Chapter One
By tomorrow we'll be swimming with the fishes
Leave our troubles in the sand
And when the sun comes up
We'll be nothing but dust
Just the outlines of our hands
-Daughter, Tomorrow
Your name.
Stretched out and butchered and squawked through a microphone, but your name.
You're pushed forward by firm hand to the back, and the sparkling woman on the stage looks at you and smiles.
That wakes you up. You stand up straight and walk ahead. You gracefully ascend the stairs and take your place beside her. You don't hear the second name over the rushing in your ears, but you see a shell-shocked girl pushed forward, tears running down her face, desperately making violent motions with her hands.
You've seen her around. You know she can't hear.
She's going to be eaten alive.
You suppose that really, you're one of the lucky ones.
You've had to feed yourself and your small family for years, venturing into the sparse forests outside the chain-link fences and learning to kill by watching the feral cats that live there.
You grew up in the game already, surviving alone against the world, knowing you may eventually adapt to killing humans rather than rodents.
In retrospect, being thrust into Hell may not be so different at all.
Your trainer is a grizzled woman with thick, straight scars running up and down her body.
She could have easily gotten them removed or fixed, but she says that then she would forget. That it would be a betrayal of his memory.
You don't ask who he was.
You trust that she will give you the best chance you could have.
You have a week.
In a week you will be killing, but for now, you train.
You train with short claw-like knives, you train with bows and arrows, and you train with silent spears.
You learn a lot about the others, too.
You learn what the deaf girl is called, you learn the boy in the turtleneck could easily bifurcate you with a sickle, and you learn that the girl with the braids may impale you out of spite for a cat pun you made yesterday.
You learn the huge guy in the wifebeater can't handle a real weapon for shit, but could probably take you all on right now with his bare hands and win.
You make a mental note to pay attention to him.
Oh, you are so very, very lucky.
As the glass lifts you see a short open field with the cornucopia in the middle, with nothing but thick, lush forests in every direction.
10
You scan the array laid out before you.
9
You can't make out too much from this distance.
8
But that looks like
7
a pair of gauntlets
6
with sharp claws extending from the knuckles.
5
You have to get them.
4
You glance from side to side
3
gauge who looks like they'll run
2
who looks like they'll stay and fight
1
BANG
Your feet are flying off your platform as the cannon goes off.
You can't see outside the pinprick at the end of your tunnel, your gauntlets, the weapon that has to be there just for you-
You're knocked to the side. The Career girl with the braids just crashed into you, but before she can get in another hit you're back on your feet and you punch her as hard as you can right across the jaw and you're running again. You're almost there-
You grab them without breaking your stride, and grab something else there too as you pass without stopping to see what it is. You keep running. As soon as you make it to the trees you'll be safe, you know you will be, no one can stop you once you're there.
The tunnel vision is gone. You hear a wretched scream, the thick splatters of blood behind you, the thuds of kids fighting and bodies dropping and oh god this is so much worse than it was on TV and
You're there, you're here, you're in the trees, you're safe, but you have to keep running. You have to keep running or they'll find you and they'll kill you and your mom won't have anyone anymore and you'll never see your damn cat again. You have to keep running.