Connectus Jones D3

I'm in my prep room. I'm ready to go.

I step inside my capsule and I begin to rise up. The light is bright but I don't take long to see my surroundings. We're in a desert. just like the rest of our District, desert. So no trees then. Alright then. But there are huge boulders everywhere creating an intricate maze of rocks. Good. The only problem is finding water Where will I find water. There's a huge hill right behind me and I decide I will go up there. Go up there and find water to keep me alive. If I can't find water I will never survive.

In front of me is a backpack. I think I'll get that then leg it. It's either than or die at the start.

60 seconds.

Right compose yourself, don't worry about the others. Get the pack then leave.

30 seconds.

15.

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

GOOONG and I'm off. I don't run far, only the few meters to the pack. I then turn and run. Someone to my side throws a knife . I have to dive onto the floor which really hurts my ribs. Ow. I need to get up and run though so I pick myself up and begin my sprint up the hill. It takes me about a minute to get up there and I tun around and look down. I'm well out of reach from any long range weapons. Everyone is going crazy. There's probably about 5 people dead and no clear alliances between the alive forming. It's a complete free for all.

I look to my left and there's a 12 year old crying. She hasn't got anything and is sitting on the floor in tears. I feel quite sorry for her but realise allying with hr will only slow me down. I go behind her and she doesn't realise that I'm there. I swiftly take her neck and twist it round while my legs keep her body in place. I hear a loud click and her body goes limp. I whisper sorry and reach down and kiss her neck.

Running up the hill is another girl. She looks about 13 and is holding a spear. I need a spear so if I manage to get somewhere where I can kill her I will be able to take that valuable spear from her possession. I turn and continue my accent up the hill.

I should be faster than this girl, first because I am older and bigger with longer legs and also I had a time to catch my breath while I ended the life of that poor 12 year old. After about 2 more minutes of flat-out running the hill begins to level out a bit. I'm running so fast that I don't see the drop where the hill seems to disappear.

It's a 20m drop into rapids below. The Colorado river but be running straight through the arena.

I can't stop myself soon enough and I tumble over the edge, into the unknown. I plunge into the water after falling and I black out.

I wake and someone is sitting over me, patting me with a damp cloth. I open my eyes completely and see it's Betty, a girl in my year at school. I smile and say hello.
She greets me back and says that she found me washed up on the bank and that I've been out for about half a day. Apparently she's the lone survivor of the bloodbath. There's 8 of us left.

She saw me in training and got a spear for me. She carried me all the way from the bank of the river to the cornucopia and I'm now in the mouth of it. Outside it's raining hard and lighting is going off everywhere. I'm in a sand-coloured sleeping bag that has a huge blood splatter across the front. It's not very camouflaged now is it? I sit up a horrible pain goes straight through me. I must've hurt my back. Betty seems to realise I'm in pain and quickly rummages around in a box. She pulls out a pot with a special cream in it. She signals for me to roll over. I do and she rolls up my shirt. She then massages the cream into my back. Instant relief all around my back. it feels good.

I don't feel much over my whole back now. I haven't felt this relaxed in years and I'm in the Hunger Games! I lay myself back down and talk to Betty. She isn't talking much and seems to be engrossed in a box or something. Today she killed 8 people against my 1. Apparently next to me was a 13 year old who was dead. Her lungs were full of water so she must have drowned in the rapids. So I've intentionally killed 1 and unintentionally killed 1, so I've killed 2 against her 8. Maybe that's why she won't talk much. She's thinking about the 8 families out there in the district in tears over the loss of their child.

Suddenly I hear an announcement from the announcer who I never really could be bothered to learn the name of. He says that the male victor for our District is a 17 year old called Electron. He must be ecstatic. I think their games started a few hours before ours so that means it went on for about a day. Ours should go on for about 3. The arena is quite small, about 3km across.

We need to leave soon but I'm tired so I tell Betty I'm going to sleep, knowing full well that she could kill me in my sleep. But I trust her, not too much otherwise I'll never be able to kill her, but I trust her enough to go to sleep in her vicinity.

I suddenly wake with her shaking me hard. I mean really hard, like she's panicking. It's light and the rain has stopped. I'm relaxed and in a different scenario wouldn't want to wake up. But what I see is truly alarming. 2 girls, probably and 18 year old and a 15 year old are running at us. They're armed and ready to fight. I'm not ready at all. I scramble out of my sleeping bag and arm myself with a spear. I don't have time to put shoes on. Betty is already armed with a bow and is firing arrow after arrow after arrow at them. To her side, she has a sword which I think she'll use against them when they are close. I take a shield from our pile and cover myself.

They girls are probably about 30 metres away from us now. It's getting tense. I throw a spear which hits the 15 year old's leg going straight through and pinning her to the floor. An absolute fluke. I doubt I'll be able to do that again, but I did and that's all that matters. The girl flies onto the floor sprawled out in a mess. She's screaming in pain and asking the other girl to come to her aid but the other girl is just running straight at us. Why? I mean the smaller girl is weak with a bad leg but she's not exactly useless.

I've got 3 more spears and i a few seconds I won't be able to throw them. Betty fires another arrow which isn't aimed at the one running at us but aimed at the girl screaming on the floor. One of the arrows hits the girl's arm which went up in the air while she was pleading for help. She must be heavily bleeding , she'll surely be dead soon. So because she'll die soon there's 7 of us left, or 7 is what I think, I don't know if anyone died in the night. Betty didn't say. I throw my next 2 spears which seem to be on target but the girl dives out the way as they whistle past her.

Right, so she's 3 metres away from her and pulls out a shiny, sleek longsword. It's probably about 5 feet long which a razor sharp blade. On second glance I realise it's Jamine, the girl that volunteered at the reaping. She's built up muscle while in training and is unrecognizable with all the dried blood on her face and the huge cut going down her right calf. I'm surprised she could run so fast.

Betty quickly puts down her bow and picks up her sword which isn't as long as Jamine's but it looks a hell of a lot sharper. I pull out my machete from under a blanket and I've clearly got the inferior weapon. I'm clearly the inferior fighter too. Betty then tells me the longest sentence of the whole arena.

"In the night when you were asleep 4 cannons went off, the 15 year old over there is dying which means we're the only ones left."

I gulp and look into Betty's hurt eyes. She seems to be crying but nods at me in alliance. Jamine sees that we're teaming up and takes this initiative to swing at Betty's head. Betty dives through Jamine's legs and slices at both her calves which makes her groan and swing again.

I'm ready to fight, I'm just not going to start fighting. Let them kill each other off or make each other weak then kill the winner of those 2. I decide to go and end the life of the still screeching 15 year old over there.

I run over and within about 10 seconds of sprinting I'm there. I kneel down next to her and she looks into my eyes. It's my neighbor Jackie! I need to ally with her. I rapidly pull the arrow and spear out of her arm and leg. She smiles and hugs me despite her pain.

"You know in your heart you will die today with the blood loss, but for me, help me win."

"Yes," she manages to get out.

That's enough for me and I help her up. We jog over to where the other 2 are fighting. Jackie has some throwing knives and throws one straight at Jamine. It hits the arc of her back and instantly she stops to move. Not much blood is coming out but you can see she's now finding it impossible to bend her back. She's making sounds and not really moving. With that Betty jumps into the air and slices her head right off the body. It rolls around on the floor for a while but eventually comes to a stop. Blood is gushing out of the body and forming a pool on the floor around the lifeless, headless body. Betty turns to us and the kindness and happiness to see me alive that she had before has disappeared into thin air.

At full health i stand no chance against her but with her other hand she is clutching her belly. Blood is seeping through the cracks between her fingers and I realise that she's fatally wounded. If she doesn't get out of her soon, she'll be dead within half an hour. Jackie smiles at me and throws a knife straight at Betty who dives out the way into a forward-roll, still clutching her belly. With that Jackie and I charge on at Betty, hacking, slashing and stabbing away at her. She slices off my left hand completely and I scream with pain but this just makes me angry and more determined to win.

I see my chance and slice off Betty's leg completely. The still moving leg falls to the ground, still twitching around a bit. Betty falls to the floor with the leg and realising her vulnerability tries to crawl away. I then stab my machete straight into her back. I do this again and again and again, I must have done it about 20 times until I hear the cannon go off which signals the end of her life.

I look around to find Jackie on the floor coughing up blood. She helped me win. I need to help her pass on. I kneel down next to her and rest her head on my lap. She's only 13 and has done amazingly well to get this far. She looks into my eyes and tears begin to stream down her cheeks. I realise that I'm crying too. She beckons me close and manages to get out that I need to tell her family that she loves them. I vow that I will. I must. In gratitude to the amazing Jackie who saved my life. I swipe my hair out my eyes and look to the sky.

The cannon goes off. The announcer speaks out to the arena, "May I present the female victor from District 3, Connectus Jones!"

I've won. I've won. I mean there's another round to come but I've won. I can see my family again. My sisters and my dad. I can see my dad again.

So Connectus is in the final along with Iris! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, another one will be up soon :)