There's a noise like a ticking and I don't need to look around to know that everyone is staring as bright yellow numbers count down.

Fifty

Forty-nine

Forty-eight...

I do look around though, I need to know the area, I need to know my playing field. It's bright, that's not hard to tell. There's rock under us, rock beside us, rock everywhere. There's no hidden traps because there was no place to hide them. All there is is an endless expanse of dirty yellow rock, jutting upwards and suddenly dropping down, crevices and cracks are my only real enemy besides another twenty-three kids who want to kill me.

Thirty-five

Thirty-four

Thirty-three

Thirty-two…

Mountains. Nothing but mountains. Bare, rocky mountains - I can't see any green patches, no streams of water. How do they expect us to live more than a few days if they weren't going to give us food and water?

Twenty-seven

Twenty-six…

While the ticking noise drowns in everyone's ears, I notice kids begin to look around frantically. They need to know where to go, what to do, where their allies are. I know that there are kids who won't go to the Cornucopia and if I were them, I wouldn't either. Not with how this thing is set up.

Twenty

Nineteen

Eighteen…

There's a sharp incline in the rock. Stupid, needless things lay at the bottom - ropes, backpacks, maybe water bottles. I know the Careers will do everything they can to take those anyway but it's clearly the least desirable. I can't see what sits at the top, but I know it must be something worth wanting. I have to climb. Anyone who wants what's up there has to climb. Anyone who wants what's up there will no doubt be pushed to a bloody gruesome death with their skull smashed against rock and their brain splattered on the floor.

Five

Four

Three

Two

One...

It hits and for a moment it's like the world has stopped. Everything slows down, and there is nothing but adrenaline pumping in my blood and my heart pounding in my ears. In an instant, that is gone.

Zero.

And I run.


AN: Hello, my name is Lexie! It may look a bit suspicious that I have no stories written here whatsoever and yet I'm writing an SYOT but fear not, it's just that this is a NEW account and therefore, no documented stories. This story will focus moreso on the reapings and the actual game as opposed to the time in between, though there may be reference to it, and so a few questions will be asked about that. The form for your tribute is on my Profile, please PM me all submissions. Most of the chapters will not be written as this one was and they will definitely be LONGER.

Thank you.

~ Lexie