Chapter 4:
Hannah Helins, District Ten
I am running.
Running nowhere, but still.
I am running.
Running for my life.
In a way, I am free, like my horses back home. I can be wild and free here, there are no rules to follow. No one can tell me what to do, who to be like or anything.
I am free.
But I am caged.
I run.
And I run.
I didn't grab anything in the Cornucopia. Too much was going on there, and I felt it was a dangerous place. Imagine that: a potential Bloodbath, dangerous. Who would have thought?
Oh wait. I would have.
A bunch of ignorant imbeciles ran into the middle.
Including him.
Ethan.
My boy, from District Eleven. We had gotten to like each other in training and everything in the Capitol.
And his stupid district partner, Rayne. She had a thing for him, too. But I am pretty sure he likes me.
That is, he would, if he were still alive. He ran into the middle, and now he's dead. I saw his beautiful body, stained with ugly dark red. And that stupid Rayne, her 'perfect' blonde hair soaked in blood.
And the thing that ruined my sadness, and boiled it into anger, was what they were doing, even in death.
Holding hands. They were holding hands when I saw them. I am furious about that.
He didn't have enough respect for me to love only me. He had to have a back-plan.
What if I was his back-up plan, and he was going to go into the arena with her?
Damn.
I was fooled.
Stupid-ass boys.
…
I am still running, running until I can't run anymore. I am freezing cold, my cheeks sting from the burning wind and my eyes burn too. I can barely breathe. My legs feel like rubber, but in a way that's good. This way, I can't feel the pain I should be.
I avoid hitting the thin, black trees as I run.
I keep going until I see something move.
I freeze in my tracks.
I think it's a girl.
She's sobbing and hunched over, on her knees.
What should I do?
Do I want an ally?
I should take her under my wing. She looks like she's in pretty bad shape.
I take a step closer, making sure that my boots aren't too loud on the snow. She continues to heavily sob, tears pouring out of her eyes.
But she's facing the other direction, so I slowly step up to her and pat her shoulder. She jumps up a foot, and her hands come away from her face. She has spun around to face me.
Oh, my God.
Just- oh, God.
Her eyes are pure white, the irises and pupils are completely gone. She is shaking, and when she moves her hands away, I see dried blood all over her pale face. This girl is a wreck.
One of her hands is shaking so much that I think she has a problem, like muscle spasms or something.
But I look closer, and I see that that is certainly not the case.
Her hand is completely frost-bitten. It is totally black, and looks exactly like her gloved hand. Both are black.
I step closer, and the girl jumps again.
Her eyes are searching all around, trying to find the sound point.
Is she blind?
I step a bit closer and crouch down. I reach my hand out and touch her shoulder.
"Hi," I begin softly. "Hi, my name is Hannah. I want to help you. What's your name?"
Her head swivels and moves in all directions, trying to find the source of my voice. I'm positive now that she's blind. Why, though, is the question.
"Who are you?" she says quietly.
"I'm Hannah, from District Ten," I repeat. "Are you okay?"
"No," she gasps. "I can't see anything, I can't feel my damned hand, and my nose hurts like hell!"
"Oh, honey." I come a bit closer, my hand still on her back. "I'm so sorry. Do you want to tell me what happened?"
She blinks once. "My nose was in so much pain, so I brought some snow to it to help slow the bleeding and get rid of some of the swelling. And then my eyes started to itch, so I rubbed them. They kept itching, and I was really tired and thirsty, so I ate some snow for water. And then they itched more, and then I blinked, and everything was…Everything was just black."
Oh.
The snow.
It's poisoned.
We can't touch it.
"Okay. So we know the snow is dangerous. But can you tell me your name?" I say softly.
I look around, checking for tributes.
No one.
"My name is- It's Genevieve. Eve for short," she replies, her breath catching in her throat.
"Oh, Eve. Come with me. I'll protect you," I say.
She nods her meekly.
That poor soul.
I lead her away, and we slowly wind our way deeper and deeper into the woods of death, with no hope of ever making it out into the open again.
To be honest, I don't want to get into the open.
I'm free in here.
Peaceful and free.
Jason Etras, District Seven
I'm a fighter.
I was born to fight.
To draw blood.
Unfortunately, I was born into the wrong place.
Some low-life district where people only worry about living, and surviving.
So, naturally, the Careers just assume that I'm some weakling scumbag with zero chance of living. But I'm different than that. I have trained my whole life for this day. I wasn't prepared for this arena, but I can work with it.
…
I rush into the middle like they do, and find my weapon. My axe. I mold my hands to the sticky grip, and swing out, hitting the boy running next to me. There's a blond girl next to him, and run over to her and swing at her. The axe hits her on her hairline, and the blood pours out immediately, like a faucet.
I smile silently.
Another swing, and I hit the boy in the neck. They both fall, hitting the ground at the same time, hands intertwined.
Romance. It disgusts me.
Their canons boom soon after, and I continue on into the Cornucopia.
There, the Careers, Lexy, Aryan, Nic, and Kyja are taking stock of things. Actually, Aryan is battling it out with some dude, and Kyja is stealing things from the food and medicine area. Smart. I'll have to watch out for her later.
I quietly make my way up to them, wanting so desperately to be a part of them.
Will they accept me?
I am good enough to be a part of them. It's only a matter of being accepted.
Nobody notices me. I make my way up to the Cornucopia, silently creeping.
Still, nobody notices me. I come around the back part of the mouth, and find dead bodies everywhere. The bloodbath will be huge this year. Less people to fight. At least they got rid of the weaklings, though.
The Kyja girl looks up at me. Narrows her eyes.
I smile in a twisted way.
I am ready for this fight.
After all, she is just a girl.
Joshua, District Six
I wake up, sweaty.
Shit. The sweat'll freeze on me.
Damn it…
I sit up straight, confused for a moment.
Where am I? I remember lots of pain, and white, and black, and red. And Aryan, too. He dragged me through snow, and then nothing comes. I can't remember what happened to me.
But now I know that I am in snow. And that I should be cold, but I'm not. Maybe it's the jacket that's insulating me. Maybe it's the snow, packed and compact around me. I can see my breath, but I am not that cold.
I wonder why.
And then I feel the incredible pain in my knee. It explodes like knives stabbing in. Scalding hot knives, too. My breath is taken away momentarily. I grit my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut, willing the wave to pass.
It does finally, and I relax. The pain is gone.
For now.
…
I'm hungry, so I rip open the pack of jerky I assume Aryan left me. I also find that the canteen is empty, so I fill it with snow, slosh the snow around until it's close enough to be considered liquid, and drink it down.
Suddenly, my eyes feel itchy. I blink a few times, and my vision gets blurry. I squeeze my eyes shut, shake my head around, then open my eyes again.
Even blurrier.
What the hell is going on?
I'm sure it's dehydration, so I take another sip of the snow-slosh, and my eyes are itchy again. What in the hell?
I blink, and my vision is blurrier yet. I'm actually a little freaked out now. I rub my eyes again, and when I open them, I see nothing.
Blackness.
The world is lost to me.
What is happening?
How did snow do this to me?
What do I do?
Should I try to find Aryan? Surely, I would be dead in a second if I tried to wander into the Career pack. Especially blind.
What in the hell should I do?
Sit, and wait to die?
I can't come up with a better plan, so that's what I do.
Sit, and wait to die.
Chase, District Three
I have to go on, I tell myself. I can't quit, just because she's gone, I tell myself. Keep running, I tell myself. There's no stopping, Chase, I tell myself. Just don't quit, Chase, I tell myself.
I know I will stop if I quit reminding myself of these things.
But I walk on. I have nothing except sadness with me to go on.
My twin, Lindsey, is dead.
I am alone.
My other half is gone.
She's dead.
I am alone here.
No one wants to help me.
No one needs me.
…
My lungs and eyes sting as I continue. But I must keep walking to make sure the tears don't come. Because if I let myself stop now, I will cry myself to death, and that can't happen. I won't let myself fall apart now.
After so little, I can't stop.
I can't stop.
So I just keep walking.
I don't care if my lungs scream for air, and my legs scream for rest, or my eyes scream for blinking.
I just keep walking.
I walk and walk until it's dark here. The darkness wraps around me like a cozy, warm blanket. It makes me feel less alone, and I need that right now.
I only stop when I hear the final canons boom, signaling the fallen. The nation's anthem plays.
I sit down and stop walking, my body finally happy with me.
"Welcome, tributes, to your first night in this arena! Congratulations for making it thus far into the Games!" the male announces. I look up to grid-like sky above me. It has finally stopped snowing, so I am able to look up at a clear sky.
"Here we have our fallen: Lindsey Bondrush, of District Three," he begins.
My heart aches at seeing her smiling face in the night sky and hearing her name spoken by a man I don't know.
"Eliza Goodwyn of District Five, Jane Distrap of District Six, James Acklly of District Eight, Amarie Jonte of District Nine, Alexandria Steves of District Eleven, Jonathon Allman of District Eleven, Hope Anstrom of District Twelve, and Hamaon Strew of District Twelve. Have a good night, tributes, and may the odds be ever in you favors!"
The sky stays lit up for a moment, then darkens, and the grid lines disappear, and it looks like a normal sky again. Almost on cue, the snow begins to fall in huge chunks.
I lay on my back, my arms and hands tucked under my head, and look up at the sky.
I don't think I have to worry about hunters, this deep into the woods, and this early into the Games.
I stick my tongue out, and catch the drifting snowflakes on my tongue, like Lindsey and I used to when we were little.
Lindsey.
She's gone now.
And I'm alone.
Lexy, District Two
"Damn," I exclaim. "I guess both of those Four deserters are okay. I have to say, I'm pretty surprised they're alive."
The group nods and laughs. Nic speaks up, "I have to say, I expected the Joshua guy would be dead."
We all laugh again and smirk.
Then, the quiet girl, Kyja, talks. "I guess we did pretty good, right?"
"Pretty good? Hell yeah, pretty good! We had nine bloodbaths! That's amazing!" I yell, a huge grin on my face. They all smile too.
I'm their leader. They will follow me. A bunch of stupid people, following a dangerous woman. Quite a good mix.
I begin to cheer, and I stand up from my sitting position, running around the bonfire. I scream in joy, so happy to finally be here, to claim my victory. I cheer and yell happily, and they join in, hollering and screaming in glee.
"We'll get you!" I scream. "We'll get all of you!"
A shadow steps away from the bigger shadow, and we all jump up.
The creepy Jason guy, with the dirty blond hair that sticks up.
"Well, let's go get them."
A/N: There's your update guys! I added two new characters into the mix, so tell me your favorites! I'm still keeping that tally! They want to know who wins 'Fan Favorite' almost more than they want to know who actually wins, haha. :D
Oh, so what do you think is up with the snow? What's going to happen to the tributes? Review for a quicker update! Thanks, guys!
Umm… Not much to say here. I ate way too much the other day, and I'm still feeling bloated.
Bet you all were DYING to know that lovely piece of information. Yeah…not so much.
Anyway, I have the new chapter up, and you all need to review! Thanks!