Chapter IX

"60."

Sixty seconds was all I've got until the Games begin. In those sixty seconds, I took in my surroundings. The Arena, from memory was called a swamp. It was a murky, extensive landscape that held the horrors to come. The north looked oddly colder whilst the south burning hot. The west had thicker vegetation whilst the east looked the wettest.

"50"

I breathed a sigh of relief. As someone from District 4 this wasn't the ideal environment but better than frozen tundra. I could survive here. I decided to go for the east. I was a good swimmer after all. I would freeze in the north and I wasn't sure if I could survive the heat of the south, as even though District 4 had hot temperatures it was still on the coast so it was considerably cooler. I also didn't trust the west part of the swamp one bit.

"40."

I looked at the cornucopia, which stood in the middle of a perfect circle made by the tributes. Supplies galore. I set my eyes on a nifty knife set nearer to the cornucopia well as a supply kit. I decide that I would make a run for it. Hopefully it would be enough for now. Hopefully I wouldn't be butchered like an animal.

"30"

Finally, I looked over to my fellow tributes. On my left was the boy from Five and to the right the girl from Eight. Relief filled me, neither were threats. I couldn't see Devon, Septima, Sam or Kat, which led me to believe they were on the other side of the cornucopia. But everyone else was in my line or vision. Unluckily the pair from Two were the next closest on either side and Marble from One wasn't too far away either. I noticed Raff close by and hoped he'd make it out.

"10"

I positioned myself in a running stance, ready to take off at any second.

"9"

I took a look at everyone once more. Some terrified, others determined.

"8"

I was sweating now. My stomach was in a knot that couldn't be untied.

"7"

I looked back at the eastern swamp that would be my home.

"6"

That was if I made it through the Bloodbath.

"5"

I had too.

"4"

For my District, my home…

"3"

For Pliny, Laurel and Blye…

"2"

And for my Mother and Alodia.

"1"

And for me.

"0"

It was now or never.

The gong rang and I was off. I sprinted without question to the set of knives, picking up two supply kits on the way. I could hear fighting on either side of me but I paid no attention. I only had one goal and that was to the get the hell out of here.

I made it to the knives but as I went to pick them up I was suddenly thrown to the ground. In an instance Aemila was on top of me. She pulled out a knife and just when I was about to die she was suddenly thrown off me.

I thought I was delirious for a second and in fact actually dead but instead Kat had come to rescue.

"Allies," She said as she lifted me to my feet. I nodded without any hesitation. She saved my life after all.

I looked over the ground where Aemila laid, injured but not dead. I was about to pull out a knife and kill her but suddenly there was screaming.

I saw him then, the monstrous boy, Wade, from Two, hovering over the little girl from Five. She was terrified but thankfully her death was quick. Her throat was sliced in such a quick motion that if I had blinked, I would have missed IT. She was then left lying on the floor bleeding out. A feeling of sickness threatened to overwhelm me as I fought the urge to run over there, to make him pay. But it was no use. What was done was done.

"Come on we have to go," It was Kat that pulled my attention away from the scene. "We'll go to the eastern swamp."

"Thought you'd want to go the western one since it's the most forested," I replied, confused.

"We can't. It's practically a death trap. The careers will surely go there because they'll be able to survive best there. Our best chance is the eastern swamp." I nodded earnestly.

Still running to the eastern swamp, we went undetected, as everyone else was too busy fighting, whilst I loosely kept track of the other tributes. Aemila was now going over to the sickly boy from Nine who was dead next, as she gutted him with a machete, as though he was no more than a squealing pig. I shuddered to think that if it wasn't for Kat that would have been me. She then moved onto to the girl from Eight. A weak fighter, she was dead in seconds as well.

She then met up with Wade before turning to the girl from Twelve. They killed her together as Aemila pinned her down and Wade strangled her.

It was Marble's turn to kill next as he came across the girl from Nine. He killed her quickly with a knife to the heart. The boy from Eleven foolishly tried to stop him but Septima had his back. She threw her spear with such perfect, unsettling aim. He then joined the girl from Eleven in the slumber of death.

The boy from Eleven's District partner was hysterical at his death. She collapsed to the floor in grief, tears pouring from her eyes. I wanted to scream at her to stop, to look out, that there was no time for hysterics in the Hunger Games. But it didn't matter. It was already too late. Aemila, without flinching, stabbed the girl in one swift motion and she too fell motionless to the ground.

We were evidently spurred on to run faster by the ongoing bloodbath as Kat and I finally made it to the eastern swamp. Just as I was about to enter I was pulled to the ground from behind. It was Septima. She was going to kill me as she had done to boy from Eleven.

"Hello Four. Fancy meeting you here," She taunted. I try to scream out for Kat but she had gone ahead, being faster than I was.

"This is going to hurt," She said twistedly, pulling out a sharp knife.

"Only as much as this." I landed a sharp kick to her side as I had been taught too in hand-to-hand combat training. It was enough. She rolled over in pain. I took out my knife to finish her but I saw the Careers coming for me, only a short distance away with weapons bared. There were bloodthirsty smirks on their faces. Their quench for murder needed to be fulfilled.

I turned away from them without another thought, following after Kat

"Where were you?" She asked as I caught up to her, gasping for breath.

"Oh nowhere. Just being attacked by Septima is all," I snapped, rather annoyed that she hadn't been there to help me out.

"What? Why didn't you call out for me?" She asked confused.

"I did. You couldn't hear," I muttered quietly.

"Oh god. I'm so sorry., She apologised, startled me. "I wasn't paying any attention to anything but getting the hell out of there. I just kept running, never thought once to look back."

"And you shouldn't have. Never look back," I advise before sighing. "Don't worry about it. You saved my life once already. You don't need to do it again."

"Of course, I do. We're allies." She affirmed.

"Whatever you say then," I sighed, knowing we would get nowhere if we kept going back and forth like this.

We started running as fast as we could into the depths of the swamp. We were slowed by the sheer thickness of the wetland. Still we persevered despite mud soaking our bodies us to the bone. We didn't stop until we heard the cannons fire. Six times it fired. Six tributes dead and eighteen left. After the girl from Eleven no other deaths must have occurred.

"We should stop now, take a minute to rest," Kat said after the cannons stopped.

I nodded quietly before sitting down. My adrenaline rush faded as every bone in my body began to ache. I looked over to Kat and clearly, she felt the same.

We looked through our combined packs and were very pleased with what we had. We managed to get two supply kits each as well as an axe for Kat and a knife set for me. In my first supply kit, there was an empty water canteen, a packet of biscuits, dried fruit, protein bars, matches, fabric that could be used as shelter and a pack of bandages. My second supply kit was even better. A full water canteen, a sleeping bag, two loaves of bread, a variety of vegetables and a short spear. Kat's supply kits were more or less the same albeit without the spear.

Once we sorted through the packs we began to move again. This time we were conscious of animals for hunting and clean water to drink from though we hadn't seen either on our way. We walked in silence for what seemed like hours, daring only to take sips of our limited water supply.

Finally, night fell and we chose a place to rest. We decided that we should camouflage ourselves in the thick bushes, the trees too thin to climb. Kat was much better at camouflaging then I was, offering to do mine as well. I took notes of her technique, knowing that I couldn't always count on her to do my camouflage.

We settled in a spot, in between thick shrubs, that made us virtually invisible from the outside before laying out our supplies. We nibbled on a little food and took sips of water though neither was enough.

We sat in silence unable to think of anything to say until the death recap began. Even though I already knew who was dead and who was alive I watched the recap with intense focus in case I missed a cannon.

Of course, no deaths have occurred from Districts 1-4. The Careers were too strong and I supposed the pair from Three made it out okay. Relief filled me when Devon's face didn't show up. The thought that he wasn't dead was a little comforting though I wished it wouldn't be. He'd have to die if I was to survive.

Thus, it was the girl from Five, Nina Foster whose face was shown first in the sky. The thought of her death filled me with rage.

The next person shown was Emily Sender from Eight. Aemila killed her like she almost killed me. It could have been my face shown in the sky.

Arya Farrah from Nine was shown next. The little boy Raff had made it through alive thankfully.

Her district partner Bran Miller was next up followed by Willow Jackson and Durian Young, both from Eleven. Finally, Brooke Collins from Twelve finished up the death recap.

"Seven down, sixteen to go," Kat whispered to me. It remained unspoken that one of us would have to die for the other to win.

"Who do you reckon is next?" I asked.

"Don't know. Though seven is a pretty small bloodbath," She answered, looking a little scared at the thought. If the Gamemakers tried to liven things up…

"Everybody must have fled," I muttered in response.

"Everyone ran once the killing began," Kat recounted. "The pair from the Three went up north. As did Devon and Sam from Twelve and my district partner Jack." Devon going up north surprised me. He was from District 4, he wouldn't last a week there. I for sure thought he'd head east like me. I was selfishly grateful he didn't come here. I knew that if I came across him I wouldn't be able to kill him but I wasn't sure if making an alliance with him would be the smartest move.

"Raff from Eight, Emery from Five and the pair from Six also went into our swamp but in different sections." So, little Raff was in our swamp as well. How he would survive being from District Eight was yet to be seen. The thought of Titus also roaming the swamp made me uneasy. I wasn't sure how a fight with a morphling addict would go down.

"Only the boy from Ten went down south and of course the Careers banded together and went to the west where they'd have shelter but be close enough to the cornucopia. The only person who I didn't see was Eve from Ten. She disappeared as soon as the fight began." The thought of Eve again made me shiver. She could be anywhere, ready to strike at any time.

"Anyway, we should get some sleep. We should have shifts. I'll go first if you want," She offered. It was only than that I realised how tired I was, having been up all night. I agreed as I figured I'd nod off if I tried to stay awake.

"Night," I told her before getting into my sleeping bag and instantly fell asleep.

I dreamt of the fallen tributes and the lives that they'd never have because of the Capitol. I dreamt of the tributes that were still alive but would surely be dead soon enough. Finally, I dreamt about home, knowing that in my dreams would be the closest I'd ever get to it again.