This is my 1st fanfic so please rate and review!! This doesn't start at the beginning of the book, it starts at the beginning of the Hunger Games. Enjoy!!
As I stand on my metal plate, preparing to run, I look around and survey the landscape. There is the Cornucopia in the centre, with my fellow tributes positioned around it. To my left, I can see a steep slope, going into some kind of field. To the back of me lies a lake, to my right and directly in front of me lie piney woods. I decide that's where I'm going to head. I look around at the supplies. The items nearest to me are a sheet of plastic, a waterskin, a square of fabric maybe a metre square, and a pair of socks. I know that the sixty seconds must be almost up. I see Katniss on my right, and can't help hoping that she survives today. This thought just forms in my mind when the gong is struck. I take off, scooping up the socks, the fabric and the waterskin but leaving the plastic because a girl, I think from 4, has got it and I don't want to risk a fight. I sprint as hard as I can to my right, around the Cornucopia and towards the woods. I want to look around to check where my fellow tributes are but I resist the temptation, knowing that it will slow me down. However, I know in the back of my mind that I am probably fairly safe, as I am the smallest and I am not competing for any supplies. I feel the scratch of bushes against my skin, and know that I have entered the woods.
I don't let myself slow down until I'm sure I'm far enough out of range for the others to bother coming after me right away. I slow to a jog, and get the opportunity to look around. I see that the woods are denser than they looked from the outside. Excellent. I stop briefly to scale the best-looking tree, and I continue in the trees for as long as I can. I know that for me, the smallest tribute who can't really use any weapon except for a slingshot, my ability to climb and to run will be my greatest defenses.
I have travelled I guess at least a few kilometres when the sky begins to darken. I know that the death recap will come soon, so I scale a tree as high as I can, and settle down. In the time that passes, I fashion a slingshot out of part of the fabric and a stick I found, cutting the fabric with a stone that has a fairly sharp edge. I make the rest of the fabric into a sort of bag, cutting long strips for shoulder straps. I managed to find a pool, which I filled my waterskin from, and a fairly good collection of roots and berries. I'm just finishing a handful of berries when the cannons boom. I count them–eleven in all. Eleven tributes died at the bloodbath. I wonder if Katniss died, but just then, the sky lights up with the seal of the Capitol. I know that after the anthem finishes, I will find out who died. First the girl from 3 is shown, so the Careers from 1 and 2 survived. Then the boy from 4. I had expected all the Careers to survive the first day. The boy from 5. Both from 6. Both from 7. The boy from 8. Both from 9. There's only one more dead tribute. I wonder for a moment if it's Katniss, but then the sky lights up with the face of the girl from 10. I wonder why I was so worried about Katniss, but fall asleep before I can figure it out.
When I wake up, the sky is still dark, but it looks like it always does just before the sun comes up. So I actually got a decent amount of sleep the first day in the arena. I wonder today where all the others are. I also wonder if I can get some more food. I decide to stay in my tree until the sun rises, and then I'll get some food. I don't have to wait long. The sun rises in about half an hour, and I carefully, making sure to make no noise, slide down from my tree. After walking for only a few minutes, I find a bush laden with berries. I cautiously break one open, and recognise it as a grape berry. We get them in the woods near the orchards at home. I pick as many as I can without making it too obvious someone's been here, and move on. Almost immediately I find a patch of the leaves that cure tracker jacker stings. I pick all of them, not bothering to be inconspicuous, because my guess is that if these leaves are here, there are tracker jackers too.
I've been searching for not very long when I hear footsteps. Not just one pair but many. I know that these are the Careers. I scale a tree as fast and as noiselessly as I can. I get about fifteen metres up when they are literally three trees away. I realise my heart is pounding, and I will it not to be loud enough for them to hear. They pass right under my tree, and they are heading away from the lake.
I hardly let myself breathe until I'm absolutely positive that they are out of hearing range. I climb down silently, and am just about to go find a thick tree to nest in for a while when I realise that this is an excellent oppurtunity to spy on the Career's base camp. I'm almost certain that it's back at the lake. I know roughly which direction I came from, and I alternate between walking and jogging until I can see the edge of the woods and, beyond that, the lake. I creep down, getting my body as close to the ground as I can. I crawl into a clump of bushes and peep out. What I see confuses me.
The Career's supplies are stacked in a pyramid shape with a net around it. There ares supplies scattered all around the pyramid, like the layout of supplies around the Cornucopia. The only guard I can see is an average sized boy with a spear, who I realise is from district 3. That surprises me, since 3 isn't one of the Career districts. Plus he's not very big, and his spear is the only weapon I can see he has. The actual camp is about thirty metres away from the pyramid of supplies. I know that this isn't quite right. Something makes the Careers very willing to leave all their precious food right out in the open. I decide to go back to the thicker part of the woods to try and puzzle this out, but I only make it about ten minutes in when I see the fire.