AUTHOR'S NOTES: I am vacationing next week, and so there might not be a chapter next Tuesday. That said, here's this chapter only a couple minutes late, and it's another one of those that helps set the scene. We get to learn who all died in the bloodbath at last, and a little bit about who is still at large. Our dear friends Lucia and Cadence aren't in the clear yet. No one's safe while the games persist.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 14: The Moving Mountains

Cadence and Lucia were free from the bloodbath, but the trouble had only just begun, and they both knew that there was no way out of this place until a grand total of 23 boys and girls were dead.

The first thing he wanted to do was scout out the arena to get an idea of what they were dealing with. Lucia wouldn't be able to see any of it, and so he'd have to be descriptive when he was conveying the layout to her, and he would also need to be on the lookout.

For now, his first objective was to find a nice place to hide while they made camp. Cadence wasn't too worried about secrecy just yet, but he didn't want to get spotted on the first evening and die immediately. He had watched enough recaps of previous games to see the obvious folly in that, and so instead he took Lucia by the hand and started exploring.

The first thing he noticed was that there was a lot of greenery, and that most of the surfaces they walked on consisted of dark grey or black stone. He wasn't sure what it was exactly, but it seemed sturdy enough, and thus didn't really bother him.

"What's the arena like?" Lucia asked after a few minutes of walking.

"Lots of black and lots of green," Cadence answered, "it's remarkably flat too other than a few small rocks or boulders here or there. I…" he suddenly froze and stopped talking.

"What is it?" Lucia's ears perked as if she was listening for sounds. All she could hear was the breeze against the foliage, and the distant sound of trees below them.

"…we've just come to a cliff," Cadence pointed out, "it's a long way down. I don't think anyone could survive that kind of fall, and I think even if they did, that they weren't meant to be able to come back up. These cliffs are sheer."

"Just let me know if I wander too close to the edge then," Lucia requested, "I'd hate to fall, and I know you would hate it if I did too."

Lucia crouched down and felt the texture of the ground beneath their feet. It was mostly grassy, with a few small shrubs here and there. "So what were you saying about the boulders?" she reminded him.

"They seem to be systematically placed around," Cadence nodded, glancing around as if to verify his own theories, "the ground is fairly even as long as you don't run into one of them. A few of them look like they might provide some decent shelter though. In fact…" he paused, glancing at Lucia. From behind, the dark colors of her clothes blended in fairly well with the colors of the rocks in the arena.

"I think we could blend in fairly well if we needed to. Still… let's get set up."

Cadence took Lucia's hand and led her away from the cliffs and deeper into the heart of the rocky plateau they were on. Maybe that cliff had just been the western edge of the arena (considering he had fled west with Lucia after the bloodbath), and so Cadence figured that he might be able to find another route. Instead, all he found was another cliff to the north, except this one also had a small surface jutting out, almost as if there was large, suspiciously-sized rock platform inserted in after the fact.

"Careful; there's a crack there," Cadence warned, but Lucia simply hopped over it. There was a rumbling, and suddenly, the platform Lucia was in began to move.

"Cadence, jump!" She warned, inadvertently pulling him onto the platform. Cadence swore loudly, realizing that Lucia had panicked and that they were probably on the piece of the cliff was that going to crumble. It definitely moved away from the main plateau, but instead of tumbling down, it seemed to be moving horizontally, giving Cadence a great view of the arena. It was composed of large plateaus similar to the one that they had just been on, and with multiple smaller platforms like the one they stood on now, except only theirs was moving.

"Moving platforms… huh boy…" Cadence grumbled, but proceeded to describe the situation to Lucia so she wouldn't start panicking. "So… apparently some of these jutting square peninsulas move… which means that apparently these plateaus we're on are islands of sorts. I have no idea where this one is going to take us, but stay close. A few missteps and either one of us could fall."

Lucia listened to the heavy humming of the rock moving from one point to the other, and hummed to herself in a much gentler tone as they waited. After a few moments, Cadence noticed that they were approaching another platform.

"Hopefully this one doesn't wrap around back to the first one," he quipped, taking Lucia's hands, "come on; let's take a look at what we've got facing us here."
As far as fauna went though, the island/plateau looked deserted. The flora was the same, and so it wasn't "themed islets" or anything so fancy.

"We might be alone on this island," Lucia suggested, "I don't hear any other tributes, since I don't imagine the careers are much about stealth."
"True, but '11 and '12 are," Cadence reminded her.

"I heard them though," Lucia reminded him, "And the District 11 kids kind of smelled like soil."
"That still leaves Mani and Sudi."

"District 12? Oh… they kind of smelled like blood. I don't smell any of them close by… but I do smell game. Maybe we're not as alone as we thought."

"Well, let's find a place to make camp for the evening," Cadence suggested, "I'll let you know who died when the anthem played."
The holograms were the only real indicator of who had died on any given day, and since the anthem played, there was no other noise or announcements that went on during that time. Cadence and Lucia would just have to wait until evening to know whether or not a tribute lived or died. He was kind of hoping that Serendipity somehow got knifed, but he figured that that was just wishful thinking.

Lucia proved to be surprisingly helpful at using the foliage and branches from the trees to help build makeshift shelters and a camp for them that evening. She wasn't exactly a skilled hunter, but she had the nose of a bloodhound, which in turn helped Cadence find his prey. They ate reasonably decent that night considering they were in a Hunger Games death arena, but neither one complained.

Soon enough, the anthem played, and Lucia leaned against Cadence as he gazed up at the now shimmering night sky to watch for the tributes to appear in the order they were killed.

Brody LaHir, District 10…

Cadence named the tributes off as their names showed up so that Lucia would know, although he was also quietly contemplating it and noting which of these deaths he saw. This boy was one of them; which meant that surprisingly, the first kill of the 94th games was performed by a District 9 tribute—something that had not happened in years. Usually the tributes from District 9 were among the first to get whacked.

Alissa Zinder, District 10…

He had also seen this one happen, though it was by Nazir. Cadence wished that the Gamemakers would tell who killed the fallen tributes, because for one, he'd like to know who the most apt killer was, and secondly, there was a sense of self-satisfaction he felt he would get from seeing his name next to the careers' faces as he killed them off one by one.

Solas Drazen, District 7…

So there were kills between Alissa and Shay… That was news to Cadence. He had not seen the carnage and mayhem behind him as he ran off; he had only slain the District 6 girl because she stood between him and Lucia, and that would not fly with him. He wondered who had killed Solas though…

Chad Xela, District 6…

"Hmm… so both of the District 6 tributes died then…" he muttered.

"The girl too?" Lucia didn't know about Cadence's kill.

Shay Nuvas, District 6…

"Aye; that was me," Cadence admitted, "she got between you and I, and I didn't want her going after you; so I killed her. That doesn't bother you, does it?"

"Not really, no…" Lucia admitted. "I know your motivations.

Mani Tauanu'u, District 12…

Cadence was surprised to see one of the infamous Painted Tributes get offed in the bloodbath. Had the careers turned against them and managed to strike them down before they could flee? Was Xandra's 12 meaningless? Would Sudi be next?

Elspeth Sylvan, District 7…

So Districts 6, 7, and 10 lost both their tributes in the first day. Cadence was still expecting there to be a District 4 death before the night was over, and knew from his own presence as well as Lucia's that District 5 was safe for the time being. That was his main concern.

Verde Salazar, District 8…

To Cadence, District 8 was similar to District 5, except with fewer victors. Half the time they did well and were formidable enemies; the other half of the time they died in the opening minutes.

Chase Rebiana, District 3…

Cadence had not expected a District 3 tribute to die in the bloodbath. He mused a bit about this, and realized that Chase was the last of the bloodbath tributes, for the anthem stopped slowly after the boy's face vanished from the sky. He concluded several things from the combination of tributes still out there. While chase was dead, his partner Ratchet was still alive; and while Mani was dead, Sudi was still at large. Furthermore, if '1 and '2 had recruited District 9 into the career pack, it meant that the most formidable of Cadence's fears was true: the entire career pack had survived.