The Most Dangerous Game

by Callidora Medea

In the year of the 36th Hunger Games, Dexsia from District 2 volunteers after training for years. Standing in her way of victory is Dove and her brother from District 6 ; Terra from 8 who must win to keep her sister from the community home, and Catalina from 9 who is one of the youngest contestants. 24 tributes enter the arena, only one may be victorious. Who will be that victor?

52. Chapter 52- Frostbite

Apologies that this a short chapter; the Games are nearly at an end! I love reading your reviews, and I hope you continue to read to the end of the Games and what happens beyond. Stay safe, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Chapter 52- Terra Coppersmith

Whatever was in the cave lumbered out about an hour ago, and I don't know where it went. Away from me, which is all that matters. My face is frozen, and I can't feel my ears or the tips of my toes. I'm scared I'm going to have frostbite. I'm scared I have frostbite. I want to go home, but I want to go home with all my digits too.

Dawn is breaking, and I think it's time for me to go. It's a long walk to the Cornucopia. Hopefully they'll have fought it out by the time I get there. I'm just waiting to hear a cannon; that would be the sweetest sound to me right now.

But if I stay here much longer without moving, I'm going to freeze to death and then what would have all of this been for? I told my family and I told Fletcher that I would win the Games, and I intend to keep that promise.

Of course, I'm sure the other twenty tributes also told their families that they would come home.

Never mind, Terra! It's time to get going. I feel sluggish and numb, though, and my fingers can barely grasp the handle of my pack, let alone the bow. If I can't shoot, I'm dead. Painfully, I turn on the flashlight and pull off my gloves. My fingers are white, tinged with grey. I can't feel the cold with them anymore, which tells me I'm in serious danger. Frostbite is nothing to play with, and yet it seems that's what I'm doing.

"Damn it," I mutter, pulling my gloves back on with difficulty. The joints in my fingers won't work properly. I need to get going, now. This is bad, this is very, very bad. I know that if my feet are frostbitten, I'm not supposed to walk on them, but what choice do I have? I'm so scared I'm going to lose a foot or something.

Nothing is going to get done while sitting here, though. The thing that makes me even more concerned is the knowledge that whatever thing was in the cave is out and wandering. I don't want to meet it while walking.

Throwing the pack and my quiver on my back, and grasping the bow as best I can in my right hand, I slide down the side of the cave and land in a snow pile below. What was I doing? Oh, right, going to the Cornucopia.

"I'm losing my mind," I say, stumbling along on painful feet through the snow and ice. Everything hurts, and after only a few steps tears run out of my eyes involuntarily. In the cold wind they freeze on my face, until I'm more miserable than I was before.

I'm not going to win in this condition, unless my opponent is completely incapacitated. Maybe if they're missing three out of four of their limbs I might have a chance. I'll have to try, for Iry. For Deecey. For Fletcher.

I can't give up so soon.

So I plow on with freezing feet, through the deep snow and through the new storm that's brewing, my only guide the campfire in the distance.

And overhead, the sky turns pink and purple, announcing the start of Day 6.