AUTHOR'S NOTES: And now we reach the Hunger Games proper. Those who read the 94th chapter of The Victors' Chronicles might already have a heads-up of what might happen, but a summarized version does not hold a candle to the full version which will be found here. Either way, let the 94th Annual Hunger Games begin.
Happy Reading!

PART II: THE GAMES

CHAPTER 13: Escape from the Bloodbath

There was very little that either of the District 5 tributes had to say to one another that was not either already said or that was conveyed through body language. Cadence was naturally worried about Lucia's fate, but Lucia was rather calm about it all.

"Stay close to me," Cadence begged her, "I will keep you alive."
"I will do what I can," Lucia responded, "for while I accept that this is likely where I will see my end, I cannot say in any degree of honesty that I would like to die."
"Then don't talk like that," Cadence seized her wrist. "You are only ready to die if you end up lying mortally wounded at the end of another tribute's blade. So no more of that nonsense, alright, Lucia? I won't allow it."

Lucia nodded, seemingly convinced by Cadence's argument. "We should get some rest," she suggested, "tomorrow's the first day of the end of our lives as we know them."

"Fair point," Cadence frowned, but he knew she was right. Right as he was about to part ways, however, he felt a pair of lips on his cheek, which froze him up immediately. He cocked his head towards Lucia immediately, and saw her smile as she disappeared into her bedroom. Cadence blushed, but returned to his room to get changed and get some rest. It was only a matter of hours before anywhere between 8 and 14 of the boys and girls in this building would be dead. He did not want himself or Lucia being among these.

Cadence woke up the next morning feeling refreshed physically, but already stressed with a certain level of fear for what was to come. He was not worried about himself. He was fierce and good with a knife; he knew he could handle himself out there and that unless he was ganged up on, that the others were not likely to end his life in the bloodbath. Lucia was the one he was worried about, especially considering that she had scored the lowest out of anyone this year.

The uniform of the arena this year was the same one it had been for nearly two decades: pants, boots, and a T-shirt, all shades of black or grey, with the tribute's district number on both arms. He topped it off with the elbow-length fingerless plated gloves that were also part of the outfit year after year, and joined Johnny, Bethany, and Lucia out at the breakfast table. This time they ate their fill, knowing that it was the last good meal they'd have in probably about 2 weeks. For 23 of them, it would be the last time in their lives that this happened.

"There's not much else we can say that you don't already know," Johnny pointed out, "play it safe; make sure the risks you take are calculated, and don't go in deeper than you can handle."
"If you forge alliances," Bethany added, "watch them closely. Be prepared to betray them at a moment's notice, otherwise they'll have a knife sticking out of your back instead of the other way around."
"I'm not going to betray Lucia," Cadence asserted. He remembered Bethany's games. She played double agent to her own alliance and the career pack, and indirectly led to the deaths of all of her allies, and directly caused the deaths of her brief career allies by poisoning their drinks. Cadence admired the underhanded tactics, and was not afraid to use them on anyone not named Lucia. He told Bethany this, and she grinned.

"There's no right or wrong way to win the games, Cadence," she assured him. "Do what you must."

Soon, Cadence and Lucia were following the other tributes down into the lower levels of the tribute tower, where they were then escorted to a hovercraft. He looked around him, realizing that this was the day of reckoning for most of them. Their expressions would tell him a lot about what to expect.

Despite Lucia's score, she was remarkably calm. The tributes from District 10 looked a bit worried, although their comrades from District 9, who usually looked concerned considering their generally abysmal record, looked fairly calm. If anything, they actually looked pumped, akin to the careers. Faren, Nazir, Gabriela, and Serendipity all looked somewhat excited, which made sense in a twisted sort of way. They had been training for this moment their entire lives, and now here they were. Mani and Sudi were hard to read, as were Xandra and Kilon. All of them had scored reasonable well, but all of them also looked rather stone-faced. Ratchet was the only one that was grinning from ear to ear, almost as if she already had some nefarious scheme cooked up in her mind. Perhaps those words were true: "Never Trust a Ratchet".

Whatever the case, soon the tributes were escorted into different rooms off of a maze of catacombs to position them underneath their appropriate pedestals. Kurai was waiting for Cadence in his room (and he assumed Kuro was with Lucia), although all he did was give one simple but powerful line.

"Don't lose yourself out there, Cadence."

Cadence nodded to acknowledge he had heard the remark, but did not reply. It was something to consider though, and he knew it. He waved goodbye as he stepped into the transport tube that would lead him to the surface. He slowly ascended, briefly getting veiled in darkness before he rose to the surface of his pedestal. He saw Lucia about 6 or 7 pedestals away, situated between Ratchet and Kilon. The countdown to death had begun.

"Sixty… Fifty-Nine… Fifty-Eight…"

Cadence wanted to call out to Lucia, but he knew that he shouldn't. He hoped that someone else would make a noise so he could get her attention, but no one did. Lucia looked surprisingly focused as well, and Cadence realized that he was wasting valuable time. He began to scan the arena.

"Nineteen… Eighteen… Seventeen…"

The dark greenery and the blackish-grey rocks did not tell him much about what the place was going to be like, but he saw the kinds of weapons strewn about and started making judgments and calculations based off of those and what the other tributes were doing. There were a few weapons, but most of them were knives or shards of metal—exactly the kind of thing he excelled at using. This was going to be a breeze as long as he could reach Lucia.

"Three… Two… One…"

The gong went off and the tributes raced to the cornucopia, scrambling for the best weapons and supplies. Serendipity was swift, but incidentally, the first tribute to acquire a weapon was Fox from District 9, who also went on to score the first kill of the 94th games by slinging a metal shard with great force into the chest of a District 10 boy, who dropped immediately. His partner was the next to fall as Nazir took her down, and suddenly the bloodbath was in full swing. Cadence snagged a pack of supplies and a few knives and beelined it towards Lucia, who seemed to be extraordinarily agile. There were attacks thrown her way, and while the girl was unarmed as of yet, she was remarkably swift at hearing the swings and projectiles before they could impale or lacerate her. Cadence saw Serendipity and her alliance get into some other fights with other tributes, and it seemed for the moment, the District 5 pair had a chance to escape. A District 6 girl got in between him and Lucia, and Cadence cut her down without even looking twice at her.

"Lucia!" he shouted, seizing her hand. "I've got supplies. Let's get out of here."

He took her by the hand and led her out of the carnage. He wasn't sure how many tributes had died or who else was still alive and kicking, but he could make a few guesses. He figured Districts 1, 2, and 3 would all survive, since that was usually a habit of theirs. Obviously District 5 had both of its tributes alive considering that he and Lucia were fleeing the mayhem together; he figured that both tributes from District 12 and District 11 would survive, and considering their performances in the training center, he figured that both the kids from District 9 would break the trend and remain alive as well. Districts 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10, he assumed would be this year's cannon fodder. Obviously there would be no telling how right or wrong he was until the evening, but he was not interested in sticking around to find out. Instead, he found a small cove underneath a large mossy rock for him and Lucia to hide in as they caught their breath and waited for the ruckus from the cornucopia to die down.

"We did it…" Cadence sighed in relief as he held Lucia close. "We survived the bloodbath."

"And then comes the harder parts," Lucia warned, "the tributes are going to be more tactical and dangerous from here on out. It will be less risky since we're not all fighting over the same weapons, but just like we're able to focus, so will they."

"I know," Cadence nodded, "that doesn't mean I can't feel relieved that neither of us have to go down in embarrassing history being slaughtered in the bloodbath."

Lucia nodded in agreement, and the two fell silent for a moment as they took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the arena. He knew that they weren't safe, but his confidence was bolstered by them crawling out of the carnage alive and unhurt. Still—with a moment to ponder his thoughts, he also realized the grim truth of their situation: The 94th Annual Hunger Games had begun.