Coilee Undergaze, 18, District 2 Female
Azure's face is pretty. Her dimples are charming, and the freckles splashed across her nose give her a youthful look. The blue of her eyes is welcoming, since there isn't an ounce of it to be had in the sky above us. Instead, the same slew of mauve and dark indigo swirls in the sky with pastel-coloured stars and a creepy moon that never seems to rest from its giggling.
"Coilee," Azure says suddenly, looking down. "If I leave to go take care of something, will you promise not to leave?"
"I kind of don't have a choice," I croak out, tightening my hold on my abdomen. Blood has soaked through the bandages, and Azure was unable to find anything useful in terms of medicine, besides sleeping pills. I rejected a handful from Azure, afraid of what would happen if I fell asleep.
Azure rests my head on a bunch of pillows, fetches her bundle of throwing knives, and saunters away. She disappears into the forest with red trees, leaving me laid on the feathery pile like a doll.
Not knowing what else to do, my eyes start to flutter shut. I know I shouldn't sleep but I desperately need some rest. Maybe I'll wake up feeling stronger and not so useless.
As my eyelids become heavier, and nearly closed, out of nowhere I feel something overlooking me. A strange pink teddy bear is smiling down on me, the bobble of its sleeping hat brushing my nose.
"Sleepy?" the bear asks soothingly, its high-pitched, tinny voice catching me off guard. I attempt to scoot away from the strange mutt.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you," it assures me. "I just need to know where I can find an…" The bear pulls a piece of paper out of an imaginary pocket and pretends to adjust reading glasses as it peers down the sheet, "…Aslan Dreadstorm."
My heart skips a beat at the mention of his name. I'm wondering what this weird doll wants with him, and part of me doesn't want to tell him. "Why do you need to know?"
"Because! He needs a little taste of his own medicine, some good old fashioned revenge." The bear seems excited now, and has started to hop up and down. I don't know how to respond, so I just let my head fall to one side. This is all too strange.
"If you tell me where he is, there'll be something in it for you, too! I can heal that nasty wound Magnolia gave you. Heal it right up. Lickity-split."
I perk up slightly. "You can?"
The bear smiles again. "You best believe it! Like I said, just tell me where he is. Just tell me."
I'm conflicted. If I betrayed Aslan like that, I would be severely looked down upon by everyone, especially if I won. Although I'm not a Career, they still accepted me. Who am I to condemn them like this? Then again, the other option is being incapacitated until Vinna grows tired of taking care of me and slices open my throat in the middle of the night. Or, maybe Aslan could convince her not to do that. At the very least, he does seem to care about me somewhat… and I should give him the benefit of the doubt. But this wound does hurt, and I'd like to at least hold my own in these Games… I'm just sick of everything hurting so much-
"Hey! Sleepyhead! I'm going to need an answer! And don't think of lying, if you do, I'll make you eat your own guts!"
"Okay, okay," I say, caught off-guard by the bear's outburst. I try to come up with a believable lie. "They went hunting, so they're probably well-past the forest and up the mountain or something, maybe. I don't know." I deliberately plant uncertainty and doubt in my language.
The bear sways back and forth, then prances closer to me, placing a hand on my abdomen, and a light starts to leak from its little stump of a hand. All at once, the pain subsides, and a very cold sensation erupts before it stops and the bear hops off of my side, nodding his head.
"There, better?"
I flex my abdominal muscles. No pain. Nothing.
"How… how is that possible?" My voice is trembling, and soon my entire body is as well.
"Get used to me, I'm amazing," the bear boasts. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some business to take care of." It sprints away at surprising speed before diving head first into the forest. I'm still nearly crying at the relief of not being wracked with pain before realizing the price of what I've done. That weird doll, it's after Aslan. It probably wants to kill him. And it's my fault…
"Ash!" I scream internally, not daring to let the bear know of my regret. I have to find him, or I at least have to kill that bear before it touches him. Grabbing my spear, I dash in the same direction as the bear, but find no trace of it in the forest floor. Continuing to sprint across the wooded area, I spot it waddling along, almost skipping. Thankfully, it hardly notices me trailing it, almost as if on purpose.
Aslan Dreadstorm, 18, District 4 Male
This area is weird. Once you're on the other side of the mountain, past the bubblegum pink goats and steep rocks, a valley-like area with hundreds of colourful tents pitched dominates the landscape. Not a soul to be heard, so it seems that we'll be searching these tents until the sun rises.
"Well, this is boring," Armahni says in a dejected tone. "I've been through, like, thirty tents. Nothing."
"Maybe we should set them on fire," Vinna suggests, a golden glint twinkling in her eyes. "That way, if any little rodent is hiding, they'll be trapped."
It's as good of an idea as I'll have for a while. Pulling back plastic curtains just to see an empty tent minus a few children's toys strewn about gets tiring, physically and mentally. A good case of arson, even if it doesn't burn a single tribute, would get both my hopes and probably the Capitol's hopes up. For whatever reason, I'm sort of apprehensive at the thought of them becoming bored with me.
Vinna's fire starter will be useful, but it would be even better if we had gasoline. That's how the winner last year got her sea legs, by incinerating nearly the entire Career pack with matches and gasoline from an RV. Unfortunately, we have to make do with gingerly striking some fragile flames at the base of one of the tents at the edge, hoping it will catch onto the others.
After around half an hour, we've made much better progress than I anticipated. The material of the tents is surprisingly flammable, and around half of them are burning. Vinna is giggling and Armahni is hoping that someone was hiding in the tents, considering how much work we went through to set them aflame.
We all walk through different areas of the tent faire, searching for any inkling of a scream of distress.
"Help!
Help me!"
Is that what I think it is?
It sounds like it's coming from one of the many tents that went unsearched, a dark blue one with a pink flag. It has yet to burn, so I'm wondering what the noises of distress are for. I sprint towards it, and pull back the curtain.
Nothing.
Or so it seems.
"Hey, you little runt. Decided to be man enough to face me?"
The voice is coming from somewhere, but I don't notice the source until I look down and find a small teddy bear that looks very familiar.
"You know, I was gonna wait a few days until I did it, but I won't be able to sleep until I take care of this unfinished business!" The bear raises its arms until a flashing light spawns above it. A white bird appears in the air. A goose. It flaps its wings until landing on the ground in front of the bear. I don't think I've ever seen a scary goose but this one definitely fits the bill.
"Hey, Aslan, did you find-"
Armahni's voice. Just as the goose lunges at me, screaming, I throw myself aside to avoid it, landing in a heap on the ground. I don't need to look to my right to realise that the goose still found a target. My ally's screams are shrill, almost animal-like as his blood splashes on the walls of the tent and onto my pants.
My head is spinning. I strike down my trident on the bird's backside, but it bounces off uselessly instead of cutting through its seemingly feathery hide. The goose looks up at me, its beak stained with blood. The bear facepalms, looking annoyed.
"Darn it all! I got the wrong one!" The goose rips Armahni's head from his body with one clean jerk, before tossing it aside. It lands on the ground in sync with the booming cannon. The goose turns in my direction, quacking loudly. "Don't think you're getting away, meanie!" The bear points at me, signalling to the goose that I'm the next target.
I'm running faster than I've ever run. I don't even have the energy to look behind me to see if the bear or that god-forsaken goose is chasing me. I know it is, it has to be. It wants to kill me, just like it killed Armahni. Just moments before I was ready to put up a fight, but now I know that this is a fight I probably won't win. How embarrassing, a Career tribute being run off by a damn bird.
In the distance, I see a crop of curly brown hair. When they turn their head, I almost stop in my tracks.
"Coilee?!" I nearly do a double take upon seeing her. "But you're injured!"
"The bear…" she says, gasping and panting in exhaustion. "The bear… it wants… to kill you…"
"Yeah, I know!" I bark at her, grabbing her arm as urging her to flee.
"No, I did this, so I have to kill it." Coilee grasps her spear, a hardened look of resolve on her face.
Indy Carmedas, 16, District 6 Male
Ethan's gurgled scream replays in my head. I saw the girl stab him. His blood sprayed everywhere, like something out of a movie. It was cinematic how gory his end was. It was the only thing I saw before the Cornucopia was in the rear-view mirror.
The pillows are everywhere, these ridiculous cushions that make up every color of the rainbow. My ankle has already turned three times. I'm willing to bet it will only be a matter of time before I break it.
"Solid ground, solid ground…" I mutter to myself. This entire area is pillows in all directions, with no end in sight. I went west directly after the bloodbath, seeing a promising-looking forest area in the distance. It must have been some sort of facade because I now see no such forest. This place is already playing tricks on me.
"I'm so sick of this!" I hiss, talking to myself but also the Gamemakers, people I'm very annoyed with at the moment. "Does it ever end?!"
The daytime sky is beginning to creep out from the horizon, with strips of pale pink and lavender informing me that the cover of night was fading. I'm not very optimistic that any other shelter will be found before the creepy sun comes up. I look down, noticing how deep this pillow pile really seems to be.
I'm not the biggest fan of hiding out in the Hunger Games. Growing up, I always thought it was a sign of cowardice. Like, come on, do something! Don't just curl up in a ball and give up! Easy enough for me to judge from the comfort of my home. Being in the situation itself is making me eat my words.
I sit down in the pillows, sinking a fair distance into the endless pile. I squirm a little and suddenly slink even deeper down, my whole body enveloped. There's not much oxygen down here, and I'm taking shallow, uneasy breaths as I start to sink further and further downwards. I try to move forward but it's difficult, like swimming through quick sand.
This is why I'm not a pedestrian. Too many problems arise from travelling on your feet. Inside my car, I'm in control, like Rick said. People assume cars are dangerous machines that cause wreckage and far too many accidents. If I were in my SRT I'd whip by this stupid area no problem. No problem.
I realise I'm starting to hyperventilate. The light is no longer visible. Everything is dark. This is it. I'm definitely dying.
I exhale deeply, certain that I won't be replenishing my oxygen anytime soon. This isn't going to be fun. The air will slowly be depleted from my brain until it stops functioning.
"Hello?"
A muffled voice. One I don't recognize.
"Reach in and grab his hand!"
A pale hand has sunk in, and some of the light is visible again. Another hand grips my forearm and they begin to pull hard. It feels like they are ripping my arms out of the socket. All at once, I'm jerked back above the surface and I land somewhat ungracefully on top of two people.
The girl from 8 and the boy from 9?
"We heard screaming from under there," the girl says, panting. "I was like, 'Altaïr, we aren't just going to let them die!'"
"But," I begin, stuttering, "why exactly did you rescue me?"
"Because you're not a Career. You aren't even a Beta Career."
"And?" I'm incredibly grateful I happened to be found by these strangers, because of them I'm alive and not dead, but I'm also just a number. If I died, they'd be one person closer to going home.
"You can help us defeat the Careers, and this dumb arena." This time the boy speaks. He is covered in thin cuts and scrapes, definitely looking worse for wear. "I got mauled by freaking Chihuahuas. No, Pomeranians."
"Until I came in and saved him," the girl says somewhat boastfully. "That's what we'll do for each other, make sure we survive."
I think for a moment. These Games have barely gone on a full day and it seems people are already facing problems. The girl is right, I could survive longer with numbers on my side. Everyone back home certainly would have clowned me if I got 17th place. Or 16th place, judging from the cannon earlier. Still terrible. I have no hope of winning but I'd at least like to make it somewhat far. Right?
"I'm Esther, and this is Altaïr," she says, helping me to my feet. "You don't have any supplies?"
"None," I answer in a deadpan voice. "I ran away."
"Smart," Altaïr tells me, shaking his head. "My partner should have done the same."
"My ally didn't make it out either," I confide, feeling a pang of sadness in my stomach. I liked being a part of a group, and feeling accepted. I craved that feeling in the Capitol when I was suddenly so alone, and I found it with Ethan. I'm just dreading to see if this one ends in tragedy, too. Altaïr hands me a pair of binoculars and a canteen from his bag.
"Onwards, then," Esther tells the both of us. "Also, Indy, please watch your step this time. Pulling you out is hard work."
17th place: Armahni Holm, District 1 Male- Decapitated by the Dream Weaver
Armahni was a placeholder tribute I knew wouldn't go far. Only problem now is the Careers are down to four people before the halfway point. Yikes.
Kills
Vinna (2): Sixtine (assist), Garrett
Coilee (1): Ethan
Azure (1): Nerezza
Aslan (2): Sixtine, Sophia
DW (1): Armahni
Tributes remaining:
Vinna (1F), Coilee (2F), Albert (3M), Azure (4F), Aslan (4M), Pontiki (5F), Aston (6F), Indy (6M), Magnolia (7F), Esther (8F), Altaïr (9M), Salalai (10F), Ryker (10M), Andrew (11M), Damon (12M), Lilac (12F)