The 29th Annual Hunger Games.
Trident McHale, District 4.
As I sprint through the rainforest I'm panting harder than I ever have. Trying to make it to safety fruitlessly. But on I have to go or a gruesome death it'll be. This way I have a chance, a chance of more than zero.
I can hear the boy from 4 sprinting behind me like an athlete. I'm unsurprised to hear him picking up speed and, I believe, bellowing a vicious war cry at the top of his lungs.
Because of the rising temperatures in the jungle we're both extremely sleep deprived. So we are both becoming more desperate to finish this as soon as possible or suffer the consequences.
I have a little more to worry about.
You see, usually if you steal a Career's trademark weapon they'll be pretty pissed at you. In this case, to top it off, he's actually named for his own weapon. A trident for Trident. That almost makes me chuckle but there's no more time….
I can see the waterfalls I'm aiming for now; I have to stick to the paths to them and then I can put the plan into action.
It's just the two of us left in this huge rainforest; it looks larger than the other arenas, but maybe that's just because we can see it better compared to last year or the 26th. It's jungle going on as far as the eye can see.
In any case it's just the two of us left. The male tribute from District 4 and me. Considering that his District already has four victors and 6 has had one only I'm not super optimistic.
Nonetheless I have a plan of sorts. I just need to make it to the cliffs over there…..
Trident is quicker than me but I can quicken my brain where my body won't work. I suddenly freeze completely stiff and hold the weapon out as if to throw the trident into the waterfall.
The Career sees me instantly and comes to a crashing halt, narrowing his eyes. He licks his lips, considering his options very carefully. Hypothetically I could try to throw the thing at him. If he hadn't been training with these weapons for a decade at least. He's sleep deprived, as am I. But I have one other card to play…
'Come one step closer and I will throw it into the waterfall' I yell at him in my most intimidating voice. It's a good threat. It's not a bluff. Trident knows exactly what my plan is. He has three options. I can throw the weapon over the waterfall, hundreds of metres down far out of his reach. He can choose to come and catch me immediately-I couldn't put up much resistance right now-and kill me, quickly and easily but he'd be relying on the hovercraft to retrieve his key weapon-and since he'd have lost it so embarrassingly I don't think they would. Hence he'd feel pretty humiliated, his win neutered at best. I could throw it, and he could go down and try to retrieve it himself-which might play well with the Capitol if he uses it to achieve a final bloody win. On the other hand, that would mean letting me get much further away and prolonging an already difficult and stressful Games. Or he could choose to let me go now, keep an eye from afar, and risk me getting lucky and cutting him down with it from afar if the sleep weakess catches up to him.
I wait for his decision. I remember how much he played up his love of his literal trademark weapon in the interviews. Honestly he seemed more attached to it than to his allies.
I could also try and break the weapon in half but I think it's rather too tough for that. And of course Trident would kill me extra painfully for that.
Right now I believe my best chance at survival is the 2nd option. So let's hope Trident and I can work that out together….
I thankfully see him slowly back off. Never taking his eyes off me, he jogs down a mountain slope and disappears. Very good.
It now comes down to a stamina match, essentially. One of us will stay awake longer than the other, go to find the other and kill them. It's going to be painful and drawn out but this is my best chance.
So I know what I have to do. Hold that trident close, stay awake as long as possible, keep on the move and try and stalk Trident and close in on him. Easy peasy.
Well that didn't work out as I expected.
I've been awake for around 20 hours now and I'm already beginning to slip. I'm not sure what the Gamemakers' plan is; the year before last they started turning up the temperatures in the arena, the year before that was complete darkness, 4 years ago the tributes themselves were the problem and everything was frozen last year.
Maybe this time for the finale they'll conjure up some sort of earthquakes? Set up large fires, or set the whole arena to crumble into pieces like one Games years ago?
Who knows? I'm near the top of one of the mountains now, at a good aeriel vantage to see Trident. The best way to ambush him would probably be to keep in the trees, on the move. Climb from one to the other and keep an eye out for him. if I were absolutely confident he couldn't find me or climb it I could try and get some sleep. Should probably be positive of that though.
I think I've been tracking Trident for a while. Some sort of tracks lead across this plain.
When I do see him I better hope he's weary, then try and jump down on him from above and finish the job. I'm far too tired to try to throw the trident at this point, my arms are sagging badly…..I don't want to kill anyone but I guess I don't have a choice any more. Strangely enough there haven't been any changes in the jungle since I saw him the other day. What are the Gamemakers planning? For this to culminate in a 'greater survivor' face off, the stronger one getting to live…through their own skill? Hmmm.
It's been 8 or 9 days at least since I've seen Trident. I haven't once gotten a reliable glimpse of him since then.
I'm low on food and water now. If I push myself onwards too much I might just die of fatigue or dehydration. I sink to my knees, exhausted, remembering something my parents told me back in 6 when I was younger; 'If you're lost in a place you don't know, don't try and come to us. Wait there and we'll find you'.
It's pretty strange substituting Trident McHale, 6'2 Career with iron-blonde hair for my parents. But for this allegory I'll make it work.
I slowly but surely climb down the tree, holding the weapon tightly.
He's on me less than 20 seconds later, tackling from behind. It looks as though between the two of us he was the worse off in terms of scavenging. He's visibly panting, looks very dehydrated with pourish, unhealthy skin-maybe he drank something poisonous?-and he's carrying himself only moderately better than me. There's at least five or six scars criss crossing over his face, up to his ears and down to his chin, but he looks venomous with fury, more importantly. Before I can really react he kicks me over and snatches the trident out of my hands.
As he drags me to the cliff edge by my hair I wonder how he found me so quickly?...
He looks down at me disdainfully as if he'd been telepathic to hear my thoughts. 'You should've g-g-given up 6' he hisses, glaring exhaustedly. He glances back to the trees.
'I had to wait for you to pop down from them' he hisses quietly. 'Otherwise you could've thrown this away, somewhere I couldn't retrieve it'. He tucks the beloved trident back in it's side scabbard.
'Had you stayed up there….who knows, maybe I would've fallen over dead, maybe you would've slipped out of the tree and crushed your skull' he humourlessly chuckles. He looks like he might drop dead in a few minutes with that rheumy, discoloured skin and the bloodshot red eyes. But he's going to win instead of me, after all.
I decide not to waste any time with humour. I ask him to finish it quickly.
He humours me.
AN. One of the longest chapters yet followed by one of the shortest, ironically describing one of the longest ever Games. What did you guys think? We might see more of Trident in the future and of course it'll be interesting to see his eventual fate….
Pretty much every victor this decade with the exceptions of Elena and Akira have been pretty heavy in themes. Next chapter we might see a slight break from that.
As always, see you soon and don't forget to review…..
Page 4 of 4
