Battle Scars

Chapter 15: Dry Tears

A/N: the next few chapters (ie. right up to chapter 21) I wrote in one evening. That's 6000 words in only a few hours :) so if they're not that good, you'll know why. I don't think they're too bad, but there might be more editing issues than there normally is. Just a heads up on that one haha.

Chapter fifteen: dry tears
Cold winds. Snowflakes. Frost. Right on the very day we were to enter our death trap. Typical Australian, I hated the cold, although I found a certain beauty in the snow, maybe because in Western Australia the worst we can possibly get is hail, and we're lucky to even get that. However, when you're about enter an arena full of people out to kill you, your last concern is how beautiful the snowflakes are. Having never seen snow falling before, I wished I had time to enjoy it all. The nerves prevented me from enjoying anything that morning. Not even the massive breakfast that was put before me. I hardly ate anything, simply because I didn't want my stomach to empty itself from the wrong end. Everything made me jumpy. Em told me I'd forget my nerves the second I entered the arena, and I hoped she was right.
The tributes were taken to the arena separately - each in our own hovercrafts. I was wearing black shorts, a black t-shirt, black boots, and a lightweight, but surprisingly warm light brown hoodie. It was the most sensible thing my prep team had ever come up with.
We arrived at the lobby, from which the tributes would rise up into the arena on pressure plates. I bid goodbye to my prep team, Shari, and Em, who had escorted me. They would return in the hovercraft to the game centre where my progress would be monitored. I won't elaborate on the goodbye. Tears were shed. By them, not me. No tears would come to my eyes, but I knew if I stopped to think about my position later, I would be unable to stop them from falling. I comforted them as best as I could, before I was finally led off the hovercraft and through the lobby to my launching room. I waited there for about ten minutes. Those were the longest ten minutes of my life. Finally, they came to an end, and an official entered the room, and opened the launch tube. I stepped inside, and the glass slid shut around me. And then I was moving upwards. The pad shot up, up up, and finally broke out into blazing sunlight. I blinked my eyes in it's brightness, and looked around me, expecting snow. I did not find what I expected.
We were within the walls of a dilapidated, broken down old city - perhaps the ancient courtyard. Directly in the centre was the cornucopia, and right in the very centre of that was a bag in which I could clearly see throwing knives.
I took in my position. It was a difficult one. To my left was Aidan, the other Australian tribute. To my right was, unfortunately, Vikk. And directly opposite from me was Mitch. And I knew he too had seen the knives. The two of us were the fastest and strongest. It would be a race between us to the knives, to gain a weapon, on my part, and to stop me gaining a weapon, on Mitch's part.
And now we awaited the countdown. I readied myself, and prepared bolt to the centre, hoping Vikk didn't acquire any weapons too quickly and stop me in my tracks.
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