James stood on the platform and frantically looked at the other tributes for Lily. They hadn't said anything about working together in the arena, and he hadn't planned on seeking her out, but now that they were actually in the arena, now that he could see the numbers quickly counting down to zero, he felt as though he needed to seriously consider the idea.
His eyes found hers, and even though she wasn't looking at him, his heart clenched in his chest. She shouldn't be here. It wasn't right to see someone like her here.
That wasn't to say that she was helpless.
He told her last night that he thought she could win the games, and he had been telling the truth. She was a good shot with a bow, she knew which plants she could eat, she could build a fire, and her mother was a healer, so she had to have some medical knowledge as well. To James, that seemed like more than enough to win.
She didn't want to hurt anyone, but people had won the games without hurting anyone before.
He really should be thinking more about how he could win the games himself.
He locked eyes with one of the careers from District 2 and banished that thought from his mind. He wasn't going to make it, when he'd said goodbye to his friends and family, there had been something that had felt final about it, something that felt irreversible. He wasn't going to make it home. He looked back at Lily.
He could help to make sure that Lily got home.
The numbers clicked down to ten, and he looked toward the center of the circle that the tributes were standing in. That's where all the weapons and supplies were. He'd need to get something if he had any hope of being helpful.
Moody had made sure to tell Lily and James both, about a dozen times each, that they were not to run toward the supplies. The first hour of the games was one of the deadliest, the finale being the only other portion of the game that rivaled it in gore and blood. But not all of the supplies were in the very center. There was a backpack, that looked awfully full, not ten meters in front of him. He could grab that and then start in Lily's direction.
He looked back at Lily and saw that she was looking directly at a crossbow that was in the center of the arena, he started shaking his head, and to his surprise, she looked up at him and he saw her jaw clench. He understood how enticing it was, they put the bow there because they knew how good she was with it. The Gamemakers had seen her train with it sparingly throughout the week, but that was all it took for them to understand that if she had one in the arena, she would be a force to be reckoned with.
James knew that he was going to have to get the bow and arrow for her.
She'd be a shoe-in if she had the bow and arrow. None of the other tributes would stand a chance. He was choosing to ignore that she'd told him she wasn't going to kill any of the other tributes, sure, but even if he had spent precious time thinking about that, he still would have thought it would be worth it. Because he would have come to the conclusion that even if she wasn't going to kill anyone with the bow and arrow, she also would be untouchable with it in her hand. She didn't have to go for the kill shot to render someone incapable of following after her.
He wasn't stupid though, and he knew that he couldn't just run out there and grab it. He may have been in good physical condition, fairly strong and larger than a lot of the other contestants (and not just because he was one of the oldest there,) but he knew that he'd end up beheaded or with his chest acting as the burial ground for an axe blade if he tried to get to the very middle, where the bow and arrow was.
He looked up at Lily and saw that he wasn't the only one trying to work out how to get it into her hands. She must have felt his gaze on her, because she looked up at him.
He knew that he shouldn't feel the way that he did, he knew that it was pointless and detrimental to his own chances of surviving, but he couldn't help it. He'd fancied her for as long as he'd known her, and it was ridiculous, his friends had told him so hundreds of times, but it was still the truth and he knew that he was going to try and help her get out of the arena.
The countdown had reached ten, now, and he tore his gaze away from Lily and started looking around the area closer to him. He wasn't going to get to the bow just then, but that didn't mean that he was going to leave empty handed, Moody's advice be damned.
It was, as expected, a blood bath. Everyone was moving too quickly, and he knew that if he tried to keep track of anything other than his current movements, he was going to end up just another canon sound in the beginning of the games, and he didn't want that. He didn't want to go out like that.
But as he watched people from districts 6,7 and 8 fall, he wondered if perhaps some of the tributes had rushed forward in order to end things more quickly, knowing that they didn't have a chance at beating the careers. Perhaps they hadn't wanted to put their families through hoping for the best.
He had the backpack on, and was heading toward the woods when he saw Lestrange slice a knife across the neck of the girl from 11. Her eyes went wide before she felt into a heap, and James almost let it trip him up, he almost stopped running. But there was nothing he could do for her, and he wasn't going to try and fight Lestrange, so he kept his eyes on the people around him and his feet moving.
His heart was in his throat, the blood was rushing in his ears, and he kept putting one foot in front of the other. He made it to the tree line, and told himself that he couldn't be relieved, that he couldn't slow down until he couldn't hear the screaming that was coming from the center of the arena. He had a backpack full of unknown supplies, he had made it out of the meadow, but that was all. He hadn't actually accomplished anything yet.
He was clumsy as he ran through the woods, stumbling over roots and brush fallen logs. This wasn't a terrain that he was familiar with, though he wouldn't have been familiar with any terrain other than a town, he supposed.
He ran and ran until his legs felt like fire and he couldn't hear the sounds of another person.
He finally stopped after he nearly ran into a tree, choosing instead to fall against its trunk and wrap his arms around it, leaning over and sucking in large breaths.
He'd done it. He'd survived the initial portion of the games, and he'd even managed to get supplies. He had no idea what was in the backpack, but it was something. He'd left the middle of the arena with something. And if the only thing it did was allow him to fill it with rocks and drop it out of a tree onto a passing tribute, then he'd say that it was well worth the effort.
It wasn't empty though, he knew that. He could hear things rattling around in it as he ran, and now, when he pulled it off his back so that he could go through it, he could hear something rattling around again. He could also hear something splashing around and was grateful to find that there was a full canteen of water.
He drank too much, and realized immediately afterward that he'd drank too much. He didn't know when he was going to be able to refill the bottle, and it had to last him until whenever that was. He'd seen the lake, but he didn't know if he could risk going back to the middle of the arena where there was no place to hide.
Furthermore, he found a small jar of matches, a three inch knife, a sleeping bag, some rope, iodine tablets and fever pills.
He found himself looking over the small container of medicine and wondering how much it would have cost back in 12. Actual medicine like this was hard to come by, even in his house they only took it sparingly.
He packed it all back up again and decided to keep moving.
It would be embarrassing to come this far and then be taken out because he had let his guard down to look at a bottle of pills.
AN: Ask me how weird I think it is that my chapters are 5k or more words. Because I think it's very strange and I think that I'm ripping you guys off or something by only posting around 3.5k words at a time. Why? I don't know.
I hope you enjoyed! I finally got them into the arena and this is where things got real fun for me to write!
Don't forget to leave a review pls and thx