This chapter's shorter than usual, sorry, but it just didn't seem to flow if I made it really long because a lot of it would just be the same thing repeated from a different POV, I already felt like I did that a bit, so sorry. Next chapter will be the interviews and then the chapter after that it will be back to the arena for day 17, though there will probably be a POV from outside the arena in that as well. I've decided that once it reaches the final 5 tributes, sponsoring will no longer be allowed, so just to give you a heads up and sponsor items have risen again. Once again, thank you for all your reviews, I love you guys.
Question to earn 10 sponsor points: Who is you favourite character in The Hunger Games?
Disclaimer: I am not Suzanne Collins and I do not own the hunger games, I am merely writing this for my own pleasure, and yours I guess.
~The Lonely Geek
Chapter 56
Arabelle Blake's POV (Sector 2 male)
Feast on day 16
I watch as the sun rises and I can see the gear emerges around the cornucopia. I sprint in quickly before anyone else can run in and get all the good gear. I grab a pack and sling it on my back. I look around and see other tributes running in as well. A ginger haired girl, Gineva I think, runs in with a knife in her hand.
Fear runs through me. I may have got an 8 in training, but Gineva got a 7 and the pack I picked up is quite heavy so she'll be more agile. It's a fairly even fight. I just hope I can overpower her though. I wanted some more supplies which is why I came. I wasn't sure how many other tributes would come, but I am one of the strongest so I thought that I would be okay, but now that I'm here I'm not so sure.
I grab a sword from the side, ready to defend myself. I slash at her, but she ducks and leans in so that my sword is useless against her. She jabs her knife in towards me, and before I can duck or move it enters my lung. She yanks it out quickly and kicks me to the ground as I struggle to breathe.
No. I try to take gasps of precious oxygen, but it's too late. The wound was fatal. Darkness cloaks my vision and then pain from my lungs goes.
Gineva Rockmaple's POV (Sector 11 female)
Feast on day 16
Someone else runs into the cornucopia just as I am about to run. I quickly sprint after them. I wanted to be first in there. Maybe I can stab them whilst there back is turned. I reach the cornucopia just seconds after them. I watch them swing a pack onto their back. They turn and see me. It's Arabelle Blake from Sector 2. She quickly grabs a sword that is near her and slashes at me. It's a clumsy slash though and I easily avoid it. I quickly come in so that her long sword will be useless, but my knife won't be. I jab at her quickly and yank the knife out again straight away, blood spraying onto me as I do. I think I've punctured her lungs.
I push my leg out quickly and kick her hard in the ribs so she falls to the ground. A few seconds later the canon goes. I grab the sword and packs from her back and run. There's several other tributes in the cornucopia but I've already killed someone and I'm weighed down by the packs. I want to get out quickly before the others comes out, armed and deadly and kill me climbing up the cliff.
I reach the cliff in no time and I pull myself up using the cracks and crevices in the cliff to get up. About halfway up I put my weight on a bit of rock sticking out of the cliff, but it crumbles beneath my fingers. I flail my arms around desperately as I fall to the ground below me. In my panic I manage to grab my knife. I jab the knife into the cliff and it holds. I find footholds for my feet and pull the knife out with one of my hands whilst the other is holding onto a crack. I make it up the rest of the way up the cliff.
I am just about to pull myself up the cliff when three prongs of a trident pointing down at me comes into view. I'm going to die. I am at the complete mercy of whoever is at the end of the trident.
Nessi Byron's POV (Sector 9 female)
Feast on day 16
I run in after a couple of other tributes run in. Now is my time while they are distracted. I hear the sound of Ethan's footsteps behind me. I see a couple of tributes fighting, but I ignore them. I just want gear, I don't want to get into a fight. These games will be hard enough to win without risking gaining an injury for no reason. I take a bag that looks like it contains a tent and a small pack. Then I charge outside as one of them kicks the other to the ground.
I sprint outside and climb up the cliff quickly, so that I can get up without anyone seeing me and shooting at me. I heave myself over the top with a huge pant and look back down and see that Gineva Rockmaple is climbing the cliff near to wear I was previously. I take a quick look at the cornucopia and see someone throwing a knife at someone else. I looks like Thanatos attacking Ethan. I look down at Gineva and see that she's still not halfway up and I look back at Ethan and see that Thanatos is punching him round the head so that he is knocked out. It takes me a moment to work out why he takes out a piece of rope and ties up his arms and legs. He's going to torture and kill Ethan.
Even though I'm not allying with Ethan any more, I still feel some responsibility for him. I can at least avenge his death. Thanatos seems like a strong tribute though. I think he only pretended to be average in training. I'm not sure I can take him on on my own though. A plan starts to formulate in my head though. I go to where Gineva is climbing up and hold my trident down threateningly so that she has no choice to do what I say.
"I have a proposition." I say to her as she sees me. "I won't kill you and you have to help me with something." I tell her. Maybe if I can ally with her for just a few hours, day at most, we can take Thanatos out and then leave each other.
"What?" She asks. It's not like she's got much choice but to agree to it or I'll kill her.
"Help me kill Thanatos and then I'll let you go. I won't attack you when we part ways as soon as he's dead."
"Let me up then and we can hide until everyone from the feast is gone so we can plan how to kill him." She sighs. I move the trident so she can get up without being stabbed in the head with the prongs. I still hold my trident warily, in case she tries to attack me now that she's on the same level as me.
"We can climb up a tree to hide until all the other tributes have left or he's coming up the cliff." I tell her. She nods and we run to the treeline and start climbing up separate trees.
I take the time to sort through the pack I picked up. On the top is a thermal jumper. Beneath that is a couple of spearheads. They won't be particularly helpful seeing that I don't have a spear, but I'll keep them in case I get sponsored one or something. After that I pull out a small bottle with water. The pack is empty apart from that.
I look back up. The only people left by the cornucopia is Ethan and Thanatos. I watch as Ethan comes to and Thanatos pull a knife out and stabs him in the leg and laughs as he watches the blood pour from it. I was right. He's not just going to kill him straight out. Ethan's screams are loud and high pitched. I try to block the sound out as Thanatos digs the knife into his arm and drags it down.
I turn away, not able to watch for the next few hours as Thanatos slowly makes Ethan bleed out. When the canon finally goes, I turn back and see the ground around Ethan's body is soaked in blood.
"It might not be much longer." I whisper to Gineva. As I predicted Thanatos soon goes into the cornucopia and comes back out with a pack and sword and goes to climb up the cliff. Gineva jumps down.
"How do you want to do it?" She asks me.
"You distract him, I'll kill him." I told her. Gineva stands, waiting for him to come up the cliff. When he reaches the top, he sees Gineva and draws his sword laughing.
"Another kill." He laughs. Gineva holds her knife up defensively and I dart around behind Thanatos while he's distracted. I quickly jab him with the trident in the back. Three holes form in his back form with blood. He cries out in pain. It's satisfying to hear him in pain after putting Ethan in so much pain, but I'm not a sicko so I jab him in the back again, severing his spine this time and pull the trident out as the canon goes.
"Thanks." I mutter to Gineva. "I won't kill you if you run now." In seconds she turns around and sprints off into the woods, her pack on her back and knife still in her hand. I start climbing back down the cliff. There might be some more things at the cornucopia that I can get now that everyone's gone.
Thanatos Vanderbilt's POV
Morning of day 16
I smile as I slice through his flesh with exact precision. One wrong cut and I could sever a main artery, cutting, quite literally, my fun short. I managed to knock Ethan Wallops from Sector 10 out during the feast and I tied him up so that I could have some fun with him. I didn't get any kills in the actual feast, no one was around for long so I couldn't, but at least now I can draw a death out and win sponsors that way.
His screams are loud and piercing, quite annoying really. I hope they don't give me a headache. Well it doesn't really matter if they do because I can just take a headache pill to stop it, but it's just a nuisance.
It takes several hours of cutting him up with a knife before he eventually bled out. I wipe my knife on the ground to clean off the blood before heading into the cornucopia to clean up a bit and grab some weapons to go tribute hunting. I clean the blood off relatively quickly and am soon climbing up the cliff. I hope I can get another kill before nightfall.
Kai Baron's POV (Sector 3 male)
Evening of day 16
Arabelle Blake's face is the first to appear in the sky, which surprises me slightly because she was the tribute with the joint highest training score left in the arena. It is soon followed by Thanatos Vanderbilt, which also surprises me because although he only got a 5, he must have had some hidden talent or Jaimie would have never allied with him. The thought of Jaimie brings tears to my eyes, but I manage to blink them back and watch as Ethan's face comes up in the sky next. That's not as surprising considering that he only got a 4 in training.
We're down to the final 7. I can hardly believe that I've made it this far. They'll be doing interviews back home. They normally do it for the final eight, but because three died in fairly quick succession I doubt they'll have got the interview for whichever tribute died last.
I wonder how my family are coping. They've already had to watch their daughter die. I know they'll be rooting for me to win so that they can have one child come home to them. I've realised that I have to stop moping around in my tent. Jaimie wouldn't have wanted it. She would've told me to stop crying like a 5 year old and start finding some food. I have to stay strong, for her.
Deaths:
10th: Arabelle Blake (Sector 2 female) – Stabbed in the lung by Gineva Rockmaple (Sector 11 female)
9th: Ethan Wallops (Sector 10 male) – Tortured by Thanatos Vanderbilt (Sector 8 male)
8th: Thanatos Vanderbilt (Sector 8 male) – Spine stabbed by Nessi Byron (Sector 9 female)
Arabelle – I always quite liked you. You had a good backstory and I found you so easy to write. The words just seem to appear onto the word document when I was writing your POV, it was your time to go though. I will miss writing your POVs, but you were just too slow in your fighting.
Ethan – I never really had much of an opinion on you to be honest. I felt sorry for you because of Maia, but I never really felt that much of an emotional connection. I don't think you would've ever won, despite your knowledge of healing herbs, you couldn't fight well enough to hold your own at the feast, so you would have never survived the final fight.
Thanatos – I hated you, gonna be honest there. I'd be surprised if anyone but your creator liked you, but you were just a horrible person. The only positive thing about you is that you were a very complex character to write, and that at least I can appreciate. Now, you can go and join the long list of dead tributes in your dad's notebook that you were named to remember.
