My face was cold, so terribly cold, and I could feel a weak ache pulsing behind my temple. I felt almost paralyzed, but I could feel I was curled into fetal position in what felt like a snow bank. I tried to remember what had happened, where I was, and what was going on. I wondered briefly if I had fallen asleep at the wharf during a blizzard. I blindly reached to my forehead towards my temple. It was caked in blood. What was going on? I inhaled deeply and stretched my stiff sore muscles. The scent of the gentle smoke from a fire met my breath. Was someone caring for me? I opened my eyes, blinking the snow off of my lashes. I took in my surroundings and the sight knocked the wind out of my lungs.
I wasn't in the wharf.
I was in the middle of a barren, snowy tundra.
I took a shaky breath and rose to my feet taking in the little camp I had been laying in. It was a quaint little place with a few blankets and a spit with a rather forlorn looking aquatic animal roasting on it. Someone cleared their throat behind me. I spun around to face them. She was a slender figure wearing a skin-tight wet suit with the number 7 stitched on her chest in bright red, her muscular hands clutched a harpoon in their grasp.
"I thought you'd never wake up." She grumbled tossing a package to the ground by the fire, stalking past me. I followed her with my gaze.
"Who- who are you?" I managed scratching the back of my head, still considerably drowsy after sleeping for what I was figuring was for a long time.
"Harley Marsden. I'm from District 7." She pointed to the number on her suit. "And since you probably don't remember, your name is Mindy and you're from District 4." I nodded at her and blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the glare off the snow.
"Yeah. I remember my name and District…But where are we?" I grumbled.
"The Hunger Games. 58th. Arctic Arena." She tossed me a heavy belt. "And this is what your talent managed to get from the cornucopia." It was made of rubber and weighed probably 30 pounds. I clipped it around my skin-tight suit.
"Thanks…But…" She cut me off.
"And we're allies by the way. There are two other tributes left."
"Okay but…" Harley cut me off again.
"Look, don't ask any more questions. Okay? Just listen." She sat down by the fire, and gestured for me to take a seat across from her. I did so promptly. I hoped that if I listened to her all my questions would be answered
"You had a run in with a career," She pointed to her forehead. "He hit you pretty hard; you were out for quite a few days. And I'm guessing it affected your memory. Considering you seem pretty clueless about almost everything." I nodded.
"I found you half dead in the snow and nursed you back to health so that we could help each other out." She paused like she was waiting for me to say something. "Well are you going to say anything? Or are you suddenly mute now too?" She snapped, her gaze as cold as the snow.
"What about the career?" I asked eying her through the column of smoke.
"Killed him." She said matter-of-factly gesturing to her harpoon. I choked slightly. Harley gave me a look like I had ten heads.
"Thank you." I managed at long last, reaching towards a dried biscuit from a tin sent by a sponsor.
"Yeah," she grumbled as I nibbled on the hard bread. "You better be thankful."
Harley and I camped together for days surviving off of the blubbery aquatic animals she brought back from the shore with her harpoon. She was bitter, and sarcastic. I figured she only put up with me so she didn't have to be alone.
After what I figured was about a week in the Arctic arena Harley dragged me along with her to the edge of the iceberg to go fishing. It was bitterly cold that day and the frigid winds cut through my insulated skin tight suit like it was made of paper. I shivered following her. My ally.
We reached the edge after a long trek to the east with our backs to the setting sun. It was beautiful, such beauty that took my breath away.
"Wow." I murmured, looking out across the arctic sea. Harley's face remained emotionless as we stood side-by-side at the edge. I sighed and frowned slightly.
"There are three of us left then?" I asked, trying to study her face. She swallowed and looked down at her feet.
"I lied." She murmured bitterly. The words didn't even register until I received a swift punch to the face. Blood gushed down my face from my broken nose. I clambered backwards stunned and confused out of my wits. She lied? What was this? Were we the last two tributes all along and she had just wanted me to trust her so she could kill me at the most opportune time? So that I wouldn't kill her first? Another punch crippled my left eye and caused me to stumble forward into her grasp. It all made sense. She wasn't afraid to make that fire because she knew no-one would come looking for her.
She wrapped her arms around my torso and threw me over the edge of the iceberg into the frigid water.
"Harley!" I screamed as the current pulled me under. I somehow fought myself to the surface. But it was no better above.
The swells were at least eight feet off of the water. Water poured into my eyes, ears, nose, and throat. I prayed for a miracle as I was tossed around in the water like a rag doll. I suddenly remembered the heavy belt around my waste, the thick rubber belt that I had received as a consolation-prize from the cornucopia. I somehow managed to get my hands around it as I was forced beneath the waves once again. I felt a small switch and desperately clawed at it wishing to be free of the weighted object.
I wasn't expecting what happened next. The belt doubled in size, losing weight and filling with air. It was an inflatable belt. If I hadn't been in eight-foot swells I might have cried for the sudden possibility of survival I had just discovered. I fought the currents with all my might thinking of only one thing.
Revenge.
My body hit the ice full force, and she still didn't hear me. Certainly she hadn't been expecting me to come back. Harley was foolish enough to turn her back and walk away while she thought I would be drowning. I sprinted after her vanishing form, and threw her to the ground with all my weight.
"How dare you!" I screamed, pinning her down, my elbow across her throat. She struggled for a breath. "I knew I should've killed you when I had the chance." She spat in my face.
"Then why didn't you?" I snarled ripping at her long black hair with my left hand. I didn't give her a chance to answer.
I pounded my fists into her delicate features, smashing them into a pulp one by one. Madness enveloped my brain, and when I was done with her she was unconscious and unrecognizable. And I was covered in splatters of her blood.
I picked her distorted frame up off the blood stained snow and slung her over my shoulder. I walked slowly to the edge where she had thrown me off, an enormous pool of water where I had managed to fight my way out to my left. I looked down at the waters that I had been struggling for life in only moments before and remorselessly dropped her into the swells that called for her blood.
"And this is my favorite part, ladies and gentlemen. When a tribute becomes a victor."