A/N: Just to clarify, this is approximately 25 years after the Game Katniss SHOULD have been in, canonically. This is a world where she could not volunteer, the one created through inaction.
As a final disclaimer before beginning, I do not own the Hunger Games in any way shape or form. Only the concepts of my own characters belong to me.
REWRITE: 7/6/14: Nothing major changed, guys, just stylistic stuff and very minor events and dialogue. Looking back on this is physically painful to me . so I redid it!
Chapter 1: Dawn of the First Day: 72 Hours Remain
"Ladies and gentleman let the unprecedented 100th annual Quarter Quell Hunger Games begin!" The announcer called from a comfortable seat unfathomable miles away.
It's really starting. This cannot be real. But I can't take the chance that it is in fact real and fail. I've told myself it's just a bad dream the past few weeks. Only now have I been forced to face reality. As much as I want to be home in District 8…I must get an inkling of my surroundings while I can. Seconds remain before this mess will begin.
We're in someplace dark; a cave. To my left the darkness is interrupted with faint teases of light and to my right it seems to get darker. There's another tribute across from me and we are set up with 12 tributes on each side of the tunnel in the elevator-like tubes we entered the arena in. Ha. It's almost like a crypt. 23 of us here are dead people and, more than likely, I'm one of them and-
No, I can't think like that, I need to focus on my surroundings. There's torches sporadically placed between the tubes. I can't see too far down the tunnel, but I do glimpse the shimmer of a large metal object. Ah, I bet it would be the Cornucopia. Meaning us tributes have to choose between an immediate escape out and no supplies, or the Cornucopia, and a bloodbath. Well played Gamemakers. A large brass sound reverberates through the air.
Then all hell breaks loose. It's impossible to keep track of where anyone went, but many dashed for the shining Cornucopia. The girl with the eye patch from District 6 is the first person to say a word-in an urgent, almost shout.
"Stop! If anyone touches the supplies from the Cornucopia, that dragon will kill you without hesitation!" she hoarsely screeched. How do we know-What was her name again? Something with an 'F'-was telling the truth? How the heck did she know? The tributes running deeper into the cave stopped suddenly, struck with consternation. Only one boy ventured further, the kid from District 12. But the girl from his District yanked him back by the scruff of his outfit with an angry statement.
"The mutt is blind! If it senses even the tiniest vibration when you enter that area, you'll die very quickly! If you don't trust me, just try it!" The 23 other tributes let this sink in. Honestly, it didn't particularly matter to me since I was probably going to leave and not risk the bloodbath anyways. They all paused for only a moment. After all, it could be truth or an elaborate mind game to stall. The possibility was too fatal to play chance much with, hence the hesitation.
Finally, proof of her claim resounded in the form of a guttural sound that chilled spines and dropped the temperature severely when that noise was heard. Every head turned to see the source. Luckily for District 12, both tributes dodged the massive orange-yellow flare of light that appeared for only a few precious moments, but lit up the grotesque dragon's face and the surrounding area. The fire-breathing menace was the color of obsidian silk with tiny, but frightfully intelligent grayish blue eyes, like the color of the sky dripped onto a big fluffy cloud but glazed like pottery.
And then the dragon roared.
The sound was enough to reduce my hearing severely for the moment, causing endless ringing. I staggered to the ground. Tributes started flooding past me and all of a sudden I was airborne.
"Caeda, we have to get moving!"
The boy from my District, Indigo, had picked me up. The jay feather, his token which always hung from his hair, tickled my face. He has always tried to take care of me when he could; he's from a large family and is the oldest child of it. I guess that's why he's carrying me and running. Luckily I don't weigh much at all being twelve years old and underweight.
Immediately we burst out into the bright morning light, nearly noon but not quite yet. Judging by where we were headed, it was going to be a downhill sprint. Our alliance was waiting for us, which we had established before of this mess. That girl who just warned everyone, that guy, Finny, from District 4 and that other guy from District 5 were the other members of it. Indigo set me down and went back to running on his own.
"What's our plan Faorin?" The guy from District 5-now I remember, his name is Bubbles! Anyways, he made his way over with Finny to hear our plans from Faorin as we all collectively sprinted out. Alliances probably aren't that good since there's a lot of backstabbing, but hey, they should be okay at the beginning right? There's strength in numbers, or at least that's what our supervisor said all the time at the factory back home. Or at least that's what he said until the Peacekeepers killed him.
"Just get out of here for now and take cover," the eye-patched girl huffed. Faorin, what an odd name…
It was obvious that running was not her favorite thing in the world to do, but she was obstinate about keeping up. Perhaps it was the fear of the creature not far behind? Yet another piercing roar sounded behind us, not too far away. I tried to keep up with everyone as best I could but my lungs were working against me. I think it was…asthma they call it? That's what the doctors said when they inspected me upon reaching the Capitol weeks prior. Usually I can push aside the tightness by focusing on my surroundings instead.
The arena this year was absolutely enormous. Directly in front of us were tall trees with sparse leaves and beyond them were tall spires, presumably connected to a castle. To our right the tall trees faded out in favor of verdant vegetation that grew in with practically no room to maneuver through the woods. Far to the right was a tall citadel that reached past the cloud tops. To the left was a stream rushing down the hillside and the hints of a heavily fortified area were visible off in the distance beyond a gorge looking place, or a pass. The air was cool and sharp, though late morning,* the mountain air influenced it; perfect for high adrenaline rushes and alert senses. "The castle. We can shelter there and come up with a plan from there. It's well fortified, and there is also the probability of finding weapons being high."
"We need to go now!" Indigo hissed through grit teeth as he glanced back to hear quickly approaching footsteps with enormous ground-shaking ones not far behind in pursuit. So Bubbles took off in the lead-he reminds me of a wolf. He can run pretty fast over long distances if I noticed anything from him in particular from training. We don't actually know what his name is, so I called him Bubbles and that's what everyone calls him now, isn't that cool? I sped up behind him with a burst of energy with Finny right behind me, Faorin lagging a little behind him, and Indigo bringing up the rear to protect us. I glanced back and saw a fiery plume shoot up into the sky. Finny's bright green eyes stared me down incredulously.
"Be glad that wasn't us and keep running!" he huffed, his black jacket all the tributes wore swishing in the wind, since it was unzipped. Oh right, I should probably pay attention since we're running downhill-
"Oof!" I managed to get out a muffled cry as I tripped and started rolling down the hill at an unstoppable speed, right past Bubbles, who simply raised an eyebrow and kept running at his constant pace. Right when I was getting a bit nauseous from the dizzy spinning sensation, my back slammed into a tree. It was scary for a moment: the breath had been knocked out of me and I couldn't breathe right. Not that I could breathe well under these conditions to begin with, but…Indigo sprinted past the rest of the alliance and straight to me with growing panic in his eyes.
"Is anything broken?" he asked quickly. "Are you okay?" I motioned at my throat like I was being choked. "You can't breathe?" he whispered. Before he could try to take action, I took a sputtering gasp.
"I-I-I'm o-okay Indigo," wheezing, I answered. "I'll be fine; let's get moving before other tributes get caught up to us. By now, the alliance had stopped, gazing in awe of the great structure in front of us. It was a tall castle, with two, cloud-reaching spires and a single gate. The soaring walls stood tall and stoically, the gates were wide open. Finny eyed it up warily.
"This could be a trap guys…" he quietly offered the possibility. His lively eyes were nervous and his dark, short bangs were blowing around in the breeze. Faorin, seemed to pause for a moment and give that thought consideration, then decided against it and wordlessly and walked through the gate. Everyone followed. Wow, the grate that bars entrance to the gate when down looks really sharp and pointy from the ground here...Anyways, we arrived in a small courtyard. To our left was a staircase leading up to the walls to defend from and an identical staircase lay to our right, but immaculate pillars supported a second floor while leaving this ground floor open to the elements. Indigo left to go close the gate. Faorin sighed and sat down on the grass, motioning for the rest of us to do the same.
"We made it," Finny breathlessly broke the relative silence. "We didn't die in a bloodbath. That's a great start, huh?" he let out a shaky laugh. He must be ill from sheer nervousness.
"Yep!" I responded, a little louder than I meant to. Bubbles nodded in agreement. Faorin simply frowned a little as awkward silence befell us as we waited for Indigo to return.
"So…tell us about yourselves," she broke the ice. "If we're going to work together as a team, might as well learn a little about each other, right?" Silence was her response. I would have responded, but the atmosphere was so awkward and stuffy! Faorin sighed, "I'll go first, I suppose." I'm not sure how this will go. Bubbles rarely spoke, if at all. I think I've only heard him talk once, and it was for the Interview. His voice is so melodic, it's a shame he doesn't use it more often. Maybe it sounds more beautiful because he rarely uses it? Finny was always sort of nervous, and Indigo wasn't present. "Look, I don't want to be here just as much as you all do," she whispered in a low voice, even softer than her usual quiet speaking tone, "and I would rather die than betray someone I can call a comrade or friend. So…give me a reason to trust you." She resumed her usual tone as she spoke, alleviating the heavy silence it would have soon been otherwise.
"I was born in District 6. I've lived in a lab for the majority of my life. I'm 16 years old," she started off bluntly, "and I wear a godforsaken eye patch." I burst into a giggle fit. Her deadpan sarcasm struck home on my funny bone, contrary to the others. Finny turned his colorful gaze to her curiously.
"Why?"
It was such a simple question. Immediately, a wide spectrum of emotions played across her face that I couldn't decipher. All I could figure is that she was hiding something more with that eye patch. In a moment it had completely passed, and I am sure I'm the only one who noticed. She started to reach for her eye patch with a shaky breath.
All of a sudden, the sound of creaking chains filled the silent air and the gate leisurely lowered downward until it sunk into the ground. Indigo trotted back down a staircase to the courtyard we were camped out on.
"I've secured an escape route back there just in case something goes wrong here," he reported. Even though he was the oldest, we let Faorin take charge for the most part originally. Yet he still carried an air of authority, so it seemed an unspoken co-leadership existed between them. Faorin, at least, had already saved us all once at the very beginning. Now it was time to see if she could keep up the streak.
"We can go back to doing introductions later," Faorin hastily told us. "First, we need to scout out the area. Let's all go down the wall Indigo patrolled so we have a logically fast escape if we need it". With a collective nod, our ragtag group warily moved up the stairs together on high alert. Okay, everyone but me was on high alert, to be honest. I recognize the fact that I cannot pay attention very well to most things for very long. But I can catch details on the fly. Like something interesting out of a little window out of the wall.
"What is that guy doing?" I wondered incredulously, earning odd looks from everyone else. They all looked out a window and stared in astonishment and disbelief. If I couldn't believe what I was seeing there was no way they wouldn't be absolutely stunned.
"Is he...plugging a hair dryer…into a castle wall?" Finny said slowly to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. Bubbles slowly nodded with blatant confusion on his face. Indigo kept looking down the hallway like he was prepared for something to leap out of the shadows, but was still completely baffled by the scene below him.
"I think I understand what he's attempting to do, but I still can't believe it might work," Faorin stated faintly. "Why would he have a hair dryer in these games? The Gamemakers must have felt especially cruel this year." I gulped.
"That doesn't bode well for us at all," I whispered, mostly to myself, but everyone else felt a seed of dread take hold in the pits of their stomachs. His movements held purpose, and as to what it was happened to be left to be known. How he obtained a hair dryer was enigmatic enough, but as to why he could plug it into a stone wall was even more enigmatic. One question held fast in each of our minds…
Why?
A/N: That's the first chapter, updated :3 Hope you enjoyed it. The pacing is a little less rushed now at least. Review and pursue this tale if you so dare. I assure you it will not be a decision to cause regret :3
-Legend
*Imagine about 10-11 AM