one of the trainers telling the girl from District 11 that there is a certain sort of bark in the arena that the Gamemakers made so smoke doesn’t appear when the fire is burning. It’s apparently really rare to find, but I know the description.”

                She told me how this rare wood had a dark grey tint of color to it, and had large black spots all over it. She also said that she was close to finding out where it could be, but the trainer took her somewhere else to tell her more specifics since he saw Clarice snooping in on their conversation.

“Well at least you got that down…I’m going to want one knife of yours just in case I need to protect myself in close combat. That alright with you?” I asked her, and she nodded and had no problem with that. 

“How am I going to get a knife when were not even rushing into the Cornucopia for weapons?” She teased, and I shook my head.

“Stop, we’re not going to do that. We’ll have to trap and kill whoever has your knives. We’ll have to somehow watch which Career or tribute picks up the knife packs. Haymitch says there’s usually two packs of knives, so the odds with that is somewhat in our favor. Especially if both of us could have one.”

                After spending another hour discussing tactics and plans for the Games, we said our good bye’s until seeing each other in the arena since we were to be taken down to the Capitol aircrafts at separate times. Clarice was to go at 8 in the morning, and I was to go at 8:30 in the morning.

                I walked into my room and shut the door, took a shower, and set my alarm for 8:15. When I shut my eyes, morning came fast and I heard the sound of the alarm, seeing President Snow’s face. He muttered the woods, “May the odds be ever in your favor” through the hologram picture of him and I took the alarm clock and threw it against the wall, breaking it into pieces since I won’t be returning to this room ever again.

                I walked outside the room and into the kitchen where I found the only person standing there was Haymitch, who looked at me and said simply two words that made my heart speed increase a rapid amount.

“It’s time.”

 

 

Chapter 10:

                Blood was already rushing through me as I walked to the penthouse door with Haymitch, who placed one of his hands on my shoulder, walking me to the aircraft shuttle. Images and flashbacks from previous Hunger Games began to play out of order in my head as my brain was trying to wrap around the series of events I was about to put it through. If my brain were to go blank right now, I would not be able to survive one day in the Games. I needed to focus, and be prepared. Within the next hour and a half, I would be standing on that pedestal that a glass tube will rise me up to from below the ground, where the bunker for the tribute and mentor meet before going into the Games, for final prep talk and goodbyes. Only, I was trying to convince myself that this wouldn’t be the final goodbyes I say to Haymitch, and I pictured myself wining the Games, Clarice by my side, somehow surviving the Games and meeting up with our friends and family again, living in the Victory Village in District 12, where all the victors that live in District 12 wind up after the Games to live in huge houses with fancy furniture and years supplies of food and water, where the shower water never runs cold…ever. Thinking about all of that made me motivated, but also made me upset because that was only what I deeply wanted inside to happen, a small fantasy to get me through these next terrifying days in my life where I would be forced to compete in an arena with 23 other tributes, including my own cousin, who was no doubt having the same sort of fantasy like images in her head. I’m sure everyone was, but I was craving it. I just wanted these Games to be over and done with, and most importantly, for the Capitol to be over and done with, and in order to do that, I would have to die. That’s when I remembered that in reality, only one person could survive the Games, and if it came down to Clarice and I, and there was no plan for us both to survive, I would be the one to die so she could live on and continue the rebellion. I trust her with that mission, that very important mission that everyone in Panem will have a role to play in, whether or not it’s fighting and surviving, fighting and dying, or just dying; because if this was going to happen after the Games, a lot of people are going to die. But why am I thinking this far ahead? I need to focus.

“How are you feeling?” Haymitch asked me, as we approach the Capitol aircraft on top of the Tribute Penthouse building. Boy, if only he could hear everything I just said to myself while we were riding up the elevators to the surface of the building.

“Trying to get a focused state of mind.” I simply said, almost at the Capitol aircraft. When we approached it, Haymitch had to get onto the second helicopter that was so small compared to the Capitol aircraft, that it was hiding behind it. All mentors are supposed to travel to the bunker below the arena without their tributes so two of the Gamemakers on the aircraft could tell us the basic rules one more time and give us our tracking shots so when we die, a canon can fire in the arena and the whole arena, and the people watching will know that I am truly dead if it came down to that conclusion.

“I’ll see you in the bunker.” Haymitch said, walking in front of the aircraft over to the helicopter. There turned out to be several helicopters, one for two mentors. When I walked into the aircraft, I saw that I was “lucky” enough to get Keaton, Grayson, Gunner, Peyton, Kadence, Griffin, and Sierra on my aircraft. Everyone else I didn’t know, simply because they were younger and weren’t as important. When I sat down, I got glares from Keaton and Kadence, and a few from Griffin. Everyone else looked forward or were secretly having a war in their heads with themselves and their minds, trying to contain their sanity as the aircraft door shut closed and one of the Gamemakers were coming down my row of seats, another down the other side of seats, injecting trackers into our arms. It looked painful because the needle was so large and thick, but it was quicker than a normal shot. Minutes later I found out the needle was so thick because the needle was the tracker. Great, how is this going to affect my shooting arm? I guess sooner or later I’ll find out.

“Give me your arm.” The woman said in an angry tone, while instead of me giving her my arm, she just reached down and grabbed it, injected the needle tracker into my arm, and set it down. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought, and eventually the pain went away, I could move my arm any direction and wouldn’t feel a thing. That’s one good thing, I can shoot fine. Some sort of weird relief goes through me since I know now I can kill all of these kids without any complications in my arms. Sadistic thoughts began to fly around in my head as I looked at each tribute, imagining in gruesome ways where my arrow would find contact with their skins. Keaton’s was the worst image, me sinking an arrow into his mouth, so his cocky self couldn’t speak anymore. I stopped myself from thinking this way, because I started to feel like one of them…one of the Careers. And that wasn’t my game. My game was to survive, adapt, and kill if needed. I planned on letting the Careers take all responsibility for killing for me, and allowed myself to wait until the right moment where I could kill all of them myself, or whoever else was standing. And then it would be my turn to die, only Clarice would have to do it…

“Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” The pilot said as we then gained air space and flew towards the arena. No one spoke in the aircraft, not even Keaton or Kadence. They usually were the ones to mouth off to everyone and brag about how sadistically they’re going to kill whoever they’re talking to, but looks like fear got its clutch around their throats now as well. I could see Keaton staring into one spot, a droplet of sweat running down his forehead. Kadence was shaking, almost uncontrollably. Being so tough and mighty has its limits, I guess.

                A TV screen appeared in the middle of the walkaway separating my row of seats from Keaton’s row of seats, and the Hunger Games from last year was played throughout the whole flight. When it ended, we landed and were escorted out to our mentors, who were already waiting in line for us. No one spoke. Everyone had grim looks on their faces, because they knew that this was the end of the trail between tribute and mentor, and that it was all up to the tribute to decide his or her fate in the arena. The only thing our mentors could do for us now were to get us sponsors, and Haymitch knows how to convince people so I’m sure I’ll be covered with that. I hope.

“We’re in bunker 6, Clarice is in bunker 12, so you’ll be 6 pedestals away from each other.” Haymitch said, leading me into our bunker door. We took the elevator down and then it made a swift left turn and we were going sideways now, my guess is into the actual bunker room. When we walked into the bunker room, I was given my tribute jacket, bandana, dark green army like pants, minus the camouflage to it, and black men’s combat boots. I went into the bathroom and changed. I put an elastic like long sleeve shirt on underneath my jacket, which was made from a umbrella like material. It was black with two red stripes going down the sleeves, had a zipper, and many pockets. I slipped on my dark green pants and put on my black boots, which I tucked my pants into like you’re supposed to. I tightened my boots and then looked up into the mirror. I placed the bandana on my head, tied it in the back, and noticed the number 12 was sewed into the bandana in the middle of my forehead, with a red circle going around it. I tied the bandana tight enough so not even a strong gust of wind could blow it off. These clothes were the only source of warmth that the Capitol is going to give the tributes. Clarice was probably getting her tribute uniform on now, tying her hair in a ponytail with the tribute ribbon, having the number 12 sewed on the two tails of the ribbon, in a silver color just like my bandana had, with two small red circles going around it. I went to the bathroom for the last time, tried forcing everything out so I could go for a long time without having to go again, and walked into the bunker room again to see Haymitch sitting at the steel table that was cemented to the steel floor. As a matter of fact, the whole room was made of steel. After noticing that observation is when the countdown began. If the tributes were not loaded into the glass tube that sends us up into the arena, our entire bunker would burst into flames. Haymitch and I had 60 seconds left together until it was Games time.

                He walked over to me with the most serious look on his face, to the point where he actually looked mad. He placed both hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

“You’re ready. You’re prepared. You’re trained. You have a trusted ally. You’re going to be fine. You need to focus and forget everything that you’ve seen and done throughout your whole life right now. You need to sickly dedicate your life and soul to the Games right now, and to protecting your cousin.”

                The woman announcer shouted that there was 40 seconds remaining.

“Okay.” I said to Haymitch, not being able to say anything else back to him. He didn’t care, he understood. He continued.

“Do not, and I repeat, do not go in for the bow and the knives. Find shelter, wherever that may be, find water, and find a source of food. Do not trust eating the plants, they are all most likely poisonous. And do not step off that pedestal early, or they’ll blow you sky high. Whatever you see when you are loaded into the arena, do not let it startle you. Focus.” Haymitch said, almost shaking me, causing me to shake even more than I already was. I felt numb and sick, like I was going to throw up. Then, the water works came out of my mouth and I threw up nothing. There was 20 seconds left. Haymitch patted my back and lead me to the glass tube, give me a firm grip on my shoulder with his hand, smiled, which if it wasn’t Haymitch would be extremely creepy, and pretty much forced me to stand in the glass tube. It shut around me when it sensed my presence. I wonder how Clarice was doing…

                She was saying good bye to Cinna and walked into the tube until something happened when the tune immediately shut. Three Peacekeepers walked into the room and Cinna didn’t even acknowledge them, but continued to stare at Clarice and give her a small smile. He next muttered the words, “Have faith.” and the next thing that happened caused Clarice to scream. They were holding down Cinna and beating him to death, causing blood to splatter all over the steel floor and walls. Clarice screamed her loudest, but the glass tube held in every ounce of sound she made. While Cinna was leaning against the steel table while bleeding out of his mouth, a Peacekeeper shot Cinna in the temple and blood splattered all over Clarice’s glass tube. She went into a state of shock and then cried. That’s when the glass tube started moving upward into the arena. When she had almost a little to no view of the bunker, she felt heat and saw flashes of orange and red light. They lit the entire bunker on fire, while Cinna’s lifeless body was laying down on the floor, bleeding nonstop.

                The glass tube began to emit a light from above and the arena of the 74^th Hunger Games was just above her. She clenched onto her jacket where her heart was, and almost lost feeling in her legs.

“I have to be strong…” She said to herself, taking in a deep breath trying to block out the images of Cinna’s gruesome death. She began to get an uncontrollable amount of rage flowing within her, taking over her mind and soul. That’s when the glass tube was fully above ground, and she looked around at the arena, which was surrounded by forest. The only open field that there was which was visible to everyone right now was the field that they were standing in on the pedestal, and around the Cornucopia. She stood there, trying to find me. When she made eye contact with me, she looked away and looked straight forward at the holographic clock counting down. I looked at her and tried to get her attention, but only saw glances from frightened tributes all around the Cornucopia. And that’s when I saw it, my bow and arrows and Clarice’s knives.

No…we have to run away from the Cornucopia and find shelter. I noticed the arsenal of all the weapons, some that were never even in the training arena, and the rest all looked familiar. None of the Career tributes looked happy anymore, but either concentrated or scared. Blaine looked furious, ready to charge like a rhino to the Cornucopia, ready to kill anyone in his wake. I made eye contact with Clarice again and mouthed, “Forest.” Meaning to run to the forest when the timer runs out and the canon starting the Games went off. She shook her head. S**t. She was going to run for the weapons. Not only that, but something was wrong with her. Terribly wrong. She looked away and when she did, is when it happened. The boy from District 6, standing on the pedestal a few down from Keaton, which was diagonally across from me, exploded into pieces after his pedestal exploded. This wasn’t the Gamemakers doing. This was the Capitol’s doing. Snow’s doing. For painting my tattoo in the training arena at evaluation. Immediately after his death, the countdown began. 30…29…28…27…26…25…24…23…22…21…20…19…18…17… Everyone saw the holographic clock counting down and began to move restlessly on their pedestals. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…0. Cannon fire.

 

Chapter 11:

                I stepped off the pedestal immediately after hearing the canon fire ignite the start of the Games and wished for a second that I would see Clarice running towards the forest. But she wasn’t. She was running right towards the knives, just as I was running right towards the bow, Keaton towards the long sword, Kadence towards deadly spiked mace, Grayson towards the long axe, Harper towards the dart pole, and Piper towards the axes. Then I saw Ashton running towards the tridents, Cecilia running towards the same set of axes that Piper was running towards, Blaine running towards the big war hammers, pushing the smaller kids out of his way, one of them hit the ground so hard their necks snapped, causing a cannon fire to go off. Two kids already dead, and no one has reached the Cornucopia yet. I looked a little past Blaine and saw Sierra running towards the short swords, and lastly saw Griffin running towards the spears.

                Keaton, Piper, Cecilia, Clarice, Blaine, and I were the first people to reach the Cornucopia. I dove forward into the crate that the bow and arrows were resting on, grabbed the bow, and swung the sheath of arrows over my back, placing the strap across my body so it wouldn’t easily slip off. By the time I got up, a boy from District 8 was charging towards me, looking as if he was hoping to get the bow first. He jumped towards me, I moved out of the way and he slammed against the ground, no injures being given to him. It wasn’t my time to kill yet, I had to protect Clarice.

                As soon as those thoughts processed through my mind, I looked over at Clarice to see she was quickly trying to put what seemed to be a bulletproof vest onto herself, which was loaded everywhere with different sized knives and even some darts. She looked at me and saw that I had found the bow, and noticed that every Career including Griffin and Piper got to their weapons as well. Piper was rolling around on the ground with Cecilia on top of her, clawing at each other, biting each other, punching and kicking each other, fighting for the axes that Cecilia desperately wanted and needed. Piper got up and began to run towards the forest, but Cecilia caught hold of her leg and pulled her backwards, causing Piper to slam her chin into the ground and be dragged back towards Cecilia. No doubt her ethnicity of being black gave her more of an advantage with strength. For some reason, something made me do it. Something made me draw an arrow, load it, and shoot it at Cecilia’s back, which killed her instantly, causing a cannon fire to go off. Three dead. Piper looked up to see her rescuer, stared at me, and then turned around and ran towards her Career group.

                Keaton had just finished killing the boy from District 8 that charged at me, sending off another cannon blast. Four dead. Kadence threw her spiked mace at the girl from District 8, which landed deeply into her skull. Cannon blast. Five dead. Clarice threw a knife at Kadence when she had her back turned, but somehow turned around and caught the knife in her hand, and smiled grimly back at Clarice, who looked at me and rushed over to me. That’s when I was knocked to the ground by Grayson. He raised his long axe and swung down at me, but watched himself miss as I rolled to the right, out of his long axe’s direction. I rolled far enough to where I could get a clear shot, but before I could do anything, a spear came flying my direction and soared right past me, finding a home in Grayson’s chest. Cannon blast. Six dead. I didn’t bother looking around, because knives, swords, blood, screams, and people were all soaring past me in every direction. I grabbed Clarice’s hand, we grabbed a pack that was lying near us on the ground, and made our way towards the woods. As I was running I kept having playbacks of how I killed Cecilia, and saved Piper. It wasn’t that I wanted to do it, it was just a weird impulse that I felt I had to do it. It wasn’t time to think about it now, we had to get somewhere safe in the forest, or the cannon blasts will sound, encoring mine and Clarice’s deaths if we didn’t get away from the Cornucopia soon. We didn’t look back to see who was matched with who, who was still alive, who was dead. We ran and ran, knowing that our parents were watching us. Knowing that the world was watching us. Knowing that Snow was watching us.

                Clarice and I now ran in a line into the forest, and as soon as we made it fully inside the green filled world, a blast of fire soared our way, bent on making its home our faces. I pushed Clarice out of its way and fell to the ground as fast as I could. The Gamemakers were not happy we survived the Cornucopia blood bath. No wait, Gamemakers can’t specifically target a tribute. It was under the orders of President Snow that the fire bolt was sent to kill us.

“You’re going to have to try harder than that!” I yelled up at the trees, knowing that the Gamemakers and all of Panem could hear my yells towards Snow. That’s when I rolled up my sleeve to reveal the new addition to my tattoo. I could imagine the reactions of everyone watching the Games, seeing the Capitol Seal being split apart by the lightning bolt crack, it was almost glorifying.

                I held my sleeve up for just the amount of time I needed for Snow to be able to get a close look at it. After seeing this, he would know that I knew he sent the firebolt at Clarice and I. One more outbreak from him against us in the Games, and it would be obvious the Gamemakers are rigging the Games to Clarice and I die.

                I rolled my sleeve down, loaded by bow, and continued to run with Clarice at my side. We were panting so much from running that after about fifteen more minutes of sprinting deeper into the woods we found some sort of haven to stay in for the first night in the Games. It consisted of huge, think plants surrounding a fairly large tree where we would lean against to sleep. By sitting in the right spot, the plants shadowed us so well, no one walking anywhere close to us would see us unless they moved the plants out of the way.

 We were far away from the Cornucopia, the sounds of the clashing metal from the weapons and screams from the dying tributes were muffled so low we could barely make out what was going on. I still had my bow loaded, just in case we had an unfriendly visitor that could have followed us into the woods close behind. Clarice had a medium sized deadly looking knife held tightly in her right hand, scanning the forest floor for intruders.

“Do you think we should move further into the woods or do you think we’ll be fine here?” I asked her, and she responded with, “We should be okay, if we feel the need to move before nightfall, we will.”

                Clarice opened the little canvas pack that we picked up while running towards the forest and opened its contents. A silver can of matches, spices, butter, blade sharpener, and the most glorious gift of all. A water bottle.

“Oh my God!” Clarice screeched, opening the cap and taking a small gulp of it, then handing it over to me. I took only a few sips, giving another gulp to Clarice. She was the one that needed to stay alive, not me. We needed to conserve our water anyway, so we put it back inside the canvas pack and sat against the tree, safely covered from the big think plants around us. I told Clarice to get some rest, and that I would keep watch. She didn’t hesitate. As soon as she closed her eyes, I grabbed my bow and loaded an arrow into it, and sat down, the weapon not leaving my grip.

                We ended up staying put when nightfall came, which pretty much was whenever the Gamemakers pleased. All they had to do was press a button in the shape of a moon and the arena went pitch black. The muffled screams and metal against metal sounds died down an hour before nightfall, so we anticipated seeing who was killed during the blood bath at the Cornucopia. Seeing what our actual competition is. We know so far that six tributes were killed, but from the screams and yelling we heard while running further into the forest, a few more were probably killed.

                The anthem that the Gamemakers play before they show the fallen tributes plays, and that’s when we see the faces, one by one, of the dead tributes, their district numbers underneath the picture of their faces. We saw Grayson’s picture, followed by Cecilia, than the 12 year old girl,  and both kids from District 6, 8, 9, and 11. That means 12 tributes are now dead, and 12 still remain alive. I wasn’t expecting anything more, or anything less. Perfect. My guess is that the two Career groups will either do one of the three following ideas: fight only each other until one group is still standing, go after Gunner and Peyton, or specifically target Clarice and I.

“The odds aren’t exactly in our favor.” I said to myself, and then pulled the sheath of arrows off of my shoulders and counted how many arrows I had left. There were 9 left total. I would go back and retrieve the 10^th from Cecilia’s body, but the Capitol already made their rounds of getting the dead tributes out of the arena when everyone cleared the Cornucopia, grabbing all the weapons and materials that they needed. Whatever was left behind the Capitol took with them back to the city so we couldn’t use it again. They left the Cornucopia in place though, thinking it could possibly become a temporary hide out for any of us tributes. It would be a pretty bad one though, considering its location: the middle of an open field where everyone and everything can see you.

                Clarice slept through the anthem of the Fallen and I decided to let her sleep the night off. She woke up around 3 in the morning Games time, and told me to get some rest. I still haven’t let go of my bow, which was still loaded. I even slept with it in my hands, just in case I needed to wake up and shoot something or someone close by that poses as a threat to us. Clarice was well equipped with her vest of knives around her, which actually gives her some protection if she were to be stabbed.

                As the rest of the night lingered on while I was sleeping, when I woke up and it was broad daylight, I asked Clarice if anything else happened, regarding any more deaths or any messages from the Gamemakers or the Capitol. She said no, but she managed to capture some brunch. A squirrel.

“And how did you manage to do that?” I asked. She laughed, “Don’t be mad…but I took your bow while you were sleeping and went hunting. I shot it with an arrow. Don’t worry, I cleaned the blood and guts off with my tribute jacket.”

                I didn’t care. What she did wasn’t foolish, and it actually rewarded us with some food. Even though squirrel meat isn’t really flavorful, some of the spices that the Gamemakers placed in the canvas bag really gave it a good taste after we cooked it over a fire. I told her who died at the blood bath of the Cornucopia. She wasn’t surprised by any of the deaths, and was glad that Grayson and Cecilia were out of the way. She was confused as to why Piper just stared at me after I saved her from Cecilia, since she didn’t seem like the most sentimental type of girl. We dropped the conversation once the squirrel was done being eaten, and immediately put out the fire because we didn’t have the special wood that is smokeless while being burned. Besides, with the huge tree behind us, the smoke blended in with leaves so no one really caught onto where we were. More squirrels came near us though, and we decided that this place could maybe be our hide out for the entire Games. We came to the conclusion that it’d be better not to stay in the same spot and to move about a little, this way we could possibly find more tributes off guard, instead of them finding us off guard.

                We got up, packed our things, and moved. We decided we could burn the haven we had so no one else could use it, and maybe a tribute would see the ongoing smoke from the fire that we wouldn’t put out. This way if someone were to come this way, we would kill them from a distance, since we’d hide somewhere out of view and I could shoot them dead with an arrow or two if need be for a second one. Distance doesn’t matter to me, I can still shoot well yards away. The matches being best for this death trap, we took two of them and left one in the small silver tube they came in, and lit the matches on fire from using the bark against the match tip. We started by slowly burning the leaves and then the fire escalated and eventually the whole batch of plants was catching fire. We moved quickly throughout the forest and made refuge between two trees and a couple plants that would only hide us from someone looking far away. If someone were to walk two yards away from us at most, they would see us completely where as if we were in the haven still, no one would see us. After waiting a half hour, going onto 45 minutes, no one came.

“Well I guess that wasn’t unexpected. Most of the tributes that are still alive are smart, and they’re mostly all Careers. We could all be Careers I guess, from how much skill we have. The only difference is the Districts were from.” Clarice said, which was true. Now it was sort of like a battle between the Careers and the anti-Careers, being Clarice and I, Gunner, and Peyton. Griffin and Piper were automatically considered Careers now by default since they were hanging out with the Careers now. Or were they? I never saw what actually happened after we left, considering we were in the trees by then. Griffin and Piper could have ran off by themselves and deserted the Careers, only using them as a protective shield for the Cornucopia blood bath, ensuring their safety until after it was over. It would be a smart plan, but nonetheless, it could be entirely a made up scenario in my head. Odds are, they are still separated with their own Career groups.

                The fire was still burning, the smoke was still rising, and after waiting a final fifteen minutes, we got up and made our way west of the forest, hoping to find a water source. Unfortunately, that day, we found nothing. No more food, no water, no tributes, nothing. Clarice’s fatigue was really catching up with her, and she fell to the ground due to extreme exhaustion from walking and running so much after thinking we heard tributes behind us.

“C’mon Clarice, get up, please. We can rest soon, I promise. We need to find another hiding spot to spend the night.” I said, looking up at the trees. The trees!

                It was a perfect idea. We could rest in the trees just like this girl named Katniss Everdeen did before in one of the Hunger Games years ago, she found vines and tied herself to the trees and slept up there all night like a baby.

“Clarice do you remember what Katniss Everdeen did when she was looking for a place to rest? She found this willow like tree somewhere in the same arena that we’re in right now, and sliced down some think vines and tied herself to the tree. We can do that, the tree above us is perfect. It has two steady long, strong trunks coming out of the left and right side of the shaft of the tree. You could keep watch from the left, and I could keep watch from the right. Look!”

                I pointed up and lead her eyes to the next haven we found. She could imagine it, how perfect it would be, shielding us from any close combat that the forest floor would give us if a tribute were to come by during the night. The only tribute we would have to be cautious of is Harper, because she has the dart pole. That’s when I thought of another idea when she asked how we would avoid Harper’s darts.

“Well, that’s even if she comes this way. But either way, we need to be cautious, right? We can take more vines than we need and a bunch of branches with leaves on them, and sort of make a blanket of leaves. Then we can tie the blanket of leaves in front of us so one knot would be tied from the branch above us, and one knot would be tied on the branch we would be resting on. Get what I’m saying?”

                She nodded, and ran the plan through her head. The only problem we had was finding the willow like tree that contained these vines we needed to tie everything together. I tried remembering the Games when Katniss found them, and remembered that the tree had different colored leaves than the rest of the trees in the arena. The leaves were a very light green, almost yellow looking, while everything around it was green. Only one way to find it. I’d have to climb up the tree near us and look around the whole arena. The only problem with that, would be a tribute noticing me close by or from far away, but just in case, Clarice offered to keep guard with her knives. She loaded two in each hand and gave me the go to start climbing.  Once I did, I slipped a few times but eventually made my way up to the top of the tree and peaked half my body, up to my waist, out of the tree and gained my balance so I don’t fall out of the tree. I saw the river with water, about five miles away, and then looked to the east. Nothing. Looked behind us, nothing. One last direction would be north, and still there was nothing. Where was this tree? Did they get rid of it so no one would mimic Katniss Everdeen’s brilliant idea? Or did they camouflage it to match the rest of the trees so it would be harder to mimic Katniss’s plan? These questions, I would never know the answer to until I find the tree. It wasn’t even 2 o’clock yet, so we had plenty of time to search. I looked around one more time and saw a suspicious looking tree, that looked very different from all the other ones. It was in the middle of a very dark green meadow, and the leaves almost looked black. It was a mile walk away. If this was it, and the leaves were indeed black, it would be the best cover we could have for sleeping at night in the tree.

                I climbed down the tree and noted to Clarice what I had found. She agreed that it was worth the mile walk to find out, so we made marks in the trees to remember which way to walk back. Luckily there were so many trees, that they were almost in a straight line the whole walk. We marked every tree with a simple X, wanting to mark them with lightning bolts instead. But then it would be obvious it was us that made them, and people would wait anxiously for us to return back to whichever marking of ours they had found, waiting patiently to kill us. An X would help disguise our identity, and make it seem like anyone could of made it.

                We stopped walking after about half a mile and marked the half way mark with two X’s instead of one. I took out the water bottle, which was about ¾’s gone and gave most of it to Clarice’ who looked so beaten up from walking and dehydration.

“You need some too, not just me.” Clarice said, forcing the water bottle back into my hands. “I won’t drink anymore until I know you’ve had some, don’t be stupid. Just because I’m a girl and will complain more about how I’m feeling physically, doesn’t mean I’m gonna just quit you know!”

                I laughed which caused her to break a small smile, realizing how ridiculous she just sounded. We took fifteen more minutes of resting time and got up and continued our mile walk to the black tree. When we almost got there, we saw a raccoon past us, which I shot and killed and carried with us until we made it to our destination. The black tree, was indeed, black. The whole thing as a matter of fact, and we saw thick, dark vines hanging from the tree.

“Wow, I can’t believe we actually found it!” Clarice said, walking quickly over to the black tree and grabbing one of the vines. She took out a cutting knife from her knife vest and began chopping down some long lengths of vine. We had 10 long vines total, and by 4 o’clock, we made our way back to the tree where we were planning on resting for the night. The raccoon almost looked too delicious as my stomach began to growl ferociously, so we decided to stop and cook it really quick and eat. We carved all the fur off and cooked the meat over a fire, ate, and put the fire out and threw the excess parts of the raccoon into the forest floor. We made our way back to the tree by looking at the markings we left on each tree we had passed, and finally made it back to the tree. Only there was a surprise waiting for us. He must have followed us around the whole time, or found our markings on the trees. Now that I think of it, it was rather stupid of us to mark the trees, but we couldn’t think of any other way to do so. Luckily he hasn’t seen us yet, so I dropped the vines that I was carrying, quietly loaded my bow, and aimed the arrow directly at Gunner’s head.

 

Chapter 12:

                Do it. He’d kill you if he saw you were standing near his hide out. He would sink the arrow that you’re pointing at him right into your skull. It would bring him closer to winning the Games, and would also give him great honor in killing you and Clarice.

                All of these thoughts flew through my head and for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to let my arrow fly and make a new home into Gunner’s head. Clarice looked at me anxiously and was catching on that I was struggling to kill him. Something was telling me not to do it, and that maybe, just maybe he was the right ally for surviving further into the Games. Clarice wouldn’t go for this, mostly because I would be going back on what I said for not having any allies, and just having Clarice and I as a team. She took out a knife and winded her arm back and while she was in mid throw, I caught her arm and the momentum from the attempted throw knocked the knife right out of Clarice’s hand and landed on the forest floor; and because it was so quiet, Gunner’s head turned towards us and he raised his sword, calling out “Who’s out there?” sounding confident, yet very nervous.

                Without thinking, I raised by bow again, pulled back the drawstring tightly, and shot an arrow purposely past Gunner’s head, and saw the arrow tip sink into a tree that he was standing right next to. A warning shot. I wanted to make a small treaty with Gunner, because for some weird damn reason, I felt that he could help.

“Not so good now, are you Kade?” Gunner shouted into the forest, and saw as I showed myself from his blinded view of us. Clarice followed, two knives ready in her right hand, one in her left. No doubt if she threw them all at the same time, they would all find a spot in Gunner’s body. I told her to keep calm as we approached Gunner, having another arrow loaded and pointed directly at Gunner.

“You’re out numbered, Gunner. Give it up and let’s talk.” I said, walking slow towards the angered, nervous Gunner who couldn’t stand in one spot. His sword trembled in his hands knowing that if he were to advance forward, he would be taken down with my arrow and Clarice’s knives before he could take two advancing steps towards us.

“Talk about what? I’m not joining you’re rebellion! You’re going to cause the districts enough trouble as it is with your stupid tattoo and your defiance of the Capitol! I don’t need any of that blood on my hands!” Gunner shouted at us, looking left and right to find an escape route. But he knew perfectly well that I was a good shot, and he wouldn’t make it three steps in any direction he took. “The boy from District 6 who was blown to bits on his pedestal, his blood is on your hands! If it wasn’t for your defiance he wouldn’t have drawn your tattoo with his own blood and he wouldn’t be dead right now! He could’ve hand a fighting chance!”

                Gunner wouldn’t stop yelling. For someone acting so tough and skilled in the arena, Gunner was a little too emotional. I thought for sure I was going to have to kill him, but I was still hesitating. Either he knows something, or I’m just a coward. Something’s telling me that killing him would be a bad idea, whether he knows something or not is the case at all. It was just a guess.

“The Capitol killed the boy! Not Kade, you don’t see an arrow in the boy do you? We had no idea that he was going to do that! He saw the evil in the Capitol, and knew that fighting against the Capitol was the right choice! He died a hero, nothing less!” Clarice shouted at Gunner, which still didn’t give him a change of heart. The course of blood going through his veins and showing, identified his anger well. He was just a boy from District 5, trying to save his family and friends from the grieving they would do by his death. Trying to keep his district alive, and reward them with honor and feast. Which was understandable to say the least, but he could be a great ally against the Careers.

“Let’s talk Gunner, we have a proposition for you. No fighting, no killing. Just talking.” I said, lowering my bow and placing it on the ground, with my hands up. “I swear, the bow will stay here as long as you hear me out.”

                Clarice was hesitant about putting her knives down, and after I looked at her, she rolled her eyes and put the knives on the forest floor. Her knife vest still had many knives in it, waiting to be used, but she took it off as well and laid it against the knives that were already resting on the ground. We were completely unarmed.

“Your turn, Gunner.” Clarice said, hoping for a positive response from him. Any sudden movement of aggression or anger towards us, that arrow that’s loaded into my bow will surely find a spot in Gunner’s head if he were to try attacking us unarmed. That sort of act from him would show he’s untrustworthy and relentless.

“How can I trust you two?” Gunner said, more calmly.

                Well, you can’t. Just like we can’t really trust you, either. I wanted to say this to him badly, but it would only cause more unrest. So lied.

“You can trust us. Put the sword down and we don’t have to move any closer. We can just talk.” I said, still with my hands elevated in the air at my waist.

                Gunner studied Clarice and I a little further, waiting for that 100% assurance we weren’t pulling any s**t, and then sat his sword down onto the ground. “Fine...let’s talk.”

                Relieved, I put my hands down against my sides and began.

“There are two Career groups out there. They both already recruited two people, one for each of them. Griffin and Piper, the tributes from District 7. You’ve seen them fight, and know how deadly they are.”

                Gunner didn’t respond. He must have thought I was going to continue, which I did after noticing no sort of comment was going to come out of Gunner just yet, until he was fully convinced. I could see the sky already getting a tad darker. Looks like the Gamemakers knew what we were up to. Of course, we’re not breaking any rules. We’re just trying to form an alliance, just like the Career groups did. But since it was Clarice and I, I guess you could say they had a reason to be nervous about us having Gunner at our sides. He wasn’t a Career, that’s for sure. But he was still pretty useful.

“I saw and heard how good you are with a sword. And I saw your skills at the survival skills station. I’m sure you saw our skills as well. Being a trio alliance would benefit all of our chances in surviving a little further. Then, when the time comes, and most of the Career tributes are out of the way, we can all go our separate ways.” Part of this was a lie, because when the time came, Clarice and I wouldn’t separate. We would kill Gunner, before he had a shot at killing us. It was sadistic, to manipulate him like this. But we’re in the Games now, and nothing that we do in here changes us as people. Well, entirely. If we had to kill Gunner at the end of our alliance, I would feel shady, almost like a Career. But what needed to be done to protect Clarice and get her out of here alive needed to be done, whether it’s breaking promises and chasing lies.

“How can I trust you?” Gunner asked, reassuringly. “Everyone knows that you two are trying to get out of here alive so you can lead your rebellion against the Capitol, so what makes you wanting to have an alliance with someone good for anyone, when you need to live. When you need to win.”

                I couldn’t answer that question without lying. I thought of a way to try and avoid the question, but I had nothing. So, I spoke without thinking.

“We can’t win if someone already kills us, can we?” I said. Surely this was pouring in some pretty backstabbing thoughts into Gunner. At this moment, he was probably thinking that forming an alliance with us would benefit him, because he could kill us easily in our sleep. Well, he could try.

                Gunner chuckled to himself, which made my assumptions correct. He was thinking exactly what I had expected, and said, “Alright…alright. You won me over, District 12. What’s the game plan?” He bent down and picked up his all silver metal sword. I picked up my bow and Clarice picked up her knives, our eyes fixed on each other, trying to sense our automatic trust we have to have for each other now since we were a team. It was really a team of two, being me and Clarice, with just another extra, being Gunner. So really, the odds aren’t exactly in his favor if he were to betray us early. Then again, we were already going to betray him, so I guess that makes us equally bad.

“We gather food, and set up camp. Until we can trust you, you sleep on the floor. We get treetop.” I said, showing him the black vines. He rolled his eyes, huffed, and then agreed. He noted that we’re going to need food, and that he could get us a few squirrels with some traps he learned to do in the arena. I told Clarice to go with him, so she could keep an eye on him, making sure he doesn’t run away and try and make alliances with the Careers; and tell them where our hideout is.

“Why do I have to?”

                Clarice sounded annoyed, but I gave her a look that expressed, “Just do it.”

                She rolled her eyes again and walked with Gunner a few yards away from me. I took the black vines and began to tie them together.

                By the time Clarice and Gunner got back from hunting squirrels, I put together two blinds from the black vines and climbed up the tree to tie the blinds from the thick tree trunk above the trunk that I would be sitting on to rest, and after I was done doing my side, I climbed over to Clarice’s side and did the same. After eating the cooked squirrels over the fire we just put out since it was getting darker by the second thanks to the Gamemakers, I tested out the side I was sleeping on in the tree and sat on the trunk with the blind completely covering me into darkness from the black vines and leaves. Perfect.

“We’re all set. Gunner, here’s a few vines and leaves to make yourself some sort of pillow or bed.” I said, throwing down the vines and leaves as I jumped down from the tree. He caught it, said his thanks, and constructed a soft pillow to lay on. There wasn’t enough leaves left to cover him as a blanket, so he took a bunch of think bushes from around the area we were resting in and covered himself with that, pulling in his sword tighter to his body as he began drifting off to “sleep.” I don’t blame him for being so cautious, making an alliance with two rebellion leaders who actually need to survive the Games at any cost, whether or not it’s both of us or just one. The rebellion needs some sort of face, and Clarice and I were the faces that made up the entire thought of rebellion now. We were the leaders, and a rebellion can’t go on without the leaders. It makes me think what’s going on out in the real world right now while Clarice and I were in the Games. I was hoping to God that Snow wasn’t harming my family or friends due to my lack of understanding in how he ran his government. Or should I say, “government”. I wonder if Haymitch has approved so far of how well we were adapting to the arena. I knew he was probably very displeased with the events that happened at the Cornucopia, noting that we don’t listen very well. Indeed, we could have gotten killed by the Careers if we remained around the blood bath of the Cornucopia. But something happened with Clarice that must have caused her to react that way after being casted into the arena from the pedestal. When we climbed into our spots in the tree, I took the spot which was right below Gunner, wanting to keep a close eye on him just in case he tried being sneaky and running off into the woods while we were sleeping, or to see if he was going to attempt to kill us. Surely, he knew I was watching him. He was still wide awake, probably being consumed by millions of thoughts right now just as I was. No doubt Clarice was feeling the same way, and I realized I never got around to asking why Clarice was in such a state of shock after being lifted into the arena. Curiosity ran through me like a rage of fire in an old, dried forest, and I asked her what had happened. At first, she didn’t seem to want to talk about it. But she knew that it was only fair to me that I knew exactly what happened.

“Before I was lifted up into the arena, I was with Cinna. When I walked into the glass tube, and it shut tight, three Peacekeepers walked into the room and started beating Cinna to death. They shot him in the head and while I was being lifted, set the whole bunker on fire, burning his body to ashes slowly.” That’s when she started to cry. “And before all of this happened, he smiled and looked at me and told me to have faith, as if he knew he was going to die seconds after saying that.”

                Rage. Fire. Shock. Anger. Those are the four things running unstoppably through my veins right now, throughout my entire body. Filling my brains with images of Cinna’s death, what would have happened if I had been in the bunker, what I would of done and how I would have reacted. Then I imagined sinking an arrow right through Snow’s temple. Making sure he dies a gruesome death, just like Cinna. Peacekeepers are under the control of the Capitol, which is under control of President Snow. He ordered Cinna’s death, and knew that Clarice would try and fight like a wild animal in the Cornucopia blood bath if she was filled with such rage and emotion from Cinna’s death. And he was 100% accurate, because the both of us could have gotten killed. I almost did, twice. Snow was probably very disappointed the instant he saw Clarice and I run into the forest with our weapons. When he saw I killed Cecilia, and when Griffin killed Grayson before Grayson could chop me in half with his long axe. What a sight that would have been for Snow, he probably would toast my bloody death to all of the Gamemakers and the Capitol.

                I didn’t know how to respond, and I was left speechless. I think it was better not to respond, anyway. But then that’s when fear and anxiety ran through me like wildfire. Clarice just announced to the world what happened to Cinna, possibly revealing to the world what and who Snow really is. Of course, there is no evidence it actually was Snow, but at this moment he was probably contemplating how he is going to kill our family for this secret that was just revealed. I didn’t want to think about it any longer, hearing the screams and shouts that my family would make as Snow tortured them. It’s throwing me off my Games focus, and I need to snap back into a reality where I know that my life could be taken away from me at any moment, and then no one would be safe if I was dead and Clarice were gone too. The world would shatter even further into darkness if Snow wins this war against the Hunger Games and himself.

                After an hour went by of complete silence, muffles and groans from Gunner told me he was fast asleep and experiencing nightmares. I knew how he felt, of course. Nightmares nowadays aren’t anything special or unexpected. I couldn’t fall asleep, but when I did, I didn’t dream of anything. My mind was still wide awake and ready for an attack at any moment. Of course with the black vines and leaves, no one could possibly see us. After an hour went by of me constantly waking up and going back to sleep, I woke up because of heat and smoke rising into my nose. I opened my eyes quickly and saw nothing but fire. The forest around us was completely emblazed in an ongoing fire, so bright filled with orange, red, and yellow that it was almost beautiful, and mesmerizing, to the point where I just wanted to watch it. A spark flew down on me from above and I looked up. The tree we were resting in was on fire, and so was Clarice’s blind that was right in front of her. She was fast asleep and couldn’t feel or hear a thing.

“Clarice!” I screamed loudly, climbing over to her side and noticing that the fire was catching onto her feet. I shook her awake and she jumped instantaneously and screamed. Before I could catch her, she rolled out of the tree and slammed against the hard forest floor, rolling away from the tree, almost rolling into a pocket of fire. I jumped down, ignored my instant thought of grabbing my bow, and ran to her. She was in pain from the fall, but with the amount of adrenaline running through her, she was able to get up and I noticed that from rolling onto the forest floor after her falling out of the tree put the small fire out on her boots.

                When we turned around, Gunner was already awake and standing across from us, with my bow in his hands, my sheath of arrows across his shoulder, his sword in his sheath on his right side, and Clarice vest resting on his arms. “Let’s go!”

                Confused, I decided that the only plan we had was to trust Gunner and run with him through the forest that was now blazing rapidly with fire. It was an unnatural fire, because it was hotter and moved faster than normal fire. Gamemaker fire.

                Clarice, whose arm was across my back while I was supporting her up, ran just as fast with me behind Gunner. We jumped over falling trees that had given into the fire, ducked when a fireball was flying towards us, and heard the fireball slam against the forest floor, causing an explosion of fire and sparks, adding more fire to the forest floor that was already consumed by flame and ash.

                I looked behind me as I continued to run my hardest while supporting Clarice, I saw that the fire was not retreating, but following us. Gunner shouted to keep moving, and lead us into another direction to the right. The path he lead us into contained more fire, but by the expression and determination that he was portraying while leading us, he knew somewhere to go. Somewhere safe.

                A burning log fell right in front of Clarice and I just as Gunner was able to run fast enough and avoided it. When it fell, it created an eruption of sparks and blew Clarice and I to the ground. While I was laying on the forest floor, I looked up and saw another burning tree trunk was falling directly above us, about to crush and burn us any second.

“Get up!!!” I shouted to Clarice, who looked up and yelled. She rolled forward as I got up and moved closer towards the burning log that was already on the ground. She got up and we both jumped over the first log that fell, and heard the second crash against the arena floor, sending a large heat wave against our backs. Gunner wasn’t too far ahead, and I could see the glimmer off his sword and Clarice’s knives on her vest. We picked up the past a little since Clarice was forcing herself to run without any support from me, and caught up with Gunner, who was now only a few yards in front of us. I looked past him and saw an opening of the forest, and in front of him was the most magnificent thing that I had ever seen, due to my surroundings right now of fire and ash. The river, filled with fresh, drinkable water, was waiting for us to plunge our bodies into. Gunner through us our weapons as we got closer to him and we dove into the water, surfacing from the bottom of the river to the top, turning around to see the burning forest that the Gamemakers had failed to use against us to end our ongoing luck of life.

 

Chapter 13:

                Destruction. That’s all the Capitol brought everywhere it’s evil eye looked. We swam to the other side of the arena and sat on the rocky ground near the edge of the river bank. I wasn’t in the arena while staring at the fire now, I was somewhere else. Seeing white and stone buildings burning down to the ground, the Capitol on fire looked beautiful. I imagined this while my eyes were glued to the blazing fire destroying a quarter of the arena, burning everything in its path. I hoped for a second that maybe the fire would continue and eventually find more tributes to prey on, but almost instantaneously it went out. I owed Gunner; and the thought of having to betray his trust later on in the arena if we’re all still alive felt terrible. But it wasn’t for my own personal reasons, well maybe some of it was, but it was mostly because Clarice had to survive and get out of the arena and fight the rebellion against the Capitol. If we were both to die in the Games, Haymitch would probably take the reigns as leader of the rebellion, but Clarice and I would always be the face of it, which scared me. My family and friends would forever pay for it if the rebellion fails. If we die in the arena, they won’t have anyone to protect them which just makes it worse for me to comprehend all of this. There was no way I was going to let Snow touch my family, or any of my friends for that matter. And their families, and their friends, and so on.

                Clarice sat down and untied her left boot and rolled up her pants, which revealed a very large black, blue, and purple bruise on her leg. It was broken. I walked over to her and lifted up her leg and she closed her eyes and bit her lip in pain. S**t. Walking on this leg wasn’t going to do anything for us, and on top of it, I could tell that Gunner was freaking out about it.

“Get a grip and man up Gunner.” I said, then looking up into the arena. “Haymitch, we need your help. Please. Help us.”

                I didn’t know what else to do. Do we just wait to see if Haymitch could send us anything useful? Or do we move on? There was no way we would make it far with Clarice’s broken leg, which seemed to get worse by the hour. I filled up our water bottle at least twice within the hour that we waited, and we decided to move further into the forest, just in case a Career group came out of the forest across from us which was highly unlikely because it was burnt and smoking, but we didn’t want to take our chances. They could come out from the side of the forest opening where we were at anytime, anywhere on the left or right of us, since the river bank didn’t just begin and end where we were.

“C’mon, we have to move a few feet deeper into the arena, we can’t sit here and be open targets like this. Especially when Harper and Griffin are still alive.” I told Clarice, bending down to her side and putting her arm around my neck, helping her up. We walked slowly into the forest, Gunner still having said nothing. I forgot to thank him.

“Hey, Gunner…sorry about what I said earlier. You were a pretty brave soldier back there, your family and district are very proud of you. You saved us, and saved yourself. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be here, so yeah, thanks.”

                Gunner nodded, “You’re welcome, and don’t worry about what you said earlier. I do need to man up, seeing a broken leg is far better than having it spit out blood or completely off. Which I’m sure you both have seen from watching the other Games.”

                Clarice laughed with a sort of relieved tone after Gunner said that, feeling a little better that she wasn’t the one causing such a downfall in everyone’s mood. Although, a broken leg is a huge setback, and tributes could attack from anywhere. But like I said before, I’m getting Clarice out of this arena alive whether or not I have to die doing it. I have 9 arrows left, and am more than willing to sink them into all of the Career tributes bodies. Especially Keaton.

                Nightfall was on its way, and the arena had sort of a cold feel to it tonight. The Gamemakers want us to create fires so other tributes can find each other. Of course, some people might be dumb enough to do it, but looking around the arena, from what I can see, no one has built any fires. We decided that Clarice could sleep the whole night, so she doesn’t have to worry about being in a huge amount of pain. I told Gunner that he could sleep first, and that we’d take shifts of watch, and when it’s his turn, I’d wake him up.

                I sat against a tree which Clarice was sleeping near and loaded my bow with an arrow just in case of an attack from a tribute or something that the Capitol sends to us. They’ve already tried burning us alive, so my guess is they can’t do much for a while if no one starts dying soon.

                I began to doze off a little and kept waking myself up, thinking that I hear something moving towards us in the darkness. There was nothing actually out there, but I couldn’t help but think it. As a few hours went by I woke up Gunner and told him it was his shift. By then, it was almost dawn and the arena’s sun was starting to come out, warming up the forest floor a little bit, which was relaxing because when I laid down, I could feel the heat rising up from the ground, putting me fast asleep.

                I was awoken from Clarice who had Gunner hunt some squirrels again for breakfast since her leg was still broken, and getting worse. I added whatever was left of the spices to everyone’s meat and we ate in quiet. All of the sudden, something broke that silence. It was a beeping sound, which sounded really familiar. We looked up and saw a tiny parachute with a steel box strung underneath it. Finally, a gift from a sponsor. Thank you, Haymitch.

                When it landed in Clarice’s hands, she opened it and revealed the contents inside. A small, purple and blue pill.

“Must be medicine for your leg.” Gunner said, taking the pill and examining it. Of course a sponsor couldn’t send anything lethal to any of the tributes in the arena, because that was against the rules, so I wasn’t worried about Clarice taking it. Sponsors could only give gifts by talking to mentors first, being Haymitch, before actually sending them into the arena. Clarice took some water, popped the pill into her mouth, and swallowed. Within a half hour, the swelling and color from the broken leg began to fade, and her leg looked half mended already.

                A sigh of relief went through Clarice and she looked up and said, “Thank you.” I stood up and held my hand out to her, and she grabbed it and stood herself up. She was at least able to stand.

“Great! Now let’s see how good you can walk.” I said. Gunner got up and took Clarice’s other hand and supported her other side. We walked carefully forward, sort of like training a baby to walk, and Clarice could manage a few steps until her leg began to get pain rushes since it wasn’t fully healed yet.

“It’s definitely a lot better, if we wait another half hour I’m sure it’ll be healed and I can sprint again.” Clarice said, releasing mine and Gunner’s hands and walking over to the tree where she sat down and rested against.

                She was right, because after another half hour of mending went by, her leg was pretty much healed. She could get up herself, walk, even jog a little. There was still a bruise where her leg was broken, but it was fully healed now and we were ready to move on further into the forest.

“We need to start hunting.” I said to Clarice and Gunner as we packed up and got our weapons ready. Gunner and Clarice used the blade sharpener to make their blades even sharper while we were walking in the forest.

“What do you mean? We just ate.” Gunner said, giving the sharpener back to Clarice, who zipped it away in the canvas pack. I looked at him hinting that that’s not what I meant. “Oh, gotcha. How are we going to do that?”

                That was a good question. I didn’t really think it through as much as I should have. We were left clueless. After fifteen minutes went by of just walking, we heard muffled footsteps behind us. They got quicker and quicker and we decided to hide when we didn’t see anything coming from behind us. We ran over to a bush with a tree to the side of it and crouched down, waiting to see the source of the footsteps, which began to gain speed as it got closer to us.

                I loaded my bow and pulled the bowstring back halfway, waiting to make a shot. That’s when we saw him, running towards us. But not at us. Running from something.

“Kade its Peyton!” Clarice whispered, nudging on my jacket. Gunner tried getting up to go attack but I pulled him back down and told him to wait, because we still didn’t know what he was running from. A few seconds went by and we saw the beast that was chasing after Peyton, a mutt that was created by the Capitol. Only, it wasn’t a regular mutt. It was half human, half lizard with razor sharp claws and teeth, and a sharp tipped tail. And the part that made my heart race quicker was seeing it crawling on all four legs, and hissing “Peyton.” The face of the mutt was in the form of his mother.

                Before Peyton could turn around and take a swing at the Capitol designed mutt, it jumped off of its four legs, grabbed onto Peyton’s back, and swung its tail over Peyton’s head and brought it back, the sharp tipped tail entering Peyton’s neck, then breaking it. That’s when my arrow sank into the heart of the mutt’s chest, having Clarice’s knife compliment my attack with a knife to the head of the mutt. Canon blast. Peyton was dead, and so was the mutt.

                We ran over to Peyton and while knowing there was nothing we could do to save him, took the mutt that was laying on top of him off, rolling it far away from him. I took my arrow out of the mutt and Clarice’s knife, tossing it back to her, then looking back at Peyton’s dead body. “8 more to go.”

 

Chapter 14:

                The only person I could think about right now was my sister. What she was thinking, how she was reacting to Peyton’s terrible death, how she must have seen me watch Peyton get killed by the Capitol mutt that resembled his mother. Then I thought of Peyton’s family, wondering what his mother was thinking while she watched herself kill her son, only it wasn’t truly her. She’ll be having nightmares for the rest of her life.

“I could’ve saved him…” I said, as we walked away from the body so the Gamemakers could come into the arena with their hovercraft and retrieve Peyton’s body, along with the Capitol made mutt.

                Clarice shook her head, “No, you couldn’t have, I know Peyton was your sisters friend but you have to think inhuman now. There aren’t any feelings in the arena, remember? In order to survive we have to kill without overthinking anything.”

                Gunner agreed, “And that’s going to be much easier now because all we have left are us, and the rest of the Career packs. Once they’re dead, hopefully two of us are dead so we don’t have to worry about facing off on each other.”

                Clarice and I looked at each other, knowing that we were going to have to eventually either betray Gunner or get him killed somehow. Both ways were sadistic thinking to do, but Clarice was right. Gunner even agreed, inhuman thinking now. No more overthinking with feelings before a kill, because you’ll be the one getting killed if you continue to act as a human being in these Games.

                We walked for two hours in the same direction, coming across familiar territory. The Gamemakers really got lazy with the arena this year, since the forest kept stretching for so long. We wondered if we would ever see a Career again, hoping the answer was no. Night came and we slept soundly throughout it, having turns keeping night watch. When the morning came, we gathered and hunted some squirrel for breakfast and heard a canon blast. Someone must have died. Instead of waiting for night fall to come, the Gamemakers decided to show the picture of the dead tributes right away, to make the Games more interesting. Sierra was dead, which meant that the Career’s had probably found one another. Unless they ended up splitting their groups.

“One less Career we have to deal with.” I said, looking at the screen of the arena, seeing Sierra’s face and her district number.

                No one replied, but I could feel the intensity of the Games becoming heavier on both of them, including me.

“We should split up, not permanently, but to find some ground area. See if we can spot some Careers, and then meet back here within an hour.” Gunner said, looking at both of us for approval. Clarice agreed to it, as did I. I made sure of one thing, “If you come back, and try to kill one of us, don’t make any mistake. We will kill you before you can finish the job on us.”

                Clarice laughed annoyingly, “Kade…really?”

“No, he’s completely right. I won’t even do that, but Clarice, he’s got a point. If you saw me running towards Kade and knew I was about to kill him, your knife would fly at me so fast I wouldn’t even have enough time to realize it’s coming at me. You know that.”

                Gunner understood perfectly well than how the odds really are in these Games. He was somehow catching on that Clarice and I really weren’t in a pact with him, we were sort of using him as bait to get to the Careers. If he were to be attacked by Careers, I would almost be hesitant to aid him, but he did get us out of the burning forest that the Gamemakers set on fire to kill us, so I did owe him. Okay then, maybe I would help him out. But only one time, because it’d be returning the favor.

                With that said, we split up into three separate directions. I made sure I was close enough to Gunner to where he was still visible, just in case he decided to go after Clarice as my suspicions were telling me that’s exactly what he was thinking. That’s when he went out of view.

“D****t.”

                I loaded my bow with an arrow and kept walking through the trees, trying to find a reason to shoot. I had a bad feeling about something, but I couldn’t rest my hands onto it. I almost began to lead myself back to where we started walking in the first place and follow Clarice’s trail to make sure she was alright, but I knew she could handle herself. At least, that’s what I thought because when the terrifying screams coming out of her mouth filled the arena, my spine turned cold and chills went throughout my body. I immediately turned around and began to chase myself through the trees, jumping over logs and bushes that were in my way. I gripped the arrow tighter in between my fingers, starting to get really anxious. What was happening? Was she dead? Who was she fighting against? Questions and questions. That’s all that was soaring through my head. Questions that would soon have bloody answers, and a dead tribute waiting for me to discover.

                When I saw the tip of Ashton’s trident flying my way, I almost instantly flew onto the ground, spitting dirt out of my mouth. My bow was a foot in front of me, Ashton only being five. I leaped forward, loaded my arrow, and shot it as fast and accurate as I could. It just grazed the side of Ashton’s arm, causing a small cut. Before I could load another arrow into my bowstring, Ashton rushed towards me with a dagger that looked exactly like the one Clarice was carrying on her.

                When he came close to me, he swung the dagger at my throat. I stepped back, and then pushed myself forwards towards him, my fist colliding with his jaw. He flew back and regained his balance, giving me time to reach down to the ground for a long, thick log since I didn’t have time to draw an arrow. I rushed towards him and swung the log at him, hitting his side. He fell to his knees and swung the dagger at me, cutting my thigh. Hot, sticky blood oozed out of my leg and I could feel myself trembling to stand. That’s when I heard more of Clarice’s screams.

“We’re going to kill her,” Ashton yelled, “Just like we’re going to kill you!”

                Now that I could actually study Ashton’s face, I could see that he was in a fight not too long before he followed me. But how could he have found us? Maybe the canon fire drew them closer to us?

“We’ve been following you three ever since the forest fire! We saw you get out of the river and into the woods! Thinking you’re so clever all this time, and so special because of you’re stupid rebellion. You’re not going to have a rebellion to get back to!”

“That’s what you think.” I said, pain speaking louder than my actual words. Ashton flung himself at me again and knocked me to the ground, stabbing the dagger near my face. I turned my head fast enough so it landed in the ground, just avoiding my ear. While he was regaining his strength, I pushed him backwards and grabbed an arrow out of my sheath. I dug the tip of the arrow into Ashton’s chest. There was a whelp of pain, and then silence. I took the arrow out, watching the blood seep through his tribute uniform and then out onto his jacket.

“Didn’t put up much of a fight as I thought.” I said to Ashton’s body, which was now growing paler by the bleeding minutes. Clarice’s screams were heard once more. I got up, trying my hardest not to limp as I began to walk away from the fight scene. I heard leaves rustling behind me and drew another arrow and loaded my bow right away. I turned around and saw Ashton, half standing half wobbling, trying to make his way towards me.

“You’re as tough as I thought, just not skilled. Such a waste.” I said, pulling the bowstring back and releasing the arrow, knowing that it was soaring right towards Ashton’s neck. I didn’t watch to confirm the death because I was in a hurry to Clarice, who could be dead. The thing keeping me going was the fact that no canon was shot, and when there was a cannon fire, I looked in the sky and saw Ashton’s face and district number. Blaine and Griffin were the only ones left in Career group 2, which meant one of them was the one attacking Clarice. We were getting closer to winning. I only had five arrows left in my sheath.

                I began to break into a full out sprint, beginning to hear metal clash against metal. When I found myself at the start of where we trailed off separately. I could hear the fighting getting closer as I pressed on, and finally found Clarice face to face with… Harper?

“Clarice!” I shouted, loading an arrow right away and aiming it at Harper, who wasn’t carrying her dart pole anymore, but two short swords. Clarice wielded her two biggest daggers that she had in her knife vest and blocked all of Harpers strikes, returning more powerful blows back. Ducking, screaming, slashing, Clarice and Harper put up a good fight.

                Clarice was just about to swing her dagger at Harper’s throat until she saw an arrow sink into Harper’s temple, killing her instantly following a cannon blast with a picture of her face and district number. She looked over at me and fell to her knees, and then sat down in pain. Her hands and face were bloody, along with one of her daggers.

“Thank you, I don’t know how long I could have lasted. She caught me by surprise and shot a dart at my neck, causing me to become unbalanced and dizzy. It must have been her last one because she started attacking me with those two short swords.”

“She must have been the one to kill Sierra, because Sierra specializes with short swords. I was attacked by Ashton. He’s dead now. So much for Gunner coming to the rescue.” I said, my thoughts becoming filled with anger towards him. Clarice could have died, and he was closer to her. There’s no way he couldn’t have heard her.

“That means there’s only him, Keaton, Kadence, Griffin, Piper, and Blaine left.” Clarice said. “Let’s get out of here before Gunner returns, this is the best chance to leave our alliance before it gets messy and shady. Help me up.”

                I slung the bow behind my back, took the arrow out of Harper’s temple, cleaned it off, and took Clarice’s hands and pulled her up. We walked away from the body and heard the hovercraft coming to retrieve her body, moments after just getting Ashton’s.

“We need to be smart now. Create traps, and kill whoever comes in them. We need to trap Blaine somehow, there’s no way we can take him on without being killed within a matter of minutes.” I said, remembering how big Blaine was compared to all of us.

                Clarice nodded, “I just don’t know what though.”

                Silence took over us after wanting minutes, maybe even an hour to recuperate what just happened and regain our strength. The Games were ending quicker than I thought. Snow must be hurrying the process of the Games to get to one of us faster, having the chance and opportunity to kill us himself. We made camp underneath a big willow tree and I stayed up most of the night, Clarice taking my shift after she woke up close to dawn. No deaths were reported.

“Let’s go, you know what’s going to happen soon, and we have to be on our best guard when it does.” Clarice said, waking me up and giving me squirrel to eat. I refused it at first, but she forced me to eat it. After I was done I realized what she was talking about. If four of us die today, than that means tonight could only mean one thing for us. The Gamemakers favorite part, where they are licensed to release anything to us to kill us until one person is left standing. The Finale.

 

Chapter 15:

                There was 8 of us left out of 24 tributes. The Games were coming to a close faster than I had expected, which means more surprises from the Capitol and the Gamemakers to end it all. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, tributes from District 12, both won the Hunger Games by dodging the rules set by the Capitol. Both of them attempted to commit suicide, thus ending the Hunger Games and allowing both of them to win. A rebellion ignited, Katniss and Peeta attempted to overthrow the Capitol and assassinate President Snow, but failed when most of their allies were blown apart in an air raid. Afterwards, President Snow killed their families and left them to grieve in our Victory Village, where all of the tributes who win the Hunger Games live out the rest of their lives filled with riches and harvest. Considering the Capitol won’t allow two more tributes to win, and not wanting to chance the consequences of what could follow if we deceived them this year, we decided to continue the plan of Clarice killing me if I had to die in order for the Games to end this year. It would put on a good show, a dark twisted Hunger Games that no one will ever forget, where the Capitol forced two cousins to fight in the deadly arena and kill one another. It was truly show the cruelty of not only the Games themselves, but the Capitol as well. President Snow was going to swim in his own glory after watching me die by the hand of my cousin. Seeing my families expressions would be even more glorifying for him.

“I promise that once the Games end and the rebellion begins, I will kill Snow. For making us do this.” Clarice said in a soft, low voice so we weren’t overheard by the Gamemakers who have cameras hiding in multiple places in the arena, such as the trees, ground, bushes, even in animals, such as the Mockingjays that were in Katniss Everdeen’s Hunger Games way back then.

“And if things go differently than we plan, and I survive, I will kill him. For you, for our family, and most importantly, for the future’s sake of Panem.” I said, returning an answer. We found a small stream in the middle of the forest and rested there; taking sips of the water and cleaning ourselves so all the blood was washed off our hands and faces.

                Daylight turned to night and we found ourselves camping there for the rest of the night. I woke up to screams across the arena, hoping that someone was going to die any second. But there was no canon blast, only more screams. Someone was shouting a name, it sounded like a boy calling to a girl he knew before being sent into the arena. A mother, sister, or maybe even a girlfriend. The screams ended after twenty minutes still with no canon blast. I drifted off to sleep and woke up the next morning, seeing Clarice next to me cooking a squirrel over a fire for breakfast. I almost vomited when I ate the meat, since I’ve been having it for so long. Every day in the arena that was all that was available to eat. No matter, I guess that’s one of the reasons why they’ve named it the Hunger Games. Another reasons could be hunger for thirst, love, blood, money…life.

“Did you hear those screams last night?” I asked Clarice, hoping that she did and I wasn’t going completely insane. She shook her head. Great, maybe I was going insane.

“What happened?” She asked, looking at me curiously while taking a small bite out of her squirrel meat. I shook my head, “I don’t even know. I could have been dreaming, but it all felt so real. Someone was screaming, it was a boy, sounding like Keaton now that I think about it. He was screaming a girl’s name from the sound of it, but I can’t put two and two together to form the name he was yelling. His voice while he was yelling sounded like a mixture of love, anger, and fear all mixed together.”

                Clarice didn’t know what to say back, thinking the whole thing was sort of strange since she didn’t experience it herself. The only thing she came up with is that I was dreaming something surreal.

“Try not to think about it, we’ve only got 6 more tributes to kill and then…well yeah, than it’ll all be over and the rebellion can begin. At least, that’s if they haven’t killed Haymitch. He’s our only commanding leader left for the rebellion that we know. I’m sure there’s more people involved in it that we know, but for the sake of their safety, Haymitch probably didn’t want to mention it to us in case we let something slip while we’re in here.” She was speaking softly again, considering we were discussing the rebellion. Of course, saying it out loud would make the Games more interesting, seeing two cousins wanting to fight to end the Games for themselves, only making a bigger game up after escaping death in the arena.

“Let’s go, I don’t like staying in one spot anymore. There are too many chances that someone is already watching us and moving around our camp.” I said, looking around myself as I spoke.

                Clarice agreed and put out our fire, continuing on into the forest. We continued for two hours until we came across another stream of water, where we stopped for five minutes to drink. The Games were quiet, and nothing was happening. This usually happens towards the end of the Games though, considering there’s a small amount of tributes left, all expanded across this huge arena. If it continued like this for another day or two, the Gamemakers would make things interesting for us to get the pace going again. To spill more blood of innocent kids to gather together the excitement of all the people in Panem, mostly the Capitol citizens. District 1 still has a chance of winning, considering both Keaton and Kadence are still alive and well. Most of the Career kids were dead already. Ashton, Sierra, Harper, Grayson, and Cecilia all failed their districts in coming home with the glory and riches you receive when winning the Hunger Games. The only Careers left alive were Keaton, Kadence, Griffin, Piper, and Blaine. Career group 1, consisting of Keaton, Kadence, and Piper had a better chance of winning than Griffin and Blaine do. I wonder who was going to die first. Probably Gunner, since he’s all by himself now.

“I think Gunner knew that our alliance was over when we split apart. It was the perfect time to split, anyway. And when you were screaming, I’m sure he wasn’t that far off. If he was truly still a part of our alliance, he would have come running to your aid.” I said to Clarice, who unassumingly agreed.

“I still wish him luck though, and hope he dies fast. You know how brutal and gruesome the finale deaths are; they all probably come from President Snow’s handbook of wonderful ideas.” She said loudly enough so any cameras around us could hear her whole rant to Snow.

“The way that they made those mutts resemble all of the dead tributes was almost as disturbing as making Peyton’s mom into a killing mutt.” I said, remembering how Peyton died, almost feeling bad now that I didn’t save him. He was only 15 years old, but would have eventually died anyway.

                Before we could speak anymore, we heard a twig behind us crack and break. I whipped around, loading my bow faster than I think I ever have before, pointing it directly at the twig that was snapped. The intensity of the Games now kept my adrenaline on full blast.

“Who’s there?” I yelled. Clarice pulled out two large daggers out of her knife vest, taking a few steps towards the area where the twig was snapped. I eased up on the tension I had on my arrow and grabbed her arm, pulling her back and shaking my head. Without speaking, I hinted to her I would go and check it out, since she was the one that needed to survive. I pulled back my bowstring and walked closer towards the area where the twig was resting in two pieces, my heart beating faster as I imagined my mom turning into a mutt and attacking me. Good thing about the Gamemakers is they never use a trick more than once, so that was automatically ruled out in my head, thankfully. There was no one there.

“I don’t see any…” As soon as I turned my back I was pushed to the ground, receiving three long claw cuts down my back. I yelled in agony, my eyes watering and stinging from the pain. I heard rustling of leaves on the ground which was probably whatever clawed at me running towards Clarice, who was oddly silent. I looked up and saw the beast, not being able to make out what it resembled. It was a mixture of deadly animals, and looked so demented and frightening that it reminded me of some kind of monster that would reappear in a child’s nightmares for years. Once there was one glance at the thing, there was no going back. I could already feel my strength weakening and my fears growing up inside of me while I saw the beast making its way towards Clarice, who in a matter of seconds finally turned around and screamed, pushing her daggers outwards in front of her to stab the beast that jumped over her, dodging her attack. It wheeled around, the black naked skin of its body advancing towards her, it’s long yellow sharp teeth and pitch white eyes glaring at her. She swung one of her daggers at it in a horizontal swing, hoping to cut its throat, but only found her arm in its mouth. She screamed in an ear piercing tone, giving me the motivation to get up and protect her out of instant instinct. I felt like an animal protecting its family, which in a way, was exactly the situation. When I drew my arrow and sunk it in the beast’s chest, it wailed a bit and released its jaw from Clarice’s arm, which was bleeding immensely. She took one of her daggers and with all of her strength, stabbed it directly in one of the eyes of the beast. Green blood spilled from its face and mouth, also starting to flow out of its chest wound where my arrow was.

“Clarice stand back!” I said, drawing another arrow. When I yelled, the beast focused on me with the one eye it had left and jumped high in the air. I aimed my arrow for its other eye, and released it before the beast’s open mouth could consume my head. More green blood, and in a matter of seconds, the beast wailed off into the forest, not looking back.

“It’ll come back, but it’s blinded now. It’ll be more dangerous once it comes back and acts on instinct with all of its senses. It might bring friends too, we have to go.” I said, running over to Clarice, grabbing one of her daggers. I took off my jacket, and Clarice noticed that the razor sharp talons of the beast clawed through my black tribute t-shirt that I wore underneath my jacket. My tattoos were now showing. I almost knew for a fact that the cameras around us were zooming in onto my tattoos, revealing the addition that Cinna gave me to my broken shield.

“You’re hurt too,” She said, looking at my cuts. I pushed her back, knowing that my cut wasn’t bleeding as much as her arm, which had one of the beasts teeth still, jammed in her skin. I took it out, releasing a red ooze of blood, and cut my jacket down with the dagger so it was one long, thin piece of clothing. We quickly walked back towards the stream we found earlier, put water on her wound, and wrapped my jacket tightly around it, stopping the flow of blood out of her bite. The color in her body which was almost pale and cold turned warm and toned again after a half hour of stopping the blood.

“This has to end soon, that cut is going to get infected.” I said, looking at her arm again. She took her arm back, “So is your back!”

                She should know by now that it didn’t matter for me, that no matter what was going to happen with my cut or the Games, I was going to die either way. If it was from infection of my overexposed wound, so be it. Better than having a dagger jammed into my body. But since it was close to the Games being over, sponsors weren’t allowed to send medicine anymore to us. We were completely on our own with healing ourselves.

                Night came, and we found ourselves sleepless, fearing the return of the beast. Fortunately, it didn’t come back for us. We began to get paranoid where we were sleeping out for the night, and decided to press on in the dark. Something about tonight didn’t give me a good vibe, and as screams filled the night once more, I trembled with my steps because the boy that was screaming shouted Clarice’s name, and mine. Our names were followed up by screams of help, and heavy, loud growls. The beast had found Gunner, and was most likely ripping him to shreds. We began to run for him, following his screams and shouts that got louder and louder, than eventually faded. By the time we got to his gruesomely torn apart body, where his limbs and guts were making up more of the forest floor than the actual trees were, we recognized the teeth marks in one of his arms that was laying by a tree. It had the same tooth sticking out of it. The beast that was attacking Clarice and I wasn’t just hunting us down, it was hunting everybody. Clarice and I looked at each other and knew that the beast wasn’t going to be the only thing coming for us. As the canon blasted and we looked up at the sky that showed Gunner’s face and district number, one of the announcers came onto speaker.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. There will be no more announcements after this, the Finale has begun. All sponsorships have officially ended. You are on your own. The arena has transformed and contains what you fear most. Adapt, fight, and survive. And may the odds, be ever in your favor.”

                I looked at Clarice, whose chest began to move faster. What did I fear most? I asked myself over and over, and then I realized what it was when I began to hear screams in the distance, which must have happened to Keaton. Only they weren’t just random screams, they were the screams of my sister. That’s when I began to make the connection to what I was thinking before. It all made sense. The beast that looked like it could be from a child’s nightmares, the dark moon lit sky, and the creepy blacked out forest in the arena that now contains things you fear most. The Gamemakers have turned the arena into an actual nightmare.

 

 

 

Chapter 16:

I bolted away from Clarice immediately, not caring if the beast was still around. Everything that Clarice and I had planned was out of my head, and the only thing I focused on was my sister’s yelling. Clarice screamed and ran after me, telling me that the Gamemakers were playing tricks on me. I ignored her and drew one of the five arrows that I had left in my sheath, gripping the end of the arrow tightly on the bowstring. Arabella’s screams were getting louder and louder, forcing me to run faster. Clarice was able to keep up, but couldn’t hear the screams of my sister like I could.

“Why are you running!? Kade, come back! The beast is still out there, Arabella isn’t here! You’re hearing things!”

                I still ignored her, and in a matter of seconds, I found myself out of the forest and into the large, open plain field where the Cornucopia was still standing, weaponless. The screams were coming from the other side of the Cornucopia, and I made my way towards it as fast as I could. When I turned the corner, I saw Arabella’s bloody, dangling body chained against the Cornucopia.

“Kade…please, save me.” Arabella whimpered, sobbing as soon as she saw me. I turned around and saw that Clarice had just gotten out of the forest. I waved her over and called her name, “Clarice it’s Arabella! She’s over here!”

                Clarice ran towards me, with her daggers in her hands. When she approached me, she seemed confused. “Kade, where is she?” She asked, almost looking directly at where Arabella was.

                This confused me for a second, and I pointed at Arabella. “She’s right there, are you blind?”

                Arabella began to scream again and cry, tears of blood running down her cheeks. The blood inside of me was boiling with anger and fear. I dropped my bow and arrow and walked towards her quickly, trying to unchain her. She looked at me again and said, “Kade…Peyton’s dead, I saw him die.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I wanted to save him, I really did.” I said to her, shaking the chains that grasped her blood stained wrists.

                Clarice turned me around by placing her hand on my shoulder, “Kade…what are you doing? And who are you talking to?”

                I turned back around and looked at Arabella, who had blood dripping from her nose now. She began to scream again and I covered her mouth with my hand. When I did this, she began to cry even harder. “You could have saved him…you just let him die! You watched him get killed!”

                I shook my head, beginning to get hot tears in my eyes. “Arabella I couldn’t, if the beast found us, it would have attacked us. I could have died.”

                She spit blood in my face, “You’re a monster. You let him die!” She screamed louder, in agony and grief. Before I could say anything back to her, Clarice turned me around again.

“Kade seriously, let’s go. Arabella isn’t really there, you’re just imagining things. Remember what the Gamemakers said, ‘The arena has transformed and contains what you fear most.” Seeing whatever you are seeing of Arabella is exactly what they want you to see! They’re trapping us! Please, let’s g…” Before she could speak, a spiked mace flew directly past us and hit the side of the Cornucopia. I looked at Arabella in fear that she was hit, but something strange and terrifying happened. Arabella looked at me, while blood was now streaming out of her mouth, and grinned at me. She turned her neck all the way around, cracked it, and then hung there, chained to the Cornucopia. Dead.

                I screamed in emotional pain as my sister hung there dead, ignoring the fact that Keaton and Kadence were charging directly at us.

“Kade!!!” Clarice screamed loudly, causing me to turn my head and see that Kadence was getting ready to throw another spiked mace, aiming directly at me. My instincts came into play and I swiftly picked up my bow, loaded two arrows into my bowstring, leaving three left in the sheath, and shot it at Kadence’s spiked mace that was flying towards me. The two arrows collided with the spiked mace, causing it to fly backwards onto the ground.

“Nice trick!” Kadence shouted, running towards us, picking up the spiked mace that I deflected with two arrows. When I looked at where Arabella’s body was lying dead, I saw nothing. Clarice was right. It was a cruel trick the Gamemakers had played on me to trap us, leaving us free to pick off and be killed by the existing Careers.

                Clarice and I backed up a few steps as Keaton and Kadence got closer towards us. Keaton had a huge gouging cut going across face, which split open his mouth. He could barely talk.

                Clarice sheathed her daggers and took out her throwing knives, throwing them at Keaton and Kadence, who dodged all of them besides one, which hit Kadence in the arm, grazing it with blood. The mixture of emotions Clarice was feeling completely threw off her throwing skills. The only thing she has left was her two daggers, and her hope that my aim was good enough to get us out of this.

                Kadence was almost close enough to make a swing at Clarice when the unexpected happened. Clarice, Keaton, Kadence, and I were blasted off our feet’s as mines went off all around us. Not only have I trapped Clarice and I, but I also sent Keaton and Kadence into a trap as well. The Gamemakers had activated mines to try and kill all of us, since we had the biggest bets on all four of our heads for being the most likely to win the Games. The only person who also had a bet on their head was Blaine, who was nowhere to be seen.

                Minutes went by before I could open my eyes and when I did, all hope drained out of my body. My bow was shattered. Clarice looked at it, and I could see the fear emerging in her eyes and the hope being drained out of her as well. When we looked at Keaton and Kadence, they were laying on the ground still knocked out.

“What do we do?” Clarice asked, breathing heavily and coughing from all the smoke around us that was being given off by little fires burning on the grass from where each mine was blown apart. I was still in shock while looking at my shattered bow, which was my only hope in staying alive until Clarice, needed to kill me. If Clarice’s knife skills fail her within the hour, we would have no back up to survive. I got up and ignored Clarice for a few moments, walking over carelessly to Keaton and Kadence. I realized Kadence was dead when half her hair was burnt off of her head and her face consisted of ash and melted skin. I couldn’t tell how the rest of her body was, since she still had her entire tribute uniform on. Keaton wasn’t breathing either.

“I think they’re both dead. They won’t blast canon’s now, since it’s the middle of the Finale.” I said, walking back towards Clarice.

                She wiped her face clean of blood and ash, “What do you mean?”

                “The Gamemakers don’t set off canons so we don’t know how many people have died in the Finale.”

                It made sense, at least to me. If the canon’s went off every time someone died, we wouldn’t go looking for anyone to kill if it were down to three tributes, they all wouldn’t go after one another thinking that staying in one place and letting the other two battle it out could mean victory for them.

“We should find some cover at least, let’s head for the trees.” I said, helping Clarice up. She picked up her two daggers that were laying apart from one another and handed one to me, just in case. Before we could enter the forest, we heard growling behind us. I was so numb from being terrified and hurt that I turned around as soon as I heard it, knowing exactly what it was. The hairless, black skinned beast that had two missing eyes and wounds all over its body.

                When Clarice turned around she gasped, “Violet?” She said, walking towards the beast, her defenses down. Her trap must have been the beast taking the form of Violet, not being twisted around by the Capitol or anything. Perfectly plain, healthy Violet. This made it more believable to Clarice that she was really there. Considering after almost being blown apart by mines and killed by Kadence, Clarice’s mind was elsewhere and she was more gullible to the situation.

“Clarice, no!” I yelled, as she got inches away to the beast. When it lunged towards her, I threw my dagger at it, hoping for the best. Fortunately, it sunk right into the right temple of the beast and killed it instantly. The only unfortunate thing was that as I killed the beast, Clarice still saw the beast as Violet. So in her eyes, I killed her sister.

                She turned around, with fresh tears running down her blood stained face. She dropped her dagger and began to hug the body of the dead beast, sobbing.

“You killed her! You killed Violet! How could you?” Clarice screamed, momentarily picking up her dagger and gripping it tightly. She got up and looked at me, with rage and revenge filling up in her eyes. She really, truly thought I had killed Violet. She began walking towards me, raising the knife.

“Clarice, no it wasn’t Violet! It was the same trick they played on me with Violet! It was the bea…”

                I was swept off my feet from behind and slammed into the ground by a fist. I was dizzy and light headed as the fist kept pounding into my head. I was being killed. 

                Clarice screamed and jumped onto Blaine’s back, attempting to stab him. Since he was so much bigger than she was, he purposely fell backwards and landed onto Clarice, who was crushed underneath his heavy muscled body. I heard a cracking noise, and feared that her neck was snapped. Her screams indicated that maybe one of her arms, or legs were broken. As I opened my eyes and turned around, clearing the blood off my face from my bleeding ear, I saw that Clarice was gripping her side. One of her ribs were broken.

“No…Clarice…” I said, trying my hardest to crawl towards her. Blaine got up from the ground, unhurt, and said, “Stay off me, b***h! You and your cousin are going to die!” As soon as he finished his sentence, he stepped directly on top of my right hand, twisting his boot on it, breaking it. I yelled in pain and clutched my hand as he lifted his boot off of it, and saw him reach for Clarice’s dagger. She was in so much pain that she didn’t even notice his movement towards it. He picked it up, and moved towards me. Placing the blade in his mouth, he picked me up with both hands and then clasped his left hand around my neck, which was the only thing he was holding me up with. He took the dagger out of his mouth with his right hand and twirled it around.

“You know…I really thought you had more in you two. Especially you, being the rebellion leader and all.” Blaine said, staring into my eyes with nothing but the craving of blood.

                I tried my hardest to speak back to him since his hand was clutched around my throat so tightly, “You never…really,” I began to choke, “Gave me a chance…you snuck up behind me. You’re…” More coughing, “Just as cowardly as Snow…”

                Blaine’s response to that was placing the dagger against my face and running it across my cheek, leaving a small wound on the side of my face. I grimaced as the sting from the blade and the hot blood took over the side of my face. This was it. There was no one to save me from Blaine’s dagger, not even Clarice, who was barely moving on the ground.

“Well when I get out of here, and come face to face with Snow when he crowns me Victor, I’ll be sure to give him the message.” Blaine said, moving the dagger behind his body, ready to plunge it deep into my chest. As the movement of the dagger towards my body was engaged, a spear flew right through Blaine’s back and out of his stomach, the tip of the spear inches away from my stomach. When Blaine fell to his knees, I almost fell right on top of the tip of the spear. I pushed myself off of Blaine with my feet and slammed onto the arena floor onto my back.

                I closed my eyes and acted as if I was dead, just in case Blaine’s killer came running towards me. I looked as if I could be dead, with the cut that Blaine gave me on my cheek and all the cuts on my arms and the rest of my face. But when a pair of hands wrapped around my body and picked me up to my feet, I stood there, waiting to die. Waiting for a spear to be thrown into me. I began to make the connection with who wields spears, and realized that Griffin and Piper, who both must have ditched their Career groups, were now aiding Clarice and I.

“We need to get out of here,” Griffin said, walking over with Clarice in his arms, one of her arms around his neck. Piper looked at me and said, “Can you walk?” I nodded.

                Instead of walking further into the forest, we began to walk closer towards the center of the arena in the open field near the Cornucopia, leaving Blaine’s body behind. Griffin pressed down on his ear and said, “We’re ready.”

                Wait, what? Who’s ready? How did he get an earpiece? What’s going on? Questions once again began to emerge themselves into my brain as Griffin continued to hold onto Clarice, not letting her go. Piper took my hand and continued walking towards the center of the arena, with an axe gripped tightly in her hands which I now noticed. It was stained with blood.

“Who did you..?” I asked Piper, who shushed me. “Keaton. That nice gouge on his face was made with my axe. When we finally realized that the Careers were mostly targeting you and Clarice, I turned against them and played Keaton’s love interest well. We both snuck off into the woods, and he thought he was going to kiss me. While he was leaning in, I sliced his face with an axe hoping to decapitate him. He pulled away too fast before my axe could grace his neck and instead it cut his face. He fell down and screamed, which was my cue before Kadence and Harper could come looking for us.”

                I was still really confused and dizzy. I pushed away Piper’s hand and bent over, letting out the puke that was waiting to come up since I was lifted up into the arena from the pedestal. Piper came over and patted my back, telling me it was alright. When she did this, I made a movement for my bow which I thought was on my back, thinking this was all a trick. I only found the three arrows and the sheath that remained, remembering that my bow had been shattered.

“Relax, we’re not going to kill you.” Piper said, looking at me and taking my hand again, walking me over to Griffin and Clarice. I looked at Griffin, “Thank you…for saving my life and taking care of her.”

                Griffin nodded, “Don’t thank me just yet, we’re still in the arena. The Gamemakers are probably very confused right now and are probably making preparations to blow us sky high like that one kid in the beginning of the Games before we were legally allowed to move from our pedestals.”

                I looked around and all I saw was darkness, smoke, fire, ash, blood, bodies, and weapons. We waited around for several minutes until Griffin placed his finger on his ear again, “Okay.” He said to whoever he was talking to, and looked at Piper. “They’re coming.” I could see Griffin’s face clearer now that I wasn’t focusing on throwing up, and his whole face was covered in blood stains, and his arms were covered in cuts and bruises. Piper had minor cuts on her face, and only small bruises on her arms.

                Who was coming? I decided to not even ask and just go along with it. The ground began to shake and before we all knew it, the arena began splitting into two. The Gamemakers were trying to kill all of us, hoping to plunge all of us inside the crack that was now consuming the dead bodies, the Cornucopia, and the weapons. A bright ray of light appeared over the arena and the glass bubble consuming the arena was shattered, causing small and large handfuls of sharp glass to fall against the crumbling arena floor.

“Haymitch, hurry!” Griffin yelled, looking behind him as the crack began to get closer to all of us. A hovercraft that had the Capitol seal crossed out with red spray-paint and instead replaced with District 7 written across it lowered itself into the arena, lowering a back drop bridge so we could all climb into it. We ran for it. Griffin put Clarice on his back and ran as fast as he could, jumping over the cracks that his foot kept falling into. Once we were inside of the District 7 hovercraft, it was immediately flying back into the air and lifted itself away from the arena, which was now collapsing into the large crack the Gamemakers had set off to finish us off.

                Griffin and Piper set us down onto the floor and leaned us against the wall. Haymitch came over with Effie and an old District 7 Victor named Coriolanus, and gave us water. Both of us were so dazed out during the last moments in the arena that once we took in water, we passed out.

                Within the hour that we were sleeping, we were moved to small comfortable beds. When I opened my eyes, I saw Haymitch, Griffin, and Piper all looking down at me. Clarice was still sleeping when I looked at her, noticing momentarily that she had  large white patch on her rib cage.

“She’s going to be fine, kiddo.” Haymitch said.

                I sat up in my bed and looked at Haymitch, and by the look on his face, he knew the answer to the question I was going to ask. He allowed me to ask it anyway.

“What the hell just happened?”

                Haymitch took a moment to gather his thoughts, and looked up at Griffin and Piper who nodded their heads.

“District 7 Victor Coriolanus and I met as soon as you guys were chosen as tributes for the Games and discussed things. He told me that District 7 has been long waiting to see the Capitol crumble after the incident that happened with the betrayal of the little girl from District 7 and the girl from District 1. Griffin and Piper here, who as you know are both from District 7, both volunteered on purpose to go into the Games and make sure Clarice and you both survived long enough for the plan to work. Luckily, it did. Both of them got the Career packs trust and joined them, so they could keep them away from you as long as possible. Griffin’s sponsor was working with us at the time during the Games, and sent him an earpiece inside of a match container, which was also filled with matches. No one noticed it until the Finale began, when Griffin was caught talking to me. His sponsor was executed immediately.”

                All of these thoughts were trying to be processed through my mind and it began to overload everything that I was trying to consume at once. Griffin and Piper were both sent to the Games from District 7 on purpose to keep Clarice and I alive, while Haymitch and Coriolanus gathered rebellion supporters and troops while we were fighting in the Games.

“What of our family? I asked Haymitch after looking at Clarice, who was rolling around in her bed, surely having nightmares. Haymitch fell silent, and then spoke, “As of right now, they are alright. But we can’t risk going back to District 12 and retrieving them. They weren’t told of the plan either, otherwise if they were taken and tortured about your whereabouts, they would have no idea what happened, just as Snow doesn’t either.”

                Some part of me was angry with Haymitch for not rescuing my parents before coming to get Clarice and I, but he was right. The little they know, the better their chances of staying alive was. Unless Snow planned to use them to get to me.

“So, what now?” I asked, looking from Haymitch, to Griffin, to Piper. Haymitch spoke instead of Griffin and Piper, who also looked at Haymitch for direction.

“Well, that’s a stupid question.” Haymitch replied, “What do you think, kid?”

                During the time he spoke I answered myself. It was a stupid question, really. Depending on how you wanted to take it. Now that we were saved, and out of the arena, there was only one thing left to continue. Now that our escape was filmed on live television across the nation, things began unfolding from the ignited sparks that were set off across the country when my tattoo was revealed during the Tribute Parade, to an emblazonment of fire that moved swiftly across Panem that only spoke one word.

 

                Rebellion. 

Author's Note

ignore some grammar problems i may have, or misspelling. i only scanned through it, but please let me know what you think! Leave comments! thank you, and enjoy!