Genevieve looked around as the plate rose around her. She froze for a moment, before her mind whirred into action. Her eyes scanned the area with adrenaline fuelled speed. They were in rocky terrain, several boulders and rocks scattering the area. The ground beneath Genny's feet was sludgy and marsh-like. Behind her was a swamp, receding into a decent pool of water to her right. On her left, a piney forest extended, and opposite her, there was a giant cliff face and an area where the ground was only boulders and rocks and caves and cravasses.
The only flat area was the spot in the middle of all of the tributes, who were spread in a rough circle around the area. The Cornucopia was essentially, a really big rock. Well, a cave. A hollowed out rock, really. It was however, filled to the brim with weapons and supplies, and anything you could need in the Arena, and the cave was within arm's reach of everyone. There were knives and bows and tridents and clubs and ropes and nets, even a strange pair of fork like knives…It seemed that there were specialised weapons for each tribute.
Genevieve's mind sharpened as she searched for her 'allies'. First things first. Cedric was on the opposite side of the cave. Flower was three spots away from him, a long way away from her. Mars was only two plates away from Genevieve herself. A coil of steel secured itself in Genny's mind, and the second the plates lowered, she took off towards the boy. He saw her, eyes wide and ran over. Stupid boy.
It was only a second until the first scream erupted, along with a victorious laugh from the slightly insane District 1 girl as she took an arrow and stabbed it through the belly of Elodia Mayim, from Nine.
In the bloodbath and the rush towards the Cornucopia, no-one noticed Genny grab a knife from the floor and bury it in Mars' chest as he ran over.
His face froze in an expression of shock, and he reached down, tentatively touching the hilt of the knife in his trunk. He brought his hand up to his eyes, staring in pure shock at the blood coating his hand.
"Sorry, Mars, but it was the only way…" Genny whispered, letting the boy drop to the floor. His canon was the third to go off after Elodia's and District Twelve's Vibbon Slarter.
A second later, a scream and a canon blast followed each other, marking the passing of District Six's Hanna Ratz.
About to run over to Cedric, Genny felt a hand on her shoulder, roughly wrenching her backwards.
Genny fell to the ground, the threat of Megan's knives obvious.
"Kid, you are sick! I know these whole Games are sadistic, but that was just…" Megan Gallagher hissed, her eyes wide as she stopped on her way to make off with her set of knives and a bag of supplies.
Genny's eyes widened. Why hadn't she thought of the girl between her and Mars? She had seen it all…that could ruin her plan, but Genevieve was in no position to fight her and win.
It was obvious Megan didn't want to be there, she wanted to run off into the woods, away from the bloodbath, and was debating whether or not to kill the young girl.
Genny employed the only defence available to her. She cried. And begged. "Please, I know, but I just want to go home." she sobbed.
Megan glanced over to her District partner, who was warding off one of the Careers desperately. She looked over the younger girl despairingly and sighed. "You better thank your lucky stars I have younger sisters, kid. Run. Go on. Run!"
Genevieve did as she was told, scrambling to her feet and bolting towards her District 11 allies.
Felix ran at the Cornucopia, emitting a strange squeak as he dodged an arrow, ducking as he hurtled towards his sai. He could see them, bouncing beneath the thundering feet of various fighting kids. His path kept being blocked and altered as he continued to dodge and weave through the vicious battle.
He had watched with a gape wrenching his jaw open as Alistair ran up the back of the Cornucopia, swinging inside and grabbing a backpack, before anyone else had even moved from their plate. Unfortunately, Felix didn't have the same speed or grace as Ali.
Alistair squawked and yelled like crazy as he dodged a swing from Lung, the District Four guy. He let himself fall to the ground and rolled out of harm's way, before scrabbling to his feet and sprinting out of the way. He skidded and backtracked, using the Cornucopia and his amazing acrobatic skills to keep himself relatively safe as he escaped the bloodbath.
Felix cursed loudly as he was knocked to the ground by a hulking seventeen year old Career that was bearing down on him, followed closely by Rye Sutherland, a lad who was swinging an axe rather expertly.
For the moment, however, the career was ignoring Rye, focussing, much like Felix, on the club flying at him from above.
A glint of silver caught Felix's eye as he scrambled backwards. Grinning, he leapt to his feet, catching his sai as they flew towards him, and trapped the career's wrist, forcing him to let go of the club in his dangerous hand. The boy roared in anger as Felix expertly manoeuvred the boy's wrists behind his back, wondering what to do with him.
His predicament was proved to be of no consequence, as Rye bellowed, "Spin him around!"
Doing as he had been bid, Felix locked his sai together behind the larger boy's back, forcing his wrists together, and spun him around just in time to catch Rye's axe in the career's muscled chest.
The canon went off almost immediately, but Felix didn't quite register it. His world had frozen the minute Rye's axe buried itself in Connor Rype's heart. He had felt the tremendous blow through the larger boy's body, and the weight of his muscular form as he dropped, a dead weight in his arms. Dead weight…he had killed someone. He had smothered the spark of life in someone's eyes, stilled a beating heart, halted the breath that flowed through his lungs. He had not struck the killing blow, but he was as responsible for Connor Rype's death as much as Rye Sutherland, and one look at the District Nine boy's stricken face and wide eyes told him that he felt the very same things. An unspeakable thing had passed and now bound them…
"Run, run, run, run, run!" Alistair came flying past with about five backpacks thumping against his body, in the air more often that he was on the ground, and Felix broke his gaze with Rye Sutherland, but both of them followed Ali out of the Bloodbath.
Learoy ran as fast as he could with only one and a half lower limbs. Over the years, he had built up some speed, although it was terribly difficult without his crutch. His only plan was to run into the forest and make himself a crutch or something similar for a substitute. And maybe not die for a while. Sure, he didn't plan on seeing the end of this competition, but he did plan on making his death important.
As he hobbled away, he wove unsteadily around a pair of girls, one only 12, the other older, who were engaged in a vicious sword fight. He recognised them as Alissa O'Neill and Ellie Cage, Districts 10 and 8 respectively. Learoy had an uncanny memory for faces and facts, for all the good it would do him in the Arena.
Sighing, he ran for the forest as Ellie cut Alissa's arm and bolted, much to the older girl's annoyance, as she dodged any further attacks and disengaged, bounding towards her district partner.
Out of any close danger, Learoy slowed slightly to catch his breath, and stumbled almost immediately, catching himself on a particularly large boulder.
A soft pinging sound came from the rock.
His functional eyebrow shot to his hairline and he touched the boulder again, getting the same result. A line glowed across the boulder, almost like a seam, or a hinge…Learoy hurriedly began to try and open the rock.
Out of the corner of his eye, the cripple spotted Katrina Oakson, Disctrict 7, touch another boulder just like his, only a few metres away. It pinged a bit higher.
The intelligent pair's eyes lit up and they ran around, figuring out the code to open the boulders.
They were most of the way through when another person made a break for the forest, District Four, Marina Arden. The girl froze at the sight of them running around slapping the rocks, but understood as soon as the first rock cracked open, revealing a backpack full of supplies. Katrina took it and bolted.
Learoy let his breath escape in a sigh. He didn't expect to die this early on…
"Hey, kid, you tell me where to push, and we'll open up another few rocks, alright?"
A grin cracked Learoy's broken face and he nodded, pointing at the farthest boulder.
Marina ran over, slapping each rock as he pointed at them.
"What if anyone else comes?" he yelled.
Marina gave him an exasperated look. "I'll deal with them, you just focus on the glowing boulders, ok?"
They had reaped the innards of three more boulders before anyone else showed up. Marina threw a knife with a fair amount of precision in the direction of the career pack as they neared, and the group halted for a while. "Come on, kid, we've got to scram."
Learoy didn't need telling twice, as he took his supplies and ran into the forest with Marina by his side, wondering how on earth he had managed to get a Career for an ally.
Whew! Well, there you go, chapter one of the Arena! I'm sorry if it's a bit confusing, but it should all make sense in a chapter. Loose ends will always be tied up! Promise!
Now, I know what I'm doing up to a certain extent now, and I'm going to try and write a lot this weekend.
By the by, Glimmer: I'm going for three weeks.
Please R&R!