I reached the surface after what seemed like ages. What I didn't expect was the Arena. The Cornucopia was placed in the center of a large grassy clearing, with all the tributes pedestals circling it. Behind us, however, were the ruins of a seemingly destroyed city. It wasn't even modern though, it was like an ancient city with clay huts and large crumbled stone buildings. The ground of it comprised of a few rocky paths with weeds and grass poking through the cracks of them all over. This city was large but beyond the city I could see some sort of jungle. I had some options.
The countdown had reached "23" at this point. I looked to my left and right. The boy from 6 was on my left, he looked pretty weak, and the girl from 7 was on my right. I now focused on the Cornucopia situation. A medium sized blue backpack was a few feet in front of me, and a pack of...were those throwing stars? Well whatever they were, they were weapons and they were about two feet in front of the backpack. With those two I would be set. But I can run pretty fast for a 17 year old kid. At the mouth of the Cornucopia was a bow and quiver, and next to it a large bag. I had a bit of a predicament.
The count was now at "7." I had to decide. I took another deep breath and set my focus on the bow. Then the gong sounded and I practically flew off my pedestal. Pumping my legs as fast as I could, I reached the Cornucopia a few moments before anyone else. But Silver was coming my way. I snatched up the bow, quiver, backpack, and ran for the city back towards my pedestal. The female tribute from 10 ran straight for me screaming as she attempted to tackle me. Quickly, I elbowed her in the chin and threw her off me. Then, as I was about to pass my pedestal, I grabbed the pack of weapons from before, and the medium sized bag.
Grateful for my speed and endurance, I set off into the ancient city. At first I wanted to stick to the rock paths, but I eventually strayed from them and found a fairly tall, somewhat intact, stone tower. It looked like a watchtower or something. Peering inside, I noticed that there was a long winding staircase upward. Perfect! From that height, my bow would be very useful. This base would be easy to defend.
Eventually I reached the top of this watchtower and looked down, dropping my bags and aiming my bow. There he was. Running for his life was my only ally; Lewis. Probably not too smart, but I didn't care, I yelled, "OVER HERE LEWIS!" He stopped abruptly and noticed me in my tower. Lewis changed directions and climbed to safety. He dropped down exhausted.
The girl from 3 was running near my tower, she had a small backpack and a spear. Luckily she hadn't realized my presence above her. I aimed my bow at her and let the arrow fly. Up until this point I had never considered killing another person. The arrow hit her square in the back with a thud, and she stumbled to the ground. "Lewis, grab her stuff I'll cover you!" I ordered. He peeled himself off the ground moaning and climbed down the stairs. After Lewis got back up with the girl from 3's stuff, I collapsed to the floor in anguish. "Hey! Oliver you got to cover us!" Lewis exclaimed. Realizing I wouldn't come out of my death stupor, Lewis picked up the other weapons I had grabbed and revealed them. "Wow, throwing stars..." he muttered. He nudged me. "Oliver, Silver is beneath us...with Hope." I gulped down a lump in my throat. "Duck down so they don't see us!" I hissed. Lewis dropped down next to me.
"He came this way, I swear!" I heard Silver shout below us. "Hey, calm down Silver, we will get him, he can't run far I know him," Hope lied. I breathed heavily. "Fine," Silver seemed to mumble, then we heard footsteps walk away from us. "That was close," Lewis huffed. Nodding in agreement, I stood. Then the cannons boomed. 9 cannons went off. Meaning 9 died in the bloodbath.
We then split up our supplies. Food and water was divided evenly, then I took the bow and arrows, along with half the throwing stars (6 of them.) Lewis got half the food, the spear from the District 3 tribute, and half the stars. This was so that if we got separated we could both have a chance at survival. "So, how long will we stay here?" Lewis questioned as we ate dinner. "Well, probably until we know the Careers have left the area. Then I suppose we could try to loot the Cornucopia," I suggested with a mouth full of crackers and water.
That night Lewis and I swapped some background from our homes and our pasts. He was an only child back in District 9 and he worked on a wheat harvesting crew. So when Lewis was reaped, it really broke his parents' hearts. He wasn't really interested in any girl at the moment. I told him about my life back in 4, and about Josie. She was my best friend, and as the years went by I had recently been getting more attracted to her.
Finally the anthem played and we watched the starry sky as faces appeared. No Careers had been killed, but both tributes from 3 were. The girls face resurfaced a painful memory and I winced at the sight of her. The boy from 6, the one on the pedestal next to me at the start of the Games, had died. Also the boy from 7. Both from 8 were dead. The girl from 10, and both tributes from 12 had been murdered. Lewis sighed in relief knowing his district partner was alive. Only 15 tributes remained.
I knew pretty much all of the Careers, plus Lewis and I, that made 7 of the 15. Then there's Ashley from 5, making 8. That means I hardly even knew half of the names of my competitors in this Arena. Well, I had tried to align with the boy from 11. I believe his name was Rico. Yeah, that's right. He was speedy quick but not a great fighter. So I did know 9 of the 15 remaining tributes, including myself.
Lewis took first watch that night and I fell asleep immediately. Lewis woke me in the middle of the night and we switched posts. There I stood, towering over an unfamiliar ancient village holding a bow and arrow scanning the area for other people. A few times I almost dozed off but I didn't. My eyes kept returning to a certain blood stain on the rocks to my left below me. That was the exact spot where the girl from 3 had died. I had murdered her. I almost vomited, so I forced myself to look away.
Several hours passed, and then, just as the sun was rising, a war cry rang out from behind us, at the Cornucopia. Then another cry joined that one. Then two more, until finally there were five voices yelling at the top of their lungs. I heard thundering stomps as the Careers ran through the city imposing terror on whomever they passed. "Over here!" I heard a female voice shriek. Some more scuffling, a little screaming, then four thwacking noises, followed by whimpering. At this point Lewis was wide awake next to me. A cannon shot. The Careers had just beat some kid to death. Those stomps and war cries got closer and closer, and I sunk lower and lower. My eyes just barely peering over the edge of the tower. Lewis kept his eyes on the staircase below us. Harsh stepped into my view, shouting for tributes to come face him as he searched a small clay dwelling. Right now, I could kill him. Pull out my bow and shoot. Harsh would die. But the other Careers, and there was 4 of them, wouldn't stop until they found and kill Lewis and I. Then the girl from 2 appeared at his side checking another building. She wielded a wicked looking battle axe, while Harsh held a long sword. Suddenly, someone jumped out of a clay but behind Harsh's back and darted the other way. It was Rico from District 11! He sprinted towards the jungle. By the time Harsh noticed Rico, he was already entering the jungle. "Ah! Why didn't anyone see him! I'm gonna get that rat..." Harsh mumbled angrily as he walked out of sight.
Lewis elbowed me in the ribs softly and gestured toward the stairs. I turned and listened. Someone was coming up. "What do we do?" Lewis hissed. I looked to my left. We could..."Follow me!" I ordered quickly, picking up and backpack and encouraging Lewis to do the same, as I climbed onto the edge of the watchtower, Lewis in tow. Just as I spotted the top of Silver's head, I leapt off of the tower and landed hard on top of a smaller building to our left. My ankle seared with pain. Lewis followed, but he landed on his feet. He helped me up and we ran, then jumped onto the next building of about the same size. "Oliver? No way!" I heard Silver shout behind us. We jumped onto the next, smaller building. For a moment I rotated my head and saw Silver jumping onto the first hut. I pushed Lewis to run faster, and we hopped off onto the next building. Silver was going faster than us, but he had a lot of ground to make up. "You'll never get away little boys!" Silver cackled loudly behind us. He was catching up. Just before we reached the end of the next house, I flipped around, pulling out an arrow, attaching it to my bow, and fired straight for Silver. The look of shock and horror on his face was scarring. However, he hopped to the right just in time to save his life, but the arrow still stuck in his left arm. Silver howled in pain and stumbled to the ground. "Come on!" Lewis shouted from the other building. I jumped across, smirking.
After two more houses, there were no more to jump onto, therefore we leaped to the ground and ran to the jungle. The whole place gave me the creeps. Unknown bird calls littered the air, and large mossy trees loomed all around us. We kept running though, at least until we could hardly bear it anymore. Then we climbed a rather tall tree for safety. It took us more than 5 minutes just to get to the top! But the spacious, leafy area on the top of this tree provided excellent shelter. "I...can't...believe..." Lewis croaked between heavy breaths. "That we got away from Silver?" I added. He nodded and emptied one of the bags, passing me a gleaming metal water bottle. I slowly sipped some of it, and stuffed a piece of dried meat in my mouth. That was my breakfast. "I guess we will just wait it out up here then?" Lewis inquired. I answered affirmatively. Staring into my metal bottles reflection, I examined myself.
I have light brown, shaggy long hair. You can tell I come from District 4. As I've known forever, I do look like a surfer kid. My long hair swoops across my forehead to the right. My dark blue, sort of gray, eyes stare into the cup, mesmerized. I wasn't a beauty in the face, but I was generally pretty handsome. My physique was that of a lean swimmer. In the upper body department I was muscly, but definitely not ripped. I had a lean body, not at all overweight, actually somewhat skinny. The outfit the Capitol had given the tributes was a light jacket, colored black, and long green pants. On the back of my jacket and on the shoulders, the number 4 was printed in bold white. After observing my own features, I took a moment to look at Lewis.
He was 16, only a year younger than me, and I was about two inches taller than him. I was about 5"10 and he was about 5"8. Lewis had short sandy hair, and he usually combed the front of his hair up. His jacket of course had a 9 on the back and shoulders. He wasn't particularly strong or muscular, but he was in pretty good shape. Before the Games I told him to run until he found me rather than go for something at the Cornucopia. Totally not regretting that decision.
Eventually I dozed off. But about two hours later Lewis woke me up. "Oliver, the Careers are entering the jungle. I can just barely see them," he stated. I sat up and turned my head in the direction Lewis was looking. He was right. But it was only Harsh, the girl from 2, and Hope. Grace and Silver were missing. "Grace's probably tending to Silver back at their camp," I assumed. "So what are we going to do?" Lewis asked. I smiled and pointed to the tree in front of us. "Exactly what we did this morning."
Hopping from tree to tree wasn't as easy as I had thought it was. We were only half way to the edge of the jungle by the time the sun began to set. Lewis, panting, suggested we set up camp for the night. I agreed, discouraged from the little progress we'd made that day. I took the first watch as Lewis fell asleep after dinner and the anthem. The only death was the guy from 5...he must have been the kid that the Careers beat up this morning.
Our camp was perched atop a medium sized tree. The fact that some of the trees around us were taller alarmed me. What if someone was above us? As if my thoughts became reality, the tree to my right rustled and a dark figure leaped from the top of it, falling down on top of Lewis.