The Living games
A/N Hello, my lovelies! The arena . . . here we come! I always see a forest in any arenas that I read about in a fanfiction. I think the Capitol would've managed to find different environments to put their tributes in. This arena is special, including three different biomes! Mwahaha! I think I might do a chapter in Zane's POV, or maybe Arianna's. I also made this President Snow chapter, but it takes place in the next story, or in that timeline. I think I might just post it as a preview, or a little hint at what will happen. And I really do think I'll do the sequel, because I love this story so much. I also realized that this story has passed 55,000+ words, and I'm not even two chapter into the arena. Barely there, actually. The first half of this story has just been some Aubrey background, some fluff, some school stuff, Arianna's games, and yah. Not much, really. I wonder how long it'll turn out to be with the arena . . . and oh yeah! The anniversary for this story was on May 30th, which was a long time ago, like five months ago, when I originally planned to post this chapter, oops. I'm sooo late and horrible, I thoroughly apologize, but don't forgive me _ I've been busy editing this story and trying to find the motivation to finally finish my other story. I hope I'll have this story finished by the end of this school year, and then boom! Here comes the sequel and finding the motivation to finish that. But whatever. Now, I better give you the chapter before I just make this whole thing an A/N. I totally could at the rate I'm going. No cliffhanger here, btw. But don't get used to that. You've had 17 chapters cliffhanger free, now it's time to make up for that. Yay, such fun! Don't you just absolutely love cliffhangers?
Chapter Nineteen: Nothing Like the Heat of Desperation
Aubrey's mouth was on the ground, which was not the springy dirt floor littered with plants that she had expected to find. Instead, there was hot sand.
She was no longer in a forest. She was in a desert.
"Okay . . . " she started out. "I know I'm not the best in science, but I'm pretty sure there are no deserts in the forest."
"No duh, they're two different biomes," Josh said, smirking like the little smart-ass he was.
"If I had asked you—"
"Okay, as much as I want to argue with you, and trust me, I do," Josh cut her off, "we really need to think of a plan."
Aubrey sighed, but agreed. She knew they needed a plan, too.
"What have you got in mind, Oh-Wise-One?"
Josh looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged.
"I think we should stay here. Chances are, the other tributes didn't go this far, thinking the whole arena was just a forest like we did. No one will find us here, and if they do, we can always hide behind those sand dunes over there," he pointed to a huge area filled with sand dunes. "So, yeah. I think we should stay here."
Aubrey nodded. All of his points were valid, and even though the forest would be the obviously more comfortable environment, the desert offered protection and isolation, both of which she greatly appreciated.
"Okay. The desert it is. Oh, and before I forget," Aubrey pulled off one of the backpacks, "we need to look through these."
Josh eyed them with distrust. "Well, they better hold something good."
With that, he turned around and stalked off towards the group of sand dunes he had pointed at earlier.
Aubrey huffed and followed after him.
About halfway there, cannons started going off. Aubrey stopped and counted eight.
The bloodbath was over, and eight people had died.
Aubrey kept walking, but a horrifying screech echoed through the desert.
Aubrey turned around, her eyes widening in horror at what lay before her.
A giant scorpion was just making its way through the edge of the forest, almost touching the desert sand. She wasn't talking about some three foot long bug, she meant an eight foot tall black scorpion, with pincers dripping poison. The shell look as hard as titanium, maybe harder.
Most likely.
This was the Capitol.
Aubrey swallowed hard. Just her luck. Not even two hours into the arena and something non-human already wanted to kill them.
"Um, Josh?"
She turned to look at him. He had his mouth wide open.
"That . . . what's that?"
Aubrey opened her mouth to explain.
"I know what it is!" he exclaimed.
"Shush! It'll hear us!"
Aubrey looked back at it as soon as it broke through the trees.
She grabbed Josh's arm and ran toward the sand dunes, hoping to gain some coverage.
They dived behind a big dune just before the scorpion looked at their previous spot. It circled around once, then screeched again and ran off, back into the trees.
Aubrey breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness. I was afraid we'd have to fight it," Josh wiped his brow.
Aubrey laughed nervously.
"We wouldn't last a second against that thing."
Josh looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew she was right.
"Whatever. Let's just set up camp, and see what's inside of these packs. I could use something good right now."
The packs were going to be useful.
If we don't lose them first, Aubrey thought.
The first pack held two bottles of water purifier, some ropes, a box of six matches, an empty gallon jug, two packs of dried fruit, two packs of jerky, two fresh apples, and a pack of four pills (though Aubrey had no idea what for).
"So, basically survival things," Josh noted.
"Yeah, looks like it."
The second pack held a pair of heavy snow boots (Aubrey was confused about that one), a heavy coat (that one too), a sleeping bag, thick gloves, a hat, another empty jug, and a large net.
"These are survival items too, but not the kind you eat."
Aubrey nodded.
On them, they also had Aubrey's pack of knives, and Josh's sword, and a loaf of bread he had picked up.
"Okay," Aubrey looked at the items they had. "I say we eat the bread and the apples tonight, because they'll spoil soon, and we still have the dried fruit, plus we—by we I mean you—can hunt. We can look for water tomorrow."
Josh agreed. It was still daytime, and they'd only been in the arena for about two and a half hours.
Josh stared at the sand dune.
"The desert gets cold at night, since it can't hold heat very well, so we'll definitely need that sleeping bag tonight. Maybe that's what the coat and stuff is for," Josh said, but he sounded like he was trying to reassure himself more than her.
"Maybe."
Even as she said this, she still didn't believe it. Why give them a sleeping bag and a coat? And they were they supposed to wear boots while they were sleeping?
Aubrey shook the thought out of her head as Josh started explaining something.
"—should be enough. We can sleep there, and the scorpion won't be able to see us."
Aubrey nodded like she actually understood whatever he was saying.
Josh's idea turned out to be a good one.
He walked around, looking for a big enough dune. He finally found one after a few minutes of walking.
He felt the dune. "Yeah, this should be cold inside. We just need to make a hole, preferably near the bottom so it'll support our weight more."
They got to work.
Aubrey spent the next three hours patting down the dune, digging, and getting sand thrown into her hair.
"Sorry," Josh would say, but then she'd catch his smirk and punch him.
They finally got a stable looking cylinder shaped hole going on. In one of the downward ridges in the sand dune, they dug a bit deeper. Deep enough to hide them, but not too deep as in the sand would fall on them. It had taken them a long time because the sand kept threatening to fall on them.
Aubrey huffed, blowing her hair out of her face. She was satisfied with her work.
Aubrey and Josh set up their sleeping bag, and hid the rest of their stuff in a nearby hole.
Aubrey wasn't sure what to do now that she was done, so she just sat on the sleeping bag. Josh joined her soon after. It was about late afternoon.
"So," Aubrey started. "What do we do now?"
Josh thought about it for a moment.
"Try not to die," he said softly.
Aubrey snorted just as softly. "Duh. I mean what do we do? I don't know about you, and I never thought I'd ever say this in the arena, but I'm—"
Josh slapped a hand over her mouth, looking scared.
"What?!" Aubrey exclaimed, pulling his hand away.
"Don't say it!"
"Say what?"
"The b word! Bored! Do you want another scorpion?! Because we'll sure as hell get one if you say what you were going to."
Aubrey nodded, seeing where he was coming from.
"Oh . . . okay. Well . . . wanna talk?"
Josh laughed. "T—that just sounded so weird. I never though I'd be having this conversation in the games. I thought it was all blood and death, and I'd be running for my life every five seconds."
"Well, you were wrong. The games actually do have some good in them."
Aubrey held her straight face for all of three seconds.
"Y—yeah right! Good in them my butt!" Aubrey almost choked on her laughter.
"Anyway," Josh continued once he calmed himself somewhat, "I guess we just talk."
"How's life?"
"Pretty sucky."
"Same."
"Yeah."
They both laughed again.
"Gosh, this feels so weird."
"Maybe it's just the stress getting to us. Or reality hasn't set in yet."
"Let's go with the second one."
"We'd better cherish this before reality does come."
"Agreed. Here's to living out of reality." Aubrey raised a fake glass.
"Here's to."
They sighed and became silent. The silence prompted Aubrey to think of home. Of Zane.
Goddammit.
Thinking of Zane brought on so many emotions that she wasn't prepared to deal with. She missed him more than words could ever explain. She'd never been in love before. She had loved, but had not been in love.
Until I met Zane, she thought bitterly.
She desperately wanted to think of home. Of Arianna, of Cady. But she couldn't because then she'd start blubbering, and she really didn't want that.
She silently grabbed Josh's hand, and he squeezed her's. They both needed each other's comfort.
A few more minutes passed in silence, until Aubrey felt her self drifting off. She lied down, and her last thought was of what would happen in these next few days.
Aubrey woke up to Josh shaking her awake.
"Time for dinner," he smiled, and held up the bread.
They ate mostly in silence, gobbling up the apples and the bread.
Just as Aubrey was finishing off the bread, the sky lit up.
The tributes flashed onto the screen, and Aubrey looked at them. This was the last recognition they would ever get, and it somewhat saddened her.
The boy from District Three, the girl from District Five, the boy from District Six, both from District Seven, the girl from District Eight, the girl from District Nine, and the girl from District Eleven.
Districts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and, of course, Twelve were still in.
Aubrey sighed. Eight dead, fifteen more to go. She wished none of them had to die, but there was nothing she could do about that.
She stared up at the sky.
Maybe someday, things would change. Maybe someday, they wouldn't have to die for someone else's fun.
Someday. Someday long in the future, she thought.
Aubrey volunteered for first watch, seeing as she had already slept earlier, and she didn't think she could fall asleep anyway.
Josh soon fell asleep, and the soft sound of him breathing was enough to relax her.
As she stared into the distance, she started to wonder. She wondered what was going on back home, and how everyone was feeling.
Were they glad that she didn't die on the first day? Were they proud? Were they doubting her, thinking it was a miracle that kept her alive? How was her family doing? Was Arianna okay?
Aubrey sighed and pushed those thoughts out of her head. She needed to be keeping watch, not daydreaming.
Not much happened. The scorpion came back, but it just ran off in another direction. A rat looking thing came out of the ground, but it scurried back in just as quick as it had come out. Some sand shifted here and there, and a cold breeze ran through.
Aubrey didn't want to, but she woke Josh up for his turn. She lied down in the sleeping bag, falling asleep almost instantly.