Note: Just a quick thank you to all those who have left reviews and/or followed my fanfiction "Captured Tribute." Don't be afraid to continue sharing and letting me know what you think!
Also: I do not own any ideas involving The Hunger Games. All rights reserved to the wonderful Suzanne Collins.
Part II
Let The Games Begin
I didn't sleep that night. How could I when the Hunger Games were only hours away? It all seemed impossible and yet here I was, waiting to be slaughtered for the entertainment of a sick man who believed himself to be a puppet master of lives. I felt empty and sick and completely hopeless. I missed them, my family, and I wondered what they were doing at this moment. Of course they would know that my brother and I were missing, but did they know of the Hunger Games? Was I going to die and have no one I cared about know? Perhaps that would be best. I wouldn't want them to know what had become of us. Maybe then they could still have hope of our return.
The thin mattress pressed against me and I turned over in the near dark to stare at the grey, metal ceiling of the holding room. I had been brought here along with the rest of the Captured the moment we stepped foot off the interview stage. Like animals they had herded us onto a waiting aircraft that had no windows to show us where we were. They had injected us with the trackers and dressed us in the blue robes from when we were first kidnapped. None of us spoke then and I never looked for my brother among the other twelve. As hard as I tried to ignore it I knew that we were all different now. We had, in a way, accepted our fate and had given up all hope for a rescue.
Soldiers had placed blindfolds over our eyes and had escorted us from the aircraft to our rooms. I couldn't hear or see a thing and I felt utterly lost. The one chance I thought I had at finding out where we were was, in one action, taken away from me. After the guards had guided me to a stop I had felt them remove the bracelet from around my wrist and then retreat. I was allowed to take the blindfold away myself and then I saw the holding cell with the bed, the mirror, and the entrance tube to the arena. It looked just like what I had seen in the movie, except now it was real.
The door to the room opened suddenly and the lights came on, but I remained lying on my back, staring at the ceiling. So they had decided to unlock my door now that I couldn't get away. Well, let them come. At least my last few hours of life can be a struggle for them. I wasn't about to allow them to prepare me for death.
I felt the end of my bed bend with the weight of someone sitting down next to me. For one, fleeting moment I hoped that it might be Ronen, but I banished this hope quickly. Don't become attached. Don't get connected. Get connected and you're dead. Those were the last words of wisdom Emmet had given to me and for once I had to agree with them. No one could be trusted now, because the moment we entered that arena we will all be fighting for our own lives.
A soft hand took mine and gently persuaded me to sit up. It wasn't Ronen who sat before me now, but Prema and in her lap was the neatly folded uniform I was to wear in the arena. Her smile was small and half-hearted, like she actually cared what happened to me, but I knew it to be a lie. Liars. The lot of them were rotten liars controlled by the faux President Snow. Maybe Prema didn't know, but that still couldn't change how I viewed her or anyone else in this false Capitol.
"Come along, dearie." she urged softly, pulling me from my last comfort to stand on the cold floor. "It's time."
I dress quickly and silently, refusing the plate of food Prema offers me, feeling too sick to actually eat. At the last minute I take a roll to nibble on as she puts my hair up, knowing that my survival could only be helped by having food in my stomach. The woman was equally silent which was unusual since more so than not she was bubbling over with rapid, excited speech. Perhaps she could sense the darkness I felt welling up inside me the closer the hour came for me to leave. Perhaps she actually had a heart and couldn't bear to see her little pet, her greatest achievement yet, slaughtered. Either way I welcomed the silence for a change.
Wrapping a long braid into a bun at the back of my head, she secured my hair with several long pins that were sharp enough to scratch my scalp and draw blood. I grimace, fidgeting uncomfortably as the needles dug into me and look into the mirror to see Prema watching me closely. The moment she catches my eye, she shows me another long pin and brushes her lips mischievously with a single finger before placing the pin into my hair. I smile slightly. So she was allowing me to go into the arena a little more prepared than the rest. Clever.
An invisible speaker announces the five minute warning before I had to be loaded into the tube's elevator. I nearly lose it then and I know that Prema could see the fear in my eyes. She doesn't say anything and neither do I. What would there be to say? Good luck. Kill them all. Become the last remaining tribute. Somehow I just couldn't find comfort in that.
Two minutes to go and Prema helps me into a jacket lined with cotton and fitted with several hidden pockets. She zips me up half way and then takes me firmly by the shoulders, looking me over with cautious eyes. I knew it was coming, The encouraging words that would only make things worse. I could already hear them now. Gently, Prema pulls me into a warm hug, pressing a blushing cheek securely against my pale one.
"You will do well." she says very loudly. "Everyone will love you."
"One minute until tribute boarding." announces the speaker.
At that moment Prema's grip becomes hard and I am restrained so close to her body that I could feel her rapid heart beat. Her hot breath fans my exposed neck and she draws her mouth close to my ear. Her voice is barely above a whisper, but I can hear every word and it feels like the ground drops out beneath me.
"I know."
I try to react, but she keeps me motionless. "Listen carefully." she says quickly. "I will do everything I can to get you out of here. You and your brother. Don't say a word."
Prema pulls back with her usual wide grin, but her eyes remain the same, carrying the words she had just spoken. With a hand she guides me to the tube and helps me step in seconds before the door closes. My heart races as what she had said at last settles on me and I break, pressing myself against the tube as if I could somehow escape through it. With a hand I hammer the glass as she watches, her face twitching with the effort to keep up her appearance.
"How do you know?" I scream, my words echoing back to me. "Who are you?" The tube begins to rise and I sink to my knees to keep at eye level with her. "Please don't do this! Tell me where are! Tell me where we are!"
There was only a sliver of space left before I was engulfed by the ceiling, but I manage to catch Prema mouth just four words. Look. To. The. Stars. She is blocked from my vision and I stare in stunned silence into the darkness that had taken her place. She knew. How could she know? I look up quickly at the sound of a metallic whirring and see a metal door open up above me, bathing me in a bright light. There is the sound of wind and birds and the buzzing of insects and I slowly stand to face the approaching arena.
I emerge as one with the other twenty three tributes and face a wide, open plateau that held the black cornucopia filled with everything we might need. On all sides the plateau drops into a hilly terrain that spread out into forests and valleys with silver rivers snaking throughout. Rocky cliffs rose to my right and encircled us like a crescent moon, spilling out twenty four water falls that gleamed in the bright sun above. Clouds and a variety of birds grace the azure sky while the calls of hidden creatures reverberate from the forests below. So this was the arena. A paradise to the fool's eye.
Turning my focus to the cornucopia, I track out the things that I would need the most to survive. A majority of it lay within the shadows of the cornucopia, but to my left, just a little ways in, was a sizable bag with a sack of apples not far away. I didn't look for any weapons, knowing that they would be too close to be worth it. Besides, I still wasn't much for killing, no matter how badly my life depended on it.
The countdown begins and I shift my stance just like most everyone else around me. I hear a whimper to my right and I pause, noticing Caitlyn quivering close to the edge of her platform. She is clutching at both her arms and tears are streaming down a face that is blotchy from hours of crying. With another whimper Caitlyn takes step towards the edge and I suddenly realize exactly what her intentions were. I jolt towards her, stopping just in time before I stepped of my platform onto the mines that were most likely buried in the ground. Cautiously I raise a hand out to her and grab her attention.
"Caitlyn, don't do it." I tell her. "It's not worth it."
"I can't do this." she sobs, her voice breaking. "I can't do this-We are all going to die no matter what."
I can see the others stop and take notice of us, but I ignore them, concentrating on keeping Caitlyn alive.
"Please," I beg. "We can get through this."
She meets my gaze and takes another step. "They told me that you left us and that we were going to die...I'm going to die."
"Caitlyn, think about your family." I'm desperate now, but I know I can't move to save her. "Think about what surviving would mean for them."
"It's over, Emma." she says, taking her final step off her platform. "It has always been over."
"Caitlyn no!"
Her foot barely touches the ground before the hidden mines are detonated and I watch in horror as everything she is, everything she was, is consumed in the resulting explosion. The force of it pushes me back a step and I am nearly knocked off my platform only to regain my footing at the last second. There are torn sobs from several of the others that are quickly cut short by the ringing in my ears. Muffled thumps reach me as the smoke clears and I turn away feeling sick when what was left of the girl returns to earth. I swallow hard and feel my ears pop to hear the final seconds of the countdown tick by.
Ten.
Shock causes my muscles to spasm and I clench my fists.
Nine.
I tear my eyes away from the ground and once more find the waiting pack.
Eight.
'They told me that you left us,' Caitlyn's words burned into me, starting a quiet fire that rolled in my chest. 'And that we were going to die.'
Seven.
So this was your plan, Snow. You take everything away from us and then you tell us to give up.
Six.
You tell us to back down.
Five.
To die.
Four.
That wasn't going to be me. I wasn't going to be controlled by him any longer. This was the arena and anything could happen.
Three.
Two.
My eyes travel away from the pack for a split second and I find the gleaming hilt of a silver sword glinting in the grass. I press my lips together until they are numb and quickly make up my mind.
One.
A gong sounds from far above and I sprint towards the cornucopia, biting back a tight smile trying to force its way out. Let the games begin.