A few years ago, I got my glasses after my family had to nearly starve themselves to death to be able to afford them. Their sacrifice became meaningless the moment Sylvie fixed my eyes. She said she used something called a laser. It didn't hurt, but my eyes were slightly burning and uncomfortable during the Tribute Parade.
The Parade was one of the most embarrassing moments I had ever experienced. Gabrielle and I were only wearing bull skulls on our heads, nothing else. We were apparently supposed to look like dead cattle. We didn't. I still have no clue why our stylists chose those costumes to best represent our District. We were both shivering; Gabrielle shivered from the cold and I, from my nudity.
Now I feel exactly the way I did at that moment: vulnerable.
Lying on my belly, I suffer two additional blows to the back of my head from something extremely rigid. As my attacker presumably leaves, I press my palms to the ground to steady myself from the world that is spinning around me. The smell of blood consumes my nostrils. When I look up, I see Hunter hesitantly running towards me. Why is he hesitating?, I confusedly asked myself. I turn away and can't believe my eyes when I see a scrawny girl rummaging through the backpack that I dropped. She looks so familiar... Her eyes meet mine as she cautiously removes an axe from the pack. She smirks and raises the weapon above her head, ready to strike. I try to reach for the baseball bat she apparently used to hit me with, but I'm too late as a sword slashes her hands off.
I unintentionally scream as the thin sword slices through her a second time, creating a diagonal line from her shoulder to her hip. As her body falls, the cut rips open and drowns me in a sea of blood and guts. I now understand why they call it a Bloodbath. The stench of human blood makes me nauseous; it slightly differs from that of an animal. I'm just as stunned as I was when the mines blew up. I now anticipate her killer to attack; instead he mutters the word "run".
I try to move, make a run for it, but my body won't allow me. I stupidly lie there on my side, waiting. Waiting for what? I don't even know. I start to feel lightheaded, extremely lightheaded. Just as I'm about to pass out due to the open wound on the back of my skull, I feel a strong grip grab me by the collar and drag me out of the circle. The power of the pull almost chokes me, but a slight shift of my neck allows me to breathe again. I look up and see Hunter struggling to get me out of the circle. I try to stand on my own, but instead I stumble and bring the both of us down. Thankfully, we manage to stand once again and exit the circle in an incredible amount of time. I hand him one of the two backpacks I somehow held onto and sprint faster than I've ever sprinted before. At a reasonably far distance, I take one last look at the Golden Horn and note the great amount of red surrounding it.
Ben, my little brother, never liked blood. Every time a family member or I had to slit the throat of an animal, he would always look away or start crying. I used to be like him until about the age of seven, when I determined that crying would lead me nowhere. One day, if ever, I'll be able to see him all grown up.
After an hour or two of travelling, my eyes have somewhat adjusted to the dark. The arena is breathtakingly beautiful. If it weren't freezing cold, I'd love it even more. From what I've seen, the arena is composed of mountains, lots and lots of mountains. There's a river that ties them all together. Also, trees seem to be present everywhere except the area surrounding the Cornucopia. Hunter says they're called pine trees. They're apparently very common in District Seven. I don't think I've ever seen any in Ten though.
Jogging along the river, we passed three steep cliffs. Now we're passing our fourth. I think I see the sun starting to rise beyond it. Everything seems to be going along smoothly until Hunter stops abruptly. "Whoa," he exclaims. He sounded exactly like my father when he tries to calm one of the horses down. "What in the…" The road ahead of us has ended. I immediately turn on my heels and jog, no, run back. I can't see Hunter, but I can hear him splashing in the water that is starting to overlap our feet. "Ethan, hold up." I really don't want to wait for him to catch up, but something in my being forces me to.
However, as I do, I start to see the path in front of me melting into the river. "Turn back," I call. Whirling around, I can't spot Hunter, but a shift to my right shows me that he has started climbing the cliff. "What are you doing?"
"Escaping," he boldly answers. I take a look at the cliff and note that it's layered with flat rocks. "Ethan, hurry up." Because the water is almost up to my knees and Hunter is already halfway up the fifty foot wall, I start to climb. Scaling these rocks is easier said than done. My shoes and the bottom portion of my pants are soaked and heavy. To add to my struggle, I think the back of my skull has opened up again. I can feel my heart pounding through it. I can't think straight.
As I arrive to the top, the rock under my right foot breaks off. The rubble falls to the river, but thankfully, the grip that my nails have on the cliff keeps me safe. It takes me an immense amount of effort in order to pull myself up. In the process, I painfully rip out two of my left hand's nails. I sit myself up on the cliff's edge and grit my teeth as I examine my hand. The sight is disturbing: the nubs seem to stand and wave me hello. I wave back. They smile.
"Ethan, get a grip," comes Hunter voice. I snap out of the world I somehow fell into and stare at him blankly. "Let's find something for that." With this, he removes his pack and starts to empty out its contents. The first thing he grabs is an unmarked plastic bag of dried meat. Judging by its dark colour, I assume it is dehydrated beef. However, it could also be an unusual animal that my friend, Jay, works with, like a camel or an antelope. I'd still prefer it to be beef though. "Better save this for later."
I thought that my feet would slowly dry off; instead, they're starting to freeze. I try not to think about it by watching the sun rise behind me. It works for a few seconds until the sharp pain of my nails, or what used to be my nails, returns. While Hunter searches through his pack, I occupy myself by doing the same with mine. Before now, I never appreciated how useful my nails were. Opening my bag's zipper burns. When I finally do, I find it filled with clothing items. "Perfect," I say a little too loudly.
"What? What is it?" excitedly asks Hunter as he peeks into my backpack. He catches a glimpse of the garments and smiles. "Great, I'm freezing." He reaches behind him then shows me two glass bottles. "Look what I found." One of them is filled with water, the other is empty. "I'm parched, but we'd better save this for later." My head nods but my mind disagrees.
I'm about to return to my bag's contents when the sound of a cannon startles me. Hunter and I stare at each other then turn to listen for more. The blasts of cannons continue for about a minute. When they definitively stop, I look at Hunter and say, "Eleven."
Hunter looks at the hand he's leaning on and replies, "Same." My heart sinks as the meaning of those cannons suddenly dawns onto me. There's a bittersweet feeling that's playing around in my head. I bet Hunter feels the same way. "Do... Do you think they made it?" For a moment, I have no clue what he's talking about. Then I remember that his District partner, the District Twelve girl and Gabrielle had an alliance going on. An alliance of three people wasn't a smart move to make, but our mentors said nothing about it. I personally hate alliances, even my own with Hunter took a while for me to approve. Nevertheless, I hope theirs survived.
My left hand digs into the snow, cooling off my burning scars. "I sure hope so," I answer. Silence overcomes us as the sky brightens up. I stare at the forest across the river and notice a family of musk ox. I'm pretty sure they're musk ox. Back in school, we'd studied nothing but different types of animals. We studied which ones were edible, which ones were poisonous, and which ones were poisonous yet edible. Now that I think about it, studying most of those animals deemed useless since most of them were never harvested for their meat.
I break the silence by grabbing my bag and dumping all of its contents on the ground. Hunter glances over the items then continues to watch the river flow. I remove my shoes and strap on one of two pairs of hard leather boots. The inside is lined with what I think is wool, but it is far finer and softer than any wool I've ever felt. I can instantly feel my toes warming up. I unintentionally moan from its comfort. Hunter consequently rolls his eyes at me then removes something from his pack. He straps a watch to his wrist. "It's only quarter past noon," he says. I raise my eyebrows in shock. Back in District Ten, I've never seen the sun rise at noon. It usually rises at about five in the morning. I don't understand this arena.
I carry on searching through the contents of my pack. Besides the two pairs of boots, it also contains a shirt, thick gloves, thin gloves, ear muffs, a small bag of salt, and something that looks a light bulb filled with red liquid. Hunter is pretty sure he'd seen that somewhere before, but he can't remember where. His pack contains the two glass bottles, the bag of jerky, the watch that he now wears, a small jar of honey, a mallet that we use back in District Ten to tenderize meat, some string, a large bag of lentils, and a roll of duct tape. If you ask me, I think we ended up with a great bundle of items. Still, I regret not holding onto the third backpack.
With my consent, Hunter forces my nails back down. I scream in pain. He then tightly wraps my fingers with the duct tape. I end up in tears, but I barely feel the tips of my fingers anymore.
We continue our path along the cliff's edge until we are faced with a steep incline. However, to the side, above the river, we find a hidden path barely a foot wide. Far in the distance, the path seems to come to an end, but as we approach it, it becomes clear that it takes an abrupt turn into the cliff. We subsequently follow the winding corridor and end up in a cave about the size of a Capitol bedroom. It's quite neat to be frank. The icy walls bring in the light from the outside. This cave is truly stunning.
"I think this is a perfect place to set up camp," says Hunter, looking around. "What do you think?"
"I was thinking the exact same thing," I reply. I drop my bag to the ground and rest my head on it. I didn't even know I was sleepy, but after a few minutes, I pass out.
I dream that I'm back in District Ten, standing by Jay in the eighteen-year-old-male section. When they call out Gabrielle's name, I'm glad that six of my cousins are safe for yet another year. A white ribbon keeps her brown hair up in a clean bun, which makes her look taller than she actually is. She's wearing a white hand-me-down frock with clearly worn-out shoes. Yet, her ensemble is still better than half of the other kids' outfits. She walks to the stage with her head held up high and is greeted by District Ten's escort, Jenny.
After a quick interview, Jenny heads to the other glass ball, digs her hand deep into the mass of tiny folded papers and grabs one. She returns to her microphone, clears her throat, and announces the unlucky victim's name. I don't hear the name, but I smirk for having survived seven Reapings. Almost everyone stares at me. "Ethan Beau," announces Jenny a second time. It's not until Jay nudges my foot with his that I realize that the name belongs to me. My smirk disappears for a second but quickly returns as I notice images of myself on the big screens. I walk to the stage and am greeted by the blue-skinned escort. As she interviews me, a loud cry comes from the thirteen-year-old-male section. I look in its general direction and immediately see two Peacekeepers rushing towards Ben. One Peacekeeper holds his arms while the other takes out a gun. For a second he takes aim, and before I know it, he shoots Ben.
"No!" I shout in disbelief.
This is when I wake up. I know for a fact my little brother didn't get shot, but my dream, or shall I say nightmare, felt so real. I look around the cave. It seems something is missing, something truly important. I ponder and think, and ponder and think, but nothing arrives. Finally, after a few long minutes, it dawns onto me...
Hunter is nowhere to be found.