But nothing's happened yet.
.oOo.
Bayleigh Mountainson, 12
District Ten Female
0 Kills
She's holed up in another one of the cabins that dot the mountain, huddling inside with a blanket around her shoulders. There must be dozens of these, considering that she's found a new one every day on this side of the mountain.
And it's the fifth day.
She shudders when she remembers that there are still eight other tributes out in the arena, ready to fight her to the death - she thought that more of them would be dead by now. Perhaps most of the Hunger Games dragged on for weeks on end instead of wrapping up for only a few days. Maybe that was the reasoning behind the name.
Well, she'll stay in this house that's painted a shade of forest green until it's nearly evening. Then, she'll see about finding somewhere else to hide.
The couch is comfortable to sleep on, and Bayleigh stretches back out on it. Her mentor must have been wrong about not acting in the Games - although she's done nothing but hide and hope that no one's found her, no beasts or tributes have chased after her. Cody had said something about that as well - he had said that if they didn't act for the cameras, they'd be forced to play along through getting chased by things called mutts and such.
But nothing's happened yet.
Oh well, she'll continue to stay here. After all, she has the rest of the day ahead of her - who's going to look for her when she's holed up in here? She knows that the careers are usually the ones who do the hunting - she learned that much from watching broadcasts of the Games - but she allows herself to hope that they won't search very well.
Of course, she'll be proven wrong eventually. But it's nice to have hope.
A stray spark, too far from the fireplace to survive on its own, lazily drifts downwards and onto the blanket that Bayleigh's sitting on. She yelps and tries to beat it out with her hands, but it's too small to have made a difference. It fades away, leaving the blanket unscathed. It's as if it was never there to begin with.
But the roaring fire, only getting larger, is all too real.
"How?" are the only words Bayleigh can muster when she sees the fire. "How did it get out?" It's a good question, indeed - somehow, the fire's leapt across the room and is devouring the pile of firewood in the corner. Flames lick at the curtains of the cabin, and a few greedy sparks fly towards the cabinets. The house is burning. The house is burning.
She has to get out.
She grabs the blanket and wraps it around her head, coughing like mad from the smoke. It's gotten so smokey in here in just a few minutes, and she feels her way to the door. A white-hot pain sears her hand when she tries to open the doorknob, and she thrusts her fingers into her mouth to cool them. Sucking furiously, Bayleigh stares at the door. It's too hot to open.
At least, it's too hot with her bare hands.
After she's satisfied that the flesh hasn't melted off, Bayleigh wraps the blanket around her unburnt hands and tugs at the doorknob. It stays in place the first try, but she gives it a furious wrench before nearly falling out the door and into the snow. Snow! She sucks in the fresh, cool air that comes with the outdoors, stumbling away from the cabin. It's up in flames by now, and she can see the smoke billowing out of the chimney and through cracks in the window frame. A few more minutes, and it might have collapsed on her entirely.
It occurs to her that she's forgotten her skis and packs inside, but she doesn't mind. She's still alive, and she can always go to the other cabins to hide.
And for now, the fact that she's still breathing is all that matters.
.oOo.
It won't be just a shelter for long, though - it'll be her home until the games are over.
Or until she's dead, of course.
.oOo.
Audra Zimanski, 16
District Five Female
1 Kill
The cabins are burning, and not because of her carefully placed bowls of disaster.
Interesting.
Crouching in the snow, Audra watches one of the cabins go up in flames. It's painted a light shade of pink, the flame climbing up the side and causing the paint to brown as the wood structure begins to burn. Eventually, the house has had enough and collapses into the snow - the fire still raging as it searches for whatever is still salvageable in the cabins. Everything has to burn - until there's nothing left except the soot and smoke that remains.
At least the game makers don't feel like burning down the rest of the forest. She has plans for it, plans to build herself a shelter to live in for as long as she can here. Of course, she'll move around the arena on her skis still - she doesn't want to upset the game makers like the tributes already have. They wouldn't have burned down the cabins if the final nine were playing up to the expectations the Capitol had for them.
So for now, she'll build and wait. When she's finished, she'll take another trip down the slopes of the mountain.
Maybe she'll find someone else.
It would have been over with a lot more quickly if the arena was that much smaller, Audra reflects as she drags a young sapling back to the place where she's building the lean-to shelter. It won't be just a shelter for long, though - it'll be her home until the games are over.
Or until she's dead, of course.
But yes, the arena is too large to finish the games quickly. Adding the fact that so many died in the bloodbath, and it stretched it out to an inordinate degree. They could be here for weeks if nothing happened - exactly what the game makers don't want. She knows that this must cost money, and every second of inaction will lose even more of that.
Yes, they want this over with as quickly as possible. So they'll get rid of all of the shelters, just to remind the tributes that if they don't do something, they'll be the next to burn.
No one wants that.
She deposits the sapling with the rest of her growing pile of logs, then turns back to get her axe. She had found one in a cabin next to the fireplace, and had taken it before anyone else had a chance to find it. She doesn't know how many of these there are, but she'll be holding onto it for as long as she can. This is a good, strong tool. She can live out here in the wilderness for a while when she uses it - as long as she doesn't do something stupid and slice her arm open.
No, she'll be careful. She wants to stay here for a long time, and she'll do what she needs to so she can. That's why she'll risk skiing, even when she doesn't know where the other tributes are. If she can entertain, she won't be targeted.
The young, flexible saplings fit well leaning against the fallen tree she had found in the middle of the woods, and she weaves branches of thick, bushy pine needles between them all. It's going to be cozy in here when she's finished - she just has to keep insulating the shelter, make the walls thick, then pack it up with snow.
When she's finished, she'll finally be able to rest. Of course, she'll go skiing, but she's looking forward to resting.
She's tired.
.oOo.
Judging by the rest of the smoke trails in the sky, the same is happening to all of the other cabins inside of the arena.
.oOo.
Ellington Lockwood, 18
District Nine Female
1 Kill
She feels too tired to do anything else in the arena today.
The voices have subsided for once, and she just wants to go to sleep today. Something about killing that boy took something out of her - she feels like she's lost something that she can't find again, that she won't be able to get back.
Elli's stuck like this.
The smell of thick, bitter smoke has only gotten stronger, and she looks around the forest to see if she can spot what it is. She left her cabin today - she didn't want to look at the bloodstains any longer. Now, she's trudging around the arena, trying not to get snow in her boots by walking along the ski trails. Sure, she might be found by the careers, but she can always climb a tree and try to hide.
It might work.
Then, she spots it - the trail of smoke is coming from inside the forest. She frowns, peering through the foliage to see if she can see what's burning. Walking in further, she sees it - it's one of the cabins, burning in the middle of the forest. As she continues watching, the roof collapses inwards with a mighty crack and the cabin seems to crumple to the ground like a house of cards.
Judging by the rest of the smoke trails in the sky, the same is happening to all of the other cabins inside of the arena.
She huddles under the thick branches of the pine tree, pretending that this isn't happening. Are the rest of the cabins going to burn as this one did? Will there be no shelter left in the arena for anyone? Will they be trapped in a burning forest for the careers to pick off, one by one?
She doesn't like this. No, she doesn't like this at all.
But even stranger, she finds herself wanting to get a closer look.
You could have been in there, she hears the voices whisper to her as she starts to climb up the tree. And then they fade back into the usual babble of nothing, just a monotonous drone once more. She likes it better that way - she doesn't want to hear what else they have to say.
It's tough to climb up the pine tree. The branches are too thin to hold her weight properly, and more than once she finds herself about to fall because she's stepped on a too-small branch. But she clings onto the trunk of the tree until she finds thicker branches to climb upon, and sees the rest of the arena when she emerges from the branches and at the thin, swaying top of the tree.
For a second, she sees nothing but fire, raging fire that does nothing but devour everything in its path. But then she blinks, and notices that it's just another trick of her mind. No, it's only the cabins that are burning. Elli hadn't noticed it before, but each cabin's in a little clearing that makes it easy to burn without letting the rest of the arena to burst into flames. That's a good thing, even though the amount of snow that's in the arena would stop most of the trees from burning down.
She thinks.
Oh well, Elli's safe for now. For a while, she'll just sit up here and think for a while. Yeah, that'd be nice. She hasn't had a chance to properly think since before the Games - she's just been reacting to everything that's happened to her.
After the wind begins to blow once more and she's satisfied that her forest won't burn down, she starts to climb back down. She makes quick work of it, and gets to the bottom of the tree all too easily.
That's when she sees the careers.
.oOo.
They're stuck trying to search for everyone in here, even if it takes them weeks.
.oOo.
Dimitri Muller, 16
District Two Male
1 Kill
They keep on skiing through the arena, pushing their ski poles through the crust of the snow to propel themselves even further. The three have been working so hard on searching the slopes that they haven't had a chance to properly breathe, and they fight not to collapse when they reach the bottom of the mountain. Dimitri heaves a sigh of relief when he's able to stand up once more, his legs still wobbly from fatigue. "You two alright after that?"
"I'm always ready to go," Thetis replies with a smirk. "I might not be the fastest of us all, but I can keep up with you two brutes."
Triton laughs, shaking his head in delight. "You two are enjoying this too much."
And they are - Dimitri loves getting the chance to push himself to the limit, to properly search through the arena and get the chance to do what the gods always wanted. Of course, his conscience is all too eager to remind him that he's working with those who've betrayed the gods, but he's found a way to successfully argue against that for now. After all, they have no idea who the gods are. How do they know what's wrong if they don't know what the rules are?
An even smaller voice likes to remind him that he uses that as a way to hide the fact that he actually likes the careers, but he buries that in the deepest crevices of his mind. That's not something he has to think about for a while.
After the Games, maybe.
Triton wipes away sweat and looks back, to the trails of smoke that are just appearing above the forest. "Hey… you all see that too?"
"Let's check it out!" Thetis is gone before they have a chance to react, skiing furiously into the forest. "Come on, you two - where's all of your energy now?"
Dimitri laughs as he catches up with his district partner, skiing side by side with Triton. "One day, you'll be able to beat us out when we least expect it."
"Hopefully that won't happen until we get rid of everyone else," comments Triton. They're all silent after that, reflecting on the other six - well, five now - tributes that are hidden in the arena. They'd be easier to find in a smaller arena, but this is anything but that. They're stuck trying to search for everyone in here, even if it takes them weeks.
Thetis speeds ahead with a fresh burst of energy, grinning like a madwoman as she looks behind to see the two boys following her. "I smell the smoke now - it's so acrid and bitter and ugh! I wonder what tribute managed to get themselves into that mess."
"I guess..." Triton pauses when he reaches the clearing, and they stare at the burning heap of wood that used to be a cabin. One of the cabins, in fact, that they've been searching in for other tributes. "We won't find out."
"I suppose so," Dimitri manages weakly. They keep staring at the burning lumber, watching another section of what was once a fine wall cave in upon itself. It's not just a fire, and they all know that. It's a warning.
If they don't find tributes, and soon, they'll be the next to burn.
Another chapter!
Thoughts on how our tributes will fare in the arena? Any guesses on the next death? Feel free to share!
I hope you're all doing well on this Saturday. I'll see you soon with another chapter - perhaps it'll be a bit more action-filled than this one.
Enjoy. Until next chapter, TheAmazingJAJ