Way two: Outsmart the other tributes

This chapter is to Dreaming of Starry Skies

One of my only and best friends on this site.

I think this story turned out way better than the last one!

It is wayyyyy longer.

Kate Krimson, 15, D9F

Day one, 24 tributes left

I stood nervous on my platform, biting my nails. I was already sweating on my forehead because of the hot air in the jungle arena. I scanned the other tributes and noticed the only near career was two platforms next to me. Relieved about my increased odds to survive the bloodbath I looked at the way I wanted to run. To the dense green jungle behind me. I would be alone. I had no allies. Not yet.

The gong sounded and I grabbed the tiny red backpack two meters in front of me. I turned around and made eye contact with Eliza, the district 4 female, 's beautiful clear blue eyes. She was just ten meters on my right. She could have hunted me down, but I wasn't worth her time so she quickly passed by. I shrieked when her knife landed in my stronger district partner's neck. You could hear it cutting through the flesh.

He was nice.

But I just kept running.

After a while I heard six cannons. I wasn't surprised the bloodbath wasn't huge. This year the career pack only existed of four real careers and the one strong outlier from 7. This made me be a bit safer. But even if just three careers found me I was dead. While running I felt the plants making little cuts in my arms and I could clearly hear mosquitoes, flying around my head.

The first thing I needed was water.

I knew water was very important.

But I had not seen water anywhere since the games started.

My throat was already hurting. These Games already were a pain in the ass. I stopped running for a second and looked into my backpack. I saw a knife, rope, bread and a bottle of water. I smiled, this was the best backpack I could even hope for.

When the evening came I hang up some big leaves to catch rain and I chose a gigantic jungle tree to sleep in. I saw the smoke of a fire far away and smiled again. The careers weren't going to bother me tonight.

Day 2

16 tributes remaining

Two tributes had died during last night. The cannons ruined my "safe" night. So I was grumpy by the lack of sleep. When I was climbing out of my tree I noticed a girl standing behind the tree. She was tall and had black hair resting on her shoulders. The girl was about fifteen years old. I recognized her as the girl from 10. I tried to check if she had a backpack and noticed a small bag in her hand.

Then she noticed me, and her green eyes widened. She looked around to all the other dark trees circling her. She yelled at me: "Do you have allies?"

I told this stupid girl to quiet down a bit and climbed down to the muddy ground with my knife firmly held in my hand.

"So did you want to invite the careers here or what?" I asked irritated.

She answered: "I was hyped to see another tribute because I need an ally."

I thought about having a person to be with during the Games and told her we could be allies if she wouldn't do anything stupid. She told me her name was Lara. I didn't trust her but I thought I could take her in a duel. So we became allies and I showed her the tiny camp. I checked the leafs and they were full of rain. I drank some of my bottle of water and refilled it with the rain.

Then we packed our stuff and started moving our camp. While we were walking through the dark moisty jungle we heard another cannon. I asked her how she got through the bloodbath. She told me she just ran without anything and then stole a bag from an outlier camp. I laughed: this girl didn't care about her life.

We set up camp on a big hill with some trees scattered on it above a lake we had found. I told her that if we wanted to set up here we should to be really quiet. Because other tributes would camp around the lake too. She told me it would be fine and pointed to a small tree down by the lake. I saw a boy, but didn't recognise him. You could see he was young by his length. I whispered to Lara if she wanted to attack him. I didn't feel like attacking someone myself. But if she wanted to I would come with her.

So when the evening fell we took our weapons, two small knives, and snuck behind the tree line. When we got to the small tree we saw the boy sleeping in a sleeping bag. Lara walked over and slit his throat without any hesitation. I shivered, Lara would do anything to get home. The boy's cannon sounded. I stepped over the sleeping bag and took the bag laying next to the boy, We left the sleeping bag and the boy behind and headed back to camp.

Two more cannons sounded that night.

Day 3

12 tributes left

I woke up by Lara slapping me hard in the face. I reacted without even thinking and planted my fist into her stomach. She coughed and I apologized. She instantly recovered and pointed to the lake. I saw three big black panthers at the feet of our hill. I knew the gamemakers wanted more of our action. So I told Lara to pack our stuff and I would empty the traps we had set up. We were done within two minutes and when we were ready the panthers started running up the hillside.

We sprinted left, but saw more yellow eyes in the bushes so we turned around and sprinted right even harder.

Right was to the cornucopia.

To the career pack.

We made our way to the trees and started dodging the branches. The pants made cuts into my legs and arms. Tears came into my eyes. I heard two cannons and started running harder. The mud sticked to my legs and my shirt was uncomfortable wet from the sweat.

The cornucopia wasn't far away. We ran half an hour and came to the conclusion that if we ran the panthers didn't do anything. We slowed down a bit when we neares the clearing in the woods. I was shocked when I saw the careers fighting. Two corpses were on the ground, I recognized Eliza and the boy from 7. Their bodies were lying on the ground with all their life drained out of them. Their blood was mixed with the mud of the jungle arena. Then it came to my mind why the gamemakers brought us here. We had to finish off the last career.

The careers were still fighting and I had told Lara the plan. So we waited and watched.

We saw how the district 1 boy easily cut of a girl's head. The girl from 2 and boy from 1 were the only ones left. Lara and I prepared ourselves to run onto the open field. So I took my knife and she took hers. When the cannon sounded we ran to the cornucopia. The boy was lying against the blood splattered cornucopia, his shirt was soaked in blood and a sword was pierced through his heart. Lara sprinted to the right. I didn't know what she was doing but she just sprinted away!

The girl from 2 walked to me: Well well well… Did your friend leave you?

I didn't answer. Still amazed by the sudden betrayal from my ally.

The girl started running to me and kicked me to the ground. She punched me in the stomach a couple of times. Air was pushed out of my lungs and my breath became unstable. She punched me again and pain shot through my body. She tried to grab her knife from her pocked when she started coughing up blood. Her grib of me weakened and I pushed her body off me looking for the cause of her sudden death. Lara was standing in front of me and offered me a hand. When I calmed down I noticed the knife in the career's back. We walked away a bit so the hovercrafts could pick up the bodies. Then we walked back and got some supplies from the cornucopia. We slept at the edge of the open field in a big black tree.

day 4

7 tributes left

I woke up in the morning noticing Lara left. For real this time. I didn't wonder why. It was six more tributes between her and her home. And I was one of those six. I was just glad she didn't kill me.

I looked at the cornucopia before dropping out of the tree. A boy was looking through the supplies, he had probably noticed all careers were dead. I silently dropped out of the tree and landed on the muddy ground. My pockets were filled with knives and my backpack with drinks, food and medicines. Then I walked to the back of the cornucopia and climbed onto it. Next I crawled over to the edge with my knife in my hand. I looked over the edge to the inside of the cornucopia and threw a knife at the boy, who was standing with his back turned to me. The knife didn't hit him. It didn't matter because it didn't need to. I waited for half an hour ready to attack still on top of the cornucopia and suddenly the boy sprinted out. I dropped behind him and stabbed him in the neck. I moved my knife around and his cannon sounded.

I climbed onto the cornucopia again because it was a neat hideout. I looked around, at the big trees, at the beautiful skies. The I noticed a monkey mutt walking out of the trees probably meant for me to see by the gamemakers. I showed a thumb-up and the mutt walked away. Some time later I heard loud monkey screams far away from me somewhere in the woods. I layed down even closer to the cornucopia. After an hour two boys finally showed up. One some time before the other. The first boy was tall and around seventeen years old he was wielding a spear the second boy, who was wounded, was short and had blonde hair. He also had a far to long sword.

On the other side a familiar face showed up: Lara. She still had her knife. She seemed a bit tired but she looked fine to me. The older boy started running up to Lara, with his spear in the air. I dropped from the cornucopia when he past by and landed in the mud. His spear already hit Lara in the leg when one of my knives hit his leg. I sprinted to him and stabbed him in his arm. He revealed a dagger in his hand and stabbed back at me. Behind him Lara was still on the ground. With my left hand I grabbed another knife while I threw my other into the boy's leg. He also fell to the ground. Then the tiny boy jumped on me from the left. He stabbed me in my right arm but didn't notice my knife in the left. He let down his left gard and with one quick strike my knife cut through his neck.

Lara had thrown a knife into the older boy so both cannons sounded. I got up and wanted to help her but immediately the panther mutts showed up. They guarded Lara's body and I heard her yell: "Go away Kate, you stupid girl!"

So I ran.

I found a good tree and tried to sleep.

Finally the cannon sounded.

Day 5

3 tributes left

I woke up to feel the warmth of a big fire. It was the final. The giant trees that gave me cover all were on fire. I had to run back to the cornucopia. On my way I drank and ate something. I tried to remember who were left. But I could only picture the panthers on top of Lara. At the edge of the jungle I stopped running and I heard a cannon. I walked up to the cornucopia when a girl came running onto the open field. Her brown hair was burned, her clothes were ripped apart, blood was spattered on her face. She fell down to the earth and laid still screaming and crying. I walked up to her slowly and scared of her. She was whispering something:

"Finish me please..."

I approached and she didn't move, she closed her eyes knowing it was over.

I slit her throat.

Yay, I think this one was loads better!

I loved to write it!

Thoughts on Lara?

On Kate?

On the writing?

On the kills?

Any suggestions?