Day I
~You May Delay, But Time Will Not~
It's noon when all the tributes reach the cornucopia which lies in the centre of what looks like a barren desert. The wind sweeps the sand across the smooth, sandy surface.
They have sixty seconds until the gong rings. Sixty seconds to choose between life and death.
Thump. Hearts beat as the clock spends it's time winding down. Thump.
Fifty seconds left until the blood splatters across the beige flooring. Thump.
Forty seconds left until knifes and swords are the only thing left to trust. Thump.
Thirty seconds left until they stand in the wake of devastation. Thump.
Twenty seconds left until killing is no longer a moving picture on a screen. Thump.
Ten- Adrenaline pumps through their chilling blood. Thump.
Nine- No matter how many breaths they take they still can't breathe. Thump.
Eight- The whole arena seemed to exhale a melancholy breath of emptiness. Thump.
Seven- The tributes eye the one place they're aiming to go. Thump. Stances ready, mind set on the target. Thump.
Six- Beads of sweat run down their steaming foreheads. Thump.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
…
It rings.
Lexi Miller and Ryan Haven are the first to step off their plates and run for the cornucopia. Apollo is right behind them and many others follow their examples.
Julian has other thoughts though. Jeret is already pinned down by the owner of his neighbouring plate. Jeret has few options other than small rocks that are somewhat close to him and his plate. Small stones don't break his opponent's bones… especially when the opponent ways fifty-pounds more with his muscles and has been training for a kill like this for seventeen years.
Back at the horn, Lexi and Ryan meet up at the first hand-crafted bow and sheath of arrows they see. It's surprising they don't end up killing each other, but instead Ryan takes the bow and Lexi grasps the arrows before he can. Ryan is off to a new weapon before Lexi can get anything off of him.
She has a new pray anyways. Lucky for her, she's been training for that perfect aim all these years. Because when she throws the arrow as hard as she can it actually sticks to Barley Dawson's chest ten feet away from her.
Apollo is running back to his fellow career by now with a violet backpack and a stash of throwing knives. He takes down Sarah as he makes his way to Julian with one of his knives.
Jeret's death is quick and lasts no longer than second. His cannon is the third to go off in the bloodbath. The two careers get up and run for the cornucopia for more fun.
Toth Attaway is already running through dunes and away from the bloodbath. She has no use for what the others are looking for. Nobody even notices her.
Aurelia has somewhat the same thoughts, but follows her instincts and heads the other direction as the district six girl.
Julian throws a knife and hits the middle of Devon's back. His cannon blows less than ten seconds after. Then Julian is back to collecting weapons and keeping his eyes on some easily marked tributes.
Riley White throws one of the spears he finds at the cornucopia and succeeds to hit Reed as he tries to reach the farthest and most expensive bow and arrow at the cornucopia. Riley takes the spear out of Reed's stomach and runs off for his next kill.
Lexi Miller runs right into Riley White on her way to finish off Ryan, but Riley beats her to the chase and throws his spear in Ryan's direction.
Meanwhile, Daisy Rawnsen makes way towards the district seven girl, Shay, with her sharpened spear. Ryan Haven has gotten a hold of two packs and a dagger by now and notices the trouble that's about to happen. Before Daisy can throw, he holds the string of the bow against Daisy's neck and readies his knife to stab her in the chest.
The spear from Riley's attempt to kill Lexi's target hits Ryan before he can puncture the wound and his can only hit Daisy's lower thigh. Daisy is lucky enough to make it out the area before anyone can come at her.
Rose Everwish barely escapes Julian's knife that is aimed to come after her and makes it towards the east side of the desert near the dunes.
Nirvana and Luke are able to grab packs during this time while Julian is busy, and scramble for the scent of evergreen trees to their east.
In less than ten minutes only the careers are left in the lonely desert, dead bodies surrounding them.
"Did anyone see where most of them headed?" Lexi says walking up to Julian and Apollo grabbing two packs and slinging them on her back.
"Saw a guy running past the dunes." Riley White says coming up behind her. Julian almost wants to kill him right now, but there are few of them this year so he must salvage the strongest tributes he can. Lexi is still a bit fuming over him stealing her kill.
"Guess we can set up camp down there. Try and find some water around this place." Julian decides and stuffs a few more leftover weapons into his indigo backpack.
XxXxXxXx
Light Rivers walks through a forest until he has to slump down against a tree to catch his breath. Where could Arabella be? Did she run the other direction? He searches through a backpack he found at the edge of the cornucopia. The only thing useful at this point is the dried beef. There's a hook, a fifteen-foot rope and an empty bottle.
He gets up and continues walking through the trees that look exactly like the forest behind the gate in district twelve in comparison. It takes him two minutes to get to the small drop-off at the edge of the forest.
Hate to trip and fall. He thinks to himself looking at the jagged rocks at the bottom. About ten feet away is the other side of the drop-off. He grabs a rock that sits on the rim of the small cliff. Light throws the rock as hard as he can across the cliff. It doesn't bounce back like a force-field would do in earlier games.
Rivers smirks and unzips his pack; he's found camp for the night.
XxXxXxXx
"Ren, where are we going?" Shay asks her feet tiring from all the walking. "Can't we just rest for a little bit?
Ren shakes his head. "We can't risk it. We don't want to miss it."
"Miss what?" Shay asks irritated. Her feet can't take it anymore and she lightly falls onto the sand covered ground.
Her district partner sits beside her and looks at the blue sky. "I don't know. But I guess we'll find out." He throws the gloves he found at the cornucopia at her, just like he did back in the district on reaping day.
XxXxXxXx
Nirvana watches Luke make the last kill for the day. It's a rabbit which doesn't surprise her. She's been seeing them everywhere ever since she got into the forest.
"I guess all we're eating is rabbit ala mode for dinner." Luke says placing down four rabbits. "Should last us the next two days. Maybe more if we eat smart."
"Yeah, because you know how much I love eating rabbit." Nirvana murmurs and grabs her small knife to skin the small animal. She can hear thunder in the distance and she lets out a small sigh. "I'm guessing a tree for shelter is out of the question."
Luke thinks for a while then looks around the area. "I think a tree's our only chance with this place. Not really any places to keep under the radar and still not come out fried." He says with a sigh.
XxXxXxXx
Rose had been wandering in fields of flowers for what seemed like hours. She would have never thought that past the dunes she'd find flowers everywhere. Sure they were beautiful, but everywhere she turned she'd end up in the same place as the last time.
It was already sunset and she couldn't find any place to stay for the night. What if the careers happened to be out hunting for tributes in the night? She wonders as she walks up to the huge cliff where the meadows stop. There's a river at the bottom and all of a sudden she can hear running water.
A waterfall! There has to be a stream somewhere! Rose thinks, her body filled with pure joy and thrill.
Her ears do the work for her; she carefully listens for the water as she moves through the flowers that have grown up to her skinny sides.
Suddenly she stops as her nose catches a penetrating smell. She takes off her sweater and coughs into it trying to filter out the bad air. It's almost as if they've poisoned the flowers.
She runs as fast as she can and luckily, as Rose reaches the lake, the scent dies down and the sweetening smell of the chamomile, marigolds, and purple coneflowers come back. All the scents she grew up with as a child in district eleven.
After she splashes her face with the chilling water, she slips her sweater back on and lies in the meadow that comforts her with its alluring smell.
XxXxXxXx
He had a steady stance when he entered the new environment. What was with all the different climates? Zane asked himself. He grabs the knife from his belt and looks at the pond in the middle of the area.
The water's fresh and warm. He gathers as much as he can into his water canteen by dipping the wooden object into the pond. Zane's about to pull it out of the water, but something stops him.
The water has completely frozen around his canteen and the lower half of his hand. He can't feel his hand. Shocked, he starts tugging on the solid ice, however his hand doesn't budge. It's entirely stuck.
Not fifteen feet away the bushes move, and voices come into the clearing. And yet Zane's hand won't move.
XxXxXxXx
Apollo drags Amelia through the sand quickly, as if in a hurry, to the three other careers standing in the middle of the desert. She's thrown to the ground at the foot of the rest of the group.
She doesn't fight back though - not yet.
"She was hiding behind one of the dunes. Don't think she'll make much use to us, may as well kill her now." Apollo says searching for his knife.
"Wait." Lexi stops him right before the knife can come out of his bag. "What skills do you have?" She turns to Amelia.
There's silence for a while. "I help my mother in the kitchen lots of times." Amelia's voice is shaky and her hands twitch violently.
"She's nothing to us. Kill her." Julian says.
"No wait!" Amelia says drawing out five kills. "I can kill anything in seconds. Plus, I know where to find all the food."
The others stare at the food in disbelief.
"You can't find rabbits in this type of climate." Riley states nudging the rabbit lightly on its stomach with his boot.
"They're not in the desert." Amelia takes in a deep breath. "They're in the other direction. There's a forest there. There's everything you could survive on in there."
Each career bites their lip still wondering if they should trust her.
"Just let her in. We don't even have enough people to last a week." Lexi pipes in. "And it's not like we can all be housewives when it comes to preparing food." Lexi glares up at Apollo, now at her side.
Julian only shakes his head in shame, still biting his lip. "Fine. You're first watch tonight." He throws a small pack of food and fresh kills to her. "Don't screw the deal up or you'll know what's coming."
Tears stream down Amelia's face while she smiles happily. "Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Shut it!" Apollo says annoyed after not getting it his way. "We're on a tight schedule."
The three turn their backs to Amelia and start walking again.
A small smirk falls across Amy's face. Then she wipes away the fake tears and starts to catch up with the others.
Because if it's one thing we know about Amelia- she's the most cunning girl a person could ever meet.
XxXxXxXx
Ren puts his fingers to his lips gesturing to Shay beside him to be quiet. He slowly steps out from behind the bush, axe in hand.
Zane is still trying to free himself from the ice when Ren steps out of hiding. He reaches with his empty hand for his pack but he's put it too far aside. Thud. The axe lodges into ice right next to him.
Shay grabs her knife from her pack and gives it to Ren so he can actually get something off him, but the area becomes impossibly hot in a matter of time. The ice melts and Zane tumbles out of the water. He gets onto his feet and he can hear the knife fly past his ears.
Zane's almost out of the area when a wind pins him to a tree. Shay and Ren can barely keep their ground and slide to the other side of the pond from the wind's strong current.
No one can move for what seems like forever. And then the wind stops and Zane is out of there before his Ren and Shay can get up.
XxXxXxXx
The thunder is the only thing that wakes Toth up. She's still in the tree she's been hiding in ever since the games started.
As her feet touch the earth-filled flooring, she notices the dryness in her mouth. She hasn't eaten since yesterday. It would have been smarter for her to eat breakfast instead of gain the sleep she missed the night before these treacherous games.
There's no way she's going to be able to find food out here in the forest unless she develops super speed to catch a bird or a rabbit. Even then you'd need supplies to skin it and cook it.
It's really starting to get late when Toth crosses from the forest to the desert. The cornucopia isn't far from where she had her tree so she doesn't get tired much. The desert is warmer than the humid forest, but the close to night atmosphere calms down the beaming heat rays that should be baking a person at 350.
No one stayed at cornucopia to her surprise. Or at least no one she can see. She tests the cornucopia first by throwing a rock onto the horn. Nothing happens. She takes the big risk and walks onto the cornucopia property. Toth has seen games where stepping onto the cornucopia's area will get your legs blown off. Not this year I guess.
The only thing that could come of use here is a dagger and a bag of apples. It makes sense why this place was so unprotected now. There are few supplies this year. No use in coming back.
Going back she's glad the wind has blown away the blood-stained sand, so she doesn't have the pleasure of looking at it.
When reaching her old shelter, she notices the rain has made a small puddle outside of her tree, where a piece of bark floated above it.
Good thing the best ideas still come to me at night. She smirks while at the thought.
XxXxXxXx
Julian had seen her with a knife; he knew she was good but never this good.
Aurelia lets Apollo go as Julian breaks the two apart.
Apollo dabs the cut on his face with his shirt, trying to clean of the blood, while Aurelia settles into the career pack.
She was the very first to reach the beach. Only because she knew what the ocean truly smelled like. She doesn't feel comfortable though. Even if the sand did reassure her everything was fine. Nothing is fine in this place.
The anthem has already gone off when Aurelia had made up a plan. She watches the faces in the sky. Only six dead. That's very few for a bloodbath. She feels sorry for them, but she's also glad that they're out of this for good. She wouldn't be able to handle killing them if they stayed as long as she did.
She sighs of sadness for Reed and Jeret. She remembers sitting next to them in training for lunch. Aurelia wonders where little Nan is. And her district partner? She couldn't care less. Especially after what he said to her before the interviews.
Aurelia decides to take the first watch. It's the only way her plan will go through. The wind is warm, much unlike the beach at night in her district. And the more she thinks of home, the more she shudders at the thought.
Julian is the last to fall asleep in the group of careers, which gives her the signal to get moving.
XxXxXxXx
It's a small space but she can fit. Perhaps being small had its advantages. Nan squeezed into a crevasse in the rocks. It should hold her out for tonight from the storm.
She opened her back pack for the first time that day. Unfortunately it didn't hold much: a small bowl and a bag of stale crackers. Nan looks out to the rain that falls outside her little rock shelter.
Carefully, she places the glass bowl outside of her snug space for the night and hopes that it won't tip over and spill all the rainwater, she's (most likely) going to catch tonight.
Nan watches the rain fall for a long time, each one making small splashes into the bowl she has put out. The soothing pattern of rain that runs past her glossy green eyes, almost hypnotizing her with sleep.
A/N: Confused yet readers?
All for now. Remember to review and sponsor your favorite tribute!
Sorry for all the people I had to kill off! Also, most people got their share in what their tribute's up to. I think only two tributes weren't completely mentioned in this chapter. But I have plans for them. ;)
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Hopefully the next chapter should be up soon. I'm betting chapters will be up quicker now that we're onto the games, so keep an eye out.
-Fifi