Sixty seconds. We have to stand on the Launch Pad for sixty seconds, or we will be blown to smithereens. I look around at the other 24 tributes searching for the rest of my alliance. Nike stands on her platform six tributes away, Neptune is two people away from me on the left.
He motions toward the Cornucopia, and mouths the words,
"You going?"
I nod in approval, and then mouth "You protect me, I'll protect you?"
He nods.
I can't see Cleo or Sophie they must be on the other side of the Cornucopia. I do a quick examination of my surroundings. We're in a replica of the City Circle in the Capitol, 12 streets fan out from the Circle.
15, 14, 13
I see the girl from District 9 who is standing the platform to the right of me start wobble, obviously woozy from the poison in her blood. She starts to move forward, and then she falls on her face and flips over off of her Launch Pad and onto the ground.
BOOOM!
The mines go off and the girl explodes in a mist of blood. Her blood sprays all over the right side of my body. My ears start to ring, and my head swims.
10, 9, 8
I try to steady myself before the gong goes off. I look towards the Cornucopia, a golden bow and arrow sits on top of a sleeping bag, fifty feet away from my platform, It's mine, I mean the Gamemakers must've meant for me to get it.
3, 2, 1.
The gong goes off but it takes a few seconds for it to register in my mind. I take off towards the bow. But it's too late, the girl from District 5 who was standing next to Nike picks it up, loads an arrow and points it right at me, then she falls forward dead, with an axe firmly planted in the back of her head.
"Grab it and help us Finnick!" Sophia yells from inside the Cornucopia.
I run over to the girls body and pick the bow out of her hands, and take the sleeping bag and quiver, dislodge the axe from her skull and start running towards the Cornucopia.
In the Cornucopia, Nike kills the idiot from District 9 who ran to the horn. Cleo has pulled herself up to the top of the Cornucopia and is picking off tributes with a silver bow. Neptune stabs the girl from District 6 with a trident he pulled from the Cornucopia. Sophie swings an axe at the boy from District 10.
My ears have stopped ringing, and my hearing is back. It's a good thing too, because I hear a metallic clinking getting closer to me, I spin around swinging Sophie's axe, and it connects with the tributes chest. The tribute falls to the ground. I look down in horror. My first victim, the boy from District 5; the poor kid from the hovercraft with the metal prosthetic foot. I knew he was going to die in the bloodbath, I didn't know it would be by my hand.
The kid coughs up blood and dies.
I look up from the kid's body, and around the City Circle, the Careers are gone. My allies are all still in the Cornucopia.
"Wow, Finnick, you look like you took a shower in blood." Sophie says.
"I feel like it too."
"I'll take my axe back now."
"Thanks for the bow."
"Did the Careers get anything?" I ask Neptune.
"They all grabbed weapons, some food and left while we were fighting other Tributes."
"Is everyone okay? Did they leave you guys alone?"
"We're all alright." Cleo says from the top.
"Did anyone see which street they went down?"
"Yeah, it was that one, right behind where you were standing." Neptune says.
"So, what's the pla-"
Nike's question is interrupted by the sound of cannon fire signaling the death of a tribute.
I count 8, that means there are 16 of us left after the initial Bloodbath.
"What's the plan? Do we wanna follow the Careers and take them out first?" Nike asks.
"We need to figure out what we're going to do with these supplies." I say.
"We'll take everything we can carry, and then leave the rest."
"There's plenty of bags in here." Sophie says.
Cleo jumps down from on top of the horn and we all go into the Cornucopia, inside we find bandages, empty bottles for water, some fruit, some crackers, some rope, sleeping rolls for all five of us, some rope, and some medicine. We pack all our stuff into the orange backpacks. We all take some knives, there's two for each of us.
"Which street do we go down?" Nike asks.
"Whichever way the Careers didn't go." Sophie says.
"Well then let's go the opposite direction." I say.
We head down the street opposite of where the Careers went, as we walk down the street, the scenery begins to change. The skyscrapers turn to giant Redwood trees and the paved road turns to a gravel path.
"Whoa." Sophie says, stopping to look around.
"What?" Cleo asks.
"Something's off, I feel weird."
"What do you mean, the poison?"
"No, no. This place, it's freaking me out." Sophie says, "How the hell?"
"What?" Nike asks.
"It, It looks like home." Sophie says.