Author's Note (Dec. 27, 2013) - This story is the 72nd Hunger Games. Yes, it used to be the 71st, until I realized Johanna won the 71st, which I'm surprised no one ever pointed out. So, wherever you see it mention the 71st, it's actually the 72nd. Thanks a lot! PS, if you're reading this, I'm still here. Reviews are always appreciated, just keep in mind, this was my first story ever, so be gentle!
This will be my last confession
I love you, never felt like any blessing
Whispering like it's a secret
Only to condemn the one who hears it
With a heavy heart
Daniel Kerwick
I'm picking at chicken bones, stripping them of every last piece of meat. I hadn't been completely sure of this new alliance, and I have to admit, I'm still watching my back for Crisis and Audrina to appear at any moment. However, Celeste and I had been starving and the amount of food sponsors had sent the Careers was unbelievable.
Celeste is supposed to be helping me prepare the food for everyone, but she hasn't touched the fruit I gave her to cut. Sighing, I wipe my hands off on my jacket and stand. I reach down to pull her up, but she doesn't take my hand. In fact, she does not look at me or acknowledge me at all. I gently place my hand under her elbow and help her to her feet, guiding her away from the camp and out of earshot.
"Cel," I start, in a vain attempt to capture her attention. I look into her glassy eyes, she is lost. Where, I do not know, but my Celeste is not here with me.
I brush her hair from her face and place my hands on either side of her face. I lock my eyes with her's and force her to stare into them, willing her to come back to me. Finally she blinks and her eyes lose their glass veil.
I give her a soft smile, "Welcome back."
She tries to return my smile, but it is lost before it can reach her eyes. I pull her to my chest, feeling a pang in my heart. I try to remember the day of the Reaping, the smiling, flirty girl that the cameras fell in love with. I try to remember the train, and the emotional, crying girl. I remember the chariot rides and the night before the Games. It pains me that this girl who had won me over by her ability to love and feel, is now empty and void of all emotion. The arena is getting to her, I can tell. It is getting to her the way it had started to get to Holden. The way it had gotten to Bravo, and God knows who else.
I squeeze her tightly and exhale in relief when her arms finally wrap around me. I step away and hold her at arms length, my eyes never leaving hers. She tries to look away, but I won't let her.
"No," I say, lifting her chin with my index finger. "Don't you dare. Don't you dare leave me again, Celeste. I won't allow it."
She complies, and leans into me, fitting perfectly under my left arm.
"I know, baby. I know it's hard. But you have to stay with me, okay? You can't leave again, I need you to be strong."
I lower my voice to a whisper, "I'm getting you out of here alive, I swear it."
She gives me a tiny, almost imperceptible nod, and we walk back to camp. Hana and Harbor have started a fire and are already eating.
"Oh, there you are! I was worried you two decided to leave." Hana says, looking genuinely concerned.
I still haven't figured her out. She seems sweet and innocent, with her large eyes and soft voice. It is such a contrast from the determined looking girl we saw on the Reaping tapes and in Training, that it makes me question her motives. Of course, I don't trust her, but it puzzles me why she and Harbor have been so welcoming to us.
"Nope," I answer, forcing a smile onto my face, and nudging Celeste lightly, hoping she gets the hint. Smile. Pretend you're okay. Don't let them see that you're falling apart.
Miraculously, she understands. She raises her head and nods, giving them a terrible excuse for a smile.
"I just needed to go on a walk to clear my head." She wraps her arm around my waist, keeping up with the act.
I give her shoulder a squeeze, silently telling her that I'm proud of her.
After we eat, Harbor and Hana decide we should all go to sleep.
"Shouldn't someone keep watch?" I ask warily. It seems strange that they want to sleep, leaving all of us so vulnerable.
Harbor shrugs and shakes his head, "No worries, man. There's no real threats left anyways. We're the strongest, besides Crisis and Audrina, but we haven't seen them since the bloodbath. My guess is that they're lost and dying of starvation or something worse."
He does have a point, but I'm not entirely convinced. I decide to let him think I agree with him, but stay awake and keep watch anyway, for Celeste.
The Careers' tent is huge, large enough for Celeste and I to be far enough from Hana and Harbor so that they won't hear us.
We're curled up under one blanket, her small hands resting on my chest and her eyes glued to mine. I don't expect her to speak. I know she is worn out, with two deaths directly on her hands, and even more that she holds herself accountable for, she is mentally and physically spent. She's always surprising me though.
"If I tell you a secret, will you tell me yours?" She asks, tentatively, her fingers tracing tiny circles on my chest.
"Anything you want." I say, knowing that I am long overdue in coming clean of my past. It is the only thing she has ever asked for me, and I have denied her even that.
"Remember my score in training?"
"Of course I do, you were only one of four to score a ten, and the only girl. It's what made the Careers hate you, and everyone wanted to know how you did it."
"I don't even know how I did it." She confesses, and it confuses me.
"I'm talented, I guess." She laughs, "I didn't expect much of a score. But I went in there, and no one was paying me any attention. So I refused to pay them any back. I threw knives, and hit all the targets straight in the bullseye. Same with archery, and spears. I aced the obstacle course, I climbed the nets all the way to the ones on the ceiling. I did everything I could think of, just like I did during group trainings and miraculously, I didn't screw it up. I didn't even try, and I had never been trained before we got here."
"Well, you really are a piece of work, aren't you?"
She shrugs, as if she thinks nothing of it, "I wish I hadn't though. I wish I had bombed everything in there, it wouldn't have made me, us, such a huge target. If I had looked weak... some people would still be alive right n-."
I press my fingers to her lips, silencing her, "You and I both know that's not true."
She gives me a small smile. I know she doesn't believe me.
"Now you," she says, expectantly, tracing the scar above my right eye. I don't have to ask what she wants to know.
"It was a really bad fight." I say, my cheeks burning. This memory is not one I like to relive.
"My family was poor. Really poor. My father was a drunk, and he didn't work. My mom, she did what she could but it wasn't enough, especially since my dad used most of the money she earned to buy more alcohol. My brother and I were starving. So at night, I would break into the local shops and steal food. Not much, just a little from each place. When I was younger, I was small and I never got caught. As we began getting more to eat, I got bigger. When I was sixteen, a Peacekeeper caught me. He had a gun and he was ready to execute me on the spot, but I had a knife. I threw it at him, but he shielded his head with his arm. He got mad, of course, and hit me, multiple times. That was his mistake though, had he just shot me, he would still be alive. He had me pinned, but I could still reach my knife. I stabbed it into the back of his neck. He was dead immediately. I went straight home, and I might have gotten away with it too, but my dad knew. He beat me that night until every bone in my body was bruised or broken. The next morning, he dragged me, unconscious, down to the Justice Building. They didn't kill me though. They decided on a worse fate. The boys' Reaping bowl was to be rigged. All of those papers had my name on it. They decided that my punishment was to be put through the worst kind of physical and mental torture. If I survived, then they would publicly execute me. But I won't survive. I won't let that happen to me. This is why I can't win. You have to, Cel. You have to win, okay? For me."
She's crying now. God, I didn't mean for that to happen. I never wanted to hurt her.
"Shhh, baby, it's okay. It's okay. Don't be sad."
"You don't get it, do you?" She says, pounding her hands against me in a fury. "I'm love you, you idiot! I don't fall in love. I promised myself I wouldn't, it hurts too much. No one was ever supposed to let me down again, and now you are. I already lost my father to the Capitol and now I'm going to lose you too! And all because you had to go and make me fall in love with you! Now if I win this thing I will never be happy. I will never be able to live a happy, peaceful life. I won't because all I'll be able to remember is you."
"Celeste I-"
I pause. We both hear it. Hana and Harbor both jerk awake, they can hear it too. There is a sound of frantic splashing and snarling growls outside the tent. It's stupid, but we all run out to see who, or what, the intruder is. Knives and spears drawn, dangerous looks upon our faces, prepared to fight and kill, even so, nothing can prepare us for what is out there.
Harbor Aberdeen
Muttations. None of the horrible Gamemaker-created beasts I had seen on television even held a candle to what is before me. There are sharks in the lake. Dozens of them, with dorsal fins that are at least two feet tall. At least I think they are sharks, until they start to crawl out of the water. First one, then two, and they all start to follow.
They are monstrous beasts, twelve feet long with four massive legs and layers of long, sharp teeth. These are nothing like the sharks that swim in the ocean back home. No, these make our sharks, which would drive even grown men from the water, look like pet goldfish.
We have no time to process. Within seconds they are upon us, and there is no where to run. But we try. We all start running toward one of the tunnels to the far left, trying to put as much distance between us and the sharks as we can.
"Wait!" Celeste screams, "They have Daniel!"
I stop and turn around. Two of the muttations have Daniel by each of his legs and they are pulling him back toward the lake.
I look at Hana, who shakes her head at me, wanting nothing to do with it.
"You heard what he said, Harbor. He knows he has to die anyways. The Gamemakers probably sent the muttations as a punishment for speaking out agains the Capitol. Those sharks are sent straight from President Snow to Daniel, they're not meant to hurt us. That's not our battle."
I look back and forth between Hana and Celeste, who is clutching onto Daniel's hands as they tear apart his legs, flesh flying everywhere. I make a decision when I see another mutt heading toward Celeste. I lunge toward Celeste and Daniel and throw my spear into the eye of the mutt attacking Celeste and pull her to her feet. Angered the mutt lurches toward us, and I feel its teeth sinking into my forearm. Celeste pulls the dagger from her belt and slits the monster's throat, and we shove it off of us. I stand and pull Celeste up with my good arm, I look down at her right leg and find it twisted and gushing with blood.
"No!" Celeste screams, and I turn my attention back to Daniel, who the mutts have swarmed upon. The flesh and blood seem to be creating a frenzy. More and more sharks come up from the water, none of them paying us any attention. They are only interested in Daniel.
"Daniel! No! No!" Celeste is screaming, sobs wracking through her body.
I put my arms around her holding her back from rushing toward them. Eventually she stops resisting and collapses against my chest, choked cries and screams erupting from her chest.
"I loved him. I loved him." She repeats it over and over until it is just a whisper.
"I know, Cel. I know. I'm sorry."
I want to tell her that this would have happened anyway. The Capitol had it out for him since the beginning, from what I heard of his story. I want to tell her there is nothing she could have done, but somehow I don't think it will comfort her at all. I let her cry against my chest as Daniel's blood curdling screams dwindle down to soft, helpless whimpers. Eventually there are no sounds but those of ripping flesh and snarling beasts. Finally, there is a cannon, and as if it was their cue, the mutts make their way back to the water, descending until not even their dorsal fins are left. They are gone.
I cannot stop Celeste now. She breaks free of my grip and runs to the bloody remains of Daniel's body. I rush after her and resist the urge to vomit at the mess before me. A strangled scream escapes Celeste and she falls to her knees next to him.
The sight before me is not human. It is bones, picked clean, soaking in a pool of thick blood. I pull Celeste away before either of us gets sick, and we head toward the tent where Hana now waits for us.
I look behind one last time, only to see that the blood is evaporating, and a metal claw reaches down to pick up the bones. In a matter of seconds, the ground is spotless and the lake is calm. It is like none of it ever happened.
Except that it did. My arm has several puncture wounds, and a chunk of flesh missing. Celeste's leg is broken and blood is gushing from her thigh. As if that was not enough, when the muttation fell on top of us, it crushed her ribs, leaving two of them broken and sticking out of her body.
Hana rushes into the tent and retrieves all the first aid supplies we had pulled from the Cornucopia. She tosses me a spray bottle and a roll of thick white gauze.
"She's worse off than you are, Harbor. The bottle has alcohol in it, spray it all over the wound. It's gonna hurt, but it'll kill the infection and probably save your life. Then wrap the gauze around it, tightly. Don't cut of your circulation, but tight enough to stop the bleeding. Once we figure out what to do with her, we'll see what kind of medication we can find for you."
I nod in stunned agreement and do what she says, spraying the alcohol on my arm.
"Fuck!" I hiss, dropping the bottle. She was right, the alcohol makes my arm feel as if it is on fire.
"That just means it's working!" Hana yells from her spot on the ground. "Just a couple more sprays, Harbor, you'll be fine."
I do what she says, and grit my teeth through the pain. Finally I wrap the gauze around my arm several times and Hana ties off the ends. The pressure seems to help subside the pain, but I do not have time to worry about myself.
I kneel down next to Celeste. Her eyes are glassy and tear-filled. She is whispering Daniel's name. I instinctively grab her hand and squeeze it lightly.
"It's okay, Cel. You're not alone. We're here, and we're not letting anything happen to you."
"Good, Harbor. I'm gonna need you to keep talking to her. Distract her. I have to set her leg and it's not going to feel good. It's better if she doesn't see it coming, the anticipation just makes it worse. Talk to her and let her squeeze your hand if it hurts. Whatever you do, do not break eye contact with her, understand?"
I nod and squeeze Celeste's hand a little tighter. In the back of my mind, I wonder where Hana learned all of this, but I let it go when Hana asks me if I'm ready.
"Yeah," I say, swallowing hard and talking to Celeste.
"So Cel, you're gonna have to tell me all about your District sometime. And about that training score too, you really threw us all for a loop with that one! I don't see how someone with no training could go in there and ace every test they threw at you. I mean, I've been trained my entire life for this and you showed me up!"
I keep talking, mumbling random things about my district, the bread that's shaped like fish. The seaweed ice cream that we're allowed to make during the summer. How it feels to have the warm sand between your toes and the waves on your skin when the sun is unbearably hot.
Celeste screams when Hana finally sets her leg. She breaks the blade off of a spear and ties to metal rod to Celeste's calf to keep it in place. After that she rubs a shimmery Capitol medicine on all of her cuts, which seem to look better almost instantaneously. Then we set to work on her ribs. Hana rips open Celeste's shirt, and uses her fingers to carefully push them back in, and then applies medication to the wound and bandages her up.
Finally we take the only vial of sleep syrup that we have and mix it into some broth that Hana made from the leftover chicken bones. Hana feeds it to her, and soon Celeste is asleep. We bundle her up in blankets and tuck a sleeping bag around her.
Hana motions for me to come outside the tent and I follow. She is starting the fire up again, for which I am grateful. The adrenaline of the attack and saving Celeste's life has passed and I am now painfully aware of the frigid cold. Once the fire is going, Hana takes my injured arm and unwraps the gauze.
"Wow, you've got," she pauses to count, "fifteen teeth marks in you!"
She smiles as she unscrews the lid of the medication and smears some on my arm before bandaging it up again.
"You're a tough one, Aberdeen. And what was with that hero stunt back there? I thought you had a suicide wish for sure."
I know why. But I can't bring myself to admit it to Hana, she wouldn't understand. Celeste had reminded me of Annie. I had seen her Games multiple times, the way she lost her mind after having to kill tributes, even though it was in self defense. And even more so when her District partner died. I couldn't let Celeste die because of how much it would upset Annie and Finnick. I couldn't give Finnick another reason to be disappointed in me.
"I don't know, I just couldn't let her die. I knew there was no hope for Daniel, but I saw Celeste, and I had to go after her."
Hana gets a sad look in her eyes.
"Harbor, I know you think you did that girl a favor, but she's going to go through hell when she wakes up. It would have been better if you had let her go. She won't be able to handle both the mental and physical pain."
I nod, I know she won't. But I can't seem to bring myself to regret saving her.
"How long do you think she'll make it?" I ask.
"I don't know. She's a survivor though, that's for sure. She continues to surprise all of us. And hey, she might actually have some sponsors, with that score! People must have bet on her."
And with that, a small silver parachute drifts from the sky. I stand and catch it before it reaches the ground.
"Looks like you're right!" I say with a smile, cracking open the outer metal casing and unfolding the note inside.
But it is not from Celeste's sponsors at all. It is from Finnick.
Potent Capitol medicine. Give her these when she wakes. I'm proud of you. -F
I unscrew the cap and find four purple tablets inside.
"It's from Finnick!' I say to Hana, a smile spreading across my face.
"Looks like we'll have our ally back soon enough." Hana says. "Why don't you head off to bed, you've been through a lot today."
Just as I'm about to agree, I am interrupted by the anthem blaring through the Cave walls. Had it really been a full day since the last one? I ignore the thought and look up to see tonight's fallen tributes. First the boy from Six. I can say I'm pretty shocked at that one. Then there is Daniel, and I am glad Celeste is not awake to see it. Next there is Hero, the boy from Eleven that Bravo beat to a pulp and left to die. I feel Hana's hand on my shoulder. At least he is finally put out of his misery. Finally, the girl from Twelve, Riah. And then it is over.
I turn to Hana, "How do you think-"
But I cannot finish my question. There are footsteps. Wild, frantic footsteps running toward us. The footsteps are accompanied by a voice, deep and most likely male, but completely filled with terror.
"Help! Please, please someone help me! Help!"
I sigh, turning to Hana as we both pull knives from our belts for the second time this evening.
"Fuck. What now?"
Deaths:
Daniel Kerwick
Message me point transfers please!
You are only allowed to send votes in the reviews, not PMs please!
IMPORTANT: I have not decided who will be victor yet. So I decided to let the votes influence my decision. I believe that the remaining twelve all have an equal chance of winning. So get everyone you know to come vote for your tribute, because the amount of points each tribute has will influence my decisions regarding their deaths.
This time you may only vote for two tributes, and they will both receive 50 points. Only one may be your own.
Make sure that you write in your review/message which chapter your votes are for since you get one vote per chapter.
Bonus Points:
*I've decided to give 5 bonus points to each of your tributes if you leave a review! A constructive review, not a review with your votes and that's it. :)
**For more bonus points, go check out these two lovely stories:
The 124th Hunger Games: A Lost Cause by The Silver Panda (My tributes are Scarlet and Arrow, also vote in his poll!)
The 1st Annual Hunger Games! by 73Years (My tribute is Ruby)
Go read and leave them reviews and I'll give your tribute(s) 5 points for each one! Neither of them asked me to promote them, nor will my tributes be receiving points for your reviews, I just think that they deserve some more reads!
Also, make sure to go to www . seventyoneyears . blogspot . com (with no spaces of course!) to see pictures and bios of all the tributes! I updated and changed some since writing this!
-Becca
NEW: I just posted a Hunger Games playlist that I put together, which is basically a bunch of song lyrics and then a directly quoted scene from one of the three books. It's not original work at all, just something I wrote for my blog, but I decided to post it on here since it's the music I usually listen to when I write this story.
Also, the poll for this is important for you to vote on, because it's asking your favorite chapters! It would really help me if you all go vote so that I know which chapters you like and which ones not so much.
