Day 1 of the Games;


Alec Seth, District 12 POV:

It didn't take me long to discover what the arena was supposed to represent; it was representing some kind of pyramid. I didn't know how big it was, and how old it was supposed to represent but I was assuming since it was a whole arena it was pretty big. The passageway that I had gone into had led off into numerous other passageways, and before I knew it I was in some little maze. I occasionally passed the occasional stone doorway or big vault that I could open and crawl into, but I decided it best not to- I didn't know what exactly was in there.

I turned a left, and then a right... I continued turning left, and right, and left again- but I seemed to not bump into anything, not any traps or any tributes. A part of me wanted to bump into a mutt or something, just to convince me further that I was in the Hunger Games, and not lost in some pyramid in a desert somewhere. However, I was pretty certain that no existent pyramid could compare in size to this one.

The temperature was chilly, and the pyramid was pretty dark. However, torches littered the corridor and kept the place light enough so that I could see. There was the occasional breeze of wind that told me that there had to be an outdoors at some point. There were other questions that whizzed around in my mind, like how big was this pyramid? What traps or mutts were around here? When people die, do hover crafts pick them up, or does something different happen?

I guess the answer to these questions could only be answered in time

And as for the pain, I was in a pretty bad condition. After checking my stomach I was pretty relieved to find out that I only had a skin wound, so I was going to be okay- if I could stop bleeding. My shoulder throbbed too, but I was pretty certain that it was nothing to worry about. I wish I had a first aid kit, or any kind of supply. I was too busy trying to get that stupid revolver- and a revolver that had gotten into the hands of a psychopath. If I'd have just looked for something like food or weapons, instead of some silly gun I wouldn't be bleeding badly and wishing I had some supplies. Or even better, Kathleen might still be alive.

I wasn't exactly devastated by Kathleen's death, because I didn't get the time to get close to her. Not just that, but she wasn't the kind of person to get close to somebody. However, seeing her thrash around like she did would probably always be imprinted on my mind. She didn't seem like the person who I would want to die, either- in fact, she didn't deserve it compared to some of the people that were still alive and breathing right now. But she'd be returning to District Twelve in a coffin very soon, with only a broken hearted family and a sympathetic District; other than that, nobody would even acknowledge her death.

I moved my hand to my stomach, hoping that the bleeding would stop soon. I could only hope that it would stop, though. I needed to find some food, water and some first aid soon if I wanted a chance in hell of living. And a weapon would be nice, too. Or an ally would be nice- now that Kathleen was dead I was looking to the prospect of spending the Games alone, and I did not like that prospect at all.

I moved into another passageway, which seemed to have gotten slightly narrower. All of the passageways were different in their own way, some were narrow- some stretched apart so much they were like rooms of their own. The only similarity was that they all seemed and smelt like they were hundreds of years old, and the temperature was freezing cold. Not necessarily freezing to the point where I could die of hypothermia, but cold enough to complain about nonetheless.

I decided if I expected to find anything, I should start looking in the rooms inside this corridor, otherwise I'll continue walking around this maze and finding the same old things. Unless dust was what I needed to survive, the corridors weren't really worth walking. And the chances are I haven't even wondered around half of them, so I was lucky to not brush into a mutt- or even a tribute, for that matter.

I looked to the nearest door, and gasped at what I saw; the doorway was half blocked by a large mass of boulders. Underneath the boulders was a snapped wire and a crushed skeleton lying underneath the boulders. So the door was wire trapped- I had a good reason to not want to enter any of the rooms so easily then.

My gaze was then averted to the crushed skeleton- dying like that seemed like total agony. Who was that skeleton? My heart stopped at the thought that it was one of the tributes trying to get in and being crushed. But my mind shook off that idea when I realised that no skeleton would decay in what could be hours at the most; the skeleton was artificial and some kind of tool to warn careless tributes what would happen if they strolled into rooms so carelessly- I should look out for these wired traps, as there were probably more. They probably extended to much more than doors, too.

I carefully crouched down and crawled between the boulders so I could look into the room, and was relieved to see that no other tributes or mutts were in the room. But, there were definitely some things that did interest me. In the middle of the room was a large stone table, and on it was a mummy wrapped in bandages- bandages! I had my key to survival right in front of me now, despite the fact it came from a dead person (or, a fake dead person) the bandages looked great for tending wounds. Desperate calls called for desperate measures.

I then glanced around the room and saw various shelves; some looked so old that they could collapse in a single touch. On them were certain urns and vases, and I stopped to think about what they contained. I decided it wasn't good to think of it right now as I had some wounds to tend to; the throbbing in my stomach and shoulder reminded me that.

I moved across to the dead body, and unrolled a bit of the bandage that remained around its stomach, the dead body was still fresh and had certain scars across the stomach and chest. It smelt strongly of wine and herbs; it was obviously used to preserve the dead body.

I moved the bandages and used it to bandage my own stomach and shoulder up. I smiled to myself with the relief of it all- despite the fact there was still that burning agonising sensation there, I didn't have to worry about bleeding out and dying. But I did have to worry about dying- there were still some deadly tributes out there, and most certainly some kinds of mutts too. Not to mention Maximotus and his revolver- how many more lives was that gun going to claim? Hopefully not mine, that is all I could say.

I decided that it was time to explore. What harmful traps could the Gamemakers put into a couple of urns and shelves? I moved across to the shelves and noticed that the urns seemed to have different animals. I couldn't make out the colouring and the patterns of the urns, as they were horribly cracked and covered in dust. The thing that made me laugh the most was the thought that despite the fact these urns looked hundreds of years old, they were probably six months old at the most. Everything here, including the ageing was artificial.

I wanted to know what was inside the urns, so I opened the jar to it. I almost retched when I was what was inside- these mushy looking things. They gave out a horrible stench and I immediately knew that they were intestines. I stumbled back and moved my hand across my mouth, to try and stop myself from vomiting; that person who had been wrapped in bandages over there had his intestines put in those urns.

This room was a mummification room.

I had a basic knowledge about Ancient Egyptians, they were from thousands of years ago. Even before Panem was North America- which seems so long ago it isn't even worth thinking about. They seemed to live in even worse conditions than the people of Panem, as most of them were slaves or something as the sort- but the Pharaohs were rich and got it lucky- just like life now. But there was no Hunger Games then.

I also knew about the process of mummification, I didn't know exactly what happened but I knew the basics of it- a dead person had most of his intestines remained (I remember something about the brain being taken away with an iron hook, because the gruesomeness of it all gave me nightmares) and then covered in all sorts of herbs before being wrapped up in bandages.

And this room was the room where people were mummified; It was very rare that the bodies were actually mummified in pyramids, from what I remember but it still happened. This also meant that there had to be some kind of ritual dagger or something that was used to cut people open, and could cut tributes that would try to cut me open. I wasn't sure if I could kill, but if I had the key to killing in my palms I would feel just that bit better.

I then scanned the shelf and saw a metallic looking hook on it; the tip was covered in blood and I then realised that this was the hook that was used to rip out the brains from the body. Despite the fact I couldn't rip anyone's brains out (unless they were unconscious or something) it looked hard enough to knock somebody to the ground. That was all that I needed.

I moved out of the room and decided that I needed to find something else, like water or some kind of food. I moved out of the room, clambering out of the boulders that blocked the door. I walked down the corridor for a couple of seconds before I felt another sharp sensation in my stomach- it was so powerful that I cried out and fell to the sandy floor.

I was perfectly comfortable here, and much too weak to stand up. I felt every muscle in my body throb, begging me for a rest. My throat was so dry it felt like sandpaper, and I knew I needed water soon... as soon as possible. I was seeing double, I think I lost a lot of blood...

I closed my eyes and hoped when I woke up it would be so much better...


Metsey Jazgo, District 11 POV:

I sped along the long narrow corridors at high speed, hoping I could find anything. So far, the corridors had provided me with nothing. I wondered into a couple of rooms and only found ruins and the occasional piece of water. However, in one room there was some old kind of pool of water which I had taken a drink out of- it was fresher than any water I had tasted, and quenched my thirst. I filled up my water bottle with it.

I didn't look for any weapons, I just grabbed a backpack and sprinted for it. My backpack had enough to keep my surviving for a while; there was a lot of food. A couple of jam sandwiches, cheese, crackers, a bottle full of water, a bag full of berries and grapes and a jar of honey. I didn't need to eat yet, and I had to save all of my food for desperate situations.

There were other things in my backpack, a coat which seemed to trap heat amazingly. I was wearing it right now, and speeding through the corridors that once left me shaking with cold I was perfectly content with my own body heat warming me up. There seemed to be a bag of plastic, which I didn't think I needed right now. And a small bottle of something called chlorine which confused me, how was I supposed to use this? I guess I could only find out in time, but it smelt pretty funny. I didn't plan on smelling it again, it could be deadly.

The Bloodbath was gruesome, but I didn't hang around to see what had happened. I heard gunfire and screaming, so I was certain that somebody had a gun on them. The question was- who was it? The only thing I could hope for right now was something bulletproof or metallic enough to make bullets bounce off them.

I moved into a small room and saw it was some kind of musical room. Inside it I could see fancy marble pillars that had collapsed, and lay in ruins on the floor. I wandered in even more and wondered if I could find anything- a weapon was what I could hope for at this moment in time. Even if it was something small like a small blade or a small hammer.

I looked across and saw in the corner of the room there was a harp. It looked beautiful, and was made of a gold that still glistened despite the fact it was covered in dust. It's strings were all perfectly fitted, and despite the fact that the room around it looked like a bomb site, it was perfect. A daffodil within a field of dandelions.

I moved across to it and moved my finger to one of the strings- the harp altogether had about forty-seven strings, but four of those seemed to be different from the others; the others were plain strings, but four of them were a glimmering silver colour. I couldn't help but look to them in awe, why were they silver?

I plucked the string that I had my finger on, and the beautiful musical note filled my ears. Dust seemed to spread out, and it made me cough a bit. I then moved my hand to one of the silver springs and plucked that too. I gasped when I heard a large rumbling sound and I immediately stumbled back- I should've known this harp was a trap!

But there wasn't an earthquake or anything of the sort- I didn't notice the four silver gates in front of me. The silver looked exactly like the strings on the harp, only they gave off a more fierce and rough aura than the beautiful and graceful aura that the harp had given off. One of the four gates had raised up, but the other three were still down.

I think I sorted this little puzzle that the Gamemakers had given me.

I moved my fingers to the other silver string on the harp and plucked it. As expected, there was a beautiful musical sound and dust being emitted from the harp- but as also expected, one of the four silver gates had risen up. I plucked the other, and then the other before there was a whole passageway that I could go through. Hopefully, there wasn't a mutt in it.

I moved across to the passageway and peered into it. I didn't see no mutt, but it was dark- like walking through a big tunnel. I cautiously walked into it and jumped as the gates slammed shut behind me. I continued walking before finding that this long and dark passageway seemed to get lighter. I heard the sound of someone coughing and realised that somebody or something was in there! Was it one of the Careers? I didn't know who was dead and who was alive right now, so I had no idea of who could be here.

I moved into the room and was surprised to what I saw; the room was made entirely of marble and there was a large marble table located in the middle of the room. Not just that, but there was a large plate of what seemed to be bread in the room. A tiny and skinny boy with ghostly white skin and black hair was nibbling on a piece of the bread that he had snapped out, and as soon as his large brown eyes spotted me he stood up and waved a small knife in my direction.

He had a weapon. I never.

"Don't hurt me!" I cried out, covering my eyes with my hands. I was going to do what I did best and play the weakling. If I befriended this boy I could get an ally, a weapon and even some bread and I thought that wasn't a bad prospect at all.

The boy looked at me sympathetically and lowered his knife, before kneeling down by the marble table. It must've been uncomfortable kneeling down on marble, but at the end of the day anywhere that you could sit down was luxury in the Hunger Games. He then gave me a weak smile before speaking out.

"Don't be scared, I only raised my knife to scare you off if you were anybody who was trying to hurt me." He paused for a second. "I'm not monster."

I lowered my hands before having to stop myself from smirking- my weakling act had worked. Now I had to worm my way into an alliance, which wasn't hard. I just had to start some kind of conversation off.

"Did you get that bread from the Bloodbath?" I asked, feeling my stomach growl. I hadn't eaten in a while, and I needed food. I wasn't hungry enough to delve into my own stash of food yet, so what was the harm in a couple of snaps of bread if it was offered?

"No." He replied, shaking his head. "I went into that room with the harp and studied it- I had read a book about harps once, but I played the strings and found that it lead to this room- and I'm guessing the bread is the Gamemakers way of congratulating me for solving their puzzle."

"Well, won't it be dirty? Or stale?" I asked.

"No," Ellis replied. "It was covered in some preservation herbs and a light dash of vinegar, so it isn't stale. It tastes as fresh as a newly baked loaf and I used my match, fuel and pan to heat it up so it's nice and warm. If you don't believe me try some."

He snapped a bit of the bread and held out his hand to offer it to me. I smiled and grabbed the piece of bread from it, stuffing it down in my mouth like a wild animal. It was warm and doughy, and close to perfection. I felt my mouth water and I looked to the boy, as if asking for more. He smiled and nodded, as if telling me I could have some more.

I snapped it off and spoke in between mouthfuls: "So, do you have water, a pan, matches, and fuel?

He nodded. "Yeah. I also have nuts, this knife and some beef jerky. What do you have exactly? I can see you have a backpack, what things does it have in it?"

I smiled and snapped some more break: "Well, it has this coat I'm wearing. It traps heat. I also have two jam sandwiches, cheese and crackers, a bottle full of water, a small bag of grapes and berries, a plastic bag and a bottle of something called chlorine."

"You seem to be eating hungrily for someone with so much food." Ellis chuckled.

"I've decided it best to try and not eat my food supply away, for now I'm having a jam sandwich every couple of hours." I replied. "So I'll be out of sandwiches by the end of today."

"Yeah." He replied, chewing on his bed and seeming deep in thought. I had to make the conversation carry on; this boy obviously wasn't as chatty as I hoped he'd be. What other things could I cover? It was hard making conversation when you were stuck in an arena full of people and things that were trying to kill you.

"And the plastic bag I think I'll need to use for at some point later. And I don't know what chlorine is, but I guess the Gamemakers have given it to me for a reason."

"Chlorine is a halogen." The boy explained. "A small amount could be used to purify water- but only a small amount. When taken in large doses it can damage the nervous system, which is why years and years ago it was made into some kind of bomb that emitted gas."

"So I can purify any dirty water I get from it?" I asked. "Or even hurt other tributes?" I was glad I had met this tribute; at first he looked like some weedy boy, but now he was quite obviously a brainbox. I guess I needed that right now- at this stage in the Games, brainy allies were more important than tough muscular ones. But pretty soon I'll need rid of him.

"Indeed." The boy replied. "But, anyway- I guess I've been pretty rude. My name is Ellis, what is yours?"

"Metsey." I exclaimed. "Metsey Jazgo."

He stood up and smiled, before looking to the plate where bread once was. Now, me and Ellis had both demolished the bread there so there were only small crumbs left on the plate. The meal was definitely a satisfying one- I guess not every passageway had something deadly in it. That was certainly a good thing.

"Now, I'm going to go." He replied.

The next thing he did surprised me, he stood up and moved his hands to the marble table where the plate of bread lay. He then pushed onto it and I watched as it slid aside- he continued pushing it until I saw a wooden trapdoor there. What did that lead to?

He grabbed the handle to the trapdoor and lifted it, revealing a new set of passageways, a scary and haunting kind of breeze was emitted from the trapdoor and despite the fact I was snug in this coat I shivered slightly. A triumphant grin went across his face, and then he turned to face me:

"So, are you going to come with?"

"If I do, does that make us allies?" I asked, smiling weakly.

"I guess so." Ellis sighed, frowning. "Before these Games I promised myself that I wouldn't make any allies, but after a couple of hours being alone I've changed my mind. However, I must warn you that I'm not the most sociable person."

"That's okay." I replied, smiling. "I'm not either."

"Well, let's go in..." Ellis indicated to the trapdoor, before clambering down and falling into the passageways behind him. I looked down and saw Ellis was perfectly okay- the fall wasn't enough to break bones at least. I held my breath and jumped down...

The Games continued to give me more and more surprises...


Rayann Grace Carter, District 5 POV:

I was so shocked that I had survived that dastardly Bloodbath. I had some close encounters, and Selena Lennock's spears missed me only by luck a couple of times. However, I was alive and I had Bethuny by my side right now. That was all that mattered. I had managed to grab a spear, too. And Bethuny had managed to grab a backpack and a sleeping bag which had all sorts of colourful patterns and swirls on it.

"I think it's time we check out what is inside there." I said, pointing to the backpack.

Bethuny smiled and opened up the contents, where there was a flask of juice, a tub full of ham, a loaf of bread and another sleeping bag. At least both me and Bethuny didn't have to worry about an uncomfortable nights sleep, because now we could lie down and enjoy a warm nights sleep. Unless it snowed- which I doubted would happen in these desert conditions. Although, for a desert it was awfully chilly right now.

"We have enough food to last us two days." Bethuny beamed before packing the food back up into the backpack.

I couldn't help but frown. "And once that has ran out, what are we going to do? Where can we find food in some... large ruin?"

"Well," Bethuny said. "This is the Hunger Games, and they always provide the tributes with food in some way or another. If we look around well enough we will find something that can satisfy our stomachs."

Bethuny was forever the optimist, and I was forever the pessimist. I was surprised we got on so well, because we were like two opposing forces. I guess the old saying 'opposites attract' had some truth in it after all. After walking with Bethuny for a while, I realised she was a more useful ally than I had presumed. Not just was she intelligent, but she could dodge a spear fairly well (I tried teaching her how to dodge, but it turned out she was better than me). She told me that in school all of the children threw things at her, so she learnt to dodge herself in order to avoid the things they had thrown at her.

We eventually moved on into a room, and I glanced to the room. There were many mirrors that were supported by large lumps of stone in the room, all situated at different points. One was on the floor, and the others were on ledges that seemed to go higher and higher up until there was a point where the fall was if anything, deadly. The way out of the room was a large doorway that was about half an acre above us- so as you can imagine it was pretty high. The thing that caught my eye about the doorway was the stone eye that hovered above it; it looked like it was glaring at me wherever I turned.

"I'm going to try and climb it." I exclaimed, before moving over to the large stone wall. Bethuny rolled her eyes and grabbed my shoulder.

"No you are not." She snapped, and I realised she was more feisty and controlling than I had presumed. "If you fell Rayann, you could hurt yourself pretty bad. I'm almost certain that there is a way out of here. This is a Gamemakers puzzle."

"Yeah, a mirror is really going to help us get through that doorway!" I sarcastically snapped.

"Well, I'm not sure about the mirror yet..." Bethuny smirked, before moving to the centre of the room. I then gasped when I noticed she was moving directly towards a large stone clock. She glanced at it for a couple of seconds and smiled once again. "It's twelve o clock! That means it's lunchtime!"

"Do we have to have lunch?" I asked. Despite the fact my stomach was growling like a wild animal I was much more focused on getting out of this room. Bethuny rummaged into the rucksack before handing me a couple of pieces of ham and a bit of bread.

"I always have lunchtime at midday." Bethuny exclaimed, smiling. "And nothing- not even these Hunger Games is going to take that away from me."

I felt it would be rude to point out to her that if she wasn't lucky enough to get that backpack full of food, the Hunger Games would be stopping her from eating her meals. But I wasn't prepared to point that out to Bethuny, as she could be quite persistent at times.

I stuffed my mouth with the ham and bread, and felt that I was most certainly satisfied by that little something. Maybe Bethuny was right in suggesting we stop for lunch, because now that I didn't have a rumbling stomach I could focus on getting myself up to that doorway. We could always go over and start searching through the passageways again, but so far all that had given us was six hours of endless wandering and I doubt I could bare another six.

"Let's concentrate on getting out of here now." I said to Bethuny once she had finished her lunch. She was a much slower eater than me- she only nibbled her bread and ham, whereas I stuffed my face with it.

"Okay." Bethuny smiled, before looking around and looking back to me. "I presume that the mirrors and the eye are connected, because of the whole interconnection between light and our sense of sight."

With that Bethuny moved over towards the clock, and I glanced to her with my eyebrow raised. She flicked a strand of her fiery red hair back, biting her bottom lip in thought for a second. I wondered what kind of things were whizzing around in her head right now- was she fitting the pieces of this room together? Or was she as clueless as me?

"There's an inscription here." Bethuny read it out to me: "Tel thgil deal eht yaw neve ta eht tsekard fo stniop."

"It's gibberish to me." I shrugged.

"It isn't to me." Bethuny replied smiling. I guess she was happy to feel like she was useful once, whereas I was the one who usually lead how things went. "This writing is practically writing which was designed to spell out 'let light lead the way even at the darkest of points' which means that we need a source of light. I think I've cracked it."

"Well in the passageway outside there's plenty of torches." I said. Bethuny nodded and I went outside in the hallway, glancing in both directions to make sure there were no tributes or mutts that had spotted me. I guess there weren't any around, so I made my way towards the nearest torch and grabbed it from the wall.

As soon as I did, Bethuny ran up and grabbed it from me with a look of delight on her face. "Okay Rayann, what I want you to do is to put the fire in front of the mirror nearest to us, then twist the mirror so that the beam of light emitted from it shines to the other mirrors."

I walked over to the mirror nervously and moved the torch in front of it, and for a second all I could see was the reflection of the flame, but by that point a beam of light was reflected from the flame, and it hit the mirror leading up to the entrance, which made other beams of light fire out until the mirrors all reflected a beam of light- one finally hitting the eye above the doorway.

As soon as the eye was hit, I felt the ground tremble and raised an eyebrow as the stone floor in front of me shifted and formed into a stairway, and I glanced to Bethuny who gave me a smile back as we looked to the doorway in front of us...

What more surprises were there to expect from these Games? Only time could tell...


Hello guys! I finally have the line thing sorted, so my writing is going to be much neater now :) I hope you enjoyed all the puzzles I've shown- and yes, I am letting the tributes off easy in order for character development and foreshadowing ;D

I have re-made the poll for tributes so you can get voting! It does determine who survives in a small way, I guess 20 percent is how much you review, 20% of it is the poll is 60% is how I want the storyline to go :) But, what did you think of this small sneak peek of this rather large arena? I've put so much thought and ideas into it, I've even had to research things such as ancient egypt- in this chapter the formation of a harp in particular xD!

Question: What kind of music do you think suits the atmosphere of this fic? And which bit of this chapter caught your eye?