Chapter 11- Kickoff into Insanity
Prim POV
'They're flying," I heard Plutarch say as I rubbed my eyes to awaken them. I was in a white room that had a whole big control circle in the middle with people standing around it. There was a map I could see that looked 3D. I got up from where I was lying on an air mattress. I walked down the stairs to the big map.
"Is this the tributes we're talking about?" I asked.
"Yes," a Game Maker said to me, as she showed me the hover car that was delivering them to the Launch Area. Plutarch came over to see as well. "Hey, Plutarch, where's Sen…" before I could get out his full name, I felt Seneca lift me off my feet and he smiled at the shock on my face.
"Morning Little Duck," he said as I hugged him.
"Sir, they've landed," a Game Maker informed Seneca.
"Good," he said. Then to me, 'Hungry?"
I nodded, not knowing just how hungry I was until just then, "Very."
"Come on," he said as he took me up to the balcony. There was a door to the right; it was where the Head Game Maker stayed during the Games. I
Katniss POV
I returned to the penthouse after dropping Juniper and Boggs off with Peeta. "Turn it on," I said to Haymitch, but he was already ahead of me. The TV was showing Caesar giving some last minute predictions. I sat as Peeta called that he was going to get a drink.
"Get me a cola drink," I called.
"Got it!"
I leaned back as I watched the TV now switch to the arena. I thought my mouth dropped open. There were mountains sticking up all around, and the ground was white except for the plates on which the tributes stood. They were all surrounding an igloo like thing with a gold horn sticking out of it. "There's the Cornucopia," I said.
Peeta came back just in time. He handed me my drink and he stared at the TV, "No way."
"Yes way," I said.
It looked like he was going to say something, but he was cut off by a voice counting, "Fifty nine, fifty eight, fifty seven…" this was about to get insane.
Nicki POV
I was scared like hell. As I stood on that metal plate, not daring to get off, numbers pounded in my head like bells to ring out the years someone lived at a funeral. Luckily the bulky jacket I had on reflected body heat, because I was sweating in anticipation.
"Forty, thirty nine…"
I looked over to my left and I found Roan. He gave me a sad smile then looked away.
"Thirty, twenty nine…."
I looked around again. The Careers looked itching to go, while the rest of us looked scared to step off the safety of the metal plate, oh the sweet safety.
"Twenty, nineteen…"
The panic was setting inside me now. My hands shook inside my heated gloves. I had no idea if I'd even make it through today. Part of me wished I wouldn't.
"Eleven, ten…"
I was surely hyperventilating now. Ten seconds until I would have to embrace the probability of my imminent death.
The clocked ticked on in my head.
"Three, two, one," A gong sounded from above me. I ran as fast as I could to see if I'd have any luck at grabbing at least a knife. I saw some tributes already lying dead on the ground, their blood mixing with the snow. I exhaled and grabbed the thing nearest me; a knapsack.
Just as I was running away, I witnessed the igloo that the Cornucopia and it's supplies were on top of, explode.
Seneca POV
'Wonderful," I said looking up at the golden horn that now lay on the ground on the arena. That explosion idea was brilliant on Plutarch's part. Prim came down with me and she watched as my team moved things around in the arena control panel,
"Can you make it colder inside?' she asked me.
'Yes. In fact, Beauregard, can you cool down the temperature?" I asked the man at the weather controls. He nodded.
"We have it at freezing temperature now, where do you want it?'
I thought a moment, and then turned to Prim: "Give me a number between zero and thirty one," I said. I watched her face in her concentration until she said the number.
"Sixteen," she said.
"Sixteen," I told Beauregard. I looked up to watch what was going on. A few tributes were already dead, a common thing on day one.
"Sen, where's Nicki?" Prim asked as she watched the big TV.
"Plutarch, focus now on the girl from five. I want to see what's up with her," I ordered.
Katniss POV
I could only sit there in my living room as Peeta and I watched the Cornucopia blow to smithereens. "Did that just happen?" he asked, before I could.
"Yeah. Do you see Juniper or Boggs?" I asked, hoping that they hadn't been killed this early.
'See the one with the hood on? The small-ish one? That's Juniper,' he told me.
"Where's Boggs?"
'He must have taken high ground and avoided all that like Haymitch said," Peeta guessed. Before I could ask, I saw a girl run away with a knapsack. I recognized her by the jabberjay hair tie. "Nicki,' Peeta said. I nodded.
Juniper POV
As the igloo blew, I was knocked off my metal plate with a force that probably made me unable to breathe for two seconds. I threw out my arms to catch myself, and I ended up smacking the boy from 10 in the face. "Oh fuck, I'm so sorry," I almost screamed. I could hear blades cutting through flesh nearby, and that freaked me out.
The bloodbath was on.
'It's all right," said the boy from 10 as he rubbed his face gently, He helped me to my feet and I turned to run, like Haymitch had said to, but I asked first,
"What's your name?"
"Chex," he told me. I nodded and smiled in thanks and took off in the opposite direction that Chex was headed. I needed to find water, soon.
A knife would be good too, just saying.
I reached a lake by some trees that looked to be glossed over in ice. It made them look like glass to me. The lake was deep blue in contrast. I raced down to it and ended up sliding close to the edge.
Now why did the lake have to be frozen? That's not helping me any. I started to punch the ice with my hand until my knuckles were bleeding. What a great way to start this off.
Haymitch POV
"This is the most insane shit I've ever seen," I was talking on the phone with another past victor and my good friend named Finn. Finn was younger than me by a lot, but at some victors' party a while back we became friends.
'I know. I wish our arena had been an icecap instead of some ruined city," Finn said.
'Not much fishing to do," I agreed as I took another sip of my drink.
"Who are you rooting for other than your own tributes?" he asked.
"Probably the little girl from 5. What about you?"
"I'd bet on her too."