Chp. 11 - The 74th Hunger Games

For the next few seconds, there was nothing to see except for the occasional lights that zoomed past. It felt like forever standing there, his hands sweaty and him constantly shifting from feet to feet. Then, what seemed to be out of nowhere, a hole opened up allowing sunlight in and not a second too soon, Harry ascended onto the arena of the 74th Hunger Games.

His eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the light, he was barely aware of the announcement being said. Everyone knew the rules. 60 seconds. A projection was on top of the cornucopia, with what was left of their 60 seconds in bright red numbers. Harry saw all other tributes standing in a perfect circle, metres away from each other, on top of their platforms. He looked around trying to find a glimpse of Katniss somewhere, his eyes scanned the tributes he could see twice, but no luck. She just had to be positioned behind the Cornucopia. Knowing that he couldn't do anything else, he simply looked at the two tributes beside him.

He decided that he was quite lucky, as the two beside him wasn't careers. He wasn't exactly sure who they were but he and Katniss took note of the people they should be aware of and he was pretty sure they weren't on the list. Although that didn't mean he should underestimate them too badly, he knew because he was one of those who wanted people to underestimate him. Once he got his information, he flicked his eyes towards the timer as he saw it ticked down to 38 seconds. Adverting his eyes from it, he scanned the Arena.

There was a field and a lake behind him, then some tall grass continuing beside the lake, ending somewhere behind the cornucopia. He simply took note of those areas but his eyes were mostly drawn to the large forest to his right. Without a second thought, he knew that was where he will be heading. Having that down, he glace at the timer; 30 seconds and looked down at the field in front of him.

The Cornucopia had a lot of equipment in it, and that was all he observed from it, but he wasn't interested in that. He located the closest backpack meters away from him, quite far out from the Cornucopia, like a lot of other equipment. It was a bright blue backpack but it was straight in front of him. Then there was another orange one another couple of metres away from it. He will reach the blue one, that was certain but he wasn't sure about the orange one. Best to have extras, and if he could reach it, that would be best.

Glancing around the blue backpack, there was a couple of weapons and equipment but his eyes were only on one; the knife. An axe laid closest to his blue backpack, but he knew that it would only slow him down, but just a metre away from the orange backpack was a knife. It's blade gleaming underneath the sunlight. From the distance, he couldn't make out much, but knowing that at least he could get a backpack and knife, he was ready to move. Glancing at the timer just in time to see 5 seconds left, he went into a running position as a loud alarm filled the air.

Everyone tore off from their platform and chaos erupted seconds after.

Harry didn't look anywhere except at the blue backpack and dagger, he ran and slid his hand into the blue backpack as swift as possible. Then with a couple of steps, he lunged to grab hold of the knife. Finally, without flattering, he took another step and grabbed the orange backpack. All those took probably less than 5 seconds.

Suddenly, a gut feeling told him to look to his side, and he did. When he did, he saw a flash of shadows behind him. Then, with reflexes he didn't know existed, he rolled to his side, barely avoiding a stab in the back. The person pitched, and without even taking note of who it was, he took his chance and kicked them hard in the stomach. The tribute fell.

Quickly, he swung the two backpacks onto his back, but not a second later, he sensed another attack. From the corner of his eyes, he saw an axe coming his way. Harry dodged the last possible moment and he heard more than saw the axe coming down, digging into the earth. As they stumbled from the momentum, Harry elbowed them in the back, sending them towards the other tribute who was just climbing up. He barely paid attention to the fact that instead of elbowing the tribute, he could've easily stabbed them. The knife was held in the same arm, but he didn't. He didn't want to kill. Not today, not ever and certainly not under something that wasn't his own reasons. However, he knew, in the back of his mind that it was impossible, but he'll deal with that later, right now nothing was going through his head except escape.

Gathering his bearing quickly, he located the woods and sprinted off towards it immediately. Running at a breakneck speed, not looking back once. Screams echoed behind him as the bloodbath continued on, but not once did he falter.

He ran and ran until his lungs burned and legs could carry him no further before collapsing against a tree deep in the woods. He could barely hear from the blood soaring through his ears. Leaning against the tree, he tried to catch his breath. It took awhile but once it was better, he scanned the area for immediate threats. When nothing came up, he swung both backpacks off his shoulder and started to work.

He emptied out the contents of both backpacks to see what he got, a green self-filtering water bottle, another smaller, clear but not self-filtering water bottle but at least it came with a small bottle of Iodine. A pack of energy bar, a pack of dried meat and two packs of crackers, a rope, a tiny first aid kit with a bandage and some medicine, a small pair of binoculars, a blanket and a sleeping bag. Seeing the things that he got, he couldn't help but feel a bit lucky. He wondered how many people could get a first aid kit especially as the whole point of this was to die.

Once he knew of the things he had, he gathered them up again and tried fitting them all into the blue backpack. The backpacks were small so he couldn't fit everything in, especially both the sleeping bag and the blanket (even though it was small), so he decided to improvise.

First, he dumped the food and medicine into the blue backpack, then the water bottles on the side for easy access when he opens the bag before stuffing the blanket in. Then as the bag was already full, he took the rope and tied the sleeping bag on the backpack. Once he was sure it was secure, he took the empty orange backpack and buried it under some dirt, just enough so people wouldn't see it from a distance. Then, at last, he took the knife from the floor and attached it to his belt. After that, he was off.

He walked for hours, trying to find water. His throat was dry since his ran from the Cornucopia, but then finally, he heard it. Flowing water. Not wasting a second, he quickened his pace towards it. Before walking straight out into the clearing though, he checked for dangers, after a few minutes sensing nothing, he walked forward. Dropping to his knees, he filled both the water bottles before taking huge mouthfuls from the self-filtering one after waiting a while. Not wanting to risk staying any longer, he climbed up a tree with a good amount of leaves not too far from the river. Opening up one of the crackers, he decided to stop and rest for a while just sitting on the tree.

It was then, did he start to truly look at his surroundings. It was quite beautiful really. Considering the place's only purpose was for people to kill each other. If he had to be happy for anything, it would be having a forest in this game. He and Katniss had a lot of experiences with forests. They knew how to hunt there, how to climb trees, how to make certain things with it etc.

He always had mixed feelings about hunting. They had to do it to survive, call him soft but he never really enjoyed killing those animals and if he had to say, that's part of the reason why they always aim for the eyes when killing. If it goes through the eyes, it surely went through the brain so they die immediately, also they wouldn't ruin as much fur that they could save for winters. If not the brain, then the heart.

Harry didn't know how long he sat on the tree for simply pondering. At least the Gamekeepers had enough sense to give them clothes that were more or less able to camouflage with their surroundings. Looking towards the sky, he saw the sun was probably a couple of hours until the sun was fully set. The games started at 10 exactly, he estimated it probably took him less than a minute to get out the bloodbath. Then he thought he probably ran for over half an hour and walked for hours after that to find water. From where the sun was now, it would probably be about 4 in the afternoon so about 3 hours until sunset.

Now with at least some sense of time, Harry decided to go hunting. He knew he couldn't rely on the small amount of food he had from the backpacks. Standing up on the branch, he decided to go hunting on the trees. The trees in this forest were quite strong so their branches were thick enough and go quite far. Plus, Harry considered himself quite small, much like all other District 12 people. Even before District 12, he wasn't fed exactly a healthy amount from the Dursleys, and having to grow up in a cupboard certainly affected some parts of him. He could care less now though, his lightweight is certainly a benefit, especially if he was chased by the careers. They were all well fed and muscled (especially the guys) so the branches wouldn't hold their weight. Furthermore, they would probably have a lot less experience on trees.

Stepping from branches to branches, Harry searched for any sight of possible prey staying. All the while staying conscious of not going too far from the river. It didn't take long for him to find a squirrel. Unsheathing his knife from his belt and making sure that he was still balanced on the branch. With skill and accuracy that could only be achieved from years of hunting, Harry threw the knife. Within the second, his knife found its mark and the squirrel fell onto the floor with a thump.

Climbing down the branches and jumping down the last one, Harry went to collect the squirrel. There, laying on the floor was the squirrel with a knife in its head. Grabbing the animal from where it laid, Harry turned around and tried to find a place with more cover. It didn't take long because he thought he saw something when he was getting water and he was right. There was a small hill of rocks that could give him enough cover to make a fire. Not only that but it also narrows down the area he has to pay attention to because right now, he has a full 360 degrees to cover.

Placing the squirrel on the floor, Harry went to collect a couple of fallen branches and leaves. The bad thing about making a fire in the daylight is that the smoke might attract people, but then if he made a fire at night, the flames will also attract attention. Harry thought he could risk daylight, plus to lower the risks more, he tried to collect branches and leaves that weren't as dry so it will create less smoke.

Piling up the leaves and branches, Harry grabbed two stones and tried to spark a light. The pain of not having matches. After 5 minutes of no avail, Harry decided to cheat a bit. Magic. He knew there were cameras everywhere so he had to be really careful. Shifting a bit from where he was sitting, he continued to try sparking a flame. After three pretend tries and making sure the rocks were close to the pile, Harry willed the pile to set on fire. Not long after, a flame arose and Harry took a breath.

He tried making fires before, many times. Most of the times, they just burst into flames. If his pile did that, then it would cause a lot of suspicions. Especially when there wasn't any oil or other aid for the flame to catch so suddenly. Smiling a bit at his piece of work, he started preparing the squirrel. By the time he was done, the flames were dancing and from that, it didn't take long for what's left of the squirrel to get on the fire.

Once the squirrel was cooked, Harry extinguished the flames and scattered the burnt up pile. He was planning to stay close to the river, no use telling people that he was there, by leaving a used campfire. Once he was sure that the spot was clear, he climbed onto another tree before starting on his food. By the time he was done, the sun was setting, lighting the sky with a mixture of reds and orange. Harry didn't do anything else after, except climbing from tree to tree trying to find the best spot that would give him cover for the night.

When he did, the sun was mostly down and he was settled snugly on the branches. His body inside the sleeping bag and tied to the tree branch. It was then, did he let his mind wander. He wondered if Katniss was okay, he really hoped so. She was a fighter and the first thing that was agreed on was to flee the bloodbath. Harry had faith that she was alive. He knew that she would aim for the woods so he could only hope to somehow find her in a while. He didn't have any other plans, the bloodbath should be done ages ago so the Careers should have control of the Cornucopia. He wondered how many people died there, they should know soon enough.

Most of the people should be in the woods as it provides most cover, so Harry knew that he should keep being on the move. He didn't know how many rivers there were, but if this was the only water source apart from the lake he saw by the Cornucopia, then it should be swarming with people soon. If all the tributes were along this river, then it would be easy to bump into someone and Harry wasn't ready to bet that they would be Katniss.

It was then he remembered the other Hunger Games, there weren't only tributes to worry about. If the Gamekeepers thought that the games were getting too boring, they would set out other dangers. Endless possibilities course through his mind but after a while, Harry cut them off seeing as they were taking him nowhere. They were safe today most likely as the bloodbath should entertain people enough. However, tomorrow would be another story. If they were lucky, and the Gamekeepers were in a good mood, nothing will be released but if still, nothing happens... He's willing to say; they will be in big trouble.

Cutting off his dark thoughts, Harry decided that tomorrow, he will set off and keep walking along the river. All the while, keep hoping that he won't meet anyone who wasn't Katniss.

With that thought, Harry heard the national anthem playing. The sky lit up and the words "74th Hunger Games" came first. Then not a few seconds later it disappeared and faces of the dead tributes appeared. Face after face came and went. Harry kept count, 11 people by the end. That was 11 lives, meaning that there would be at least 11 families mourning for their lost member by now. He had to admit that he was on edge when the faces appeared, one after the other he hoped to not see Katniss' face. It was only after the anthem stop playing and the sky became dark again did he relax.

Laying there under the fake stars, Harry wondered if Katniss was like him. Praying that his face would not be the next to come up and wondering where he was. His thoughts circulated on and on, but after a while, he closed his eyes and drifted into sleep.

OoOoO

Here you go! The 74th Hunger Games! Some action! We're finally here! After 4 chapters this week! (The most I have written in a week, gosh!) The first day of the 74th Hunger Games. I'm not sure how long it lasted but I'll just write whatever comes to mind. Probably shorten it or something, not exactly sure (maybe I should just read a summary on Wikia).

Also, I'm not exactly sure of the backpacks. In my mind, they're quite small and not filled to the brim so that was how I wrote them as. Also, I have this theory about wizard and witches getting too used to using wands, that if they started without, it would also be manageable. That or I've been watching too much Merlin and I nearly added the golden flash of eyes when casting magic (maybe I should! Idk.)

Just have to get this out there that Merlin is a brilliant show, I love it! Thus recommending it now. I wanted to write a story about BBC Merlin (along with Sherlock, Doctor Who, Rick Riordan's stories), but seeing the number of ideas I have piling up and no time to write, I think I'll put those ideas on hold.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Jane

PS. Did anyone watch the new Doctor Who Christmas special (Twice Upon a Time)? I really can't accept another change of Doctors anymore, I want the old ones back *cry*. Also, I was a bit disappointed at the 13th Doctor's first appearance, it didn't make it easier to accept that 12 is gone. Okay, I'll stop rambling now. Thanks! :)

Published: 29/12/2017