REVIEW SHOUT OUTS:
SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO "The ice within" WHO HAS REVIEWED EVERY CHAPTER OF THIS STORY! YOU ROCK ICY!
SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO "SonofHell666" WHO HAS REVIEWED EIGHT OUT OF TEN CHAPTERS! YOU ROCK!
SPECIAL SHOUT OUT TO "Ifweburnyouburnwithus" WHO WON THE CONTEST AND HELPED ME DESIGN THE ARENA! YOU ROCK!
Special thanks to Surfgirl7806, the-crazy-kit-kat, sparklegem108, God1801, and Ifweburnyouburnwithus for reviewing! I also had 3 (One was a PM) guesses for the PC reference. It was Ke$ha and Ifweburnyourburnwithus was the first to guess correctly! Thanks for your help!
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A/N: Enjoy the first chapter in the arena! I was going to make this chapter way longer but it just wasn't practical so I split it. This part has been ready to upload for more than a week, sorry guys :( This isn't the best but hopefully it will hold you over until Chapter 11 which should be awesome. Also the numbers for footnotes are now bolded and in brackets. Thanks for the suggestions Icy! Also, horizontal rules are getting on my nerves so now you will see an ellipsis (...) instead (See below)
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DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING YOU RECOGNIZE INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FINNICK ODAIR AND THE CONCEPT OF THE HUNGER GAMES
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IN THIS CHAPTER: Moderate Adult Language (2 f-bombs), moderate sexual references, moderate violence, moderate intense/frightening scenes (It's the Hunger Games, nothing you wouldn't expect)
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CHAPTER 10
I wake up to someone knocking on my door. Yay, no rude awakening for once.
"Come in!" I yell as I sit up in bed and run my fingers through my hair.
Jayde walks into the room wearing a pair of black sweatpants that say "Adidas" on them and a plain white T-shirt. She tosses me an identical outfit and says, "Put this on for now, you'll get your official clothes in the catacombs."
After I put on the clothing she escorts me to the roof, where a hovercraft is waiting.
I carefully step up onto the ladder, and then I'm completely paralyzed as the ladder slowly retracts until I get inside the hovercraft. Must be so that I can't jump once I get close in a lame attempt at suicide. Except for the fact that I'm still frozen once I get inside the hovercraft. What the h*ll is going on?
A skimpily dressed doctor walks over to me with a large needle in one of your hand.
"Hello Finnick," she purrs, sidling up to me, and I want to scream, "I'M F*****G FOURTEEN!" but of course I don't.
She wraps her arms around me and then turns my arm, leaning forward to whisper in my ear, "This is just your tracker. The stiller you are the more efficiently I can place it."
I'm still frozen and such or I would punch this woman in the face. I'm not usually a hit girls type, but I feel violated, and I'm about to go into the arena where no one will give a crap about things like that.
She inserts the tracker and I feel a violent stab of pain as the metal embeds in my skin. She then kisses my neck and whispers in her "sexy" voice, "I'll be waiting for you when you get home."
And the ladder releases me. That really sucks for her.
I give her a nice uppercut to the jaw before stalking off into the hovercraft. Jayde'll find me eventually.
She does fifteen minutes later, and I'm still fuming.
"What'd you do the doctor?"
"Punched her," I answer flatly.
"May I ask why?"
"I felt violated. She was rubbing her *ss up and down me and kissed me. Did she not watch the interviews last night? Ta-ken."
"Freakin' bimbo."
"Cayne's slacking again?"
"No, she's 'sick'" she says, putting up finger quotes on the word sick.
"Ah," I respond.
And we don't speak again for the rest of the thirty minute ride to the Catacombs.
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"Finnick you have to eat!"
I scowl at her but take a bite of my breakfast, a slice of bread topped with seaweed butter, some crabmeat quiche, and a glass of tropical fruit juice. Although the juice couldn't actually be found in District 4, it's a good meal. I suppose their trying to give us something from home since for some of us this will be our last meal. Not me. I am not dying in the bloodbath.
Once I force myself to start eating I realize how hungry I am and I quickly finish up.
Jayde hands me a robe and says, "Go shower while I go get your clothes."
I nod and step into the bathroom, savoring what will be my last shower for several weeks, if not my last shower ever. When I step out of the bathroom in my robe and boxers, Jayde is waiting with an ominous looking black box. She opens it and takes out my clothes, which are honestly better than I hoped. Stretchy black pants with white stripes curving around the sides, a teal T-shirt, a thin stretchy jacket, and my new sneakers with a pair of white socks.
"There's something else in the box." She reaches into the box and pulls out of pair of boxers. Sh*t. "Ah. They want you to wear their boxers. You can change in the bathroom if you want."
"F*** it," I mutter under my breath and just change quickly in front of her, causing her to turn away.
"You can turn around now," I say and she does, handing me the pants. They are almost skin tight, but still comfortable and easy to move in. On the right leg is a weird looking triangle and the word "adidas".[1]
"What's 'Adidas' mean?"
"That's the brand that made the pants."
I don't exactly know what that means, but I don't want to sound stupid so I don't ask.
Next she hands me the shirt. In the top right corner is a ring-looking thing.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's the Under Armour logo."
I don't know what Under Armour is or a logo, but whatever.
"The shirt has HeatGear technology, made for if you're sweating a lot, so expect some heat."
Eh, that's better than cold. I can always strip down if I need to, but I can't put on clothes I don't have.
Next is the black jacket. In the top right corner are three arcs and the words, "The North Face" in teal.
"I assuming 'The North Face' is the brand?"
She nods. "This jacket is windproof and water resistant. It's made to be lightweight but still keep your warm when it's very windy or raining, although there is no hood."
Huh. That doesn't seem to go with the HeatGear for sweating. Maybe the Gamemakers are planning on having a varying temperature. A couple of years ago they had it so it was 100+ degrees during the day and around 20 at night. I really hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised.
She then hands me the socks and shoes. "Dri-FIT socks, anti sweat like the shirt, and your trainers. Both made by Nike. Unlike the shoes you were wearing last night, these are made for pretty much any general activity, so those are no help in trying to figure out what the arena will be like, except for the fact that it seems to be a varying climate and geography."
I nod. Hmm. If the clothes are any indication, Lecia's arena was a lot simpler than this one's going to be. Fan-freaking-tastic. She takes my bangle from Irlissa and repositions it on my wrist.
"All right, Finnick your set. Move around and see how that feels."
I run laps around the room, swing my arms, stretch. "Awesome."
The pants appear to be water resistant like the jacket. Maybe there'll be water involved. That would be nice.
"Get more food or water if you can, you'll never know when you'll get a chance to eat or drink again."
I order a glass of ice water and another piece of that bread with the seaweed butter, eating it silently.
"So, Finnick..." Jayde says trying to make conversation.
I look up at her. "Thank you. Thank you for talking to me, thank you for supporting me, thank you for making me sexy."
She laughs at that last statement. "I didn't make you sexy, I just accentuated the positives."
I almost smile despite the situation.
"District 4, prepare for launch," says a woman who sound suspiciously like the doctor from the hovercraft.
This. Is. It.
I grab Jayde's hand as I walk to the metal plate in the center of the room. She hugs me, and I hug her back and she whispers in my ear, "I believe in you." Not in a sexy voice, but a kind voice. A friend's voice. And then I see the glass cylinder coming to take me into the arena and I pull away, giving Jayde one last smile as I get into Sexy Pose #3, my favorite. Yes, we had names for each. She gives me a thumbs up, and then I am plummeting upwards towards the surface until I am greeted by a bright burst of sunlight. My metal plate is in the corner of a triangular body of fresh water which appears to be the center of the arena. Looking around reminds me of a lesson we did in Pre-Panem History on biomes. Behind me is a grassland, and it's pretty cold, but I don't dare to zip my jacket all the way up because I'm afraid shifting my weight would trigger the mines. The Cornucopia is on an island about 200 meters away. Behind it, I see a jungle, and next to that is a desert. I bet it's not nearly this cold in those areas, which must be what the clothing was about.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Sixty-fifth Hunger Games begin!"
One minute. Sixty-seconds.
In my head I plan what I'm going to get, trident, knife, dart gun, backpack with supplies. A lot of stuff, definitely, but I'm a career with kick *ss fighting skills so I can get pretty much whatever I want. I look around for Korey but I don't see her. That's okay, I'm sure she'll be one of the first to the Cornucopia like me. Two hundred yards of fresh water should take me just under two minutes, and Korey should get there about five-seconds after me. Hasn't it been sixty-seconds already? What the heck—
The gong rings out.
I dive into the water and it immediately calms me down. The water is a different world for me. So I'm incredibly lucky that the Games are starting with water. The water transforms me. The only other tributes I see swimming are the careers and the girl from District 7, who must have learned at some point. The rest of the tributes are trying to get to the island by hopping across a bunch of floating metal plates identical to the ones we started on. But this is the freakin' Hunger Games so the plates will sink at random times, and they plummet so fast that there's no time to jump to another one before your six feet under the water. I already see bodies of drowned tributes at the bottom of whatever body of water this is. Lake, I guess.
When I reach the island I climb onto the shore and find that the water has beaded up on my jacket and pants. So they really are water resistant. My socks are a bit wet, but I've been working on the water for four years, I'm over that. The Cornucopia is about fifty yards away, and no one else has gotten to the island yet. I start sprinting toward it, only stopping to pick up a clear backpack with a dart gun and a bunch of accessories. At this point Korey, Alexander, and the girl from Seven are on the island. Korey and D7 girl are on the opposite side, but Alexander's just a few feet behind me. When I get to the Cornucopia, I grab a spear and two long knives, deciding I'll come back for supplies later. Career benefits include unlimited access to the Cornucopia until the alliance splits up. I look around the other side and see some of the non-swimmers arriving when something catches my eye. A silver trident. I sprint toward it but before I can get to it the girl from Seven takes it. Why the h*ll does she have my trident? She's from Seven! They use axes! She looks at me and then throws it into the throws it into the unnamed body of water with as much force as she can muster. Which is a lot. The girl probably throws axes all day. And it sinks like a rock. I dive into the water with my weapons still on, the backpack's waterproof and light, and if I put my stuff down someone else will jack it. I've reached the bottom of the lake in seconds, but the water is thick with blood and sand, so I'm searching blind.
And I can't find it.
I need that trident. The trident is my specialty weapon. I am "the kid with the trident." I need my trident!
But I still can't find it.
And although I can hold my breath for a ridiculous amount of time I'm starting to see spots. Not good, hurry up. I keep searching. My lungs feel like they're going to explode. Keep searching. I need to surface NOW.
I readjust my spear in my hand just someone is waiting for me and burst out of the water. And the dude from D8 is waiting, with a mace. I'm a career. An impulsive career, sure, but a career. I am trained. Meaning that I saw this coming. My spear is through his heart before the mace can get anywhere near me. I'm surprised that I'm not feeling horrifically guilty, but I'm sure it'll come later.
Running back toward the Cornucopia I see Korey fighting the dude from Eleven. Boring, but apparently good with a knife in close-ranged combat. I pull out one of my own and throw it, and it ends up sticking in his back. Not fatal, but enough to take him down so that Korey can slit his throat with her sword.
"Thanks Finnick," she says slightly breathlessly.
"Yup," I say popping the "p". Nervous habit, remember?
She smiles but doesn't say anything.
When I look around I see Diamond, the girl from One, struggling to keep up with the girl from Five who has what appears to be a small dagger. I swear she is the most pathetic career I've ever seen. I jog over to them and smirk at her.
"Having trouble with that? Let me help."
I use the steel shaft of my spear to quickly disarm the D5 girl and then pin her to the ground.
"Madame, I present you with this tribute," I say with the as much of a sarcastic tone as possible.
She gives me an "I'm going to effin' kill you" look, but I'm not gonna be around long enough for her to do so, so I don't really care.
Diamond uses an axe to hack off all of her limbs and then storms away, knowing she'll bleed out in less than a minute. I shudder. Axes. And although the smell is making me want to vomit, I bend down and say, "Sorry. She was going to kill you anyway eventually."
She nods, but the effort makes her cough up blood all over my face. Oh my God, the smell. She says something, but her voice is so hoarse and quiet that I can't decipher it. I lean down closer. "Wha?"
"Make her life h*ll for me, okay?" she chokes out.
I smile. "Oh I plan on it." Well, not for this girl, just because she's a b*tch and I hate her district. It doesn't matter though I suppose.
The girl gives me a half smile, and then she stops breathing. I can tell, when you live in Four where people are drowning and receiving CPR all the time you learn the signs of a stopped heart. I didn't even know her name.
The bloodbath is coming to an end around me. Alexander, the guy from Two, and Korey are double-teaming the girl from Six, and Obsidian, the guy from One, has just given the girl from Three the death blow with a rock. After she's dead, he keeps beating her corpse with the rock until it is unrecognizable as human remains. Effin' psychopaths. Alexander and Korey finish off the girl from Six humanely, or as humanely as you can murder someone. Now the only people left on the island are the careers. This was a really short bloodbath, it seems more people ran this year than usual. The non-careers didn't fight each other. They got their stuff and got the h*ll outta here. That's not a good sign. The last Games that had a bloodbath like this lasted for almost a month because everyone ran and no one fought. Dear God don't let that happen.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. I think of the Hunger Games like Panem's Super Bowl. And what's the Super Bowl famous for? Its commercials. So I'm assuming companies pay to have their clothing "advertised" by having the tributes wear it. More green in President Snow's pocket.
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A/N: That was the first chapter in the arena, I hope it wasn't too horrible! I'll get the next one up ASAP. R&R please, and if you have ideas for tribute names I'd love to hear 'em! Thanks for reading!
-cindella204
