Chapter 2: The Arena
I say goodbye to my mentors early the next morning just before we board the hovercraft. Upon arrival at the arena site, we are hustled underground and divided into individual rooms like pigs to pens. I am escorted into the glass pod, which seals around me as I am pushed up, up, up...
Into a dense forest. There is the Cornucopia in the middle of the trees. It's in a clearing, which serves as a good point of reference, but the rest of the arena is just forest. It's strange that the horn would be placed in the middle of all this wilderness; usually, if there is wilderness, it is set far off from the Bloodbath action. That's the way it was in Justin's arena last year.
When the gong sounds after a minute, I don't dive for a weapon. I don't even dive for a backpack. I turn tail like a coward and run away. I intend to hide in this Games for as long as I can. Until some other tribute manages to find me, or I win by default.
Eventually, I come upon some rocks near a waterfall. Using sap from nearby trees and mixing it with the foam of the rapids to make a kind of paste, I manage to create a gray color and later myself in it. Eventually, I become one with the rocks. And now I wait.
There are many cannons throughout the day. But as I lie in relative safety and get my heart rate to calm down, I manage to keep careful count. By the end, I reach... 22? That can't be right! We are already at the Top Two at the end of the first day! Did no one else run away as I did? And if not, who is the other survivor? A Career, probably. Maybe that alliance eliminated the rest of the field, lost control and turned on each other early.
The sun mercifully sets and all the faces of the dead appear in the sky.
The boy from 1. Then both from 2, 3, 4, 5, Uber, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.
So, the girl from 1 made it through the day. She must be as shocked as I am that I am her last competitor. She will no doubt be hunting for me. So I keep perfectly still, as I fall asleep...
When I wake, it is early morning, and I hear a rustling in the leaves nearby. Poking open one eye, I see her. The muscular girl from 1, stumbling towards the waterfall nearby and taking long gulps. Between each sip, she winces in pain, and I can see that she barely escaped the Bloodbath with her own life. Her broadsword lays at her side. She is wounded and weak.
This is my one chance to go home alive. And I seize it.
Sneaking out of my camouflage hideout, I pick up the sword as silently as a mouse and approach my last enemy. Desperately, I plunge the blade into her pack. She cries out in pain and tries to turn, but seizes up and falls dead.
Hardly daring to believe what I have just done, I bend over her even as the last cannon sounds and Claudius Templesmith announces my Victory:
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 60th Annual Hunger Games: Megan Hayes of District 6!"
Not even 24 hours in the arena, and I am already a Victor. The fourth Victor for my district. District 6 has won two years in a row.
