The chill of the water shocks me as all the breath in my body leaves my lips, the bubbles around me seem so entrancing that it takes me a moment to remember where I am. Once I do remember where I am, I swim like hell. I'm glad for the strength that District Four has given me as I kick through the water, arriving at the cornucopia in little time. Thorn pulls up for air at the same time I do and blasts straight towards the stash of weapons. I run to the pile, pulling out a backpack and a small knife when I feel a blade against my neck. It's the guy from District three, holding a knife against my neck.
I clench my teeth together when I hear the sickening sound of a sword entering his stomach, blood spits from his mouth and directly all over my face as Thorn stands behind the body, pulling out his sword as the boy drops to the ground, the first kill of the games. "Run!" He exclaims, I shake off any impulsive thoughts and sprint. I'll come back for anything that's left later when I've got Viva and Tiberius.
All hell breaks loose once the Careers make their way to the island, throwing themselves at anyone willing to get in their way. Tiberius runs into the fight headfirst, pulling two axes from the pile and the centre and throwing one directly into the body of the girl from District Eleven. My next move is to find Elsie, who I haven't seen since the jump. Had she made it to shore? Or had she drowned in the water, me frantically swimming to the island had left her splashing around without any ability to swim.
I find the Viva down the side of the cornucopia, pulling knives from a dead kid's body, her red hair looks even more intimidating when you can't tell if the red is blood or her natural hair colour. "Where's Elsie?" I call to her, dragging her off the cornucopia and onto the island.
"I told her to run to the mouth of that river you spotted," She pants, cleaning off the blades on the side of her pants, "She'll be halfway there now."
"Go find, her, circle back through the edge of the trees, don't come into the clearing until you hear the cannons," I instruct her, she doesn't argue with me, probably something to do with the blood from the District Three boy's mouth still sprayed all over my face. For now, I need to find Beck and Thorn.
I sprint straight back into the action; I can almost hear the distressed screams of Finnick and Mags telling me not to. I ignore the lingering voice of my best friend in my head and I run directly toward the bloodbath. A majority of the tributes have either cleared out of are dead, only the career tributes and a select few other members remain. Beck has a slash mark on his right bicep from a knife or sword when I reach him, he's managed to salvage a few knives from the cornucopia, a pack on his back. I take him by the hand and pull him out of the violence, holding out my knife protectively and ducking at the spear thrown my way by the District Two tribute.
"What the hell are you doing?" Beck hisses as I drag him down the sand.
"Saving your ass, now shut up and be grateful about it," I hiss back, pulling him into the trees. I put a finger over his lips, telling him to be quiet as we watch the rest of the bloodbath, "Everything's on track so far," I whisper to myself. I notice a long stick on the ground, sparking an idea in my head, I pull a vine from a tree and begin to tightly tie the knife to the stick with a vine. It wasn't a trident, but I was better with a spear than a knife.
"What's on track?" Beck whispers to himself, clutching his knife so tightly that I can see the white of his knuckles. He doesn't trust me, that much is clear, I know he won't trust me until Viva arrives with Elsie. I forgot that only Viva, Tiberius and I were in on it, it didn't snap in my mind that he wouldn't have any idea what I was talking about.
"You just need to trust me, wait till the cannons blow," I hiss in response, I pray that it will work. We're virtually defenceless without any of the weapons, the Career pack this year is strong enough without the excess equipment.
I hear a rustle in the leaves behind us causing both Beck and me to spin around, holding our weapons in a position prepared to attack. "Easy there," Viva scoffs, clutching a terrified Elsie's hand tightly. In her hand, the young girl clutches a sharpened oyster shell which she had been using to protect herself, "That river you were talking about is clean water, we saw a couple of animals drinking from it," She adds as the young girl dives into Beck's arms.
"Are you ok?" Beck whispers, stroking her hair to calm down, Elsie continues to cry into his shoulder as Viva and I talk tactics. We're all startled when five cannons sound one after the other, I pray to myself that Thorn's ok, I didn't see him when I went back for Beck causing me to fill with panic. Only five canons! That has to be the least amount of kills a bloodbath has ever seen, these games are going to be long, of that I'm certain.
"How's the big guy doing?" Viva asks, peering out of the trees and over to the cornucopia, we all watch as three of the Career tributes chase after him as he runs into the jungle. They don't turn back as the District Seven boy runs further into the forest, the plan is working, for now, Tiberius will run far enough into the trees so that Viva, Beck and I have enough time to ambush the lone Career girl who has Thorn sitting beside her.
"Let's go now, we've only got so long before they realise it's a ruse," I direct, Thorn catches my eye as the group of us creep out of the trees, he turns Sage's attention to the cliffs where I spot the girl from District Three scouring the rocks and move into a cave at the bottom. She's a survivor, I know for a fact that she could win. Without thinking at all I slash my spear into her calf, leaving a deep enough cut for her to not fight back, but shallow enough for her not to die. "Take what you want and run," I tell Viva who doesn't need to be told twice, she picks up several more knives for herself and two axes for Tiberius, carrying two backpacks away from the rest of the group and into the tropical forest. She doesn't call out for her ally, instead, she runs in his direction, holding the two out in preparation to take on the Careers.
Beck and Elsie both pick up more supplies, taking several knives and pulling backpacks over their backs. I stuff a few more supplies into my pack and scour around the rest of the weapons when a silver glint catches my eyes, there, untouched amongst a few of the other weapons sits a trident, the very same trident I had used in the individual assessment. I laugh out loud, relief washing over my body as I see something familiar, I wonder if Finnick had paid someone to get it in or if it was purely a coincidence that it had arrived in my hands. I internally smack myself for thinking of Finnick, knowing that I needed to get him out of my head.
I pick up the weapon, twirling it around my hands and flipping it back and forth, mainly to show off, but partly to get a feel for the weapon. The wind seems to move where the weapon goes causing a satisfied smile to find its way to my face, nobody in the history of the games had ever been so lucky, except for maybe Finnick. I outwardly smack myself that time, there it is again.
Sage is breathing heavily as she staggers backward onto a rock, blood is dripping down her leg and I feel a stab of pity for the girl. "I could still kill you, you know that," She snarls at me, her bloodied hands clutching her calf.
I nearly laugh at the comment and give her a small smirk, the Capitol's going to love this I think to myself, which means I'm going to hate it. "Sweetheart, you won't do anything," I say innocently, bending down to the girl's level, "You know how I know that?"
She scoffs, "Just spit it out, you don't care about what I say,"
"That's true, I don't- But I know you won't kill me, because if it weren't for me making the first move, Viva would have slit your throat by now. I marked my territory on you Sage, you're my kill, I guess that means you owe me something," I feel like I can hear the Capitol cheering at my comment, blackmail, threats and smoothing talking, it's the perfect recipe for sponsors. I help Thorn to his feet and wipe some blood from his cheek, it's his own blood, from a small cut on his cheekbone. "I'll fix up that cheek of yours when we set up camp, coming?" I ask him, handing him a pack that he slings over his back.
"Depends," He muses, "What are you offering me that they aren't?" He asks, Elsie seems to quickly have attached herself to Thorn's side considering he's the biggest of the four of us. She cowers behind us as Sage glares at her as a pet cat glares at a caged bird, Elsie's untouchable- she knows exactly how much trouble she would be in if she laid a finger on her.
"Well, we have all their weapons, that's a start," Beck points out, "Also this is literally Aurora's element, this is about as home to her as her actual home is,"
"Please," I smirk, "Call me Rory," That's what the Capitol wants me to say so that's what I say, What I want to say that this is nowhere like my home. While the cliffs and the water are familiar, I feel less at home than I've ever felt. The only thing that grounds me to home is Thorn, Thorn reminds me of Addison, Addison reminds me of home. The home reminds me of Finnick and I'm trapped on a vicious cycle of losing my mind being separated from the only person keeping sane.
We begin to pack up camp as the sun climbs higher into the sky, our best chance is to move near to the mouth of the river that I had spotted earlier. We'll be able to fish from the ocean and the river will supply us with drinking water. All in all, it's a fairly safe spot in terms of food, water and shelter, easy to defend as well.
Elsie's clutching Thorn's hand so hard I fear it's going to fall off, we've almost left the cornucopia when Sage's voice causes us all to turn around. "If you leave me, I'll bleed out, Clovis won't do anything about it, he doesn't care about anyone but himself,"
Thorn lets out a scoff and turns around, a hand on his hip that's been jutted out in a sassy manner, "If you die, that's one less person I have to worry about, I say hallelujah," He turns around a walks away, Elsie still attached to him. He looks a lot less intimidating with a small child following him around like a little duckling to its mother.
"Aurora, please," Sage begs as Beck and I turn around to leave.
I let out an annoyed sigh, turning back to the girl and pulling a medical kit out of Beck's pack, I dress the wound carefully with the correct creams and medicines, wrapping a bandage around her calf. "I guess that means you owe me two things, huh?" I say, turning around abruptly, stalking away from the angry District Two girl with the skinny boy from Twelve by my side.
I was so tempted to have an Aurora/Sage enemies to lovers romantic sub-plot but I changed my mind.