"What's one less person on the face of the earth, anyway?" -Ted Bundy
District One Lynsa Fylar's POV
First, that orientation appeared out of no where.
One minute I had been talking to Aphrodite, the next I had gone to bed, that much I remembered. But when I woke up, I felt as if I had a headache. It was mild and I felt as if I hadn't really fallen asleep, but it was nothing that I couldn't handle. The question of why was what bugged me.
Where had it come from? Why did I feel as if I never really slept?
That headache, I forgot all about it when that guy showed up with that gun. It was sudden and quite confusing for me since my brain didn't get the time to process everything before it became clear. And just like that, nothing else seemed to matter except what was going on in front of me. Only that man seemed to matter.
Between the sudden appearance of that mad man, the gun shots, the shouting, and the bloodbath, of which a boy had half his body blown up and screamed agony until he died, the whole thing was simply overwhelming. My head was spinning, and that made it hard to concentrate. Hard to keep a grip on myself. Too many things were happening at once. I felt as if I was going to puke. I just wanted things to slow down so that I could process what was going on so that I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed.
I struggled to remember just what had happened during that timeline.
Angry man. Gun. Bullets being shout. Shouting. Something about rules. Bloodbath. Boy's legs exploding. Me running.
Where had I ran? Nowhere. Or, just about nowhere. I ran towards the cornucopia with fog running through my mind, because I didn't know what else to do. Was I scared? Maybe a little, but I was more shocked than anything else. I heard the gong, and knew that I had to run, but that was about it. Run Lynsa, just run. That's what my mind told me before I did just that.
And then, I became even more scared because nothing seemed to make sense. The running, the gathering, all the bodies that came and went past me, and I think someone yelled at me but I didn't understand what they said. Everything was a blur and everything was distorted. I didn't know what to make of it. This entire situation was just too confusing.
Now that the fog was clearing from my mind, I started to see more clearly and was able to think. Finally starting to feel in control of my mind and body, I observed my surroundings to try and gain an understanding of what was happening.
I could see that I was standing in the middle of the cornucopia, looking at the supplies in front of me. Large black, rectangular crates that were just about touching the cornucopia itself. They looked heavy, and I wasn't surprised that anybody had tried to carry them away from here. It would have been suicide to even think about it. Not that some of the tributes could have seen them anyway. Only those facing the east could have seen them, and even then they might have been blinded by the sun. So really, no surprise that nothing here was taken.
I turned around to see what was around me, and while most of it was the normal bloodbath field, I finally saw what I was in. I saw that there was a forest in front of me. Nothing but a simple forest.
But among the scenery I saw the District Twelve boy, Colin, laying on his side in a big pool of blood. Not only that, but the entire frontal section of his body was covered in red. And as I looked closer, I could see that he was the boy that the landmines first incapacitated, and then killed due to either shock, blood loss, or both. I couldn't help but think that it was a horrible death. And an unnecessary one at that.
Why had that happened to him? Did the landmines just explode? Did he run off the platform? If so, why would he do that? Didn't he know about the mines? Or was something else going through his mind as the countdown went down.
I don't know what he was thinking, or what the circumstances were, but all I knew was that his death wasn't quick, nor was it painless.
Now wondering what fate others had suffered, I walked around the golden horn to see the carnage. And surprisingly, there wasn't much, but what I did saw was almost as brutal as Colin's.
The District Nine girl, Talliana, her head was busted open and her brains were splattered on the ground like a stomped on meat pastry. Her lower jaw and what was left of her head could have been used as some sort of diabolical bowl. The back of her shirt was torn, and from the injury that she had sustained, I could see torn flesh, some areas were so deep that I could see bits of her spine.
It surprised me that brains looked more brown than the textbook pink that we all thought they looked like. And spines, they were a light brown colour as well. It was all the more disturbing now that I had that knowledge. All that time I thought that it looked different because of the cameras, but now I saw that they were just as they were broadcasted.
There was another dead body near the ruined city area of the arena. That District Six guy, whatever his name was. I couldn't remember who he was, but I'm sure that I'll remember what he looked like now that he was dead.
He was even paler than he originally was, and he was laying face down in a large puddle of blood. A small, rectangular hole was on his back and a piece of his head and right hand was missing as well.
And those were all the corpses that were in the bloodbath field. Three bodies, nothing more, giving our kill count a total of two tributes. Probably the lowest that we've had in over a centaury. I can't remember a time when we've had a bloodbath count of at least seven. This wasn't good for us, or the viewers. They expected blood, and they weren't going to be satisfied with such a small number of deaths at the very beginning.
"Two." I said to myself as I looked at the carnage one last time as I walked back to the place that I had first became fully aware in the arena.
"Two what?" I heard a voice next to me ask.
A little bit surprised to hear a voice close to me, I looked towards the source, and saw my District Four ally, Eva, looking at me. I calmed down a little when I realized that it was just her.
"Two deaths." I told her, thinking about the District Nine girl and the District Six boy. "We only got two bloodbath kills."
"Three actually," I heard someone say below me. I looked down, and saw our little twelve year old ally, Howl, below me, smirking like she always did. "I killed the District Five girl, Valerie, before she got dragged into the forest by that white haired freak." She told us proudly.
Okay then, three kills by us, plus one by landmines. It was still a small amount though, nothing too special.
"So that's it, huh?" I heard someone shout angrily. Turning towards the sound, along with Eva and Howl, we saw Lucifer walking towards us with his eyes burning hatred and his face injured and bloody. "Three kills? Three fucking kills? That's fucking pathetic, all of you!"
This was the first time that I've seen Lucifer angry. He wasn't angry when he got in the fight with Rayne, he wasn't angry when Aerin had rejected the career invitation, not even when Howl made some of her nastier comments. But now, seeing him like this, it made him look like a different person than the funny guy that he tried to be. The joking was over, and now he was serious. More serious than ever, and I didn't know what to expect.
"What happened to your face?" Howl asked, still smirking. "Did you get beat up?"
"Shut up girl!" Lucifer shouted before turning to me, staring at me with cold eyes. "Lynsa! Where were you? We could of used your help during the bloodbath! What the hell were you doing? Standing around with your thumb up your ass or something?"
"I-" I started, trying to think my way out of this. I couldn't tell them that I was scared, or confused, they'd just look at me like I was weak, and I couldn't have that happen. They'd look at me like I was weaker than Eva, or Shoney. No offence to them, but they didn't really have high expectations of them, even after they got their eights in training. I couldn't let them look at me like that. "I couldn't find a bow and arrows." I explained, which was half true. In my confusion, I couldn't find anything.
"Pathetic." The District Two tributes said in synchronization before I heard something being roughly knocked down. I looked ahead and saw that Griffin had kicked over a rack of weapons, of which I saw a bow and a quiver of arrows among them. Griffin looked at me as if to say 'there's your bow and arrows'. That hurt me, that really did.
Before I could say anything else, I saw that Lucifer had turned his attention to our red headed ally.
"And you, reaped career girl, what's your excuse?" Eva looked at him, fearless, like she didn't seem to care what he thought of her. Either that or she had gotten used to the displeasure that he and Howl and Griffin had always shown her. I'd like to think both.
"There were hardly any tributes running towards the cornucopia." She told him confidently. Fearlessly. I envied her at the moment, thinking of how bad I had responded. "And those that did had gotten away, or got killed, before I got near them." I saw Lucifer faintly smile before he replied.
"Fine. Fair enough. If you're telling the truth."
"Which I am." She retorted. But it was a waste of breath as Lucifer had turned his attention to someone else, Arrowe, who I saw had a knife in the side of the stomach.
I was shocked to see that he had gotten stabbed already. Most of the time, us careers and our allies get away with either minor wounds or not injured at all. Arrowe had a weapon deep in his side, and he was clutching it tightly to try and slow down the blood flow.
"Man," Arrowe groaned out of both annoyance and pain. "Don't even start with me, I've got a knife in my gut!" He winced in pain right after his speech.
"I was just going to ask how you got stabbed." Lucifer told him, asking the question for the rest of us. I really was wondering how Arrowe got stabbed. I was worried about him to, so I went looking for a first aid kit among the supplies.
"My district partner, Talliana," Arrowe answered though gritted teeth. "She collided with me and stabbed me before I even had a chance to react."
"You could have stabbed her." Lucifer pointed out to him.
"I wasn't thinking about that," Arrowe justified. "I was stabbed man, stabbed." I don't think many tributes would be thinking after getting stabbed. It was probably the first time Arrowe had been in a situation like that, so I wish that Lucifer would take it easy on him.
"At least you got right to the point of things." Howl called out. It was lame, but it got a chuckle out of her, Lucifer, and Arrowe, who stopped in the middle of his chuckle. I was sure that talking, and laughing, wasn't helping him.
"You there!" I suddenly heard Lucifer shout angrily. I turned towards Lucifer to see who he was shouting at now, only to see that District Three male, Tharizdun, staring out into the forest like there was something fascinating in there. "I thought you were supposed to be a feared killer! Why didn't you kill anyone?"
The biggest member of our pack, slowly, creepily, turned towards us. His sharp, pointed teeth were showing because of his sadistic smile. It gave me the shivers before he even started talking.
"I let them go." He answered simply.
"You what?" Lucifer yelled in as much surprise as us careers probably had inside us, just thinking about what he had just said. "You let them go? Why? Why would you do such a stupid thing?"
Yeah. Why would he just let tributes run free? What was the point? I never imagined that this guy would do something like that.
Tharizdun continued to smile as he answered.
"We're going to have some fun looking for them. I mean, the fun would have been cut in half if I didn't hunt for them. Hunt for them...hunt for them...hunt for them." So that's what it was, he didn't kill them because he couldn't, he let them go for the sport of finding them. He was going to hunt them down and kill them like a kid looked for buried treasure. I looked back to Lucifer, and again, he didn't look pleased with the response he got, but he pressed his teeth together and let out a low growl before turning back to the crates that held the majority of our supplies.
"Whatever then! We'll hunt them down later! And where's Shoney?"
Surprised, I looked around to see where Shoney was, only to find out that he was missing. He was nowhere in sight.
"Have you seen him anywhere, Eva?" I asked my ally, hoping that she had seen him somewhere.
"No." She said with the same shocked reply that I had had. "He was with us when we arrived here, right?"
"He was." I confirmed. Though I hadn't seen him, or remembered seeing him, I'm sure that he was with us, he had to be. We were all here, and everyone gets sent into the arena. Unless he's dead and got dragged into the city, or the forest.
No, that couldn't happen, he was a career, he was good at fighting, and it's not like he abandoned us either. He wouldn't do that, he knew what would happen if he even thought of that. It wouldn't turn out good. He wasn't that stupid. But then again, Shoney sometimes didn't seem to be in his right mind, and there was just something that we as the careers agreed as a whole. Shoney was unpredictable, so he could just do... I don't know, something. And there was just a feeling that I had around him. It was strange, but I had a feeling that he might be untrustworthy.
No, don't think like that Lynsa. Shoney's an ally, and he wouldn't go against our interests. He was just strange, that's all. Sure he wanted to shoot a dart at the gamemakers, but it's not like he would actually do something so stupid that it would be the death of him, right?
"He's probably out finishing off some tribute out there somewhere." I heard Howl say as she helped Lucifer look through the variety of crates in front of us. Not far off from them, I saw Griffin pick up a large sword before he twirled it around expertly, testing out its weight and balance. I couldn't help but notice that there were bits of red spatter and brown chunks of brain matter on his pants and the very bottom of his shirt.
It made me think of the District Nine girl. So he was the one that killed her. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that someone's blood and brains were on him, didn't bother cleaning himself up. I don't know why it bugged me, but it did. That girl was nothing, but at the same time, I couldn't really help but think of her as more. "Which is more than I can say for the both of you."
I turned my head to Howl and said to her.
"Just because we haven't kill anyone yet doesn't mean tha-"
Suddenly, a sharp howler sounded out, causing everyone, myself included, to turn towards the source.
"Well well," Lucifer said playfully, if playfully could be mixed with sadistic. "Look at what we have here boys and girls!" Lucifer then grabbed onto something that was behind a stack of crates, and pulled out a person.
That person stumbled as Lucifer brought him into view. I noticed that he was kind of fat, which made it a little surprising that he had made it all the way to the cornucopia, and hide behind those crates without anyone noticing.
I saw that his eyes were starting to tear up, and that was probably because of the knife in his right bicep. The knife went in so deep that I could see that the hilt was touching his skin, and the other side of the knife was sticking out of his arm. Blood coursed down his arm as he continued to yell. "Dav Anders, if I'm not mistaken." Lucifer continued calmly, before he pulled the knife out of Dav's arm, causing him to scream even more.
Without giving the District Eight boy time to recover, my ally kicked him cruelly between his legs before a high pitched sound occurred and Dav fell to his knees. Then just as quickly, Lucifer kicked him across the face with his tanned boot.
It was the first time I noticed that we were wearing arena uniforms. Though that still couldn't distract me from what was happening in front of me.
A spray of blood escaped from Dav's mouth before he fell to the ground, face first. "That's right," Lucifer cried out as he spread his arms out and smiled. "Bow down to me." I don't know wither I liked his joking attitude of killing tributes to his serious attitude about killing tributes. They were both messed up in their own ways.
"At least he knows his place." Howl laughed as she walked up to the downed tribute. "Why don't you give us something, Eight? An offering, perhaps?" Then with her left hand, she grabbed Dav's right ear, pulled it up and towards her, then pulled out a throwing knife from her vest and started to slice Dav's ear off.
Dav howled and stuck his arms out to try and pull away Howl's hands, only for Lucifer to stab his right hand, pinning it to the earth. As for Griffin, he proceeded to grab and twist Dav's injured left arm into an awkward position. Dav would have fallen back onto his face if it weren't for Griffin holding his body up. "Stop moving his body," Howl told Griffin as she continued to saw her knife through his ear. "It makes it harder to cut."
When her knife got deep enough into his flesh, blood started to pour out of his ear. Dav tried to escape Griffin's grip, but Griffin was too strong. He didn't wave his free right arm too much either, as moving it around seemed to make the hole that he had gotten due to Lucifer's knife widen.
Dav continued to scream, and when Howl managed to slice his entire ear off, she held it up in the air, almost proudly, before she shouted into Dav's now missing ear. "Can you ear me now?" She laughed. Lucifer laughed at that as well, which made me feel a little sick. How could she talk to someone like that in that state?
"What should we do with him now?" Lucifer asked, pulling his knife out of Dav's hand. The boy screamed, but all I could hear was Howl saying.
"Break his arm." And just like that, I heard a loud, wet pop that almost sounded like a crunch. Dav screamed louder than ever as Griffin savagely broke his arm, and in the process, put Dav on the ground face first again.
Only taking a second to look at the damage before looking away, I saw two bloody, light brown, uneven spikes come out of both sides of Dav's broken arm. His arm that was now pointed in the opposite direction then nature intended.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing just now. I had seen Griffin hurt other kids before, but I had never seen him do something like this, and so calmly as well. It was one thing for him to be angry and not be in control, but it was another thing for him to willingly break someone's arm so badly that their bones pierce their skin. To see this had shown me just how willing Griffin was to hurting people, and it scared me.
"Get over here girls!" I heard Lucifer shout, but I didn't move. I didn't want to go up to that boy and do whatever Lucifer was going to ask us to do. I stayed in place, and Eva did as well. "Right now!" Lucifer shouted, and for some reason, that made me feel the need to go to him. Eva followed behind me. "Arrowe! You too!"
The three of us arrived in the group at all the same time. We all looked at Lucifer, wondering what he wanted all of us for. "Join us." He simply said. I knew it. I knew that was what he wanted us to do, to join us in this sick game of his and Howl's and Griffin's.
I didn't want to do it, and I didn't know about Eva, but Arrowe walked up to Dav as Griffin pulled Dav up by his hair. Arrowe looked at Dav's crying face for merely a second before he pulled back his right fist and started to savagely pound on his face.
"Yeah!" Howl cheered as fists collided with face. "Yeah! That's how you do it!"
Arrowe started out just hitting Dav's face, but then Dav's nose broke with a sickening crunch, then his face started to become bloody, then blood started to run out his mouth. It was horrifying, not only because of the injuries, but because I didn't think that Arrowe was that type of person. He seemed to be more like me and Eva and Shoney than the other careers.
"Eva-" I started, wondering what Eva thought of all this. But when I looked to my side, I saw that Eva had pulled out a knife and was walking towards Dav. She nudged Arrowe out of the way, and Arrowe, like he had just been snapped out of a trance, looked back and forth between Eva and Dav before slowly moving to the side.
Then just like that, Eva started to repeatedly stab Dav in the stomach. In and out, in and out, Eva violently stabbed Dav in the stomach until there was a crude hole in his gut big enough that something was slipping out of his stomach. It looked like a large, grotesque, red and purple bean sprout. And something was leaking out of that as well, it was juicy and looked rustic with hints of yellow.
It was disgusting to say the least.
"Lynsa!" I heard Lucifer call to me, waving his hand in a come over here gesture. "Get over here and do your part!"
Eva stopped stabbing Dav and made room for me. I still didn't move. I couldn't do it, and when Eva started to attack him, it was just so... Sudden. I didn't think that she was like that either. Didn't think that she was the type of person that would participate in torture. She had been such a kind person, not taking parts in fights or anything. But this, this was different.
Now two of my allies, two who I thought we such nice people, weren't as they seemed. I wanted to ask what was wrong with them. Shout actually. Scream right in their faces and demand an answer. But I didn't, because I was afraid of the answer they might give.
Walking up to the guy that was more of a mess than anything else, I couldn't help but examine him. His face had been brutalized, his right arm was broken with pieces of bloody bone sticking out, his left hand had a gaping hole in it, and his right ear was missing.
Blood was coming out of those holes and his mouth. When I got up to him and looked down at him, he looked up at me like a scared little kid. Tears ran down his eyes, begging me to save him. Only, I couldn't save him, but I couldn't hurt him either. It was one thing doing it to training dummies, another to-
"Come on, Lynsa," Howl moaned sarcasticlly. "Do we actually have to show you how to do this?"
"I don't wan-"
"To do this?" Lucifer asked. "Fine, don't do it then."
"Really?" I asked, hopeful that I really wouldn't have to do it.
"Yeah, sure," Lucifer continued. "Don't prove yourself to us, you can just walk away from all this, from this alliance, and everything that it offers you. I mean, if you want to act like a useless tribute, you can be one."
"But..." I said, thinking about how he was just going to cast me out. Just like that. I was a District One career. I got a ten in training. They said that I had skills. And yet, they were just going to let me go, just like that, like I was nothing to them, all because I didn't want to torture someone? "But Shoney isn't here to prove himself," I defended. "Are you just going to cast him away as well?"
"Right now, I trust Shoney more than I trust you. Hell, if Eva could prove herself, I know that Shoney would as well. Arrowe, I just needed to see if he was on our side or not. As for you," He than spat at me. "I'm disappointed in you."
"And aren't you a sister of a victor?" Howl added. "Evan Fylar. How many people did he injure? How many did he kill? Five tributes? I remember what he did to one guy. Didn't he beat him so badly with brass pipes that his head looked like a ruined orange after?"
I didn't want to admit it, but she was right about Evan. Though he was nice to me and everything, I knew that inside, he was more like mom and dad than anything else. I didn't like that about him, it made me think that victory meant more to him than family. Some of the things he did, there was a reason why I went to my best friend, Apollo, than Evan. Even though Evan was my brother.
Thinking to the things Evan did, all I could think of was one thing.
"I am not Evan."
"Sure an't." Lucifer sighed. "But I also know that you aren't stupid, or that you want to leave the pack. So here's the deal." He then shoved a knife to my chest, which I then grabbed. "Hurt this guy, badly, or walk. And besides, isn't this what you signed up for?"
And with that being said, I had to look at our prisoner, Dav Anders, yet again. The same expression as he had last time I looked at him. Sad with tears running down his bloody face. He was so helpless, like a little kid in an adult world. He remained me of me back when I was little. The look on his face before I became strong. But this was different from the suffering at home, this was death looking at him right in the face, and he couldn't escape it. He knew what was coming, and didn't like it. And neither did I.
But what did I want more? The career pack acceptance? Or the acceptance of this kid?
I didn't want to be alone, and I knew what would happen to Dav, regardless of my choice. One choice was better than the other, despite me not liking either choice. So I did what I had to do, I stabbed Dav right in the mouth. The knife slide right through his right cheek before he yelled in agony.
I felt the knife rip through his skin before it hit something hard. I then tried to pull the knife out, but whatever my blade had dug into, it was now stuck in it. Pushing and pulling, all it did was cause Dav more pain as he tried to shake his head away from my knife. It was pointless, otherwise this knife would have been out by now.
I'm sorry. I wanted to tell him that, but I couldn't say that to him, not with everyone watching. But I was sorry. I really was.
Struggling to get the knife out, I wiggled it around with all my might, loosening it and tried to pull it out many times, but every time I tried to do just that, I found that it was still stuck in there. I just wanted the knife out of there. I just wanted to stab him to get this over with, but now I was causing him more pain than intended.
As I moved the knife around in his mouth, I heard a crack ring out, like an apple being cracked in half. Then a second, wetter crack occurred as the knife loosened in his mouth. Tugging at the knife once again, I wiggled it up and down, trying my best to ignore the wails, I continued to hear those sickening cracks before, at last, I was able to twist the knife out and pull it out of his mouth.
As soon as my knife was freed from his mouth, Dav screamed so loud it almost hurt to hear. While he was screaming, his waterworks continued to flow as blood overflowed from his mouth. Among the river of blood came something bobbing along. Something ivory coloured and smooth. With horror, I realized just what that popping sound inside his mouth was. Teeth.
Three cubic pieces fell out of his mouth along with a mouth full of crimson.
I couldn't believe what I had just done. I just couldn't.
"Good job." Howl told me, patting me on the back. It didn't make me feel any better. "Now what are we going to do with that."
Then before anyone could even think of another thought, Lucifer slashed Dav's throat with his knife before reaching into the hole with his free hand, and tearing the flesh open even more, increasing the blood flow.
I could see the blood spray out of his throat, and it only got worse as the gap became wider and wider. And though I couldn't see just how big the wound it, I knew that it was big due to how quickly our District Two ally was getting covered with blood. The sound of flesh being torn apart sounded like a citrus fruit being cut with a serrated knife. Horrific.
When Lucifer finally turned around, he was a scary person to look at. The entire front of his body was covered with red. And Dav, the hole in his throat was so large that it could have fitted a mace inside it.
"What are we going to do about what?" Lucifer asked, not in the least fazed that he had just killed someone and he was covered in their blood. Griffin then let go of Dav's body and let him fall to the ground as he weakly flopped around and uselessly covered his throat with his only functioning hand. Blood poured out of the hole in his hand. Dav would be dead in less than a minute. "Come on, get yourselves ready, we need to make up for this pathetic death count."
As I watched Dav dying, I couldn't help but think of my parents and Evan. I might not of loved my parents but I did love my brother, but I didn't want to think about him here and now. Not in a situation like this either.
God. I can't belive that I actually did this.
District Eleven's Angel Hale's POV
Sami and I had run towards the forest, the place that was in front of us. It had been part of the plan we had before. Because Aerin was the one gathering the supplies, because he didn't want us to risk going into the bloodbath field, he was the one that going to take that risk. Sami and I didn't really like that idea too much.
I told Aerin that I was a quick runner, and Sami suggested that she grab something that was close to her launch pad, but Aerin kept on telling us that it was too dangerous for us to linger around that place for too long. He said that someone might end up dead. And before I could voice my concern, or really, bash Aerin for being a hypocrite, Sami yelled at him for being the one that was putting himself in danger.
Honestly, I, and even Aerin jumped back from hearing Sami's voice louder than her normal voice, which was slightly quieter than a normal person talking. Sami then went on to say how Aerin was going into the bloodbath field, alone, and gathering supplies for three people, and asked Aerin how that wasn't dangerous. How he wasn't taking a chance with death.
It was the very same thing I was thinking, and didn't know wither or not to be happy that Sami was the one that voiced it rather than me. But it was shocking that Sami would talk like that. For some reason, I didn't think that she was capable of shouting, so it only made it the more surprising.
Aerin, not taking long to recover from his surprise, then said to us that if anyone was going to get hurt it was going to be him. Before anyone could protest, he said that it was final and that nothing we were going to say was going to change in his mind.
It was a tough feeling to work out. On one hand, I was grateful that Aerin was worried about us and wanted to do as he said. But on the other hand, I wanted to go out and help him so that he wouldn't have to take all the burden.
I didn't know what to do, so I waited on it until we got to the arena. And when we got there, I looked over to Aerin, who looked back at us, and stuck his head towards the ruined city. That's when I knew that we were going to stick with the plan we had made up earlier. I then made my choice, Aerin didn't want us to go for supplies, so I wasn't going to. I didn't want to make Aerin angry.
When the gong went off, I turned around and ran straight for the ruined city. I was sure that Sami was following me and sticking with the plan.
The plan was to go where Aerin was, and that meant getting to the forest. Aerin was the one that was going for the supplies, so that meant that he couldn't cross the bloodbath field to get to us, that was way too dangerous. More than was needed. So Sami and I were going to circle around and find our ally on the other side. It was safer for him and us, even if it was the long way around for us.
I got to the edge of the ruined city and turned back to see if Sami was close to me, and to my surprise, she wasn't. Scared that Sami had been killed already, my eyes darted around, frantically looking for her, only to see her running towards me, not too far away from where her launch pad was.
While I was relived that she was still alive and well, I wondered what she was doing. Had she done something stupid or was she just feeling slow today? But then I noticed something in her hands.
As she got closer, I saw that it was a roll of roller bandages and some medical pads. I wanted to shout at her, and while I didn't actually shout at her, my tone was angry with her as I grilled her.
"What was the plan?" I growled at her. "We were just supposed to run away, not try to gather supplies." Aerin wanted us to not put our lives at risk for the items around the cornucopia, so why did she go and disobey his order? If she couldn't follow a simple direction, I felt as if she was going to get us in trouble because of that.
"I ju-" She started, but then looked away, ashamed of herself. She couldn't seem to talk after that. I felt sorry that I acted mean to her, but still, she only had to follow one order. One. And she couldn't even do that.
Putting aside my anger for her at the moment, I said to her.
"Never mind. Let's just get out of here and meet Aerin at the rendezvous point."
Sami nodded before we took off for the ruined city.
When we got deep enough into the city, we then made our way around the cornucopia and headed towards the forest. We were deep enough away that we couldn't be seen by anyone around the cornucopia, but close enough that we wouldn't wonder too deep into the forest without first meeting Aerin. I mean, if we walked too deep into the forest, there would be too much area to cover until we meet up with each other, or we wouldn't be able to see each other. Even worse, we might get lost. Then what? We'd be running around in the forest, just the two of us, without Aerin around to help us.
We could probably do well on our own, but would Aerin be okay on his own? What if we got into a fight? We didn't have any supplies except for the bandages that Sami had foolishly rushed into the bloodbath field for, and those wouldn't last long if we encountered another tribute and had to fight them.
Running. Running was the best option to do if we encountered another tribute at this point. Neither of us were very strong, and we didn't have any weapons with us, so we were practically defenceless. But if we had to fight, I was sure going to fight my hardest. I mean, I didn't want to die and I did want to get back to my sisters and friends.
Hide. That was the advice my sisters gave me during their goodbyes. But as I told them, I couldn't hide forever, but hiding in the beginning would probably be the best choice. There was going to be a lot of tributes, the career pack especially, looking for other tributes, meaning that there would be a lot of fighting going on. If we avoided the conflicts, maybe we'd be uninjured while the rest of the tributes were hurt from their battle wounds. At that point, we'd be in the better condition and maybe we able to-
The rustling of foliage caught my attention. It was off in the distance, and it didn't sound like they were trying to sneak up on us or anything. Everything was breaking, or being moved out of their way, and there was the sound of a slight struggle as well.
At that moment, I knew that it was probably Aerin, who else would just trample through the forest like that. But then again, maybe it wasn't Aerin, and just another tribute that was wandering towards us, ignorant of our presents. Or maybe not.
I didn't know which one it was, but I sure hoped that it was Aerin and not some other tribute.
If it was Aerin, good, we meet up like we planned. If not, we were going to run. And if we couldn't run, then we'd fight. Fight then run, or just fight I did not know. But please, just let it please be Aerin so that nothing can go wrong.
I watched the spot where the person was going to emerge from, and just stared at it, waiting. Waiting to see who'd show their face to us.
The movement became louder, and louder. Getting closer, and closer. Turning my body ever so slightly, I got ready to run, but I continued to look at the spot the sound was coming from. Nervousness got to me as I thought of what would happen if a chase occurred, when a hand appeared out of the bushes.
That hand. It wasn't the colour brown, it was light skinned, it wasn't Aerin. I turned to run as the hand swept the bushes away. "Let's get out of here, Sami!" I shouted to my ally before I heard something that sounded like a mixture between a grunt and a cry in pain.
Whatever had just happened, good, that person was hurt, giving us a better chance of escaping. I looked back to see if Sami was keeping up with me, only to see that Sami was no where near me. What the hell? Where was she? Don't tell me we ran in different directions!
Quickly coming to a halt, I turned back, and saw that Sami hadn't moved. Instead, she was staring at where the other tribute had come from, and she appeared to be holding her hands over her mouth, like she was in deep surprise or something. But why was she acting that way? It's not like she attacked Aerin or something, so there was no need to act that way.
I wanted to yell at Sami and tell her to ignore that she had just seen another tribute get hurt and move, just as I heard that injured tribute groan loudly.
"Right in the freaking teeth, man." I recognized that voice, I realized in surprise. "Guess I should be glad that it was you instead of Aer-"
"What are you doing here?" I asked Shoney loudly, wondering what he was doing in the middle of the forest, coming towards us. What was he going to do? Announce our location to the rest of the careers and have them come over and finish us off early in the game?
He came to us during the training days in the Capitol and talked to us about an alliance. When asked about his career alliance, he said that he didn't get along with most of his alliance and that he was thinking of leaving them, saying that he was only sticking our because of his district partner and didn't want a target on his back.
I supposed that made sense, for not wanting to face the wrath of the careers if he didn't join, but his district partner was something that I was if-y about. His district partner was fine as far as I could see. And why would he want to be in our alliance if he was with the careers? It's not like they'll all just start killing each other at the start of the games. No. That only happens late in the games, either after they separate from each other or they're the only ones left and need to kill each other then and there to leave.
It just didn't seem right that he would come to us. The only thing that made it seem like he was telling the truth was that he looked like he was trying to keep it secret from the other careers. And while Aerin seemed to believe him and welcome him aboard while Sami kept quiet, I didn't trust him. It was all too... I don't know. Too good to be true. A career on our side? There was a catch around here somewhere, even if he didn't admit it back in the Capitol.
Shoney groaned lightly as he got to his feet and brushed himself off. He then placed a couple of his fingers into his mouth, rubbed his teeth, then pulled them out and examined them.
"No blood." He calmly stated as he stared at his fingers. "You know, from how much this hurts, you'd think that there'd be som-"
"If you want some bleeding gums," I told Shoney, irritated that he wasn't really taking this seriously. "I'll give you some later. But for now, answer the damn question. What are you doing here?"
"Don't you trust an ally?" The District Four boy asked, spreading his arms out for dramatic effect. "I'm here because I'm here to give you something to help you all out with." He then unslung a backpack from his shoulders and tossed it over to Sami, who gave a little squeak before she caught it in her arms as it slammed onto her chest.
I looked over to see that the backpack was large and bright green. Definitely something that would contain good supplies. "In a gesture of good faith." Shoney told us before he turned around and started to walk away.
I didn't really know what to think about this, but I wasn't going to just let these supplies go to waste. We could use them. So even though I didn't trust Shoney, those supplies would be useful.
"Wait." I heard Sami say. It wasn't as loud as when she was talking to Aerin or I, but Shoney was still able to hear it, because he turned around and faced her.
"Yeah?" He asked. Sami then seemed to stumble with her words before she managed to spit out.
"C- Come with u- Us."
I was startled to hear those words. I didn't trust this guy, and yet, here was Sami, trying to bring him closer to us than I would of liked. If things went the wrong way, there was nothing to stop him from killing the both of us.
Stepping closer to Sami, I started to talk to her.
"Sami," I said with an edge in my voice. "Do you really think that's the best idea right now?"
"Wha-" Sami said, not getting the words out smoothly as I steadily got closer to her. "What do y-"
"You don't trust me, do you?" Shoney said, reading my mind. "It's all right, I won't be joining you guys yet." Key word, yet. "So I hope you all the best, that you find Aerin, and the three of you prosper and stuff."
And with that, Shoney turned his back to us, gave off a little wave with his right hand, and disappeared into the forest, though the sound of him was still there.
"I don't trust him." I told Sami when the sound of him was far enough that I was sure that he couldn't hear us.
"Why not?" Sami asked. "Aerin seems to trust him. And look," She said, holding up the large backpack in front of her. "He gave us this."
"I'm only giving him the benefit of doubt because of Aerin." I told her, thinking of Aerin and the alliance with Shoney. "But he's a career, and careers don't just ally themselves with us non-careers because they feel like it." In previous years, the only reason careers would ally themselves with non-careers is either because they got kicked out of the career pack, or they were planning on back stabbing them. Shoney was still part of the career pack, so that only left one option.
"I know." Sami said with some glum in her voice.
A moment of silence engulfed the area. The only sounds around us were the sounds of mockingjays, repeating scattered pieces of our conversation.
"Never mind." I told her, hoping that we'll never see Shoney again so that we wouldn't have to think about this too hard. For now, we should just be thankful that he gave us something. All the more supplies for when Aerin arrives. "Come on, let's go find Aerin."