The Games
"Gale! Mom said it's time for you to get up. She said to let you sleep today but the Games are starting soon."
I throw the blanket off of me and rub my eyes as I listen to my brother's commotion in the next room. "What time is it?"
"It's almost 9:00. We are headed over to the Everdeen's soon. The announcers already started broadcasting."
I run my hands over my face. "Thanks, Rory. Go on ahead; I'll meet you guys there." He nods at me and I hear the door close a few moments later. My body falls back onto the bed as heavily as the dear Katniss is always so keen to shoot. For a while, I just lay there. I don't want to move, to change, to eat. I just want to go to Katniss. I want her here in District 12 safely on the other side of the screen. I hear Caesar's voice coming from the other room where the Hunger Games will not be turned off until the end. I am sick of hearing about the girl on fire. The girl on fire whose father blew up in a mine explosion with my father… I'm sure that sits well with her. And the star-crossed love that she and Peeta apparently share despite the grand total of no conversations that they have ever had.
It takes everything I have to get up and change. My feet drag under me as I attempt to walk to the Everdeen's. I see their house, I hear the Games blaring through everyone's broken glass windows or through their open doors. There is a cool breeze that makes the summer bearable. It goes in through my nose and I get a chill, despite the heat. It feels good. It numbs me for a moment. Which is why I barely even notice that I walk right by the Everdeen home and straight to the hole in the fence. When I come back to my senses, I am clear into the woods and the Games must be ready to begin.
I tell my legs to head back, to be there for Prim and her mom, to make sure my brothers aren't scarred by watching, to see that my mom has the strength to take care of everyone including herself… but I don't move toward the fence; I walk away from it.
I find myself on a hill, one that I know too well. It's the place of my last happy memory, a time that seems like so long ago yet has nearly been a week. Katniss and I sat here on the morning of the Reaping, deciding how to ration the food for dinner that night. But she never ate it.
The rising sun is high in the sky and I lay back in the grass and watch as it rises higher and higher. The Games are starting now, if they haven't already. I feel myself shudder. Any moment from now on could be the last for Katniss. She could be dead already. I don't believe that. In my head, I count with the rhythm of my pounding heart. It matches the countdown timer until the tributes can get off their platforms. I hear Claudius Templesmith chime out in his high pitched voice, "Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!" as the tributes begin killing each other for the weapons in the Cornucopia. I pinch my eyes together trying to get the image out of my mind but I can't. Instead, I see her, reaching out for the bow before her blood splatters over the hidden camera as a career sneaks in behind her before she even has the chance to prove herself, to show that she can survive.
Hours pass and the sun quickly sets in the sky. It darkens earlier than it has, or so it seems. I know I have to head back and face whatever happened today. The main action for the day should be over and they will be replaying every death from a thousand angles, analyzing odds based on strength, kill brutality and speed. I finally make the decision to go back.
When I get back into the District, I see a Peacekeeper watching me, like he knew where I had been, but he says nothing and soon looks away. It doesn't bother me. Let him arrest me. Let him punish me for not wanting to watch my best friend be killed.
I don't know that I can face it. I see the Everdeen house and it makes me stop short. What do I do if they tell me she died? And when I see Rory rush out the door and run to me, my heart freezes mid-beat.
"She's alive, Gale! She made it!"
The words are garbled in my ears. He repeats them several times as he drags me into the house by my wrist. I enter the door and see the smiling faces all watching me. This must be a dream, never have I seen them so happy.
"What happened?" I ask, still dumbstruck.
My mom grabs my shoulder. "She's alright, she's in the woods now."
"The woods?" I ask. I turn to the screen and sure enough, the arena is a giant forest. Caesar and Claudius are examining a map with tags indicating where the tributes are. There are some streams and rivers and even a lake scattered through the map, woods surrounding an entire open field in the center with the Cornucopia, and a wheat field that only has one tag in it. I see Katniss' picture moving along through the trees, fairly separate from a majority of the Tributes.
"Now!" yells Caesar, much too excited for whatever it was that he was going to say, "Let's see a recap of the main events. We have the opening ceremony where eleven of our brave competitors lost their lives. While Districts 6, 7, and 9 have all been eliminated, it was District 9's Mur who took last place this year. Let's take a look at that."
The screen cuts to the boy Mur on his platform. The gong rings and he takes off toward an obnoxious neon orange backpack. At the same time, to my horror, Katniss reaches the pack. They struggle with it before boy tries to swing at her, but she rips the pack out of his hands in the process. Then the boy spews blood all over Katniss' face as he coughs and falls to his knees and dies. The camera zooms to the menace Clove from District 2 as she aims another knife at Katniss. Katniss slips the backpack on and uses it to shield her head as she sprints toward the woods. I see her step falter as the knife hits the pack, but she takes off and Clove doesn't follow her. The camera shows Katniss one last time with a small grin on her face as she reaches the tree line.
"Wow," cuts in Caesar as I find the air in my lungs again, "What a way to open the Games. Let's take a look at the rest of the departed tributes."
We watch as 10 more tributes are killed. Some put up a fight, most are just slaughtered by the careers. There is a tally off to the side with who killed who so far. Both tributes from District One and Two each killed two others. Thresh had one kill, the District 4 female Career, Coi, had a kill, and so did District 5's male, Luxon.
Caesar is back on the screen again after the highlights are done. "In other exciting events, there seems to be a Career pack forming. We can see Glimmer and Marvel of District 1, Cato and Clove of District 2, Coi of District 4, and the surprising additions of Atias from District 3, an alliance that seems to have been formed back during training, and the most surprising moment when Peeta Mellark of District 12 joined. Let's take a look at that once more, I love watching this on replay."
My mouth hangs open as I glance around the room. None of them are surprised or disgusted. Even Caesar, Mr. Girl-On-Fire, Star-crossed lovers is 'loving this.'
The pack has already formed and ready to start hunting tributes. They leave District 3 behind to start digging something and eventually, Peeta runs out in front of them. He is unarmed, no pack or anything. The stupidly named Glimmer aims an arrow at him. The bow… Katniss' bow, I think bitterly. He holds his hands up in submission.
"I know you want to kill me," he says as the pack agrees with him, "But there is one thing that we have in common. We both want to kill Katniss, the girl from 12."
Clove scoffs and plays with a knife in her hand. "Right, Lover-Boy, you want to kill your little girlfriend?"
He looked away from them toward the ground. "She's not my girlfriend. We talked last night… she turned me down. I don't want to get into it, but I can't believe I ever thought I loved her. I remember her from years ago, sweet and innocent… but what she said was nothing like that. I want her dead. I want her to know what it feels to have her heart ripped out like she ripped mine. The only problem is that I need help."
Marvel was grinning like an idiot, a snort-like laugh escaping. "And what good are you to us?"
"I trained with her. I know how good she is and what her skills are. She is a hunter, I know her traps; she showed me back in training. I can track her."
This time, the monster from District 1, Cato, laughed. "Is that all? How'd she get the 11? You spill it all ad we might have a working partnership in the making."
They talked for a while as they walked, the replay cut through most of it until they headed back to the Cornucopia with Peeta and gave him a knife for the night. As he sat alone staring at the woods, he whispered, "I promise Katniss, I'll keep them away from you."
It was clearly for the cameras since it would have been stupid for him to say it near the careers at all. But he turned back around and joined them again before the camera was on Caesar again. He is wiping tears out of his eyes.
"If that isn't devotion, I don't know what is!" The screen showed the two cameras side by side, Katniss strapping herself into a tall tree, and Peeta falling asleep with the knife gripped tightly in his hands.
"Do you think any of that is real?" I ask my mom as she hands me a plate of food.
She shrugs. "We shall see. Let the 74th Hunger Games begin."
A/N: Sorry it's been so long. I had to finish up school: lots of papers for my finals. Then I just finished this semester of work and then there is so much stuff to do for a ton of things coming up so again, sorry. I will be on much more to finish this story sooner rather than later, but nonetheless, thanks for reading and as always, let me know what you thought!
