Chapter 9- Let the Games begin
"ODAIR, DUCK!" a voice behind me yells. I cling to the ground just in time to miss an axe whizzing past my head. I turn and see the girl from 6 cursing under her breath. She doesn't even have time to turn around before Citron stabs his new dagger into her stomach.
"Watch out next time!" Citron says, obviously annoyed.
"Sorry!" I yell back.
I quickly grab a random spear from a pile; this will have to do. I run out of the cornucopia to face the battle. Already, 5 bodies of what used to be children lay lifeless on the ground. Citron, Lupa, and Courago smile as each one goes down. I hear a crunch of leaves from my left and turn to see the District 3 tributes and Ero run into the forest. Let her go, I think to myself. It could be so simple, to spear her right now with her back turned, but I am easily distracted when I see a sword slashing its way to me. The boy from 9 holds it and I quickly assume he has no idea what he's doing with the thing. I completely misjudge him as the sword makes a gash at my forehead. If you don't kill him, he'll kill you. Right.
I let my spear fly and I close my eyes as his lifeless body falls to the ground. Sorry.
I take a deep breathe and unhinge my spear. I get it out just in time to block a knife coming at my back. I whip my head around and I am surprised to see Lupa being the thrower.
"Oh! Sorry Finnick! Didn't see it was you," she says as she runs to find another victim. Yeah, try and say sorry if I hadn't blocked that knife.
I turn to face the clearing. 8 bodies now lay on the ground. I don't dare look at their faces. I catch a glance to my left as the boy from 7 escapes into the trees. Good luck out there, I think to myself. The boy from 12 runs towards the mountains with a large Mace in his hand. I quickly note that I should probably stay far away from him with his weapon of choice.
The boy from 5 collapses as a knife plunges into his head. The girl from his district, Freya, slowly runs to the trees, tears in her eyes. She has nothing in her hands to survive from. I swallow hard. She's the girl from the fire station. I knew her.
The District 10 tributes just escape into the forest when Courago takes notice of them. I can hear him curse under his breath as his victims escape him. How frustrating.
And just like that, the battle is over. 9 dead bodies lay on the ground. I slowly walk towards my allies, careful not to trip over anyone while still managing to not look at them.
"9 down, 15 more to go." Citron says with a smile.
"Not good enough. We have to go hunting tonight." Courago says as he goes through a box of supplies.
"You're right. Let's move so that they can get the bodies," Lupa says as she unhinges her knives from her victims. I grab my bloody spear and move with my allies to the ocean.
BAM! I cringe as the first cannon sounds. It is followed by eight more. Now everyone will know. It's not a very impressive number for careers, like Courago had said. It's better than two years ago when only 6 died at the Cornucopia though.
Just after 5 minutes by the water, I feel cooked. The heat is so terrible that I rip off my jacket and gulp down half a bottle of water before my senses tell me to stop. Why did they put us in pants and a jacket if the heat was going to be this bad? I guess for the hope that we might die of heat poisoning.
As the hovercraft picks up the last body, my allies and I fall into the clearing and rummage through the mass of supplies.
"Oh! I got apples and pears over here!" Topaz says as she breaks open a wooden box.
"Water and clothes!" Citron yells to the left.
"Just camping supplies in this one." Lupa says from behind me.
"Anybody find a trident?" I ask desperately. Everyone answers 'no' and my heart sinks once more.
"You're good with a spear though right?" Citron asks.
"Yeah, I guess." I mumble.
"You saw him in training, Courago. He's much better with a trident." Lupa says.
"Well, do you see one? No. He'll have to manage with a spear." He yells.
"What about all those sponsors you have?" Citron asks. Courago shoots him a glare and he shuts up.
"Tridents cost a lot of money." I say. They wouldn't know, they aren't from District 4.
"Really? They just seem like giant forks to me." Citron says. It takes all of my power not to punch him.
"Forget it. Sorry Odair, you're probably not getting one." Courago snaps. "Let's go clean our weapons, make camp, and then hunt at night."
We all agree and walk to the ocean. I find a sea sponge that is perfect for scrubbing and they all use them immediately. I hate cleaning off my spear… it reminds me that I used it in the first place. The Careers don't seem to mind removing the blood at all though. They actually seem to enjoy it. Every dirty weapon doesn't meant a life lost to them, it means another tally on their board. Next, we set up our camp. Courago decides that we should set our tents up around our supplies so that somebody will have to go through us first before stealing from our pile. It takes a while to adjust the sets perfectly. During the process, I quickly discover that Courago has an anger problem. I figured it out when he almost beheaded Citron for tilting his tent. I had to pry Courago off of the poor guy. I did it just in time too, a few more seconds and Citron would have a nasty gash on his neck. Courago finally apologized though.
As the sun sets over the mountains, I feel sick to my stomach: now is the time to hunt.
"Everyone got their stuff?" Courago asks as he grabs the largest sword. Everyone nods. We found 5 pairs of night vision goggles and everyone slips a pair on. As my eyes adjust, we walk into the forest.
"What do we look for?" I ask. I've got to know before I run away.
"Footprints majorly if we can't find smoke from a fire." Lupa whispers to me. "If not that, we just keep an ear out for voices."
"We also look for signs of camp. Maybe food or an old fire pit," Topaz says to my left.
"Guys! Look!" Citron whispers as he comes across an open backpack next to a tree.
"And look there are the footprints!" Lupa says as she points in front of the bag. Courago puts his finger to his lips indicating that we should be quiet. He starts jogging in the path of the footprints. I can't see him anymore, the trees block my view. Suddenly, I hear a scream and a gasp. 2 cannons sound and Courago returns, his sword bloody.
"Who was it?" Lupa asks with a grin on her face.
"Just the girl and boy from 8. Come on, I heard footsteps over here."
We walk towards the direction of where Courago heard the footsteps and I am shocked to see that he was right, there are the footprints to prove it. Citron and Lupa volunteer to search for the person as Courago, Topaz and I wait.
"Can you climb up these things, Odair?" Courago asks as he points to a tree.
"Yeah, I practiced at training." I say.
"Well, climb to the top and see if you spot a campfire anywhere around here."
I take note that Courago can't climb trees. That's very useful information. I take hold of the branches and bring myself up to the top. I look around and I am shocked to see two fires clearly in our range.
"Do you see anything?" Courago asks from below.
"No," I lie. Too many people have died today.
As soon as I reach the ground, a cannon sounds. Lupa and Citron come into view, both smiling.
"Did you get him?" Topaz asks.
"It was a she, the girl from 5 to be exact. And yeah we got her, she didn't even have time to scream," laughs Citron as Lupa chuckles beside him. That's the end for the girl from the Fire Station. I swallow hard.
"Well, Odair says there isn't anything close by. Let's head back." Courago demands.
As we are walking back, I almost miss the silver parachute.
"Hey look! A sponsor!" Topaz says as Citron catches it. On the fabric is a big number 4.
"It's for you," Citron says as he gives it to me. It's a basket. I open it up to find 5 fresh biscuits. Just like Mags had promised. They are pale white and misshapen, District 12. I have twelve days until I have to run away.
"Thanks Mags!" I whisper.
"Looks like we got dinner guys!" Citron says from behind me though I never gave permission to share my food. Courago and Citron exchange a glance that I can't exactly understand. I guess they're my allies; I kind of have to share with them. So, when we head back to camp, I give everyone a biscuit.
Everyone is obviously tired. Surprisingly, Courago doesn't seem weary at all. We decide that he should keep watch tonight. He immediately agrees and sits against the tents, sword in hand. Just as I snuggle into my sleeping bag, the anthem plays. One by one, the faces of our victims are cast into the sky, the District's number underneath the picture. I glance away when the boy from 9's face comes on. I can't bear to look at the boy that I killed. How the rest of my allies do it, I have no idea. All I know is that I have only killed once and I already feel like I'm going to throw up. This is going to have to stop if I want to come home for Annie.
Annie. My heart sinks as I glance at my token from under the moonlight. She watched me murder someone today. She's probably horrified of me. How disgusting I must look to her. She told me she wouldn't give up on me though right? She must understand. Right. Annie would never give up on me. And I would never give up on her. I'll prove it too, when I come home to her. When I win for her. When I finally get to see those beautiful eyes. And somehow, I find sleep.
