I heard the birds flying through the air.
I heard their song,
and I heard their melody.
I heard their pain,
and I heard their joy.
Joy for life,
and joy for love.
I heard the birds flying through the air,
and today they were very very scared.
Today the birds were running,
from what I could not tell,
but they had no choice,
I saw their fear.
Fear for life,
fear for love.
I heard the birds flying through the air,,
and today they were sad.
They sang a song of sorrow,
a song that floated down,
and touched one's heart.
Today the birds were wallowing,
and I knew why.
I heard their pain.
Pain from life,
pain from love.
Today there were no birds flying through the air,
and how I wish there were.
Because when the birds were gone,
I am gone,
Where the birds go,
I go.
This is the end,
and this is the beginning.
There is nothing in the air.
Nothing from life,
and nothing from love.
For today I will be going,
and if I'm coming back,
I'm not sure.
but in my head I hear those birds flying through the air,
and I know what's coming.
For birds die,
and birds kill.
And birds can't help what happens.
I dragged myself out of bed the next morning and to the dining room. Although I wasn't hungry and would rather stay in my room until I was forced to leave, I knew that it would be a better idea for me to fill my stomach as much as I could. There was no way to predict when my next meal would be.
When I got down there, Rone was already sitting down. I expect to the see the usual smug grin and to hear his boasts of power, but all were absent. Instead, he sat painfully still, looking at his food as if he were going to throw up on it. He barely noticed me walking in. It was in that moment I realized that Rone, the tribute most likely to win, the best student at the District Four training center, and all-around jerk, could be someone pretending and hiding just like me. But in the end, aren't we all?
Breakfast was eaten silently. Nobody talked or looked at each other, even Noje and Carmella didn't make talk with Rone. there was a feeling in the air, a feeling that made everyone quiet and still. I wondered if this is how it always was with high district tributes. Rone looked like he was a mess, and I felt like I was a mess.
Don't think I'm afraid to die, because I'm not. I remembered the girl from ten, who at training had asked if there was a way to win without killing anyone. With all my heart I wished that was possible. The thought that I could be the one to end someone's life made my heart pace.
"I couldn't do it," I would think, "I couldn't, I couldn't-"
But I could, and I knew it. That was the scary part. Throwing a spear at someone and having it fatally puncture them would be too easy. It was morbid to think in that way, but it was true. In just a few hours, we'd all kill each other. There was no way out of it, and pretty soon twenty three of us would be dead, and if I want to be the one to survive, I probably have to kill somebody.
After breakfast, we were both lead up to the roof where the hovercraft would pick us up and take us to the arena. Rone and I entered the hovercraft alone; we were the first ones there. As more tributes entered the hovercraft after us, a woman came out of the back door with a syringe, which she plunged into Rone's arm. I gave her my left arm. I didn't know if the syringe would disable be somewhat and I didn't want to weaken my throwing arm.
"What is this?" I asked cautiously ask she stuck it into my arm.
"Your tracker," she said, "It will tell us your whereabouts when you're in the arena."
I nodded and glanced at Rone. He was back to his usual self, obviously not wanting to show weakness in front of the other tributes. As the last tribute entered the craft, the doors shut behind him, and we were on our way.
I was lead into a dark room, where I would spend my last moments before entering the arena. The hovercraft had dropped us off here a couple of minutes ago, and I was going to talk to Svetlana one last time.
The doors opened, and I saw Svetlana sitting on a couch. The Peacekeepers left us. I walked over to the couch and sat down next to us.
"Any last minute advice?" I asked.
She looked into the fire. "Don't participate in the bloodbath. Run away, try to find water, and see if you can make a spear out of something. Hide. Run from the bloodbath and don't look back."
I nodded sternly. She didn't look at me, I didn't blame her. If there was somebody that was most likely going to die soon, could you peacefully send them off to their death either? Svetlana knew I had a chance, but it wasn't extremely high. However, it was uncharacteristic. Svetlana had always expressed her belief in me, and although now was a rather somber time, shouldn't she be making me feel better and giving me advice?
"30 seconds," rang out a voice from what had to be an intercom. I stood up from the couch and walked over to the glass tube that would transport me to the arena.
"What would happen," I asked, "If I just didn't get in it? Would they kill me or would they transport me to the arena by force?"
Svetlana shrugged her shoulders, still avoiding eye contact. "I don't know. Nobody has ever done that before. I wouldn't risk it, though."
I sighed and walked into the opening in the tube. As soon as I was securely inside, the door sealed itself. "20 seconds," I heard ringing above me. My stomach knotted. Looking back at Sveltana, I wish she would do something to make me feel better.
"10 Seconds."
And that's when Svetlana looked at me. Or it looked back at me rather.
Her eyes were red now, an unnatural bright red so different from her normal blue. As my tube started to move up, she smiled, and held up a piece of paper that said, "The Firefly is with you, Lottie Wilson."
Before I could react, she was gone. Whatever was going on with Svetlana, or the thing that was inside her, was not my top priority. If I won these games, I could go find out. In my heart, I wished for Svetlana to be alright.
The sudden break of daylight. The first thing I saw was a pizza place. Surveying the area, I realized that this place reminded me a bit of town square at home. There were small shops scattered all over the place, clumps of trees here and there, and there were houses a little far off. Glancing behind me, a realized there was a pharmacy about 300 yards off. That is where I would run to.
The Cornucopa stood in the middle of the street that went through this whole square, with us evenly spread around it in a half circle. I was looking around for a place to find water when I heard it.
The explosion.
Somebody had jumped off their plate early, with still thirty seconds remaining in the countdown. It had happened about five plates down from me. Everybody else had been distracted by the explosion and was looking there also. It was impossible to tell who it was, for there was nothing left. I surveyed the remaining tributes to see who it was, and I could tell they were doing the same. Who wasn't there? Who was missing?
The girl from seven. The girl who had been forced to even try to participate in training. The girl who had matched me in training scores. Had it been an accident? No. She wasn't stupid, she knew the rules just like the rest of us. It had been intentional. She had walked off that plate knowing exactly what would happen to her. The thought made me feel sick, but there was no time for that. The timer was almost up.
5
4
3
2
1
0.
While everybody charged forward, I turned around and ran backwards, toward my target: The Pharmacy. I told myself to not look back at the bloodbath, but what if there was somebody chasing after me or getting ready to attack me? This could save my life.
I turned back in time just to see Reagan kill the boys from ten and eight simultaneously with a knife. Disgusted, I turned my head back around. I didn't want to see that. When I reached the pharmacy, I tried to open the front doors. Locked. Peering in through the windows, I realized there was nothing in there anyways. The entire building was empty. The windows were probably unbreakable glass too. Realizing I was still in clear view of the Cornucopia, I turned back. It was far away now, but I could still see the fighting. The bloodbath could last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. There was a street behind the pharmacy, a street covered with trees concealing some houses. I headed over there, thinking it would be a good place to hide for the time being. When I got there, I realized it just wasn't this little street. There was an entire maze of houses and trees, with green lawns and gazebos and mailboxes. I tried my hand at one of the doors. No luck. I ventured off into the streets of intersecting neighborhoods, trying to get as far away from the initial Cornucopa as I could. Occassionally, I would pass an opening where I could see a small part of main town, but mostly I was journeying in the suburbs of trees and houses. After a couple of hours of this, I heard the cannons of the dead finally go off. ten.
A couple of times, I ran into the mutts of the arena: Dogs. Fortunately, they were all gated in or tied up like pets. It was hard to notice they were mutts at first, I in fact almost pet one before I realized that every single one of its teeth were pointed in such a sharp, unnatural way. Somebody might mistake the dog for a normal one and try to kill it for food but instead get killed themselves.
When night started to fall, I buried my self in a pile of leaves next to a tree in a clump of woods. It was unlikely anybody could see me. At one point, laying in the dark, I could hear voices far off. I didn't know where they were or who they were, but I heard them. After a while, it was silence again.
At around what I presumed was midnight, I saw the Capitol Emblem in the sky followed by the National Anthem. The dead tributes followed. The boy from three. Both from six. The girl from seven who had killed herself. Both from eight. The girl from nine. The boy from ten. The girl from eleven. The boy from twelve. Who was still alive? All of the careers, naturally. The boy from nine and the girl from twelve who liked each other. Even the girl from ten who had asked if she could win without killing anyone at training.
I sighed and closed my eyes. In the morning I could go looking for water and food. For now, a rest would be more beneficial for my end.
The sound of a cannon woke me up in the early hours of the morning. I tried to go back to sleep, but then I saw the hovercraft. Whoever had died had not been far from here. I saw the body being airlifted, and I recognized it. With horror, I realized it was Rone. What had killed Rone? Who would have the capability. I could imagine the betters and sponsors in the Capitol, most of them getting screwed at this moment. I covered myself up with the leaves again, knowing that where Rone was, the rest of the careers followed. They might come over here.
I was right, in a few moments, I heard footsteps, and soon, voices. I prayed that they wouldn't uncover me.
"It is not my fault," growled a voice I recognized to be Jewel, "If I knew that dog was a mutt and poisonous I wouldn't have let him kill it. You were there as much as I was."
"He'd listen to you rather than me," snapped Ellia back, "Now we've lost our strongest team member."
"Relax, women," said a voice I recognized to be Beau, "He was our biggest competitor too. Once it was down to just us, he would be the hardest to kill."
Ellia sighed. "I guess so." I heard them sit down, "Who do we have left?"
"There's nine other out there besides us," answered Reagan.
"I'd make the girl from five our biggest priority," said Beau, "She looks strong and she killed the girl from nine at the bloodbath."
"Why would be listen to you?" asked Ellia. "You didn't kill anyone at the bloodbath."
"What does that have to do with anything?" said Beau, raising his voice. "I was too busy getting supplies and making sure the boy from six didn't kill you."
"You didn't save me," muttered Ellia.
"Yes I did! If I hadn't pushed you out of his way his knife would have hit you. Instead it hit the girl from his district."
I could almost hear the smile on Ellia's face, "Yeah, and he was so distracted from accidentally killing his own teammate Rone was able to kill him."
"Exactly," said Beau.
"So who else do we have to look out for," added Jewel.
"The girl from twelve and the boy from nine," answered Reagan, I saw them heading toward the north. We can get them later. I saw the girl from Rone's district come down here..."
I froze.
"Who, Lassie?" I heard Ellia retort, "She wouldn't be much to worry about."
"Her name is Lottie," said Jewel softly, "And I think she's smarting than we're giving her credit."
Ellia yawned. "Whatever. Let's camp here for tonight. I don't think anyone's around. Jewel, you take watch."
"Why me?"
"Because I said so.
When the first stroke of sun struck through the night, I finally got the courage to lift my head from the leaves and look around. I covered my hand over my mouth and quickly shrunk down into the leaves. There, twenty feet in front of me, were the career's. I braced myself, fearing they had seen me, and then realized they were all asleep. Jewel must have dozed off while on guard. This might be my only chance to escape. Or steal something.
I stood carefully from my pile of leaves and cautiously walked over. They had tons of bags from the Cornucopia with them, along with a good hand of weapons. I grabbed a bag containing some food, water, and iodine, their lone spear, and a loaf of district four bread that was probably meant for Rone.
With my new supplies, I ran into the north for the morning.