When I wake up, I am lying on a flat metal surface in a small enclosed room, and chained up with belts. There is a giant computer opposite me, filled with diagrams and words I don't understand.
I try to feel if my white heather clip is still there, but I can't move at all. I struggle to free myself, but with no luck.
Then I realize I am not in my blouse and skirt anymore. Whoever locked me in here stripped and dressed me while I was asleep. I find that indeed disturbing.
I am now wearing a dark green T-shirt and a black jack, with nylon pants to match. Where my lavender flats should be, is now a pair of mud-brown boots.
I try to move my arms and free myself again, but I can't. Maybe if I squirm long enough I can loosen the straps and get out of here.
A man in a black jumpsuit enters the room. "You're awake."
I ignore him and ask if the white heather clip is still in my hair.
"Yes, Miss Mellark. It is. Now please keep quiet."
"Where's Ferrous? Where are my parents?" I grunt as I struggle to free myself.
"Please keep quiet," he tells me, and types something onto the computer.
"Where am I? Why am I here? Where's Ferrous? You'd better answer my questions." I don't know why I said that. I am in no position to threaten people.
He ignores me and leaves the room, only to return quickly with a large silver syringe in his hand.
I scream as he approaches me and injects something in my arm, but to my surprise, nothing happens.
"What did you do?" I ask.
He mumbles something like 'tracker' and releases me from the belts. Just as I decide to make a run for it, he shoves my arms into a straitjacket and blindfolds me.
I scream, but he stuffs a rag in my mouth and leads me to nowhere. I have no idea where we're going. There's no noise except for the sound of our feet.
After walking for a short while, he removes the rag, blindfold, and the straitjacket and shoves me into a tube.
"What's going on?" I scream, but I'm quickly lifted up by the tube onto a round metal plate. It takes my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the light.
"60."
I can see the familiar golden cornucopia in front of me, and there are 25 other people, all looking as confused as I am. I can see Ferrous on the plate next to me, but my parents are nowhere to be seen. In fact, no adults are here at all. Ferrous learned about the Games at a young age—like everyone else did, so he must have some idea we're in an arena.
"50."
All of the other people are looking around, trying to figure out what's happening, but all of us have the good sense to stay on our plates before the timer reaches zero, because we all know one thing—we're the tributes of the Hunger Games.
"40."
I recognize most of the other tributes from the feast. They're all either a mayor's child, or a victor's or rebel's child. There are backpacks and weapons spread out across the mouth of the cornucopia, but I don't know if there's going to be a bloodbath and it's better not to risk it. Besides, I need to get Ferrous to safety.
"20."
The arena has extremely tall trees that resemble rainforests, but the grass and the forest floor looks like it's from the woods. I can hear birds singing.
"10."
I remember the last conversation I had with my mother in the woods and a hysterical giggle escapes my mouth. How ironic.
"0."
When the timer reaches zero, some of the tributes stay glued to their plates, but some of them run for their lives. I am the latter. I run and grab Ferrous by the arm and run away from the cornucopia.
"But Lily, if we run we won't get anything!"
"You won't be anything if you go."
"But we're defenseless!"
"Even if we had weapons you wouldn't know how to use them!"
"Lily, what's going on?"
"I don't know, Ferrous."
We keep running towards nowhere and Ferrous reluctantly follows. The trees in the arena are too tall and have few branches, so I can't climb and hide on them. It's hard to decide where to stop.
"Lily!" Ferrous calls out behind me, panting heavily. "Can we…stop now?"
We stop next to a giant tree trunk. We're still in plain view, so we have to move as soon as we catch our breaths. I lean against the tree, and Ferrous crashes onto the ground. I can see his chest rising up and down rapidly.
When we both cool down, we start walking to find a source of water.
I keep thinking who would want to force us into the games. Since Mayor Camelon was the one who drugged us, he must have had something to do with it. The only scenario I can come up with is that Mayor Camelon is somehow related to President Snow, and wants revenge. I tell this idea to Ferrous.
"But if he wanted revenge, wouldn't he have just captured all the victor's and rebel's children? Why the politicians' children too?" Ferrous speculates.
I consider this for a moment and decide that he's right.
"Maybe he just hates politicians," I suggest.
"Maybe, instead of thinking of why we're here, you start thinking a way of how to get out of here." Ferrous pokes around for traces of mud.
"At least I've been thinking. What have you been doing for the last thirty seconds?"
"I'm thinking of how to get water, and how we're going to survive without anything, since you chickened out at the cornucopia."
"If there aren't any casualties, we'll go back tomorrow," I assure.
We eventually find a lake and Ferrous and I gather roots and berries together. Mainly he spots he plants, and I help gather them. I'm not as good as Ferrous at plants, and I trust his judgement on them.
We have a small feast like we did in the woods before the feast, but I keep jumping at every small noise, like danger is lurking in every corner.
"Ferrous, put your hood up," I tell him, and put mine up as well.
"Why?" he asks, but does as he's told.
"It might act as some sort of protection if someone shoots you from behind."
He shakes his head. "You are so paranoid."
"I'm concerned for your safety. And we should leave the rest of the food for tomorrow."
He nods stuffs the rest of the roots and berries into his pocket.
We talk for a while and try to figure out how to escape, but with no luck.
"Maybe we can dig our way out," Ferrous proposes.
"That's ridiculous."
Ferrous yawns. "Better than your idea."
"Shut up," I say, but I smile. "You should go to sleep, Fern. I'll take first watch."
He doesn't need to be told twice. He lays his head on my shoulder and soon begins snoring. His head is extremely heavy, but I don't budge. Probably heavy from storing all that information about plants.
I hear a cannon and I jump. Ferrous' eyelids flutter at the noise, but I tell him to go back to sleep.
Not long after, the faces of the dead are shown. There's only one, though. It's the seven-year-old daughter of the mayor from district 10. I don't remember her name, but I'm pretty sure it starts with a 'N', like her older brother, Navin. I know Navin from the second Peace Feast ten years ago. I was four and Ferrous was one then. Annie Cresta's son played with us and led all the games, since he was the oldest. Almost all of us children played together during the feast. Navin was the only child who didn't play with us.
I'm very tired, but I don't want to wake Ferrous, so I bite my tongue to stay awake. I sit there, guarding him from danger, hoping he would get up soon.
Please leave a review to tell me what you think of the story so far and what you think I should do to improve it.
I hope you like the first four chapters. The next one will include more action.:)
Your opinions are much appreciated.
