Part II, "The Alliance"

Chapter Seventeen, Bloodshed

Artemis followed Beetee's advice, as well as his instinct, attempting to take whatever was in front of him and hurry away… Easier said than done. The boy got hold of a water bottle and a sleeping bag, but that was all he managed to get without risking too much.

Caskar tossed the District 10 boy's body away as he took yet another step towards the Cornucopia. Jethro Mellrit had been the first victim of this year's Hunger Games, thanks to the young man from 1. The Career tribute jumped on a set of dagger; stuffing two of them in his pant's pockets and keeping one in his hand. He then turned away from the Cornucopia, his dagger and fists ready to harm anyone coming his way. From the corner of his eye, he saw Geneva kill the boy from 5, who had lost his glasses in the rumble of the first sixty seconds. He searched around in the arena, looking for the people he truly craved to exterminate… Not too far from him, he caught a brown-haired girl taking down two tributes with a blow cane. She was not the first one on his kill list, but she would still do… Caskar launched for Silver.

The girl from 6 heard the sound of metal slicing through the air, making her take a sharp turn, blocking off the attack with her cane. She focused on her new foe, a smirk stretching on her lips as she took in his identity. She gave Caskar a quick wink, picking up bags and weapons from the ground before running off. She had more important things to do than to play-fight with the Career. Since the start of the Games, Silver had shown absolutely no fear, nor had she restrained herself from taking usuful things at the Cornucopia; she had a blow cane in one hand and a large backpack in the other... Not only had she found some pretty good material, but she also had taken two tributes down with her newfound weapon; it had been a quick and painless approach.

Caskar swore. He had tried to follow Silver, but Cylan Actraz, the tribute from 8, had nearly fallen on him, or at least his corpse almost fell at his feet. Avoiding the dead body, Caskar looked up to see Kalheb, who was more than satisfied with his first kill. The tribute from 1 then spotted Acassie from afar. The girl was dodging a handful of running tributes, trying to get to a small stash of glimmering weapons.

The resources around the Cornucopia were going down rather quickly… There was no more seconds to lose… For Caskar, now was the time to gather his people in order to claim the remaining supplies as their own. He began to run towards Acassie, only to be interrupted by Trinicia Jestov. I might as well finish off District 10, thought the young man as his dagger pierced the girl's chest.

"Acassie!" shouted Caskar as he headed towards her.

She was beginning to sort out her various knives, which were all shiny and still unused. "Hey, Caskar! I just saw Silver passing by with way to many weapons for her own good," she pointed the end of a knife in the direction Silver had taken.

"I know," grunted the Career quickly. "We're going to take care of her later, but for now go gather everyone so we can split the equipment," he commanded, already beginning to gather and guard the weapons and food that would belong to his group for the rest of the Games.

The redheaded girl nodded before running off in the meadow. She was fast and a little more than agile, but during her swift run, someone caught her eye…

Artemis was sprinting; something that was not exactly on his list of favorite activities. He could both feel and hear his heart beating in his ears, tasting the blood in his mouth. His teeth had been clenched so hard during the past few minutes that he had bit the inside of his cheek…

Deep within him, he could still feel N°1's magic, but the barricade separating his body from his time period was still preventing him from escaping Panem.

Artemis allowed himself to take a quick look behind him. The meadow around the Cornucopia was becoming a much more tranquil place. There were a few tributes fighting over backpacks here and there, but most of those who had not died were in the process of getting to safety or trying to be unnoticed. The Irish boy then turned his gaze back to the path in front of him, only to be suddenly halted. The slender teenager had been mere inches away from hitting a tall wall of stone, which stood right in between him and a possible escape. Artemis stopped to catch his breath, searching a way up the wall when the weak sound of boots against the grass made his head turn sharply. The redheaded girl from District 7 stood behind him, a throwing knife spinning between her fingers like a drill rod.

"Dead end, Art?" said Acassie in a mocking tone.

Artemis had to fight not to let his heart throb out of his body. The spinning of the blade made him shiver… Well, he would have lasted at least 10 minutes in those blasted Games; probably more than what most people would have hoped for.

Acassie grinned, liking the sound her precious weapon made each time it completed one turn. The girl threw her hand back, ready to attack. Caskar would be mad at her for killing the annoying boy, but she could make it look like an accident, couldn't she? She took her aim, slowly letting go of the knife's handle, but seconds before the weapon left her hand, a small metallic object passed right under her nose. She let out a surprised gasp, the course of her blade now deviating towards Artemis's left collarbone. A throw that could have been fatal had been rendered harmless – though still painful – by a vulgar distraction. The redheaded girl spun on her heels, searching for the person who had interrupted her attack. There was no one in sight apart from the gathering Careers at the middle of the meadow. Quickly, she turned back around, seeing the raven-haired boy trying clumsily to make his way up the rocks. For a second, she debated whether or not to throw him a second knife, but a second foreign object made of polished metal passed by her head, forcing her to let go of her prey. At least she had managed to injure the pale teenager… And she would let Caskar have his little fun later on…

Artemis got hold of the façade of the rocky wall ahead of him. He tried to take a glance over and around it. There was a path of grass right beside it, but it looked far too treacherous and slippery due to the closeness of the waterfall. He would be forced to continue on the rough stones in order to make his way to the upper part of the arena.

Artemis's fingers were not made for climbing, but at this point, it did not matter much. The climb was a mechanical process; getting hold of something, get up or die… And dying was not something Artemis wanted to experience so shortly after having escaped a possibly fatal situation. Somehow, finding the science within his activity made it easier for him. The force he had to apply in order to yank his way up the wall would have to be equal to his mass times the acceleration; Sir Isaac Newton have proved it.

Being careful not to slip in the blood dripping from his shoulder or on the waterfall's mist delicately falling on the rocks, Artemis grabbed anything that looked solid and hiked. With an injured shoulder, Newton's laws are somewhat harder to put in practice, he thought, wincing in pain.

Eventually, there were no more rocks to climb… Artemis stood on top of what looked like a small mountain filled with large caves. He glanced down on the meadow below him. Six dead bodies had been left on the ground around the golden Cornucopia. A few people remained by a pile of weapons, seemingly arguing about whom could get what supplies.

Looking higher up, Artemis saw that the path he had taken was by far the most hazardous one of the three paths leading upwards, hence the lack of tributes running after him. The boy's blood had left a long trail from the bottom of the rocks up to where he stood.

Artemis sank down on a small rock, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before pulling the loose knife from his burning flesh. He could never have hoped to hold back his scream. Even through the pain, he felt so thankful for whatever had distracted Acassie. If it had not been for her lack of attention, the knife would have fallen right on his neck artery.

A slow gush of blood leaked from Artemis's wound, making his head start to spin, just like the blade when it had been between Acassie's fingers. Steadying his breath, Artemis searched the rocks with his gaze, trying to find something to tend his wound. The first thing that caught his attention was a small patch of moss just beside his foot. Slowly, he picked up some of it and pressed it against his hurting shoulder. He would be safe for now; he only had to control his magic so that his wound would seem to heal normally to the Games' watchers…

Inside the arena, cannons began to announce the first deaths of the 80th Hunger Games.

Claudius Templesmith could not believe his eyes, or at least, that's what he told his audience. "Caesar, I knew that this year's tributes looked particularly strong, but I would never have expected this to happen at the Cornucopia!" He checked his statistics once again, just to make sure that he had not misread anything. "This year, ladies and gentlemen, only six people met their end in the initial bloodbath."

"The others just flew away; disappeared somewhere in the arena," added Caesar Flickerman.

Claudius made a sound of agreement. "However, we must admit that even though these tributes just beat the record for the fewest deaths in the first twenty-five minutes, we got to see some pretty intense scenes."

"Of course, we did!" Just look at that replay!" On every screen in Panem was a recap of the moment when the last second of the countdown ticked away.

Caskar had been the fasted to reach the Cornucopia, making if really easy for him to make the first kill of the Games. A few smart tributes took some supplies and then hurried away to the nearest of the three paths which had been made for them to climb.

The camera then zoomed on the Cornucopia, where the small but ruthless blood bath was still taking place.

"I really hope that some people had placed their bets correctly," said Caesar, looking closely at the action from behind his immaculate white desk.

"Oh my! Just look at this!" exclaimed Claudius with all of the Games' excitement. "Silver Canemon, the female tribute from District 6 made a very strong début in those first minutes! Two tributes almost at once for the girl with the blow cane!"

"Very surprising for a girl who scored a 6 in training… But tell me, Claudius, wasn't one of her victims Jehl Amnel, the boy from her own District?" wondered Caesar.

"Yes, I believe so," replied Claudius with the perfect incredulous tone. "I wonder what went on between these two for such a thing to happen."

Caskar suddenly appeared on screen, a mad look raging in his eyes.

"Clearly, these two do not get along," laughed Caesar as he watched the confrontation between Caskar and Silver. "Watch out for them later on, they are full of promises."

The viewers were then directed towards Kalheb's muscular arms. At the tip of his strong fist was the boy from District 8. Kalheb only hit once on Cylan's temple and the dead boy fell close to Caskar.

"That was brutal," commented Claudius with an admiring tone. "Almost as brutal as the second kill of the Games, which has been made by Geneva Crass. Lynik Reah from 5 unfortunately lost his glasses fairly early after the countdown, allowing Geneva to get hold of him rather quickly."

On screen, the focus was now back on Caskar. "Do you think that the boy from District 1 is trying to take down the other tributes by pair?" asked Caesar to his co-host.

"Maybe. Right now it sure looks like it, Caesar."

The two announcers observed their monitors closely. "What have we got here?" Caesar's suspicious tone caught Panem's curiosity. "A group seems to be forming at the mouth of the Cornucopia…"

"An alliance already?"

"It sure looks like it, Claudius."

Effie let out a gasp of horror when she saw Acassie's knife piercing Artemis's collarbone. Her heart had even started to speed up… Was that stress? Why was she so affected by her tribute's fate?

From her seat, Ilranor mumbled something about his outfit being resistant enough to protect the pale boy from any permanent damage.

"Actually, Ilranor, I think that what saved Artemis was whatever distracted Acassie," mentioned Beetee.

Ilranor nodded. "Yes of course, but the outfit did provide some defense."

A camera followed Artemis's progress as he stepped on the first rocks near the waterfalls, leaving a trail of crimson blood behind him. "I would have thought that the Ice Prince's blood would have been blue," laughed Effie to ease the tense mood in the room as the District 3 team was at the edge of their seats, looking at their giant screen. The woman was apparently the only one to find her comment funny… Needless to say, she was not handling stress very well and she found it exceptionally annoying. She, who had been an escort for more years than she could remember, had never felt such a thing.

The scene then changed from Artemis's slow and painful hike to Caskar having an argument with Elon about who should lead their group. When Acassie ran towards the Career's alliance, Caskar's rage rose by a few notches.

"I ask you to gather everyone and you go off on your own little killing spree?" shouted the brown-haired Career. "And to top it all off, you let him escape! Really? I should have known that you were not worthy of us."

"Relax, Caskar. I wounded your prey. You wanted an exciting hunt, did you not? We'll find him later on, it's not like he's not leaving a trail of blood behind him," said the redhead.

Caskar breathed deeply. "Anyway, as I was saying, some people are made leaders, some are born leaders and I was born with it. I will take the lead, Elon."

The tall District 2 boy shrugged. He was not going to change Caskar's mind at this point.

"And would you two please stop making out?" nearly screamed Caskar, directing a harsh stare towards Kalheb and Geneva. The feline-looking girl let go of the muscular District 9 boy and grinned.

"Sorry for just trying to have a good time here," Kalheb replied to the new leader.

A few seconds later, Crelin made her way towards the Career's extended group, her arms filled with the water bottles she had purified for everyone. "Can we go now?" she asked. "Feeling too exposed around the Cornucopia."

"The tributes from 2 are really strange," contemplated Effie as the screen went back to showing Artemis. The boy had now reached the top of the rock.

The District 3 team winced collectively when they say their boy tribute removing the blade from his flesh. Xarone covered his eyes with his tattooed hands as the blade slid from Artemis's shoulder.

No, don't make a sound! Thought Effie, annoyed with herself. She shivered as Artemis's scream echoed against the rocks around him. Seeing the pain filling the tribute's eyes made the escort's stomach turn.

"That wound must not feel too good," said Caesar.

"At least, apart from the scream, the boy knew how to handle the situation. He's already putting some moss in there; he knows that it's going to absorb the blood," comment Claudius.

That last remark soothed Effie. Yes, Artemis was smart, and so was Silyah for that matter. The two of them could survive for at least one more day…