Day 1
Amelia
The young District 2 girl holds her breath as her silver platform is lifted into the arena. No matter how determined everyone she knows back at home is that she will come out alive and victorious, there is still room for doubt to creep its way in. She once again examines her black canvas pants, black jacket, black cotton t-shirt, and black combat boot. She can tell the Gamemakers must have been a fan of basic color schemes. The platform surfaces and Amelia looks around, immediately surveying her surroundings. This year's arena looks different from any other she has seen before. It looks to be divided into four quadrant-like areas. The four quadrants meet at the golden cornucopia. All of the quadrants appear to be forests. However, the one her platform sits on is covered in powdery white snow. The one to her left has leaves covering the ground and the trees that are all varying shades of red, orange, and yellow. The quadrant to her left is full of flowers and new budding trees. Finally, the field across from her looks to be bright and vibrant; everything is covered in healthy looking greenery. It clicks in her mind that the four quadrants represent the four seasons. Despite her nervousness, she smirks at the Gamemakers creativity.
Brian
After taking in his surroundings, Brian quickly turns his head to examine his opponents. To the immediate right of him is the brunette girl from District 5. He can't remember her name or whether or not she stood out during training, so she doesn't pose a threat to the District 8 boy. To his left is the quick and cunning boy from 2. The fact that he is from a career district doesn't intimidate Brian. However, the fact that he is devastatingly dangerous with a knife does. Brian looks for his district partner, but Nikki is nowhere to be seen. Her platform must be behind the cornucopia, out of his line of sight. Suddenly, he hears the legendary voice of Claudius Templesmith, "Ladies and gentlemen, let the 66th Hunger Games begin!" In sixty seconds, Brian must decide whether or not he will run to the Cornucopia to fight for supplies or run into one of the four forests and begin his time in the Hunger Games with a defensive play. He sees that not too far in front of him is what looks like a small hatchet and some metal wire. That could be useful during the early stages of the games. He could easily grab the supplies and immediately backtrack into the autumn toned forest behind him. Without warning, as Brian hadn't thought to keep count of the seconds passing, the deafening sound of the gong rings out. His feet leave the platform immediately. Any fear or dread he held during the days leading up to the games is now replaced with adrenaline and excitement. Brian runs toward the cornucopia.
Amberlyn
Digging her fingernails into the palm of her hands so forcefully it hurts, Amberlyn sprints towards the small hatchet and the wire she saw. Grimly, she notices the District 8 boy, who stood two platforms down from her just seconds before, is heading for the same prize. Amberlyn, who would normally avoid the potentially life threatening situation and run into one of the four forests around her, grits her teeth and quickens her pace towards the items, hoping to reach them before 8. His hands have just landed on the hatchet when Amberlyn slams into him, using her whole body to knock him away from the items she desperately desires. Surprised by the sudden force, the wind is knocked out of Brian. Losing his footing, he falls to the ground. Amberlyn grabs the hatchet and the wire. She holds hatchet tightly and her eyes meet Brian's. The thought of killing him does flicker through her mind, It would be extremely easy. One, maybe two, quick swipes with the hatchet and Brian would be dead, or incapacitated enough so that he would no longer pose a threat. However, she lowers the hatchet. "You owe me," Amberlyn says, turning on her heels and heading to the vibrantly red, brown, and yellow forest.
Zach
Gripping the knife he just retrieved from the farther edges of the cornucopia, Zach grins happily at the fact he escaped the bloodbath unscathed. Digging his heels hard into the earth beneath his feet, he runs quickly into the borders of the flower-laden spring area of the arena. Despite how happy he is at the fact that he managed to retrieve a weapon this early in the games, he still has the nagging thought of his district partner. Sarabeth is cunning and quick on her feet, sure, but that doesn't prevent the worry he has. After she denied his offer to form an alliance, he wondered if she was going to give up, but after seeing her try to absorb as much skills as she could during training, he began to believe she could be a strong contender. Zach's thought of his district partner vanishes when he is slammed to the ground by an unseen force. The knife almost slips from his grasp, but he clenches it hard, and it remains in his hand.
He cranes his neck to see who his unknown assailant is. He sees a small statured blonde haired boy and recognizes him as the the tribute from District 5, Corey. He remembers how fast on his feet he was during training, but as for physical strength, Zach knew the attacker wasn't a threat. Corey lifts what looks to be a hammer above his head, aiming to take a swing at Zach, but the District 11 boy rolls out of the way and jumps back onto his feet. He steps forward, plunging the knife forward, but Corey deflects if with the hammer, knocking the blade out of Zach's hand. Realizing the District 5 boy is becoming more of a danger than he had originally thought, Zach dives at his legs and knocks him to the ground. Corey shouts out in surprise as Zach wrenches the hammer from his hand. Quickly and without a second thought, he dispatches the boy from 5 with two swings of the hammer. Grabbing the dropped knife, he begins to run deeper into the forest, a new weapon at his disposal and his first kill under his belt.
Conner
Viciously, Conner swings at the girl from 11 with his newly found sword, but she jumps away from the steel just in time. He watches as she shoulders her canvas backpack and pushes off of the cornucopia with her hand and propels herself away from the thick of the combat. He considers chasing after her, but realizes that the need for more supplies was greater. He turns around, seeing two more competitors very close to him. He runs for them, quickly finishing the girl and boy from 10 with only a few swipes of his sword. When he finishes them, he wraps the sword sheath around his waist and shoves the sword inside of it. He grabs a backpack and unzips it, shoving food and small weapons inside of it as fast as he can. He's grabbing a loaf of bread when he hears the District 1 girl behind him. "Where do you think you're going with that?" Conner turns and sees Autumn holding a knife in each hand, glaring at him threateningly. He zips the backpack closed and slings it over his shoulders, unsheathing his sword.
"Away from here," Conner answers stiffly.
"You're not staying with the Careers?" asks his district partner, Madison, as she runs up beside Autumn, a spear in hand. She looks saddened at the thought of not having Conner with her during the games.
"No. No, I'm not." Conner starts to run past the couple, but Autumn reaches up to thrust one of her knives at him.
"Don't," Madison commands, pulling Autumn's arm down, preventing her from harming the boy. Conner nods at Madison and she nods in return, watching sadly as he turns to run off into the winter forest. Conner only turns around long enough to see Autumn slashing at the boy and girl from 6 with her knives. He sheaths his sword again and starts treading lightly as he first steps onto the snow covered ground. As he walks deeper into the forest, he intricately weaves circles and curves with his footprints. He backtracks, changes directions, and then backtracks again to make sure that no one will follow him through the snow.
Erin
Sitting on the branches of a tree she just climbed, Erin nervously bites her fingernails. As her district partner and she agreed, Erin ran directly behind her into the forest full of blooming and budding flowers, and Jared ran for the cornucopia, hoping to grab a few supplies. He promised to find Erin after he obtained some food or hopefully weapons, but Erin is nervous that he won't come back. Even if he did make it out of the bloodbath alive, who's to say that he would find her in this unknown land? Jared's extremely fast. Erin knows he'd be able to outrun most of the Career tributes, but if he somehow got into close ranged combat, she's not sure how he would manage against them. She's nervously running her fingers through her hair when she hears a noise. It's just a slight rustle, but it is directly below her. Hoping to see Jared, Erin eagerly pokes her head out from behind the leaves of the tree, but immediately gasps. "Hey there," taunts the boy from 12.
"Go away," Erin growls through clenched teeth.
"Oh, you're so scary!" laughs the boy. Erin just can't place his name.
"I'm not coming down, so unless you can climb a tree, just go."
"Actually, I don't need to be able to climb up to you. I'm going to bring you down." Smirking, the boy pulls out something he had been hiding behind his back: a silver bow and a quiver of arrows. Erin looks around her, searching desperately for an escape route. "You're not going to be able to think your way out of this one, 3," taunts 12 with a wink. He pulls an arrow out of the quiver and clumsily notches it on the bowstring. Erin can tell he cannot wield a bow skillfully, but considering that she is only a mere fifteen up, he won't need skill to make a deadly shot. He pulls the string back, but then Erin hears another rustle and a slight thunk from behind Brady. He stops pulling the string back, drops the bow, and falls heavily on the ground, revealing a knife protruding from his back and Jared standing behind him looking terrified.
"Jared!" Erin squeals, quickly climbing down from the tree to hug her district partner. He doesn't hug back, only continues to stare at the body at his feet. Erin figured this would happen. Jared is too caring, to sympathetic. Being faced with the situation of killing someone could very well have been too much for him. Erin inhales deeply and grits her teeth. She bends down to pry the bow and quiver out of 12's dead hands. She shoulders them both and looks at Jared's possessions: a knife and a canvas knapsack, almost like a purse. She pulls the knapsack out of his hand and opens it, finding another knife and three packs of beef jerky. She lays the items on the ground and snaps in front of her district partners face. "Jared." He is unresponsive. "Jared," she says a tad louder, this time tapping him lightly on the cheek with her hand. He turns to look at her.
"Did I do that?" he asks, pointing at the fallen competitor.
"Yes, you did, but right now, we have to move." She hands Jared the knapsack, grabs his wrist and begins to lead him further into the forest.
Claire
The District 12 girl has been walking for hours at least. Too scared to fight for supplies at the cornucopia, she ran as fast as she could into the autumn forest that had been behind her. She sprinted at first, hoping to put as much distance as she could between herself and the bloodbath. After a few hours of jogging however, she began to walk at a quick pace, but soon, even that became a casual stroll. The cannons listing how many died during the bloodbath sounded off a while ago, but she hadn't bothered to count them, though. She stays alert as she continuously examines her surroundings, looking for enemies or natural forms of food and water. So far, she's come up with nothing but fallen leaves. She had studied about plant life as much as she could during training, hoping to learn how to easily distinguish between deadly and edible. Claire sees a dark green vine growing up one of the trees. She runs to it, hoping to find out its species. She's just about to pull off one of the lighter colored green leaves when she hears a rustling behind her. She turns quickly, adrenaline already pumping. She sees something -or someone- flee behind a nearby tree. "Come out. Now," Claire commands, balling her hands into fists and taking a fighting stance.
"I'm not going to hurt you," says a female voice as the girl from 11, Claire remembers her as Amberlyn, comes from out behind the tree. Her hands are up in the air, a small hatchet in one and a coil of wire in the other.
"Well, what do you want if you're not going to hurt me?" snarls Claire.
"I saw you at training. You're good with traps." Amberlyn throws the coil at Claire's feet. "I'm good at fighting." She waves the hatchet around slightly to be sure that Claire sees it.
"What are you suggesting?"
"I am suggesting... that we team up," says Amberlyn slowly.
"Team up?" Claire asks in disbelief.
"We stick together and battle it out. We can keep each other alive, and we'll be stronger as a pair, and you know we would."
"Alliances never last. There can only be one winner."
"When we make it to top 5, we split up and go our own ways. If we meet up again after that, we're both fair game. How does that sounds?" Admittedly, the offer is tempting to Claire.
"Why me?" she asks. There are several other tributes in the games that would be twice as useful as Claire. The only thing she has any skill in is laying traps and, as of recently, identifying plants.
"I need food. I can't survive in here without it, and I can't hunt whatsoever. You can lay traps for animals and find plants for food, I know you can. That's what I need."
"You're using me as a food source?" Claire scoffs.
"It's a better deal than the Careers would offer," Amberlyn deadpans. Claire frowns, staring at the other girl.
"Fine. Allies it is then." She holds out her hand, and Amberlyn shakes it, making the two officially a team.
Jesse
Sitting by the cornucopia with the other Careers, Jesse picks at his fingernails with the tip of his hunting knife, gnawing on a piece of jerky he had found in a backpack. He looks over to see Autumn, unsurprisingly, flirting with another competitor. "You're so good with a sword," she giggles to the boy from 2. He just brushes her off, though, continuing to speak with his district partner. The girl from 4, Madison, continues to sort through supplies, placing food, weapons, and survival gear all in three different piles. The sun has just went down and Jesse stares off into the sky, waiting for the faces of the fallen tributes to appear. Autumn trots over over, sitting down next to Jesse. "Hey, Boo!" she says happily, laying her knives down by her feet.
"I asked you not to call me that," says Jesse, annoyed.
"You are no fun," says Autumn with a roll of her eyes. Suddenly, the Capitol anthem blares, showing the seal of Panem projected into the night sky. Jesse stares intently. The seal fades and shows the first fatality: the boy from 5. That means that Conner and both tributes from 3, surprisingly, are still alive. Next is the girl from 5 and both tributes from 6. Next is both tributes from 10. Finally, the slideshow of deceased faces ends with the boy from 12. Seven tributes dead. Jesse can't believe the insanely low number. Never in his life has he seen such a small bloodbath. However, even though only seven tributes died, three districts are already gone completely. Crossing his arms, Jesse worries about what the Gamemakers will throw at them because of this boringly small bloodbath. Knowing he'll need his rest, Jesse closes his eyes and prepares for the worst.