Chapter 4: Richer Districts Betrayed
I have only been able to keep track of time by the patterns of the sun and the moon. With this, I know that I have been in this arena for about a week.
All fourteen tributes who survived the first day are still alive. I have not heard another cannon. So, I simply keep content by hunting through the woods with my axe. There are plenty of animals to feast on, so as long as you know how to hunt, you won't exactly go hungry the way the title of this competition suggests.
On the morning of the seventh day, I spy a pack of tributes wandering through the trees towards me. I hide and watch them. These are the tributes from Districts 1, 2 and 4. I don't know what states they used to be, only that they were richer parts of the country, closer to the coasts. And that meant they had the support of the Capitol.
All at once, I see... I can't believe my eyes... fireballs rain down into the forest from the heavens. They land on the group, who try to run, screaming. Fireballs continue to rain down, as if some God, in His displeasure, has suddenly decided to cut short this madness. So perhaps it is mercy.
Or maybe not, as all six tributes die before my very eyes. I hear six cannons afterwards.
Only eight tributes left. The boy from 3. The girl from 5. Me. Boy from 8. Girl from 9. Both from 11. And boy from 12. This must occur to those watching the Games too, for an announcer suddenly says, "Congratulations to the Final Eight tributes of this 1st Hunger Games! This will be a new milestone that will be much commended for generations to come! Four days hence, there will be a Feast at the Cornucopia - or what you might refer to as that great metal horn. There will be supplies and more food than you can possibly imagine - a reward for you getting this far!"
I am getting tired of the woodsy food I have managed to procure. And maybe I can get more supplies. I decide to go to the Feast.
On Day Eleven, I realize that coming back to the horn was a big mistake.
All the other tributes still alive did, too.
As I try to get more food and another backpack, the tributes from District 11 suddenly attack me with curved swords. I dodge and actually manage to stab both of them with my axe, hacking them until blood pours from their flesh wounds and they die. Grabbing a backpack with my bloodied hands and another axe, I run. But I glance back in time to see the boy from 3 killed by the boy from 12.