"Ladies and gentlemen! Let the 72nd hunger games begin!" The voice of Claudius Templesmith echoed through the arena.
24 pods surrounded the edge of an island. The cornucopia was in the middle, leaving a lot of distance from the pod. Water surrounded the island with a width of around a 100 feet. Beyond the water was a little more of grass and then began the lining of a huge forest.
So basically the tributes had two choices: either to run towards the cornucopia, or jump into the water and swim towards the forests.
I had to choose the former considering that I am part of the Career pack. But the water did look tempting, I'm not going to lie.
50, 49, 48, 47....
I looked at the cornucopia, searching for weapons. I spotted some daggers lined up on a board and some spears, stacked up against the walls of the horn-shaped structure. But I wanted a bow and an arrow, because it is much more accurate and easier to hit a moving object with.
25, 24, 23, 22, 21.....
I looked around at the other tributes and spotted Jared a few pods to my left. He looked back and gave me a nod before turning around and getting into position to run. I did the same as the countdown came close to an end.
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, beep!
As soon as the beep was heard I took off towards the cornucopia, I heard quite a few splashes as tributes jumped into the water. I ran faster and reached the daggers section before grabbing a few and slid them into my belt. And then I spotted it, A bow and some arrows in a quiver, and as I went to reach for it, a strong pair of arms caught hold of my shoulder and pulled me into a hard chest. I grunted as the air was knocked out of my lungs. The boy, judging by the hands around my neck, held me in a deadlock as I was struggling for air.
I reached down to my belt and grabbed a dagger and with all my strength, I swung it hard, stabbing him in the leg.
He screamed loudly as his grip loosened around my neck. Then suddenly his weight was lifted off of me and I turned around to see Steph pulling him back and slitting his throat with a machete. Bang. A cannon was set off signalling the death of the boy from district 9.
I smiled with gratitude at her for saving my life, which she returned, before I flickered my eyes down to the dead body that laid limp on the ground and then to the dagger in my hand that was covered in his blood.
Bang.
I dropped the knife down, and picked up the quiver with arrows and swung it around my shoulder and grabbed the elegant looking silver bow.
Two more shots of the cannon were heard. Steph and I ran out of the cornucopia and saw the girl from district 6, using a knife to fight against Ashton, and she was winning. I shot an arrow at her leg and she screeched before falling down. Ashton finished her off by breaking her neck. Another blast of the cannon was heard.
I went towards the water, hearing a few more blasts along the way, and I caught sight of a girl with a backpack, swimming towards the forests.
"Shoot her!" Jared's loud voice boomed across the arena. I flinched and immediately shot the arrow in her direction and I closed my eyes.
All I could hear was the blast of the cannon which made my stomach drop in guilt.
I just killed a person.
I felt nauseous and resisted the urge to throw up. The feeling of killing someone was not a good one. And I didnt know how I'd ever get used to it if I won the games.
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The hovercrafts came and collected the bodies of the many tributes who died, and as soon as everything settled down, I caught the glimpse of the body whose life I took. A girl, about the age of 16, with jet black hair and tanned skin from district 5.
I didn't even know her name.
The 6 of us sustained little to no injuries. After the bloodbath, we headed back to the mouth of the cornucopia and sat down, tired. Isabella suddenly said with a devilish grin, "Wasn't that fun?" No, you female dog, it wasn't. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"I'm going to get some water." I said and I walked to the crate I saw earlier. As I opened the bottle and gulped down some of the water, I sighed in satisfaction as the cool liquid soothed my parched throat.
"You alright?" Came a surprisingly deep voice. I turned around to see Ashton standing there. I simply shrugged in reply. "First kill eh?" He asked. I nodded. "Dont worry, you'll become used to it." He walked over and grabbed a bottle for himself and drank it's contents.
"I'm hungry."
I said suddenly and he chuckled at my randomness. "Let's go find some food then." The both of us walked around the cornucopia trying to find food, but all we found were water bottles, weapons, clothing and blankets. There wasn't any food. Like at all.
"What the hell?" I mumbled, searching under crates as Ashton did the same. "Did the other tributes run away with all of it?" I asked him.
"Or maybe that is the catch in this year's game. No food." He replied. We went to the rest of the group and told them the news. Isabella practically screeched, "What the hell?! Are you kidding me?! What are we going to do? Or did you both hide everything away for yourselves just to starve the rest of us?"
"Calm down woman!" Ashton said, annoyed at her. "No we didn't hide the food. Search the entire arena if you want to." He narrowed his eyes at her.
Stephanie stood up from her spot and said, "We need to go hunting then. It is going to be dark soon I guess. And we also need to find water. The river has salt water."
"No need for that. There is plenty of water in the Cornucopia." I said. "First let's gather all the supplies so it is easier to guard." With that, all of us, including a reluctant Isabella, started to collect all the supplies and made a pile of it at the mouth of the cornucopia. All the backpacks were emptied, and we found lots more of water bottles and plastic sheets and blankets. There was no food in them too.
"Who and all are going to hunt and who are staying here to guard?" Chad asked.
"Well those with a good aim and handy with a knife can hunt and the rest can stay." Jared said. "I'm hunting for sure." It was good that he wasn't lazy.
"So am I.", I piped in. Steph and Ashton joined the little hunting group.
"So it's decided then. Chad and Bella can guard here as the rest of us hunt for food." Jared declared and made his way to grab his knife and spear. Steph and Ashton both had machetes and I had my daggers and bow and arrows. I gave a sympathetic smile towards Chad, who was stuck with Bella dear as he completely ignored the busy one side chatting. He grimaced in response to which I chuckled lightly.
We walked towards the water and I jumped into it. The water was much deeper than I thought. If my feet touched the bottom, then there would have been a foots gap of water from my head to the surface. I swam across the distance, relishing the feeling of the water through my hair. I got out on the other side as the rest made their way slowly across the water body. I helped Stephanie out and we walked towards the forests.
The air lingered with the smell of mud and leaves. There was a faint scent of something metallic.
Blood.
"I stabbed a kid from district 3 before he fell into the water. Guess he made it out." Jared said, clarifying my doubts of whose blood it was. "He couldn't have gone far. Let's find him." We moved a little further, and just Jared said, we found the boy whimpering in the pool of blood that surrounded him. I felt bad for him. "Want to do the honours Stephanie?" He asked innocently.
"My pleasure." She raised her machete and slashed the boy's throat, all the while he was begging her to let him live. I looked down at my feet as the blast of the cannon was heard. We walked further into the trees as I spotted a rabbit lurking about. Immediately I grabbed an arrow an shot it right through its head, finishing it off. Jared picked it up and threw it to Ashton, who caught it and carried it about as I shot a few squirrels and birds.
Steph spotted a fruit tree and climbed it up. And with her bloody machete, she cut a thin branch down, which was full of a round type of fruit. "Remember this one (Y/n)? We learned about it in the training session." I nodded eagerly as I remember about the 'cannon fruit', high in water and sugar content. Ironically, a cannon blast was heard which caused us to chuckle. A hovercraft buzzed past our head, picking up the body of the boy from 3, and heading towards the cornucopia, to lift up another body. My eyebrows furrowed with doubt as to who it was.
"We have got enough food for the night, let's go back and see whose body it was." Ashton said as he carried all the dead animals. Jared picked the fruits up in an empty backpack he carried along and walked at the back of the group.
The light of the sky was soon turning dark. As we got the view of the cornucopia, we saw the silhouette of a person standing by a recently lit fire, a rather petite person.
We swam across and I loaded my bow just in case. "Isabella, where is Chad?" I asked as I went closer to the red head.
"Getting some water. I started this fire in the mean time." At least she was good at something.
"Great, a fire to cook the catch!" Jared said, coming up from behind me.
"A boy from district 12 tried to sneak up on us, I killed him by the time he reached the edge of the water." Chad announced as he made his way into the little circle we all formed around the fire. The sun had set and while I was munching on a rabbit leg, the anthem of the Capitol was heard throughout the entire arena. Fallen tributes. The Images of all the tributes were flashing on the fake sky in the order of their districts.
The boy from District 3, the girl from 5, a girl from 6, a boy from 7, both the tributes of district 8, the boy from 9, a girl from 10 and another one from 11, and finally the boy from district 12.
10 were dead on the first night of the bloodbath and no district had both its tributes left, except for the careers.
"I'll keep first watch." Ashton said as he got up and dusted his pants of. "I'll join him." Chad supplied and the both of them made their way to the pile to get some blankets and the rest of us snuggled up in the warm sheets. I laid down beside Stephanie and closed my eyes in fatigue.
"Long day huh?" She mumbled, equally sleepy.
"Yup. Good night, Steph." I replied with a yawn.
"Good night."
I drifted off into sleep, my last thoughts were that of the girl from district 5, whose death was now numb to me.