Justice Wright, 2
It was the wee hours of morning when laborious breathing and the occasional grunt woke me up. It was Diamond, struggling to pull a heavy black knapsack from the Cornucopia. I glanced around to make sure David and Lance were still sleeping before I joined her.
But before I could utter a word, she said to me desperately, "Justice. We HAVE to leave here. We have to. I can't, I just can't. What if David targets us next? He's made it his duty to kill each and every one of us, Justice. We have to leave the alliance!"
I licked my lips. I was going to suggest this to her sometime soon. Almost a week in and the pack was already breaking up.
"Sure," I whispered. "Which biome do you have in mind?"
"The spring valley one," she whispered back. "Isn't it beautiful? So serene and peaceful."
I rolled my eyes. "Beautiful for mutts and other bloodthirsty tributes. Diamond, it's the first place David would look for us. It's so obvious, and I think most of the tributes went in there just because of that fact."
She nodded solemnly. "You're right. How about the rocky place, the one with lots and lots of mesas and plateaus? I don't think many people would want to rough it in there."
"I'm good with that place. It seems like the safest. The tundra's having a serious blizzard and I don't know how to swim in the ocean arena. Do you?"
"No. And Kristine took the raft."
"Yes, so that means we have to go cliff-bound." I pull a large, brick-colored messenger bag from the pile and sift through it. "Do you have matches and any water? I don't."
"Yeah. A few canteens and two books of them. How much food do you have?"
"Around an entire canvas sack of red apples, a bunch of hardtack, and some crackers. I suggest we bring canned food, though. Crackers aren't my favorite."
Diamond nods in reply. "Yeah, let's grab some quickly. Then coats and climbing supplies. Would we need anything else besides weapons?"
"Don't think so. Oh, a compass, maybe. Do we have one of those?"
We search together fruitlessly. There seem to be no compasses in the Cornucopia.
"That's a serious downer," Diamond cusses quietly. She looks over to our sleeping ex-allies, David with both hands wrapped around his mace and Lance with his trident a few feet to his left. "We'd better hurry. Lance is an early riser."
I slip on a thin black coat and my messenger bag. Diamond follows suit and selects a silver sword that has never been used; I grab some throwing stars and a simple knife.
"Got the climbing supplies? Two things of it?"
Diamond pats the right side of her backpack clumsily. "Right here, worrywart. Hurry, let's get a move on before Lance 'n' Dave wake up!"
We go to the cliffs without a second glance, leaving nothing to chance.
Lance Finn, 4
Morning washes over me like fresh waves in a pond, and I'm startled when I see only David. My first thought is, Eve. She's supposed to keep watch. But then I remember she died yesterday at David's hands.
I boost myself off the ground and snatch my trident up. The gloomy grey sky offers no support, and I'm unsure of what to do. Where are Justice and Diamond?
"David!" I clap my hands loudly. "DAVID, WAKE UP!"
His eyes snap open and, without moving, they scan me. His mouth opens slowly, a creaking noise emanating from it. "Where's the runt and the girl?"
"They're gone," I say. "Maybe they were killed. It's down to us."
"They could have left," David says, still not moving.
"The idiots," I mutter, going out to the ring of cacti. I pluck a long spine from on and roll it between my fingers absent-mindedly, making sure that the sharp tip never touches my skin. "So they just up and left, now, did they?" I holler out to the arena. "Decided to leave the best thing that ever came to them, ah? Well, Diamond and Justice, YOU ARE IDIOTS. You don't know what we'll do to you, and I'm glad that you won't!"
"Lance," David calls over to me. I blink at him. "You yourself look like a fool, buddy. Come over here, eat some breakfast."
I sit down clumsily by the fire pit. "I'm just teed off that they'd leave us, though," I sigh, head in my hands. "Nothing really prepared me for this. Me, I was willing to stick it out through the end."
"Same," David agrees, chowing down on a blackened piece of turkey jerky.
"David?" I ask tentatively. I should rather ask this now than later.
"Yeah, Lance. I'm right here."
I clear my throat twice, awkwardly. "Why do you, um, drink the blood of your victims?"
"Vengeance," he replies simply.
I shake my head briskly. "No, no, I mean… well… I don't think many people would think it's in the most stable mind set, that's all. I mean, what's vengeance to you?"
"People suck," he responds, gnawing on the end of the jerky, "and nobody treated me well. It's like payback for all the hellish abuse, you know?"
I bob my head quietly. "Sure. Say I did know what you were talking about. Say I was you, back in District Eight. What 'hellish abuse' are you talking about?"
"Lots of gangs back in Eight. Always in the stairways of the apartments, always another teenager getting raped in an alleyway next to where you bought groceries. My sister was killed, and there was nothing I could do about it. Caty, she lived in one of the safest apartment buildings, so I need to get revenge for never having to experience any of that in her life. That's why when I find her, I'm going to torture her. Let her know how it feels to be beaten up, kicked around."
My mouth must have been agape, but in my defense, I had good reason. Crimes were few in District Four, committed only by the poorer-off or mentally ill. Such things must have been unheard of.
"David, I'm so sorry," I murmured. He tilted his head curiously.
"Don't be. That's why it's such a stroke of good fortune for me to be here, Lance. I'm going to win and I wont have to deal with that jack-crap anymore. Foolproof plan, no?"
I nodded weakly.
Sparkella Munez, 5
I was surprised for the low amount of deaths and worried for my sake. I was scared of being alone in the dark forest. I decided to confront Roland and the girl, Caty, and ask if I could be in their alliance. It would greatly improve my chances, and hopefully earn me a sponsor or two.
I slip down from my tree and trot to the campsite where I know they are. Roland's stoking the fire with a scythe and Caty's feverishly peeling some bark off of a log.
"Hello," I squeak out. With a start, Roland jumps to his feet and, seconds later, the scythe is impaled through my chest.
Lying there on the dusty ground, Roland runs over. "Sparkella," he cries. "I'm sorry. I thought you were somebody else."
I work up nerve to stick my tongue out. "I was going to ask allies," I stutter tearfully, not even making a comprehensible sentence well.
Caty's heart must be melting as I lie there dying, Roland hunched over me, because she has a bouquet of some purplish and white flowers and hands them to me. I look at the scythe that causes me so much pain and wrap the stems around it.
"You did this to me," I accuse Roland before my heart grows stock-still and I hear a cannon, echoing in the distance eerily.
Roland Sanders, 9
"Poor kid," I remark as I pull the scythe out of her chest. "Wasn't she just twelve?"
"Turned twelve a month or so before the Reaping," Caty replies flatly, in a removed tone. "She told Caesar at interview time. 'Member?"
I bob my head. "Told him all about the dresses. Man, I didn't mean to kill her. It was instinct, Caty. Now I feel terrible about it. I thought she was Diamond or one of those people. "
"She was going to ask to be allies," she mused.
"I know."
"I wonder why. Like, how she knew we were here?"
"She watched us, I'll bet," I tell her. "Stuck low to the ground or something, moving about ferns and bushes and brambles. I bet she was watching us this whole time we came into the forest valley. Sparkella was sneaky like that."
"Poor kid," Caty has a coughing fit into her elbow, but recovers quickly. "Both her allies died right away, too. Jack or Jacques and the other dinky li'l twelve-year-old. Lily? She was Elijah's district partner."
"I remember," I say, bowing my head. "God rest her soul."
And we never talk about Sparkella again.
Willow Birch, 7
This afternoon I was pleasantly surprised when a small pot of pink goo floated down in a parachute. It could have been medicine, poison, or some weird food. I ruled out food, as I was doing relatively well on that. I didn't have any major injuries, just minor scrapes and cuts here and there, so I ruled that out as well. That means it must have been poison.
It had a very sickly-sweet smell to it, and I nearly fainted when I inhaled directly. My heart pounded thickly and my pulse raced. Then my head hit rock and I hauled myself up, panting all the time. I clapped the ceramic lid on top of it so fast that I couldn't breathe in any more of it. It made my chest heavy, my lungs ache.
I choked on my own saliva and when my hands flew to my throat my skin felt papery. My head dipped down. My pulse beat rapidly, and all I saw was white.
Hours later my eyes opened slowly. The navy sky was dotted with small white circles, glistening gorgeously.
The anthem was playing, which must have been what woken me up. I peered at the tiny pot next to me and sneered at it. It must be some poison to throw or use on my pick. That could potentially be useful, but I do wish they would have warned me before I sniffed it directly. I leaned back on my elbows and listen to the familiar Capitol song.
A certain note was played in the anthem, a bit louder than all the rest. This signals to me that there is a face in the sky, so I quickly looked up. It's the small girl from Five, Sparkella. The twelve-year-old.
I heaved a huffy sigh and rest my cheek against the cool rock that makes my home. I knew that she couldn't have made it very far, but I wished that she and I could have been allies, even with her small score. She seemed so sweet at the interviews. But it was me. I could have asked her to be allies, but I was too shy.
"Stupid," I said out loud to myself, glaring into the night. "Stupid me." I pinched my wrist, causing a quick jolt of pain. Good. I deserved pain.
I writhed into a comfortable position, deep back in the overhang where the nippy air couldn't get to me as well. Food. I knew that I needed food and some water, if I could spare a couple sips. I didn't want to get dehydrated- or suffer from severe dehydration. I knew the signs; I was already suffering from lack of water. Aside from that, by stomach and wrists were rather emaciated.
I glanced at my nearly empty water bottle and silently cursed Saffron for taking the only full one. My food was almost gone; just a few hard rolls and two strips of beef jerky. Without sponsors, I'd easily die.
I nibbled on the end of a beef strip. Saltiness flooded my mouth, causing my tongue to beg for water. Nope, sorry, I thought to myself. None for you.
Sleep is not easy.
Saffron North, 11
Almost immediately after I left Willow, I noticed something… different in the air. More humid or something, but I paid no mind to it. Instead I hiked up the cliffs until nightfall, a few minutes after the anthem, and that was when I was rewarded greatly.
At the top of the cliff was a gorgeous place. Shrubs lined a pathway of silver, and there was a well as well. Rabbits leapt from place to place in the greenery, vegetable gardens, and fruit orchards like we had back in Eleven. I plucked a mango from a tree, scraped away some of its tough skin, and bit into it. Juice squirted out, droplets spreading over my face. I giggled lightly.
I downed half of my water bottle and began walking to the well.
This proved to be a fatal mistake.
A growling reddish-brown beast sprang out from behind some tall shrubs. I caught a glimpse of flashing silvery teeth and shrieked instantly. I didn't have a weapon! How would I survive this sudden attack?
The first wound slashed open my right thigh, and bone crunched from beneath the iron-tough grip like my femur was nothing more than a cracker. I cried out in pain and dropped my water bottle, liquid spilling out over the silver floor.
The beast aimed for my neck when it charged next, but I was expecting it. From my spot on the ground, I was able to grab one of its long, curved horns and drag myself after it as it continued running.
The only mistake? The beast ran right off the cliff, snorting and growling loudly.
My life was a flash before my eyes- Willow's laughter, the training center, getting my daily morning tart at seven a.m., my sister explaining what her plant would do, my mother's smile. I'd never be able to go back to them. I had failed the North household. But one thing was nice to remember; I had stayed true to myself.
Right before I hit the ground, I smiled.
A/N:
Deaths:
Sparkella Munez, District Five- "She believed she could, so she did." –Unknown
Saffron North, District Eleven- "I'd rather die my way than live yours." –Lauren Oliver
Alive:
Career Alliance:
Eve Glory, 2- killed by David Brown on day five
Lance Finn, 4
David Brown, 8
Underdogs:
Jacques Frost, 5- Killed by Lance Finn in the bloodbath
Lily Hoff, 10- Killed by Gamemaker's ghost mutt after the bloodbath
Brother-Sister:
Kenji Jummers, 3- Killed by Eve Glory in the bloodbath
Mix-Up's:
Jacqueline Edwards, 6- Killed by David Brown on the second day
Caty Lianne Peterson, 8
Hydrangea Samson, 9- Killed by Eve Glory on the second day
Roland Sanders, 9
Elijah Bruno, 10- Killed by Justice Wright on the second day
Cloe Berry, 12- Killed by David Brown on the second day
Break-Out's
Diamond Star, 1
Justice Wright, 2
Loners (no alliance currently):
Lilicon Jummers, 3
Kristine Murray, 4
Sparkella Munez, 5- Killed by Roland Sanders on day six
Aiden Birch, 6- died of dehydration on day five
Jack Marko, 7
Willow Birch, 7
Saffron North, 11- died of a rabid beast on day six
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