And without further adue, the BLOODBATH!
This morning was different than all the others. Normally, Effie would open the door and turn on the bright capitol lights of my room, all while yelling "Get up! It's going to be a big big day!". Or if I was lucky enough, I'd wake up on my own and Katniss would get me before Effie woke up. I greatly preferred the latter. But sadly, I received neither of these options today.
I was woken by a gruff hand, attempting to gently shake my shoulder. I opened my eyes and turn to come face to face with Haymitch, his calloused fingers still on my shoulder. It occurred to me now that he was trying to be courteous during this 'wake up' duty. That was never a good sign. Neither was his calm and serious face, though I detected a hint of worry in his eyes.
"Come on, Tiny." he said, sounding surprisingly sober. I nodded and slid out of my fancy capitol bed. That bed was large enough for my entire family to sleep on and still have plenty of room. Haymitch ran a hand through his blonde hair as he stared at the clock. "You have twenty minutes to make yourself decent. Then, meet the rest of us in the dining room for breakfast."
I nodded to him and he excited my temporary room. Shaking those thoughts from my head, I headed into the enormous shower. In the past few days, I had successfully managed to figure out how to work the many buttons that controlled the fancy device. Showers in the District 12 were almost unheard of, except for the mayor and the victors.
Apparently, some capitol people even lavished themselves with this privilege twice a day. Still, I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Showers felt so soothing, not to mention the various shampoos, conditioners, soaps and bubbles they had. Today, I settled with the pine scented ones, praying that it would give me an advantage should the Games be held in the woods.
Not to mention, it reminded me of home. Of the woods. Of Ash.
I gulped nervously. Today was the first day of the official Hunger Games, where each tribute would be constantly monitored by all of Panem. The Bloodbath was one of the Capitol's favorite events. Haymitch and Katniss had spent countless nights telling Russell and I ways to survive it. I figured the best was to go around the outskirts of the cornucopia until I found my allies and then get the heck out of there.
I hopped out of the shower and dried myself off, putting my hair into a low ponytail. Settling on purple tank top and some denim jeans (a type of clothing I ha soon grown to love), I turned back to the nightstand beside my bed. Pulling out a drawer, I lifting several papers out of the way and found my hidden belongings. From my stash, I tied my crystal pendant necklace around my neck and took out Gale's letter to Katniss.
Reading it over, I sighed. I had been trying to put this off for a while now, not quite knowing how to give it to her. Still, I had promised Gale and he was certainly keeping his end of the bargain. After breakfast. I'd give her the letter then. With that decided, I placed the letter in my pocket and headed to the dining room. Apparently, Katniss was still getting Russell up.
Haymitch told me to eat as much as I could without getting sick, that I would need it in the Games.
"Though, I don't know how much good it would do you. You're already skinnier than a twig." he said a moment later. I couldn't help, but smile as his effortto keep things normal. Clearly, being so serious and depressing had annoyed him, since he didn't last long. Sol shot me a smile, as did Cinna. Not much else was said until Katniss and Russell arrived. Russell took a seat beside me, but said nothing and ignored my presence. Oh well, it wasn't like that was the first time someone had ever done that to me. Besides, I had more to worry about than him at the moment.
I took Haymitch's advice and ate a good breakfast. I had blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, an apple and orange juice. I tried to taste as much as I could, to remember the deliciousness of the food I might not have again. Once I was finished, I went with Sol into a prep room. This room was different than the one I had once been in just before the interviews. This one was smaller, but still screamed Capitol in every direction.
Sol opened up a silver box, the capitol seal printed proudly on the top. He kept his face calm and elusive, masking his emotions. This frustrated me. There were very few people who could hide their emotions so well from me. Not being able to speak had allowed me to focus more on body language than verbal. However, there were a handful of people who I had yet to figure out. Like Ash. Or that boy from District 10, Steele.
Anyway, Sol pulled out several articles of clothing from the box and handed them to me. I was soon dressed in a gray t-shirt, dark brown pants and a leather belt. I marveled at the boots. They were black, almost coming up to my knees, and I could already tell they could be as silent as I was. Sol couldn't help, but smile sadly as I inspected my outfit. He brushed out my hair himself, being both soothing and gentle, before he braided a small part of my hair all the way into my pony tail. I signed thank you to him as he put my coat on.
"Lyn, the odds may never have been in your favor, but I'm honored to have met you. Good luck." With that, Sol pressed his lips to my hand and walked me out the door.
Katniss was waiting for me outside of the room. She quickly analyzed my outfit, her mind racing through possibilities of what the arena might be like. Finding no immediate ideas, she led me to the hovercraft. Now, I had only just been in a car a few days ago. Other than that, my main source of travel was my feet. The hovercrafts were amazing, but I fought back the urge to cling on to Katniss as the engines sounded.
One of the men on the plane shoved me into a seat beside Russell, who was dressed similarly. As I looked around, all twenty-three tributes were beside me, each district having its own t-shirt color. I didn't have time to see all the individual colors before a lady came over and injected something into my arm, and quite painfully at that. I had just enough time to something blink under my skin from the injection before we departed. A tracker?
The hovercraft arrived all too soon and we were once more ushered into separate rooms. This room had a clear tube leading upwards to the arena.
"Ok, when you get to the arena, stay on the outskirts of the cornucopia until you find your allies, Heather and Rayna. But should the bloodbath get too bad, forget about everything and run." Katniss was dishing out advice left and right, though most of it I'd already heard. "Make sure to find water. You can last up to two weeks without food, but you won't make two days without water. Stay away from the careers at all costs. And always be cautious."
I forced a smile onto my face and pressed a finger to my lips, signaling for her to calm down. She sighed and nodded, lightly gripping my arms.
"I know District 12 isn't well known for surviving these games, but let's change that. You can survive, I know it. You just have to outsmart them." Before I knew it, I was pulled into a tight embrace from the girl on fire. "You remind me so much of Prim and Rue, even a little bit of myself."
My eyes widened at this. My heart melted. To think that Katniss thought of me so highly made me want to stand with pride. Then, I remembered Gale's letter. Fishing it out of my pocket, I nervously handed it to her. She took it with surprise, but I hugged her once more before she could read it.
One of the avoxes helped me into the tube and closed the door. I eyed Katniss as her face turned from surprised to serious and back to surprised again. She looked up quickly, but I was already ascending upwards. I waved sadly at my mentor as I left her view. The last thing I saw of her was her shocked eyes.
As I finally ascended to the arena, my eyes widened at what lay before me. The Cornucopia. Dozens of items littered the ground, spilling out of the metal cornucopia. Machetes. Broad swords. Spears. Backbacks. Food. So many different keys to survival all simply laying for the taking. I even saw a silver bow. And not just any bow, but a Katniss's bow, with her matching quiver sitting right next to it. Still, she had gon for the bow and it had almost gotten her killed. On the other hand I was so close.
Taking my eyes off the gorgeous weapon, I surveyed the scenery. The arena seemed to split off into four different areas. Northwards were mountains, clearly seen from afar. West and East were woods. South was unknown to me, but I was too focused on the tributes to really look into it. The career stared at the weapons with hunger in their eyes, while weaker tributes cowered in fear.
My eyes met those of Rayna and Heather, who jerked her head ever so slightly to the right. We both nodded in reply as the countdown began.
20. 19. 18. 17.
I thought of my family. Willie. And Ash. Even Rosa, wherever she may be. They were all watching. I couldn't let them down.
16. 15. 14. 13.
I wondered briefly what the others were thinking. Were they thinking of home or who to kill first? Did they even mind becoming murderers?
12. 11. 10. 9.
My mind quickly went back to Katniss's strategy. Stay on the outskirts. But that bow was so close! I bit my lip unsure of what to do.
8. 7. 6.
Find water. Stay away from other tributes. Get your allies. Katniss's words of advice rang through my ears.
5. 4.
But should I go for safety?
3.
Or the bow?
2.
I'd decided.
1.
The bow.
The buzzer rang and we all charged the cornucopia. I ran like never before, pushing my legs as fast as possible. My fingers finally touched the cool metal of the bow and I couldn't help, but smile at my small victory. Yet, it was short-lived.
I spun around to see a tribute, with a blade swinging at me. Just before I hit me in the neck, a black blur flew into his own throat and he collapsed onto the ground.
Bang!
"Are you insane?" Rayna screamed, pulling me up. She wore an outfit quite similar to mine, aside from her green District 7 shirt. Her red hair had been put into two low pig tails and she was armed with a bag full of daggers. Heather was right behind her with a spear. Clearly I wasn't the only one with an eye for the weapons. Bang! I quickly swung the quiver over my shoulder and we ran for the woods as all hell broke loose.
Swords were clashing. Scream were everywhere and the field was slowly becoming more red than green. We sprinted through the mayhem, narrowly dodging the boy from District two, Thor. Though I didn't look, I heard him slice a tribute's neck. Bang!
We were just at the edge of the woods when a red haired boy charged Heather with a sword. She quickly deflected the jab and whacked him with her spear, knocking the boy out. Immediately, another tribute stabbed him in the chest. Bang! The three of us raced through the woods, not even bothering to look back. I wasn't sure how far we ran. I didn't care. I wanted to put as much distance between us and the cornucopia as possible.
After a while, Rayna stopped eye a large oak tree.
"What do you guys think? Should we camp out for tonight?" she asked. Heather and I shared a quick glance before nodding. The redheard smiled, obviously tired from our sprint. She climbed up the tree with ease, carrying her daggers and a backpack she'd managed to nab right before we entered the woods. I gripped my bow in one hand, climbing with the other. Heather did the same.
Once we were all in the tree, Heather began moving branches around to camoflage our hideout. After she finished it, we all down.
"That was insane." Heather sighed, remembering all the bodies and blood that had surrounded us just a few hours ago. I nodded in agreement. Katniss had been constantly readying me for these games, but nothing could have prepared me for that. I shivered at the thought.
"Let's look in the backpack." Rayno offered, shifting uncomfortably. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she'd already begun to feel guilty for killing that boy. Even though he had been trying to kill me, it was still hard. Killing humans were so much different than killing animals. The three of us stared at the pack as Rayna pulled out items from it. There was a bottle of water, some peroxide, a few bandages, some mittens and a roll of crackers.
Strange combination, but we were grateful none the less. We each took a small sip of water and two crackers for the night. There was a total of three more cannon fires before it began to get dark. Stars began to reveal themselve in the pitch black sky, though I wasn't quite sure whether they were real or not.
I sighed. Maybe Rosa was up there somewhere. She had always loved stars, to the point where she insisted that my eyes resembled them. I tried to disagree, but she would have none of it. Giving up, one of her many nicknames for me had become starry eyes. I pondered my sister as I lay beside Rayna and Heather. Those two were either asleep or thinking to themselves too.
'Rosa?' I thought, staring at a particularly twinkly star. 'I hope you're watching, wherever you are. I made it through the Bloodbath. I'll make you proud.'
I promise.