Birdie-Lou
My feet are frozen. I can't move. I'm going to die.
Bronson stands next to me, holding on tightly to my hand and talking, but no matter how much I want to hear him, I can't. All around people are stood with their companions, some holding hands, some not touching at all.
On the one to my left, the boy from Six is kissing his partner.
"Birdie, listen!" Bronson hisses into my ear. "Run for the woods, I'll find you..." Woods, we're surrounded by woods. Half of them are evergreen, and the others are more like the trees we get at home, with gloriously green leaves. If I can get to them, I can get up a tree and then Bronson can follow me, and we can stay up there and wait and watch.
A noise bursts through the air.
And now I'm not sure what is happening. It's like everything has suddenly speeded up and all I can see is little pieces of movement and this is actually the Hunger Games and I'm actually here and I am actually really going to die.
Everybody is running and screaming and shouting and the only thing I can make sense of is the boy from Six running straight towards the Cornucopia, and then a flash of metal and he falls, his partner crumpling on top of him, her hand reaching out for his and falling by her side.
There are people everywhere, shouting and screaming and falling over and my feet still won't move. Bronson has vanished into the mess and there's grunting and the clash of weapons. There's a cry of pain and the image of the boy from Thirteen with blood pouring from his arm, his district partner pulling him along with her, plank of wood in hand.
"Run!" someone shouts. They're not talking to me but they're right and I need to run, straight for the trees and wait for Bronson...
There's a deep, horrible scream and someone is running towards me, their hands red and their face red and their shirt ripped and it looks like the girl with the scar, only I can't see it through all the blood and my head is swimming and she falls down and doesn't move.
Somewhere, Bronson is shouting. “Birdie!”
He doesn’t sound in pain but I don’t know and there’s nothing I could use as a weapon and I wouldn’t be much good with it anyway. It takes me a few agonizing seconds to find him and at first my heart skips and drops because there’s a boy with Eleven-tone on the floor with the girl from One stood over the top of him, but then Bronson shouts again and it’s not him, he’s running towards me very quickly, carrying a bag and with his eyes very wide.
"Run!" he shouts. At least I think that's what he says. It's hard to hear properly over the screaming and grunting, and there's bodies on the ground and the Careers are all clustered around the Cornucopia and armed. I can't run. My feet are still frozen, my head is swimming and I've just realised that it must be Palmer on the floor and there's no way he'll survive and...
"Claymore!"
The boy from Two spins around and a shriek bursts out of my mouth; he’s looking straight at Bronson with menace in his eyes. His companion, the one who shouted, is sparring with a boy with neat brown curls and the other Careers aren’t leaping to her defense but stalking around; someone is running away and trips over, but Bronson is still in the boy from Two’s path and he’s got a knife in his hand and…
“Bronson!” I shout, reaching out a hand for him or to tell him to get out of the way or something…
Somebody runs past very quickly, their face blurred, and I’m on the ground with my hands over my head and the screaming I can hear is coming from my own mouth. This is it, I’m going to die and Bronson is going to die too…
Pictures flash across my mind; Ma with her mouth pressed tight with me tucked under her arm in the doorway, Brent laughing from on the roof, the shots of the Peacekeepers, the sun heavy on my back, the orchards stretching on for miles and miles, and I can hear the humming tune of the mockingjays, the four notes that means Pa is dead and Brent has been stung by a tracker-jacker and…
Somebody screams, a girl with a high-pitched yell of pure pain and I don’t want to look, but I have to, and only a few feet away the girl from Ten, with her hair still in her pigtails, is flat on the floor like me, looking straight at me.
I'm about to shout for her to run and get out of the way, but there’s thick, heavy blood trickling down her temple. There’s a knife sticking out of the base of her skull, and her eyes are looking at me but they’re not seeing me at all.
She’s dead.
I pull myself to my feet, fear hammering at my ribcage, and start running. My feet catch on things on the ground and the trees jump up and down in my vision. It doesn’t look like they’re getting any closer and my cheeks are wet with tears and someone is going to get me, almost certainly, and Bronson…
Where is he?
Something barrels into me from the side and a mass of blonde hair pins me to the ground, snarling and screeching. "Bronson!" I shriek; he's got to be nearby and this girl is heavy and angry and...
"Hold still!" she hisses. Someone screams somewhere, a boy, and it sends chills straight through my back. The Careers cheer, and that's worse and please, please don't let it be Bronson because if it's Bronson I don't stand a chance and Ma and Brent have no chance either, and I squeeze my eyes closed so I can see them for one last time, and I don't want to die...
And something rips through my skin and -