Chapter 3:
Struggle
Okay so my friend Claire has helped me create a new creature that you might laugh at or think is crazy but I found it cool and important to the story. It's called a Scrider. It's a half spider half scorpion. It was made by the Capital. We also have a Centoth. It's half centapied and half moth. I know you guys think it's crazy but you will love it because it adds drama and danger to the Games.
We ran as fast and far as possible. I could still hear the sounds of fighting coming from the Cornucopia. I was glad that we had a chance to grab our weapons and escape. Glad that Raze had escaped.
I could hear Kayla panting behind me. We would have to rest soon for her. She wasn't used to running like this. I spotted a cluster of trees that we could easily hide behind.
Once we reached the trees I scanned the area. Kayla collapsed against one of the trees. She was breathing hard. She needed water. I needed water.
"Listen. I'm going to find water. You stay here and defend yourself, okay?" I said. Kayla nodded and tried to calm her breathing. I left the safety of the trees and headed, what my guess was, west. As I went further, I heard the crashing of waves. I found a small river. More like a stream. I grabbed the bottles that I found in both bags. I filled them up and purified the water. As I went back and reached the tree line once more, I heard twigs snap. I readied an arrow and aimed.
It was a giant black beast. It was a giant spider with scorpion pincers and stingers. It was the size of a horse. It was a Scrider. The Capital long ago got bored during the 120th Games and created these creatures to add suspence and kill tributes off even quicker. They bred spiders and scorpions, creating this. Of course they added some genetic code that made them the size of a horse.
The large mutation went over to the river's edge. It's eight black eyes scanning the area. I saw red on it's back. It was a black widow Scrider. The most venomous Scrider. I slowly retreaded so it wouldn't notice me, but one it's black eyes caught me. It gave a loud screech. Two small grey ones come out. They were jumping Scriders.
I ran back to the trees that we claimed as shelter. I ran as fast as I cold while the little monsters chased me. I reached the trees where I left Kayla.
"Run!" I yelled but the sound of seven cannon blast made my scream sound like nothing but empty air. Kayla finally turns around. She sees me and the ugly monsters chasing me. She grabs the bags in one hand and a knife in the other. I wave my arms franticlly, telling her to run. Thankfully she got the hint and ran.
The little fuckers were fast. They jumped from tree to tree. They were getting closer. To my right I saw another tribute. The brown haired girl aimed the spear at me. She let the spear go. I managed to duck and see the spear sail past me. I spear went into one of the Scrider's abdomen. The nasty green blood rained around me. I saw the small plants around me, start to simmer. The blood was acidic.
A drop that landed on the jacket started to simmer,but didn't burn through. The jacket was resistant. The tribute grabbed her knife but wasn't fast enough to evade the second Scrider. It jumped on her. It's huge fangs sunk into her chest. It's poison barbed tail impaling into her eye socket. She screamed and then layed still. The cannon fired. Eight tributes dead.
The Scrider started to feed on the dead girl's flesh. Ripping the flesh with it's powerful jaws, greedly eating. I aimed my arrow at it's head. The only place it had no armor. I let the arrow go. The arrow pierced it's skull. It gave one final screech and then fell to the ground.
I rushed towards Kayla, grabbed her hand and started running towards a new hideout. Our only option was to climb the trees.
"Come on." I said leading her to a large tree. We started our climb. It was difficult because there weren't many places to hold on to.
The sky darken quickly. I'm guessing the Gamemakers wanted to see how we delt in the night. I grabbed my bitter loaf of bread and ripped it in half. It would be the only meal for tonight.
"Do you think we'll win?" Kayla asked. Her voice barely louder then a whisper. I didn't know what to say because there were now fourty tributes to worry about. I wanted to count out Raze. I wanted him to join us if there would be four victors. I wanted him on my side. Especially after he kissed me last night. I wanted him to help me kepp my sister alive. But right now he could be dead. I only saw four tributes die. I wondered who were the others.
I did what I had to do and lie. "Yes we will win the Games and then we'll go back home. Caleb will be there waiting for us. So will grandma Katniss and grandpa Peeta. We'll be a big happy family." I didn't know what else to say. I had to keep her hopes up.
"Now, go to sleep. I'll take first watch. We'll move tomorrow morining to hunt and find a new hideout." She nodded and gave me a big hug. She got her sleeping bag and tied herself to the tree. I'm glad grandma had defied the rules and trained us how to tie knots. I had my arrow ready incase the Gamemakers decide to send any new creatures or tributes our way.
It was a long night. My stomach kept growling. Asking for more food that we didn't have. I wanted to hunt now but I couldn't leave my sister alone. She needed me. My hunger was adding to how tired I was. I quickly fell asleep. Completely forgeting the fact that if I moved I would fall to the ground and possible die.
Raze POV
I shouldn't have let her go alone. If there were to be four victors, I should have stayed with her and Kayla. The three of us and some other tribute (hopefully no career) would win and be left alone for the rest of our lives. I wandered the lonely beach. It was cold. After I had escaped into the forest, I headed west and ended up on this beach. I had encoutered some other tribute. I think his name was Eric from District 2.
He had tried to sneak up behind me, but he had a heavy morning star that made noise. He used to spiked ball to try and hit me but I quickly used my sword to break the chain that kept the spiked ball attached to the the wooden holder. He looked scared now. He didn't have another weapon.
I didn't want to but what other choice do you I have. It's either me or him. He tried to run but didn't get far when he triped on a root. I swung my blade making contact with his back.
I felt horrible for killing him but I didn't have a choice. I walked around the beach watching the treeline that surrounded the beach. It wasn't large. Most of the beach was covered in water. I didn't want to go into the water with the fear that something might be lurking in the clear water. Especially at night. I passed Scriders on my way here. I managed to go unnoticed.
I wondered where Alexa was right now. A bright screen came to life in the sky. It showed the Capital sign and they started to show the pictures of the eight tributes who had died. I couldn't watch it anymore. These Games were cruel. The Capital was cruel. Forcing us to fight to the death just so they could be entertained. Damn them all to hell. Those snug bastards didn't care about anyone, in any district.
I stared out into the open blue water. What was I supposed to to do now? Should I find Alexa and Kayla? I wanted to find them. If four tributes could win, then I was determined to find them and protect them so we could win. As I kept staring out I heard screams and running.
I lifted my sword and readied myself. I would kill anyone that got in my way. I saw two shadows run towards me with a bright red orange light coming up behind them. I finally identified the two shadows. It was Alexa and Kayla and they were running from a giant fire ball.
Alex's POV
I felt heat coming from infront of me. As slowly opened my eyes I saw a dull bright red light. I rubbed the sleepiness away from my eyes. I finally notcied the bright red light was a fire. Fire from the tree across from us. I quickly woke Kayla up.
"Kayla, wake up now!" I yelled trying to wake up my sister so we wouldn't burn to death. I'm guessing the Gamemakers really wanted to kill everyone they could with their cruel tricks.
She woke up startled. "Come on." I said helping her untie the knots and started climbing down the tree. As we reached the ground the fire started to spread. Fast. I grabbed Kayla's arm started to run. The fire strated to movie as we ran. It started to follow us. I noticed that the fire hadn't spread to any other trees only the ones that we passed when we ran past them.
The fire was specifically designed to follow us and not spread to destroy their precious arena. I made Kayla run even faster. The fire started to catch up quicker the faster we ran. I heard the crashing of waves. That ment water. The trees started to thin as we got closer to the sounds of crashing waves.
We finally reached the tree line. It was a beach. A very small one with most of it being water. I also saw some big guy standing there with a sword raised. I was about to pull out my bow and arrow, but stopped myself when I saw that the guy was Raze. I was instantly happy, but sstayed focused as the fire staarted to get faster. Out feet touched sand but the fire was still following.
Raze dropped his sword and raced towards us and lead us to the water. We took a quick breath and dived into the water. My arms went around Kayla before we dived. She wasn't the best swimmer. The fire passed over the water, showing light underwater. The light dissappeared. We resurfaced and swam back the short way.
"Are you two okay?" Raze said grabbing on to my arms and looking to see if I was hurt.
"I'm fine. What about you Kayla?" I said shivering. She just nodded and continued to shiver like me. I'm guessing the jackets won't help if we're already wet. I huddled closer to Kayla. We needed to keep each other warm without a fire. I felt big arms wrap around me. I let myself lay back.
The three of us layed down on the soft sand with our arms around each other. Huddled together to stay warm. I felt sleep take over me as we rested.
I finally woke up. It was very late morning because the sun was up and it was very bright. Kayla was still asleep. I slowly took my arms away from her head. I saw Raze near the water's edge where the small waves didn't reached. I also saw that he had a fire going.
"What do you have there?" I asked curiously. It looked like he was skining something.
"Good morning. This is a small bird I caught." He said putting it on a stick and cooking it in the fire.
"I didn't know you could hunt." I said.
"What don't you remember us hunting together as kids?" He said with a chuckle. I searched my memories to see if I did hunt with him before. I finally remembered that we hunted three times a day. I remebered the first day we went hunting together. We were so loud that we scared away alot of game that day. But we had had a very fun day.
I chuckled at the memory. He obviously knew what I was thinking and laughed with me. I decided to let Kayla sleep for a while before we started to move. We ate what little we could so we could save some for Kayla and for later.
"So are we going to stick together or are we going to separate?" Raze asked. I knew that he wanted to stay with us. He knew the answer already but wanted me to say it. I knew I could trust him and I didn't have to worry about killing him later. He could also help me protect Kayla.
"I think we should stay together. They obviously have this arena filled with dangerous creatures and traps." I said.
Kayla started to wake up and she was fussy as usual. After she ate we walked into the forest. We saw some of the scorched trees. Darkened and had a putrid smell. The heavy sent of smoke was so disgusting it made me want to start throwing up my breakfest.
We waled over to the side were the smell was not so revolting. On this side the fire had not touched anything. We walked a couple of more miles. Kayla was getting tired. We reached the end of the forest and encoutered another area of the arena. A mountain area.
This arena was different. It had a forest, beach and now a mountain.
"Are we going to climb this thing?" Kayla asked. I knew she didn't want to because she wasn't a good climber. Raze and I looked to see if we could go around it but the only way to go around would be to go back into the forest and then go through the beach area.
"There isn't any other way around. We're going to have to climb. Let's go." Raze said taking the lead. We started to climb the rocky surface. We reached a small little cliff type area and we heard screaming. It was the red head Jessica and her partner from District 7. They were fighting off a group of red birds. They were bigger then average bird. They had long blood stained beaks. Long talons. Their eyes matched their feathers. The crimson eyes looking at their prey. The three birds surrounded their prey.
Jessica grabbed one of her throwing stars and threw it at one the birds. The shuriken went fast and hit the birds head. The bird dropped dead to the ground. Her partner wasn't lucky his spear missed his target. The two birds used their beaks to rip out his eyes. The cannon sounded. He was dead.
The two birds head towards us now. I got my bow and readied my arrow. I let the arrow go. The arrow impaled the bird in it's eye. The bird fell in mid flight. The other bird was going at full speed.
I saw Jessica throw three shurikens. Two hit the bird but the third went by so fast I had no time to react. The third shuriken buried it's self into Kayla's heart.
My little sister fell to the ground dieing. Jessica prepared to throw another shuriken but I was faster. I had the arrow already in the bow. I fired. The arrow went into her head easily. The cannon fired, signaling her death.
Raze had Kayla in his arms and removed the shuriken. Kayla was losing so much blood. She was panting. She barely had any breath left.
"No." I sobbed over and over again. I was supposed to protect her. She couldn't die. She was supposed to be under my protection and I let her down. I cried as she slowly died in my arms. She closed her eyes as her breathing stopped. The cannon fired. I cried harder. My only sister was dead. First my parents and now my sister. Raze wrapped his arms around me and comforted me as I cried on his shoulder. My life was in ruins.
I closed her eyes and started to climb up the mountain. I looked back and saw the ship pick up the three dead bodies. Three new dead tributes. In total eleven tributes dead in two days. Now thirty-seven tributes remained.
So what did you think of this new exciting chapter. The chapters will only get better and longer from here. The next chapter they will meet alllies who will help them and tributes who want them gone. Hope you liked this chapter. Review.