CHAPTER ONE
THE COUNTDOWN
Beep.
Katie stood ready on the small platform, legs bent slightly as she prepared herself to dive. This is what she had been training for.
Beep.
Ross watched the others carefully, planning his every move. Planning to swim, then run, straight for the spears.
Beep.
Alice watched the countdown anxiously, biting her lip as she contemplated her chances of being able to make it to the dense tree line before someone took her down.
Beep.
Riker lowered his frame, readying himself to jump, trying to convince himself that heading to the sword wouldn't end in his death.
Beep.
Lauryn and Taylor stood straight, looking into each others eyes, nodding slightly. They had already agreed. Already realised they didn't stand a chance.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
BEEP.
As if rehearsed, 24 tributes plunged into the water, bodies thrashing in a desperate attempt to reach the pile of weapons first.
Katie and Ross were the first to pull themselves up onto the small island that housed the cornucopia.
Two spears. Only two.
The blue-eyed girl grabbed one, spinning quickly to face the boy, the boy from her district, only twelve years old.
He was dead before he even tried to defend himself.
Three more had been run through with her spear before she found herself in front of the golden haired boy from 3.
Spear on spear. A battle of power.
A smirk fluttered over his lips before he spoke.
"Allies?"
She rolled her eyes, but nodded, turning around to slash the tip of her spear along the throat of the girl from 5. Katie thought her name was Nadia, but the death was too quick for her to even care.
Ross grabbed her wrist, and before she could think to push him away, he pulled her around the side of the cornucopia, pointing silently to the pair from District 12. Both
stood perfectly still at the edge of the water, arms wrapped around each other, lips pressed together.
Within a matter of seconds, a spear tip was pierced through both of their throats, their bodies with barely a scrap of life left in them falling into the water with a quiet splash.
There was no evidence that they had ever been there apart from the blood dripping from the silver spears.
Alice was running. Running as fast as she could. She knew she couldn't fight. The only way for her to survive was to wait for the others to kill themselves off, and try to avoid death.
Her plan of isolating herself, however, failed miserably as a body crashed through the trees, slamming into her and stumbling.
She recognised him, the boy who was looking at her with eyes full of fear, stepping back as though he was a frightened deer being approached by a predator.
Riker. She remembered now. His name was Riker. From district 6, she thought.
"Hey…um…Riker? If you're going to kill me, hurry up and do it so I don't have to live in this nightmare any more. If not, then, well, do you want to be allies?"
She surprised herself with how unnaturally confident she sounded. To her relief, his expression of horror dropped, and he nodded shakily.
"Yeah, Allies. Sounds good.". He smiled softly and held out a bow. "I know you ran before you got any weapons…so here. Better than nothing. I can't shoot anyway, so its no use to me."
She smiled softly, and took it from him, resting it in her hand for a moment, checking the balance.
She was glad he had given her a bow. It was the only weapon she knew how to use.
She slung the quiver of arrows over her shoulder, and looked back at him.
"We should head uphill. See if there's any water."
They began to walk.
Ross and Katie were still at the cornucopia. Everyone who hadn't run was dead.
The cannons had fired a while ago.
Thirteen tributes were dead. Over half of them were already gone, and they were about 5 hours into the games.
The pair were picking through the weapons, choosing the best and the ones they were most skilled with, swords, spears, knives.
Soon both had silver weapons lining their belts and attached to the small bags on their backs.
"So, I don't even know your name."
Ross was the first to speak since he had asked her to be allies, other than a few shouted commands exchanged between them.
"Katie. District four. You?"
"Ross. District three. So, we should find somewhere to set up a camp. Only a temporary one though, we should keep moving."
She raised her eyes at his assumption that he was in charge.
"Over there." She pointed to her left, at one of the thicker portions of jungle. "Theres more tree cover, plus the extra vegetation could mean more food, and hidden water sources."
He nodded in agreement, and started walking quickly, constantly checking around him, weapons at the ready. Katie did the same, keeping her spear and sword raised, ready to use them at any moment. The trek was uneventful, however, and the only time they used the weapons in the next few hours was to cut down some branches and leaves to create a make-shift shelter at the edge of the trees, hidden well so that they could only be seen if someone stood right in front of them and looked down.
While the deadly pair had been arranging their plans and shelter, Alyce and Rocky, both from district one, had somehow managed to escape the bloodbath with a few weapons between them. After walking for a while, they had settled in the branches of a large tree, looking around at the ground below them for signs of a water source, or animals they could eat.
That was when the 14th cannon sounded.