Chapter 8

I had barely rested my eyes for a minute when I jumped awake. I couldn't rest. The image of Jasper or Slade or Acacia leaning over me, ready to slit my throat kept popping up, projected across my eyelids so I couldn't sleep.

I leaned over the side of my little cave. The three remaining careers were still down the bottom of the bowl, but they were loading packs onto themselves. It seemed that they had found food or else they would have come straight for me. But, by the looks of it, they weren't going to be down there for long. Fear gripped my throat; that could mean nothing good for me.

I leaned back in as the dark fell. As everything grew blacker and blacker, I could feel my hearing getting better. There were no sounds of the town that I was used to. There weren't even the sounds of nature that I had heard on my rare but precious trips with my father out into the forests looking for exotic ingredients for perfumes. There was just the hollow, echoey sound of wind rushing through the bowl. Occasionally I could hear the sounds of people moving, a cough or a whispered conversation, but there was no way of telling where anyone was.

There was just me and the black. It felt incredibly lonely.

I hugged myself for comfort and then the music of the capitol started. In years gone by, this would have meant that people around me lost bets or others celebrated as the District Ones survived the first night. It was never particularly clear who had survived the first day so this little display of sacrificed human life tended to clear things up for all of us.

I crawled out to the front of the cave again, carefully this time, touching the ground in front of me and making sure I didn't take a nose dive from the top of the arena.

I looked out. First up flashed the District 4 boy's face. Well, I knew exactly how he had died. Then came the boy from 5, both from 6, the boy from 7, the girl from 8, both from 9, the girl from 11 and both from 12. No surprises there, really.

So that left fourteen of us. I settled back into my cave. Among those fourteen there were the three careers. They were my biggest problem. The 4 girl looked incapacitated, she wouldn't last long. The lesser districts wouldn't really prove a problem to me; I knew the careers would track them down as their first action. It would sharpen up their skills to go against the harder tributes. District 3 was interesting. They tended to be a fairly clever and tricky. I had best watch out for them.

As I slunk back further into my cave, I felt sure that no one would come for me tonight. No one had lit fires because there was nothing to burn and with no light, there was no way they would risk trying to climb the sides of the bowl.

But still I couldn't sleep.

Instead, I decided to make use of my time and rummage through my pack to see what was in there. I had just packed the food and water onto the top of whatever had been in there and now that I started looking down to the bottom, I realised that my biggest treasure would probably be down there.

At first I just felt rope and a jacket of some sort. Then there was a pile of what felt like waterproof material; that seemed odd given the arena. I shrugged and set them aside.

Then I felt a small oddly shaped container. Frowning, I pulled it out. There was a zipper on the side and I opened it and something like glasses fell out. I felt them with my fingers. Yes, they were definitely glasses. Without thinking I put them on and the whole world turned green. I could see!

They must have been some sort of night glasses. I could have laughed for joy. This was brilliant; I could see everything! I waved my hand in front of my face and tried not to dance in excitement.

I scooted over to the edge of the cave and immediately my stomach plummeted. I had been wrong. The careers were indeed moving. They had some sort of small torch with them that barely made a light, but they must have been able to see enough to decide to start climbing. They must want these games to be over quickly.

I watched as they made their way at a snails pace to one of the cave about a hundred metres away from me. Acacia was in the lead and as the reached the mouth of the cave, she swung in with a long dagger already in her hand.

I heard a scream and then the canon went off.

The hunt had begun.

I threw all of my things into the backpack and zipped it up frantically. I heard another canon. Fear gripped me, they were not messing around. I peered out of the cave and saw the three tributes heading my way. They had grown more confident and they were climbing faster, faster than I could possibly go. They would catch me.

I swung my pack onto my back and swung out of my cave. They weren't going to kill me without a fight. My hands fumbled a little and found grip. I bit back a groan. They had huge blisters on them under the gloves. I was definitely not going to be moving quickly.

I looked back to the careers to see that they were getting closer. There was only one thing I could think to do. I climbed higher and higher.

I didn't know if they had seen me, but I couldn't take the minute to check where they were. I pulled myself up so high I knew there were going to be no more caves, but that didn't matter.

I heard a sharp hiss below me and peered down frantically to see that Acacia had spotted me. They looked angry. Maybe they didn't have any food after all.

Then, finally, I felt the top of the bowl. It was smooth and wide. My heart leapt. I pulled myself onto the top of the ledge, the night goggles making everything seen a little strange and I felt a momentary wave of vertigo as I peered down into the bowl. It looked so strange from up here.

I unhitched an arrow from my quiver and took aim. I aimed for Acacia first; she scared me.

I let the arrow fly. It whistled past her ear and I swore under my breath. These stupid goggles made judging distance impossible.

Acacia didn't seem to mind that she was being shot at. Instead she climbed faster, her little torch in her teeth. They were set on coming for me. I took a couple of steps back and tried again with the bow. I missed Slade even worse than I had Acacia. Curse these goggles!

The three careers reached the top of the bowl and pulled themselves up. I folded away the bow, it was useless now. I started walking away from the careers and looked out beyond the bowl. There was nowhere there to run, it was just a huge body of water, not even a foot below the top of the bowl. The bowl itself was below sea level!

There, shimmering and plain as day through the goggles, was a force field to show that it was the edge of the arena. Well, we weren't going to be doing any swimming at least.

The careers were now on their feet and they were ready to get me. There was nothing else I could do; I ran.

I could hear them pounding along behind me, moving slower than I was, but still coming. How long could I just keep running from them? I didn't have long to find out.

There was a loud alarm sound and I whirled around to see the careers looking as confused as I felt. We all stopped our running, waiting for whatever horror the capitol was going to unleash.

Then, the earth started to rumble. I was knocked straight off my feet and clung desperately to the side of the bowl. Water sloshed up in my face and I was hit by its saltiness. Great, I thought, not even fresh water.

The earthquake kept on coming, shaking as though it wanted to throw us off the top. Please let the careers fall, I thought, please let them fall.

A loud scream came from somewhere down in the bowl as someone fell, probably to their death. Then there was the canon and the rumbling kept on coming.

Then, finally, it abated. I breathed a sigh of relief and loosened my grip on the cement wall. I looked up at the other careers and could see their fear on their faces. They looked as shaken as I did. I was about to get to my feet when I heard it. A loud crack coming from deep within the cement. The bowl was breaking.