`I woke up in an unfamiliar room.
Judging by how high up the windows were, the grass paneling the small screen, and the whole grimy, underground feeling of it all, I was in a basement.
The room was large; I could imagine it as the cellar of a banquet hall or school. My pack was resting against a pole, and a white robe was folded underneath by head, probably as a makeshift pillow. There were two staircases, one on the far left of the room and one on the far right. Near the far right there were two other small rooms that looked like bathrooms. Besides that and a few more poles, the room was completely empty. I was wondering how I got here, or who even brought me here when I realized something.
I was in a basement.
I was inside.
There wasn't supposed to be an inside to anywhere here. Every house and building in the arena was impossible to get into. Suddenly, I got to my feet, and a painful throbbing entered my head. Bending over in pain, I placed my hand over my head to feel a large bump. Strange. I thought, I don't remember getting this.
What I did remember didn't give me that many clues. There were the hallucinations, and the arms grabbing me before I passed out on the ground. Who could that have been? Could that have been the person to bring me here? To this basement? What if the arms grabbing me were just part of the hallucinations themselves, what if it wasn't real at all? However, it didn't match up with everything else I saw. All the hallucinations, well what I assumed were hallucinations, were only seen and heard, not felt. Nobody else had touched me.
Once the pain in my head had subsided a bit, I grabbed my pack from the pole. Everything was still there, except my water had been…Well…Filled. I was pretty sure that it was half empty the last time I saw it. There was also a bag of berries at the bottom, something I didn't remember. I recognized the berries from training when I spent my time learning how to identify poisonous and dangerous plants and animals. Blackberries, rare in district four just as most fruits were after the agricultural drought, were safe to eat. Who had put them here?
I slung my bag over my pack and checked to see if I could get through the windows. It was to no avail, as they were too high up for me to even reach. The wall was solid cement, and impossible for me to climb. I stepped back a bit and tried to see what was outside. I could see other buildings not far off. What looked like a post office and a coffee shop stood out to me. There weren't many houses around, so I was far away from the endless labyrinth of houses and sidestreets. Wherever I was, I was in or near the main part of the town. Near or on the same street that the cornucopia had been on. Near Main Street.
At the moment, I only had two options. One: stay here and wait it out. Two: Take one of the staircases and go upstairs. Whoever had brought me here hadn't killed me yet, which meant that for some reason, they wanted to keep me alive. If whoever this person was upstairs, I doubt I would be killed. Grudgingly, and with seemingly no other choice, I made my way toward the stairwell on the far left.
I noticed the musty smell of the basement, and the coldness of the railing. There wasn't any heating in this building either, which wouldn't be a good thing if the temperature in the arena was to drop dramatically. Studying this fact, I went back and grabbed the white robe that had been my pillow. Right now the temperature wasn't cold enough to kill me, but who knows why I might need this in the future.
Cautiously, I made my way up the steps. At the top there was a door, and I clenched the handle in my hands, carefully opened the door and found-
Jewel's POV
"Over a day!" yelled Ellia, "Over a day and we haven't come across anyone." She turned to Reagan. "Who is still alive?"
Reagan pulled out his paper where he had been keeping track of the deaths. "Besides us, there's the girl from three, the girl from four, both from five, the boy from seven, and the girl from ten." He smoothed the paper out, "So there's six left."
"So there's six too many," said Ellia, charging forward. I could have sworn I heard her mutter "Eight too many," under her breath afterwards.
We hadn't come across anyone since Ellia killed Beau, which Reagan and I were still pretty shaken up about. It was never in our plan to kill each other so soon. Obviously, we knew it had to happen at some point, but we assumed that until all the other tributes were killed, the only threat on us would be external forces.
Who knows why she even kept us around. She could kill both of us easily and survive on her own.
After a while, Ellia stopped and turned to us. "I'm thinking we should get to the other side of the arena. See if we can find the girl from three. She didn't look very strong, and we haven't seen her over here so far."
"What about the girl from ten?" asked Reagan.
Ellia shook her head, "I could have sworn I saw her…Through some trees…" she shook her head again, this time as if trying to erase a memory. "I say we focus on the girl from three. And better avoid the kids from five for now. I'd rather take out someone weaker than risk our lives and time on them. See if someone else or natural causes can take them before we do." She tilted her head, "Maybe feed them to the dogs," she added as an afterthought. "I'm going to play it safe until we eliminate as many smaller threats as possible."
"What about the boy from seven," I asked.
"I haven't seen him. He's probably on the other side too."
"And Lottie?" asked Reagan.
Ellia rolled her eyes. "She's lost her weapon. One of the mutated dogs can eat her with the tributes from five for all that I care. She can't last it out here on her own, no matter how talented she thinks she is."
As highly as I thought of Lottie, I knew what Ellia was saying was true. She couldn't survive alone for much longer. As far as I knew, she was somewhere slowly dying at this very moment. There wasn't much I could do; staying with Ellia was the best thing I could do for myself right now. If I tried to break away at this point, she could easily kill me. Ellia was also a skilled tracker. If I ran away in the night, she'd find me by morning. And attacking Ellia was also useless, her fighting skills were far more advanced than mine and Reagan. Even if the two of us were to approach her together, we wouldn't have a chance. This girl spent every waking hour of her life preparing for these games, and two kids without their own weapons of choice wouldn't be a threat to her.
Lottie's POV
A church.
Well, I guessed it was a church. I had never actually been inside a church, but I had seen pictures of some in school books when we learned about religion. However, this church was completely empty except for a few pew seats. The walls were furnished with stain glass windows, and the architecture mimicked the Roman Catholic, but besides that, there was nothing. Most of the seats were missing, the altar was completely blank, even missing a cross, and there weren't even any rugs or tiles on the ground.
Very lastly, there was a girl sitting in a pew. I recognized her instantly: the girl from district ten. She had asked during training if it were possible to win without killing anyone. She had not noticed me yet, her eyes glued on the blank altar. Maybe I could even sneak past her and get through one of the doors at the back without noticing. However, when I took a step forward, the ground squeaked from under me, and her eyes darted to my location.
"Oh," she said, relaxing after identifying me. "It's just you. I was about to check on you in a few minutes."
So this had been the person to save me. She made no immediate movement to attack me, or even defend herself. She just sat there, looking at me.
Her short, light brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, and even from this distance I could see her hazel eyes, the colors sharp and profound. Green surrounding a circle of brown I noted. Scars, probably new, covered her arms and a few parts of her face.
Because she seemed content sitting and staying silent, I took the liberty to ask the next question. "How long…How long have I been asleep?"
"About a day and a half," she answered simply, refocusing her eyes on the altar. "You fainted in the park on Thursday night. It's Saturday morning now."
So she had been keeping up with the days. I hadn't even bothered since I came to the Capitol. "Anyone else die?"
"Just on Thursday. The boys from One and Nine, and the girl from Twelve. I don't know if you knew about those. None yesterday."
The confirmation of Beau's death brought out the sickness in my stomach that was there before, the one from Thursday night. At this point, I didn't care how she had gotten us into a building when all the buildings in the arena were closed. I didn't care why. I just wanted to be alone. I didn't even want to kill her, still sick over my thoughts of Beau. I was going to turn to leave when I noticed a tear sliding down her cheek.
Don't do it Lottie. You are in an arena full of kids trying to kill each other. Now is not the time to be compassionate. Like always, however, I ignored my own conscience.
Reluctantly, I walked over and sat down next to her, even though every thought in my head was telling me to get the hell out. Who cares if she is crying? Leave. She could still kill you. This could be part of her plan. However, I didn't listen. She had a day and a half to kill me, and I didn't think she would change her mind now.
"Lottie," She began as soon as I sat. So she knew my name. "It's my fault they're dead, Micah and Carla. I should have tried harder, I should have tried-"She broke down in sobs, her hands covering her face.
Micah and Carla.
This girl had tried to save them.
Tried but failed when Carla refused to go with them, tried but failed when Micah left her to go back to Carla.
This girl had even saved me before…This girl had not only saved me once, but twice.
I had set off looking for The Girl, thinking that she would never come, and here she was, sitting next to me, sobbing.
When her sobs had subsided, I asked the question that had been nagging me at the back of my mind. "How did you get in here? I thought all the buildings were locked?"
She looked up at me, still sniffling. She had to be at least 17, but with her eyes red and the tears running down her face, she looked much younger. "Most of them are. This church is far enough from the cornucopia that people would have already given up on trying to open doors. I didn't I guess. I don't believe in god, this doesn't change anything about that. All it means is that someone does." She fell into her tears again, shaking.
I sucked in a breath. It was possible this wasn't the only Church, or the only other place of higher worship in the arena. If this was open, maybe the others would be too.
"Why?" I asked, simply.
She turned to me. "Why what?"
"Why save me. Why try to save the others. All but one of us is going to die, you can't possibly save everyone forever."
She turned her attention back to the altar, "I can damn well try." The tenseness in her shoulders went away, and she looked down, "You can do it now."
It was my turn to be confused, "What?"
She blinked slowly, "Kill me. Might as well. You've got one of the best chances of winning this. Me? I don't have anything. I'm just a stupid girl hiding in a church."
Why not was the first thought that entered my brain, the second being a yeah right, you'll be dead in an hour without her. This was true, she had saved my life once, probably twice. Throwing a spear well didn't get me this far; she did. I had come into this competition thinking I knew everything, but here, I came to the realization that I knew nothing. And I had lost my spear when I killed Beau.
"No," I answered swiftly.
She quickly snapped her head toward me. "No? Why?"
"Honestly, I need you. I'd been dead if it weren't for you." I looked at her scars. "Did Micah give you all of those when you rescued me the first time?"
She held up her arms to examine them. "Some. Most are from the district five tributes, I've ran into them a couple of times-"
"You fought off the district five tributes? More than once? Their scores were as high the career tributes!"
She put her arm down, "I've been doing a lot of heavy lifting my entire life through work. I'm stronger than I look. Also, my boyfriend is part of some martial arts club, and he taught me a few things. The fives have a reliance on knives. I have quick reflexes, so I can dodge them when they throw. It's nothing really."
I glanced down at her arms. Only now did I see the definition of muscle, before masked by the sweatshirts she wore in the arena. If someone was going to stab her with a short knife, she could easily overpower them. One of the biggest forces in these games had been hiding directly under everyone's noses the entire time. And I had her sitting right next to me. If she had been from a career district and had gotten private training, she could have won this game at the age of twelve. And how old was she? Seventeen? Eighteen?
"It's a lot," I answered quickly, "Please, work with me. Together, we could make it through a lot. Please?"
She looked at the ground, "I'm not going to be able to kill anyone, I'm useless."
"You're far from useless…" I trailed off, realizing I still didn't know her name. "What can I call you?"
She looked up and smiled a bit, "My name is Silver. Silver Winnings."