Chapter 20: Day 13

As soon as I opened my eyes I was sitting up, grabbing for my knives, and putting my blankets back in my pack. It wasn't yet dawn, but I wanted to get a head start, in case any of the other tributes decided that they wanted to get to the feast early as well. Hands slightly shaking -both from nerves and tiredness- I set out for the Cornucopia as quietly as I could, making sure to keep a knife in each hand. I recalled watching the Seventy-Fourth Games and seeing one of the tributes hiding inside the Cornucopia to give herself a better chance of getting what she wanted at the feast. It had worked for her, and hopefully it would work for me as well. Just as long as Zeus and Atlas didn't have the same idea.

Before too long, I had arrived at the Cornucopia. I kept low to the ground and peeked around a corner before going out into the open. The coast was clear, or at least, it appeared to be. No one was hiding inside of the Cornucopia, and no one was out in the open, where I could see them. It was still dark out, so I was relying mostly on if I could see any shadows or anything moving.

But the dark gave me an advantage as well, and I crept over to the Cornucopia, over the pavement littered with small chunks of buildings from the earthquake, ready to fight if either Zeus or Atlas showed themselves. Thankfully, neither of them did. It appeared that I was alone, at least for now.

In previous Games, the feast hadn't been presented to the tributes until the time that it was supposed to occur at. But these Games were different, and I supposed that the rebels didn't care if we got to the feast at dawn only to discover that animals had eaten it all, or it had been rained on or gone rotten. So the feast was already laid out, meaning my job would be much easier than I had hoped for.

I smiled as I reached the table and slowly stood up straight, sliding my pack off of my shoulders and reluctantly putting one of my knives back into its sheath, but leaving the other out, just in case. I undid the zipper of the pack as quietly as I could, and took out the poison that I had placed at the very top.

As gently as if I were arranging food at a gourmet meal, I set the poison down among the rest of the feast: it wasn't much food, but the poison would most certainly blend in. Instead of providing food that we would get at home, it seemed to be food that we'd get if we had lived in the districts before this last revolution. Bread that looked like it would be as hard as a rock, some greens that looked slightly withered, meat that I would never have touched before the Games, when I had had to lower my standards for what I would eat. I slipped the hemlock among some of the greens and the foxglove and oleander leaves on top of and arranged around some of the meat, as if it were a garnish. As soon as I finished poisoning the food, I ducked down, rubbing my hands in the dirt in an attempt to get the oils from the oleander off of my hands. It would be nice to avoid the rash that could come from touching the oleander, but time was of the essence: I could rinse my hands once I was sure that I hadn't been followed. I'd take the rash over death.

I managed to get behind a building just as dawn was beginning to break. I exhaled a sigh of relief: I had accomplished what I had intended to. I debated waiting to see if Zeus or Atlas showed up, but I knew that it would be much safer to leave as quickly as I could and hide. If I did that, my safety and my victory would be almost guaranteed.

I was about to make a run for it and find my way back into the ruins of the city, where I could settle down for the day to wait out the rest of the tributes, relishing in the fact that my victory was almost certain and that all I would have to do would be to wait for the rest of the poison to take effect, when I noticed a shadow coming towards the Cornucopia. Cursing my luck, I got even lower than I had been before, taking as much cover as I could.

It was Zeus. Maybe my luck wasn't so bad after all, because if there was one tribute that I wanted to take the poisoned food, it would be Zeus. Atlas I could kill on my own, but not Zeus. To take care of Zeus, to eliminate him, as my grandfather would have called it, I would need the help of poison.

And the help of poison I would get, it became clear, because Zeus was leaning against the table, his arms crossed, clearly waiting for Atlas and me. He looked so confident that I wanted nothing more than to punch him - he hadn't even bothered to keep his sword in his hand in case one of us surprised him, completely certain that if Atlas or I attacked, we would easily be overwhelmed by him.

Zeus didn't even take any of the food at first, which was another show of strength: he didn't need any of this food, because he had enough of his own, both from gifts and from what he was able to get for himself. But as the minutes dragged by and neither Atlas or I showed up, Zeus appeared to figure that if there was food here, he may as well take it for himself instead of leaving it to Atlas and me, or to the various animals in this arena. He began to steal small bites at first - a chunk of bread, a bite of meat, a few of the edible greens. But time continued to pass, and it became more and more clear that I wasn't going to show myself at all, and Atlas most likely wasn't going to either. Zeus began to take more and more food, and at his first bite of the hemlock, I grinned. He didn't even appear to be looking at what he was eating, instead searching the area for Atlas and me, looking more and more annoyed that he had wasted his time waiting here with nothing to show for it. He wasn't examining any of the food that he was eating, and so within minutes he had consumed most of the poison that I had placed out for him and Atlas.

He kept waiting, though, somehow still sure that either Atlas or I would show up. And I didn't dare leave because I was fairly certain that he would be able to see me, and though he had been poisoned, I didn't want to take any risks, not when I was so close to victory.

Usually it would have taken a few hours for the poison to take effect, but because Zeus had consumed so much, he was down on the ground, writhing around, in only one hour, and fell unconscious a few minutes after that. I waited another minute or two just to be safe, and then took off, back for the outskirts of the ruined city.

I didn't get very far, because after a few seconds, I heard footsteps behind me. I whirled around, but I didn't see anyone, so I told myself that I was just being paranoid and continued on, though much more quietly and with both of my knives in my hands, ready to begin fighting for my life at the first indication that someone was out there.

A block or so later, I heard the sound of footsteps again, this time closer to me. I stopped again, turning around and scanning the area. I had been right the first time: someone was following me. And I wouldn't be getting out of this feast without having to fight, after all.

I watched as a figure stepped out from a side street, smiling widely at me.

Atlas.