87th Games

What Are The Odds?

“Above all” she ordered to me “don’t die in the first 10 minutes. If you do everything I told you then you’ll have a pretty good chance”. She handed me something and told me not to look at it until I got on the hovercraft. She told me it would be useful to me.

The hovercraft was bumpy and the loud droning noise was giving me a headache. I didn’t want to open my eyes because I didn’t want to look at Arrow. He was smirking at me and winking. 

“What are you laughing at” I finally snapped.

“I was remembering that time you saved the lamb”. I slumped down in my seat and tried to kick him.

“I’m gunna kill you Arrow” I vowed.

“Shut up” the girl from district one hissed at me. “I can’t concentrate”

“What’s your problem?” I asked her.

“You’re useless” she sneered at me. What the hell was her problem? She was so rude to me in the training centre and now what? She had to be rude to me now too?

“Bloom…” Zane chastised. “Give her a break”.

Why was Zane standing up for me? And why did I have to be seated next to them of all people? This was confusing. I needed to enter the games with a clear mind. 

Arrow started to laugh again.

“What now” I whipped my head to face Arrow, directly in front of me.

“Nice bracelet” he said sarcastically, laughing again.

Instinctively, I put my hand on my bracelet and twirled it around my wrist. It was the token Avery gave to me. She wore something similar in her games and it must have meant a lot to give me a replica of hers.

“I think it’s nice” Zane whispered to me.

Great. Now they were all making fun of me.

A man came around to each one of us and planted a tracker in our arms. Yeah, like we would attempt running away in the games. We’d end up becoming Avoxes or worse, dead.

The hovercraft landed underground and we all were lead into our own rooms. Nobody knew what to expect or what the arena above us held. I was nervous and scared. I was probably going to die.

There was a note on a table and it read “Good luck, Scar. We know you can do it – Mum”. Avery had come through! I told her last night the thing I wanted more than anything was to hear and see from my mum one more time. She had gotten in contact with her and set up this note. For some reason, I felt a small glimmer of hope. Damn it! I was going to enter the arena crying.

I wiped away tears as I stood on my pedestal and soon enough I was being pushed up into the arena.

I adjusted my eyes. I saw the rest of the 23 tributes on pedestals alongside me. We were to stand there for 1 minute so that the capitol had times to start the game. If we moved early we would be blown sky high.

59

58

57

56

I gasped. The arena was beautiful. The cornucopia was a red wooden barn and I could hear the faint sound of chickens clucking inside. There were a tonne of weapons and food handing outside and inside the barn but they were only there for one thing and one thing only, the usual cornucopia blood bath. Only tributes that were dumb enough would enter in the first ten minutes, yet, every year, they did it anyway. Only the careers went there and that was because they already had an alliance. I’d have to find weapons somehow else.