Fire is catching
Chapter 11
Authors Note: The 71st Hunger games are about to start! What awaits Lucy and the other tributes in the arena? Find out all about it in this chapter of 'Fire is catching'!
As the movement of the tube stops I open my eyes to face the arena.
What?
What is this?
Where am I?
I'm surrounded by total darkness, I can't see anything!
Wait, this can't be!
10…,.. 9….,
The countdown started, I have to concentrate! Where am I? Where are the others? Where's the Cornucopia?
I can feel the panic crawling up my legs, but I can't let it happen now. This are the hunger games, and I'm a part of it, I can't allow myself to be weak anymore.
Slowly my eyes start to adjust to the darkness and I begin to see some contours and outlines.
8….,7….,
I'm standing on a small black platform a little above the ground. I can make out that I'm surrounded by gray stone walls and that a dark path is lying in front of me but either than that I can't see anything, neither my fellow tributes nor the cornucopia.
6…,5…,
What is this? In all the years that I was forced to watch the hunger games, I never saw an arena like that!
4…..,3…..,
Right, I have to focus. I need to go to the Cornucopia and get myself some magic coins. Then run off as fast as I can and find some kind of water source. And all this without getting killed, that's going to be a tough job.
2….
I have to find it, there is no other choice than to follow this road and get to the Cornucopia before the others do. Be fast.
1…..
I get positioned on my platform, my muscles tensed, my mind on alert.
0!
As soon as the gong goes off signalizing the start of the 71st hunger games I jump off the platform and start running along my path, into the unknown darkness.
I race along the small road, feeling my way along the two high gray stone walls that make me feel very small. I need to hurry! Run faster. Faster!
A turn-off makes me stop. What now? Should I go left or right?
There are no sounds, no smell, no light, nothing that could indicate the right way so I just follow my intention and go right.
Jogging through the dark halls I suddenly crash into something, something hard.
It turns out to be another one of those endless walls that keep me trapped like an animal.
A dead end? Everything starts to make sense now.
This is a labyrinth.
And the goal is to find the Cornucopia as quickly as possible.
But if this is really true it'll have to mean that the other tributes are trapped in this labyrinth as well, which means that I'll really have to hurry or otherwise I'll be too late to get any magic coins at all.
Okay Lucy, think. You're good at solving riddles; you'll just have to think.
The darkness and the monotony of the walls don't make it easier to get through here.
I know I can do this, solving problems like this one is one of my strengths.
I take a deep breath and push away all negative thoughts, all the stress, nervousness, exhaustion, and fear allowing myself to concentrate on only two things: Find the Cornucopia, stay alive.
I bet that it is placed in the middle of the arena, each tribute being put in another hall of the labyrinth, that would make sense right?
Okay, I can do this!
I start running and stop every time I get across a turn-off. Slowly a map of the labyrinth is somehow creating itself in my mind and I get more certain with every choice I make until I decide which way to go without any hesitation.
I sometimes get the feeling that the walls are moving, changing their position, but every time I try to catch them while moving, I just see the normal wall, still and at its place as always. I'm really way too nervous, I can't get paranoid already!
I run through the endless corridors in a sort of trance, the adrenaline making my body move without noticing it, my mind focusing only on seeking for the Cornucopia.
Still the number of hallways seems to be infinite and no matter how often I turn left or right there's still no sign of the Cornucopia or the other tributes. Am I the only one stuck in here? Are the others maybe already there, grabbing all the magic coins, food, weapons and survival kits? Will I be the last one to arrive?
I always try to push away those thoughts, but they just keep coming back.
Finally, after all this time, something is changing around me. The labyrinth walls aren't gray anymore, they're red. Blood red.
I stand closer to the wall, it really looks like they were painted with blood. Like somebody slayed a couple of people right here and didn't care to clean up afterwards. The sticky red liquid is so fresh that it's even running down the walls, a few splashes here, a few splashes there.
The smell of blood is everywhere making my head spin. I briefly touch it, disgusted as I see the liquid on my finger tip afterwards. It can't be, this can't be real blood, or can it? A heavy coldness starts creeping up my back. How did they get this blood? Whose life is sticking to my fingers? I try to tell myself that the red liquid is artificial, but it looks so real. It even smells like blood! The scent makes me dizzy and my legs start trembling without me noticing it.
It looks like the bloody walls are coming closer and closer, pressing me between them. The red is so bright, like a flashlight in contrast to the gray wall. It almost seems as if it could run down the wall at any time and flood the hallways until I'm drowning in blood. Random faces flash up in my mind, maybe the faces of the people that were killed, the people whose blood is now coloring a wall? I feel my legs giving in, all I want to do is close my eyes and never open them again, so that I don't have to see the blood anymore. I can't stand it. It's impossible to comprehend how frightening and horrible those walls are.
They torture your mind. Make you go insane.
But that's exactly what the game makers thought when they created that wall, right? They want me to break down and cry and give up. But I won't let them. I won't. I will fight back!
I put myself together, get up, catch my breath and try to ignore the bloody walls.
Maybe the change of color even indicates that I'm getting closer to the blood bath, or maybe it's just another way of the capitol to torture me, but either way I have to get out of here as soon as possible.
Am I only imagining it or are the walls really coming closer? Haunting me, capturing me, keeping me trapped in this maze forever.
I start running even faster, trying to escape those blood painted walls that might swallow me.
As I see a black shadow in the corner of my eye, I turn around, expecting to see something, anything, but all I see is the dark path. Nothing changed. Still I swear I saw the wall moving….
Oh no Lucy, this is no time for going crazy. You can't allow that. Focus, focus, FOCUS!
While running across this dead landscape I keep mumbling the words "Find the Cornucopia" to myself. I don't know why, but it helps to prevent myself from drifting away and falling into the darkness of my mind.
Will this labyrinth ever end? I mean what happens if somebody just never finds a way out? Maybe it would be even safer to stay here instead of running right into the blood bath?
I shake my head. There's no way the game makers would accept that, they would find some way to get me out of here so I'd better do it by myself fast enough to get some coins.
My breathing goes very fast after all that running, my muscles burn and ache, tired of moving. I'm not used to running that much on such a high speed and my lungs feel like they're on fire, but the labyrinth doesn't change at all. Gray, high cold walls smeared with sticky red blood. Walls everywhere. I'm trapped in here.
Maybe the careers are already claiming the cornucopia and everything inside it for them. Maybe, maybe, maybe….
I should really stop getting sidetracked. How can I let that happen while I'm running for my life? How can anybody be that stupid?!
The little stones on the ground crunch under my feet as I reach another turn-off. I stop and close my eyes, picturing the map that I created.
Left or right?
Right or left?
Think!
I finally decide on turning right leaving an uneasy feeling.
I run and run and run, my feet moving in a regular rhythm as I look straight ahead trying to make out anything before me which turns out to be really hard according to the darkness around me that makes me see everything in gray scales.
Every detail is important, could be a hint on where to find the exit, so I try to take in as much as I can without getting slowed down.
Every second counts, it could mean life or death.
As I make my way through the tunnel again I see something moving out of the corner of my eyes. I slow down and then abruptly turn around and this is when I see it.
The wall is moving.
It's moving!
Slowly pushing forward the gray wall is closing behind me, making it impossible for me to move backwards.
I knew it, I knew they were moving!
I sigh, relieved that I'm not completely crazy yet but freeze as it gets clear what the movement of the walls means for me.
It means, that the game makers control the labyrinth. They can create and destroy paths wherever they want. They control whether tributes meet or not, who gets out of the labyrinth to find the Cornucopia or who gets trapped in here for a little longer.
They control me.
I'm just a puppet.
Again.
Actually I should've known it from the start, right? As if the game makers, as if the capitol, would let something as important as the start of the hunger games be coincidence. As if they would let the arrival at the cornucopia depend on the sense of direction and cleverness of the tributes.
I stamp my feet in frustration. My map that I tried to create, my thinking on which direction I should go, it was all for nothing! I could've gone through the labyrinth with my eyes closed and it wouldn't have changed anything at all!
Stupid labyrinth, stupid games, stupid game makers, stupid capitol, curse you all!
All my efforts, worthless, I'm worthless, I can't do anything, nothing at all.
I feel so small and helpless between those walls of blood, keeping me inside this cage as long as they want to.
I know that I can't stay in here a lot longer, the bloody walls are just too terrifying. I'm already on the edge of getting insane and if I have to spend more time surrounded by blood and stone I sure as hell will lose it pretty soon.
I'm not more than a wild animal put in a cage. Once they let me out I will slay everything in front of me, kill blindly, and make people pay for what I've suffered from, although it's not them who did this to me.
I shouldn't harm the other tributes, it's not their fault.
It's the capitol.
They're the ones to blame.
But that's not what I should be thinking, a good soldier has no questions. I'm not in the position to have such idealistic thoughts.
I sigh, well then the walls are moving, my whole plan was for nothing, I've been trapped in here all the time, I'm completely out of control, so what? I'll have to deal with it.
If these are the circumstances under which I'll fight then so it'll be.
I let the fighter in myself take over, feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins.
Authors Note: Soooooo what do you think about that chapter? Please let me know! Will Lucy get out of the labyrinth? When will she reach the cornucopia? Which tributes will she run into? Find out all about it next time! :p
Natsu: Why author, WHYYYYYYYYY?! Why did you choose a labyrinth. I'm feeling sick….
Author: Huh? Why are you sick? A labyrinth isn't a vehicle….
Natsu: But the walls are moving! That counts!
Author: No it doesn't! You can't get sick just by watching something move, that doesn't make sense!
Natsu: Whatever, I don't care! I feel sick and it's your fault! Make it stop!
Author: I'm sorry but I can't…I already posted the chapter…
Natsu: Then I'll quit working for you!
Author: No you won't!
Natsu: Yes I wi….. *knocked out by motion sickness*
Author: What a weirdo….