These sixty seconds are the most tense in my life. I look around me and gaze at my surroundings; all of us are arranged in an arch around the golden Cornucopia. Behind me is a forest, deep and dense, it looks threatening as if to say 'stay away', bunches of poisonous berries lumped into clumps of different hues, inviting yet at the back of my mind I have a deadly feeling about it. The forest seems to slowly slope up until it levels out into a plateau where I can hear the distant raging torrent of a river. In front of me, between all of the tributes and the cornucopia is a small stream, trickling. We'll probably set up camp here, guarding the Cornucopia, maybe hiding a few vital supplies just in case. Behind the Cornucopia is a giant mountain, looming ominously above us. Not very many tributes will go there, I tell myself, storing the information away, deep down in my mind. Coolly calculating where everyone will go to, not worrying about myself. To my left the forest continues until it cuts off by the mountainside and to my right there is a dip but I see the trees entering there too, though slowly changing into species you would probably find near a swamp.
I set my eyes out to the Cornucopia and to the people around me. Directly next to me are Dral and the male tribute from twelve, already setting eyes on a waterproof poncho right in front of him. The nearer you get to the Cornucopia, the better the items. Most people who aren't careers will snatch and run, but a few will stick around for the greater prizes, temptation getting the better of them. Those are the ones who will probably end up being slaughtered in the bloodbath. I have no idea how much of the minute has gone so I scan the Cornucopia for a weapon, there, a few metres in front of me is a chunky knife. Although I can see better further into the Cornucopia, I can have those later. At the moment I need to get armed, and fast. I am just flexing my muscles getting ready to run when the gong goes off to show that the games have started.
I dash forward and grab the knife turning around to stab someone about to initialise the terrible deed, when I notice it is Dral. I quickly swerve out of my charge towards him and change direction and accidently knife the boy from district twelve instead. My face turns paler then his as the blood seeps out of his wound. I quickly whip the knife out so the Capitol doesn't see that I'm scared and I charge off into the Cornucopia. I feel the air getting hot around my head and duck without a second to spare, the spear that flew past my head striking a girl from district five in her calf, injuring her. Just as I am nearing her Precious stabs her with a sword. I turn around and look for a new opponent. Most of the people who aren't careers have either run away or are dead by now. Then I spot Dral struggling in hand and fist with the boy from district seven. Blocking thoughts of murder from my mind I throw my knife heartlessly at the boy and it enters his lungs so he couldn't even scream. Dral looks around and sees me. I smile at him and dash to the Cornucopia. I find a belt with five knives hanging off it, hitch it on and charge back out into the bloodbath. The only living non-career is the girl from district three who is being bloodily stabbed repetitively by Anvike, a grin never ceasing to fall from his face.
I scan the Cornucopia, the tributes from three are dead, as well as the girls from five and eleven, the boys from seven, ten and twelve. I count on my fingers. Seven dead already, this has been an eventful bloodbath. I look up at all the careers, we're all unscathed. I pant heavily then am the first to speak, showing I am ready. I am blocking out the events of the bloodbath from my mind.
"Seven dead already. Thank goodness they don't do cannon shots in the bloodbath or I'd be deaf by now."
Anvike grins crazily and drops the girl from district three, her limp bloody body riddled with holes. The first to speak is generally the leader and I can tell he won't like it if it turns out that I'm the leader and I don't want to cross him.
"We should search them; see if they've got anything." He says, trying to take control, as if challenging me to even breathe out of place.
I am about to mention that they can't have picked up anything great and essential in the bloodbath but I bite my lip. I almost hit myself as I re-open the clot that had been forming there, but then that would have meant more self-harm, which isn't a good thing. Hopefully there's still some Capitol medicine in my bloodstream. I nod and we set to work. I grimly bend down over the boy from district twelve. I rack my brains for his name. I think it was Leo or something like that. Maybe I'll never know. I look at his face and then at my hands. Murderer's hands, I had told myself this morning but not believed it for one second. Yet here I am looking at murderer's hands. I wipe the sweat from them on my baggy black shorts and look in his pale face.
As the daughter of the head peacemaker I've seen dead people before, but never someone I've killed myself. I now understand why my father sobbed mercilessly the night Vivian's family was hung. I thought it was because he has been made a mockery of with the song, but now I understand. The guilt of killing someone breaks you down, even the very soul of you crumbling. That's what I feel now, but I have to be strong, I have to look cool. I rummage around in the boy's pockets of his jacket but find nothing, of course. Fourteen, my conscience murmurs, he looks fourteen, just a year younger than you are now. Your mother was alive at that age, you were happy.
I close my eyes and roll the body over, removing the jacket just in case it gets really cold. I realize I'm with the careers so no-one should be worrying about being cold with all the supplies but I still hold the jacket. When I see Suzie looking at me I shrug and roll the jacket up.
"Might come in useful." I say defensively, even though I know it won't. The reason I keep the jacket is that I want something of his, like a souvenir perhaps, but not something to enjoy or relish; something that will keep me aware of what I am and what I have become, a murderer. Because I, Kara Jaymond have killed someone, and am never going to forget it.