Origins of a White Rose: A Hunger Games FanFic

Chapter 11

Her plan would have been more effective if the forest had been drier.

But it was working. The flames had spread from the ground to the trees and a good section of the forest was burning. The crowd was very excited.

I watched as the District 1 sponsorship account filled quickly with money. But I was more worried about her. If the entire forest was going to burn, the clearing where the Cornucopia had once stood would be no exception.

A map of the entire arena was displayed on the main footage. Her fire was spreading fast but it hadn't reached the two groups of tributes.

Maia was still walking the perimeter and lighting matches. She must have gotten a lot.

I was proud of her ingenuity but I was worried Cori and the Gamemakers wouldn't be pleased. Even worse, the fire might not even work.

The announcer stated that 25% of the arena was burning.

The footage went from Maia to the tributes from 3 and 5 in the east.

They were still trying to light their own fire.

"Do you smell that?" the boy from 3 asked.

"Smells like smoke," the girl from 5 said. They looked down at their attempt at a fire together. The crowd laughed. The boy shrugged and stood up, looking around for the source of the smell.

"Oh crap," he said. The red wall of flames was rushing towards them fast. "Genera!"

That must have been the girl. She looked up and screamed.

They started scrambling up the mountain side trying to out run the flames.

Their screams were terrifying.

There was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around.

Two Peacekeepers stood there.

"Could you come with us, Miss Cassia?" They were oddly polite for Peacekeepers which meant they were Capitol Peacekeepers. They really didn't see much action beside drunken brawls.

"Of course," I said, not wanting to call any more attention to me. I downed my third glass of wine for the day before striding out of the room.

They escorted me to an elevator. I stood at the very back of the elevator, my mind calculating. If they tried to kill me, I had three different possible techniques I could use to kill them. If I just wanted to kill them, the number increased to seven.

But I stayed still as the elevator descended to the basement of Gamecenter.

One of the Peacekeepers scanned an ID badge and the doors slid open revealing a perfectly white room with at least twenty people, all in white, in a sort of pit, speaking quietly into headsets and controlling the Game from holoscreens. Standing above all of them, watching the Games on a massive screen, was Cori. He glanced behind him when he heard the doors close shut but he didn't make an effort to call me over.

"Fire the cannons for Genera and Rakesh then cut screens to Maia," Cori ordered. Seconds later, two cannons went off and Maia's face appeared on the main screen. A twisted smile was on her face. "Cut to Keld and Slatia."

The tributes from 10 and 12 were still sleeping.

"Wake them up somehow," Cori said. A flaming tree fell in the distance and the two heard it, sitting up.

Cori looked frustrated.

"Damn it," he mumbled to himself. "I want the fire gone. Give me heavy rain."

Within in seconds, it went from a sprinkle to a heavy downpour. The tributes from 10 and 12 took off running up the mountain anyways.

The fire was slowly dying out, reveal a very sparse forest.