Author's Game Entries

Task 2: Symphony of Death

Breathe. Sammy had to remind himself over and over again to just breathe.

"Ten... Nine..."

As the timer counts down, he frantically looks around the arena, and he could feel his heart hammering faster in his chest and his throat constricted to the point where breathing was even more of a challenge. It was a theater. The arena, the whole arena was one giant theater.

"Eight... Seven... Six..."

Seconds seemed to pass like hours and Sammy clenches his fists, looking around at the other tributes. They were all standing on their individual entry platforms, all of them lined down the two aisles between the three sections of red velvet covered seats. He follows their gazes up to the stage where the Cornucopia lay and it was filled with... Instruments?

"Five... Four..."

Sammy's face lights up with hope and he feels his heart beat even faster. The Careers were trained to use weapons but these weren't weapons! He had a chance now, Sammy could feel it. And as the count down slowly ticks down to one, he can feel time abruptly speed back up for him, seconds passing faster than seemed possible.

"Three... Two... One."

All hell broke loose.

Sammy found himself racing towards the one of the two sets of stairs leading stage with all the other tributes in his aisle, and he suddenly felt glad that he wasn't from District 12 or 13, as they were positioned farther down the aisle. The stairs were small though, and fights were breaking out on each set, the groups of tributes bottlenecking at the entrance while they tried to all climb the steps at once.

Sammy, being fairly small, was able to worm his way through the melee and was almost to the stairs when someone is shoved back into him, almost pushing him into the orchestra pit which was positioned directly in front of the stage. He cries out and jumps out of the way as the boy who had shoved the other tribute, the Capital girl whom Sam remembered being called Fleur, punches her in the face and knocks her back into the pit. From where Sam stood, it seemed practically bottomless as it was extremely dark and he couldn't hear the girl hit the ground.

The boy, who Sammy recognizes as the District 2 male, then turns on him and Sammy lets out a startled cry, ducking under the punch the older boy throws at him as he dashes up the steps. The unlucky tribute had placed too much momentum in his swing and he ends up falling off of the steps, landing on the edge of the pit. Sammy was too terrified to feel good about the dodge, and he scurries up the rest of the stairs, only to find himself sliding to an abrupt halt at the top.

Chaos had erupted on the stage as a lot of the tributes were already at the Cornucopia and he's spurred into action again when a tribute coming up the stairs behind him tries to strangle him. He lets out a startled scream as the person wraps their arms around his neck and starts to squeeze, causing Sammy to struggle frantically. His jostling ends up getting his mouth close enough to the person's arm that he was able to bite down on it hard, and he gags when blood fills his mouth.

The person recoils with a hiss and Sammy is able to tear himself from their grip, pushing them back enough that they fell down the stairs and onto the tribute still running up it. Glancing back, he sees that his attacker was the District 13 female that he never learned the name of during training, and she was already attacking the District 2 boy she had been pushed onto.

Taking advantage of their distraction, Sammy races towards the Cornucopia and takes a quick survey of the instruments left. There were still tributes dashing around through the collection of miscellaneous instruments and a lot of them were breaking them apart, taking what could be used as a weapon. He tries to grab a clarinet, his path is blocked by to struggling tributes, one having broken a viola and was using the string as a garotte to choke the other.