Up with the Birds by Coldplay
And I won't show or fear any pain,
Even though all my armor might rust in the rain.
Amita Spruceford, 16, District Seven
"Amita, you have to go to sleep at some point," Ashidel whispers from beside me and I acknowledge him with a sniffle. He said he was going to sleep a long time ago. I don't think either of us are getting much rest tonight as it stands.
"I-I can't," I whimper. I can't stop replaying those few minutes in my mind. The realization that the bridge was collapsing under one of my best friends. The uncoiling of the rope that just seemed to get faster and faster even as I tried my very hardest to buy her time to get across. Those seconds that slowed down as soon as she began to fall, little Aven still sleeping soundly in her backpack and unaware of anything happening around her.
I wish I had closed my eyes. Maybe then I wouldn't see what I do when I try to fall asleep like Ashidel tells me to.
"Come on," he sighs, pulling my head up to his chest. Even though I am a year older than him and an inch or so taller, I feel safe in his embrace. I stifle a sob as I bury my face in the denim of his overalls and he pats my back gently. "I know."
Of course he does. He was there to see it all just like I was. I can't help but wonder if he sees the same things that I do when I try to close my eyes or if his mind has warped it into something entirely different.
"Are you okay?" I choke out.
He laughs shallowly. "Only you would ask me that as you ruin my shirt with your tears."
"Sorry," I blush and try to force a smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he says after a second. "Thanks for asking."
I have always felt really close to Ashidel, especially after we got into the arena. He's like the big-little brother I never really had. In a way I am thankful to whatever fate made it our names that were called out at the Reaping. In others I curse it. On the one hand we never would have gotten so close if we hadn't been chosen. On the other we would have both had a whole lot more of our lives to look forward to.
"How are we going to find her?" I ask finally. Erin was on the other side of the bridge already by the time it collapsed. I wonder where she is sleeping tonight. I hope she's warm enough and has the supplies she needs for the night. Ashidel and I didn't go too far away from the tall river after it fell, so I hope she didn't either. It will make it a lot easier to find her when we go looking for her in the morning.
"I've been thinking about that." His body stiffens and I have no choice but to pull away from his warm body. When I look at his face the first thing I notice is that his eyes don't meet mine.
"About what?" I ask.
"I think it'd be better for us if we just stayed together. You know, only the two of us," he explains. "It's getting closer to the end already and I don't want to take any chances."
I almost can't believe what he is saying. "Erin would never hurt you."
"I don't know that," he says defensively. "And neither do you so don't even try to say it."
Fresh tears threaten to coat my face as I bite my tongue. He's right, of course he is. But I always can trust my instincts and they tell me that Erin is our friend. "We can't leave her by herself, she's our ally."
"Not anymore," he says firmly and turns away from me, successfully ending the conversation. I say nothing and curl my body around his. The cold night air nipping at my skin, I decide to wait until morning to bring up the subject again.
Maynor Richman, 14, District Four
I can't even begin to imagine what time it is. The sun is just now rising on one side of the arena, barely visible through the thick bed of tree trunks. Fleur and I decided it would be best to go out and look for some kind of food or water source early, when we hope the chances of running into other tributes will be lower. It didn't take more than an hour or so to find a patch of plants that Fleur promised me were blueberry bushes.
"I swear if this is your way of poisoning me," I laugh as I toss a handful of the little round fruits into a canvas sac. "Well I won't be able to do much, but I'd give you the finger from limbo."
She laughs slightly, her eyes not wavering from the ground. Fleur, I guess, isn't really the type to joke around which kind of blows for me since I very much am. At least I got a laugh out of her today. Yesterday she would barely look at me even after I made her assure me that she actually wanted to be allies.
"What's limbo?" She asks after a moment of silence.
"Limbo?" I say. "It's where people in District Four say that dead people go. It's supposed to be a kind of a waiting place, I think?"
"Waiting for what?" She asks and I really wish I had listened to the old people around my district talk about it more. It figures that when I finally find something that she is willing to talk about, it's something I knew almost nothing about.
"I wish I knew," I settle on saying. "I guess you find out when you get there."
"Oh," she says and turns back to picking.
I am about to try another edge at getting a conversation out of her when I hear a childish shriek coming from just ahead. Both of us drop what we are doing and immediately are running towards the sound. I'm not sure if it's my paternal instincts finally kicking in or what, but somewhere in the back of my mind I know that the scream is Burg.
"This way," I pant, pointing through the trees. We rush through a thick canvas of leaves and branches and find ourselves by the side of a stream.
Fleur gasps and points towards the edge of the river, where Burg is standing in a state of complete panic. We both run up to him and Fleur scoops him up in her arms just as I look over into the stream and see something. I instantly remember Vin, Fleur's kid, and am in the water before I can even realize what is happening.
"Vin," I half-choke as I come up for air. I am paddling as quickly as I can towards him and then he disappears under the current. I dive under the surface and hardly notice the sting as river water assaults my eyes. I spot him in a few seconds and push myself towards him as quickly as I can.
I grab onto his arm or leg or whatever I can and begin paddling towards the edge. I push him up onto the grass ahead of me before pulling myself out of the water. I am just about to check for a pulse when a cannon blast makes me stop short.
Fleur meets my eyes and I see her lips begin to tremble. Even my own hands shake as I stare down at the toddler, unmoving and soaked through to the bone. I almost don't want to do it as I force my finger to his neck, hoping that the cannon was just some weird coincidence. I feel nothing and after a minute or so I can do nothing but shake my head.
Goran Pavlov, 17, District Nine
I scratch my nose as the wind carries nature to me. I'm used to the smell of grain fields and that is pretty much all the nature I have come in contact with back in District Nine. Every space in the entire district is either taken up by fields or by buildings that are so close together that all you can see are tiny little streaks of green in between them. Needless to say, my senses are overwhelmed by the sheer freshness of the air in this place. It feels like it's poisoning me.
In all those hours of walking, this is the first time we have been able to get away from those stupid trees. Arden has been making fun of me during almost every one of our waking hours after the whole incident with the willow trees. I swear I heard what I heard, but Arden refuses to accept anything besides that the stress of the day had made me go insane.
There is a good stretch of open ground that we have been walking through for about an hour now. It seems to be some sort of separation between the willow forest that we left behind and this red flower patch that rolls over a couple hills before appearing to transition back into forest. For some reason the idea of walking through the flower patch makes my stomach hurt, and it's been silently agreed upon that we will walk beside it for as long as we can.
Taitus and Avalyn are content to walk alongside us. Thankfully Avalyn hasn't been giving me too much of an issue over the past day, but I won't count my chickens before they hatch. I swear the toddler is up to no good at all time. Another reason that Arden thinks I am losing my shit.
"Pre-tty," Avalyn squeaks, moving her hands between the flower stems as we walk. I am about to say something in response when all of a sudden she lets out a shriek that would make anyone shit their pants. My first instinct is to cover my ears, soon overrun by another moment of panic when I see blood dripping from her hand.
I grab her arm and examine the damage, her face soon becoming completely coated in tears and her body shaking with sobs. If I were to have to explain it to someone I would say that it looks like something attacked her hand with a dozen razorblades. There are several cuts all along her fingertips, only a couple deep enough to draw blood but the rest looking like they sting like crazy.
I scoop her up and tell Arden to get me something to warp her hand in. He comes up with a sock and some string and I give him a look. He shrugs, "it's the best we have right now."
I sigh and slip the sock over her hand, securing it with some string at the base of her palm. I can't help but cringe at the terrible covering, but really what choice do I have? I definitely can't leave them open. Who knows what she might come in contact with.
"New plan, we stay as far away from the pretty flowers as possible," I say, mostly to Arden but hoping the kids get the idea as well.
"Really? I thought we would go on a nice walk through the flower patch. I thought that might be a fun thing to do," Arden says sarcastically and I shoot him a look.
"Be my guest, us sane people are going around."
Aquila Titurius, 18, District One
I am still in awe that Kilin of all people would be the one to oppose my ideas. He was the oen who probably backed up my take to leadership the most. While I expected some general distaste from Amstel, whom clearly does not have the same intensity as we do, I never thought Kilin would be one to go weak on me. It disgusts me that I was given such a soft team.
That's why I got rid of Arissa so quickly. I didn't plan on offing any of my allies but she left me with no choice. An army is only as good as their weakest link, and Arissa was very clearly ours. It was an easy out that I thought my team would be able to handle but clearly I overestimated their emotional strength.
My gaze falls on the pen that we created out of empty crates for the babies on the first day. It was agreed that we would wait before doing anything to drastically improve our odds in a team fight, but I can't just sit here and be idle. It's embarrassing. We are a Career Pack and we are supposed to hunt. It has been days now and we haven't claimed another head yet.
Even worse, we have more toddlers than we do actual tributes. When Kiera and Cicero left they abandoned their kids into our hands. I stand from the ground and Kilin jumps in surprise. "This isn't going to be like this."
He is standing at my side within seconds. "Aquila, we agreed that we would wait it out. Give it a few days."
"I know you want to save your assignment, and Amstel wants his," I say calmly. "I on the other hand have no attachment to my own and choose to sacrifice her for the good of the team. Also, as the leader of this alliance, I refuse to safeguard the kids belonging to the traitors that skipped out on us."
His face falls when he realizes I am not going to back down like I did before. "Wait until Amstel gets back, we can all talk about this."
"I'm done talking about things. I am the leader and I am making an executive decision." I pull a knife out of my belt and begin taking steps towards the pen. Kilin puts his hand on my shoulder to stop me and I brush him off with a growl. "Don't try to stop me."
He folds back into himself and walks out of the Cornucopia, scooping the little blonde girl and the curly haired boy as he goes. He looks back at me once more and the glare in his eyes almost makes me abandon my plan. But if I did that, what kind of leader would I be? One that can't even stand to her own leadership. I refuse to be weak just because my team will not stand strong with me.
I approach the pen and allow my eyes to blur so I am unable to see their faces. I grab the Capitol girl first, turning her around so that she isn't facing me and slicing her throat clean through. Thankfully, the cannon last comes almost immediately. I do the same with the little black-haired boy who doesn't even awaken when I scoop him into my arms. The only time my knife shakes is when I see Abela, but I will not be weak. I cannot afford it.
As the third cannon sounds I force myself to blink back the tears and swallow my guilt. I am a leader and I will stand strong no matter that I am doing so alone.
Cicero Lovett, 17, Capitol
One never realizes how lonely the night is until one must be awake while everyone around them is asleep.
That is my only thought as I sit on watch, perched underneath a willow tree that is probably housing hundreds of birds and insects. There isn't very much nature that is actually natural in the Capitol. Only really able to see trees or real grass on the very outskirts of the city, and even then no one is actually sure it is real. I have no doubts that the things around me are real, the scent of the area tells me that much.
It feels almost perfect to be out here, away from the city life that I was never very keen on anyways. Ever since Dad died it hasn't been for me. Every watch I have had out here has brought me back to him, a place I thought I was able to leave behind many years ago. Out here it only seems right to mourn him all over again, during those odd time when I am alone. This place is so very un-Capitol that I have no choice but to contrast it to my bright and cheery family.
I know Mom wishes I would at least try to blend in with the rest of them. "It's bad for our reputation," she would say on those nights where I refused her gifts of sequined jackets or blue hair dye. The truth is I didn't and still don't care about what the rest of the world thinks about my family or me. I will always be the black sheep of the herd no matter if my hair is blue or brown, so why force my own misery. For a family that doesn't care about me half as much as I used to care about them, I sure wouldn't inconvenience myself.
I look up to the sky as the dark night turns a bit brighter and the anthem of Panem begins to play. I heard many cannons today, six to count them out. There is no distinguishing between which of those were regular aged tributes and which infants, but I assume two to be regular and three to be children. The first two faces are the infants from Six. I close my eyes briefly to cut off the tears. I refuse to cry for someone I never met.
The next causes my body to tense and I am unsure of my ability to hold in my astonishment. I had placed him at the very back of my mind, little Euan from Seven that I was supposed to care for. I quickly move to wipe the couple tears the escape, but my body feels weighed down by the guilt. I have no doubt that it was Aquila or Kilin that took his young life, and the possibility that it was done to smite me makes my eyes burn.
The next three faces are those of the District Eight female, Melinoe Casra, and the male infant from Ten as well as Kiera's assigned child, Dicia from my home the Capitol. The fire is reborn in my stomach, knowing that it was not very likely an accident that both out infants died today. I crawl over to where Kiera is sleeping and after a second of hesitation I shake her awake.
"Kiera," I say, my voice cracking. "The kids are dead."
"Is it my turn already?" She asks sleepily, ignoring my shaky words.
"No," I whisper. "Go back to sleep."
"Okay," she moans and rolls back over onto her side. I make my way back over to my spot and rub my bare arms. It seems the cold is nipping a little bit harder tonight.
Jetta Willis, 15, District Six
I wake up suddenly to the sound of screaming. I hardly notice that I have clutched Livena closer to me until I am able to feel her tiny, warm breathes against my neck. I curse myself for not keeping a flashlight more handy while we sleep, but regardless it takes only a second for my eyes to adjust.
It's very early morning, I can tell this both by my grogginess and by the fact that it is still quite dark out. Remembering all at once the screams I had woken up to, I call out for my ally. "Mel? Mel!?"
My only answer is one more ear piercing scream, followed only a second later by a cannon blast. My pulse quickens and it feels like my heart is trying to escape out my lips. The screams had come from a lot closer than I had thought, namely a few feet away from where I am right now. I sit up quickly, pushing Livena to the side away from where I remember Melinoe falling asleep.
The first thing I am able to make out in the darkness is a pair of eyes. This time it is my turn to scream. The figure that the eyes belong to jump back, branches snapping under its feet. I flicker my eyes around our clearing, yes there is only one intruder.
The person stares back at me for another moment before it turns and begins to run towards the trees. I lunge for my backpack and pull our flashlight out of the front pocket. Before I have time to rethink my decision, I flick it on. Just in time to see a ponytail of long, blonde hair disappearing into the trees.
Vomit threatens the back of my throat when I lower the beam of the flashlight to the ground. Lying not ten feet away from where I am right now is my ally, a knife still stuck in her forehead. In her arms, for the first time I can recall, Colm sleeps soundly with one finger in his mouth.
I swallow the shock of her body and crawl towards Colm, doing my best to stay quiet despite the sobs that threaten to wake him. My flashlight beam still fixated on the two of them, I am just about to reach out and take him from between her arms when something comes through his neck. I scream and pull back my arm, unable to look away as another cannon sounds.
The sobs I had so far managed to hold back come out all at once. My hands are shaking and the light beam twitches in front of me. I sway it away from the two of them- Melinoe and now Colm, the Capitol making truth of its promise that the babies cannot survive without their tribute partners.
In a matter of seconds it is as if my body has run out of the adrenalin that allowed me to ignore the blood and death around me. The flashlight drops from my hands and I cover my face with my hands. I feel two warm hands on my back and pull Livena up into my lap, my tears splattering on her blonde head. I clutch her close to me until she begins to squirm. "Too hard."
I cannot even speak through my sobs, but I loosen my grip on her and try to recover my flashlight amongst the long grass. It takes me a moment but I find it and flick it on once again. I direct Livena's head away from our allies and bring the beam towards them once again, fresh tears dripping down my cheeks.
Melinoe Casra, District Eight + Colm, District Six
Vin, District Ten
Euan, District Seven
Dicia, Capitol
Abela, District Six
The artist theme for this story will be Coldplay.
Song: Up with the Birds.
The blog for this story can be found on my profile. Deaths will be notified here.
I am really sorry to those submitters that have lost their tributes. You all knew when you sent these beautiful characters in to me that they had a very slim chance of being the one to win. Nevertheless, I hope there are no hard feelings and I hope you will continue to read on to see where the story goes. Anyway, thank you for submitting and again, all decisions on deaths are very hard for me. Thanks again for your tribute.
Snaily, Melinoe was never as bad as you thought. However, I did run out of directions to go with her. So sorry.
A couple of questions will be asked at the end of each chapter, it would be great if you would answer them along with a general review of the chapter's writing. Much appreciated!
Who is your favorite alliance?
Who do you predict to be next to fall?
This chapter was a tricky one. I felt like no matter how I wrote it, the baby deaths were going to be terrible and gruesome. This is the Hunger Games, but I tried to be kind of nice and not go into much detail. Hey, at least they all died quick.
Also, I have a crazy next few weeks so I have no idea what I am doing for updates. I am literally at the point where I work for ten hours, come home and sleep, then leave again. I am doing my best but expect a wait for Pitfalls for sure.