Chapter 27- Dove Rosestar
"What are those?" I ask, staring up in wonder. Cabel shakes his head, craning his head up like me.
"I don't know."
It's been a long day. But I made it! I'm alive! Hurrah for that.
Back at the Cornucopia, I had been between the little girl from 3 and Velvet from 1. Cabel was a few tributes over, facing the side of the horn. We caught each other's eye and when the gong sounded, I took off running, not to the Cornucopia and the bloodbath, but for the giant triangular buildings in the distance. Cabel caught up to me, holding nothing, and we've been running ever since.
"Did anyone else come this way?" I ask, looking around for the first time in a while. It's funny that I haven't seen any tributes since this morning, but it's a big arena. Maybe it would have been a good idea to grab a weapon, but it's too late now.
The scenery has been very interesting, to say the least. More than once we saw a snake weaving its way across the sand, leaving a beautiful pattern in its wake. Cactuses are everywhere, and so is the shifting sand. It's brutally hot, though, and sweat has been pouring down my face all day. I'm so scared of getting dehydrated, but I know it's already happening.
Cabel shakes his head in answer to my question. "I don't know. I know a bunch ran for the supplies, but I just got out and got you as fast as I could."
"Like we planned," I say, but my voice is hollow. I didn't realize how difficult surviving out here without supplies would be. We don't even have water. It might have worked in a different arena, but not in this desert.
"I know! I know what these are!" Cabel says, brightening. "They're pyramids."
"Where did you learn that? And what are pyramids?"
"I have no idea what they are for or where I learned it, but I'm certain that's what these are." Cabel looks cheerful for the first time today, having answered his mystery.
We start to walk around the buildings, trying to figure out what they are for here in the arena. There's three of them, taller than any building back in District 6, and are a light gold color, made of both smooth and jagged stone. They're beautiful, and they're ominous at the same time.
"Think we should stay here?" Cabel asks.
"The sun is setting already. I don't think we have a choice," I say. The sky is becoming less blue and more purple every minute, and the shadows on the sand are freaking me out. I don't want to be in the desert when the sun sets, but what choice do we have?
I look at the pyramids more closely, then I see something I didn't before. "Cabel, look!" I say, pointing.
"What?" he says, instantly alert.
"There's an opening," I say, pointing to a dark square maybe ten feet up the pyramid.
"What do you think is inside?" he says quietly. I shake my head. Do I really want to know?
"Think we should go in?" I ask.
"It might be safer than spending the night on the ground," Cabel says.
"Right then. How do we get up?"
After some maneuvering, Cabel manages to scale the side of the pyramid, pulling himself up into the opening. I follow after him, and he pulls me up once I get half way. The light outside is fading fast, but the light inside the building is non-existent. An eerie chill emanates from inside, making me shiver.
"I'm not spending more than one day in here, do you hear me, Cabel?" I say, quietly. I get the feeling that there might be something in there, just waiting for us.
"We'll move on tomorrow. We need water and food," he whispers. He's right. I've been parched all day, and the breakfast I ate in the hovercraft has completely deserted my stomach. But something about this pyramid makes me terrified beyond belief, and I don't know why or what.
"I feel it too," Cabel whispers in my ear. "But we have to stay hidden for tonight. The others will be hunting us."
As the sun sets, the temperature drops until my teeth start chattering. Cabel and I huddle together for warmth. From our vantage point, I can see straight across the arena, or at least most of it. Somewhere out there, a fire is burning merrily, and I want more than anything to be by it.
The arena this year is strange. It seems flat, but it isn't; it's full of sand dunes that rise and lower with the wind; hiding people in its drifts. There're few trees, only by the Cornucopia, but there are cactuses around, and sand creatures, and in the distance there's a mountain range that gives some element of protection. I don't know what the cliff face holds, or past the river. It's a big arena, though. Just very hot and dry. Like my mouth, right now.
The Capitol anthem plays, with the seal lighting up the sky. Cabel and I poke our heads out of the hole to see who died today. The first to appear is the boy from 3, which means all the tributes from 1 and 2 are alive, as predicted. Then the boy from 4, the boy from 7, the little girl from 9, both from 10, the boy from 11, and the girl from 12. Lots of boys today, apparently. The seal flourishes again, then disappears, leaving us in the dark.
I just have to wait out tonight. Just tonight.
"You go ahead and go to sleep," Cabel says. "I'll take first watch."
Like I'll be able to sleep anyway, but his plan has merits. Sometime I'll get tired. "Okay, wake me up in a while," I whisper back, and try to make myself comfortable on the stone.
I can't sleep. Everything is so strange and terrifying, and not at all where I'd like to be. I'd even rather be in the Capitol.
And it's only the first night. The Games could potentially last weeks, but not much longer than that. The audience will get bored and demand an end.
After a few hours, Cabel 'wakes' me up. "Sorry to wake you up; I'm dead tired," he says. I nod, and he falls asleep almost immediately. I can't see him, but I can hear his steady breathing.
It's a long, long night, and I'm very cold. I'm certain the temperature drops well below 0°, and my teeth chatter most of the night. Am I a fool for thinking of my warm bed back in the Training Center?
Finally, finally! The sun starts to come up over the horizon, and I'm taken aback. The arena has changed completely. Well, not completely, but there're trees where there weren't before, over the river and to our left; it's a proper jungle. A jungle in the desert? And how did it get there?
I'm about to wake Cabel up and show him, when a sound deep inside the pyramid stops me. A sort of clicking, hissing sound. What is it? I can feel terror seeping into my veins and muscles.
Just as I'm reaching out to wake Cabel, the first long, hairy leg appears around a corner, and I scream.