Author's Note: Another update (: I haven't even started chapter seven though, so you'll have to wait a bit longer for that. So far this is my longer chapter, and I really like it. I hope you do too (: It's the first day of the Games and there's quite a lot of blood in this chapter, just a heads up, even though I didn't go into detail. Enjoy and please review and thanks for favoriting my story for those of you who did. (I also say the word "and" a lot in this chapter, I don't know why)
Chapter 6
The Games
I feel like I'm going to throw up. I'm suffocating in this plastic tube as I stare at Bloom, the last person I'll see who isn't trying to kill me. Any second now we'll be launched up into the arena. I'm wearing a black, skin tight jumpsuit and shoes that are soft fabric with rubber bottoms, and a section for each of my toes. My hair is two braids so it doesn't get tied in a knot and stays out of my way. My heart is beating so fast I feel like I'm going to explode right here in this plastic tube.
It starts to rise and Bloom waves goodbye. The tube rises and I'm standing on a metal circle on a beach, with all the other tributes in a half circle. There's a big Cornucopia with supplies in it. The beach is a perfect circle, half sand and the other half water. Beyond the small beach are thick trees with paths leading into them. There are six on the sand and three back in the water, so it can't be that deep. "Welcome to the very first annual Hunger Games!" Malec Morshale's voice rings out from a speaker somewhere. Three tributes step off their plates and I'm startled when they are blown to bits. They didn't tell us that would happen. I realize it is Tink, the weak girl from three, the male tribute, Cable, and the boy from district two. "Oops," Malec says. "Just a note, tributes, step off your plates before the gong sounds and well... you just saw what happens. Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" I wonder who thought of this little slogan.
Thirty seconds go by until the gong sounds. I run toward the Cornucopia, but can hear footsteps immediately behind me so I grab a black backpack, the closest thing to me, and take off into the woods. I start to run along the path, which is still surrounded by thick trees, but the path keeps splitting off into different directions and twisting and turning. "Karen!" I turn around immediately at my name, but realize I don't have weapons and this person could try to kill me. It's Finn, but I'm still cautious. He runs up to me, out of breath and carrying a blue drawstring bag. "Keep running, stick with me." So we run and run for probably two hours and we're probably almost to the edge of the arena when we stop. I need water, but I know I won't be getting any. "It's probably safe to rest here," Finn decides, but I'm not sure if I agree. I look at the tree in front of us and decide we'd be safer in the air.
"Can you climb?" I ask. If we could climb to the top of that tree, we could probably see most of the arena, too.
"Pretty well," he tells me, and I know he's thinking about the tree now, too.
The climb up isn't that difficult but it's tiring, and we have to be at least thirty feet up when the branches get to be too thin and we can't climb anymore.
We both get a good look at the area. "It's a maze," I observe. The paths wind and twist in a maze like way and the beach is in the center. I see two bodies lying near the shore, blood streaming into to the water. The crystal clear water now has a red tint to it, and I can tell more people have been injured.
We open up our bags and shuffle through them. Mine contains a sleeping bag, although I don't know why I would need it in this scorching hot weather, a plastic box containing bandages and some bottles of liquid medicines and creams, a black box containing crackers, dried fruit, and a small (but empty) water container. Finn's bag contains swimming goggles, flippers, and a knife. "There must be fish on the beach," he concludes.
I agree. "Is that water salt water?" I ask him. It would have been smart to find out before I ran off.
"Not sure," he replies. "But it looks like it's the only source of water here, so it probably isn't." This means to get water, we'll have to run for another couple of hours.
I'm too tired to go back, but I might be able to make it if I really had to. We need water to live, of course. "Should we go back?" I ask.
"Nah, Pepper stayed behind to get some once everything cleared. She'll try and find us." Of course they had all of this planned out. I wouldn't be surprised if Pepper killed one of the people on the beach.
A beautiful sunset appears, and I've never seen anything like it. The reds and oranges and pinks are so beautiful, it looks fake. Then I realize it probably is. "Finn!" a voice calls out. It's a soft whisper, but we can still hear it. "Karen!" I look down the tree. Pepper is standing there. Or at least, I'm assuming it is Pepper.
We work our way down the tree and are greeted by, yes, Pepper. She has a container filled with water and a gash in her leg. "What happened?" I ask.
"Boys from six and ten attacked me. Six threw a knife at me." That would explain why it took her longer than us to get here.
"Did you kill them?" I ask.
"No, but I injured them pretty badly. They'll probably bleed out soon." Just then, a canon fires, and I know that signals a death. It's probably the boy from ten, who was considerably smaller.
It starts to get dark so we decide to set up a place to sleep. Pepper cleans up her leg with the medicine from my back, before we walk off the path and a bit into the woods, where the trees aren't as thick and we can still see the path. I unzip the sleeping bag and lay it down to make us all more comfortable, but my forehead and neck and sweaty so I know I'll have a hard time sleeping. Three more canons go off. I'm guessing the other boy bleed to death and there was a fight.
The Capitol anthem plays and the names and pictures of the deaths today flash across the sky: the boy from two, Cable, Tink, the boys from five and six, Gregory from eight, and the boy from ten. That means seven dead on the first day. There's only five of us left.
I decide to go for a walk, and Pepper comes with me. We walk on the path for a while actually, until we hear an earsplitting screach and stop. Night fell quickly and it's almost completely dark out. Gas rises out from the bases of the trees and surrounds the area. Pepper and I begin to run in the opposite direction of our camp, and I hope Finn makes it out. We slam into something, but nothing is there. Either we can't see it because the gas is so thick or it's invisible. But the gas clears and I don't feel any different. "Let's go back," Pepper says. Her voice is barely a whisper. I agree and stand up to walk, but Pepper sprints off and I don't have the energy to keep up with her.
I catch a glimpse of another person. She's tall and has long, bright red hair and green eyes, but I can't match her face to any of the other tributes. I can't see the woman anymore, and Pepper is out of sight, so I continue walking. But the woman appears again, and this time she's right in front of me. But it can't be who I think it is. It can't be her, that's impossible. "Hi Karen," she says. Her voice is soft and sweet, just like it was when she used to sing me to sleep at night. I start to walk backwards, slowly. "Karen, it's me, your mother. I missed you so much, but I'm here now," she smiles, but it's not her smile. This is an evil, twisted smile, and as much as I want to say the Capitol recreated this, I can't. It's too real. But she's dead, it's impossible for her to be here. I hit the invisible wall again and decide the best way to getting out of here is to run straight to the side. I start to sprint but my mother is there, her arm out to stop me. "Don't try to run, sweetie. I finally have you back, don't run from me." I slump back against the wall and slide down, just staring at my mother. She walks forward, arms outstretched to give me a hug.
"Get away from me," I warn. But I'm weak and my voice isn't as threatening as I'd like it to be.
My mother stops and her smile turns into a frown. Her eyes fill with tears.
"Why? I love you, Karen. You're my daughter." I know this isn't it real, it can't be. But I can't help starting to cry.
"No." It's barely a whisper. No, she can't be here. No, that isn't even her. But part of me wants to believe it's her. That the Capitol captured her and now she's back here with me. But they wouldn't do that. That's impossible, anyway. We found the body. "Leave."
Her eyes turn black. She reaches behind her and pulls out a knife. This is what she was programmed to do. She's here to kill me. I scream. Maybe Finn or Pepper can come to my rescue, or another tribute nearby can come kill me first. My mother can't kill me. She approaches me, holding the knife out. "Somebody's been a bad little girl." She throws the knife and it plunges in my chest with a sharp, shooting pain and I scream again. But something isn't right. There's no blood. I'm not bleeding and a knife just went through my chest. I felt it. I don't even know where the knife went. But I can't hold back the scream that's been stuck in my throat.
"Shhh... shhh... it's okay, baby girl." Her voice is soft as she walks toward me. I try to crawl backwards, but I'm trapped against this wall. "My little
Karen, it's been so long, over a year now. I wish I could have taken you with me, I really do. Both of us gone, together. It would have saved you so much pain." The tears are streaming down my cheeks and my face is sticky and I can't think. But I go back to the girl from district twelve, the girl in the training center after her interview.
Curl your knees up to your chest and rest your chin on them. Squeeze your eyes shut so, so tight. Rock back and forth a bit. Break down. I see her hand on my leg but I can't feel anything either because I am numb or she isn't really there. "It's okay, baby girl. Get some rest. I'll stay here with you all night and save you from the monsters."
Save me from the monsters? Which monster, the monsters in my head or the monsters that sent me here? She would have to kill me or everyone in the Capitol. She can't do either, but I am open to both.
My mother sits a few feet from me and watches me. I try to sleep but I can feel her eyes burning into my skin. I'm not as panicky anymore but I still haven't quite caught my breath and I keep hiccupping. I turn so I'm facing the invisible wall. There is a thick, gray gas covering the area on the other side of the invisible wall. My eyelids are heavy and I know I shouldn't be sleeping out here in the open, but I do anyway.
When I wake up the sunlight is hot on my skin and all traces of my mother are gone. My skin is tight and salty and my eyes are heavy and I'm dehydrated on top of feeling terrible from crying all night, and sad from seeing my mother, and terrified because, to put it lightly, that was really scary. I push myself up and notice that the wall is gone. What seemed to have happened was once the sun went down and it was dark, the monsters came and we were trapped, and now the sun is up and we're free to face another type of monster.
"Kare... en," Finn says as he runs up to me, out of breath. He has all of our things, my pack included. He throws all of the stuff to the ground and collapses.
I dig around until I find Pepper's water container and take a generous gulp, then pluck a piece of dried fruit to suck on. "You okay?" I ask. He must've done an awful lot of running to be that out of breath.
"Can't... find... Pepper." He takes the container from me and drinks some. "She ran past last night but kept running," he adds once he's caught his breath.
"She couldn't have gone far," I decide. "We should probably keep moving." Finn agrees, so we pack our stuff up neatly and walk in the direction where I saw the gas last night.
It's extremely hot, and the jumpsuit doesn't offer much protection from the sun. We keep walking and try to eat and drink as little as possible so we can save stuff for later. The arena is strangely quiet and I figure it must be pretty big if we haven't run in to anyone else yet. "Maybe we should go back in case Pepper is there," Finn suggests, but that's when we hear the scream. A scream so loud it makes me feel like my ear drums are going to burst and sends a shiver up my spine. Finn grabs the knife from our pack, the one the boy from six attacked Pepper with. The scream seemed to come from outside the path and deeper into the woods. We make our way off the trail.
There's a clearing, a circle with a ten yard diameter. And two, well actually three, people. I immediately throw up from seeing a dismembered body and all the blood. Pepper is tied up to a tree and Gem, from one, is doing something to her, but I don't know what it is. Finn drops the knife and runs to punch Gem, who turned to face us, in the face. Pepper screams again and I can't tell what happened to her, other than the fact that she is soaked in blood. Gem and Finn are on the ground attacking each other and I don't know who's winning but they're grunting and groaning and Pepper is screaming and I just want to make it stop. Finn pushes Gem off of him and Gem is now lying on the ground and there is a big scratch across his face and he has a black eye, though that might not be from Finn, and Finn has a bump on his head. So I pick up the knife and without even thinking I plunge it into Gem's chest and he makes an awful, inhuman noise and my hand goes limp and the smell of blood gets even stronger and I throw up again and I feel someone behind me but I don't react because I just killed someone, and then the world starts to go black and my eyes close and the screaming stops and it is finally silent.