Under the Moon

Chapter Thirty Nine

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

I saw Tesla run toward to Cornucopia, grab two sacks, and advance toward the lush jungle. He was lucky. Being a gamemaker, I knew that his larger sack was full of food and his smaller one contained weapons. I saw a tiny figure tap his shoulder. He whirled around, frightened. "Do you want to be allies?" Velvet asked Tesla. Velvet was carrying four bags, which weighed down her tiny figure. It was obvious she dodged the other tributes, grabbing the best she could find. She was struggling; the bags were too heavy for her tiny frame. Tesla nodded, and took two of her bags. I realized that though none of the stronger tributes had allied Tesla and Velvet yet, they had received the highest training scores. They were two of my favorite tributes and I was hoping that one of them would win. I saw Haymitch, who waited for all the tributes to cease paying attention to the Cornucopia, before walking towards it. He held a bunch of rocks in his hand and threw them away from him. The Careers, who thought there was someone running away, dashed to where he threw the rocks, before he sneaked out around the Cornucopia. He crept toward the stack of supplies and grabbed as many bags as he could before running into the woods. Finding no one where they were looking, the Careers turned around to see all their supplied missing. "What happened?" Flint demanded. No one knew and Haymitch was hidden in the forest. "Nineteen have died in the bloodbath," Ludum said, "Get the cannons ready!" No one did anything. I realized he was glaring at me. I looked at him. "Yeah, you, Athena!" he barked. Shayne had already done it for me. "Thanks Apollo," Ludum said, "Where are you Athena? Daydreaming about Copper? Don't worry, you'll see him soon. Unlike me, you don't work the night shift too!"

"Sorry," I said, "I was looking at the tributes."

"Well, start the cannons," he said. I nodded as I pressed the correct button nineteen times. Nineteen booms went off in the arena. Everyone from Districts One and Two had survived. Poor Selenium died, along with a girl from District Four, a boy and a girl from District Five, both boys from District Six, a boy and girl from District Seven, both girls from District Eight and Nine, a girl and a boy from ten, three kids from District Eleven, and Rivka and Sael. Twenty nine kids remained in the arena. Among them were Tesla, Velvet, Haymitch, Maysilee, Ruby, Hydro, Sapphirus, Talca, Pisces, Jet, Flint, Denim, Linder, Micah, Moe, and fifteen others I could not recall. "Look!" Ludum called, "Moe is eating a poison pineapple!" Moe greedily devoured the pineapple. Moments later, he was dead. This time, I didn't need Ludum to tell me to prepare a cannon. I released it and a boom filled the arena. I looked at the trackers of the remaining tributes. Like most Careers, Ruby, Sapphirus, Denim, Micah, Talca, Flint, Linder, and Pisces were inside the Cornucopia. Hydro, Jet, and three other tributes were in a clump by the deadly river. Tesla and Velvet were under a tree. Maysilee, Haymitch, and eleven other tributes were separated; Haymitch was walking toward the left edge of the arena, Maysilee seemed to be secretly following him, and the other tributes were in the forest. Why was Mayilee following Haymitch? Did she want to kill him or did she want to be allies? I had no idea, but I tapped my miniscreen and chose location three, where Hydro and Jet were at. It was us Gamemakers' jobs to monitor each clump of tributes, to see what they were doing and how they were feeling. Hydro, Jet, and the three other tributes were dipping their canteens in the lethal water. Two of the boys drank from their canteens and fell to the ground. Not paying attention, the girl, who was from District Four, brought the canteen to her lips. "Siren! No!" Hydro called. Siren dropped the canteen and saw the bodies of the two boys. "Oh no!" she gasped. Doing my job, I set off two cannons. We had to wait for fifteen minutes until Siren stopped hugging and crying over on of the two dead tributes. When Hydro and Jet has finally pulled her away, our hovercraft flew above them, slowly pulling up their two limp bodies.

By the end of our shift, seven more tributes had died from eating or drinking some of their poisonous surroundings. They consisted of Denim, Micah, Linder, and four of the unallied tributes. Now there were only nineteen tributes left in the arena. At five in the afternoon, ten other Gamemakers, Shayne and I ended our shift at the Arena Control. I walked the hovercraft that was to take Shayne and I to the mansion. At the front steps, Copper and my camera crew were waiting for me. A couple of the crew members pushed Shayne out of the way of the camera. I had been disguised as Athena early this morning, but no one had fixed me up before this sudden filming. "Hi Athena!" Copper called, "How was your first day as a gamemaker?" Nobody had prepared me for today's filming. I had no idea what Athena would answer, so I answered as myself. "Different. It was fascinating to work with all the technology, but it was depressing to see all those kids die," I said.

"Of course it was. Since it was your first day of work, I have something special planned for tonight," Copper smiled. I saw the disappointed look on Shayne's face, who had probably been hoping to talk about the games to me tonight. "What is it?" I asked Copper.

"Oh, it's a surprise," he said, his green eyes glowing.

"Alright, then. Surprise me!" I laughed. He grabbed my hand, pulling me with him. I noticed that he was wearing the type of suit he always wore, today it was a silky black one, and he was even wearing a tie. "Oh, Copper! Is it a party or something? Because, you know I'm not dressed right," I indicated to my white, gamemaker uniform.

"No, it's not a party, but it's alright, Tigris told me to give this to you. You can go change in that little room out there," Copper said. I went into a tiny room that I had never seen before. I was pretty sure the camera crew had put it there for today's filming. I opened the parcel and saw a high-low red dress and red wedges, which I put on. There was a tiny mirror, black eyeliner, and red lipstick which I was supposed to put on. I put on the makeup, left my uniform in the room and walked outside again. "That's prettier," Copper smiled as he led me to the gardens. "Close your eyes," he said.

"Oh come on. Is it necessary?" I asked.

"Definitely. I'll make sure you don't fall," Copper said. I closed my eyes and allowed Copper to lead my to wherever he was taking me. I felt him coming to a stop, and then I felt being pushed into a very comfortable chair. Copper let go of me. A few seconds later, Copper said, "Alright, you can open your eyes now." I opened my eyes. "Oh Copper!" I gasped. We were sitting on a table with a red table cloth. It was illuminated by two, long, white candles. It was set with food, all vegetarian for me. The vegetables were chopped in heart shapes. Beside each of us, there was a glass goblet filled with a deep red liquid. "What's this for?" I asked him.

"You, of course," he said.

"I know, but why?" I wondered.

"Just because I knew you would like it," he said, smiling.

"Thank you," I smiled brilliantly at him. He picked up a little heart shaped piece of carrot and placed it in my mouth. I got reminded of the games, last year, when we fed each other the candy apples. "You know, it is your birthday in two days," Copper said. I nodded. I was surprised that Athena was going to have the same birthday as Zeze. I was assuming that they would change my birthday, especially since the mini-party Copper had arranged for me in the arena was televised. "I missed you birthday," I told him. I had missed both his and Shayne's when we were at District Thirteen.

"It wasn't your fault. You were kidnapped," Copper said, "Fourteen, you'll be turning fourteen." He was fourteen when I first met him. This was something nice to say for the cameras, but we were supposed to have known each other for ages. "You were fourteen when you won the games. That was when I knew I couldn't lose you again," I said. One of the camera crewmen gave me a thumbs up. Copper smiled. "In four months, I'll be sixteen. You are just a little kid," he laughed.

"Little? Me? Hey I'm only less than two years younger than you!" I said.

"Baby!" he shouted.

"Am not!" I said.

"Are too!" he said.

"Hey," hissed the director of our show, "You two aren't supposed to quibbling kids, you're supposed to be Panem's symbol of young romance!" I nodded.

"What do want for your birthday?" Copper asked.

"Nothing, I'm content with everything I have," I said.

"Content with having me?" Copper asked arrogantly.

I laughed, "You can say that," I told him. I grinned at him, staring at his green eyes. He grinned back, staring at my shiny blue ones. And we just sat there, our heads facing each other, just smiling with giant smiles on our faces. After all the stress I was suffering from in the Capitol, from coming back from District Thirteen, to worrying about my parents' lives, to being a gamemaker, this was a relieving break. It reminded me of why I liked Copper so much; with him, I always had fun.