Hi. This is part of a thought I had about a female who would later be Haymitch's love interest in the Hunger Games. A bit of back story so you're not confused. The girl's name is Alexis. She is sixteen and from District 7. Her father was originally from District 2 and apart of the Peacekeeping force but left after he fell in love with Alexis's mother. She has a little brother named Hector. She was trained to fight since she was young because her father wanted her to defend herself (and for another unnamed reason). Finally, this is the 55th Hunger Games.
One last thing. Feel free to be blunt about it. I do want to make my first story a good one so any advice would be great. Thanks.
(also any advice on how to get paragraph breaks would be lovely)
I raised my eyebrow, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be a giving last minute strategy talk with your tributes?"
Haymitch shrugged, "Like most, they think I'm too drunk and lucky to be giving them pep talk but I thought since you didn't have a mentor and you seem to listen, you'd want some advice."
Despite the fact I was about to be put into a situation where my life could end in an instant, I cracked a smile, "and what advice would that be, o so wise and old mentor?"
He looked me straight in the eye, "Don't die," he said.
Normally I would've laughed at the remark but now, it seemed to be the greatest piece of advice someone could've given me. Haymitch didn't wait for my response and left the room almost immediately. I stared at the door for moment before grabbing the photo of my family out of my hidden pocket.
'Will they be doing things differently this year as opposed to other years?' I wondered. Mother had always blatantly refused to watch the first day, especially the start of the games. She'd often hide her face in Papa's shirt then grab Hector or I, normally Hector, and would cover our eyes and ears. Papa would just hold Mother, soothing her, before going out to the families of the tributes for that year. I can't remember one time where they had turn down his condolences.
I wondered would those families be there now, for him, Mother and Hector? I closed my eyes, clutching the photo, the one piece of sanity I had in the world at the moment. Tomorrow I would take Haymitch's advice and live, I was determined to get back home, no matter what the cost.
(break)
The first thought I had when I woke up was, too be blunt, 'Crap.'
I had barely opened my eyes when I found myself rustled to a white room to receive my tracker, then I was transported to the catacombs, underneath the arena. At the catacombs, I had breakfast and then was escorted to Gaia who had an entire wardrobe of clothes for the games. After eating a piece of bacon, I was just able to force myself to eat more toast and fruit. Didn't want to go into the arena with an empty stomach, did I?
After breakfast, Gaia put my brunette hair into a tight ponytail, "Don't want that gorgeous hair to be ruined with blood, do we?" she had said with a some what strained smile on her face.
To be honest I was relived when I saw the clothes I was wearing, "I did some research into what's comfortable for you and what's good to wear for most weather conditions," Gaia said, impressing me.
"The shoes are durable as long as you're able to dry them for about half an hour every few days and are excellent for running. Your tights and undershirt are designed to keep the heat in and the cold air out. The jacket made out of a lightweight blanket and has a waterproof covering and the socks are proven to last for more than a month in the conditions you'll be forced into," she paused and started to tear up, "Not that you'll need a month. I mean you'll probably be back in one week. In fact, I already have your victory dress in production and don't get me started on the shoes-"
"Gaia!" I stopped her rant, "Thank you."
She pulled me down to her height and into the tightest hug I had ever received a part from the ones my family gave me before I came here, "Stay alive for me." She whispered.
I nodded and patted her back awkwardly, not really knowing what to do.
She lead the way to the Launch Room. To my dismay my hands started to shake, 'I'm about to kill kids, some who are Hector's age,' my thoughts flashed to the twins, 'I hope they die swiftly.'
Luckily, Gaia saw and grabbed one of them and rubbed circles into it, just the way like my Mother did when I burnt myself at a bonfire.
I stepped onto the platform to go to the arena, "I'll see you when you get back honey. Oh! And that mentor from District 12 said to give you this," she handed me the family photo I had to leave in my room this morning, "it passed the inspection this morning and he thought you would want it in the arena."
"Thank you," I choked before the floor started to rise. Gaia waved and mouthed, 'Good luck.' I tried to smile but the muscles in my face weren't working.
(break)
The first thing I noticed was the shadow and then the huge form of the cornucopia. It was the normal shape of a cornucopia but it was placed so the opening was faced down on the ground, making it look like a weird twisting mountain with a flat surface at the top. The entire thing was probably about ten metres high with all the equipment and bags at the top.
The jump off the top wouldn't kill you but you wouldn't be able to move for a while. With forty seconds left to wait, I noticed the formation we were in, a diamond. Well, a disjointed one, half of us were on one side, the other half on the other. In my half, I saw there was one stairway in front of the tribute in the centre, which just happened to be the boy from District 5, the perv. The rest of us were at a different angles to the stairs, I was second closest to the cornucopia with the sixteen year old from District 9 to my left. It was then that I saw the wooden spikes sticking out of the cornucopia.
With twenty seconds to go, I calculated that spikes were about a metre apart in height and width. At the back of the District 9 girl, the almost perfect path came into my mind, I realised that I could avoid the death trap that was the one staircase and use my climbing abilities to scale and grab all the stuff I needed without having to confront the other tributes.
With five seconds left, I got into a running stance ready to scale my climb.
The siren went and I launched myself off the platform, the girl from District 9 was already sprinting towards the stairs, probably hoping to make it before the others. Two metres from the first spike, I jumped, my foot twisted to get a grip on the solid branch before launching itself off with my arms and other leg extended to climb up as quickly as possible.
I already had an advantage with the fact I didn't have to make the longer journey to the stairs, but I like to think my climbing ability really gave me a lead. As the first one to the top I scrambled to get as much as I could and managed to collect two packs. One pack went on my back and the other went around my waist. I hoped they contain at least water and medicine in them. Then I grabbed an axe and shoved some knives into the pack around my waist. That's when some ragged breaths started to come a lot closer. I felt a shoulder on my hand and swung around to take their head clean off their shoulders when I saw it was Clive. He placed another smaller pack at my feet and shove a spear into my hands before scrambling back down the cornucopia.
Without anytime to wonder what that was about, the loud roar of the pervert rang in my ears, I turned to see him shove the District 9 girl down the cornucopia. Quickly realising that a fall would serious injure me and the time it would take for me to climb back down would put me in a vulnerable position, I decided to take the stairs. I hoped that they would be too distracted with each other to notice me but it seems my climbing efforts weren't left unnoticed by some people. Jasmine for District 4 quickly grabbed a knife nearby and flung it at me, I dodged and threw my axe at her.
Quickly turning and running towards the stairs with the pack around my shoulder and spear in my hand, I was greeted with a cannon going off. My blood ran cold and I knew that it was meant for her. The boy from District 8 noticed me trying to run away and raised a sword above his head. Silently cringing at him because he broke Papa's first rule of never giving an opening to your opponent, I kept running with my spear head aiming straight towards his throat. I ran past and it struck true, the blood ran down the shaft to my hand, I heard the gurgle in his throat and his body relaxed into mine. I swung around and yanked the spear from his throat, in the distance the sound of a cannon once again filled my ears.
Going down the stairs was way less crowded than what they would've been coming up and most of the tributes were still at the top fight for supplies. Luckily the trees were close to the platforms and I ran without being spotted. I still ran for a good ten minutes, cannons went off a close intervals until I counted the third, then it stopped.
'Ok,' I thought, 'Find a water source before dark, see what's in the packs and then make a suitable spot in the trees to rest,' these things were drilled into my head by Papa and I wasn't let it all go to waste. I was going to make him proud and see him again.
My mind drifted to the twins as I walked along. Did they survive the cornucopia? Did they die swiftly?
It didn't matter. Emotions was what would kill you. You had to let that survival instinct take over.
(break)
When it felt like far enough from the cornucopia, I poured all the contents from the two smaller packs into the largest one, I caught glimpse of a bit of food and tiny amounts of medicinal plants but the thought of someone attacking from behind was too unnerving and so the pack was loaded urgency. I ended up throwing out useless materials like a spoon... What use was that in a hunger games? I mean I'd rather survive than have table manners. The spear, luckily, could fold up into a smaller blade, so with some rope, I made a quick draw belt where all the knives and spear could be stored. And here I thought all those knot tying lessons with Pa were useless.
It didn't really matter if there was water in the packs or not, I mean if this turned out to be one of the longer hunger games than one bottle of water wasn't going to last very long. I kept to the trees while searching, I would be stupid to be on the ground when I have so many advantages in what was considered my natural habitat to my family.
I looked for what seemed like a few hours, the sun was close to setting, and, for some weird reason, no more cannons went off. The public wouldn't like that, from watching hunger games all my life the amount of deaths were in double digits on the first day.
I was becoming quite dehydrated and needed to find water soon, well I might have water in the pack but long term survival was more of what I had in mind.
I was just about to give up for the moment and look in my pack when I heard screams close by and and cannon go off. Well so much for a boring start to the hunger games.
'Why me?' I silently cursed, climbing further into the tree where no human could possibly see me. Unfortunately for me the assailants chasing after whoever it was were not human but in fact over grown wolves. Mutts. And the person they were chasing after was the little girl of the twins. How do I know this? Because she climbed up the exact same tree as me and now I had a decent size pack of Mutts at the bottom of the tree, waiting for someone to fall. To make matters worse I had a young girl sobbing her heart out, probably for her twin brother, hence the cannon.
'Now,' I thought, 'how to get out of this situation without causing much pain?'
The simple answer was to push the girl out of the tree, I hardly doubt it would be difficult considering her size, and get away while the Mutts were having their meal but my conscience was too nice for that. The second option was to fight the Mutts but that probably have some fatal consequences for me. A third option was to try to lose them in the trees or hope they stay with the girl but again the conscience wasn't too happy about that. So the final and second most painful option was to yell and hope someone came and the dogs would go after them instead. I looked to the crying girl, blocked her ears and yelled, "Holy shit it's an entire lake!"
The child gave me a funny look, and I gave her the 'do-you-really-want-to-go-down-there' look.
(break)
Now I had my doubts about the intelligence level of some of the tributes, especially the Careers, I mean who volunteers for this stuff anyway, but I never thought in a million years this plan would actually work. It did. Three times.
The first was the big guy from District 1, which I found strange considering he was a Career and alone but I guess they decided he was the most expendable considering he had nothing apart from his clothes and a dagger. Actually managed to take down a Mutt before being overwhelmed. It was hardly gruesome simply because you couldn't see him being torn apart, though I did cover the kid's eyes.
The second kid was a young one, possibly the same age as the girl, I almost felt sorry for them. Almost being the key word. Unfortunately for us, he was frozen in fear and was torn apart immediately. The other three emotionally traumatic and fatal options were starting to look better and better.
While debating whether to change plans, my eyes caught sight of a third tribute, hiding in the bushes. The girl for District 5. Very sneaky character and was very good with knives... I drew one of my own and aimed directly at her feet. Or where her feet would be if I could see through the bushes. I don't know if it hit her or not but the rustling of the bushes from the knife certainly distracted the Mutts. They looked at the bush and I gathered the girl in my arms, it was a waiting game, the first person to make a move would draw the Mutts to them definitely and I had the advantage. They couldn't get up the tree and if they could I could get away with a head start. It was dangerous to be on the ground, that was their territory and the longer she waited the less of a chance she would have to get away as they crept closer to her hiding spot.
She moved first, the bushes shaking violently, and the Mutts sprang after her. As soon as the last of the pack left, I moved, climbing from tree to tree with the kid in my arms. I didn't stop until I felt someone tugging my arm, "Stop. we've been going for almost ten minutes, you need to rest," following the voices advice I stopped in what my rugged mind deemed a safe tree and promptly passed out.
(break)
I awoke with a sharp stabbing sensation in my head. It felt like my brother had decided to use my skull as a drum again, "Hector, I swear, if you don't stop that I will use you for target practise next time I train..." I growled before realising what had happened. Right. Hunger games.
Curiously enough, inquisitive eyes that reminded me of Hector's were staring at me. Right. The girl. Looking around my surroundings I noted that it was now well into the night. I must have been unconscious for a few hours... So... Why was the kid still here? And how come she didn't kill me while I was completely and utterly defenceless?
I looked at the kid again, "Why didn't you do it?" I asked.
"Do what? Take your supplies or kill you?" she replied.
"Both."
"I... Um... Don't really know... You did save my life," she said, not looking at my eyes.
"You do realise I could kill you right now?" I practically heard the gasps from the Capital and the commentators from here.
"Yes and I don't really care," There go the gasps again.
"Is it because of your brother?" I asked.
She looked like she was about to cry, they were close. Knowing that I couldn't kill her I said, "Look. I can't kill someone who reminds me of my brother so I'll make you a deal. I know you have family at home so as long as you can keep up with me, I will keep you safe. You fall behind at any point, I won't look back and you'll have to defend yourself. Got it?"
"What happens if we're the only two left?" I highly doubted that considering the Careers would easily be able to take her down if they killed me.
"We'll work that out if it comes to it but to be honest with you, either one or both of us will be dead by then," I said being blunt.
She nodded and she handed a bottle of water with some pills to me, "The pills are painkillers and the water is for hydration, there are plenty more in the pack."
I handed the pills back to her, "We'll need them for later and was the water in the pack?" I asked.
"No. There bottles was in the pack but..." she pointed to the ground.
If there was ever a higher being or beings watching over this slaughter, I firstly hope that they have some sort eternal punishment waiting for them and secondly thank them for letting me pass out next to a small stream. Or I could just say thank you to my subconscious and say it only let me pass out when I came across water.
"That was lucky," I said, taking small sips of the water, trying not to drink it too fast.
After I felt the stabbing turn into more of a throb I asked, "Have they shown who has died?"
Her eyes watered, "Yes," she said in a quiet voice.
I sighed, I just had to team with the small girl who just lost her twin didn't I?
In a softer voice I usually reserved for Hector I said, "Can you tell me who they were?"
"The boy from District 1, girl from District 4, boy from District 8, girl from District 9, both from 10, boy from 11 and ... Will," she burst into tears. So that was her brother's name...
I gently drew her in close and let her cry. While she cried, I look through the pack and found a small but warm blanket and wrapped it around us. The girl from 5 survived and no doubt she wasn't going to be too happy with my stunt with the wolves... On the bright side the were eight tributes down and fifteen to go.
(break and fin)
That was Day 1 of the 55th Hunger Games. Leave advice please. That's all I ask.