Here's Day 9! I hope you enjoy it. :)
Also, a quick shout out to RedPanda and the garden for reviewing! It honestly means so much to me that people are actually reading this story. :D
Drago Malik
For the first time since the games began, I'm feeling a little nervous.
Things had been going pretty well up until yesterday. There hasn't been quite as much action as some of the Hunger Games in the past and the battles have been falling a little short of expectations, but the other Gamemakers and I have had enough mutts planned to keep the audience entertained. That's the great thing about making the arena a jungle. There are so many fun, deadly animals to unleash on unsuspecting tributes. Unfortunately, there's also a downside to a place like that- there are too many places to hide. In retrospect, I should have made the arena smaller. Now all of the remaining tributes are spread out around the rainforest, and the chances of two of them stumbling upon each other are very slim. Day 8 had no deaths, which is rare this late in the games. I can tell the Capitol is getting bored. The tributes have been pretty interesting so far, but the Careers' constant bickering is starting to get tiring and the outliers haven't done much of anything in the past few days. We need something to spice up the drama.
I lean over a Gamemaker's shoulder and peer at their computer screen. A giant insect is hovering on the screen.
"Do you want me to release one of these on a tribute, sir?" Asks the Gamemaker, glancing at me nervously.
"No, no, no," I sigh. "We need to make sure not to overdue the mutts. We're releasing Project 99 tonight- I think that should be the only big creature on the loose for the next few days. Before we let that out, though, I think we should have something big in the morning. Something that will leave the audience on the edge of their seats…"
"We could have a forest fire," a young Gamemaker pipes up boldly, her bright blue hair layered with sparkles.
"Forest fires are cliche, boring, and overdone," I snap back. The Gamemaker shrinks back in her seat. Then I pause and think for a moment.
"Even so… It would stir up some action. Plus…" I shove a gamemaker out of his chair and sit down, closing out of his current screen and pulling up a picture of the arena. "We could set fire to the outer perimeter of the rainforest. Then, as the trees at the edge burn down, we could slowly shrink the forcefield inward, forcing the tributes closer to each other. Then there's bound to be fights." A grin slowly spreads across my face.
"Luciana?" I say. The Gamemaker with the glittery hair turns towards me tensely.
I nod at her. "Set the arena ablaze."
District 9: Albin Ainsley, Age 15
I wake up to the smell of smoke.
I look around in a daze, still half-asleep. My eyes drift to the trees behind me. Flames are curling around them, flickering in the early morning light.
Huh. The Jungle is on fire, I think vaguely. Then all at once, the ominous truth of the sentence hits me like a ton of bricks. THE JUNGLE IS ON FIRE. RUN. RUN, RUN, RUN.
In an instant, I'm sprinting as fast as I can through the undergrowth, heaving my pack of supplies over my shoulder. Trees begin to crumble around me as the flames eat away at their bark.
I stop short as a smouldering branch hits the ground only a few feet away from me. The heat on the back of my legs reminds me that I don't have time to hesitate, and I leap over the branch and continue away from the destruction behind me. Every fiber of my being is focused on the ground in front of me. My thoughts fade away as my feet fall into a steady rhythm. There's nothing I can do right now but run and try not to get burnt.
District 1: Blaze Hale, Age 17
This is not funny.
The Capitol is trying to set me on fire. They're trying to set me ablaze. Ha, ha. That's one of the worst things about the games- the Capitol has a really sick sense of humor.
I back away from a tall line of flame that lights up in front of me, only to find that the ground behind me is on fire, too. Before long, I'm completely surrounded by a circle of flame as red as Ariana's hair.
Ariana. She died for me. She sacrificed herself in the hope that I would make it home to District 1. It would be kind of sad if that was all for nothing.
No. No way. I am not dying today. I need to survive, not just for Ariana, but for all the future volunteers of District 1. I need to warn them that the Hunger Games aren't worth throwing their lives away on.
I take a deep breath, and before I can think too deeply about it, I take a flying leap through the circle of fire. I come out on the other side and breath a sigh of relief. Then I feel warmth on the back of my clothes and realize with piercing dread that I'm on fire.
Stop, drop, and roll. I throw myself to the ground and begin rolling back and forth, grinning a little when I think of how stupid I must look to the Capitol. But honestly, what they think of me is the least of my concerns right now.
Once I think I have the fire extinguished, I leap to my feet and take off again. The fire can't keep burning forever. I just need to run until the gamemakers put it out.
District 6: Livia Fleet, Age 15
"Alyx, wait up!"
I stumble over a fallen tree branch and fall to the ground. "ALYX, HELP!" I scream again, my voice filled with desperation. After living in the arena with an ally for so long, there's something uniquely terrifying about being alone.
Alyx circles back around to me and helps me to my feet. "Come on, we have to go," she shouts, looking completely panicked. We begin sprinting again. Luckily, we're both pretty fast, so we're able to outrun the fire behind us, at least for the time being.
I hear a loud, sharp groaning noise and stop running, looking around for the cause of the sound. My blood runs cold when I finally realize where it's coming from. A huge tree is collapsing- and it's coming right towards me.
I skid to a halt and stare up at the huge mass of bark descending down towards me. Alyx screams my name a little ways from where I stand. For an instant, I'm paralyzed with fear. Then instinct takes over and I begin to run as fast as I can away from the tree trunk.
Like I said before, I'm pretty quick. I'm almost able to make it out of danger. Alyx reaches for my hand and I smile in relief, reaching out towards her, when suddenly I feel a pain like I've never imagined snaking up my body.
My body is slammed to the ground, and I cry out. For a second, I'm confused. What even happened? Then I twist in the dirt and see my foot trapped under a tree branch. I try to pull it out, but it won't budge.
I'm stuck.
District 8: Alyxandra Lernan, Age 16
"LIVIA!"
I run to her side and try to lift the branch that's trapping her foot in place. It doesn't move more than a few inches.
"I can't lift it!" I scream. I feel like my brain is shutting down. I don't know how I'm supposed to help Livia. If I were to amputate her foot, the odds of her surviving would be extremely slim. But I find it unlikely that I'll ever be able to untrap her foot otherwise. And the longer I think about it, the more the fire spreads around us.
I'm shaking with desperation now. I don't know what to do. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! Please, someone, help… But there's nobody around who can help Livia. No one but me.
"Alyx…" Livia whimpers, writhing on the ground in agony.
"I know, I know," I whisper back. "I'm trying. God, I'm trying."
"Why don't you lift the branch while I try to pull my foot out?" Livia suggests.
"I don't know if I'm strong enough for that," I admit honestly, surveying the branch fearfully.
"Please, just try it," Livia says. "We're running out of time."
"Okay, okay," I say, grabbing hold of the branch. "On the count of three, I'll lift and you pull. One, two, THREE!"
I feel every muscle in my body straining as I struggle to lift the huge branch. A second later, I'm forced to relax, panting with the effort.
"I was able to move my foot a little!" Livia shouts excitedly. "Come on, let's do it again! One, two, three!"
I lift the branch up again, groaning. I see Livia wiggling her foot out, but pretty soon I'm forced to drop the branch again.
"Alright, one more time," Livia shouts over the roar of the fire.
"I don't think I have enough energy left to lift it again," I yell back. "It's too heavy."
"Alyx, please," Livia screams. Her voice cracks. "I… I don't want to die like this."
I take a deep breath and then nod. "Okay, on the count of three. One… two… THREE!"
Livia grunts and then lets out a cheer. Her foot is out. It's bloody and disgusting, but it's out. I breath a sigh of relief and drop the branch.
"We have to go now," I say, helping Livia up. She leans against me heavily, wincing in pain, and together we begin to walk as fast as we can away from the fire. There's a problem, though. The flames are now completely surrounding us. There's no way to escape them.
We took too long. I feel panic and fear overwhelming me, threatening to shut down all my senses. We took too long, and now we're both going to die. A shattered sob escapes my lips. We worked so hard to survive, and it doesn't even matter. The gamemakers are going to kill us anyway.
And then suddenly the fire shuts off.
I have to blink a few times to really register what I'm seeing. Am I seeing things right? Did the fire literally just… go out? I guess the gamemakers have done something like this before in past Hunger Games. But the fire being put out was so sudden that it's hard to believe we're actually in the clear.
"How…?" I begin, but I don't finish my sentence. Livia shrugs, and then all at once she's hunched over, sobbing with relief. I take a deep breath and grin a little. We're safe, at least for now. That's all that matters in the end.
Well, I'm safe at least. I glance at Livia's foot and wince. She might not be out of the woods just yet.
District 11: Cole Cambridge, Age 13
I sit in the shade of a large tree, breathing deeply.
The fire ended suddenly a little while ago. I've been resting ever since. I'm still alive, obviously, so things could be worse, but I got burnt pretty badly by the fire at one point. I'll survive, though.
I didn't hear any cannons today. Of course, the fire might have drowned them out, but as far as I'm aware, there are still ten people in this arena. I'm actually really disappointed. I was hoping at least someone would die from the fire today. That's what really scares me- the fact that I'm actually rooting for kids to die. But can you blame me? I mean, only one person is going to come out of the Hunger Games alive this year. And the only way for me to be the one who lives is for everyone else to die.
The gamemakers can automatically put out fire because of vague technology.
I know it's been a while since there's been a death, but things will start heating up soon, I promise! Night 9 will hopefully be an exciting chapter.
Btw, updates are definitely going to be much slower now because of school and whatnot. I'm really hoping to have this finished by the end of the year, though. :D
See you later!