Chapter 13: District Partner Deaths
Rosemary opened her eyes early the next morning, pushing herself into a sitting position. The sun was coming up, lighting up parts of the arena that weren't blocked by trees. Rosemary yawned as she turned her body, looking around for Caius. He had been sleeping right beside her when she fell asleep, but now she noticed that he wasn't there anymore. Had he ditched her? Had he changed his mind about being her ally? Rosemary hoped not.
The District 12 female stood up and walked around for a bit, until she found Caius a few yards away. He was busy hunting, armed with his bow and arrow as he searched for a target.
"What's up, Caius?" Rosemary asked him. The District 2 male lowered his bow and turned to Rosemary.
"Not much. Just trying to find breakfast," he answered, turning towards a tree and deciding to settle for berries.
"I have an apple if you want half," Rosemary offered, while Caius was plucking berries off the tree. He handed a few to her, and she graciously accepted them and ate them.
"That's okay," Caius replied, running a hand across his face to brush a few strands of hair off it. "You don't have to share."
"No, really, it's fine. One second." She walked back to their sleeping area and pulled the apple out of her backpack. She knelt down and placed the piece of fruit on the backpack to use as a cutting board while she grabbed one of her dual swords. She balanced the sword and the apple for a second before she cut through the apple, slicing it perfectly in half. She turned to return to Caius with the apple slice for him, when she saw him standing behind her, having given up on hunting for now. He smiled and thanked Rosemary when she handed him his half of the apple, and the two munched on the fruit together. Both of them had finished eating and were thinking of what to do next, when they heard footsteps from behind the trees. Rosemary froze, save for her head whipping around in the footsteps' direction.
"What was that?" she whispered to Caius, who shrugged and grabbed his bow.
"Rosemary!" a boy's voice called. Rustling of leaves and snapping of branches were heard, before the District 12 male emerged from the woods. Rosemary raised her eyebrows in surprise, immediately recognizing her district partner.
"Hamish…?" she questioned, stunned that he had found her (and Caius) in this section of the arena. Usually it took almost two days to reach the edge of the arena. Rosemary and Caius were just lucky, but what brought Hamish here?
"Rosemary!" Hamish called again, smiling and waving at Rosemary as he ran over to her. "There you are! I'm so glad I found y-" Hamish was stopped dead in his tracks when an arrow zipped through the air and pierced his heart. Rosemary's jaw opened in surprise, and she looked over at Caius, who she knew had shot the arrow.
"Caius!" Rosemary exclaimed, dazed by what had just happened. Hamish had dropped to the ground on his knees, sputtering and gasping for air when Caius marched up to him, reaching for his arrow.
"Sorry dude, but she's mine," Caius whispered audaciously, yanking the arrow out of Hamish's chest and walking back to Rosemary.
"Caius, why did you do that?" his ally asked in disbelief. "He's my district partner!"
"I'm sorry, Rosemary, I had to do it," he answered, playing it down like nothing while they watched Hamish collapse completely, bleeding out quickly. "I didn't trust him. He probably would've tried to kill me so that he could be allies with you." Rosemary guiltily stared down at Hamish's crumpled body, when his cannon boomed moments later. "If it makes you feel any better, he probably would have gotten on your nerves anyway." As much as she tried not to, Rosemary smirked.
"You're probably right," she responded, forcing back a laugh. She knew that Hamish was a nice guy, but from the way he stared at her in school and followed her everywhere in training, she concluded that he was kind of creepy, so Caius had a valid point.
"Come on," Caius said, motioning for Rosemary to follow him. "Let's go see if we can find some food."
"Okay." Rosemary nodded and stuffed the wool blanket she and Caius were using in her backpack, before she and he started moving, leaving Hamish's dead body to be removed via helicopter.
"I'm bored," Diamond whined, shortly after waking up and eating for breakfast whatever food was in their backpacks (an orange and a tiny bag of nuts). Silver rolled his eyes at his sister stating the obvious, when out of the corner of his eye he noticed the girl from District 9 heading their way. A devious smile appeared on his face. He knew how they were going to pass the time.
"Hey, let's go kill that girl over there," Silver whispered to his sister, pointing to the unsuspecting tribute that was passing by. Diamond giggled and nodded, and the two ran off and hid, waiting to attack.
Lita was walking through the woods, looking around at her surroundings with uncertainty. She startled herself by unconsciously stepping on a fallen branch, but she kept walking. The District 9 female was unarmed and without supplies, her fear driving her from the Cornucopia before the gong sounded. The first thing she did in the arena was flee, leaving the other tributes to fight it out for items. In the case of "fight or flight", Lita was definitely the "flight" type.
Lita was walking for a long time, her stamina half spent. She didn't hear the rustling in the bushes, but she did see the District 1 female as she jumped out from them, an axe in hand and a smirk on her face. Diamond twirled the axe in her hand as she approached Lita.
"Prepare for trouble," she chimed. Lita instinctively started to back away, when she saw another tribute, the District 1 male, step out from behind a tree, carrying his own axe.
"Make it double," he said. Lita gulped, seeing the exact same grin on Silver's face. She stared at them, and they at her, for about a minute, before she turned around and took off running. It was now fight or flight and it was time for Lita to take flight. Diamond and Silver immediately bolted after her, and caught her by Diamond tackling her to the ground. Lita wrestled Diamond off of her and tried to stand, only to be knocked back down by the swing of Silver's axe.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Lita cried. "Stop it! That hurts!" Diamond and Silver had proceeded to take turns slashing at her with their axes, delivering blows to the head, chest, and back. Lita screamed in pain on every strike, with no chance to get away. After several swings each, Lita was a bloodied mess when her cannon went off, signaling she was dead.
"Hey, that was like, kind of fun," Diamond commented, staring down at the District 9 girl's corpse. Silver chuckled as he glanced up at the sky. The District 1 duo watched as a helicopter swooped in to collect Lita's dead body.
"Bye bye District 9," Silver said in a singsong voice, waving at the helicopter as it left the arena and flew away. Diamond laughed as the two walked off, their day off to a good start.
Darien's eyes fluttered open, staring up at the sky. Darien didn't know what time it was, but he felt like he was waking up around noon. Now that he had found some distance, he needed to find water, so he got up and grabbed his backpack and axe, before he started walking. He walked for almost half a mile when he heard a loud thud behind him. Darien whirled around and saw a giant tree lying on the ground, creating a barrier between the two parts of the woods. Confused, but thinking nothing of it, Darien continued walking, until he heard it again. He turned his head again, and saw the exact same thing: a tree hitting the ground. Then another one. And another one. What's with all these trees falling…? Darien looked up, and sure enough, another tree was coming down. However, Darien's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he saw that this tree was about to fall on him. Instinctively he bolted, narrowly avoiding the fatal impact, and he kept running. He looked back and found that more and more trees were falling behind him, aiming to crush him. He ran faster, leaping over logs and bushes to outrun the trees.
Finally he reached a small lake, with the Cornucopia in the distance, and decided to stop there. He sighed with relief when he realized that the trees had stopped falling and trying to kill him. He peered around at the trees to make sure they were going to stay put from now on, when he noticed a camouflaged blob curled up on a branch of a tree at the entrance to the woods. What is that? Darien gingerly inched closer to the tree, squinting his eyes for a better look, and he soon recognized the blob. It was his district partner, Ariani.
Ariani was still asleep, sprawled out across the lowest branch on the tree. She was mostly hidden by her black sleeping bag and the surrounding branches, but upon a closer look could anyone see past the camouflage and find her face. She slowly started to stir, but she was still half-asleep. She tossed and turned, and out of the tree she fell.
It wasn't a long way to the ground, so aside from a bruised bottom, Ariani remained unharmed. The fall did manage to startle her awake, however. So did the loud, pounding footsteps behind her. Now awake and alert, Ariani quickly turned her head, and standing behind her, towering over her like Godzilla, was the brute from District 4.
Ariani gulped, her pupils dilating and sweat dripping from her head as she gazed up at Cyrus, who was staring back at her with wild eyes and a psychotic grin. Ariani screamed as Cyrus let out a menacing growl, raising his sword to attack.
Darien cringed, taking cover behind two bushes as he heard Ariani scream. He almost had the chance to team up with his district partner, but as much as he wanted to help her, he knew that he was no match for Cyrus, and that both she and he would be dead in minutes. So he had no choice but to keep himself concealed and watch as Cyrus brutally slaughtered Ariani, slicing open her chest and stomach, practically dismantling her like he did to a dummy back in training. It had gotten so gory that Darien even covered his eyes while Cyrus delivered the final blow, slitting Ariani's throat. Darien didn't need to keep watching to know that she was dead. All he needed to hear was Cyrus's triumphant laughter as he proudly stormed off. Darien was relieved that Cyrus never noticed him, but he instantly felt guilty when he heard the cannon fire. He knew he should have helped her, even if he did die in the process, and who knows, maybe he could have strong enough to beat Cyrus. It was too late now though. A helicopter was flying into the arena to collect Ariani's corpse.
Darien peeked out from behind the bushes, and once Cyrus was out of sight he emerged from his hiding spot and walked up to his district partner's body, which was now barely recognizable with all the blood covering it. He stared down at her with sad eyes, shaking his head at himself and letting out a deep, heavy sigh.
"Bye Ariani," Darien said, before turning and running off into the woods again, leaving Ariani's body to be taken away by the helicopter.