The Hunger Games: Never Safe From Danger

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Nath’s POV

The sickly little creature that is Aulus is with me on the hovercraft to the arena.

“Nath…good luck out there,” he tells me, an earnest look on his face, his greasy hair all over the place. He reaches out his claws, trying to touch my shoulder. I give a little yelp and shuffle away. He looks deeply hurt. I do not apologise.

As much as I want to brutally murder this man of many fabrics, I’m kinda too wrapped up in another emotion. A stronger one.

Fear.

And by that I mean bone-shaking, head-swimming, stomach-flipping, sure-you’re-gonna-get-killed kind of petrified.

They plant a metal tracking device under my skin. It hurts. A lot. They do this every year to every tribute. It used to be a lot more humane, with unconsciousness and surgical equipment. I find out that nowadays, they just take a little gun-like contraption and shoot it into your arm. I clutch the offended area, biting my lip, trying not to yell out. After a minute, I gingerly look at the patch of skin just above my elbow where it happened. I squint and blink rapidly, confused. There are no marks.

Like a little kid, I just declare it ‘magical’ and run back to my seat. I’m not sure what to do, so I turn to the window and reach for the shutter.

“DON’T- do…that…” Aulus warns me. I give him a quizzical glance. He takes a deep breath and then whispers, “You don’t…want to do that. The people don’t like that here…r-really…”

I wonder how he knows this, and why he looks so scared.

A Capitol assistant glances around the door at us, thinking I’m not watching him. He then scuttles off, presumably to report to his master that we are both still alive and conscious.

However, he reappears after a few minutes to report that the hovercraft has reached its destination. I stand up, but my legs threaten to give way and send me plummeting to the floor.

Aulus stands up and tries to steady me with his vaguely hand-like, slimy little balls-of-slime-with-appendages. Disgusted, I shake him off and glare angrily. He goes through the whole hurt puppy routine once again.

He has a minor tantrum when he is forced down the ladder- apparently the scratchy, iron-strength rope would completely ruin his fingernails, which have little wasps painted on them.  But eventually he goes and I know I have to follow, even with the dangerously high probability that I will fall to my death. Why don’t they use harnesses anymore?

I have no idea how long the ladder climb is, but the hovercraft seems to stretch to about the same height the destructive rainbow wave did in my nightmare. I briefly wonder if it will come true, but I decide to just focus on climbing down to safety. I have to cling on for my life as I negotiate it rung-by-rung, until, what seems like forever later, my feet touch earth in an area enclosed by fencing. There is a door which leads into a link of underground passageways. I don’t really like the idea of being beneath the grass, but I don’t complain.  There’s no point, unless I want a dose on knockout gas to help me through.

The tunnels are surprisingly well-lit and expensive-looking, considering they’re only going to be used once. It’s ridiculous how much of Panem’s land is used up making arenas.  One use and they’re worth nothing to anyone.

We don’t have to negotiate any rocks or anything. The passages are incredibly repetitive with multiple forks in the road, but they’re very uniform with steel walls. Aulus knows the way, so I grudgingly decide not to knock him to the ground and smother him. I mournfully think of all the chances I have I have had (but wasted) at doing that in the past.

I am dreading arriving in the Launch Room. My reasoning is twofold- the first is rather obvious. From there, I could be thrown into a bloodthirsty fight to the death at any given moment. I would like to think that my second is also obvious, although not everyone will see it like I do. I will have to spend an indefinite amount of time with Aulus.

Aulus pauses at the next fork in the road. He goes to the right, and I follow, only to discover there is  a keypad on the wall. He punches in a few numbers and a camouflaged, steely door opens in front of us. I hadn’t even noticed it until now, but I suppose that’s the point.

The room’s interior is all black, with a plush, pink sofa against the far wall beneath a set of lights. By the wall to the left, there is a long table with water and snacks. On the right, there are three doors and a little platform. It takes a moment before I realise what the platform is for, and I shiver when I remember I will soon be on it in a glass cylinder.

I sit down on the sofa, but almost immediately Aulus thrusts a pile of green material into my arms. Now, normally I would try to tear apart and burn any item of clothing whatsoever from him, but I am safe with the knowledge that these are not his designs, but the Capitol’s.

He points me to the changing room- the first of the three doors. I attempt what I think is a grateful nod, but he probably interprets it more along the lines of ‘AARGH! My neck hurts!’

I put on the clothes and look in the mirror. I’m wearing a green t-shirt and greyish green trousers. The shoes provided are black and stiff. I sigh. These won’t be very helpful out there, but at least we actually get clothes this year.

I walk out to a jumpy Aulus who yells, “You look fabulous!” at me, but I pay no attention and sit down again. He clasps his hands behind his back and taps his foot nervously. Eventually, he just has to break the silence.

“Ummm…you want some water?” he asks hopefully.

I roll my eyes, but then I consider the fact that I might not see safe water for days. All of a sudden, a drink now doesn’t seem like too bad an idea.

“Yes. Yes, uh, please,” I tell him. Grinning, he runs over, grabs a cup and hands it to me proudly. I awkwardly take it and drink it. It’s cold- real cold, as if there is ice in it, but I check and there isn’t.

I finish my cup and Aulus grabs it from me and disposes of it, grinning like a house dog- one of the big fluffy ones that children adore. And then it hits me, and I freeze, not daring to blink.

I am sitting very comfortably on a pink sofa in a room with a creepy yet somewhat useful… relatively-speaking…normal man. I remember what was said- the Games start at three. Is there a clock in here? Panicked, I jump up, and Aulus defies all my expectations by grabbing me with strength I didn’t know he had.

“Nath,” he says, a new sense of authority in his voice. His hands don’t feel slimy. “What’s wrong?”

“What…what time is it?” I ask quietly, a little shocked.

Miraculously, he has a little golden wristwatch on. He looks at it and then grimly back at me.

“Seven minutes to three…”

I suddenly feel a striking wave of sickness passing through me. I am almost on the ground, and I somehow manage to choke out, “Bath-bathroom?” and Aulus points me to the second door. I run in.

I’m not physically sick, but I feel like I’m going to be and I just collapse on the floor for a few seconds. I take a few deep breaths and force myself to calm down. Saidlee and Renn and Maxec don’t want to see their big brother in such a state…

I harden my expression and march out, perhaps a little too confidently, because I trip over a loose tile on the floor and fall on my face. Now my nose is bleeding and my face is all wet from tears and I feel like I’m going to vomit and my head has started swirling and I can’t breathe properly. I couldn’t feel any worse.

Or so I thought until the lights around the metal circle started blinking and making a quiet noise. A peacekeeper’s face pops up on a little TV screen mounted to the wall. She is telling me to step into position calmly, or it will be done with force.

“I’m sorry, Nath,” Aulus says, and for a moment I think I see the glint of a tear in his eye. I know I have to face my fears, though, so I hold my breath and step onto the metal plate.