Ashira Marlstone, 16, District Twelve Female
She yawns as she walks along the plains of the arena, watching the group of elephants trumpet for joy as they wash in the cool river. They're not afraid of the crocodiles in the river, instead splashing around the river and carefully herding the baby elephants away from their dangerous predators. They soon finish up and walk out of the river, the youngest elephants running circles around the older ones and seeming to smile with mischief. Some of the older elephants seem to huff with annoyance at the little ones before walking faster, keeping pace with their children. They act almost like humans, their actions seeming so deliberate and intelligent to Ashira.
Or maybe humans act a little more animalistic than they would care to believe.
She fingers her knife, watching it dance around her palm before stopping as she clenches it tightly. She's grown to feel secure with her knife. It doesn't give her the same apprehensive feeling that she had the first time she picked it up from her parachute. It's her own now.
Ashira laughs slightly as one of the baby elephants runs close to her, trumpeting inquisitively at her before she jogs out of the way. The baby runs back to its mother and trumpets again, the mother watching Ashira with anxious, protective eyes. It's a good thing that she had gotten out of the way.
The elephants march away and Ashira is alone again, with the sun starting to set on the horizon. She should try to get back to her tree. Maybe the giraffes will still be there. She'll feel safer there with the beautiful, lanky beasts. She still doesn't know where the remaining lions went after their initial encounter, and she doesn't want to find out. She just wants to get to the next day. She wants to make it to Day Five.
She's almost there. She knows there are only six tributes left, she heard two cannons this morning. But who the cannons were, she has no idea. But it doesn't matter right now. All that matters is that there are only five other people in this huge, vast arena with her.
She looks into the distance, putting her hand over her face in order to see past the huge, orange sun that's currently setting in the large sky. Dark, heavy clouds are starting to form at the edge of the arena, a large rumble promising rain tonight. She's going to have to stay in her tree for the night if she wants to stay dry. A wet outfit only promises illness, and illness, death.
She starts to jog towards her tree, seeing the beautiful giraffes still sagely chewing on the leaves. She smiles and twirls a little, caught up in the scent of the plains before a rainstorm. It feels exciting. It feels like something's about to happen.
The first drops start to slowly fall onto the ground, splashing against the dust of the plains and sinking slowly into the ground. She runs a little faster towards the tree, gripping her knife in her hand tightly. She's not going to get caught in the rain tonight.
She stumbles slightly on one of the roots from her tree, almost falling face first onto the ground. But she quickly regains her step and keeps on running, quickly getting to the trunk of the tree and starting to climb. But then she pauses, gazing up at the top of the tree. There's another girl up there.
Ashira backs away, watching the terrified face of the older girl. She can see a glint of shining metal in her hand, and the shadows of the tree only highlight her desperate face. She should run. She should hide.
No.
She's not going to hide.
She's going to fight.
Ashira scrambles up the tree, onto the other side of the girl, and slashes with her knife at the tribute. The girl screams and pushes her sword at Ashira, hitting the side of the tree. Ashira kicks the sword down and stabs at the girl, grazing her left leg. But the girl fights back this time, pushing Ashira out of the tree into the air. Ashira grabs the girl's arm and falls, feeling the wind against them as they crash into the… water?
There's at least a full inch of water on the ground as Ashira falls out of the plains, the newly forming mud staining her outfit and choking her throat. She sits up and coughs it all out, trying to regain her breath. She had hit the ground hard, hard enough to get the breath knocked out of her.
And nothing's more terrifying in this arena than feeling like she can't breathe.
She finally manages to take a full breath of air, standing up and gazing at the other girl. The water is pouring around their feet from seemingly nowhere, the nearby river frothing with the excess water. It's a flash flood. But it's not any ordinary flash flood. It's being made by the game makers, and that makes it even more dangerous.
The girl launches herself at Ashira, pulling at her hair and scratching her wildly with her nails. Ashira steps back, overwhelmed by the girl's onslaught. But when she feels blood dripping down her cheek, she punches back, hitting her in the neck and turning to the side so the girl can't hit her in the stomach. The girl keeps punching, her fists hitting Ashira's shoulder and ribs. Ashira pushes her away, knocking the girl into the rising water. She starts to run away, back to wherever she can find higher ground. She doesn't trust the tree anymore. She needs to find somewhere else.
She splashes through the knee-deep water, racing towards the solid hotel. It shines like a beacon in the darkening night, beckoning all of the tributes to the safety of its walls. It's a sanctuary.
She can see other animals running through the waters to her sides, all trying to make it to the hotel. They all want to get out of the water. The giraffes who had grazed under her tree were galloping through the water at her side, their long necks bobbing in the air as they continued to gallop towards the hotel. One stumbles in the water and brays for help, the other grinding to a halt and turning back to help it. With a scream, Ashira remembers the crocodiles in the water, and she runs all the faster. She can't get caught. She can't! She can't!
The girl is still behind her, running as fast as she can in an attempt to catch Ashira. But Ashira won't let her get ahead of her. She's got to keep running. Even as she feels her ankle wrench in some hole, she doesn't stop her terrified sprint towards the hotel. She can see the remainders of the pride of lions sprinting ahead of her, one of the lions roaring desperately and carrying a tiny cub along with it to the hotel. She gasps, almost tripping over herself as she veers to the right. She doesn't want them to notice her.
But will anything really notice her when they're trying to get away from the water?
The girl behind her roars in pain as an elephant knocks her over, sending her splashing into the thigh-deep water. They aren't really able to run anymore, just wade. All they can do is wade and hope that the crocodiles don't find them first. She knows that the herd of strange creatures are still behind her and that they could provide ample food to the crocodiles. As long as none of them go further ahead, she'll be fine.
An elephant goes crashing down into the water, braying desperately as it's trunk is pulled into the murky liquid. A crocodile's managed to catch it.
She looks over her shoulder to see the giraffe lying still in the water, the crocodile that had grabbed it chomping down on its neck. The other giraffe has given up, running madly towards the hotel.
Her tears spill down her cheeks and into the waters as she keeps running.
She trips over a rock and goes facefirst into the water, inhaling water and choking it out. She madly pushes herself back up to the surface, gulping in deep breaths of air as she gets back up and continues to run. She's almost there. Only a few more steps, and she'll be only feet away from the rocks surrounding the hotel.
She trips again, the water pulling her in, away from the hotel, away from survival. Terrified, she claws her way through the water and grabs one of the huge rocks at the side of the hotel. She pulls herself up, standing on the top of the rock and taking deep breaths. She's almost there. She's almost there. She's shivering madly from the water, and she feels so filthy, with the muddy water seemingly everywhere on her body. But then she screams, falling into the water and struggling to get back up. The girl's pushed her in.
Ashira claws at the hands of the girl, trying to push herself back up to air, to life. The girl is holding her head under the water, refusing to let go. She's being drowned.
Ashira lets herself go to the bottom, pretending to be slack so that the girl thinks that she's almost gone. She can hold her breath for a little longer… just a little…
And she pushes back up, the girl having loosened her grip. Ashira punches the girl in the nose, the nose seeming to smash back into the girl's face. And then she remembers her knife.
Ashira stabs her in the neck, a quick, deep cut that sends the girl falling back into the water. Her cannon sounds quickly and Ashira gags, stumbling away from the spot where the girl fell before the crocodiles pounce on her corpse. She stumbles her way into the hotel, standing in the flooding lobby. But she's in. She's safe.
And she just killed a girl.
She dry-heaves on the floor, saliva falling from her mouth and into the water before she's able to re-compose herself. She'll be fine. She'll be fine. She just has to keep moving. Getting to the top is all that matters now. And maybe, just maybe, she'll forget that she just killed for the first time.
But as she wades her way to the stairs, a massive splash and another cannon causes her to scream. Someone's fallen from the top of the hotel.
And she could be the next to fall.
She starts to run up the stairs, other animals running alongside her without even noticing the human in their midst. The animals are too driven by the fear of the water to attack, only racing up the flights to safety. And safety awaits at the top.
They hope.
Ashira stops on the second floor, looking down at the water. Somehow, it's pouring down the stairwell, causing a few of the animals to slip and fall into others on their way down. But she has to get up. She has to get past whatever the source of water is. So she struggles her way up, passing frightened lions and little elephants, trumpeting for their parents.
She almost falls on the fourth floor, slipping on the soaked carpet and tripping down a stair. But the roar of a lion from below is enough to keep her moving, up and onwards to the top. And as she passes the fifth floor, the flooding suddenly… stops. It's only the massive metal door that leads to the roof that's left.
She takes a deep breath and looks back down, down at the frightened animals and the raging water. And then she looks up, listening to the raging storm and what's obviously the sound of fighting tributes. She takes a deep breath, clutching her knife and closing her eyes tightly.
And she pushes the door open.
Another chapter! Woohoo! A really exciting one this time around, with two more deaths! We're in the final four guys, and that means that there's one more chapter before the finale ;) can't give it to you that quickly! I hope I gave this chapter justice, it's one of the penultimate ones before our finale, and that means it was fraught with action! What did you think of the two deaths? Were they good?
And now, that means that I am officially retiring the points system. Sorry, but they are all gone. But you can still review! (please keep reviewing lol) Reviews make me happy, and also keep me going towards another update tomorrow ;))))
6th: District Nine Female, killed by Ashira Marlstone
5th: District Five Male, killed by Hallie Vista
Yep, we're crunching down into the final four, and Hallie and Ashira both have a kill to their names now! We'll be focusing on either Sidney or Adira next chapter, so get ready for a big fight! Can't wait to write it, and I hope you all like it!
It'd be awesome if you'd leave a review, especially you lurkers who are excited for the finale! Only one more chapter to go ;))) Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ
