The 25th Hunger Games
Chapter 10
The dead float above us in the form of images. I glance up to the sky to settle my thoughts. Cassandra survived. I don't even know why I care about her so much, she's just one of those people I feel like I should protect. Diane and I sit pressed against the corner of this building. The cold air sends us shiver. I almost drift off to sleep. Almost.
Loud screaming fills the air, and both of our eyes widen in fear. We dash to the dirty window and dare to look outside. Children wander down the streets. At first I think they are Tributes but then I get a closer look at them. Dressed in all white they float down the street gently. Blood splattered all over their body parts. Some are missing arms or have their heads barely attached to their bodies. Others look soaked to the bone or burned beyond recognition. They all let out horrifying wails that continue longer than humanly possible.
I attempt to retreat in horror, but Diane stops me. She seems interested in the ethereal beings.
"12-18" she murmurs quietly to herself. Most of them look 12 but a few out there have obvious signs that they are older.
"Tributes," we say in unison, "Dead Tributes."
There are around 40 of them. Just walking down the street, wailing. In District 3, there is this saying, "The feared and tortured souls, send shivers down the young ones spines". It usually refers to an apparently random fear that a child develops, but the abandoned Library reveals more.
"Ghosts?" Diane asks. They don't exist, of course. But who would create a creature just for a Game.
"Mutts." I correct her, "Gamemakers made them"
"A-are they based off Tributes?" she asks almost inaudibly. The veil of light descending from the moon shines off them.
"Wanderers" I murmur. We sleepily crawl back to our corner, and ignore their screaming. First night, we're still alive.
I wake up to violent shaking and a familiar, accented voice.
"Over here Bash!" I hear. I immediately start screaming and my eyes fly open to the sight of a laughing Diane.
"Very funny…" I say, too sleepy to come back with a retort. I attempt to fall asleep.
"Come on Braniac! We need to find food and water." She says in her regular voice. I groan and get up and follow her. I look around and see bleak clouds coating the sky. Even cloudier than yesterday.
We quickly gather our things and step out from the building we hid in. Not a soul in sight, Mutt or otherwise. Trekking through the rubble becomes difficult; we barely get a mile away before we start using the vines coating buildings to cover our small wounds. Eventually, we reach some sort of intersection.
"Stop!" she yells abruptly, putting her arm out to inhibit any further movement. Her eyes dart around the cracks and rubble, "Something moved…"
Something isn't right about the intersection. It seems… sinister. I notice a single pebble move out of place, moved by something underneath the rocks.
We move around the pile and face the opposite side. A single creature surfaces. Its grimy grey fur barely shows against the same colored ash. Only it's jet black wings point out its existence. Diane picks up a medium sized rock and hurls it to the other side of the pile.
Suddenly, a whole mess of movement appears. The ratlike creatures crawl under from every rock and shard of metal. They all swarm the rock, like it's live prey. Blood starts to fly everywhere; their brethren have attacked some of their own. The disgusting sight highlights a need to run. And boy do we run.
A mile or so away we decide to climb an apartment building. The elevator is broken, and the stairs are in pieces. We climb a vine up to the roof and look around from our surroundings.
The Cornucopia sits in the distance. Well, at least the stadium is. From here we could trace the track we took so far. Behind us is the tallest skyscraper. It looks intact but chunks appear missing from the top. The Arena appears to be an island. But it seems very close to two chunks of land. But the Arena does not exceed the island. For a quivering square high up in the afternoon sky proves it.
"Hey, uh Ethan?" Diane asks looking deep into the distance.
"What? Are those rats running up the tower now?" I ask sarcastically.
She chuckles and shakes her head, "Nope. I think I found a source of water though."
She points to a giant patch of green in the center of the city. It sticks out clearly among the rubble.
"I don't see a lake from here…" I mumble and turn away from the green.
"Well what's watering the plants then?" she says as she takes a step back. Suddenly, the floor underneath our feet crumbles and we are sent screaming 2 floors down. I let out a curse as I smack against the floor. I look up and through the dust cloud I could see Diane barely hanging onto a support beam.
"Ethan! Help!" She cries out. I rush over but forget the fragile floor.
With a sickening thud I land one more floor lower, another thud and I hear a sharp gasp.
"Ethan? Ethan!" she yells at the top of her lungs. I lie in fetal position; the only thought comforting me is the knowledge of this being the ground floor.
"Down here!" I attempt to say, but the dust everywhere makes it barely a whisper.
I hear a scuttling of feet from above, and more shouting.
I slowly crawl away from the dust to assess my injuries. Besides a missing tooth and a cut across my left hand, I seem to have escaped without injury. I hear another thud and turn to Diane lying on the floor.
At first I panic and quickly check her pulse. I keep my hand in her neck for a while just to make sure she's really alive.
"Ethan! Not a good time to kiss me." She says as she coughs up dust.
"Kiss you? I was checking if you were alive!" I retort. She laughs weakly and then sits up.
"So did you die?" she asks smiling.
"No, but I'm thirsty." I say as I help her up. Surprisingly enough, she looks less hurt than I do.
I look around the room and see that we are in a kitchen on the second floor. I guess I'm bad at counting. I instinctively open the cabinets expecting food and to my surprise, there is.
"Hey Diane!" I say as I pick up the lonely can, "I found some lunch!"
It's a can of B-grade meat. The kind they send over to my District.
"Just like home…" I mumble. In the rest of the cabinets lie a jar of honey and a rotten, unrecognizable fruit. We pack the can and honey in our backpacks and descend from the building.
We arrive in the patch of green just as the sun begins to set. Hidden among the trees is a icy blue small lake. By then, I have to hold myself back from diving straight into it. We begin to eat some of the beef jerky as we sip the water. I get the idea to dip the jerky in honey. Honestly, it doesn't taste that great. But I can already imagine the Capitol Citizens doing the same just to emulate us.
We refuse to light a fire. It would obviously give out our positions to the Careers. So to forget the cold we start talking. At first we attempt to plan our further movements, but that quickly devolves to us joking about the food and making bee puns. As the sun sets, we hear a rustle. We both quickly silence and slip our weapons into our hands. Bash's serrated blade, the size of a small sword is heavier than I expect it.
The intruder lets out a small scream at the sight of us. He attempts to run away, but he quickly crashes into the person behind him. We let our guard down a little. They aren't Careers.
"Drought? What is it?" I hear a familiar voice say.
"Cassandra!?" I yell out in surprise.
I hear footsteps and I'm tackled into a big hug.
"Oh, Ethan! I was worried you died. I see you team up with your District Partner!" she says in a tone that reminds be of Luna. Diane responds with a nod.
"Diane! Ethan! This is Drought! A District 9 Tribute." She points at a surprised teenager. The first thing I notice about him is that fact that he's bald. The second thing I notice is the mace he holds.
"Drop it!" I yell in a menacing tone.
"Ethan, he's fine." Cassandra says as she blocks my line of sight from him.
"So uhh… How have your games been?" Drought asks awkwardly as he places his weapon on the ground.
"Did you hear those screaming children things?" Diane asks quietly.
"The what?" they ask in unison.
"Mutts." I say in a serious tone, "They look like mutilated Tributes of past games"
Cassandra looks at me like she isn't quite convinced. Drought looks a little less confused.
"Well if the had Mutts disguised as the trees in a forest then I guess they could have anything." He says plainly.
"Yes, last year's games were particularly gruesome…" Cassandra whispers.
"Glacie Wellington!" A young child from District 12 stumbles her way on-stage. Suddenly, I remember a small face get slowly submerged in the bark of a tree. She kept calling out for her Partner to free her. He just sat there and smiled.
"Wellington…" I repeat aloud. Neither Diane nor Drought seemed to have made the connection.
"So, Diane, do you want to alliance?" says Drought.
Diane glances over at me, expecting me to decide.
"Sure, Alliance of 4. We might as well call ourselves a pack now…"
We spend the rest of the night taking turns sleeping. Sometimes, we talk about the Mutts. Other times we choke out sad stories of our Districts. Diane and Drought get along fairly easily, since they both slave away at the factories of Panem. I talk more to Cassandra. I don't know why, but I feel like I could relate to her life more than I could to Diane's.
In the middle of another sad life story, all hell breaks loose.
At first, we get the feeling of being watched. Like an unseen force lurks around the out of place trees around us. The sounds pop all around us. Inhuman. Animal. But they sound like they are communicating. Like a chirping of…
"Birds…" mumbled Drought in his sleep. As if on cue, the feathered demons attack us.
"Mutts!" Cassandra screams as we pick up whatever we have near. I grab as many of our backpacks as I could hold. Pure panic fills the campsite. Cassandra and I dash as far away from the epicenter as possible. Diane heads off in another direction.
They look like doves. But their beaks filled with teeth prove their mutt status. They have the talons of a falcon and seem to be communicating through their incoherent chirps.
I slash at the air with my knife, taking down any that stray close to the blade. Loud screaming fills the air. A cannon booms scaring the birds and us. Most flee, but a few stay behind to pick at the dead body. A few slashes of a knife sends them away from the victim.
The body is mangled. Holes where eyes would be and organs should be. Leaking matter flows freely from the brain. Organs spill from every hole.
"Ethan!" Cassandra calls out from behind. She stands next to another figure lying on the ground. It takes a few seconds for me to put two and two together. But once I do, I rush straight over.
Diane lies on the ground clutching a torn up arm. Cassandra pulls gauze from her backpack and places it on the large hold in Diane's arm. Diane's screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Diane! Calm down!" Cassandra yells. I feel voiceless. Unable to make a single sound out of shock. Bam! It happened so quickly. The Gamemakers felt bored, and with a press of the button they killed off a Tribute and left another one horribly injured.
"Diane! You'll attract Careers!" Cassandra shouts as she tries to cover her mouth. After a few minutes of muffled screaming, Diane seemed to have calmed down. Well, a quick pulse check proves that she's calm, not dead.
A loud clang sound from behind us as Cassandra withdraws her hand. A metal claw descends from the large aircraft above. And with a loud whir, Drought is gone.