Jabberjay [The Hunger Games]

Chapter Eleven

Ten seconds, nine, eight... the echoing sound of Claudius Templesmith, announcer of the Hunger Games, fills the arena. I take a deep breath in an attempt to clear my mind and focus on the smooth rock beneath me. I begin contemplating how I can launch myself upward once I arrive at the rocky incline, giving myself a lead on the other tributes. I mentally flashback to Malo and I practicing rock climbing in the training room and hope that it pays off now. My body is flushed with a warm sensation, heating up as a result of my nerves. I kneel slightly, preparing to dart forward as the countdown begins to close. Five... Four... My blood vigorously pumps with adrenaline, clenching my fists at my side. Three... Two... One.

I launch myself off my pedestal and sprint as fast as I can, pushing myself to pick up the pace with each step. In my peripheral vision, I can see that the tributes around me are running towards the incline as well. The distance between the pedestals and the rising rock is about thirty feet, and I arrive at it slightly before those around me do. Every single second is crucial, placing one hand on a jagged rock and then pulling myself up, using my feet to lunge forward and climb. The boy from District Ten that climbs alongside me to my left is matching my pace, therefore I push myself to climb faster. Rock by rock, crawling up the side as sweat begins to bubble up on my forehead.

Snap! The rock that I place my foot on breaks when I put pressure on it, causing me to slide down the slope. I curse under my breath as the seven that I received in training enters my mind. I spent a whole day practicing rock climbing during training just to screw it up within the first few seconds of the Games. I quickly gather myself and begin sprinting up the wall and then climbing once my legs cannot travel upward anymore. The boy from District Ten has a lead on me now and I am slightly behind the others that surround me. I need to get my hands on a knife, then I will be able to protect myself.

This time around I climb the same terrain slightly faster as I had already done it once. I reach the top of the slope and my fingertips are met by a smooth layer of rock that the cornucopia sits on. I begin lifting myself onto the surface and sprint to the center only for my stomach to be met by the shoulder of the District Ten boy. The air is knocked out of my lungs as I fall backward. He has me on the ground, sitting on me, pinned against the stone surface. I am attempting to escape his hold when he lifts his fist and plants a punch into my cheekbone. My vision blurs out for a moment as the sun beams in my eyes, throwing my hands at his head, attempting to claw myself out of his grip.

His entire body weight begins to flatten me as I wonder if he had time to grab a weapon and is preparing to slit my throat. He throws his hands down onto my neck which is dangling off the start of the decline. His enormous hands grip my throat and push into me. With the back of my head bobbing against the rough surface of the slope, my shoulders begin to give out on the flat rock beneath me. The yells and screams of tributes that have already begun to fight have filled the air that I am gasping for. In this moment of panic I recall what Malo told me, "If you need me, yell for me." I try with everything in my power to yell his name but when I do it seems impossible to make any sound. I can feel the air in my lungs slowly depleting, moments of my mother visiting my mind as the world darkens. My vision begins to distort the boy that is creating my deathbed until a silver arrow impales his skull.

His grip around my neck almost immediately loosens as blood from his mouth begins to drip down onto my face. I try to process what just happened, but instead, my reflexes turn my head to cough. Within seconds the District Ten boy has fallen on top of me, his blood painting a mural on my skin. The momentum of his fall sends us both spiraling down the slope together. As my sense of reality begins to shatter, I feel my head bang against a sharp rock on the way down. In my mouth, I begin to taste a mixture of our blood that has traveled down my face. As we approach the surface that we began on, I lay beside the corpse of the District Ten boy.