Games Day Three

Azura Night, District 9 POV

"If I've told you, once, I've told you a thousand times, Callum! I can take Azgaro! Jeez..." I shout for the thousandth time.

Callum steps back. "Alright, alright, just saying-"

"I don't care what your just saying!" I bark at him. "I'm completely capable of fighting him!" I run my hand through my hair. "Gosh..,"

"Azura, calm down," Mila tells me. I turn to her. "You have to accept that this won't be easy, okay?"

I nod. "I know that. When are we planning to do this, anyways?"

Kendrick stands up and slings his pack over his shoulder. "Tomorrow," he says. Tasi sits up.

"Tomorrow? It'll only be the fourth day! You sure we're ready for this?" he asks. I look at him in disbelief.

"We've been planning for two whole days now! Of course we're ready," I tell Tasi, then turn to Kendrick. "Why do you have your pack on?"

He shrugs. "I guess we should make camp near them today if we're gonna try to take them tomorrow," he tells me.

"And what if they find us?" Callum asks. The kid is so worried sometimes...

"We run," Mila answers.

"Um, no, Mila. We fight. In fact, let them come to us. They'll be sorry they ever did," I counter her. I reach down and grab my pack. "Kendrick's right. Let's go make camp,"

Everyone grabs what little they got at the Cornucopia. "And where, exactly, are we making camp?" Tasi asks. Kendrick shrugs.

"Somewhere safe, but still close to the Career base," Kendrick responds.

We walk through the maze, trying to find the staircase.

Kendrick begins to look through his pack. "What the...,"

"What?" I ask him. He pulls out a scroll of paper.

"What's this?" he asks, fumbling with the string holding the paper in scroll form. His fingers undo the knot around the paper and he unfolds it. "What the heck is this?"

I shrug and look at the paper. It has a bunch of lines, and two X-shapes. And then it comes to me.

"It's a map!" I shout, and yank it from him. "Look," I say, tracing my finger on the lines. "These are the walls of the maze, and these," I tap my finger on one of the X- shapes. "Are the stairs,"

"Okay, that doesn't help much. How do we know where the heck we are now?" Tasi asks. Kendrick sighs.

"It doesn't say. We'd have to find the stairs first to know," he says.

"Well, enough with this trash. Let's go make camp," Callum interrupts and starts walking.

Azgaro Ice, District 4 POV

"What do you mean someone took our stuff?" Glint screams angrily. That girl has anger issues sometimes...

"I mean that someone strolled in while we were sleeping, bent down, grabbed some of our stuff, and skipped away," Acacia says calmly. Glint's face reddens with fury.

"I thought you were on watch!" Glint yells. Acacia shrugs.

"I fell asleep. You expect me to stay awake all night?" Acacia counters. Glint walks closer to her and gets in her face.

"No, but if someone came strolling in like you said, I'd expect someone to wake up!" she shouts, only an inch away from Acacia's face. Acacia smirks.

"Says the girl who was fast asleep," she says slyly.

I hit my head against the wall and roll my eyes. These girls are driving me crazy... For a second, I find my self wishing the old man and the guy from Two joined, but I quickly dismiss that thought. They would just slow me down.

For the first time, I allow myself to think of returning home again. It really stinks, you know to do this twice. We all thought I was safe- Avery, Cecile, and I. I know that Avery's world would come crashing down if she lost me, Cecile's as well. Which is why I can't back down.

"Oh my god, Glint, it was a freaking first aid kit! It's no big deal!" I hear Acacia shout. Once again, I slam my head against the wall.

"Okay. Either you guys kill eachother off now, or we could go hunting," Serena says, irritated. She steps closer to the two girls, knife in hand, and holds it up, close to Acacia's throat. "Then again, I could always do it for you,"

Glint raises her eyebrows. "Sit down, Three," she hisses at Serena.

"Make me," Serena says, smirking.

I sigh. This... is freaking ridiculous.

I close my eyes for a long time then open them. "Ladies," I say, and the three girls turn to me.

"Yes?" Serena says impatiently, her black and red ponytail swaying behind her. Glint raises her eyebrows expectantly an Acacia crosses her arms and shifts her weight over onto one side.

"Hunting? Now? Please? If you're gonna fight someone, it should be to the death, not a chick fight," I say, picking up my trident. I thrust a spear into Glint's hands. "If you want a chick fight, I'd suggest middle school, not The Hunger Games,"

"And if I wanted you bossing me around, I would've asked," she spits out at me bitterly. But Glint stops talking after that, knowing I've won.

I mess with my hair and bangs until they're out of my eyes. Serena grabs her scythe and some water and Acacia grabs a double sided sword. Glint glares at me as she grabs two more spears and a belt of knives.

Show off, I think, as she tosses knives at a little target she made.

Sometimes I wonder why I haven't left these idiots already. They drive me even more insane than I already am. Why don't I do what I did in my first Games? Kill them in their sleep? But I know it's different this time.

You're a grown man now, Azgaro, I think. You have a wife and a younger sister back home. Do you really want them to see you murder kids?

No. I don't. I don't even want to think about Avery watching me initially murder kids that are about her age. She'd be disgusted with me.

What kind of person would you be? What kind of person would you be if they saw you kill?

"Hello? Earth to Azgaro?"

"What?" I say and turn to the voice.

Serena, snapping her fingers at me, hair tied back, lips twisted into a scowl. She adjusts her blue jacket and repeats herself. "I asked you if you were ready to go hunting," she says bitterly. I look at Serena, her legs crouched in a feline like position, and nod.

"Yeah. I'm ready," I tell her, and she stands up normally as I pick up a sword and put it into my belt, my fingers already curled tightly around my belt. Glint yanks her knives out of the dirt walls and Acacia slips her sword back into it's sheath. "So, um, where do you guys wanna go?"

Acacia smirks. "Well, don't we have a thief to catch?" she says. I grin.

"'Course we do," I tell her as we start walking.

Callum Grell, District 8 POV

"Here. Here is perfect,"

I sigh. Why in the world did I agree to this alliance in the first place? I don't want to die making a fool out of myself, trying to get the Careers.

"I'm gonna go find water," I say under my breath. Azura turns to me.

"What do you mean? We're underground, there's no water," she tells me. I roll my eyes.

"Well, we can't all dehydrate to death! That wouldn't 'keep the public's interest', would it? There has to be an underground spring or stream or something down here!" I counter her. Azura raises her eyebrows then goes back to tracing her finger around in the dirt.

I walk off, not paying attention to Mila asking me to come back.

Grace... My sister, sick in bed with the flu, about to die, counting on me, Callum, Callum who I bet no one is remembering, Callum who I bet no one has even thought about sponsoring. What kind of person would be counting on me to return home and heal them?

Grace, I think. She would.

Because she would. Sweet little Grace, wants nothing but a happy life, wants nothing but to be like her brother. Sweet seven year old Grace. . . All she wants is for me to win for her. And that has to happen, it has to.

Somehow.

I don't even realize I'm in the spring until I'm knee deep. I grin. I was right. There is water.

I take my near empty water skin fill, it up with spring water, and start to drink, when I realize I forgot to use iodine. Already having swallowed it, I can't do anything to stop the effects of it. What's the worst that could happen? I could vomit?

I squeeze a few drops of iodine into the skin and walk back to the shore. I sit on a rock, soaking my feet in the water, trying to ignore the unsettling feeing in my stomach.

My eyes widen and I clutch my stomach. I bend over as I feel the bacteria filled water come back up. I open my mouth and retch into the spring, telling myself that I'll be fine.

It's not like your dying, Callum, I think. It's like the stomach bug.

And as I sit back up too fast, dizzying myself, my thoughts wander back to Grace, back home probably retching also. I take a deep breath as I try to regain balance, try to dismiss the dizzy feeling in my head and the lump in my throat.

A knot forms in my stomach as I acquire the uneasy feeling that I'm being watched.

I whip my head around, to be greeted by nothing but a dirt wall. I raise my eyebrow. Could've sworn someone was here...

And then I look up, and immediately wish I hadn't.

Serena Dragimir is smirking down at me, wrapped around a stalactite.

Out of instinct, I drop everything, stand up and turn to run away. But Serena's fast. Too fast. She lands on the floor behind me, crouched down in a feline like postition.

"Where do you think you're going, sweetheart?"

I turn to look at her twisted face. She's smirking, her eyes squinting at me like I'm a piece of wood she's about to carve, and the knife in her hand makes that image seem even more realistic.

"I'm not going anywhere," I tell her defiantly. She raises her eyebrows and puts on a face of deep concentration.

"Alright then, darling, then let's get started," she tells me and makes a sprint at me.

I duck as she jumps at me, trying to lodge the knife into my head. I grunt as she stands on my back and launches off into a front flip, landing perfectly on her feet.

"Well, then, I see that's how you like to play," Serena says, scowling. She drops her knife on the ground. The metal shakes as it collides with the floor.

Serena reaches into a sheath and pulls out a scythe. A scythe...

Flashback

It's the final two in the 119th Hunger Games. A girl from District 3, Serena Dragimir, and a boy from District One, Claus Marshall, still stand.

Serena and Claus stand in the field, no distractions from their battle. Claus yanks a blade from his shoulder and Serena bends over, hands on her knees, panting, trying to think of a way to staunch the flow of blood from the sword cut given so wonderfully to her by the District 7 guy, Birch, who she had just finished off.

Without warning, Claus makes a run for Serena, spear in hand. Serena stands up straight and her eyes widen as she sees the weapon heading straight for her head. She ducks just in time to avoid a death blow.

Serena squints, enraged, as she unsheathes her sycthe. Claus raises his eyebrows, as to say "Bring it on,"

Serena makes a run for Claus, her scythe in hand, poised for a death blow. Claus, expecting this, steps to the side as Serens charges straight forward.

But, Claus just happens to have tripped on a rock, and falls to the floor. He shouts in pain, having fallen on his hurt arm. Serena turns around, her back then solid black ponytail swaying as she spins.

Seeing her oppurtunity, Serena sprints over to Claus's crippled form and cuts him over and over with her scythe, pinning him to the ground with her knees, until she hears the cannon.

And then the cannon goes off.

End Flashback

As Serena charged toward me, I knew I would sound end up like Claus, having a bloody, horrible end.

I fall to the ground as Serena knocks me over, pinning me down, her hand clutching my throat, her eyes wild and mad looking.

"Bye-bye, sweetie," she says, twisted. "Any last words?"

I cough a bit, her fingers closed arouund my air pipe are making it hard to breathe, obviously.

"G- Grace, I'm so s-sor-"

Her grip on my throat tightens as she makes her first cut with her scythe, across my stomach. "Aw, what was that? I couldn't hear you,"

I refuse to close my eyes as Serena makes the second cut, diagonally on the first cut, making and X- shape on my stomach. Words can't describe the pain. "Speak up, don't be shy!" she says, her face looking more derranged than ever.

I cough, choking. Serena smiles down at me as she makes the last cut, right through my stomach, making a star.

"What kind of brother are you?" I can see Grace saying. "You didn't save me,"

And then I lose conciousness as the world slips away from me.

BOOM!

End of Day Three! Callum was the only one that died.

During Azgaro and Callum's POVs, I felt like my writing had all of a sudden gotten a lot better... did anyone else see that?

And, guess what! We're only 16 reviews away from one hundred! C'mon, let's get up to 100!