I'm back! I'm sorry that there has been such a huge delay. I lost the file which had my plan for the games, for all 48 tributes and what happens to them and when, which as you can imagine is very important. So I had to rewrite it. But now I have so hopefully updates will be alright now. I want to try and finish this story over my summer holidays, even it means short chapters like this.
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far!
Enjoy the first chapter of the real games.
My feet shift on the small disc which is going to lift me into the Arena. I'm so full of nerves that the only thing keeping me under control is my thoughts of the conversation last night and this morning.
Karena's advice and farewell. Cadence, stay strong, try to play by their rules. And don't go into the Cornucopia. Just run.
The plans I made with Lara and Dariand. We'll find each other and work as a team.
They don't help as much as I would like but they do help a little. I smooth my hands over the uniform I was given. Fitting dark pants and a dark green cotton shirt which will hopefully blend in with trees. Oh please let there be trees. There's also a warm jacket which I keep my locket under. My hair is up in a practical braided bun, courtesy of Danna.
I don't notice the countdown until it is half finished, and my platform rises until I can see all the other tributes. Just as the countdown reaches 1, I turn to face the Arena, and along with the countdown, I stop, breathless.
It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We are in a meadow, one that smells sweet, and the sky is pure azure, the most gorgeous blue I have ever seen, topped with white fluffy clouds. The meadow goes for a long way but I can see woods. Just as I am about to see if I can smell the flowers, a blur of motion catches my eye. What would want to move in a place like this?
Haymitch is running towards the Cornucopia, and as I watch him pick up a large knife and a backpack, reality hits me and I begin to run too. But before I can head away from the Cornucopia, I realise I can't see people around and following me. Upon looking back, all the other tributes seem dazed by the beauty of the meadow as I had been.
So I run into the Cornucopia. There's an axe and a large backpack which looks heavy. Having carried axes and logs for most of my adolescence, I pick them up and know that I'll be able to carry them for a while at least. Briefly, I am glad to only be a few months along in the pregnancy.
The thought of my child leads me to the thought of Lara, and when I turn my head, she is amongst all the others, so I decide to yell at her at the risk of breaking the trance. "Lara! Come on, let's go!" I watch her head snap in my direction and she immediately breaks into a sprint while I grab a pair of knifes which she'll be able to make use of. I see her yelling at Dariand also, but as he begins to move, so do the other tributes, all now with their heads back in the game. He gets lost in the blur and I have no choice but to begin to run from the Cornucopia, waiting until Lara has reached me so I can grab her hand and speed up.
"Try and find us!" Lara screams back to him before we are gone, sprinting through the heavenly grass and flowers towards the line of trees in the distance. The idea was that even though they are far away, everyone will be too busy fighting at the Cornucopia to pay us any thought.
Once we reach the trees, we keep going until we are far enough in to feel safe. We can hear the faint screams in the distance begin to die out until there is just silence, and everyone will either be dead or moving on. The Careers will probably have formed a pack by now.
The cannons begin to sound, and we count eighteen blasts.
"Shit," I say, "That's a lot of dead kids." There's a lump in my throat which doesn't want to dislodge.
"Not enough," Lara answers, staring in the direction of the Cornucopia, "That's still 30 people left."
"I just hope that Dariand is one of them," Despite my words, I know that we won't know until nightfall, so we decide to see what is in the pack I'd grabbed.
There's water, quite a bit of food, a blanket, a little bottle of iodine for making any extra water drinkable, and a small length of rope. And in addition, a pair of knifes for her, and my axe.
"This is much better than what we could have hoped for," Lara breathes, smiling properly for the first time, "We got lucky."
"Lucky that Haymitch wasn't taken in and that he happened to end up right in my line of sight," I agree, "Hey, that clump of bushes looks huge. We could easily sleep in there, no one would be able to see us."
With a glance at the tree nearest to the clump, Lara hesitantly eyes it as we approach. "Should we leave a 'D' marked on the tree for Dariand like we planned?"
"No," I say a little too quickly, and have to explain when she looks concerned and confused, "Best not risk showing that anyone was here until we're sure that he's actually alive."
"We should put all the stuff in the bushes and take a look around. Figure out what kind of things they've put in here, since we might need to eat it later," Lara looks pleased when I agree with her, and so we put everything in the bushes, except for the axe and the knifes, which we carry with us.
She bends to examine some of the plants, while I merely keep watch. I had never managed to get a good result on the test for what is useful, what is edible, what is useless, and what will kill you less than a minute flat.
When she rises from her crouch, she doesn't look pleased, and wordlessly strides away, her eyes darting all around here. I follow and decide to not question her. After we have walked for at least a hundred metres, she stops and drops to the ground yet again. Her hands barely touch the plants and the trees, but a few minutes later she rises slowly.
"We have a problem," She says, voice flat with underlying anger, "They've screwed us over."
"I don't understand."
"Nothing here is edible!" Lara yells before realising her mistake and lowering her voice, though it is no less furious. "Everything I can identify is poisonous. Which means we assume it all is."
I crouch and pick a pretty pick flower in my hand. "Well, you say all, but things like this won't be," I smile and lean in to sniff it, only for the flower to be snatched from my hand before the smell can truly reach my nose. I'm about to make some irritated statement when my mind burns and the world goes wonky.
When I come to, Lara is standing over me looking concerned. The moment she sees that I am alright, she just rolls her eyes.
"When I say everything," She says slowly, "I mean everything. You were out for a few hours, only a few more til we know who died. Two more cannons went off while you're out. My guess is that someone tried to have a snack and didn't realise nothing edible was on the menu."
So we wait in silence until the anthem begins to play. And that's when the faces show in the sky. Twenty hadn't sounded so bad, but when I see the faces, I nearly cry.
The younger girl and a guy from Three.
The young guy from Four.
Both of the boys from Five.
Geff's face appeared in the sky and I feel sick. But the next faces are the boys and one of the girls from Eight, and I let out a sigh of relief. Dariand is still alive. But the list isn't done and plenty more had perished.
All four of Nine.
The girls of Ten.
The girls and a boy of Eleven, meaning that the friendly one with dreadlocks, Sim, is still alive. The thought makes me happier.
The young boy and girl from Twelve, meaning Haymitch and that blonde girl Maysilee are still alive as well.
Also, all of One and Two and three of Three. The deadliest tributes are unfortunately very much breathing and ready to kill us.
Lara soon goes to sleep while I take first watch, which from the middle of our sleeping bush is more like first listening out, but it works well enough. But twenty minutes in, I hear rustling and immediately go stiff while trying to keep quiet.
"Cadence? Lara?"
The voice is familiar enough. I poke my head out of the top of the bush to see Dariand a few metres away, clutching a small sword.
"Dariand!" I say gleefully, and he whips around, startled for a moment. But then his eyes light up and I climb out of the bush to hug him tightly.
"I'm glad you two made it," He tells me.
"The feeling is mutual."
"What's going on?" Lara's groggy voice emits from the bush and when she pushes her head out of the top, she looks so cute and sleepy that I have to giggle a little.
"Look who found us," I nod towards Dariand and when her eyes land on him they light up.
"Thank god," She whispers, smiling.
"So, what now?" Dariand asks. The pack instinct from before seems to be holding, because he and I look to our leader – to Lara. She just smiles again, but it is a smile of a very different kind. It's ironic and almost sinister.
"Now, we play."
Hope you enjoyed it! Not overly violent but it will become so, trust me!
Love you all and would love to hear from you in the comments,
-MayFairy :)