To Play With Fire

by hgwriter123

Sequel to To Meddle With Fate. Melody Upmire is a tribute in the Games To End All Games, a vicious last Hunger Games that will leave 23 Capitol children dead and one alive. How will Melody cope with alliances, Careers, and the blood splattered rules of the Hunger Games...? T for violence and language.

2. This Is No Ordinary Arena

Chapter 2

This Is No Ordinary Arena

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy sixth Hunger Games begin!" Claudius Templesmith's voice booms around the arena. And inside my brain.

Right. I have sixty seconds to work out a where I am, where my allies are and a plan. Then the gong will sound and the tributes will be free to leave the pods that brought them into the arena. I can see the golden Cornucopia shining in the brillinat sunshine, it's horn shaped body sizzling, and it's contents spilling out onto the grass. My eyes home in on a silver bow leaning up against a crate of goods, with a pack of arrows next to it, waiting to be engaged. I must have that bow and those arrows. They are mine.

O.K. I'm going to dart in for that bow and pick of any tributes that try to attack me. I'm fast, a lot faster than most of the girls in my school. I should be able to outrun these people. I look to my right, scanning the circle of tributes for Careers... yes! There's one, four people away from me. It's the boy whose meant to be from District 1. And on his right is the girl whose meant to be from District 7. Quite far away from me on my left is the girl whose meant to be from District 2 - her eyes are locked on a fiercome array of swords and knives. I can't see Pluto or any of the other Careers - they're probably on the other side of the Cornucopia. Good. That means they're far away from me.

I can see all of my alliance as well, which is good. Rainée is on the pod next to me - she nods at me encouragingly. Looks like she's going for the centre too.

There's thirty seconds left. Step off your pod early and you are blown sky high. I now look at my surroundings...

What the?! What is this? The starting positions and the Cornucopia seem to be in a open field. And this field seems to be in a perfect circle. Outside of the circle... it seems to be cut of into segments! In front of me, in the distance, I can see snow covered hills and even a mountain! On this segment's right is a giant lake with a few islands jutting out... and are those paths joing the islands and the mainland together? I can also see a volcano next to that, giant clouds of black smoke floating up out of the top. And on the snow land's left their seems to be some sort of swamp, and next to that... a ruined city? I wonder what's behind me.

I turn, and am stunned to see there's a desert landscape next to the ruined city, and directly behind me there's a thick patch of undergrowth. A forest. How big is this place?

One thing for sure is that this is no ordinary arena.

I turn back towards the Cornucopia and focus my eyes on the bow. I'll worry about the landscape of the arena later. Right now, I have to focus on surviving the bloodbath at the beginning. It's time to play the Hunger Games.

Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... One... GONG!