Hello all, I know I don't post much, but I'm hoping this story is worth it. Enjoy.
Prim woke up and took one look at the pile of clothes near the door with a large watch that was black and orange. Immediately, she got dressed not worrying about what this pile of clothes meant. At this point she and Lucas were at odds. They were starting to become very much aware of their differences that were staring them in the face now that they had to "use them to their advantage," as said by their parents, multiple times. Lucas would spend the morning avoiding the pile of clothes while Prim gathered her things, which meant Leera, slapped on the watch, and then she was gone with Katniss trailing behind desperately still trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes.
"This is going to suck," Lucas muttered as he swiped up the Tylenol on his bedside table and downed it without water. He stood and set his shoulder by pulling it closer to his body.
"Just remember, you guys need to work together with Serena, and go in, follow the plan; then get out." Gale caught himself before he said it would be easy. It wasn't going to be, and now that Lucas and Prim were fighting Gale hoped his son realized that.
"I know Dad. I know." Lucas grabbed the clothes and went to the bathroom slamming the door behind him. He just needed a minute. Lucas sat down on the edge of the bathtub in the Colosseum of a bathroom looking at the stark white of it all. It mocked him in it's simplicity but elegance. It didn't have to work to be appreciated. Its size took care of that. He was being tested. Because his father couldn't keep his head on and stay out of the rebellion, he was here.
There were people that Lucas was sure that would never have gone for it. One of them was Katniss. In order to protect her family, she would have stayed away from the rebellion. She was roped into it, and now her sister was dead.
Stupid choices! Stupidity! The stupidity of those who have sick minds! Let me out! Lucas touched his chest over his heart trying to calm his heartbeat. He couldn't freak out now. He had to get this over with. There was a knock on the door and Lucas looked at it waiting for someone to yell at him. No one did. He got dressed quickly and opened the door to find Katniss standing there. Funny, hadn't she left wither her daughter?
"Yes?" He asked leaning in the door comfortably as if he hadn't almost had a panic attack just moments ago.
"I'm sorry," her voice was barely heard, but he caught her words. Sorry? There was a moment when Lucas just looked at her surprised. This whole time she had seemed so tough, but now there was something that had snapped. There were tears brimming in her eyes and she seemed to swim in her emotions that were overflowing through her. She screamed the need for help, but there was nothing anyone could do until her daughter came out safe and in one piece. When Lucas opened his mouth to say it wasn't her fault she held up a hand that had a tissue crumpled inside of it. "Don't lie to me and tell me this wasn't my fault. I knew Haymitch would agree with me. Just tell me I'll see Prim out here again."
Lucas nodded. When that wasn't enough he opened his mouth: "You'll have her at home. Safe," his confirmation seemed to comfort her and she was able to nod back and then move away from him and back out the door. Lucas looked around the room to see his dad standing quietly against the far wall. "She's falling apart."
"And making lies to cover it," Gale agreed and then went up to Lucas. "You ready to go?"
"Is anyone ever ready?" Lucas countered and Gale shrugged. It didn't matter now. He was sure he would see his son again, but Lucas worrying wasn't any good for anyone. Gale slapped him on the back and Lucas headed for the door. Coming to terms with it would have to come sooner or never. If he did, he would be calmer in the arena which meant there was a better chance he'd keep his head on.
They left the room together, but soon the peace keepers took over. President Markkus wasn't going to take chances. If anything, he was going to make sure that there was no chance that the parents would pull any crap. To make sure of that, the peace keepers waited for the initial goodbyes and then took the children from the parents who would be stuck in a room to mentor from. The kids were forced into a sectioned off cavern of a room that stretched into a half circle though the kids couldn't see that. Lucas stumbled into the room muttering words that shouldn't be repeated.
His feet couldn't seem to find the ground and his hands shook as he walked to the plate. Glass enclosed him and he closed his eyes to try and force himself to breathe. He could hear the mumble of a capitol anthem and the plate began to rise. The peace keepers didn't even look at him as if he were the predator that was despised in the fight. On that rise and the way those men treated him, his hands stopped shaking. He didn't care anymore. If all he could do was save himself and Prim then he would. If Prim killed Serena that was her choice; he didn't care. His job wasn't any of those things.
The plate stopped and Lucas opened his eyes looking at everything around him. Animals thrived and the sound of utter peace resonated through the air. Their was a growl of some vicious predator in the distance and Lucas sighed. Welcome to the rain forest. As if to pound it in his head once more President Markkus' voice came over the speaker to remind them of the rule. "Survive." The gong sounded and everyone took off.
Lucas didn't even look for Prim and Serena. Prim would do her job, and he trusted her. Lucas just needed to watch his own back. He made it to the cornucopia and grabbed a few things of food before he made it to the gun he was looking for. The District 9 boy came after him knowing that a gun in the hands of a District 2 meant many deaths. Lucas whipped around with the gun to face the boy only armed with a knife. Lucas pulled the trigger and nothing happened. It was empty! "Dammit!" He looked at the boy who was waiting for him to run in the obvious choice for the fight or flight. That's why it took him by surprise when Lucas charged at him screaming at the top of his lungs. The boy tried to take a stance to fight back, but Lucas was already there. He disarmed him and slammed the butt of his gun against his head. The boy fell and Lucas left him there taking the knife with him. Lucas got a hold of a few clips of ammo and was in the woods behind the cornucopia in moments.
He ran for what seemed like hours and only was a few minutes before he made a huge realization. There were no bodies of water. Lucas slowed and finally stopped looking up at the treetops. He was completely blocked inside the forest. There were only small streams of light the lit the ground, but he hadn't seen any water source near the center of the arena where they were dropped which was where it always was. As he sat there and listened he didn't hear any running water that usually went through rain forests. Creatures went by speedily and were gone in seconds. He even saw some strange fruits hanging in a far off tree. There was a bundle of apples in his arms, a bottle of honey and a box of what looked to be crackers. Lucas spun around once more before he started walking.
When it sounded like footsteps were coming up on him he dropped his food. He loaded a clip into his gun and pointed it toward the trees that led back to the cornucopia. "Lucas, it's us," Prim's voice found its way through the trunks and brush until both Prim and Serena emerged. They both had some food, but Prim was clutching a gallon jug for water that was empty. Serena didn't have the iodine to purify it. He already didn't like her.
"There was no iodine up there, Two. Don't look at me like that," Serena snapped. Lucas brushed it off and picked up his things again. "So where are we going?" Serena asked as they started walking farther into the woods. For a long impregnable silence no one dared to speak. When a bird flew close over head they all seemed to snap out of their trance. "I asked, where are we going?" Serena was becoming impatient and Lucas and Prim looked at her both annoyed.
"Away from the masses," Prim said in a stony voice that almost had no life to it. As if it prove that they needed to get away from everyone else, there was cannon fire. At first, there were only two shots fired as if both people had died in one fight. Then there were more. Three, four, five. Five people, dead. It had happened to fast as if one after the other they had been cleaned off the face of the planet. There had only been a small pause between two and then the last three that went down in that short amount of time. Lucas couldn't get the picture out of his head of Paige, his District 2 counterpart, with a gun in her hands leaving behind the fallen tributes in her wake as she walked away.
Prim imagined poor little Onyx, the boy from 12, lying in that puddle of blood. She had known he would last long and she was sure his face would be in the sky that night. Serena really didn't tick anyone off her list in her head. She could underestimate no one because the one person she did would end her. She had to take everyone as seriously as she took the Careers.
It was no doubt that all that the Careers had already made it away from the cornucopia. They were probably already in their pack and off hunting the next unfortunate soul that got caught in their clutches. Twenty-one left. Bang! Twenty.
"We need to make camp up in the trees somehow," Prim finally said as it became more blatantly clear that the sun was down and had been down. They all looked up at the nearest branch. There was nothing close enough. Everything was a terribly high climb and even then the branches didn't get very thick until a while later. They couldn't even see the sky.
"How are we supposed to see the faces of the Fallen?" Lucas asked finally voicing the question in everyone's head.
"Don't worry about it," Prim dismissed all the worries and led the group of three up into some buttress roots to set up camp. "This'll be enough cover for tonight. It won't be comfy, but it's safer than out there." She threw a motion over her shoulder to the open brush that they couldn't easily be seen in. They all found a semi comfortable place for the night and curled up. Lucas fell asleep first leaving Prim and Serena. Prim glared at Serena, waiting for it. She was waiting for Serena to be the typical competitor. Tear apart her allies to make sure they stayed out of the way when it came down to it.
Serena didn't even look at her. She pulled a piece of paper from the inside of her boots and unfolded it. A weakness, a love letter, Prim thought, but when Serena let the paper slip and Prim saw it she realized it was a list of all the competitors. It was in ugly chicken scratch and all of them had names. She knew everyone's name, and she was keeping track. "I plan to know who dies to make sure I know what the competition is since you people still won't tell me where we are going."
"How are you going to keep track of the people if we can't see the faces at the end of the night?" Prim asked smartly as if she was trying to get on Serena's bad side.
"They'll figure it out. The Gamekeeper isn't stupid."
What seemed like hours of silence later the capitol anthem played over the arena. It was loud and drowned out any noise. When Prim waited for it to continue it faltered as if the disc was scratched that was playing it. Two more cannons went off and the arena fell into a deadly silence for too long. Then the anthem started over again and they were able to finish it this time. Their watches beeped on their wrists and it woke up Lucas who shot up like he had been burned. After he looked around wildly he joined the girls with look at their watches which had never really displayed the time only a digital copy of the Capitol's emblem. It lit up bright then though. It shot an image out form its surface displaying carefully, the faces of the days fallen. Nicole from District 3. Both District 4 tributes: Cooper, and Jenny. It skipped to District 6 which had both also been eliminated: Jack and Whitney. District 10 was the next and they, too, had both been eliminated: Lenora and Tristan. The last one was Onyx, District Twelve.
Lucas looked at Prim who just nodded as if she had expected it. The District Four tributes had been no shock to Lucas. They had probably been planning on killing themselves and finally found a branch low enough to do it from. Paige was still out there though which meant he was in danger. Lucas looked around again before their watches went completely dark. No one was close enough to see which meant that he and Prim were probably safe for one night. Lucas looked back to Prim who was eyeing Serena. There was a plan in her eyes as the surroundings went dark again.
Serena crossed off the names as she remembered them and then all of them seemed to find peace with sleeping. All three of them went to bed and Lucas let himself drift off. He woke up when their was a cannon fire. He looked around desperately for Prim only to be thrown his load that he was supposed to carry which included the jug that Selena had been carrying the day before. He found Prim's face in the early morning light as she wiped off the blade of a knife she had concealed the day before. Lucas looked to where Selena had fallen asleep and seemed to still be sleeping. "Let's go Lucas," and like that Prim grabbed her things and walked off.
Sincerely,
wisegirlindisguise