Well, here we are. This should be altogether exciting and shocking.
I'm sorry if anyone takes a death personally.
I promise you it's not.
Let's get started.
Somethings gotta give
Cause life just isn't fair
Always come in second place
Always pain, but no one cares
Delta Brooks, 17
District 4 Male
Well, I'm finally here. It's the event that I've been waiting for my whole life. The game that has kept me on my toes all these years and been the driving force of all my dreams. It's the Hunger Games.
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"Delta, you're not going to get out of here alive." says Kai as she stands next to me on my platform. "You should just walk off now."
"I will not walk off, Kai," I say angrily. "You're supposed to be my best friend. How are you going to say that you're there for me when you try to kill me all the time?"
"Like you left me stranded?" she ask me accusingly. "Like you left me drowning on the inside of a capsized boat, Delta? I prayed and prayed that you'd find the strength to flip the ship, or even swim under to help me with the belt, but you just left." she says
"I tried! I stayed there for 30 minutes trying to find you, Kai!" the girl from 6 clears her throat and looks at me confused.
"Everything okay, dude?" she asks me.
"You've no clue," I say.
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"NOW KYLE!" screams the boy from District 5.
I turn my head quickly scanning for the boy from District 10. "On the right next to Ortheus," says Kai as she nudges her head. I look three platforms down and see the boy from 10 with shoe off, and him and Ortheus fighting.
"Don't you dare throw that thing!" says Ortheus pointing at his shoe. "That's a real chicken shit way to do things!"
"Don't tell him what to do!" screams the boy from 5. "Kill him, Kyle! Throw the shoe!"
Ortheus goes to take off his own shoe, but by the time he gets it off, the boy from 10 is already throwing his own shoe at Otheus' platform. Ortheus' blows in a giant pile of ash, and smoke erupts from the place the boy from 2 was once standing so confidently.
"TRIBUTES!" says a female voice over the intercom of the ship. "THIS IS ALEXANDRA RABBLE. WE ARE DISCONTINUING THE COUNTDOWN AND HAVE DISMANTLED THE BOMBS. GO!" she screams.
"You were supposed to jump off," says Kai as she looks angry at me. "You were meant to die, Delta. It was your turn."
"I'm not dying here!" I scream at her. The rest of the tributes are making a run for the supplies as I just stand on my platform arguing with Kai. She gets up in my face and her face starts to morph like what I saw her do when we were in the goodbye room after the reapings. She sticks her finger in my chest and I take a step back. My feet teeter on the edge of the platform, and behind me lies the giant cliff that are pods just traveled up and dropped us off here.
"You can still jump." says Kai pointing at the edge of the arena. "You can still make a break for it, Delta. We can be together again. I can see you. We can go sailing again." she says with a smile on her face. "We can be friends again."
"No, I can't do this, Kai!" I say
Her smile quickly fades away and it turns into a much angrier scowl. She takes her hands and wraps them around my neck and begins to squeeze. I start to panic as my body feels the lack of oxygen from her iron type grip on my neck. I fall to my knees as she continues to squeeze and the world is getting fuzzier. The other tributes have since paused what they are doing, and all 22 tributes still alive are watching her kill me.
I don't expect them to help me; this is the Hunger Games after all.
Kai continues to squeeze until my eyes can barely make out what's in front of me. She finally lets go and I fall on my hands and knees gasping for breath and trying to regain strength. "Enjoy hell, Delta." I hear her say, and then feel a blunt force impact me on my head. I fall backwards, and realize that I'm falling off the cliff of the pods traveled moments ago. I take one last deep breath and then-
It's times like these where your strength gets tested
Adaptability is crucial
And panic is not an option
Alexandrite Renaldi, 17
District 1 Female
My whole strategy for the arena has been destroyed in a matter of moments. One minute Ortheus was there, and the next he's gone. Now we all just watched a dramatic episode of "I'm crazy so let me choke myself and then throw myself off the ledge", this bloodbath is not very brutal at the moment.
"Did he just…" ask Arabia staring at the now empty pedestal.
"Yes," I reply.
A single tear drips down her face as she quickly wipes. She begins to move her mouth and whisper something, and then turns back to the cornucopia. Literally no one has moved since Delta just threw himself off the ledge. Oliver is the first to react by taking a sword he got ahold of before Delta killed himself and shoves into the girl from 5's head. She falls to the ground, and then quickly everyone remembers where they are and absolute chaos ensues.
People are running left and right and they're all dodging in and out of the way of Oliver's sword. I run after him to try to get his attention and he nearly stabs me out of reflex. I hold my hands up in shock, and he looks at me apologetically. The tributes are still running around grabbing things, but a few of them have gotten smart and started running towards the doors.
"We need to get the boy from 5," I say bitterly.
"Agreed." he says as we scan the room. We don't see the boy from 5, but we do see plenty of other tributes who are grabbing a lot more than they can carry. I see the girl from seven picking up her fourth backpack, and then run at her full speed. She turns to see me right as I'm getting ready to tackle her, but by the time she attempts to drop the backpacks it's too late.
As I sit on top of her with her face squinting with fear, I realize that I don't have a weapon with me. I use my knees and pin her arms down under me, and now that she knows I'm less threatening she begins to fight. I reach for one of the packs she has with her, and she starts to wiggle under me attempting to get free. I punch her in her nose and she yelps in pain, but continues to keep moving. I open up the first bag, and in it there is a giant machete. I take it and slam it down into her chest. She exhales the last breath she took before her head slouches over, and the life in her eyes fade. I turn around and see the only tributes left on the giant platform is Arabia and Oliver.
"Where the hell is Asha?" ask Oliver angrily.
"Maybe she was scared now that Ortheus is gone and ran off?" suggests Arabia. "Or maybe she fell off the side of the cliff or something."
"Her and Ortheus hated each other. If Asha is gone, she planned to be gone all along." I say. I knew I shouldn't have trusted that girl. She was too sneaky for my liking.
"So what do we do now?" asks Arabia as she looks from me and Oliver. You can tell from her face she is a little nervous. She wasn't expecting our pack to be so low so quickly, not to mention the District loyalty between me and Oliver. She knows her place on the totem pole.
"We hunt," says Oliver. "We only got one kill during the bloodbath thanks to your psycho District partner. It's time to take this thing back into our hands."
"And if we see Asha?" I ask
"We kill her."
Good.
Run fast for your mother
Fast for your father
Run for your children, for your sister, and brother
Keep all your loving, and longing behind
You can't carry it with you if you want to survive
Dove Henderson, 12
District 10 Female
Time seems to go in slow motion when you're running for your life. I've read in countless stories, or even heard from some of the cattle ranchers that have had to fight some wild wolves, that when your life is in jeopardy you see everything so quickly.
It's quite the opposite. Max, Elodie, Samira, and I have been on the run for a long time, but I still feel like the distance we've put between us and the cornucopia is almost nothing compared to what we should be. I don't know if it's the confinement of the arena itself that makes me feel this way, or if it's the fact that now these people can kill me and it's entirely legal.
We've stopped after turning left several times. We aren't sure where we are, but Samira has her map out and is looking at it. She begins to mess with various settings on the map, and then smiles broadly as she's figured something out.
"Look!" she says excitedly. On the map is a single blinking dot with "6F" on it. "That's me! It's telling me where I am!"
It only shows Samira however. Max, Elodie, and myself are nowhere included with her map. She points to where we are and then leads to an elevator that's two turns right, and one turn left down these long hallways.
"I think we should get to that elevator. It opens up a lot of possibilities," says Samira with a smile. "Plus, I'm getting tired of fearing for my life behind every turn we make."
"Agreed." says Max as we begin our walk down the current hallway we are at. The halls are white, with silver lining on the bottoms and tops, and almost all the hallways have some sort of doors. Curiosity peaks in me as I walk over to one, and press the green open button on the side panel next to the steel door. The door opens, and then a light flicks on in the room. There is food everywhere, and even water jugs.
"Guys!" I say excitedly. "I found something! I found something!"
The rush to the room and their jaws drop open. "Holy crap!" screams Elodie as she runs inside and opens her pack. She begins stuffing sandwiches wrapped in baggies into her bag. She then grabs two water jugs for everyone, and starts tossing it to us. We quickly follow suit and begin to stock up on food and water. I grab multiple dried out fruits and meats, and even a few backup water bottles before my pack can't take anything anymore.
"Lucky find, Dove."
"Let's dash." says Max as he gets up and throws his pack over his shoulder.
We walk out of the room with our bags full of newly found treasure from the chamber full of food. We make our ways down the other hallways, but this time we check every door we find. We see everything from what looks like a control room, to a room for sleeping, to even what looks like it could be a night club.
"I wonder where they got this design," says Elodie as she looks at the nightclub room with disgust. "It's tacky as hell."
We finally arrive at the elevator that Samira was talking about. We push the button to go up and continuously look over our shoulder to make sure that no one comes from behind us. When the elevator dings the doors open and the pair from 1 and the girl from 1 stare at us in shock.
"Run." says Samira urgently as we turn around and sprint for it. Elodie throws her backpack on the floor, and sprints as fast as she can towards the other end of the arena. We all turn towards the right and when we get to a hallway I dash to one of the doors and run in. Elodie follows me, and Samira throws herself inside as the doors close. Maxwell is nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Max?!" screams Samira as she opens up the door and runs out into the hallway.
When she steps out we hear him scream, "HIDE!" and she jumps back inside. The door closes, and she falls against it and sobs. After that, we listen to a cannon sound over the intercom.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
"Guys we need to be moving!" says Elodie as she looks around the room. When I look around, I see a bunch of old cots that are lined against the walls. On the inside of the door, there is a switch that locks it. I quickly press that and sit back down against the door.
"They shouldn't be able to get in now," I say as I take a deep breath. Samira sits against the door next to me crying hard. I wrap my arm around her, and she leans into me as she sobs into my shoulder.
"HEY!" screams the boy from District 1. "Come out and play! Don't be wusses!"
"Go away you big jerk!" screams Elodie. "You're stupid, and you killed our friend!"
"Sweetheart, it's the name of the game." says a female voice, whom I'm assuming is the girl from 1 because the girl from 4 doesn't strike me as being condescending. "We have to do what we have to do to get out of this arena. Don't worry though. He didn't suffer...much." she says adding for dramatic effect.
"You're cringey!" I get up and scream and pound the door. "You're red when you talk! I should have known you'd be a bitch!"
"Come on guys," says the girl from 4. I know it's her because she has a much sweeter tone to her voice. "Let's leave them to mourn. They aren't going to come out anytime soon."
"We're staying in here for the majority right?" ask Elodie looking at me and Samira who is still crying hard.
"Yeah," I say. "We're staying in here."
"What did you mean she's red?" ask Samira as she takes a deep breath and wipes her eyes. "What's that mean?"
"We have a lot to talk about," I respond.
A drop of a hat
A twist of fate
Life is but moments ticking away
A drop in the ocean
A tip in the scale
Neverland is full of children's death tales
Xoren Cinnabar, 14
District 12 Male
Do you ever have the feeling you're being followed? Like you're maybe not being physically followed, but someone is tracking you in their mind? So you constantly look over your shoulder in pure paranoia and assume that if you see anyone that it's the end for you?
Welcome to the Hunger Games.
If the boy from 4 hadn't gone bonkers and thrown himself off the ledge, I probably wouldn't be here right now. I had been watching him for the whole time because something about him gave me the creeps.
I continue along the deserted hallway on the third floor. I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary, though I did see the careers walking down the hall I was turning onto. Luckily, they were walking in the opposite direction, so they didn't see me.
Again, I'd be dead.
I've been opening the doors, but all I see in them when I do is things like cots and gardens. How sweet of them to put things in the space station to make us feel homey. WE ARE IN SPACE. Who does that? Is it not inhumane enough to send children to their deaths and call it game, but add to it that now we are not even going to die on our planet?
Though if I get out, how cool would this be to tell Ylvia about it? She's probably a nervous wreck watching me from the orphanage back home.
"Don't worry, sis," I say. "I'm doing my best."
I hear a noise that's coming from behind me, and my heart skips a beat. I swing around and prepare my fist for a fight that is probably going to end with my blood scattered all across the floor.
There is no one behind me, and I don't see anything else in the hall.
"Hello?" I call
"Please don't kill me!" says a female voice. She comes out of the door in the hall with her hands up. She is wearing a black hoodie with a giant "9" on it. Her hands are shaking as she walks out. "I've been following you. You seem the least threatening if I'm being honest, and I don't think I was as ready for this as I hyped myself up to be. I'm petrified and I just need someone to talk too."
I stare at her without knowing what to say, and she continues to babble.
"I'm not a talker, I've never been a talker, but I feel so much better than I did five seconds ago now that you know I'm here. I didn't have a chance to find an ally because I came late, and the world was just trying to get me down! So I guess what I'm trying to say is that do you want to be in an alliance with me?"
"I..uh..sure?" I say quickly.
"Great! We should hide! Things are going to get messy soon."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"I did a thing. I accidentally activated a mutt."
Well, there is our bloodbath! This was so hard, I literally rewrote this so many times, and changed so much stuff. I was so paranoid. Ultimately the tributes that I knew from the beginning would be bloodbaths are the ones who's submitters stopped reading. So I lucked out I guess...
Eulogies
24th Place: Ortheus Margo, District 2 Male, Exploded by Kyle Timmon's shoe: I hated Ortheus. He was such a douche canoe. Writing him brought me to an ugly place, and in turn it just kind of turned into resentment, and thus Lenovo's "plan" was formed. He wasn't a bad tribute by any means, I hope I allowed him the time that he deserved. Ultimately, he's dead. Shocker.
23rd Place: Delta Brooks, District 4 Male, Threw himself off a cliff: Jenna, love of my life, darling, babe, girlfriend, whatever other thing I can call you. I'm sorry babe! I didn't particularly want to kill Delta, but unfortuneately that's just how the cookie crumbled this time. Love you lots...even though I just killed your tribute.
22nd Place: Gaia Hummel, District 5 Female, Stabbed by Oliver St. James: LCS, I decided that I would kill Gaia when you said that you forgot who you subbed. I knew you would keep reading, and I didn't think you would hate me. Hopefully you don't cause you're awesome and I actually like talking to you...so yeah. Sorry.
21st Place: Lennox Knolls, District 7 Female, Stabbed by Alexandrite Renaldi: I decided to kill Lennox because someone had to die between her and Dailen. I personally saw more potential in Dailen than I did Lennox. So, she died merely to appease the groups.
20th Place: Maxwell Hurley, District 6 Male, Unknown credited to Oliver St. James: Ugh people weren't supposed to like him! I tried to arc him after he got so much like. I actually did. Ask Tracelynn! I did. He was ALWAYS, always, ALWAYS supposed to be a building block for Samira. I needed to move her along a little bit so I had to take her crutch out. RIP.
Alliance Update:
How the hell are there only three careers left?: Alexandrite/Oliver/Arabia
Hella Queens Fierce AF: Ember/Asha
SMOL BEANS...minus 1…: Dove/Elodie/Samira
Lol Ellis is upset: Ellis/Xoren
Lenovo's Squad: Kyle/Lenovo/Ishmael/Whitney
Nerd-Topia: Cortana/Micah
All by themselves (Yes, I sang that to the song in my head): Dailen/Danny/Warren
If I didn't hear from them this chapter we will soon. No one will die randomly, promise. Also, a warning. Whether we are friends and I talk to you everyday, or we don't talk often but you've been reading my stories. If you aren't reviewing then I'm not sure you're reading. It's not fair to keep tributes that are not being supported by their submitter and killing tributes that have their readers reading. I have arcs done, but arcs can change. So just be aware.
Keep it classy,
Caleb