A Games Unlike Any Other

Chapter 7 Light and Darkness in the Tunnel

(Author's Note: I apologize for the delay in continuing this story. Taxes. then participation in Easter activities. But here it is now)

"…39, 38…"

So this was the crucial decision of Diana's life. There were of course supplies around the central Cornucopia, designed to tempt the tributes into killing each other to get them. Take the risk? Or run off through one of the arches, and hope that the lack of supplies didn't kill her in the long run?

Once again she reflected that nobody cared whether she lived or died. Formerly she found that depressing, but this time the thought was peculiarly liberating. She could make her choice and nobody could call her on it. It would affect nobody but herself.

"…9, 8…"

Play it safe and live a few days longer.

The starting bell rang and she turned and ran to the nearest arch.

The arch let her into a tunnel which, in itself, was unlighted. There was light ahead of her, she vaguely estimated it as 50 meters ahead. Were there hidden dangers in the dark? It couldn't be any more dangerous than the fighting behind her, and she was not afraid of darkness in itself. She decided to risk the walk.

Several minutes later she emerged from the tunnel. The results were quite anti-climatic. She was in another round chamber, smaller than the original, lighted from above Eight arches radiating in various directions. The chamber itself was bare of anything useful. She had to keep going, but where?

The obvious thing was to use the arch directly opposite. But if anybody tried to track her, they would guess that she would do the obvious thing and be able to stay on her trail. So do something less obvious. Take the middle arch on the left.

The tunnel took her to another empty room with arches. This time she turned right, for the sake of being unpredictable. She wondered what on Earth the Gamesmasters had in mind when designing the arena like this. It was making it much too easy to avoid other people, when the Gamesmasters' usual strategy was to try to force the tributes together. On the other hand, she was not finding any sustinence or even water. Did they think it would be fun to make her wander in circles until she starved? Maybe THEY thought so, but it wouldn't be very entertaining to the audience, so she doubted they would try that.

With these thoughts in mind, she was startled when she emerged from the third tunnel and found something different. In the center of the room was a small table set for two. Diana picked up the silverware – they might turn out to be handy weapons – but did not yet try touching the food and drink. Beware of Gamesmakers bearing gifts. They might be poisoned.

On the other hand, they might think it hilarious to watch her get hungrier and hungrier while food was in reach. It was not likely that there might be natural food in this crazy maze. All the food, except at the Cornucopia, would be provided like this.

She picked up an apple and bit into it, and waited to see what would happen.

0-0-0-0-0

As the countdown proceeded, Bruce saw a sword lying halfway between himself and the Cornucopia. He simply had to have a weapon to survive the Games, so he decided to gamble his life on seizing it.

4-3-2-1-BONG!

Bruce dashed forward, but so did the boy to his left. As they were about to collide Bruce threw his weight against his competitor, knocking him off balance, then grabbed the sword. The other simply backed up, holding out his palms either to ward off Bruce or to illustrate that he was unarmed. Either way he was no longer a threat, and Bruce had no reason to fight him. Instead he concentrated on what was going on at the Cornucopia.

At first it looked like sheer chaos, but Bruce realized that there was method to the madness. The tributes from Districts 1 and 2 were working together. The two boys were standing back to back, ensuring that nobody could sneak up behind them. The two girls attacked another girl from two sides and hacked her to death, then converged on another victim. Bruce had no ally and knew he was no match for this. Might as well flee while he was ahead, with a sword in his possession.

He couldn't see Diana. She probably had fled immediately, disappearing into one of the tunnels. He picked the tunnel nearest him and followed suit.

He could see light at the end and concentrated on running toward it. Big enclosed structures like this were alien to him; he was from the lumber district, dominated by log cabins put to various uses. When he finally emerged, it was into another round room with various tunnel entrances.

There was nothing useful here. All the useful stuff was probably back at the Cornucopia. He decided to double back partway. When he was about 15 meters from the original entrance, he stopped. From this vantage point he could see what was going on at the Cornucopia – which seemed to be a meeting of the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 – but be hidden in the darkness himself. There was no immediate danger. Bruce used the free time to practice with his sword. He had never handled such a weapon in District 7, and knew he probably had little chance of thrusting with it. But he could feel a sharp edge along its length, and could use it to hack away at an enemy. He waved it, getting used to the amount of energy needed to deploy it.

At the Cornucopia, the 4 tributes seemed to reach an agreement. One sat at the Cornucopia, and the other three disappeared down various tunnels. Fortunately Bruce's tunnel wasn't one of them. Should he try to attack the one who stayed behind at the Cornucopia? Not yet. The other had numerous weapons at his disposal, and probably training on how to use them, while Bruce was still getting used to deploying his own sword. Meanwhile he was safe. The guard didn't know that he was here.

"Who's there? Rocky, is that you?" A female voice BEHIND him. How had she gotten there?

Rocky was the name of the District 2 male tribute. So this girl was an enemy.

He flattened himself against the wall, making himself as invisible as possible, and turned to see the shadow of her head blocking most of the light from the other end of the tunnel. Since he had failed to reply, she clearly assumed that he was a threat. Her head-shadow shifted and he heard, rather than saw, the whoosh of a weapon as it missed him by a few centimeters. She, was, of course, fighting half blind. He lunged forward and aimed where he had seen the head-shadow. He felt an impact, her shadow assumed an odd shape and then sank altogether. Something hit his foot but moved no more.

He had killed her, by cutting her head half off. And he didn't even know who she was. Just an "enemy".

He felt sick, on more than one level. A couple of weeks earlier he had tried to force himself on a girl and was sent here as a punishment. But now he had actually killed a girl and realized that they would probably cheer him in the Capitol, because it was a killing during the Games. It was right for him to have been punished, but the Capitol was the wrong power to sit on judgement on him. Was there a right power somewhere? Or just the pain of his own conscience?

TO BE CONTINUED.