Chapter 10, I'm Going In!
I decided not to confront Zane about all the things he is willing to do to go home and to be honest… I'd rather not know. Finnick disagreed with me and tried to convince to ask Zane but he gave up after a few hours and we both went to bed.
Now I'm standing in the glass cylinder on the metal plate, on which I must stand still for sixty seconds according to Finnick, or they will blow me sky high. He also gave me some other tips, get some stuff from the Cornucopia and then run, find water and try to make friends. In my case that will probably be Zane or the minis.
My outfit for the Arena looks pretty normal, so it will probably be a typical forest Arena. I'm being pushed up and look at Paloma, she nods at me and smiles. Her way of saying good luck I guess. As soon as I am in the open air I close my eyes. The light is so bright. I blink my eyes and after a few seconds I can see where I am and who is next to me. And things couldn't not have been better, I'm in the middle surrounded by Careers (lucky me), Zane is all the way on the left and the minis are somewhere on the right. I hear Claudius Templesmith's voice booming around me: "Ladies and gentlemen, let the seventieth Hunger Games BEGIN!"
If Finnick wouldn't have told me about the sixty-second rule I would have jumped of my metal plate right now. I am disappointed that no one jumps of early…
Right in front of me is the Cornucopia; I see backpacks, food and weapons. The Arena looks like a desolated city. I can see a forest behind all the buildings, it's probably a 6 or 7 mile walk. I can't see a lake or a sea. It's possible that it's just not here, but the city is built on a hill and reminds me of my village. If you walk all the way down the hill, you'll reach the sea. So I'm definitely going to try to go that way.
Thirty seconds.
Okay, I need a plan. What am I going to do? Am I going for the Cornucopia? There are Careers around me, I don't know if I'm faster than them. Maybe I am, I've had a lot of training back home, every time I was late to meet my dad in the harbour… But they might be fast as well… Why didn't I pay more attention to them in training?
Twenty seconds.
There is no other way, I have to go in the Cornucopia. This will probably my only shot at getting supplies and or weapons. But what if I can't find Zane or the minis. I'll just have to find a way to find them. What I now need is one of those backpacks.
Ten seconds.
I'm ready to run and focus on the Cornucopia. Five, four, three, twee.
BAM!
A massive explosion on my left side, someone stepped off too early. Everyone is distracted and is looking around, no one thinks it's safe to step off. Smoke is spreading and you can't see a thing. I don't waste any time and start running. After a few seconds the screaming starts, but I can't let it distract me. After a few seconds I'm in the Cornucopia. I grab a backpack, a bag with some knives and a loaf of bread.
The bloodbath has now officially started, I can hear screams around me, people are dying. It's real now and I have to leave this place. Because of the smoke I don't know what way to go so I just start to run in a random direction.
Wait, we're is Zane? Where he is? I turn around and see that the smoke is slowing disappearing. I can see the Careers hitting and cutting several people. The only two I can tell from the rest is the two from District 12. Can't say I'm really surprised. I can hear people on my right and quickly grab a knife from the back. It' Rosie and Selwyn.
"Rosie!" I scream. She looks my way and sees me.
"This way!" I point to a desolated street that will take us eventually to the forest, I can't go to the sea now.
Selwyn and Rosie nod and we start running up the hill. They both have a backpack but no weapons. I'm running as fast as I can, but Rosie and Selwyn find it hard to keep up with me. I turn around and see that Coyote and Theodone are following us.
"Hurry up! They're right behind us!" I yell. Rosie and Selwyn look behind them and I can see the fear on their faces.
We have to do something, if we keep running up the hill Coyote and Theodone will catch up with us and most definitely kill us. I have to come up with a plan. I try to find a safe place to go, but all I can see are houses and large buildings. It's the only place we can go.
"Follow me!" I yell at them.
I take the lead and turn left into a street. I see a big building with several apartments. I turn around and see Selwyn running from around the corner. Good, Rosie will see him and follow him! I run to the front doors and open them all I see are stairs. I start running and see that Selwyn is right behind. When I'm on the fifth floor I stop running and wait for Selwyn.
"Where is Rosie?" I ask when he is with me.
"I don't know, she… she tripped and…" he stops talking.
"And what?" I hear a panicky tone in my voice.
"She told me to keep running, so I did. But I think that they… I think she's…" He is about to cry.
"Sssh, okay. We just have to be quiet now because Coyote and Theodone are probably following us. So we have to be quiet, okay?"
Selwyn nods and I quickly open the door next to me. I can hear Coyote and Theodone entering the building.
"We will find you!" Theodone yells.
Selwyn and I enter the room and I quietly close the door. The room is almost empty, there are two sofas, an old TV, some old supply boxes. I can see a curtain all the at the back of the room, I walk towards it and see that there is a big closet behind. I sign to Selwyn to come here and push him in the closet. I squeeze myself in there and close the door. I can lock it from the inside, but it's an old lock and probably won't stand a chance against any of the Careers.
I don't care if I have to stay in this thing the rest of the day, if it will save my life, I will live in this thing.
After a few minutes I see that there is a tiny hole in the door and through that I can see the front door.
I hear that Coyote and Theodone are searching the entire building.
"Rubie?" Selwyn whispers.
"Yes?"
"I'm.. I'm so sorry if you die because of me." He starts pouting his lip.
"Don't be silly," I whisper, "but we have to be quiet now."
I can hear that there are more voices now in the building. Poppie and Lyndon have probably added themselves to the group. I can feel my heart pounding in my throat.
"What about here?" Poppie yells.
I can see the door to our room opening. I try my best not to cry, knowing that this is it. This will be my end. I look at Selwyn and I can see that he is silently crying. I have never felt this guilty in my life. I made him come with me and because of that he is stuck with a stupid seventeen year old in a closet, waiting to be slaughtered by some stupid Careers.
Poppie and Theodone enter the room. Theodone walks straight to the supply boxes looking for food while Poppie is slowly walking towards our closet. My heart is pounding so hard, I'm afraid she can hear it. She keeps coming closer and is staring intensively at the closet. Her hand is now on the doorknob and she gently pulls it. I close my eyes, expecting to feel a knife in my rib case any moment now. But I don't feel anything, and the door is still closed. The lock is stronger than I thought it was. Poppy looks at the closed with a confused look.
"Hey Poppie, get over here. I can see the two from District three!" Coyote yells from the hallway.
"What about the other two?" Poppie asks.
"We'll get them later, we don't even know where they are," Lyndon yells.
Yes, go. PLEASE! GO!
Poppie gives the closes one last look and then leaves the room with Theodone. As soon as we can hear them walking down the stairs Selwyn wants to open the doors but I grab his hand and shake no. I will not leave this closet for at least half an hour. After a few minutes we hear the cannons. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… Then nothing. Nine. That's not a lot. After a few minutes my mind starts to work again. Nine… We know Rosie is probably one of them, the two from 12, that stupid guy from I think 8 that stepped of his metal plate to early… that leaves us with 5 unknown. Zane could be one of them. I haven't seen him since the mine went off. He can't be dead, he's is too strong... too smart.
I just have to stop thinking about this, in a few hours they will let us now who died. There is no chance of me knowing right now.
The next few minutes go by slowly, but I'd rather stay in a closet for a few extra minutes and survive then to die a painful death.
I wake up because I hear a cannon shot, I must have dosed off. And so did Selwyn, he's still asleep.
I look through the hole in the door and see that no one is there. I don't open the door until I hear absolute silence and know that we are the only ones in this building, then I wake up Selwyn.
"Where am I?" Selwyn asks.
"In a closet in the Arena," I reply.
I unlock the door, this lock has saved my life, and get out of the closed. Twilight is closing in and I wonder for how many hours we've been asleep. I sit down on one of the sofas and open my backpack.
"Let's see what we've got, shall we?" I ask Selwyn. He nods and also opens his backpack.
"A water bottle.. with no water." Ofcourse.
"I've got an empty one as well, a pocketknife, sleeping bag, matches and two apples," Selwyn says.
"Check the front pocket," I tell him.
"Oh and a small bottle of iodine," he says with a smile.
"A bottle of what?" I ask.
"Iodine, it purifies the water," Selwyn explains.
"Okay…" Maybe I should have paid more attention in survival tactics. Too late now. "I have my knives, bread, plastic sheat, a robe and some flint," I say with a smile.
"Okay. So now what?" Selwyn asks.
"We wait? I don't know. I'd like to know who's still in the game before we start hunting some of them down," I say.
"Maybe we can see what's in the rest of the building?" Selwyn asks.
I nod and start to repack my backpack. After that we leave the room. To make absolutely sure we're the only ones in the building we just stand in the hallway and listen for a few minutes. After that we go to the fourth floor and I open one of the doors. We end up in a long hallway with a lot of windows.
"Okay, Selwyn, we have to be careful now, if anyone sees us through these windows… we're basically done. I don't think we'll be this lucky again," I say.
Selwyn gets down on the ground and starts to crawl. I didn't even think of doing that, I was planning on making a run for it, but this will do.
We enter the room that says 204 and when we're in we quickly close the door.
"Give me a hand will you?" I ask Selwyn.
We barricade the door with a big cupboard so no one can come in. We make a lot of noise so I hope no one is near us. We inspect the house and find some nuts and a bottle of water. In the room there are two sofas and an old broken lamp.
"You stay here and keep guard, so I can have a look upstairs, Okay?" I tell Selwyn.
"Okay," he says and sits down on one of the sofas.
When I walk up the stairs I can see that a part of the roof is missing and I find an old dirty blanket, which I will not be using. I sit down behind a low wall so that I can look out over the Arena without being spotted by any tributes that may be looking this way. It is starting to get dark and I am really tired. The national anthem starts, this means that we'll soon know who died. I can see the seal of the Capitol in the sky and keep a close eye on it. We'll see the pictures of "The Fallen Ones" in a few seconds. The anthem finishes and the seal vanishes. Then the pictures; they boy from District 3, Rosie… I'm relieved that it's Rosie, because that means that Zane is alright, or at least alive, but I do feel sad about Rosie. I see the girl from District 6 and the boy from 8, both from 9, the boy from 10, the girl from 11 and both from 12. The sky turns dark again and I go downstairs.
"SELWYN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I yell and run down the stairs.
"I fixed the lamp. It wasn't difficult, we do these things all the time in 5," he explains.
I pull the plug out and throw way the lamp. Selwyn looks shocked.
"Do you have any idea of what you've just done?" I yell.
"I.. uh," Selwyn says.
"What if someone saw the light? WELL?" I'm really yelling at him, but I didn't expect him to do something so stupid!
"I'm so sorry Rubie, I wasn't thinking, I…"
"You must certainly weren't, no!" I snap at him. "Pack your bags, we have to leave. Now!"
Selwyn grabs his backpack and quietly follows me. We push the closet away from the door and run through the hallway. I assume no one can see us, it's too dark. I ignore Selwyn all the way downstairs. He probably didn't mean to do something so stupid, but we can't afford to make these kind of mistakes. Not in the Arena! Not if you want to survive.
"Rubie?" Selwyn asks.
"Not now," I say while I look around the corner to see if the coast is clear.
"I'm sorry."
"Next time Selwyn, think! Okay?" I say.
"Sorry Rubie, I will. I promise," he says.
"Good, now be quiet. You see this road, it's the main road to the Cornucopia," I say while pointing at the road, "I don't want to go there. I don't know who or what is at the Cornucopia, it's too dangerous for now. I want to go to the sea on the other side of it."
"Is there a sea?" Selwyn asks.
"I don't know, but I think there is," I say frowning, "just stay behind me and don't say anything unless you see something suspicious. Got it?"
He nods.
I take a deep breath and run out on the main road. Please, let us be the only ones.