Try.
But just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die. You've gotta get up and try.
Tauria Copin, District Seven Female.
The air is thick in tension as we stare across from each other. Me and Lorelei; the girl who murdered my ally. Her spear rolls around in her hand, idle, waiting to be thrown and miss. I say it that with no conviction though. It could hit. She has an advantage with a weapon that won't need to be close to hit. I mean, she could throw it and I don't doubt that she's a great shot, her score was proof of that.
"Aren't you going to make the first move?" I taunt her in the hopes that she'll throw, miss, and then I can kill.
"No chance," Lorelei smiles back, a mix of smug and honesty. "Tauria, isn't it? I am sorry about your ally. I wasn't actually going out of my way to hurt either of you two, yet you attacked me?"
"You still killed her."
"Because you tried to kill me," Lorelei counters. "I'm sorry. She didn't do anything, and you're right, I should have killed you. However, you should have just ignored me and not bothered trying to take me out."
"Isn't that the point of the Games? The point of why you're trained for this all?"
I can see the spark of fire in her eyes at my last words, and that brings up a confident smile on my own face. So, the Career is conscious about actually being a Career. A strange complexity, if you think about. That's like me being conscious about being reaped, when really, there isn't much I could do about it. She had a chance to avoid it, and yet, she took up the opportunity to run through these halls and murder all the innocent children forced into this game of cat and mouse with the Careers.
"I volunteered for reasons your pretty little head would never be able to comprehend," Lorelei glares. "But, if this is your trick of baiting me out, it's not working. If anything, it's making me more pissed off when once again, I wasn't even thinking about killing you."
"Then why hold the spear like that?" I point to it.
"The boy from One, he's the one I wanted," Lorelei rolls her eyes. "If anything, it seems that you are stalking me in the hopes that you could take me down. Yet, you just mentioned I was trained for this and you wasn't, so..."
I open my mouth to respond, when she reacts quickly, pulling back the spear with frightening speed and launching it forward. It daggers through the air towards me and I throw myself down on the ground to avoid it. I hear her footsteps run over as I roll myself over, but her boot jolts out and kicks me in the side, knocking me back on my stomach. She wraps her hand in my short locks, forcing me up onto my feet, before she throws me backwards, my head smacking against the golden skin of the Cornucopia. I react, though, and manage to slap the back of my hand across her face. She staggers backwards but regains her composure quickly, too.
I take in a few deep breaths as I start to swing my hatchet, Lorelei avoiding it each time, silver just missing her skin. She ducks on the next go, delivering an uppercut into my stomach. The force is enough to force me to drop the hatchet as I fall to the ground in pain.
She growls, a guttural sound, as she delivers another kick into my stomach.
"Stupid girl," Lorelei hisses. "I didn't even want to kill you or your ally!"
Another kick.
"I wanted to be on my own. To do my own thing. You're the one that keeps finding me, keeps trying to attack me!"
Another kick that causes a bit of blood to dribble down my chin from my lips.
"If anything, you got your ally killed. You want karma for something that you basically caused!"
The next kick makes me cry out as tears pepper my eyes. I can hear Lorelei's ragged breath. I can see stars everywhere, smothering the ground my face is pressed against. Just as I think it's over, another kick flies into my stomach. Everything starts to go numb and I can barely hear anything anymore. It's like water is lodged into my ears, blocking it all out. She disappears from near me, and when she returns, I know my fate is sealed. The sharp pain of the spear jabbing down into my back feels more like a tingle. I strain my eyes on the floor beneath me, watching it turn from white to a blood red.
I hear a grinding noise.
Closely followed by my cannon as the darkness engulfs me.
Gavan Dior, District Six Male.
Me and Cameron stand there, mouths agape at the destruction from across the gap. A large rock, the size of a small truck that often shipped mechanical parts around Six, sits in the middle of the room, glass haphazardly spread out around it, fire and smoke drifting out. We didn't see it coming, but the noise was like a bomb going off. Cameron shot up almost instantly, her hand wrapped around my wrist and yanking me up, too.
After our conversation, it's safe to say that Cameron has slightly returned. She'll never be the same after what happened, but for now, she has her spirit back, if only a little.
"A meteor," Cameron deadpans. "Are you fucking kidding me? That's the next type of weather to endure?"
Cameron looks at me with the usual, aggravated look on her face when she's not happy. But, somehow, it makes me smile. Not because she's unhappy or the fact they are now throwing flaming rocks down on us, but because if Cameron is angry and not acting sad, it means she's back, it means that she's going to continue rather than give up, which I was so worried that she would do. Cameron spins around and walks over to collect another hatchet from the shop wall. Jack's one that she was using was left in Mirana's chest.
"Where are we going?" I ask, rubbing my hands together.
"I think we should leave," Cameron says, grabbing the backpack from the floor and chucking it at me to catch. "If that happened just now, it could come again, only this time, in our shop. Gotta keep mobile, my dear Gavan."
I hold the backpack close, slightly more worried than I should be and still trying not to smile at Cameorn's wit. A confusing set of feelings to handle. "And the other tributes?"
"We'll have to take them on," she flashes me the hatchet with a grim expression. "It's pretty obvious what they're doing. The rocks aiming at the shops? It's probably to smoke us out, you know, bring us all out onto the walkway to see and face each other. A bloody battle."
"It's getting boring." I say, finishing her sentence and watching her nod.
"Exactly," Cameron grabs another hatchet from the wall and begins to walk towards me, but I flinch, stepping back. "What?"
"You know I don't like sharp objects," I defend myself. "They freak me out and they're dangerous, Cameron."
"You crawled across glass to save Mirana, Gavan, I think you've passed that."
"Nope."
"Gavan-"
"Nope," I say, holding my ground. "I done that out of madness, not will."
"You're the one that said this place turns people crazy," Cameron smirks, but it's just not the same as before. "Change crazy to mad, and then, you're a hypocrite."
Something tells me not to really fight it anymore. I feel defeated as it is. We've lost two allies. A giant spider has attacked. The weather is changing so constantly, it's hard to get your body to feel comfortable in it, and to top it off, flaming rocks are now showering down on us. Yet, Cameron just shrugs and keeps the hatchet, looping it through her belt so that the sharp part sits near her chest.
"I'll remind you not to hug me."
"I wouldn't anyway," I say with a half-smile. "Germs and all."
"And here I was thinking you were becoming sane," Cameron smiles softly. "Glad to have you back, Gav."
She walks pass me and runs her hand across my shoulder, before I follow. Outside the door, nothing seems worse, except the smoke from the rock towering up to the sky, meeting another spiral of thick smog. We heard the crash earlier and Cameron freaked for that, too, but we didn't see anything. Now, it's obvious that the first meteor of the day hit the floor two above us. I wonder if anyone is up there, affected? We'll never know.
Cameron sneaks around the walkway, much like when we went down to play in the snow; when everything began to fall apart slowly.
Somehow, it reminds me of being home, being around white and clean tiles. At home, I cleaned. I cleaned day in and day out, making sure there wasn't a speck of dirt or grime around my house to possibly attack me in the night. Some people think I act irrational or just plain crazy. Really, I don't see anything wrong with my personality. I care about what happens to my body; more people should. Then again, it didn't help my parents being totally slobs and never bothering to really lift a finger. If it wasn't for me cleaning the house, then it would never be tidy. I couldn't handle that. I just couldn't.
"Are you okay?" Cameron whispers, snapping me out of my trance.
When I look at her confusingly, I realise that once again, I'm rubbing my hands together frantically over the mere thought of it all. A sort of comfort for me when everything gets crazy. Cameron gently moves her hand over, laying it on top of mine and softly smiling. Usually, I'd be freaking out about her touching me; about the germs and the diseases that lie on her skin, waiting to jump onto mine. But in a place like this where violence and dirt is obvious, you can't exactly avoid it all.
With her hand still on mine, me and Cameron walk slowly around the walkway, my eyes trained on the ground. That's when I see the white tiles flash a pink, followed by a grinding noise of sorts. Our heads snap up as the roof shoots out a fiery rock that hurtles towards us. Cameron yanks my wrist as hard as she can as she launches forward. We fly past the glass window of a water bottle shop as the rock crashes through it, just missing us. The explosion sets us off our feet, pushing us to the floor, and with a thump, I headbutt the tiles.
Stars pepper my vision, but Cameron yanks me up as another grinding noise happens, followed by another explosion just a few metres from where we were before.
Everything is a blur, Cameron dragging me around the walkway and down a broken escalator as more meteors rain down on us, crashing through the shops, smoking us all out.
Addilyn Helix, District Three Female.
The chaos around us is evident. The first meteor hit us, the next went down and hit another level, and then, it was like rapid gun fire. Constant molten rocks just firing one after the other at all the windows. I haven't heard no screams, so no-one's been taken out, but that didn't stop Alto from worrying. He grabbed Koel's unconscious body roughly, dragging him along the walkway and into the hall that the stairs are protected by.
It's not ideal, but it's encased by cement, and that might camouflage us from the shower.
But, my eyes never leave the barrier. The rocks just pass through them like they don't exist. It's solid and electrified, but goes translucent when the rocks pass through. It fades, the rock passes, and then it crackles as it comes back. It's interesting. One moment it's electrified, the next moment it's like a water wall, standing tall but blending.
"Addilyn, we need to raise his head," Alto says, and so, I scoop my hands under Koel's hand and lay it on the step above. "It needs to stay up, otherwise, the glass might slip further downwards."
Alto couldn't get the glass out, but I wasn't going to tell Koel that. Besides, Koel fell unconscious straight after, probably from shock. Then, I cried. I cried. Not something I thought I would ever be able to do in public. Back home in Three, my parents are rich and high. We come from a high social standing family, and so, etiquette and poise are a must. From that, I was told to not show emotion. To not cry or get angry.
'To be seen and not heard' - that was the most repetitive saying. To be around to let everyone believe they are family-orientated people, but not speak, because children just don't do that in front of company or important people.
"Addi..." Alto mumbles quietly. "H-He's not going to last long."
"I know." I reply numbly.
I can see the conflict in Alto's eyes. Something tells me he never meant to get this attached. Another crash happens outside, only this time, it's followed by a piercing scream. A girl's, but no cannon follows in the silence that falls. It doesn't seem like long, but hours flood by as each window gets pulverized by the oncoming rocks. One after the other after the other. It smashes all the windows in the entire arena, smoking us out, leaving everyone well and truly out in the open. It gets darker and cold as night arrives.
The sky goes pitch black after a while, white streaks of light pushing across the floor barely; everything else is covered by the thick smoke that invades the air.
The anthem plays out, confirming the three recent deaths since the girl from One jumped into the sky.
The girl from Seven is the first picture to appear, a confident, happy smile on her face that just reminds everyone that she was a girl, killed for survival, and her personality couldn't save her. She's followed by the boy from Eight, face stony, and then, the boy from Ten, who looked like one of the biggest contenders besides the Careers. My heart sinks a little after that. Three Careers still wander the walkway out of the eight remaining tributes.
Count me, Alto and Koel out of that, two other tributes still walk...
I don't remember who until after a while since I haven't seen them at all. The girl from Five and the boy from Six; both still alive, maybe dying, maybe bleeding out right now, could even be the scream from earlier. We'll never know until the cannon rings out. I breathe in hard, letting my breath come out in a thick, clear smoke. My teeth chatter and Alto hands me a blanket from the backpack he saved.
"We're nearly there," Alto mumbles again. "Seven more to die."
"Which means either you or me or both of us." I reply through the chatter of my teeth.
That suddenly brings a whole new meaning to this. Here we are, the three of us with an ally already dead, fighting together, working together, surviving together; in a game where together doesn't exist. Where you can't walk away with your friend, your ally, the only person whose kept you sane. No. They have to die in order for your heart to continue beating. And that's... That is really sad. I want to go home but I don't want Koel or Alto to die. Alto looks at me and smiles softly.
"It won't be either of us," Alto runs a hand over Koel's shivering form, checking his skin and pulse. "If anyone out of us will survive, it's you, Addi."
"Not necessarily."
"Very necessarily," Alto laughs a little which releases the tension a bit. "You have more potential than both me and Koel put together."
"Not nec-"
"Yes, don't argue," Alto smirks. "I might have killed a Career, but it was a moment of madness. I doubt I could do it again. You could electrify this whole arena and kill us all if you really thought about it."
The silence creeps up on us quickly; me, Alto and Koel just sat in the darkness, dressed alike, shivering, injured differently with the pain still the same. The light seems to make Alto's burns more prominent. The smoke continues to wisp through the air, and somehow, I'm too focused on that to notice the footsteps coming closer and closer until it's right on top of us. Alto snaps his head around, the hand finding his face and whipping across. He slams against the steps and rolls down the rest of the way. I look, and through the illumination, I notice the girl from Four; the Career.
She launches across with wild eyes as I throw myself over Koel's unconscious body. Her hands grasp at my back and yank me upwards, swinging and throwing me back out along the walkway. I slide against the smudged tiles, eyes still locked on Four as she climbs over slyly and wraps both her hands around Koel's throat. He can't fight back. A scream bubbles from my throat as I run forward. I don't know what I'm doing until I'm there, but as I get near and she looks up, my fist flies outwards, connecting with her chin. She releases her grip and from behind, I watch Alto notch an arrow.
He pulls the string back, lets go, and it pings forward.
He's not a perfect shot. The arrow slices straight through Four's body, through the back and out the stomach on the side of her abdomen. She howls out in pain and blood pours from the wound, and that's when I finally notice the green puss and liquid oozing from a burn stretching up her legs. She must have been the scream earlier. I fumble for the wires in my backpack, wrapping it around the tip of the arrow as Four staggers back and forth, eyes rolling into her head. Running across the gap, much like the spider, I throw the exposed end of the wires against the barrier. I watch with wild and scared eyes as bolt after bolt surges into Four's body. It convulses, blackens and smokes, until she drops and a cannon fires.
I let out a relieved sigh.
And then, the second cannon booms straight after.
Everything tightens in my body as I stagger forward. Alto climbs up the stairs, unharmed, apart from the green puss starting to bubble in his exposed wound. Our eyes meet and I know he's thinking exactly the same. We move our eyes to Koel's body, laid next to Four's blackened one. Alto bends over and places two fingers to his neck, letting out a gurgled, held cry when it's confirmed.
Koel is dead.
And like before, the emotions catch up to me. They spill from my eyes. I never would have cried when I was back in District Three. I'm not there, though, am I? After all of this, if I was to go back, I couldn't live the same. I just couldn't.
I'm just not the same person anymore.
Try by P!nk.
The blog for this story is - glasshousehungergames . blogspot. com - just take out the spaces. Deaths will be notified there.
Tauria Copin, District Seven.
Lorelei Avalon, District Four.
Koel Spelt, District Nine.
Sorry to the submitters that lost their tribute. In all honest, these were the tributes I struggled to write and connect too, and in all fairness, I couldn't keep them around and constantly struggle throughout. Please stick around, but if you don't, that's fine. These are the Hunger Games and this is how it works.
Again, I'm sorry.
Since there is no points system now, a question might be asked sometimes that I would love for you to answer.
Final six! One more has to die before the final five are revealed. Who do you think should not make the final five?
All deaths will be based on realism, favoritism, and whether or not the submitter is reading the story (obviously, reviews let me know this). Each decision is painstakingly hard, but must be done. Another factor will be whether or not I see a future for your tribute, or whether I can write more and more for them.
krigoo, Jaine and especially Bells, your tributes were fantastic and I'm sorry they didn't make it!
There is exactly 3 chapters for the Games left.
This time, though, I'm going to write an extra chapter after the final fight. It'll be set outside the Games with our Victor, concerning their interview with Caesar, looking over the best bits and all that, much like Katniss and Peeta did once they were set free. Then, the obituaries and life after for the Victor will be posted, rather than being posted alongside the final fight. Just a warning for you all.
Shorter chapters expected!