The Living Games

A/N Hi, hello! So I've been doing some major editing on this story. I am currently going through all of the chapter and making them better. I also changed the story description.

Oh, and there's a minor cliffhanger at the end of this chapter for you guys :)

Chapter Eighteen: The Arena

Aubrey was having a nice dream about her and Zane sitting in a tree talking for hours. Arianna and Josh joined them, and they all laughed together. They stopped abruptly when there was a loud crack, and they looked down in fear to see the whole branch about to collapse. They looked around for the source and saw Josh, who was bouncing up and down on it (A/N don't even think about it).

"Josh!" they all screamed.

He smirked and shrugged, grabbing onto the stump as they all were sent fumbling frantically to the forest floor.

Aubrey snapped awake right before they hit the ground.

She woke up gasping, hating that feeling of falling in a dream.

She looked around her room. It was dark, no one there.

How had she gotten back in her room? She had fallen asleep with Josh. He must've carried her back.

She sighed, and quietly composed herself. She didn't need to be thinking about that day, one of the best days the group of friends had had together. She didn't need to be reminded of the punches Josh received when he jumped down, or the loving smile Zane shot up at him. And she definitely didn't need to be reminded of the tearful group hug they had shared together afterwards—

Aubrey pinched herself hard. Why she did that, she didn't know. It didn't help in the slightest, only succeeding in giving her a painful feeling and a red mark.

She groaned and slammed her head back down on the pillow. Luckily, it was a pillow, so it didn't hurt. She drifted off again easily, being as tired as she was.

When she woke up again, it was to someone gently shaking her arm. She mumbled and snuggled deeper into her bed. She could vaguely hear talking, but she couldn't understand the words.

Just when she thought she'd maybe get to sleep in, she felt someone's hands on her back, and she was pushed off the bed onto the floor.

"What the—"

Aubrey flailed around for a bit before realizing that she wasn't alone. She looked up to the sight of Purria standing there, messing with her hands sheepishly.

"Sorry," she apologized, "but you wouldn't get up."

Aubrey nodded. She could understand that. Arianna had said that exact thing to her many times before. Who wants to get up when they're comfortable?

Aubrey got up wordlessly.

What was Purria doing here? Weren't the interviews yesterday? The Tribute Parade had already past, so why would she be—

The realization hit her like a bag of bricks. Today was the day.

The start of The Hunger Games.

The start of the true games. The charming portion was up. You got what sponsors you could get, now it's time for the real deal. Sponsors couldn't help you when you're getting run through with a sword.

Aubrey sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair. She didn't bother questioning why me? Or what have I ever done to make this happen?

She knew thinking about the level of unfairness in all of this would get her nowhere. What was she gonna do, jump out of the hovercraft moving at very high speeds and go find Snow? Like he wouldn't be surrounded by security and protected. It was pointless to question it.

She silently followed Purria outside, in her pajamas and all. She tried to see if she could find Josh, but she didn't see him anywhere.

There was a hovercraft waiting outside for her. If she hadn't seen them on Television, she might have been surprised by its vastness and slim, sleek look.

If only it wasn't taking her to her death.

She climbed up, only to be frozen in place halfway there. A woman came out of nowhere, holding a needle.

Aubrey gritted her teeth.

She freaking hated needles. They hurt, and they pricked her skin. She could always feel the piece of metal wherever it was in her body. She was lucky that needles were barely used in her district, usually just pills and syrups, with the occasional plant.

"Keep still."

Uh, right. As if she could move even if she wanted to.

She woman grabbed her arm quite forcefully, and shoved the tracker in. Aubrey flinched—well, tried to, but she still couldn't move. The woman threw her arm (quite rudely) away, and Aubrey climbed up the rest of the way.

"What a bitch."

"With that red top with those neon pink pants, who wouldn't be?" Purria chimed in helpfully. Once a stylist, always a stylist.

"Right."

Aubrey looked around, not having much else to do. The windows were tinted, and the hovercraft was pretty bare, only housing a few chairs and lights.

"Homey. I just want to snuggle up in a big blanket and dream about sheep."

"You too?"

Aubrey didn't know if she was kidding or not.

The rest of the ride there was quiet, considering the day.

They got off and were escorted to a room by a few guards, who then stood outside of the door. In case she tried to run.

Aubrey plopped into her chair and exhaled. The room was just a plain white room with a giant tube on one side, and a couple of other regular items.

Purria sat down across from her, not saying a word.

When the food arrived—a nice plate of lasagna and garlic bread, one of her favorites—they both dug in. Aubrey knew it would probably be her last, so she tried to enjoy it.

After the meal, while Aubrey was sipping on a cool glass of water, Purria pulled something out of her bag.

When Aubrey didn't look up, she nudged her.

"Look."

Aubrey looked up to see the locket Zane had given her.

She gasped. She had completely forgotten about it (don't tell Zane).

"Oh! Where'd you get this?"

She clasped it around her neck, closing her eyes for a brief moment, enjoying the feeling of the cool metal against her skin.

"Josh gave to me. He said it was your token, and that you'd probably forget about it."

He was right there.

"T—Thank you. This means a lot to me, you know.

Purria nodded, then looked thoughtful.

"If you don't mind me asking, where did you get it from? Looks like pure gold to me."

Aubrey tensed. She wasn't a Victor's sister to Purria, so where fuck would someone as poor as her get a real gold necklace?

"It's a friend's. Apparently, it was a family heirloom, to be given to their one true love. My—My boyfriend gave it to me at the Reaping. He told me he loved me, and he wasn't about to let me go."

It wasn't a complete lie. It just wasn't a family heirloom.

Purria looked close to tears. As a woman who looked like she hadn't cried in twenty years, this was probably very heartbreaking to hear.

"I—I'm sorry. That must have been hard for you."

Aubrey pursed her lips.

"It was. But you have to power through the bad and see the good," she held her necklace. "He taught me that."

Purria was downright crying now, sobs wracking her body.

Aubrey wasn't sure what to do. She got up and awkwardly patted her back, finding it weird that she was comforting Purria, when she was the one about to die.

"I-I'm sorry for all o-of the stupid t-things that I said. T-Things really could've b-been worse for me. T-Thank you for helping me realize that."

Purria wiped away her tears, and stood up, looking determined.

"Now, let's get you changed."

The outfit included dark brown combat pants, tucked into black, sturdy boots. The shirt was black, and went down to her mid-arm. The jacket was also dark brown, over a black belt. Aubrey put her hair into a stable ponytail, and took in a deep breath.

She sat at the table, gripping Purria's hand.

Waiting.

Waiting for that voice to come and tell her to get in the tube.

Waiting.

Aubrey used her free hand to tap her fingers against the table, liking the nice tapping sound it made.

Tap.

Waiting.

Tap.

Waiting.

"Will all Tributes please step onto the metal cylinders provided. I repeat—"

Aubrey took in a shaky breath and stopped listening. It would only hurt her nerves. She gave a glance at Purria, standing up and brushing off invisible dust.

She tensely walked over to the circle, pausing right in front of it.

"Aubrey."

Purria voice broke through her not so pleasant reverie.

"Yeah?"

Purria smirked, the broken look in her eyes contrasting it greatly.

"Give 'em hell. Hell like only you can give."

Aubrey gave a tiny half smile, gathering up all of her remaining courage.

"You know I could never resist the urge."

The tube closed around her as she stepped on it.

There was darkness for a couple of seconds, and then the cylinder rose out, exposing a giant circle clearing, surrounded by trees and grass so thick she couldn't see two feet into the woods. There seemed to be mysterious bubble rising from the left side of the arena, from what Aubrey guessed was a volcano.

Josh was nowhere in her sight, but Andy was four people down from her. They locked eyes for a second.

"Let the Forty-Second Hunger Games begin!" Claudius Templesmith's voice rang throughout the arena.

Here we go.

59.

Aubrey looked around. There were weapons scattered around the cornucopia, and a few packs and goodies. She saw a pack of fresh gleaming knives, just waiting to be used.

Oh yeah.

She looked around a bit, seeing a few other tributes grinning, looking scared, and generally like they wanted to be anywhere else but there.

20

Aubrey was getting ready to run, when she saw something in the corner of her eye.

A girl dropped her token, which was a necklace with a heavy pendant on the end.

Aubrey prepared for the blast, but it never came.

It took her about two seconds to realize that if something that heavy didn't set the mines off, then that meant the mines weren't on, and even less to run off her plate, the others following. The girl was still marveled by the fact that she didn't blow up, so by the time she left her plate, the bombs were on and she went boom!

She ran as fast as she possibly could, eager to get there first before anyone could kill her. Those knives were hers, and a sword for Josh couldn't hurt.

She reached the Cornucopia right after the boy from two.

Fuck.

Aubrey ignored, but watched him, and grabbed the pack of knives that she had seen.

Yes!

She heard a weird crunch sound behind her and whipped around.

The boy from four had hit some kid on the top of his head with a mace so hard that it cracked his skull and smashed his head into his neck. He crumpled to the floor.

The mace. Why was it always the mace?

Aubrey swallowed down her fear. Or tried to, it didn't really work.

"Well, that's one way to kill someone nice and fast."

The boy looked at her and smiled. He brought the mace swinging around, and almost brained her. She jumped out of the way just in time to not get decapitated.

In the corner of her eye she could see someone coming towards her, so she looked, but they were too far away to hurt her.

Aubrey turned her attention back to the boy from four. He had swung the mace around again when she wasn't looking—that sneaky bastard—, so she jumped out of the way too slow. The long spikes grazed her elbow.

She cursed and went head on with him.

He tried to hit her with the mace again, so when it came around she grabbed the chain and pulled it from his hand. She aimed to hit him in the stomach, but he was quick, and moved out of the way just in time.

Aubrey gave up on the mace and kicked him so hard in the stomach that he fell backwards, and his weight didn't help at all.

Aubrey totally forgot about that kid running towards her until he was right on top of her. Literally.

He tackled her and almost stabbed her with a long knife. She twisted her face to the side and tried to get from under him, but his grip was too strong.

"Fucking shit," she muttered.

He was about to plunge the knife in her gut, when a sword plunged into his gut first. He went slack and Aubrey stood up, ready to thank and then kill the person who freed her.

She stopped when she saw it was Josh.

"Hey. Took you long enough."

He rolled his eyes and pulled her along through the kids trying to kill each other with weapons.

On their way out, Aubrey managed to grab two backpacks. Well, she grabbed one, and a girl grabbed the other, but one kick from Aubrey and she let go.

They ran until the noises from the fight were distant.

It wasn't until they were long gone that she realized her mistake.

(A/N If you don't like a lot of cursing I'd advise you skip this next paragraph and go to Josh's part:)

"Oh my gosh. Oh my motherfucking gosh. I screwed up so fucking bad, Josh. We gotta go back! Fucking shit! Goddamn mother of a fucking rat's ass, fucking fuck of a fuck. A cunt sucker's asshole!"

Josh looked at her, arching an eyebrow at that last curse.

She continued her cursing rant.

"What? What is it?"

"We left him! Andy! Andrew Renold Limerick The Second! We—left—him."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"Well, shit."

Josh let out his own string of curses, remembering the blonde haired friend of his.

"We gotta go back."

"We can't go back!" Aubrey yelled at him.

"But were you not just yelling about going back!?"

"I don't know! All I know is that we left him."

"I know that!"

"Stop yelling at me!"

"Okay!"

"Josh!"

He calmed himself down.

"Okay, okay. We'll just meet up with him later."

"If he's not dead."

"Stop being so pessimistic. C'mon, believe!"

Aubrey rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Let's just keep going. I don't want any Careers catching up to us."

They trudged on, trying not to think of Andy, and dodging the closely packed trees.

They entered a weird area. Things suddenly starting to get hot. Like, a dry wind blowing across. There were less trees, and the air was less humid. They approached a clearing, not knowing what would await them.

Aubrey looked up, taking in the scene in front of her, smiling sarcastically.

"Oh, this is just great."