Chapter 12: Planning Playing The Games
Island F8 (The Arctic Forest), The Gas Fire Pit, 7:11 a.m. arena time:
Amanda Snow walked back to her group of friends. She now held her flashy new set of weapons. 10 throwing knives and a sword. When she got to the clearing with the fire pit.
Lisa then saw Amanda's new accessories.
"Where did you get those?" ask Lisa with astonishment.
"A gift from a sponsor." said Amanda.
"Those weapons must have cost a small fortune," said Lisa, "or even a large fortune. Who would buy those for you?"
"I have no idea." said Amanda.
Blaze and Hector were awake. They gulped some water and ate some food.
"Well, someone rich wants you to win." said Blaze with a half amused half sarcastic voice.
Amanda twitched her eyebrows and thought at Blaze's statement.
"Remnants of political patriots," Amanda said out loud, "low ranking Capitol officials from the old regime that never committed any horrible atrocities, that are still loyal to my grandfather. They're all over the place. They try to keep a low profile of course."
"And you support them?" asked Blaze.
"No." Said Amanda. "This is the Hunger Games, and I'm just trying to survive, and I will use whatever I can get." she held up her new weapons to illustrate.
"Alright everyone, we are well rested, we are fed and watered, and we are fully armed." said Amanda, "It's time for us to get started." she raised her arms and looked around gesturing to the arena at large, "Let's not forget that this is a game. And for better or for worse the only way to win the game, is to play it. If you don't play it then you've already lost."
"Though sometimes for some games, the only way to win...is to not play." said Hector, though he seemed to get confused at his own remark, "...sorry, I can't give an example."
"Well that's not the case here," said Amanda, "my mentor made it very clear to me that when you are in the Hunger Games you either play or you die."
Everyone pause, soaking up her wisdom and logic.
"Alright everyone, it is time for us to get down to playing the Games." said Amanda. "And to do that, we need to hunt down our competition."
"We should comb the arena in a zigzag pattern," said Blaze, "we will flush everyone out one by one."
"I think maybe we should hunt down the Career Pack first." said Lisa.
Everyone looked at her with curious faces as though she was insane.
"What makes you think that we should do that?" asked Hector.
"Well," said Lisa, "from what I've seen every year in the Games, it's the Career Pack. Usually every year it's one of them that wins. Except when the Career Pack is wiped out. Now usually it's only certain years the Career Pack is wiped out because they don't know how to survive when all their supplies are destroyed. Well, I think maybe we should take to the offense, it's the last thing that they will ever expect."
"Yes, but at the same time, a head-on-attack is also the very thing that they are the most prepared for." cautioned Blaze.
"Actually Blaze, I'm with Lisa." said Hector, "though maybe not a head-on-attack. The Career Pack will expect us to run and hide from them. What they won't expect is us sneaking up on them and watching them from a distance. We wait until their guard is down and then we ambush them."
"I think we should forget about the Career Pack." said Amanda.
Now everyone looked at Amanda with odd faces.
"I'm not worried about the Career Pack." said Amanda. "With these new weapons I can handle the Career Pack, plus they will be the easiest to find because they're looking for us. If you are going to win the Games you need to take out the biggest challenge first, and I think that the biggest challenge is not the strength and might of the Career Pack. The biggest challenge will be catching the tributes that will try to run, hide, and evade."
They all thought for a minute.
"I think both plans have merit." said Lisa, "But I think as a group we should decided on which one to do. Hector's plan, or Amanda's plan."
"I vote Blaze's plan." said Amanda. "We comb the arena from top to bottom in a zigzag pattern and find everyone, one at a time."
Lisa and Hector considered for a moment.
"Who knows. We might run into the Career Pack first." said Amanda playing mind games, trying to get Lisa to agree to what she thought she wanted.
Lisa thought about it for a moment.
"Alright, Blaze's plan it is." said Lisa.
They packed up their gear and were then ready to leave. Lisa consulted the compass. Hector inspected the water bottles.
"We're going to need more water before long." said Hector.
Blaze thought for a moment, and then examined the frozen trees.
"These trees are covered in a thick layer of frost. We could scrape it off and eat snow."
"That won't help us very much when we pass beyond the boundary of the arctic forest." said Lisa.
"We need to have plenty of water on hand or else we will need to take time out of hunting for tributes to find water." said Hector.
"I think I saw a fresh-water-stream in the forest on the other side of the canal back the way we came." said Amanda. "We find it, fill our bottles, and we then ration the water for as long a period as possible to hunt down the other tributes before we need to fill the bottles again."
It was then at that moment that there was a soft tap on the ground behind them.
They looked in the direction of the sound, and saw on the ground a small box with a silver parachute.
"Two gifts in 28 minutes?" said Hector with curiosity, "That's something!"
They were about to open the box when...
'BOOM!'
The sound of a cannon came out of the sky from an unknown direction, alerting everyone in the arena that another Tribute had died.
"There goes another one." said Amanda.
"Could have been anyone." said Lisa.
They then turned their attention back to the box with the silver parachute. Amanda opened it and inside was an unusual contraption. The device was about the size of a tea pot. It was oddly shaped with a few rounded areas, and it had a thin clear rubber tube coming out of the top, and a thin clear rubber tube coming out of the bottom.
Amanda picked it up and examined it.
"Ohhh...kaaay?!" said Amanda in a half confused half sarcastic voice. "What in the world is this...thing?"
"Wait, I know what that thing is." said Hector. "That is a 'Desalination Straw'."
Amanda, Blaze, and Lisa, just shrugged their shoulders in confusion.
"You put the end of one of the tubes in the ocean, and the end of the other tube in your mouth, and you suck the seawater up like you're drinking from a straw." said Hector, "But before the water goes into your mouth, it goes through the machine first, where the machine removes all the salt and impurities from the water, and when the water goes into your mouth you are drinking pure, fresh water."
They then had looks of surprise on their faces.
"That's brilliant." said Lisa. "This means we can hunt tributes to our heart's content without worrying about water."
"Looks like someone is making us want for nothing." said Blaze. "Or at least you Amanda."
"Then in that case," Amanda looked up into the trees, hoping to make eye-contact with a hidden camera, and spoke louder. "I wish for an extra-large, deep-dish, veal, raspberry, and horseradish pizza." said Amanda.
They all waited quietly for a full minute. But no food rained from the sky.
"Well, worth a try." said Amanda.
"Speaking of pizza, what are we going to do about food?" said Lisa. "We will probably need to carefully ration the non-perishables that came in the backpacks."
"Some of the plants around here are non-poisonous." said Amanda. "I can tell. Plus, we can eat fresh meat. I've seen rodents and birds everywhere, and I can get them with my throwing-knives."
"Speaking of throwing-knives, can we each have one?" asked Blaze.
Amanda thought for a moment, and then decided to barter with three. Her honor continued to make her help her allies get into the top four, but when that happens, she still wanted to have the advantage. She handed one out to each of them.
"We will use the fire pit here in the arctic forest as our base camp." said Hector. "If we get separated, we rendezvous back here at night fall and wait 6 hours."
"Then in that case we're all set." said Lisa.
They then began their trek through the arena for their fellow tributes.
In an underground chamber of District malcontents:
"Well this is a setback!" said one of the men in a tone of extreme disappointment and irritation. "Some idiot paid a fortune to send President Snow's granddaughter a set of deadly weapons and a continuous source of water."
"It will significantly increase her chances of winning." said another man.
"Who exactly could afford the sword, the knives, and the Desalination Straw anyway?" said another man.
A man from District 3 with a computer and record documents spoke up.
"I have the numbers on that." he consulted his documents. "There are only a handful of known people who have the money to do it. And by a number of varying statistics I have ruled many of them out."
"Remnants of Capitol political patriots." said another man. "Supporters of President Snow that were not executed because they never personally committed any sadistic atrocities. It would have to be a bank account that would be a little less discript to the people of the Districts. A Capitol bank account, no. They would be hiding a huge stock pile of accumulated funds in a District bank account."
"It doesn't matter who they are, or what they are doing." said another man. "By the laws written by President Paylor, and the District 13 Officials, what they are doing is not strictly illegal, it is simply frowned-upon. There for, there is nothing we can do."
"We have quite a few supporters on our side against President Snow's granddaughter, so our funds are quite good." said the first man. "Send our supporter in the Career Pack whatever we can afford."
Second day of the Games, 12 noon arena time:
Claudius Templesmith seen on the television screen:
"And, ladies and gentlemen, we are back for your regular schedule commentator update." said Claudius.
Caesar Flickerman was not there. The audience assumed he went home for the day.
"We are now 26 hours into the Games. The death toll the tributes currently stands at 11. For those viewers who are just tuning in, the Capitol Tribute representing towards District 6, Randy Bing, is now deceased."
There was then a replay of the death on the screen:
7:23 a.m. Arena time:
Randy Bing, was at the west edge of Island H10. The island was a replica of a tropical jungle. He was just finishing up a breakfast of tropical fruit that he had found on the island that he recognized from the edible plants station in the Training Center.
The Career Pack spotted him from a distance. They were well stocked with supplies, and even had a few crude weapons. they were strong and at full strength except for the fact that Martha Filmer's face still held the scars of the beating she took from Belinda Rogers. Randy Bing grabbed his backpack and ran for it. He bushwhacked through the dense foliage, the Career Pack never lost sight of him. This went on for several minutes until he tripped over a large thick tree root on his path. He got back up but was grabbed by the shoulders by Dennis Green. Dennis Green got a hold of either side of Randy Bing's head and with a hard swift twist to the side, he broke Randy Bing's neck.
They waited a few moments.
'BOOM!'
They cheered and high-fived in celebration that they'd made another kill. They checked his backpack, but it didn't have anything that they already had at their cache back at the cornucopia. Then they moved on.
Back to Claudius, seen on the screen in the TV news studio:
"The Games will continue to heat up." said Claudius. "Currently, the tributes are spread thin, and far between each other across the arena. Please stay tuned in, not for deaths, but for suspenseful moments where the tributes will be driven towards each other.
"And now, for my next guest, an interview with the volunteer mentor of the Capitol tribute representing towards District 11, Klay Randolph. Ladies and gentlemen, let's bring out onto the stage..."
Please Review!