Chapter 14: The Goth and The Group Of Wolves

Amanda, Blaze, and Hector, paddled back to land in their inflatable boat. They were quiet, mourning the loss of their ally.

They had a relative idea of where they were, for once they had realized the arena was a giant checker-board a week earlier, they tried to map out the path they were taking for the past week. They stayed within the canals in the inflatable boat as they retraced their steps and made their way back to the arctic forest over the next few hours.

When they reached the arctic forest, they pulled the bulky air filled boat into the darkness of the frozen trees and behind some bushes so it couldn't be found without a deliberate search. They trekked through the frozen forest until they got back to the gas fire pit, which was still in full blaze. They decided to wait there until the next day where they would take a load off of their minds, and then set out to finish the job that they knew that Lisa would have wanted from them.

Midnight, 8 days into the Games

David Crane's point of view:

We were at the cornucopia. We were restocking our supplies after two days of hunting our competition since we had last come back to restock. There had been no luck since the second day of the Games. This didn't make any sense? In previous years, the Gamemakers would usually drive, we, the Tributes, towards each other by now?

I wanted to find Amanda Snow, who's mentor just happened be Katniss Everdeen. Amanda killed my sister before my very eyes. Katniss Everdeen threatened to end 74th Hunger Games with a handful of poison berries, which resulted in Amanda's grandfather executing my father. If Katniss had just killed Peeta Mellark then, then there never would have been a need for my father to have been killed. Plus my father had decided to be a little compassionate and not kill them, he was a nice guy. But, he has now been branded as a high ranking Capitol official who was sadistic, which resulted in me and my sister even being here to begin with. I hate Amanda Snow. I hate her grandfather. I hate her mentor. I hate the Districts for rebelling; why couldn't they just remember their place!? I will find Amanda Snow, and I will kill her myself!

The anthem started playing. And a giant image of Lisa Derrick's face appeared in the sky. So that's what the cannon earlier today was for. She was Amanda's ally. I wonder how it happened? Oh well, too bad for Amanda's alliance, and good riddance.

Katniss's point of view:

I was standing in the mentor's control room with the other mentors and the parents of the tributes. Annie Cresta, as Lisa Derrick's mentor was consoling Lisa Derrick's mother. Lisa Derrick's mother had her face on Annie's shoulder and was crying for the loss of her baby girl. I sympathized with them as Peeta had his arms around my shoulders and Haymitch stood beside us. The banana yellow girl had been sweet, I got to know her a little over the past month. She was kind and caring, a little weird, but apparently being weird was a qualification requirement for being a Capitol citizen, and her color really did brighten up a room every time she stepped into it, (though some people might have mistake her for having some sort of freaky disease where her liver was failing, or that she had drank an abundance of carrot juice).

Though my tribute was still alive, I feel that I could understand how Haymitch must have felt about his tributes dying, until me and Peeta had come along, Haymitch had to endure 23 years which added up to 46 tributes that he mentored dying, usually within the opening blood bath. I think I remember about 11 years ago in what I think was the 66th Games, the 18 year old District 12 boy, by mere luck managed to make it all the way to the top 2, only to then be brutally slaughtered by the District 2 boy. That year had been District 12's best chance at a comeback since Haymitch's victory himself. Annie told me that she had never mentored any tributes, for she did not meet the mental and psychological qualifications of mentoring after she won her Games.

I directed my attention to the screen that was showing that nothing was going on with our tributes except that Amanda was up and awake. She had carved a crude bull's-eye into one of the frozen trees and was throwing her knives at it with a vengeance. I know how she feels. I felt the same way when I saw Little Rue from District 11 die. I became full of rage. Rage at the Capitol, rage at my fellow tributes, rage at the Gamemakers, everyone.

When I was asked to vote for a Hunger Games of Capitol tributes, why couldn't I have just voted 'no'? No one hated the Hunger Games more than I did! It was because I thought President Snow killed Prim. And because I thought that it was Presidents Snow that killed my sister, I wanted to send Amanda Snow into the Games. I feel so stupid now. They say you got a be careful about what you wish for because you just might get it, only not quite how you pictured it.

I dipped into the pool of funds which was actually pretty high and I sent her a Silver parachute, with a mild nonaddictive medical sedative, she will know what it is for, a don't want her judgment to be impaired by anger when she goes searching for her fellow tributes.

Third person point of view:

Day 9 of the Games, island I3

After a little investigating, the Career pack found that what they believed were the outer edge islands, had disappeared. They speculated that the Gamemakers must have somehow sunk them into the sea. The Careers were on the center island F6 at the time of the Gamemakers submerging the outer islands, so they would never have noticed. The island that they were on now was apparently a square kilometer of very high hills, cliffs, and canyons. They were walking along the base of a high ledge when they were looking for tributes. They figured that since the arena was smaller now, the other tributes would be easier to find. David hoped they would find Amanda Snow first, though he also thought it would be an epic fight if he and her were the last two standing and he got to win with her death. He twisted the lid on a plastic 1 liter water bottle that he found in the pile of supplies at the cornucopia, and took a gulp, then pulled an apple out of his pocket and started to eat it. He looked this way and that and figured that if any tributes were within his line of sight he would see them.

"Over there!" shouted Martha, pointing.

They all looked in her direction and all saw it. About 100 yards behind them, running in a different direction was the girl with snow white skin, but everything else about her, her hair, her fingernails, her eyelids, her lips, all completely black, along with multiple facial piercings. The goth, Beverly O'Malley. This was their first sighting in eight days, and they were not going to miss it, they had to capitalize on it, they ran after her as fast as they could. She had a backpack, what looked like a tree branch sharpened to a point, and what looked like a whip coiled around her belt. They followed her in close hot pursuit for several minutes. Martha was the closest and was slowly gaining on her. Martha was just about to grab Beverly's shoulder when Beverly swung her wooden spear over her shoulder and whacked Martha in the head and Martha fell to the ground. They all ran ahead of her, and Martha got back to her feet and continued to follow, her head was bleeding from the point of impact from Beverly's spear, adding to the many scars already on her face from her fight with Belinda Rogers, though most of the scars and bruises had healed since the bloodbath.

Beverly ran towards the edge of a cliff. Across from the cliff was another cliff. The gap was about 2 meters across. She did a long jump like on the track-and-field at school. And she made the jump. The Career pack was not going to let their only target get away, so they too took the gamble. Janice, Dennis, and David, successfully made the jump, Giovanni however was not so lucky, he collided with the edge of the opposite cliff and began to slide off. He clawed at the dirt with his fingernails but his hands couldn't get a firm purchase on the edge, plus he was also winded by the impact of the cliff, his fingers slid off as he tried to hold onto the edge, and he fell...300 feet...and he hit the ground, breaking every bone in his body, and rupturing every organ.

For the rest of the Career pack, they were of course sorry that they had lost their ally, but they weren't going to miss him, it was the Hunger Games after all, so it was only an alliance of convenience.

"Cut your losses! Follow the goth!" commanded Dennis Green in response to the loss of their ally.

Martha followed a distance behind and successfully made the jump. Beverly came to a dead end at the edge of another cliff. She was cornered. She turned around and faced the Career pack who surrounded her. At the edge of the corner of the cliff, she backed up out onto a narrow ledge that jutted out over the water.

"There is no escape, O'Malley!" said Janice, "Come back over here, and we promise to kill you quickly."

Beverly spoke no words as she stood on her tippy-toes very precariously right at the edge of the cliff, her hands and arms spread wide as though she was going to leap off. The Career pack was wondering if she would risk the fall into water, rather than their word on a quick death at their hands. They then knew that she would. They relaxed their stance, resigned to the fact that they were not going to kill her themselves. And just as Beverly was about to leap off, in one quick motion she grabbed her rope whip and flung it in Janice's direction and it wrapped around Janice's neck, and with a sharp jerk, 'CRACK!' Janice's neck broke and was pulled over the edge of the cliff as Beverly fell. She fell 350 feet and rolled her body into a ball before she hit the shallow water. Rolling into a ball slowed her momentum before she touched the bottom. She held her breath as she unwound the rope from Janice's broken neck, and swam as far as she could before she came up for air.

The Career pack, which was now down to 3, as desperate as they were to make a kill, chasing this tribute had already cost them 2 of their number, and they were simply not brave enough to jump off the cliff into the water to follow her.

'BOOM!' ... 'BOOM!' went the loud sound in the sky.

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