When we went downstairs I was terrified to see Laika, but he wasn't there. The ground hadn't split under my feet yet, which could mean three things – the Head City hadn't discovered yet that I attacked my escort, they were going to finish me in the most painful way possible in the arena or they didn't do anything at all. They also hadn't done anything about me attacking Jess. Were they waiting for something or so?
The paparazzi was waiting outside. I gripped Kara's hand and we opened the door. Bodyguards kept the people away.
'Abbey, how do you feel about your interview?' yelled one.
'District 1, is it true you are an alcoholic?' shouted another. They didn't want to know anything from other tributes who were passing us. They were just props to be killed in the arena.
When the darkness of the entrance of the hovercraft fell over our faces, it suddenly became real. We were really going to District 6, to kill or be killed. Guides brought us to a small room where we would spend the journey. I was shocked when I saw Prul there. He gave me a cold look and continued stroking his beard while staring out of the window. I was surprised Charlotte wasn't there. I thought she was coming with us. At least Laika wasn't there. I had to tell Kara. However, not yet. I would when we were in the arena, when everyone all over the world was listening. Ha, that would ruin him.
There was another person, who was probably Kara's stylist. I realized she had told me very little about everything related to the Games. I didn't even know who her stylist was.
Right after we entered the door shut behind us. It was locked. Great. The next time I would be able to move around entirely freely would be back in District 1. At least, if I survived Alexandria, Hayden, Fabio and the death of Kara and our District 35 friends. God, that was depressing.
Soon afterwards the hovercraft started flying. It was weird, seeing the city disappear behind the mountains. How long would the flight be?
'Tributes and guides' said an automatic voice. Screens popped on.
'We are heading to District 6, where you will descend under the arena. There is one private room per tribute and guide. From there you will go up into the arena, where you will find the Cornucopia. Don't step off your plate until the countdown is finished; however, you probably understand that.
Similar to the past games, some of you will survive this arena. Most of you will not. You will stay in the arena until only twelve remain. If the Gamemakers decide you are too boring and slow, there are other ways to make sure that twelve tributes remain. Don't forget earthquakes, floods and animals you may want to avoid while in the woods. The arena is an island surrounded by sea. Escaping over water isn't possible. As soon as it comes down to the final twelve, you will be freed from the arena and the rest of the programme will be announced.'
After the last word the screen turned black immediately.
'I thought we were going to District 6' I said 'that isn't an island. All islands close to the Continent are not inhabited. They repeat that every geography lesson.'
'Are you really that stupid, girl?' Prul said sarcastically 'Just because they are uninhabited, doesn't mean they don't belong to a District.'
'Ok, ok' I said quickly. I remembered clearly how he made me throw up yesterday just because I didn't obey him. Kara was pale.
'Well, I guess we aim for the final twelve then, right?' she said. I nodded.
The final preparation room was dark. The ambience in the cold space didn't improve with Pruls presence. He just leaned against a wall and watched me put on the arena clothes (short pants, surprisingly, a blouse and thick shoes).
'Couldn't you at least tell me what I might expect, seeing these clothes' I asked.
'You're about to see the arena in five minutes. Why should I waste my precious breath?'
I rolled my eyes and put on my shoes. Then I drank some water and ate some bread.
'Carbs' Prul said, turning away from me. I smiled and licked my lips. 'It's really good. You want some?'
'I will be watching every second of the Games, and I'll organize a party when you die' he responded. I shrugged my shoulders. I no longer cared for what he had to say. Maybe I was dead in ten minutes, then all the worrying would have been for nothing.
After some awkward moments of silence I heard a voice announcing that there was one minute left. I almost ran to the tube. I desperately needed something to take my mind off every single event that had happened the previous weeks. I needed mortal danger. And I was ready.
Soon the tube closed and there was glass between me and Prul. I smirked at him and gave him my middle finger. He became red, but he couldn't do anything because the floor started trembling and suddenly I was going up. Above me opened something and I could see the sky – heavenly blue, no single cloud. I was already able to feel the warm air.
As soon as I was able to see the arena, I had to blink twice. The colors were brighter. The light was brighter. Everything was brighter.
The heat was unbearable, already. The sun was burning unmercifully. The rays hit the golden Cornucopia in the middle of a small open space completely surrounded by a thick jungle. I couldn't see past the first row of palm trees. The open space really wasn't big. The next tribute was no more than two meters on my right. The countdown had begun, but I noticed many other tributes were still distracted by everything they saw. Most of them probably had never seen this landscape before because they didn't have any televisions. I, from West and generally homeless, didn't have one as well, but at least I was forced to go to school and learn about it. Strange animalistic sounds came from the jungle and there was a strange smell pleasant, probably from some kind of tropical flower.
I was a quick judger, so by the time I was finished analyzing the environment, most tributes were still sticking their noses up in the air or nervously looking around. Kara was two plates away from me and Timothy was standing next to her. We knew what our tactic was.
Ten, nine, eight. Alexandria was probably on the other side, because I didn't see her. Fabio was in running position on my left. I did the same as him and got ready.
Seven, six, five, four. The girl on my left looked terrified.
Three, two, one. I was ready. I was ready. I was.
I was quick. Even before Fabio I had begun running and now I was heading for the Cornucopia. No time to look behind me for Kara or the others. A weapon was the first thing. I saw a knife lying on the ground and picked it up, still running. The Cornucopia wasn't far away. Another person had already reached it, but he or she didn't aim for me.
Quickly I grabbed a backpack and then I heard the first cries. I also picked up some sort of cloth and pushed it into the pack. Then I turned around and looked right in the eyes of another tribute, a scared one, but ready to attack. I took out my knife, threw it and hit his arm. I quickly grabbed another from behind and ran past the tribute. I had to find the others.
I stood still for a single second when I saw Fabio swung a large backpack over his shoulder and ran into the woods with no interest in the bloodbath. Then my eyes caught Alexandria, who had conquered the bow and within short moments, a girl was hit in her throat. I shook and ran out of her sight. In the chaos I hadn't seen any of my allies left and it seemed as if every second two more corpses appeared. I ran past every one, but didn't recognize anyone and sliced another arm open on my way. Suddenly I saw it.
Mika had fallen on the ground and although he struggled, a dark-haired girl was approaching him with a spear.
'NO' I shouted, and threw myself on her. She was shocked, but then I got my knife and stabbed it into her stomach. I didn't know what to do, I hadn't used a knife before, I just stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. While I was doing it, I looked around for others and shouted to Mika he had to go into the woods to our right and not move.
'No, I'll find Timothy and Kara!' he said. He stood up, uninjured, and ran away.
'No' I murmured, and when the weakening movements of the person under me died out, I got up. My hands and chest were covered in blood and the girl couldn't have been any more dead.
I couldn't think. After all, if I wanted to win, I had to repeat this many times.
I turned my face away and grabbed another backpack. I realized everything was getting heavy, so I dragged it all to the woods on the right.
There weren't many tributes left around the Cornucopia. I saw the red hair of Alexandria's and Hayden's sister disappear in the jungle. When I heard running sounds approaching me it turned out to be Mika, still not harmed. He was with Timothy. I waved to them and they ran to me into the jungle. We were standing approximately ten meters from the open space.
'Where's Kara' I said, out of breath.
'I don't know. Almost everyone is gone' Mika answered 'They are the only ones left.'
He pointed at a boy, whom I recognized as the District 5 boy. He was finishing off a blonde girl. There were a lot of corpses on the ground. I saw mine and quickly turned to Mika.
'But where did she go? We were supposed to meet up!' I said.
'Look, she didn't know where. Everyone was panicking.' He said.
'I know. We'll just have to find her before anyone else does.' I said.
'Fine. Now run. He's coming this way' Timothy said, pointing at the District 5 guy.
We quickly got our stuff (Timothy was kind enough to take my second backpack) and ran.
We didn't stop. Mika didn't have an athletic body, but there wasn't anything wrong with his stamina. We kept running for ten minutes, walked a few meters, listened to the cannons firing (eight times) and then continued. I didn't want to think about every creepy creature wandering in the trees. Spiders, snakes, bugs…
Our shoes were soaking wet from little springs and streams. Water wouldn't be a problem.
District 5 was gone. It was unbearable, the heat, especially after running so much, but once we made our first long stop we tried some of the water. At first a little bit, but nothing seemed to be wrong with it. The water was refreshing and fine.
After that we wandered for about, I don't know, two hours. The Games had started at half past eleven, so it had to be the afternoon. The jungle was difficult to cross, with vicious tripping possibilities and so many plants it made me dizzy.
'Look!' Mika said. I saw what he saw; a bright blue sparkle which wasn't air. We ran for another two hundred meters and suddenly we were standing on a white beach.
It was the kind of beach you'd see in your dreams. Tropical, warm, bright. Except this was a little too tropical, warm and bright. In fact, this beach was small and again, surrounded by rocks and trees. It was hot without the shadows and the sand was blistering. The color of the sea hurt my eyes. We remained in the shadows of the trees when we finally sat down in the sand.
'Well, it is a great spot to hide out. There is a wall of rocks on that side and trees on this side. I could get used to this' I said 'Except Kara will never find us here'
'She's smart' Mika said. I knew he understood that she would in fact never find us, but still he tried to give me hope.
'Yeah' I said. I laid down in the sand and looked at the waving palm trees above me 'This isn't so bad. At least we won't die from dehydration.'.
'Still, there must be something wrong with this place' Mika said.
'You mean this?' Timothy remarked. He pointed at a scorpion, ready to attack, only inches from my head.
'Argh!' I jumped up and kicked the vermin with my shoe back into the jungle. I sighed from relief. 'Thanks. You're right. We have to be careful. Let's see what's in our backpacks'
We had three big backpacks and some cloth, which turned out to be a big sheet.
We sorted out anything – two pairs of socks, bandage, a lighter, a screwdriver (what?), another knife, two small first aid kits, a big bottle with water, a flashlight, a sleeping bag, some rope, an empty box which was probably for food, a t-shirt, a van, a notebook (those people filling the backpacks had an odd sense of humor) and an apple.
'Not much food in here' I said, looking at the shiny red apple. I was sweating – but this was probably the hottest moment of the day. Soon it would become evening and the temperatures would become lower. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach when I thought about Kara maybe being dead or running into the weapons of others. However, for now, this was good. We just had to find some food and then we could permanently stay here.
While Timothy was trying to cross the sand to go to the sea, hopping from one foot to another, Mika noticed this island probably had to be really southern, maybe even closer to Africa than the Continent.
'You can't see any shore though' I said. Across all those waves had to be land. Civilization.
Someone screamed. We looked up, I even got my knife, but moments after we saw it was Timothy. His ankle was red and he sprinted out of the water.
'Jesus Christ' Mika said, running to his friend.
'Fish' Timothy said 'in the water. As soon as it got deeper than my knees. They had fangs. Fangs!'
'I hope they're not poisonous' Mika said, frowning.
'Maybe there's something in our first aid kits' I remarked.
We checked, but there was nothing against venom. All we could do was hope the fish weren't poisonous. Timothy wasn't dead yet, so they probably weren't. The sea was clearly not safe. Damn, taking a swim would have been nice in this heat. But yeah, we were in the Games, not on a holiday.