Chapter 27: 74th Hunger Games: Kick off

[Summer of 74th Hunger Games]

In the next morning, Prim and I prepared breakfast for the family. We had probably slept better than my father and brother; close cuddling had indeed helped both of us to get to sleep easier and to get distracted from the current events. I wondered how much Dad missed to have female company in his bed, but he did not talk to his sons about that.

The Games kick-off event was scheduled to start early in the morning, to have a full day of action to be shown to the audience. Before the tributes were entering the arena, cameras provided an overview for everybody watching the screens, and the environment looked a little bit similar to the 71st Hunger Games, with some trees, some open areas with grass, and a small number of creeks and ponds, plus a lake right next to the Cornucopia. Katniss should feel more or less at home there, or so we hoped at least, but for Peeta we were worried – he was not used to much nature. Of course we also wondered if Katniss and Peeta had agreed to stay together for the first few days at least, as tributes from the same district frequently did, but we'd see about that.

Eventually, the tribute elevators lifted the tributes up from below, and the 60 second countdown started. Katniss and Peeta were not next to each other, and like all of the other tributes, they were looking around to assess the environment and to see where supplies were located. As always, the tribute platforms were in a ring, all at the same distance from the Cornucopia, a giant gold colored structure formed like a horn. Close to that place they always offered the most tempting and useful supplies, like food, water containers, fire starters, weapons, medicine, clothes, and more, whereas smaller packs and less useful supplies were placed in other locations sparingly.

When the gong sounded, we saw Katniss going for a backpack which was on the ground not far from her. She got it, but at the same time the male tribute from District Nine reached out for it, too, and a fight started. The boy was only 14 years old and smaller than Katniss, so that he was unable to quickly end the struggle in his favor.

"Katniss, run!" Prim shouted, jumping up and down on my lap.

Suddenly a knife was thrown from somewhere and hit the boy in the back. Blood was sprayed around, but Katniss seemed to be unhurt, and she started to run towards the forest, with the backpack. Another knife was thrown in her direction, and we could see that the knife thrower was Clove, the female tribute from District Two. Fortunately, though, the knife hit Katniss՚ backpack and got stuck in it. Katniss did not waste any more time and ran into the forest. However, at least she had a knife now.

Meanwhile, a number of more fights had occurred close to the Cornucopia. Thresh, the big male from Eleven, had managed to get there as one of the first and grab some goodies, including a formidable sword. The boy from District Seven tried to stop him, but Thresh easily pushed his opponent's spear aside, killed him with his newly acquired weapon, and ran off towards the forest.

The boy from Eight, 14 years old, had also tried to grab a supply pack, but had not seen Marvel, the Career boy from One, with a knife he had just picked up moments ago. In a similar way, the Careers worked together and tried to eliminate as many other tributes as they could early on. This was difficult this year, though, as the forest was close, and many others simply tried to vanish there rather than facing the Careers. Peeta was shown in a fight with a Career boy, but for some reason we could not see they stopped, and a few minutes later a bruised Peeta was on camera in the middle of the Career alliance group.

"What is my boy doing with the Careers? Is he out of his mind?" my father asked.

"Maybe he made some kind of deal with them" I suspected.

Rue was only briefly shown at the start, and she had, after picking up a very small bag, dashed right into the forest and was gone. Most likely, she was trying to hide as much as she could, and with her dark skin and her skills, she might be able to even hide from the cameras most of the time.

After the initial bloodbath close to the Cornucopia, the afternoon was kind of slow, and not much happened. Inside the forest, getting all tributes on camera was difficult, and most on the non-Careers apparently wanted to get away from the Cornucopia as much as they could, including Katniss and Rue.

At the end of the day, when the dead tributes were shown, it turned out that eleven tributes had already been killed, so that only thirteen remained alive. As the Career alliance had both tributes from One and Two, the girl from Four and Peeta, this meant that only seven others had managed to escape the initial bloodbath.

Just before the viewing ended for the day, a camera showed Katniss checking her backpack, and she found a small healing package including iodine, crackers, dried beef strips, matches, some wire, a strange type of sunglasses, and an empty plastic bottle.

"She does not have any water!" Prim shouted out with concern.

"Hopefully she will find some tomorrow" I offered.

When the viewing ended for the day, we helped ourselves to some food in the bakery, but nobody was up for much talking. Unlike previous games, which we had been able to mostly ignore or at least view from a distant position, having Peeta and Katniss as tributes made everything very personal. Although there was nothing at all we could do, we were all tense and nervous, but that could not be helped.

When Prim joined me in my bed this evening, she placed herself right on my chest facing me, with her face very close to mine. We were again both topless, and I found this to be a very comfortable position as well. Even at her current age of 12, Prim was still quite petite and skinny, and her tiny weight on top of me did not bother me at all. Due to her small size, her hips were on my lower chest rather than close to my own hips, so that no friction or pressure was there close to my private parts; otherwise sleep might have been a real challenge for me.

As it was, we both got to sleep like this and still found ourselves in the same position in the morning. Once again, being together and also smelling each other's body and hair had calmed us down and comforted us. Furthermore, waking up like that in the morning, with my love right on top of me, was something I could really get used to, and my feelings towards Prim almost exploded; I was so much in love with her.

The next day, the second day of the Games, started with a quick review. Quite close to the tree Katniss had selected to sleep in, the female tribute from District Eight had picked a spot on a small clearing to start a fire during the night. Even we, watching from a distance, could see that this seemed not be a very smart move. While she apparently wanted to warm herself up, the fire advertised her position to everybody else who wanted to see it in the darkness.

And indeed, another camera showed the entire Career pack coming closer when dawn was starting. The camera revealed that the stupid girl from Eight had dozed off at the fire, and that was it. She was severely injured by Cato and finished off by Peeta, and a hovercraft came to pick up the body. While my brother had done his move, the cameras and microphone caught one of the Careers saying that he'd love to kill 'Lover Boy', as some of them had started to call Peeta. Another tribute reminded them that he was their best chance to find Katniss and find out how she got her very high training score.

"Why did Peeta have to kill that poor girl?" Wheat was shocked.

My father provided a likely explanation: "If he had not, somebody else would have. Also, maybe he needed to prove to the others that he can kill."

"But why is he with the Careers at all?" Wheat asked further.

"We do not know" I replied. "But, if he was just on his own, how long would he survive out there? Maybe he thinks he can stay alive longer like that, in order to help out Katniss later on. Also, thanks to what we just heard, we know now why the Careers tolerate Peeta with them. They seem to believe that he is their best chance to find Katniss."

"But why are they so eager to get Katniss?" Wheat asked.

"As they said before, they want to learn how she got her high training score." my father responded. "In addition to that, I assume that something may have happened during the training sessions which makes at least some of the Careers strongly dislike her, but that's just a guess."

"Quite possible" Prim added. "Unfortunately, my sister has always been quick in antagonizing others."

As soon as the Career group had moved on, Katniss was shown climbing down from her tree and sneaking around, probably looking for water.

"Katniss!" Prim shouted, as if her sister could hear her. "There is a small pond not very far from you, just in the other direction!"

The camera showed the pond, but obviously it was not visible from Katniss' point of view, and the poor girl continued to search in vain. While she eventually caught a rabbit in a snare, there was no water for her.

Meanwhile, the Career group was shown stalking on, with Peeta, and Wheat wondered:

"What is Peeta still doing with the Careers? Shouldn't he try to find Katniss on his own?"

"Maybe he's got a plan, and finding Katniss may be difficult if she does not want to be found." I mused. "Maybe Katniss is mad at him for declaring his love during the interview?"

"Oh yeah, it's quite possible that Katniss is mad at him for that, indeed" Prim confirmed.

Somehow the Career group failed to located any other tributes to hunt, and it was obvious to us that they had nobody with them who was knowledgeable in the forest, and nobody who could read tracks and footprints properly. A few times they came close to others, but the Careers made a lot of noise. Not only were their steps loud, but they also talked a lot.

Thresh, the big male from Eleven, saw and heard them a few times, but was easily able to hide and avoid a confrontation. Rue was shown a few times, too, but it was very difficult to see her on camera the way she was hiding, and the Careers did not stand a chance locating her. We wondered why the two tributes from Eleven did not stick together, but they probably had their good reasons. In a similar way the girl from Five sneaked around and was invisible to the Career pack.

"How can a group of people go hunting and make that much noise?" Prim wondered.

"Not everybody has the gift to move stealthily like your sister can" I replied. "Also, the Careers do not really need to force a confrontation. They have most of the supplies and can afford to wait."

Another camera showed Katniss again. Of course she was smart enough not to light another fire, but apparently she recalled the fire the other girl had lit, and as the coals were still hot, she used this to cook the rabbit. Afterwards, she walked around, most likely searching for water again. Rather than finding some, though, she first encountered lots of delicious looking berries on a few bushes and grabbed a handful of those.

Prim shouted: "NO!", startling us with that.

And, like her sister had heard her, Katniss reconsidered, had a closer look at the berries, and dropped them.

Prim sighed: "Those berries are poisonous. I don't know how Katniss realized that, but I am happy that she did. Maybe she had encountered them before in the forest."

"Or maybe she was educated on them in the training program" my father suggested.

Not much else happened on that day, but Katniss had clearly seen Peeta together with the Career tributes, and her scowl had told us that she did not approve. At the end of the day Prim՚s sister was going to spend another day on the tree, still without water.

At the bakery, we had much more comfortable sleeping accommodations, but the images from the arena kept our minds busy. I dreamed of also sleeping in a tree and was afraid of falling down; apparently I had whimpered a few times until Prim woke me from my troublesome dream, and we managed to get back to sleep, hugging each other closely.

When we woke up on the next day, we shared our mourning meal and a large cup of hot chocolate, and we both thought about Prim՚s sister, who still did not have any water.

The morning viewing sessions, at the start of the third day of the Games, showed an exhausted looking Katniss in her tree. She needed to find water on this day, or she wasn't going to survive, we expected. Nevertheless, she spend more than half a day looking in the wrong direction, and only when she was more crawling than walking already and finally dropping in some mud, she must have realized that the mud was getting humidity from somewhere. Promptly the camera showed a pond with water lilies only a few meters from her while Katniss looked almost like dead, and we feared for her. A few minutes later something must have triggered in her half dead brain; apparently she noticed the pond and managed to crawl towards it.

"Will she drink right away or purify the water first?" I mused.

"What's there to purify?" Prim asked.

My father explained: "A lot of water provided in the arena is dirty, and some of it is full of bacteria. Some tributes actually died from drinking polluted water in the arena in years before. The iodine Katniss has in her backpack can be used for water purification, but I doubt that she is conscious enough to think of that now."

However, the poor girl surprised us, and rather than drinking, she filled her big bottle and added iodine, and only drank like half an hour later when the iodine had hopefully done its job. Once she had purified and drunk enough water and eaten something, the camera showed Prim՚s sister going back to sleep in a tree again.

The other cameras could not show much. The Career group did not have a water problem, of course, as they controlled the lake next to the Cornucopia and had plenty of supplies. Some of the other tributes, namely Rue, had apparently managed to hide quite well, and the cameras were unable to zoom in to them.

When we went to bed on this night, Prim was quite relieved to know that her sister had finally found water.

"Now she just needs to get her hands on a bow!" she mused before falling asleep.

When we started to watch again on the next day, the fourth day of the Games, there was a recap first from the night. Apparently, the gamemakers had been bored by not much happening for a day or two, and they had decided to spice up things. They had started a fire stampede, originating from within the forest, and heading towards the group of trees where Katniss was. She was quickly dropping herself down and soon shown to flee from the fire, together with a group of deer, rabbits, and other wild animals. Once she stopped for a break and was shown drinking something, there were suddenly fireballs launching themselves from unknown sources, and some of them came dangerously close to the poor girl.

For some reason, Katniss was affected most by the fire. Rue had been able to evade in another direction, and Thresh and most of the other tributes had not been close enough. A couple of the Careers suffered minor injuries.

Prim got more antsy with every minute, and she trembled on my lap, barely able to watch any further.

Eventually though, with quite a few minor injuries and heat burns, Katniss managed to find a pool of water, and she used it to treat her burns at least. We were relieved to see that she got some rest now, but we were also concerned how Peeta was doing. As it turned out, we did not have to wait long, until the Career group was shown getting close to the pool where Katniss was.

"Katniss, run!" Prim tried to encourage her sister, but Katniss only noticed the danger much later, when the group had almost reached the pool. Despite of all the exertion she'd had to go through earlier in the day, Katniss was real quick to gather her belongings and run, and apparently the others had also had a hard day and were not as quick as they should have been pursuing her.

Katniss managed to find a high tree and climbed up, and once the Careers came close, she was already high enough to prevent easy pursuit. All of them were bigger and heavier than the 'Girl on Fire', and they probably could not climb too well. The cameras were now close enough to show details, and we could even hear them talking:

"How's everything with you?" Katniss called down from the tree.

"Well enough" was the reply from Cato, the boy from District Two. "Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste lately" Katniss called down.

That almost got us laughing.

"The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?" Katniss teased the others.

"I think that I will," said the same boy, but did not even try to get on the tree. He must have realized that he was almost twice Katniss' weight and would not be able to even come close to her in the tree.

"Here, take this, Cato," offered the girl from District One, and she supplied the silver bow and quiver of arrows, which had been on the ground close to the Cornucopia at the game start.

"What could Katniss do with such a bow!" Prim stated and sighed.

However, Cato declined the offer: "No, I am better with my sword."

The big Career boy actually accepted the challenge now and started to climb, and Katniss was shown to get even higher. However, Cato did not know which branches to step on and which ones to avoid. Just a couple of minutes later one of the branches he used could not support his weight and broke, and Cato crashed down to the ground.

The girl from One, Glimmer, now tried the same, and she had the bow and arrows with her. She got higher than Cato, but by far not high enough to get even close to Katniss. When she had a stable position, she tried to shoot Katniss with arrows, but she was clearly not trained in using bow and arrow and missed every time.

Eventually, dusk came, and the Careers decided to stay the night. "Oh, let her stay up there in the tree. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning." Peeta was heard saying. And indeed, even from the bird's eye perspective provided by the cameras, it appeared that Katniss did not have a lot of options. She might be able to sneak down during the night, but the group was likely to post guards.

This ended the day's viewings, and we mused that we still did not have a clue where exactly Rue was. Maybe she was really that good in hiding and not being seen.

When we went to bed, Prim still trembled a little. The excitement with the fire and seeing her sister getting injured and almost dying from lack of water had devastated her, and it was not easy for me to calm her down. She needed me to hold her tight during the entire night, which was a service I was very happy to provide, as it also helped to get me relaxed again. Eventually, both of us were able to get a few hours of sleep at least.

Next morning, at the beginning of day five in the Games, there was again a review from the last night. While we had a simple breakfast at home in the bakery, we watched the review, which started by showing Katniss trying to arrange herself high up in the tree and tying to find some sleep. In the middle of the night, though, she woke up and looked around, not seeing much with the dim illumination provided by the fire the group down has lit. The camera zoomed in and showed a pair of glowing eyes, probably from a tree dwelling animal. However, the eyes moved further and revealed a very small human body, and Prim shouted:

"Look, this is Rue!"

Indeed, Rue was there on the next tree, looking over at Katniss; the moon provided just enough light to identify her. She must have seen the predicament the older girl had gotten herself into, and she made some motion with her hands, trying to point out something. The camera followed the guidance, and before Katniss had a chance to see that, we were shown something like a big wasp nest. Actually, as this was the Games, it was more likely to be a nest of tracker jackers, bigger and more poisonous than wasps. Eventually Katniss got the hint and was shown moving towards the root of the branch holding up the nest, and she started to use her knife trying to saw it off. For some reason, though, she stopped when she was more than half done and moved back to her sleeping corner, finding a parachute there. The camera revealed that there was medicine in there, and it could be applied to her injuries, in particular the burns.

The show skipped some time and now showed a review of dawn breaking. Rue had left the immediate area, and Katniss awoke, while the group below were all asleep, including Glimmer, who was supposed to stand guard last. The girl in the tree continued to saw, and when she was almost done, one of the insects found her and stung her close to one knee. She continued to apply her knife, and soon the whole branch with the nest fell down, close to the Careers.

The poor boys and girls down there woke up to a full scale attack of tracker jackers, and it was not a nice sight. Peeta and a few of the others were reacting promptly by leaving everything behind and running away as quickly as they could, shouting "To the Lake!" repeatedly. Glimmer and another girl, the one from District Four, were not so lucky, though. They both suffered from multiple stings, and their shrieking could be clearly heard.

Soon the District Four girl succumbed to the tracker jacker poison and was picked up by a hovercraft, and Glimmer apparently lost consciousness, but was not quite dead yet.

"Wow, that worked!" Wheat called out.

"Yes, but I think that Katniss also got stung once or twice..." Prim was concerned.

"And Peeta got one, too, I guess, despite his quick reaction" I added.

Soon one of the cameras showed Katniss getting down from her tree and moving towards the pool she had used on the day before; the girl submerged herself for a few minutes to cool off, and when she came out again, the camera zoomed in to show a huge blister on her knee from a tracker jacker sting. Some time later, when Katniss had tried to treat her stings, only partially successful, she suddenly got up and walked back to the trees.

"What's on her mind now?" her sister on my lap wondered.

The question was answered when Katniss approached Glimmer's body, her eyes fixed on the bow the other girl held.

"Of course, she wants to get the bow" my father told us.

Apparently, this was not an easy task, and Katniss even had to use a stone to unlock Glimmer's fingers from the handle. Eventually, she barely managed to retrieve her bounty before Glimmer finally died and a hovercraft came to pick up the body. Just when she had picked up the arrows, too, footsteps could be heard, and suddenly Peeta was next to her.

Prim trembled: "What is he going to do to her?"

The question was justified – he had allied with the Careers, so what was he going to do?

"What are you still doing here?" could be clearly heard. Peeta also did not look good, and he had at least one sting under his ear. "Are you mad?" he rambled and prodded Katniss with the tip of his spear. "Get up and run!"

Katniss did not really get what he wanted right away; maybe she was dizzy from the tracker jacker poison. The screen, though, clearly showed where danger approached, in form of a furious Cato, the big guy from District Two, who came closer though the bushes. He was wet and also stung at least two times, and finally Katniss realized that she really needed to run, and run she did, with her newly acquired bow and arrows, past the pond and further on, until she lost her pursuer and dropped down on the ground.

"Oh no!" Prim shouted. "I hope that she's still alive! Maybe she just needs rest?"

Meanwhile, Cato had noticed Peeta warning Katniss off, and he got furious about that. He got his big sword out and cut Peeta՚s thigh open, not giving him any chance to defend himself with his spear. We were expecting Cato to finish off my brother, but when he noticed that he had inflicted a severe injury, he just told him: "That's for cheating on us. No reason to kill you now; have fun suffering until we get back to you!"

The cameras move on the other tributes and showed their stings, and the morning viewing was over, to be continued in the afternoon.

Prim sighed: "This is so exciting. I so hope that Katniss can recover and join up with Peeta."

The rest of us were more worried about Peeta՚s injury at this time. My own nerves were kind of tense, and it was difficult to calm down. We had some lunch together and tried to rest, and a few hours later looked at the screen again. The afternoon events were not so exciting though.

Around the Cornucopia, the Careers were not idle at all. The boy from District Three, the electronics experts, had been allowed to join them when he claimed that he might be able to dig out the explosives and electronics hidden at the tribute elevators, those that were supposed to go off if a tribute started off too early. Cato ordered him to booby trap their supply heap and the area around, so that their valuable goods could not be stolen why they were off hunting, and the boy got to work.

Another camera showed Peeta stumbling away from the forest; close to dusk he found the stream, where he drank some water and collapsed. My father and brother and I were of course very concerned about him and his wound. It had looked bad, and we wondered what he might be able to do about it.

"I wonder if he's got some medicine in his backpack?" Wheat asked.

"Well, it would have to be some very special medicine to help him" I suggested.

"Maybe it looked worse than it really is" my father tried to offer, but we somehow failed to believe this.

When we got to bed that night, Prim was trembling again. The day had been really exiting, and the poor girl slung her arms around me, holding me tight and seeking comfort. I was worried as well, about the wound Peeta had received, and sleep did not come easy for both of us.

[Author's Notes: I have tried to show the events more from an outside perspective. Not sure if I have succeeded in doing that right. Please let me know what you think!

Also, I found it quite challenging to keep an overview on which tribute is doing what at any time, and my apologies if there are inconsistencies; there probably are a few in this chapter and the next ones. I tried at least to follow the official ranking of tributes.]