Chapter 21
My sanity, as well as my sponsors, would be well and truly gone if I have a breakdown. I can't let my only chances of survival slip through my fingers, because my survival helps to keep others alive as well.
In the short time it takes to hit the ground, I gather myself.
My feet had felt glued to the metal plate on the way down, but now I can lift them easily. To my left I see Percy, just a bit disoriented. The tubes are lifted up and the hover plane disappears along with them.
There are metal walls surrounding us on all sides. Behind and in front of me the walls are rounded, while on my sides they are completely straight. My area is shaped like a wedge, so that means the arena is circularly shaped… Interesting.
"Welcome to the 1st Annual Hunger Games!" The voice of our announcer, Waldemar Frobisher, booms over some hidden speaker system. "Tributes, you have exactly 1 minute until you can leave your plate. May the odds be in your favor!"
1 minute. Then I have to get Percy to that drop zone. In this time I will need to assess the area between us and that door at the end of this area. They can't make it impossible, so all of the traps are obvious. The land mines are located at the areas of upturned soil, cannons are sticking out of the walls basically everywhere, there are holes in the walls where I'm sure something nasty will come out of, basically traps set up everywhere.
"Damn…" I hear Percy whisper from a yard away.
I smile, and then notice something. A pattern, in all of these traps. If I step like this, bend like that, spin, leap, oh gosh. It's the steps to my dance. They've already been watching me.
"Percy!" I almost shout in my frantic state. 10 seconds left.
"What?" Comes his reply.
"You know how to dance?"
A gong goes off, so I grab Percy and hoist him onto my back. He whispers into my ear, "Good choice, I've got 2 left feet." Then I'm off. I have to adjust some of the steps with Percy's extra weight on my back, but other than that I'm fine. Still as graceful as ever.
I'm working my way more carefully past one of the holes in the wall since I found out the hard way that they shoot out shruikens when I ask Percy, "Did you hear the President's voice over the speakers before we went on our free fall?"
"No, why?" He asks me, clearly confused. And worried.
"No reason."
"You wouldn't have asked if you didn't have a reason."
I sigh. "He whispered something to me, right before we shot down here."
"What did he say?"
"He said," I gulp. "He said 'Good luck Lily Gallina. I'll be watching you, remember that.'"
Percy stiffens on my back and says, "He probably said something similar to all of the tributes."
I keep on dancing as fast as I can, completely ignoring Percy's comment since I know that he's lying. I won't be telling anyone else about this.
After a few minutes I reach my door and realize just how much the walls of the room have gone inward. As I watch to see that none of the traps are faced towards us, Percy gets dismounts from my back.
"Good job, Lily. I didn't know you had that in you."
"Thanks."
As Percy goes through a series of complicated looking tests to unlock the door, I notice something at the back on the room.
"Hurry up Percy…"
"Why? None of the traps are faced towards us."
"Then you might want to think again."
He turns around and sees exactly what I'm looking at. All of the traps have been disabled now, and another door has opened at the back of the room revealing a hideous creature.
"Mutt!" Percy shouts and starts frantically pressing away at the screen. Facial recognition, voice recognition, blood test, what haven't they thought of?
"No, really? I thought it was just a giant kitty cat!" I say sarcastically. "Now HURRY UP PLEASE!"
The beast is hideous. It looks like a barracuda mixed with a leopard, lion, cheetah… Damn, pretty much a barracuda mixed with every animal in the cat family there is. Despite its huge size, it moves pretty damn fast on those 4 legs. That thing has tousled, unhealthy fur with large chunks of fur and sometimes flesh missing. It probably ripped its own flesh out, maybe it's insane. Underneath the fur there is the skin of a barracuda, and the face is indescribable. The faces of every creature it was undoubtedly made of are on yet another face, I'm not even sure what to compare that background face to. The faces are all moving and crying out at once. It's horrible…
"We don't have all day Percy!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
"It will be here in 30 seconds!"
"I won't be finished in time!"
Shit. "HEY KITTY KITTY KITTY! WANNA PLAY?"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING LILY?"
"BUYING US TIME!"
Then I am off running. I pick up shruikens off of the ground and fire at will. When I am almost out I finally realize that it doesn't do a damn thing to the mutt.
"IS THIS THING INVINCIBLE OR SOMETHING?"
"MAKE IT ROAR AND THROW ONE OF THOSE THINGS INTO ITS MOUTH! IT HAS TO CAUSE SOME INTERNAL BLEEDING!"
"DOES THIS THING EVEN ROAR?"
Just then I find out. The beast opens its overly largemouth, the one belonging to the background face, revealing row upon row upon row of razor sharp teeth.
I look up at the sky and shout, "DAMN GUYS, GOOD LUCK FINDING THAT THING A CHEW TOY!"
Then I throw every last thing I've got. They go down its throat and the beast, puzzled by whatever went into its throat, closes its mouth. We both stare each other down, waiting for something to happen.
When nothing does and the beast just gets pissed from me throwing something into its mouth, I realize that this thing really is invincible.
"SHIT! I'M FRICKEN SCREWED! YOU DONE YET PERCY!"
"BIRTHDAY, MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY, FATHER'S BIRTHDAY, NO SIBLINGS… ALMOST!"
"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?"
"NEVER BEEN MORE SERIOUS IN MY LIFE!"
"HURRY UP OR WE'RE ALL DEAD!"
"NO SHIT! I'M STILL GOING AS FAST AS I CAN! YOU THINK THAT I WOULD SERIOUSLY GO SLOWLY WHEN OUR LIVES ARE AT STAKE?"
"PLEASE TELL ME THAT THEY HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO HIT THIS THING WITH!"
"GO FOR THE CANNONS! SEE IF THERE ARE ANY SHELLS LEFT!"
Of course, that's when all of the traps start to work again. And apparently, explosives don't work since it has set off about 12 mines, and it just keeps going. They go off once it simply shifts its weight.
I look down and shout, "SHIT!"
"GOT IT OPEN! WHAT ARE YOU UPSET ABOUT!" He says, pushing a final button to make the door slide open.
"I'M STANDING ON A LANDMINE!"
Holy shitake mushrooms. She's on a landmine. D: Is this when she dies?
Find out next week on THE FORGOTTEN GAMES!
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