Author's Note: I would like to give shout-out to Radio Free Death because they reviewed my story. It made me happy to realize that someone was reading this besides my friends and family. I will change some of the things you pointed out. Also, I realized that the Gamemaker sessions should have happened on the third day, not the fourth.
Chapter 5: Dizzy
Number Of Different POVs: 2
CLEO'S POV (DISTRICT 7 FEMALE)
My stylist gives me the outfit to wear: A green, tight shirt and tight black pants, as well as supple leather boots. Her name is Zoe Restin. "These clothes won't help you much in the way of—well, anything, really except for movement. They are stretchy. But heat and cold will penetrate this thing like a hot knife through butter, but more deadly," she tells me. I idly finger my district token: a small, smooth twig encased in a perfect sphere of amber.
I step into the launch tube and take a deep breath. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. The ride up feels long. I wonder if they always transport the tributes earlier than the cameras go on in case something goes wrong. But when I reach the top, I see why it took longer than I thought. I am on a wooden cylinder in the air. There are 12 of these, with two tributes on each. The boy from 12 is with the girl from 1 and their partners are together. Same with 11 and 2, 10 and 3, etc. The Cornucopia lies on a flat rock in a shallow pool. Around it is woods, stretching on as far as I can see. I almost break down right there, but manage to hold it together. I feel like an idiot because I know my face is pale from fear. My mind, though I try to keep it in the arena, is lost to memory as it so often is.
I am only seven years old as I breath in the smell of trees after a fresh rain. I can't keep the smile of springtime off of my face. Looking at all of the children and adults with their axes, the youngest a year older than me, I feel so eager to turn eight so I can join them that I take a stick and snap it again and again.
But my dream morphs into a nightmare quickly when I see my dad, who has climbed up a tree to count the trees we have cut down so far. He needs a high perch to count the stumps. Another person who doesn't realize my dad is still up there, takes an axe and swings. I shout to him to stop, but he can't here so he swings again and again.
My dad falls to the ground. Without looking, I know he couldn't survive that kind of a fall. My mother runs to him and holds his head in her knees, sobbing. I creep up nervously, only to have strong arms take me to the community home. I fight the person but in my ear they whisper, "Ladies and gentleman! Let the 60th annual Hunger Games begin!" gong sounds and I return to the present and all that remains of my future, in this arena.
I cannot climb down this pillar but I can in no way throw myself off, no matter how much I want to. I can't die as my father did, falling from wood. Better to stay here and, in the next few days, die of thirst and hunger. I turn to the boy from 6 to beg him to throw me down, but he has started climbing down already. I watch everyone else, but I feel too nervous to climb down. I will not last the first week.
LUCIA'S POV (GAMEMAKER)
I press a button and the launch begins. For me, this is the best bit of the Games: watching the tributes emerge and take in the arena, or what they see of it. They don't know that beyond the woods, the arena is split in two: tropical and arctic. Some of them have pale faces, others confused, others excited. A few just seem to look and see, but not show any emotion. They must be planning strategy. Not likely to work, with the surprises we have for them.
I press the gong button and watch them. One of the tributes, the 12 boy, a pale little kid with glasses whose name I remember is Foculus, seems completely unfazed. My fingers itch to change that. But Seneca sees it on my expression and shakes his head. So I just watch. The girl from One is on his pillar. The boy from One is with the girl from 12. The girl from 11 is with the boy from 2, and their district partners are together. Suddenly, the girl from One charges him and he just ducks. She goes running off of the edge and hits the ground. She isn't dead, but somewhere close. Her left leg is bent at an odd angle and so is her right arm. She can't move and just lies there until she bleeds to death.
Foculus climbs down slowly and carefully. He is a quarter of the way down when his arm falls from its perch, bloodied. He is swaying, and a good gust of wind could finish him off, but I wait. For now. Another knife hits his calf and he falls. He slams face-first into the ground and doesn't get up. I look at his vital stats, given to us by the tracker in his arm, and see his heart is pumping very quickly but he is passed out. The boy from Four walks over to him and grabs him around his neck for a few seconds. His vital stats go dark. I hit a button to let Seneca know that we've got one down, because he is in charge of the cannon at the end of the bloodbath, which is normally my job, but it's his first year as Head and he wants everything to go perfectly.
I see the girl from 6 hit the ground and lay still. They won't move again. Meanwhile, the majority of the Careers are looking confused as they pick over the Cornucopia. I smile to myself because I had the idea to put only food, water, and medical supplies inside the Cornucopia. There is rope, but only one coil and it glows in the dark. The tributes, however, also don't know that some of the food is poisonous when it enters your bloodstream. This isn't unheard of, only uncommon. I was a child and watched a Hunger Games where the only foods in the Cornucopia were poisonous, which was a delightful twist but made for a short Games.
The girl from 3 is locked in battle with the boy from 11. He wrestles with her until he has her pinned on the ground. He must've known abut the poisonous foods because he stuffs a nightlock berry in her mouth and she lies still on the ground. The Careers kill less than usual, but manage to take out the boys from 7 and 8, the girl from 5, and the boy from 10.
The Careers grabbed some food and left towards the tropical area. The Arctic area, which was on the other side of the arena, beckoned to both from 11 and the girl from 12, who appeared to have an alliance. The girl from 7 is till on her pillar with her face pale. Fear of heights. It's ironic, considering her parents were probably lumberjacks. The girl from 8 and both from 9 fled towards the tropical area as soon as they got to the ground. The girl from 10 and the boy from 3 ran towards the Arctic.
Of course, none of the tributes knew they were headed to either place because woods surrounded the Cornucopia for a while. Seneca looks at each of us and we all nod to say that all of the losing tributes are reported. He presses a button on his screen and eight booms ring out around the arena. I am in charge of muttations this year, so I decide to prepare one that will simply remind the tributes who get too comfortable where they are. Of course, the reminder may result in losing, but it will serve its purpose for the others. I decide to include a psychological twist. I begin work on the humanoid monsters.