Bree Maeberry
I shivered and tried to hold back the tears as the sun faded behind the leaves above me. I was huddled in the mud between the roots of one of the trees, waiting for what was coming. Even the Careers weren't as terrible as the things the Capitol had unleashed. We must not have been killing fast enough for them. They sent something into the Arena with us. They sent monsters for us.
None of us knew what it was when we first heard the noises. I was there when they first came. I heard a soft trilling, like something cute and furry. Another girl must have thought so too, since I heard her talking to them. I heard her call out to them and hid among the roots. She didn't talk to them long. The noises got louder and then she was screaming. She didn't scream long either.
It all changed after that. I heard six cannons that day. After another two days, all that was left was the Careers and two other Tributes. I wasn't close by, but I heard the last battle between the monsters and the Careers. It went on all night. The cannons came one at a time, separated by hours and preceded by horrible screaming. When the Anthem finally played, I saw all their pictures in the sky.
I didn't dare move. I sat crouched in the mud, pushing myself deeper until only my eyes were above the surface. My clothes were green with mildew as they stuck to my skin. My skin turned black in the wetness and started to peel off like flaky slime. I had nothing to eat and only stagnant water to drink. My stomach constantly cramped and I sat in my own runny filth. Whenever I heard the monsters calling, I pressed myself against the roots and froze.
I hardly noticed the smell anymore. It was hard to dinstinguish between mud, rot, and waste. When I heard the noises again, I tried to wrap my hands around the root next to me. As my skin slid against the wood, my flesh broke like tender meat and fell into the mud next to me with a wet plop, leaving me with nothing but remnants on bare bone. I heard something fall into the water, and then splashing. Two voices, one male and one female, began calling to each other and urging each other on faster. But they weren't fast enough. They started screaming in fear as the monsters got closer, and I heard the exact moment that terror turned to pain. One voice stopped, and then the other. There were two cannons, and I had won.
The trilling stopped as soon as the cannons sounded. I heard the humming of a hovercraft's rotors and pulled myself forward, leaving my hole for the first time in days. My legs were numb and paralyzed. I fell facedown in the mud and pulled myself farther with hooked fingers sliding through the wetness. I turned my face up and saw the hovercraft over me. I wondered if he could even see me- every bit of me was as brown as the mud around me. He must have seen the light reflect off my eyes, since he set down next to me. As I watched him sink lower in the sky, I felt my tears carving through the mud on my face, letting my skin show through.
And here's what would have happened if the mutts had actually worked as intended. I didn't mean for it to get so icky, but I started describing trench foot and it took off from there. I was quickly inspired by the scene in Apocalypse Now where the hero rises from the mud. That was just a cool scene.