So, I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and I was inspired by the idea of a brutal game of survivor- or the hunger games. This story is based on the general idea of the games, but I'm obviously going to change some things.
I do not own anything except for my characters and the plot. The idea of the games goes to Suzanne Collins, and some of the characters are Rick Riordan's.
Can you imagine a time and place where your brothers and sister are chosen to compete in brutal, fatal games? Games where their battle instincts and survival skills are the only things keeping them alive? No? Well then, I hope you survive. Welcome to Camp Half Blood, the year is 2024. May the gods be with you.
"James?" I called towards the door of the cabin of Hades.
"Im almost ready!" he called back, his very faint British accent coming through. Don't get it wrong, he wasn't born in England, his adoptive parents were. Did you know you get accents from the people around you, not where you come from? It surprised me too.
He stepped onto the deck, wearing only his jeans and chest plate. I must've blushed, since he looked away quickly as his cheeks became rosy.
"Are we uh, gonna go train now?" I asked, trying to recover. A small smile crept onto his face as he leapt off the porch.
"You bet, missy!" I laughed as I sprinted after him down the path to the arena. I barely had time to look around at the beautiful scenery at camp before we were there.
"So, a bow and quiver for you, and a sword for me." He said, handing me my weapon of choice.
"Arena battle, or real world?" I asked, just to make sure.
"Real world." He said, giving me a wink. The wink signified a challenge. This should be fun.
"Your choice…" I said as I backed away towards the ever changing arena stands. As I turned to run, a count-down began at ten, and the scene before me changed from the usual arena stands, to a valley with tall pines, and streams crossing the path. This isn't a normal arena, and it's definitely not a normal camp.
-Freeze frame- (A/N: They're like pauses in the story where the narrator is explaining something, but the story isn't going anywhere, if that makes sense, sorry for the confusion.)
Welcome to camp half blood, home of demigods from around North America, where we have a lava spewing climbing wall, Greek style buildings, a canoe lake full of water spirits, a monster filled forest, and our main attraction, our ever changing arena. Our arena is set up as a temple to the goddess Hecate, a minor gift so that she will help us with our training. The arena is surrounded by magic which can change the look of the arena. One day, it may be a frozen wasteland, the next; it could be a blistering desert. The size can also change, but from the outside you could never tell. Some days, it feels like it could take you days to get to the other end of the arena, and some days, you can see it from an ant hill.
Lady Hecate likes to keep us surprised as she comes up with new ideas for the arena, always challenging the campers. You can choose from two styles of battle training in the arena: real world, or arena battle. Most of the demigods are intimidated by the thought of a real world battle, so there are only a limited amount of demigods who actually train this way. James and I are two of seven. Here's a list, for anyone who would care.
1. Annabella Kurt: daughter of Apollo, age 17. Weapon of choice: bow and quiver (Note: also handy with hunting knives. They hurt.).
2. Jesse McConnell: son of Athena, age 13. Weapon of choice: sword and ginormous brain (in a good way of course, kids a friken genius.).
3. Mikayla Jackson: daughter of Perseus and Annabeth Jackson, age 8 (don't let her age fool you, she can knock you off your feet in seconds flat.). Weapon of choice: sword or dagger.
4. James Bryant: son of Hades, age 16. Weapon of choice: sword and ability to bring dead soldiers to life (I'm still afraid of the dark thanks to him).
5. Rhea McKinley (me): daughter of Hermes, age 14 (and ¾!). Weapon: Bow and quiver (also handy with a dagger for close range battles..)
6. Marco Diegueno: son of Zeus (his mother was an Italian model *eye roll*), age 18. Weapon of choice: electrified spear (Ow. All I gotta say.).
7. Gina Clark: daughter of Ares, age 16. Weapon of choice: sword (not really any other weapons for Ares kids … please don't hurt me, by the way…)
And that's it. We –out of over one-hundred campers- are the only souls brave enough to last more then two days in the real world arena, fighting for our lives against each other. Of course, we don't actually kill each other, but there have been a few incidents that we aren't allowed to speak of anymore...
-Reality-
I hid in a tree as I waited for James to approach; he was definitely an up-close fighter. I heard a twig snap, and my head zipped to the left. Nobody was there. Well, nobody alive. I slapped my hand over my mouth to cover a gargled scream from escaping my mouth. The dead WWII soldier looked at me from below, his head cocked to the side in confusion. I realized that it wasn't in confusion, but he was in fact listening to someone.
After a few moments of him listening, and me frozen in the tree, trying to breathe again, the soldier lunged forward and attempted to climb the tree. He got only to the lowest branch before my arrow went sailing through his ribcage, sending his bones clattering down to the forest floor. I sighed in relief, but that relief was short lived.
"Ah Come on, Rhea! Afraid of a little dead soldier?" came James' voice from behind me. I turned in the tree and looked down. The arena had grown darker, more ominous as sounds of monsters began to echo around.
"N-no," I lied stubbornly. "It took me by surprise."
"Whatever floats your non-existent boat," he said, giving me a slightly creepy smile before lunging at my tree. I thought he was going to go headfirst, until at the last moment his hands grabbed the lowest branch and he began pulling himself up. I knew it was only a matter of minutes or seconds before he reached me, high up on my perch.
As he climbed, I prepared to jump. No, im not in fact suicidal, its one of my many talents as a child of Hermes: we are all extremely able to do anything that involves escaping immediate danger, whether it's running from monsters, or worse. Chiron.
James' smile was almost sweet, and I would've fallen for it like I have so many times before if I hadn't noticed the slight animosity his features held. His blonde hair (yes, though he is a son of Hades, he has blonde hair. Get over it.) was pushed back from his face, making him look like a deranged surfer. The normally caring, intelligent black eyes were burning with ferocity and his skin looked paler then it had before we entered the arena. I scanned his body, searching for anything that would give a reason for his mood change. He had a few scratches, but nothing big. He probably just ran into a hellhound on the way to find me. I didn't find anything, and looked up when I realized I had missed my chance to jump to safety in the next tree. He was less then two branches below me, and would easily be able to grab my long legs if I attempted the jump. I made an agitated sound before making my final decision: climb higher.
I raced up the tree as fast as my limbs would allow, and rested directly at the point of the great pine, no coverage here. James was ferociously pursuing me up the tree, but he was failing with every move he made. I couldn't let him climb any higher; his body weight would potentially break the thin branches and he would fall. I poised myself to jump to the closest tree a good five feet away, and leapt.
I reached the other tree and took hold of the sturdiest branch within my arm range. The branch snapped as it held the weight of my falling body, sending me scrambling down the ginormous pine, hitting branches in every which way. I heard my name being called, but not by James.
"Dad?" I asked. But I didn't get an answer. Instead, I got the ground.
I dreamt that I was in a tree; fear gripped me until I realized I had never been in that tree before. I don't even know what kind of tree it was, actually. I took in my surroundings silently as I have been taught to do in training. All around me where trees, it was obviously a very thick forested area. My first thought was the wilderness, but then a bright light lit up the area around me, and my watch began to glow. I don't have a watch. I looked at the screen, and confusion swept over my brain. I was watching the screen as two faces flashed; their names underneath. Camilla Parson, a daughter of Aphrodite and Noah Militrey, a son of Apollo. My eyebrows scrunched together as I continued watching, the two demigods kept appearing, but this time words came with.
"Camilla Parson and Noah Militrey have now been eliminated from the games."
Eliminated? What does that mean, like, out? Dead? I decided I didn't want to know. I kept watching as their weapons were given over to their godly parent, I assumed it meant that 'eliminated' meant dead. Aphrodite burst out crying, before cursing a grim looking Zeus and running out of the room, Ares and Hephaestus followed soon after her. Apollo took his sons bow and quiver and held them to his chest before leaving the room. I swear I saw tears running down his cheeks as a melancholy song sprang from mini speakers of the watch. The doings of Apollo presumably. As soon as the song ended, the watch lost its brightness, and the forest went silent. The monsters calls were the only thing you could hear.
A voice boomed from a loudspeaker somewhere nearby.
"Represents, congratulations for making it through day two of the games! Sixteen of twenty represents are left, the following: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Artemis, Athena, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Erebos, Nyx, Asclepius, Nemesis, and Thanatos. May the gods be with you!" said a cheery voice. The forest fell silent again, nobody dared take a breath. So, of course I almost fell out of my tree when I heard someone whisper my name.
"Rhea!" the boy called. Something in me told me to respond to the boy, and that he wasn't going to hurt me.
"Yes?" I whispered back.
"You in this tree?" he asked, shaking the base.
"Yeah!" I said, tightening my grip on the branch.
"I'm coming up," he said, grunting as he hoisted himself into the abnormally tall tree. As soon as I saw his face, I knew I had made a good decision.
"James, how did you know I was here?" I asked, surprised.
"I heard your watch," he answered simply, settling himself down beside me in the fork of two branches.
"James, can I ask you something?" dream me asked. He shrugged.
"Sure,"
"This might sound crazy, but, do you know what's going on?" I asked him honestly.
"In all honesty? No. I just heard your watch, and took a chance. But don't worry, it'll be alright." He promised me, draping his arm protectively around my shoulders. I leaned into his chest and felt it rise and fall with his slow breathing.
"I don't want my dad to accept my bow and quiver," I admitted, my voice cracking.
"Ill make sure he wont have to," he said, leaning in closer to me. He kissed me quickly on the crown of my head before I felt my eyes droop closed.
Well, that was the first chapter of my story... how do you guys like it so far? You can tell me in a review if you love it, hate it, or can't live without it. Im just kidding of course, but please do not be afraid to review (:
Hey! I'll let you in on a little tid-bit of information: the gods that are going to be represented are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hera, Hermes, Erebos, Hemera, Nyx, Asclepius, Nemesis, Thanatos, and Persephone. So look out for their kids in the next few chapters!
Well, there ya go, I hope you enjoyed it, ill try and upload more chapters either tonight or tomorrow or sometime soon, because I feel like this could be a good story, but im really sorry if I don't, I have a horribly busy schedule /:
-swimmergirl3
