Hey just so everyone knows im not very good at describing things so if you have trouble visualizing the arena please look at the cover image for this story. And sorry I made a mistake. When holden told rye about how his sister died, he was six years old, not eight, and it is the 58th games not the 60. I'm sorry for the confusion I'm just kinda slow in the head when it comes to math. Thank you and enjoy!
Everyone is off their plate in a flash, splashing through the puddles. I sprint to the axe and bag jut as everyone else reaches the Cornucopia. As soon as a career gets their hand on a weapon blood is flying, people are screaming. I grab the axe with the bag handle wrapped around it and infront of me is an even bigger bag. I grab it and turn back the way I came. I look behind me and knock into Lartius. He takes me in for a second then lets me pass. It worked!
I make a run for it, pass the metal plate we came here on. I look around, there is a forest of pines, then mountains. "Rye!" I hear my name. I look to my right and see Frent running into the woods signaling for me to follow. I run into the trees and see his body through the bark. I turn to reach him and catch up.
We both run as fast as we can for hours. We're both fit so we could keep going but in my current condition I'm more likely to tire quicker, and I do. I run out of breath and I slow down. "frent!" I call to him as he runs. He turns around and sees me. he skids to a stop and walks over to me. I lean against a tree with my hand over my belly. I breathe and breathe. "are you okay" he asks taking his bag off of his back. He lets me sit down and he kneels infront of me. "we'll stop here for tonight. Lets check our bags to see what we got" he says. I set my bags infront of me and we lay our things out.
Frent got a very large bag. He opens it and takes out a sleeping bag, a jacket, a quart of water, a dart gun with twenty darts in a small box,and a little first aid kit PACKED with stuff. He packs it back up and starts to check the smaller pouches. In one pouch there is a box of matches and a bag of lint for fire. In the next there is a tube of blue poison and a small funnel with a folded up pieced of paper that must have instructions on it.
There is a large pouch below the two small ones that carries two daggers, a knife and two grenades. "wow you are quite the surviver" I say. he laughs and closes his bag. I open my big bag first, there is a small blanket, an emprty canteen which Frent quickly fills for me, a sack of apples, and a little bowl of cream for wounds.
The take my little bag and open it. It's filled with little knives and daggers. I smile, "yes" I whisper. "we've got everything we need" he says and takes a sip of his water. I drink mine as well. Boom. I hear a cannon and scream. Frent covers my mouth immediately, "shh" he says. Boom boom boom boom boom boom. Seven dead. nineteen are alive.
Frent takes his hand away and says, "the survivers are going to start spreading out to find those who fled. We gotta go" he says. "where" I ask throwing my bookbag over my back and wrapping the small one around my waist. We get up and he puts his large bag onto his back, "anywhere far away" he says. He takes out a dagger and we walk. I keep my axe in one hand and my canteen in the other. I take short sips to make it last but for some reason my throat is dry.
When I look up I see the mountain, but it's a lot farther than it looks. It's not until around sunset that I cant go any further. "frent I need to stop" I say. he looks around, "alright we'll sleep in this grass here. I'll watch, you get some sleep" he says pulling his sleeping bag out of his bag. I unravel it and pull my bags off. I set them against the tree where he sits. I take out my blanket and give it to him. He wraps it around himself and fiddles with a knife.
I climb into the sleeping bag with a knife in my hand and go to sleep.
Boom! I jump up and look to find frent on his feet, heavily breathing. He bends over a rips his knife out of the dead tributes neck. He wipes the blood on his shirt and turns to me. "I was hoping I would never have to kill anybody" he says upset.
I get up, "are you hurt" I ask him. He shakes his head, and backs up into a tree. In the sky it shows Alto from district 5.
I walk over to him and say, "here, I'll watch now" I offer and put my hand on his back and lead him to the sleeping bag. He gets in a lies down. I sit where he was and wrap myself in the blanket. I get my knife and hide it in my pocket then set my axe down next to me.
I look around quickly then turn to Frent. He's faced towards me looking down at the grass. "I'm sorry" I say. he looks up, "about what" he asks. "about your sister", he just stares at me for a while, then doesn't answer. "Holden told me about her, then said how you think of me as your sister. And that's kind of why you want me to survive…" I wait for him to answer, he still doesn't. "I know what it's like. I lost my brother in here. He was only twelve". He finally responds, "how old were you" he asks me, "four" I reply, "how old were you when your sister died", "eight" he says and I see him wipe a tear.
"come over here" I say quietly holding my arm up for him. He gets up and walks over. I share the blanket with him and put his head on my shoulder. I rub his arm. I've never seen him cry before, but I have to remind myself that even though he's the same height as me, he's still younger. "after she died I lived in the orphanage" he cries. "Where were your parents" I ask him. "they never took care of us, Sarc did it for me" he says. "the rest of my family was dead", "what happened" he asks. "there was a…mysterious fire and the house burned down with them in it". I cant say my father started the fire because there would be questions, here and in the capitol and I don't want that. "I lived with this couple. I hated them, so badly. They always yelled at me for having nightmares and for being a little kid." I say. "the kids at the orphanage bullied me for being small and weak. So I started to work out". I smile a bit, "I guess we both had fucked up lives huh". I feel him nod.
Just then a hovercraft appears and takes Alto away.
"I remember haul used to babysit for me when Sarc had to go to work. He was like my best friend, just four years older. He would always act out the books he read to me and make jokes about what was on TV so it wouldn't be boring. He would let me play his guitar and all kinds of things". I smile, "yeah, Haul is a really awesome guy. It great we got to meet him, he just, makes you smile, he always so caring and looking out for you. And he does all of that while his life was a mess as well."
"what happened to him" he asks. I shake my head, "don't worry about that", "alright" he says. "I can still watch if you want to get some more rest" he offers. "no that's alright, get some sleep" I say and take my arm from around him. He gets up and gets back into the sleeping bag and closes his eyes. "the other dead tributes are, the boys from 4, 5, 6, and 3, then the girls from, 10, 7, and 6". I nod, "okay". He turns over and doesn't speak anymore.
After a few more hours I start to get tired. The sun is rising. I begin to drift off when I hear voices, male voices. I get my knife from out of my pocket and slowly stand up. I look in the distance and see Lartius and Raff. I get my bag of knives and take out another knife.
I hide one in my pocket then aim at raff. I throw the knife and it goes right into his neck. The body falls and his cannon fires. Lartius looks around alert then gets out his blade. I take the knife out of my pocket and gently put it in my jacket sleeve. I run at Lartius and make sure I look afraid. I scream a little then run into him, "he's after me" I cry and hold onto him. "who" he asks, "the boy, he's after me. you have to help me" I beg. "alright" he says and hugs me, "it's okay" he says. I wrap my arms around his neck and slide the knife from out of his sleeve.
He raises my head and kisses me. I get a good grip on the knife then plunge it in his head between his ears. His lips leave mine and blood drips out of his mouth, getting into mine a little. He isn't dead yet, but his eyes flicker and he flinches and chokes a little.
I drag the knife down his neck. He looks at me once more then his cannon fires. I let go of the knife and he falls to the floor. I kneel down beside him and pull the knife out slowly.
I look at the bodies. I did this. I killed them, and they didn't suspect a thing. I wipe the knife off on my pants. I smile and walk back to frent. That went exactly as planned.
