The podium came to a sharp halt. The sand blowing in the wind prickled my arms and the sun was heavily beating down on my forehead. I now knew why we were wearing thin t-shirts, but the tracksuit bottoms I still wasn't sure of. In the distance, I saw a shady forest, my favoured terrain. Good. I turned my head and saw the forest ran all the way around the desert. No sign of food or water yet. I looked to see if I could see Damiean. I couldn't. He was probably behind the other side of the Cornucopia with most of the other boys. I could see Summer though. She looked petrified, rubbing her enormous bump (I swore it has swollen even more overnight) and muttering to the baby inside.
"10, 9, 8, 7..." There was a loud bang to my right. The cute kid from District 8 had stepped off early and blew up. 1 down, 23 to go.
"3, 2, 1." The gong sounded and the bloodbath began. I reached the centre on the Cornucopia. I picked up an axe an stabbed it into the kid running towards me. I heard noises behind me. I turned, axe at the ready, to see Damiean with a sword in his hand and fear in his eyes. He threw it in my direction but a few inches away from me. He flashed me a smile to check that I had seen it then threw another blade at a kid from 4. I could see Mycroft and Zillian moving away from the Cornucopia. I will get them later. Damiean had found Summer; well rescued her from the girl from 9 who was stabbed shortly after. He gave her a knife and a rucsack full of food and told her to hide on top of the Cornucopia until we were finished. After his command, he turned and stabbed the girl from 3, twisting the dagger so her organs fell to the floor. He saw Summer again as she was running away from the Cornucopia shouting,
"I WILL JUST SLOW YOU DOWN!" Damiean was about to run after her when I grabbed his shoulders and pointed him to the two boys from 5 and 6 fighting hand-to-hand.
"On the count of three, one..." We both raised our arms, "Two..." with weapons at the ready, "Three!" We both launched our weapons in sync, and they both injured the boys. They both fell to the floor, writhing.
We ran over to them, my target with a large wound in his side, and a missing limb, and Damiean's , no legs and a black eye. We finished them off with scratching our names into their torsos and left them there to die. A smattering of blood stained Dai's cheek and he was panting, eyes glittering with bloodlust. We looked around at saw that we were the only living beings left at the Cornucopia. We inpected who was dead, Dai looking a little calmer and a lot more nauseaous. There were thirteen dead already, a girl from 3, boys from 4 and 5, both from 6, 7 and 9, that Justin kid from 10, the girl from 11, and that boy from 12. Oh and the remains of the boy from 8. We went around looking through the packs that were left behind, we found loads of food, 2 sleeping bags, a tent, some matches, 5 canteens for water and we gathered up the rest of the weapons. I found belts for knifes and a sash for my axes. Damiean found numerous different swords, a spear and a bow and a quiver of arrows.
We set off towards the forest to the left of the Cornucopia. We were hot and needed to find water soon. Damiean rolled up his tracksuit bottoms, displaying a minor gash in his shin which we cleaned up quickly. It didn't seem to pain him enough to stop walking. After about thirty minutes of this walking, the ground beneath our feet began feel strange.
"Hey Dai, does the ground seem... squishy.. to you?" He looked at his feet and stopped. He poked the ground. He suddenly shot bolt upright, face pale as paper.
"We need to run." He darted in front of me.
"What? Why?" I asked him. He was already about 2 metres in front of me (a surprising feat for him), sweating like a pig. He turned to me and held out his hand.
"This sand is quicksand."