Chapter 11
Sixty seconds. That's how long we're required to stand on our plates until the gong releases us. Step off before the minute is up and mines are detonated, blowing off your legs. Sixty seconds is all we get to take in our surroundings; the Cornucopia, a giant golden horn with a curved tail in the center of the arena, and the twenty-four tributes equidistant from it. The Cornucopia is spilling over with things that will give us life here in the arena: food, weapons, containers of water, medicine, fire starters, garments, shelter, sleeping bags. The value of each of these things decreases as the distance from the Cornucopia increases. In front of me is a packet of crackers, a few feet from there, a small water skin. We're on a flat, open stretch of ground, a forest in one direction, a field in another. A lake lies not too far from the Cornucopia.
In the center of the pile of weapons at the mouth of the Cornucopia, I see a silver bow and a quiver of arrows. I know that was left for Katniss. I look around at the other competitors, recognizing the Careers, and about five tributes from me, I see Katniss. I can see her eying the bow and arrow, debating whether or not to run in for it. No! I shout at her in my mind. I begin to shake my head desperately, hoping she sees me. Katniss just looks at me, puzzled, as the gong rings out.
I look away from Katniss, hoping she's decided to run. I run forward and grab the nearest knife, ignoring the camp supplies for the moment. I see the Careers also have used the same strategy. They run for the nearest weapons and begin to attack. My mind seems to be working ten times faster than usual. I look over and see Katniss struggling over an orange backpack with the boy from District 9. Suddenly, I see a knife pierce the boy's back, killing him. I see the girl from District 2 a few feet from them, grabbing as second knife. Katniss picks up the backpack and begins to sprint. The girl from District 2 throws the knife, but Katniss lifts the backpack, shielding her head, and continues running into the forest, out of sight in moments. All of it taking place within the first few minutes of the bloodbath. Katniss is safe, but I'm still in the thick of things. I get a firmer grip on my knife and move a few feet inward.
A boy about a head shorter than me, from District 7, comes at me with knife. I can see the terror in his eyes, but I know that he intends to kill me. I dodge his knife, the blade only grazing my arm, and stab him quickly and he slumps over, dead. I take his knife, before someone else does.
I keep a close watch on my surroundings as I move in closer to the Cornucopia. It's brutal. Dead tributes lie scattered around the plain, blood soaking the dirt. I'm almost to the mouth of the Cornucopia when the girl from District 2 jumps behind me, killing a tribute who had been about to stab me in the shoulder, the girl from District 10.
"Watch yourself, Lover Boy." She says, taking the girl's knife. I nod as she moves on to another target, the boy from District 5. I walk inward, stopping a few feet from the mouth of the Cornucopia, turning my back to the opening. I'm about to grab the spear at my feet when someone knocks me to the ground. I look up just in time to see my attacker, the boy from District 8. He pounces on me and begins punching me as hard as he can in as many places as he can find. Just when he's about to throw another punch, I pull out the knife I'm holding and stab him just under the arm. He slumps over, bleeding as I push him off me. I stand up and grab the knife next to him, not sure if I can make myself pull out the one under his arm. At least when they take his body, they'll take the knife.
I look around at the field in front of me. I count ten dead bodies just as the girl from District 2 throws a knife at the girl from District 7 and she falls over, dead. Eleven dead. A boy walks into the Cornucopia with a spear. He's from District 3. He points his spear at me, I tense, ready to dodge. The girl from District 4 walks by us.
"Mack, leave him alone. He's one of us." He nods, lowering the spear. She turns to me. "There's no one except us now." I nod and I see the boy from District 3, Mack, walk into the Cornucopia. I walk past the mouth of the Cornucopia, forcing my mind to only focus on the scattered supplies and not the dead bodies lying around. I pick up another knife lying at my feet. Just then, the girl from District 2 approaches me. "That's mine, Lover Boy." She says sharply, snatching the knife from me. "Here, you can have this," she says, tossing me a spear. I catch it with one hand and slip my other knife into my belt. She looks at me shrewdly. I raise my empty hand in an innocent gesture. "It's what I'm best with, so just the one knife?" I ask. She purses her lips and stalks off toward Cato. I turn to the girl from District 4.
"How many of us are there?" I ask.
"Seven. Glimmer and Marvel from District One, Cato and Clove from District 2, Mack from Three, Me, and you. Halleck, the boy from my district's dead." She says with no emotion appearing on her face. I look over at Glimmer and Marvel and see them beginning to stack up the supplies in a pyramid. Marvel sees us and waves us over. "Nixie. Lover Boy. Get over here! Help us stack these up." I guess I have a new nickname. Marvel shouts over to the Cornucopia where Mack is, calling for his help too. While we work on stacking the supplies, Nixie and Mack begin to fill us in on who got away from the bloodbath.
"I saw the girl from Five get out. She ran out into the forest." Says Mack.
"And the girl from Eight and the girl from Eleven ran out into the forest too." Nixie tells us. "The boy from Eleven ran out into that field over there." Nixie adds, pointing over toward the field.
"And the girl from Twelve, I saw her run into the forest." Mack finishes. At that moment, Cato and Clove have joined us, just as we're finished building the pyramid of supplies.
"That's who we're going to be looking for, that girl from Twelve. If we run into anyone else, we kill them too." Cato says in a commanding voice. "Luckily, we've got Lover Boy here to help us track her down." Cato looks over at me; I nod in response, keeping my face blank. He nods back. "Patch yourselves up and get ready to go." He turns to Mack. "Except you. Get started on your little project." Mack nods and heads over to one of the old plates, crouching over it, studying it.
As we set up our base camp, the hovercraft appears, collecting the eleven bodies around the Cornucopia. When the last body is lifted up, the canons begin to sound, one for each dead tribute. The bloodbath is officially over. Now that the bloodbath is over and the adrenaline has left my body, the pain from the wounds I got in the fight seems to double. The cut on my arm still oozes blood and I clean and bandage it for good measure. My ankle feels sore from when the boy from District 8 knocked me over, having twisted my ankle a bit in the process, and I have a slight limp now. Hopefully that goes away soon. I feel my face starting to swell from bruises (left from my fight with the boy from eight). Too bad we don't have ice to reduce the swelling. So at the moment, I'm not in the best shape. But I'm still alive. The realization of this sinks in… I'm still alive. And Katniss is still alive as well. I don't know where the road ends for me, but I've made it this far.
We eat and drink our fill and begin to pack our supplies and weapons to take with us. I'm given a spear, an extra spearhead, and I'm allowed to keep my knife. I'm also given a full water bottle, a pair of gloves, a torch for when the sun sets, and a small pack that includes matches, a bottle of iodine, and a roll of linen for bandages. Marvel arms himself with a spear and a few extra spearheads. Glimmer takes the bow and arrows. Cato arms himself with a sword and a knife that Clove gives him. Clove lines her jacket with at least twelve knives. Nixie grabs an axe and a spiked club. Mack arms himself to the teeth, with a spear, two spear heads, two knives and an axe. Cato warns him that he'll only get to keep the spear when we come back. Mack only nods at this, continuing his work around the tributes' starting plates.
We decide to head out into the forest where most of the tributes who escaped ran off. We begin walking in the late afternoon, walking through the forest as the sun sinks lower in the sky. We don't find anyone by the time the sun finally sets and night makes its chilly arrival. We light torches as the anthem of Panem plays, the seal shining in the sky, preceding the death recap.
Here in the arena, we only see the picture of the dead tribute in the sky and their district number. Back at home, the audience sees full coverage of each killing. We're only shown the pictures so that we don't have an unfair advantage over another tribute. The seal disappears and the face of the girl from District 3 appears, followed by the boy from District 4, Halleck, the boy from District 5, both the tributes from District 6, both from 7, the boy from 8, both from 9, and the girl from 10. The Capitol seal is back with a final musical flourish in the anthem. Then darkness and the sounds of the forest resume. I look down, realizing that I was the only one paying attention to the sky. The other Careers are busying themselves with their weapons and supplies, not showing the slightest interest in the dead tributes. I quickly look down and follow suit. Once our torches are lit, we continue on into the forest.
About an hour after midnight, I spot it, a small wire trap in a bush. I remember Katniss's skill in building traps back in training. This is obviously one of hers. She could be close by us… I quickly look away from the trap, making sure none of the other Careers noticed it.
That's when we see it, the smoke and faint orange light of a fire not too far away from us. I know it's not Katniss. Whoever built this fire couldn't handle the cold and didn't think we'd be combing the forest searching for stray tributes. I know Katniss would've thought of the Careers hunting and would not have lit a fire, even if it meant sticking out in the cold until morning.
The rest of the Careers run forward toward the fire. We find her under a willow tree, drifting off to sleep. She wakes up when she hears our footsteps. Cato steps forward the rest of us surrounding her. She begins to plead with him, begging him to let her go. His only response is that he takes out his sword and stabs her in the stomach. She lets out an agonized scream, and he twists the blade a little bit, leering at her. The rest of the Careers laugh as she slumps over, bleeding. They clap and congratulate Cato. I clap too, but only to keep from arousing suspicion. Marvel cries out "Twelve down and eleven to go!" he shouts, which gets a round of appreciative hooting. Glimmer and Nixie check the girl for supplies, but only find an empty water skin and a loaf of bread.
"Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking." Says Cato. We begin to walk away from the girl, moving through the other willows. We stop about ten feet from another tree. Inside the tree, I spot a dark mass that is not part of the willow's branches. Through the leaves I make out a form hanging upside down, clinging to the tree with their legs. At the bottom of it, I can just make out a long thin rope, like a braid, hanging toward the ground. I look away and keep silent, hoping they didn't spot her. I look over at the others and see that their minds are elsewhere.
"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" says Glimmer.
"I'd say yes. Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately." Says Nixie.
"Unless she isn't dead." Says Marvel.
"She's dead. I stuck her myself." Says Cato.
"Then where's the cannon?" asks Glimmer.
"Someone should go back, make sure the job's done." Nixie suggests.
"Yeah we don't want to have to track her down twice." Says Marvel.
"I said she's dead!" Cato yells, looking lividly at Marvel.
Marvel and Cato begin to fight, Glimmer taking Marvel's side and Clove taking Cato's side. I finally shout out, silencing the others.
"We're wasting time! I'll go finish her and let's move on!" I say impatiently.
As I turn, I see the dark mass in the willow tree quiver slightly. I walk away hoping she has the sense to stay quiet, because I know she now recognizes me among the other Careers.