Battle Scars

Chapter 16: The Ring of Fire

Chapter sixteen: The Ring of Fire
And then we were running. In any race other this one, second place is a pretty prestigious position. In this case, second place lost me the only weapon I was comfortable with. Mitch snatched the knives, and grabbed himself a bow and arrows. He met my eyes, and drew the bow. I snatched up a sword and another pack, before I realised he wasn't shooting me. He shot whoever was behind me. I understood his message. Team with me, or you loose your knives. However, I wasn't willing to risk loosing my life so early, for the sake of a good weapon. For all I knew he still wanted the team to kill me. I turned to run from the corn, and the first thing that met my eyes was Vikk drawing the blood of my fellow countryman, Aidan. His cannon sounded, giving Vikk the first bloodshed of the games. An arrow stuck out of Aidan's chest. I knew exactly where it had come from.
Vikk kicked the body out of the way, and looked straight at me. The other tributes surrounded us, looting the corn, and I was trapped between Mitch and Vikk. I ran to the left, dodging other tributes. I hoped Mitch didn't decide to snipe me with his bow as well. I didn't know what weapon Vikk used, but I didn't stick around to find out. I reached the city walls, and slipped between a crack. I found myself in a tunnel of cobwebbed, collapsing walls. I ran through them, and came out on the other side, finding myself on a rocky beach. The rock was a strange colour, and it bordered a river. As I neared the river, I felt myself getting hotter and hotter. When I finally reached it, I discovered why. The river wasn't water, but lava. The strangely coloured rock was obviously obsidian of some description. I looked around quickly. I needed to make my escape out of the cornucopia island, but there appeared to be no way out.
Just as I heard footsteps exiting the city behind me, I discovered the vines in the trees above the river. I would have to swing across the river, and hope the vines were strong enough to save me from a fiery death. As I grabbed one of the vines, PMS arrived at the river bed. I almost had time to swing away, but Vikk reached me too soon. He attacked with his own sword, but I blocked the hit, preventing him from cutting the vine, although it gave me a shallow cut on my leg. I swung my own sword at him, and sliced his upper arm, causing him to yell, and almost drop the sword. Thankfully, I swung away just as the rest of PMS arrived on the scene. I thought I would get away with no more than a cut. But just as I landed safely on the other side, an arrow sniped my cheek, spearing the tip of my ear. Blood began to pour from the wound, but I had no other option than to ignore it, and hope I didn't loose too much blood. As I turned to run away, I noticed that although some of the PMS members were looking for more vines to cross the lava with, the majority were preoccupied with other tributes, who had, unfortunately for those tributes, chosen that particular side of the cornucopia for an escape route. Several cannons sounded as I ran. And although I had convinced myself that I hated him, I hoped that none of them were for Mitch. Hopefully the arrow to the face was enough to deter Vikk from killing him just yet.
When my brain finally found the time to register my surroundings, I realised I was in a woodland forest. Tall, thick trees spread out as far as the eye could see. I ran through the forest, wanting to put as much distance between myself and PMS as possible. In fact, I didn't stop running until I heard running water, and of course, then I had to follow the sound to investigate it.
What was causing the sound was a waterfall. It descended from high up on a mountainy outcrop, and converged in a pool at the bottom. The water was crystal clear, meaning it was drinkable, and beautifully cool. So much for the snow and ice from that morning. Inside the arena, we were isolated from the natural weather, and it was hot. Probably partly due to the river of lava, although the sun was beating down upon the canopy of trees above my head.
I decided to climb up to the top of the waterfall, and hide there for the time being. Hopefully, if anyone else came to the water source, they would stay down the bottom, where the water was easy to get to. I climbed up the rocks, carefully avoiding scraping my cut leg on anything, and finally made it to the top of the falls. I could hear a faint buzzing noise, and after looking around a little, I realised that I was right beside the force field at the edge of the arena.

A/N: the ring of fire? Yes. I did just reference finding nemo. Deal with it. xD