Hey everyone! I've had this story up for a while but I took it down for editing, if you haven't read it already then please do! But for those who have, this chapter is pretty much the same minus some spelling errors.
I am hopping from branch to branch in search of the only friend I have in these cruel games. We were on a mission to destroy the camp of other children known as Careers. My job was to set of some leafy fires, hoping that the Careers would see the smoke and fall into our trap. Our plan worked perfectly, from my point of view. Shortly after the Careers found my first fire I heard bombs explode. I think to myself 'what type of weapons were in the Cornucopia this year?' I was too scared to try and get anything there during the first blood bath so I have no clue what the Gamemakers had in store for us, tributes, this year.
What weapons, food, or supplies that are given to us during the games all goes through a group of heartless monsters called Gamemakers. The Gamemakers also control what happens in this hellhole of an arena. From the shape, to the climate, to the firestorm, to the birds that I ate for breakfast this morning, it was all the Gamesmakers doing.
If the Gamemakers had put bombs in the Cornucopia I don't know, all I know is that my friend is in trouble. If a bomb that big is set off that close to you, something must be hurt. 'What if the blast shattered her brain? What if she flew back and broke her ribs on a tree? What if she hit her back?' I think to myself, trying to be as quiet as possible. I fly through the trees worrying quietly to myself, not really paying the attention that is required for these maneuvers. I slip on thin branch and start to fall. I grip at anything that I can reach and surprisingly I land on my feet. I look behind me quickly to make sure that the Careers are still at my second fire, I am nearing the third and last one I have to light, after that I will go and look for my friend. I start to run to the third fire and then I hear it.
The cannon. The cannons blow when a tribute dies.
"A tribute," I mumble. What a terrible name for us to have, it sounds like we willing came here. No. I would never in my entire life voluntarily come to these games. Unless one of my sisters was chosen, I am the oldest of six children, and I have to take care of them, not die in these games at the mere age of twelve. Only if my sisters were chosen would I volunteer, thats what my friend did. Her sister was my age, 12, it was our first reaping, but it is also my last. It would be her last too, if her sister had not volunteered. The cannons eco hits my ear, pulling me back to reality. What if it was my friend? Fear instantly fills my entire body. I decide to climb up a tree and wait until tomorrow to light my next fire.
When it gets dark the Gamemakers fill the sky of the arena with a picture and the district of the tributes that died that day. If my friend really did die today then there is no need to light the third fire and give off my position in the arena.
I eat the rest of the rabbit that I started this morning. I sit strapped eighty feet in the air by the belt that came with the matching outfits that everyone was wearing. I rest my head on a branch that is next to the one I am already resting on. I remember the nights where my friend would let me sleep in her sleeping bag with her and waking up, using her as a pillow. She was like the big sister I never had. I know I remind her of the sister she saved, and I am ok with that. It makes me miss home and my mom. Oh how I want my mom! At the thought of her I start to cry. Yes, I start crying for my mommy.
"Mommy!" I cry into my knees. "Mom! Dad! Take me home! I want to come home! I want to come home!" I start to sob that sentence for what seems like hours.
I hear the national anthem. "Panem", I say out loud. "Panem, the place where dreams come true, and children are murdered my other children, who, like the rest of us, are innocent and belong at home eating dinner with our families, seeing our siblings grow up, having children that we know will be out of harms way."
The anthem fades as I look nervously to the sky as the face of the dead tribute flashes across the sky. I see a boy from district 3. My friend is still alive.
I fall asleep quickly, with the weight of my friend's death now off my shoulders. I make a mental list on the things I need to accomplish: 1) find some breakfast 2) light the other fire 3) get away to the safe spot my friend and I agreed on 4)don't die.
I wake up to the songs of a mockingjay. I smile the first genuine smile since I was reaped to long ago. I get down and start walking to the next fire that I had set up yesterday. I go back to daydreaming about leaving this awful place and I didn't notice the big rope that stood in my path. I absentmindedly stepped over it and found myself hanging upside down from my left foot. I hear the crackle of a boys laugher. "So looky what I've got here!", the boy sneered.
"Let me go!" I manage to croak out. With all the blood in my body rushing to my head it was hard to talk.
"Sure thing," the boy swipes with a dagger and cuts the rope holding me in half. I fall to the ground in a heap with a crunch, as I try to get up he throws a net over my thrashing body.
"Katniss! Katniss! Katniss!" I scream my friends name at the top of my lungs. I hear her call back as she crashes through the under growth of the forest. She runs into the clearing just as the boy looks at me with his unforgiving black eyes. He takes his spear and jams it up my rib cage just as I hear Katniss scream my name.
"Rue! NO!"