The Games

"Run!" I screamed as loud as I could, hoping he would hear. "Michael run!" Something grabbed my arm and I looked to find a girl staring up at me with a terrified look. She was scared. I was scared. We both were terrified of what would happen.

"We can't do anything!" She said, tears swelling in her eyes. "We need to go."

"I'm not leaving him!" I yelled at her. I pulled my arm from her grasp and ran closer to him and pulled out an arrow. I set it and aimed, but before I could release it, Michael turned his attention to me. This made me freeze. My arm began to tremble and whether it was because of the weight pulling on it or the fact that just by looking into his eyes, I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to run. He wanted me to put down my arrow and run to safety.

You have to get out of here. You have to get back home, His words echoed around in my head, and for a second, I wanted to cry. No, I was crying. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't do anything because I knew I wouldn't be able to. I was too weak. You're not a killer Emma.

I lowered my bow as a tear fell down my cheek. He was right, I wasn't a killer. Taking someone's life wasn't me and I needed to hold onto that for as long as I could.

"I'm sorry."

"Have a nice day!" I yelled as a customer walked past me. They walked to the exit, not even giving me a second look. I flipped them off before turning back to my work. I was restocking the shelves. It was late October and with the holiday coming close, I was told we needed to have everything ready for the late rush.

"Emma, make sure everything is straight!" called my boss as she walked past me. I rolled my eyes before fixing the one or two objects that were out of order. Here, everything needed to be straight. Nothing was allowed to be out of place or moved, but that of course was coming down from the hirer ups. Thinking they know everything as they sit in their fancy desks all day, never experiencing what is was like here down at the bottom.

"So, did you hear? Another person went missing," A girl appeared at my side, wearing the same blue khaki pants and navy shirt as I. Her brown hair was died up in a ponytail and her face was lined with light makeup. "Do you think it could be a serial killer?"

"Probably. Why else would they keep taking people?" I shrugged as I place another item on the self.

"What if they come here?" She gasped sarcastically. I looked at her and rolled my eyes. This girl was my co-worker Melissa. She always played around like this, thinking that was never any real danger.

"Melissa, your full of it," I said, adding more items to the shelf. A customer walked by, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him slow to look at the two of us. "No one is coming to kidnap anyone. I mean for god sake, we are in Washington."

"Well Twilight happened and you saw want that was like," She joked. I gave her an annoyed look, but my smile failed me and we both laughed. Behind her, I saw the customer again, and I put my attention on him.

"Can I help you find something sir?" I asked. He looked at the two of us and grew nervous.

"Ah, no. I'm just looking for some up paper and pens." He said, looking around. Something seemed off about him, but so did most customers. We had a pharmacy in the back, and most of the customers are here for them.

"It's in aisle two, in the back corner," I said, pointing him towards the area. He mumbled a thanks before heading back there.

"Why don't people read the god damn signs?" Melissa sighed. She leaned against the shelf like she was exhausted. "I mean, how hard is it?"

"Apparently very," I said as I felt something in my back pocket go off. I pulled my phone out to see a text message.

Pizza okay for dinner?

It was my boyfriend, and thankfully, he knew me so well. I texted back a reply before continuing to do my work.

"Gotta date?" Melissa wiggled her eye brows. I shook my head as the customer who wanted paper walked by. "I got it. Tell make sure you tell me all the details or your nasty bed stuff." She walked away before I could say anything else.

An hour and a half later, I was finally free. I walked down the street in the pitch blackness towards my house. I only lived a few blocks away from my job, which was nice. Though, with the weather getting colder by the day, it was getting difficult for me to stand.

I turned down a street that was sort of a short cut to my house. The street lights were very dim and it seemed all the house lights were out. Part of me wanted to turn back around and go the long way, but at the same time, I was hungry and wanted pizza, so I decided to continue down this road.

When I was about halfway down the road, I saw lights shinning from behind me and I looked to find a car driving down the road slowly. I wrapped my jacket around me tighter before picking up my pace a little. I wasn't one to trust people, let alone in a car on a dark road.

The car slowly to a stop and a man got out of it.

"Excuse me!" He called to me, and instinctively, I stopped. I turned around and put my arms at my side, my one slipping into the side pack that I had. My fingers immediately found the pocket knife that was hidden inside.

"Yea, can I help you?" I asked. I put on my best smile as I tried to act as normal as possible.

"I'm a little lost. I'm looking for Miller Street, can you tell me where that is?" He walked over to me. He was wearing dark cloths and both of his hands were inside his jacket pockets.

"You are on Miller Street," I said, looking this man up and down. He looked like the man that had been in the store earlier. He got a strange look on his face, then pulled out a piece of paper.

"Oh, then can you help me find this address?" He walked closer to me and handed me the piece of paper, which I took. I unfolded it with my free hand and looked to find that it was blank.

"There is nothing-" I was cut off when a rag was placed over my mouth. I dropped the paper and grabbed at the arms that were trying to hold me still. I held my breath as I reached into my bag and pulled out the knife. I opened it and cut the hard that was holding the rag over my mouth. The man screamed as he released me and I spun around, getting ready to cut him again, but before I could, I was punched in the face. I hit the cement hard and I tasted blood in my mouth.

"Fucking bitch," I heard his say. I looked up at the man, but I was so dizzy I couldn't make out any details of him. All I saw through my blurry vision was him raising his foot and it coming down on my head. That was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out.

Who is she? Why did you bring her? A voice spoke around me. I couldn't move or open my eyes. All I could do was just lay here, on an uncomfortable surface.

I had no choice. You wanted twenty four, so I brought you the last one. What difference does it make? There was another voice, one I recognized. He was the man that had knocked me out. She will work, just like any.

Just keep her under until we fix this. The second voice said before I heard a door close. I heard some movement around in the room before something was stuck into my arm. I twitched slightly and I heard the man stop moving for a second. When I didn't do anything else, he continued.

"Stupid Snow. Think he knows everything," He mumbled to himself. "He should just be happy that I even got her. Cut my damn hand open in the process, not like he cares." There was some more noises before everything went silence again.

I opened my eyes to find myself in a white room. The first thing I did was lift my right arm to see what had been stuck in it. There was a small hole over my vein but that was it. I lifted my other arm and looked it over before sitting up to find me in different clothes then I had been in. Before I was in khaki pants and a dark blue button down, but now I was in a black long sleeved shirt and jeans. My shoes were gone and I was in black socks.

I looked around the room to find that I was the only thing in here. There was no bed, no window, nothing. I picked myself up off the floor as I looked at the door. Knowing the situation I was in, it was probably locked. I stood there for a moment, in the dimmed light, before the lights turned on, blinding me.

"Hello?" I called, as I shielded my eyes from the burning light. That's when I heard a creaking noise and looked to find the door swung open. "Is someone there?" I called as I walked towards it. When I was out of the room, I found myself in a hallway. I looked down and up the hallway, but there was no one. "Hello?" I called again. That's when I heard it. There was someone screaming and talking just down the hall. I decided to walk down to see what was going on. If there was someone else here, then maybe they could help me figure out what was going on.

At the end of the hallway a wall, nothing else. Thinking I had gotten lost, I turned back around when I heard a loud grinding noise. I turned to find another doorway and I cautiously walked through it.

"Let us out of here!"

"You can't keep us here like this!"

"Let us out!"

There were about twenty or so people in this plain circular room. Some were screaming and banging on the wall while others stood in groups all around it. They all seemed to notice when I entered and even a few ran at me. I backed up, but before I could get back out the door, the wall moved and blocked off all of our exits.

"LET US OUT!" screamed one of the girls as she ran to the wall behind me and started to bang loudly on it. "LET US OUT!"

"What's going on?" I asked, but no one paid any attention to me. They were all to concern with the door that had been there. A static noise filled the air and I covered my ears along with others as it got louder. Then it went dead.

"Look up there!" Someone screamed. I turned around to find a giant holographic screen appear. There was a man on it, who looked to be on the older side. He had white hair and a white beard, and a look of self-rigorousness.

"Hello, some of you might be wondering what you are doing here. I am here to answer that. My name in President Snow and each and every one of you has been chosen out of millions to participate in something wonderful," He was smiling brightly and I moved closer to the screen, listening to every word that fell from him mouth. "You all have been chosen to take place a real-life remaking of the Hunger Games!" No one in the room moved; no one in the room breathed. "I know many of you might seemed…unnerved by this, but I can promise you that it is a large honor. You are participating in a worldwide phenomenon and millions of people will adore you!"

"You can't do this!" screamed a girl. Tears were streaming down her face and a panicked and confused expression covered her rosy checks. The man on the screen looked down at her and smiled. "You can't do this! You can't make us do this!"

"Really?" he asked, seeming more assumed by this then he should. "Because it looks like I already have." He then turned his attention to everyone in the room. "Maybe the odds be ever in your favor." And he was gone.