(Vida Amenta (District Five)'s P.O.V)
We all have one large final lunch together. The games start in four hours, so we're loading up on food now. All twelve of us are seated at a table in the catacombs below the arena. The table is laden with tons and tons of food, and all of us are scoffing down as much we can. I personally am making sure to eat a lot of carbohydrates and drinking a lot of water.
Our alliance is still as strong as ever. I've become particularly close to Kaitlyn, seeing as she's only two years older than me. She's like a big sister. She helped me get through watching the first Games, even though her district partner was hunting down Isaac.
I haven't been able to see Isaac since he won the games. All four of the boys are still trapped inside the hospital in recovery.
Kaitlyn wolfs down her grilled fish like there's no tomorrow. I can see she's taking in her diet, like me. But she said she was going to stock up on protein, not carbs. I'm not entirely sure why.
Daisy is also sitting next to me - eating as much as she can. Although Daisy is older than me, she's by far smaller and that's probably why she's the 'cutie' of these Games. Electrica and Daphnie, the other part of our alliance, are seated away from us at the table, and they're chatting between themselves.
There seem to be three tributes going into the Games by themselves, which is interesting seeing as everybody in the Boys' Games had at least one ally. But Ariella from Four, Jeanne from Seven and Mahogany from Eleven are all going in alone. I had thought that everyone would want to team up in an attempt to get as many allies in the Final Games.
Velvet and Alana are laughing loudly amongst themselves, clearly unfazed by the idea of being hunted and killed for entertainment in a few hours time. Chelsea is yapping loudly to Alice, who seems to be barely putting up with her.
A bell rings. It's one in the afternoon, and it was time to meet our stylists before heading into the arena.
"So," Daphnie says as she approaches us with Electrica. "We all meet at the edge of the Cornucopia, in the direction opposite to where the horn is pointing?"
We nod in agreement and then depart, wishing each other luck.
I hug Kaitlyn goodbye. "I don't want to go in," I cry into her chest. I may have a higher odds of winning than in a normal Hunger Games, but it's still more likely that I will die.
"It's going to be okay," Kaitlyn stroked my hair, trying to calm me down. "If Isaac and Ash can win for our Districts, then surely we can too."
I nod and then follow the peacekeepers who escort me to a room, where my stylist is waiting for me.
(Alice Overwood (District Nine)'s P.O.V)
I am SO over Chelsea! She's the most annoying person I think I've ever met! All she's done since we allied up is chat and chat and chat about useless shit!! Almost always it's about a guy named Darren whom she has the BIGGEST crush on apparently, but sometimes it's about even more annoying shit like how she can't wait to see her pet dog again, or how she misses the food in District Eight.
I wish I had found a different ally. But, I'm with Chelsea now, and I don't particularly want the people home in my district to see me as someone who betrays their ally, so I'm going to have to deal with her.
I finish getting changed. I'm not sure what all the other tributes were given to wear, but it looks like I'm wearing a painter's coveralls, entirely in grey. My stylist suggests it was designed to restrict mobility, probably to make the games a little bit more exciting.
It feels like the past three hours have slipped away from me because an automated voice rings throughout the room "One minute until launch".
My stylist wishes me luck, and then I step onto the pedestal. The automated voice is now counting down from ten. I hold my breath as my platform begins to rise. Here we go.
(Alana Jalisi (District Two)'s P.O.V)
I am almost restless, waiting for my platform to rise so I can see what type of arena we'll be having. Finally, I can get a glimpse of the arena and all I see is the colour grey, matching the colour of the coveralls I'm wearing. I look around, the first thing I notice is a collection of around eight metal rung ladders forming a circle where the Cornucopia should be. The ladders lead up to a platform in the air, where I can see the horn of the Cornucopia.
There's going to be fighting before anyone can even touch a weapon. I just hope I can get to Velvet first. I want to spend as much time with her as possible.
There are thirty seconds left until the gong goes off. The entire arena is made up of concrete, and this clearing is a pure circle, surrounded by walls. After a little bit of analysing, I can deduce that this entire arena is a giant, cement maze. This will be interesting.
On my left is Kaitlyn, the girl from District Twelve. She'd be fun to kill, she has a lot of sponsors. On my right is the girl from District Eleven, I never caught her name but she was irrelevant to me. Velvet is on the other side of the circle, in between Daphnie - the girl from Six and the girl from Nine.
Three. Two. One.
The gong sounds. I leap off my pedestal and sprint to the ladders. If I'm the first person up at the Cornucopia, I can kill everyone else as they reach the top. They'd all be defenceless. I'm the first to get to the ladders, but Kaitlyn arrives less than two seconds later, at the same ladder. She goes to kick me, but I catch her leg and flip her onto the ground. She then starts climbing up the ladder but screams as something yanks her hair.
Velvet has managed to grab Kaitlyn's hair, and my ally throws the girl from Twelve onto the floor. Realising that neither Velvet or I could sufficiently kill her right now, I kick Kaitlyn in the ribcage before we start to climb up the ladders.
(Ariella Sherril (District Four)'s P.O.V)
I am overly grateful for Kaitlyn for holding up Velvet and Alana. Now I'm the first person to reach the top of the ladders. I quickly look over the edge and notice that Jeanne, Electrica and Daisy are all also nearly up at the top. I can see Alice and Chelsea running off into the distance, into the maze. So is Mahogany. Alana and Velvet are almost at the top - I need to do something fast.
As if by coincidence, I spot a slingshot right nearby me. I grab it and see quite a few, decent sized rocks nearby it. I load one up, and run over to the end of the ladder Velvet is climbing up.
"I'm going to kill you!" Velvet shouts at me.
"Good luck with that!" I shoot back before letting the slingshot go. The rock launches out of my weapon and smacks Velvet straight in the forehead, causing her to topple backwards and fall off her ladder. She falls all the way down to the ground, where I can only assume her skull splits open because the sound of a cannon signals her death. I turn to the next ladder to see that Alana is gone.
I turn and see Alana approaching me with a set of knives she obviously picked up in the Cornucopia. No one else is fighting, just scooping up the weapons around the Cornucopia. Alana looks furious.
"How could you kill Velvet?!" She exclaimed. I ready my slingshot, but she has already thrown a knife at me, which sinks into my chest. I immediately feel nauseous, and I drop the slingshot as I stumble backwards.
Alana grabs me by the shoulders as I am about to fall. "This is for Velvet," she says, and then pushes me off the edge of the platform. As I fall to the ground, I close my eyes.
BOOM!
(Jeanne Vigil (District Seven)'s P.O.V)
So far this bloodbath hasn't shed a lot of blood. Everyone who has died has only done so because they fell off the edge of the Cornucopia. I could have the first real kill.
I look around at the tributes scavenging through the weapons. I focus in on the little girl Daisy, from District Ten. Good. Killing her would get me one step closer to the Final Games.
Daisy picks up a spear and then begins running towards Kaitlyn, who I know is her ally. I don't have a bow or arrows nearby, but there is a set of knives. I scoop them into my hand, and then tackle Daisy to the ground, sweeping her off her feet with ease.
Daisy screams and tries to wriggle out from underneath me. "Help!" she screams out to Kaitlyn. Keeping a hand enclosed around Daisy's throat, I throw one of my knives at Kaitlyn, it hits her in the calf, and she falls over.
"Please don't hurt me," Daisy pleads, her eyes, wide. She's begging.
I scoff. "Nice try," I say as I jam a knife into her neck. Her cannon blasts directly into my ears.
Kaitlyn's back up again, and now she has a spear. I throw the last of my remaining knives at her, and she has to duck out of the way. I scoop up a large yellow backpack and begin to hightail it out of there. Alana is entering the playing field, and I would prefer to be long gone as soon as possible. I scoop up a sheath of arrows and a bow as I run to the ladders, and I leap off the edge of the platform.
As soon as I make it down to the bottom of the ladder, I sprint into the maze, taking as much of a skewed path as possible so that no one will be able to track me. I hear another cannon sound. That's the fourth one now. I've now escaped the fighting. I survived the bloodbath.
(Alana Jalisi (District Two)'s P.O.V)
There are tears in my eyes, but I try not to lose concentration. I can mourn Velvet's death later. I've been searching through the Cornucopia for anything useful when I hear another cannon. I see Jeanne Vigil running away from the Cornucopia. The only people left now is me, Daphnie from Six and Kaitlyn, who is running to get down a ladder.
Daphnie turns and faces me. She's holding a set of knives and has a concentrated look on her face. She's ready to fight me. I also only have a set of knives to defend myself. I need to get the upper hand, so I fling one at Daphnie straight away. Daphnie dodges and runs towards me. There's a large pile of weapons near me, and I'm standing near the edge of where Kaitlyn escaped. I can hear Kaitlyn calling Daphnie down from below me.
I pick up a spear next to me and throw it straight at Daphnie. She dives out of the way, and it soars off the edge of the platform and onto the ground below us. Daphnie throws a knife at me. She's stopped running at me now, we're about five metres apart, the pile of weapons in between us.
I avoid the knife and send my second last one straight at Daphnie's face. Somehow, she avoids my attack once again. Maybe I underestimated this girl, she's decently agile. Daphnie sends her last knife at me, but she just misses, the knife soaring too far to my right. I laugh and approach Daphnie as she runs for the ladders. I throw my final knife at her, but Daphnie jumps down the ladder at the right time and the knife soars into the air and down into the maze.
I have no more knives, and Daphnie is getting away. I need a way to knock her off the ladder. If it killed Ariella and Velvet, the fall could definitely kill Daphnie as well. An idea sparks into my head.
Luckily, the pile of weapons are very close by, and I manage to send them toppling down, raining over Daphnie. She screams as she loses balance, falling to the floor. I grin, my plan works.
But no cannon has gone off.
I look down and see Electrica and Kaitlyn trying to help Daphnie get up, who is lying on the floor at the bottom of the ladder. I curse and hurry down the ladder as fast as I can. I'm almost down the bottom when Daphnie manages to get up, and the three run away to meet Vida, who is waiting at the edge of one of the entrances to the maze. I jump off the ladder and land on the hard, concrete ground, which is painful, but not enough to affect me. Daphnie notices I'm chasing after them, and turns around and runs back at me. Electrica and Kaitlyn don't notice her change direction and run away from the two of us.
In between Daphnie and myself is a sword, which had fallen off the Cornucopia when I pushed the weapons down it. I race towards it. I need to get to it before Daphnie does, neither of us has any other weapons.
Kaitlyn has noticed Daphnie's absence and is running at me at full steam, spear in hand. I have reached the sword though, mere seconds before Daphnie does. I pick it up quickly and send it straight through Daphnie's chest.
I guess Kaitlyn knows it's futile to fight me now because she turns around and runs away with Vida and Electrica. I wave at them as they disappear into the maze. I focus back onto Daphnie, who is breathing heavily, wincing at the sword still embedded into her stomach.
"Do you see that?" I laugh, twisting the sword slightly. Daphnie screams in pain. "Your allies have abandoned you. So much for them being faithful, huh?"
"Rot in hell" she spits on me. I wipe the saliva off my face and twist the sword again. It must be painful, but Daphnie is trying her best to not show any more signs of pain.
"At least -" she pauses, taking deep breaths. "At least my allies are still alive. I'm sacrificing myself for them. But for you? Velvet's dead, and now you're all alone."
I wince at the mention of Velvet's name. I hadn't realised my feelings for her were so strong. "Well, you can join her." I snarl. I rip the sword out of Daphnie's stomach, causing her to scream in pain. I then send the blade straight through her throat. The cannon goes off.
I wipe the sweat off my brow. Daphnie's blood is all over my hands, and now I've spread it to my head. I must look terrible. Sweaty, crying, covered in blood.
All the tributes must be far away by now. The bloodbath is over now - the action is probably inside that maze now. That gives me time to scavenge the remains at the Cornucopia. It takes me a long time to climb up the ladder - my muscles are dying. But I get there and start collecting all the weapons I can, stuffing them into packs.
The packs are filled with food, rope, sheets of plastic, containers, and other oddities. I can't stay at the Cornucopia. Once everyone sees Velvet's picture in the sky tonight, they'll know I'm all alone. I'm the strongest tribute left. I have the highest odds, and the highest training score - save for Kaitlyn Natale.
There are four tributes dead, and I killed half of them. Hopefully, that's earned me some sponsors. I hid my feelings for Velvet away from the audience however, so they might be confused as to why I'm crying. The tears have been streaming down my face for over half an hour now. No one cries that long for an ally - especially not anyone from my District. I know I'm using up all the water inside my body, but I have around five full water bottles in total - ideally, the games will be over before I run out. The boys' games only lasted three days - it could happen again.
The sun is setting by the time I get down from the Cornucopia. I enter the maze as far away from where Kaitlyn and her allies went. I can't take on the three of them by myself. Hopefully, someone else handles them.
(Electrica Yashar (District Three)'s P.O.V)
We've been walking through the maze for at least an hour now. It's nighttime, but the floor of the maze have tiny lights on them, allowing us to see the way. I've seen a similar construction on the footpaths back home in Three. The downside means that we literally have nowhere to hide. The maze has nothing to use for cover, just continuous grey paths.
Kaitlyn is leading us. We're trying to put as much distance between the Cornucopia and us as we possibly can. We've seen that both Alana and Jeanne are perfectly capable of making kills. It'd be best if we managed to sit out on the action - the way Clive and Shaw managed to do for most of their games.
The sound of the Capitol anthem stops us in our tracks. We look up into the sky to watch The Fallen. The first face to appear is Velvet, the girl from District One. I have no clue how she died, only that she wasn't in the action of the bloodbath. I think Kaitlyn did fight her before she got to the Cornucopia, however. After Velvet is Ariella, from District Four. No one expected her to last long. I'd place all my bets that Alana put in the effort to kill her. She had it out for her. Next to appear is Daphnie. We hang our heads down in shame. It was a pity we abandoned her, but it would have only resulted in more of us dead if we tried to fight Alana. I hope Alana didn't make her die in pain, and that it was quick. The last face to appear is Daisy. Kaitlyn says she saw Jeanne kill her as Daisy was trying to fetch a spear to her. Thankfully, it appeared to be a quick death, because Jeanne fled the Cornucopia very soon afterwards.
So, there's definitely eight people left alive. Kaitlyn, Vida and I are together. Alana is by herself, and I'm pretty sure both Mahogany and Jeanne are as well. We know Alice and Chelsea are allied, they must have run from the Cornucopia together as soon as the gong sounded. Perhaps they all kill each other, and the three of us can all get out together without having to touch anyone.
I know that's wishful thinking. Kaitlyn declares that we should keep moving, and we keep walking. I see an open space in front of us and point it out to the others. As soon as we reach it, there's a large banging sound behind us. We swivel around only to discover the path we came from has disappeared, sealed off by a wall which appeared out of nowhere. A strike of lightning comes out of nowhere, and I can suddenly see movement on the other end of the open area.
It's a mutt. It looks like a giant wolf. I quickly alert Vida and Kaitlyn, and we ready our weapons. The mutt hasn't seen us yet. Vida points out an exit to the right - a path that must lead straight back into the maze. Kaitlyn starts sprinting towards it but collides straight into an invisible wall. A loud howl emits from the mutt. It's seen us.
Kaitlyn rubs her head, confused. "We're still in the maze!" Vida realises. "These walls are transparent! We need to find our way over to the exit!"
The wolf has begun running, navigating its way towards us through the maze. I run my hand along the right side of the wall, and we begin running. If I keep my hand on the wall, I'd be able to notice when the path changes direction.
It doesn't take us long to get near the exit - but the wolf is there waiting for us. This is a cruel trick by the Gamemakers. The wolf is standing in place, directly outside the path - snarling at us.
"It's okay," Kaitlyn assures us, readying her spear. "I've got this."
She launches the spear at the wolf. However, the wolf catches the spear in its mouth and then spits it on the ground. It snarls, and the runs at us.
I barely have any time to react. Kaitlyn and Vida have already started to run, but the mutt tackles me to the ground. I scream, fumbling for the knife in my pocket.
The wolf bites into my neck just as I stab it in the chest. Luckily, the bite doesn't penetrate my skin - so all it does is hurt like crazy. The wolf hisses in pain from the knife, and I stab it again. This time, where the heart would be. The mutt dies then and there, and its corpse slumps down on my body, crushing me.
Kaitlyn and Vida work together to roll the wolf off of me. I scramble out, and we take a moment to regain our breaths.
(Chelsea Manning (District Eight)'s P.O.V)
"I feel like we've been walking forever!" I exclaim. "Surely we go to sleep at some point soon?"
Alice shushes at me for what must be the fiftieth time this hour. Who knows what's her problem.
"We don't have any food, water, or weapons!" Alice snarls.
I shrug, she must be annoyed about something, but it doesn't affect me. I could use some water though. Although I wear coveralls all the time back home in District Eight, it still doesn't stop me from sweating like crazy.
As if answering Alice, the chime of a sponsor gift rains down from the sky. I raise my eyebrows in surprise. I'm nowhere near the Capitol's favourite. Some sponsor must like me.
Then I realise the gift isn't for me. The parachute lands directly in front of Alice, and she opens up the capsule. Inside is a small backpack. In the backpack are two small water bottles, a loaf of bread, and a miniature axe. That'd be great for Alice, now we can defend ourselves, and she's very handy with axes.
Alice grips the axe, and smiles at me, almost evilly. I'm scared for a moment until I remember we are allies.
"Here," she says, tossing the backpack over to me. It still has the water and bread inside. I take a quick gulp of water and then repack the backpack. "You carry the backpack so I can defend us with the axe."
I nod, and we begin to walk. Up ahead, I can see a clearing. "Look!" I point at the open space ahead. "This must be the end of the maze!"
We walk out into the open space. There is a large banging sound. I look behind me and see that suddenly the path we came from is gone. There are no other exits to this opening, which is blocked off by four walls. We're trapped.
Suddenly, a light pole emerges from the centre of the clearing. Alice and I look up at it as the light on it turn red and a siren rings out loudly. A loudspeaker announces "Tributes nearby! Tributes nearby!" Alice holds her axe at the ready.
Two more bangs sound. I look to my left and see another path has opened up, back into the maze. On my right, a path has also opened up, and Jeanne from District Seven steps out with a set of bow and arrows strapped to her back and a knife in her hand.
She notices us and begins to run directly towards us. I grab Alice's hand, and we run through the left path, back into the maze.
Alice is faster than me and runs ahead of me. Jeanne is catching up fast, I need something to stop her. Suddenly, an idea forms in my head. As we turn a corner, I quickly yank one of the metal water bottles out of the backpack. As Jeanne turns the same corner, I throw the water bottle at her. The metal bottle hits Jeanne straight in the temple, and she trips over onto the ground. I continue running after Alice, and we take as many turns we can, going through forks in the hopes of losing Jeanne.
After what would be about ten minutes of running, we stop.
"I think we lost her," Alice puffs. "What did you throw at her?"
"One of the water bottles!" I grin. I feel so clever for coming up with that. "It hit her on the head, and she tripped and fell to the floor!"
Alice is silent, not looking amused. In fact, she looks mad. "WHAT?!" she eventually exclaims. "I just got water - my water that was given to me by my sponsor, and you throw it away?!"
Shit, I didn't think about it that way.
"I'm sorry!" I defend myself. "I didn't think about it that way. I was only trying to stop her! I'm so sorry Alice!"
Alice turns away from me. "You will be."
What's that supposed to mean?
(Mahogany Tipster (District Eleven)'s P.O.V)
Things aren't looking great. It must be almost midnight, and I have zero supplies, zero allies, and the only weapon I have is the slingshot I took from the corpse of the girl from District Four at the Cornucopia, and a small knife which couldn't kill anything. I am lucky in a sense though. I managed to find some plants on one of the walls I passed. They were all poisonous, but I remembered something from the recap of the Second Quarter Quell I watched. A girl from District Twelve dipped her darts in poison and used it to kill tributes. Perhaps I could do the same.
So I had soaked the darts I have in poison. Now, I just need to find a source of food.
Ahead of me, I see a clearing. Perhaps it's the exit of the maze! Perhaps there's more to this arena than just this maze. I get to the clearing only to discover that it is just a large open space, and each wall has an exit to go back into the maze. Inside the clearing is just one single pig, by itself.
I don't know if it's a mutt and could kill me, or just a source of food. Either way, I shoot it with one of my poison darts, and it falls to the floor - dead. I rush over to it and notice that all the veins on the pig had turned green - probably an effect of the poison. I don't want to touch that, let alone eat it.
I take my backpack off my back. I had grabbed this backpack from the cornucopia, but all it had was a plastic bag and my knife. I cut off a large section of the corpse of the pig, getting blood everywhere. I chuck the section of meat into the plastic bag and then pop it into my backpack. If a tribute comes across it, perhaps they'll touch it and poison themselves.
I need to sleep. I find the darkest section of the maze I possibly can. It's barely darker than anywhere else because of the lights, but it'll have to do. I'd rather be asleep now than in the day when the other tributes are likely to be active again.
I keep my knife, which is now coated in poisonous pig's blood, in my hand in case I am ambushed. And with that, I fall asleep.
THE FALLEN: DAY ONE
04:07 PM - Velvet Amboni, District One
04:10 PM - Ariella Sherril, District Four
04:12 PM - Daisy Kerem, District Ten
04:28 PM: Daphnie Scorno, District Six
REMAINING TRIBUTES
District Two - Alana Jalisi (2 kills - Ariella & Daphnie)
District Three - Electrica Yashar
District Five - Vida Amenta
District Seven - Jeanne Vigil (1 kill - Daisy)
District Eight - Chelsea Manning
District Nine - Alice Overwood
District Eleven - Mahogany Tipster
District Twelve - Kaitlyn Natale
~~
A.N: Okaaaaaaaaaaaaay so I wrote 4700 words. A little more than what I was expecting, but hopefully it was interesting! Quite a lot happened, in my opinion.
The big alliance dropped from 5 members to 3! And Electrica almost died as well, if she hadn't saved herself from the wolf mutt.
What do you think is going to happen between Alice and Chelsea? Alice is understandably very unhappy with Chelsea. Is Chelsea going to realise?
It feels like I'm spoiling, but I promise I'm not. I'm trying to incite conversation!
Also even though she did kill 2 tributes, I personally feel sorry for Alana. She was so close to Velvet after having to pretend that she wasn't attracted to her, and now Velvet's dead. That's a bit of tough luck. :(((
I did my plans for the entire rest of this book. If I somehow manage to stick directly to my plans, that'd mean there'd be 99 chapters in total. So maybe I'll make these chapters slightly smaller, or you'd have to sit through like a million words of pure buildup to the Final Games (which is going to be so so so so so exciting I promise!!! I can't wait to write it)
I have until August to write the rest of this book. Hopefully, I can pump out 1-2 chapters a day, because I have 74 chapters left to write. I might find ways to write faster because I always take long writing pre-games content (like the training and the interviews and the reapings. I just want to get to the fun stuff!)
But I promise I'll try my hardest haha! Either way, if you want to, please support me in any way possible. It provides great incentive. So far, I don't think anyone has even read past Chapter Eight haha...
Either way, exams are over soon, so I'll be in a big writing mode then.