Chapter Nine

A/N: Thank you to Guest for reviewing.

As daylight came into sight, Abby gasped a little. The arena was not what she had expected at all.

The light that she saw was not in fact coming from in front of her, but from far above, somewhere in the sky that covered the top of the arena. Below the celestial blanket, there was hardly any light to be seen.

The gleaming silver Cornucopia rested in the middle of a huge lake, satellites of small rocks resting just below the surface, identical to the ones all twenty four of them were stood on at that moment. Above them, cliff faces stood all around, blocking out the sunlight, as the steep slopes stood tall enough to do so. There were crevices all the way through the rock, some of them huge, some of them only small enough to crawl through. Abby's guess was that the main arena was further inside. 'It will end too quickly if it's just an open space. It won't be as entertaining for the Capitol.' There was more than a hint of bitterness in the girl's mind as she thought, and she was not at all surprised by this. After all, entertainment was what the Games was all about, for them.

As the young girl glanced around the arena, she saw the other Tributes stood in a circle around the Cornucopia. She was pleased to see that the Careers were only a couple of stones away from her, bar the young blonde, who was directly opposite. 'Be grateful for small mercies.' she thought. 'At least they'll go for the Tributes opposite before they go for me.'

Unfortunately, stood opposite her were both Alex and Harry, side by side on the rocks directly opposite the dreaded Careers. Seeing the expressions on their faces, Abby could see that both boys were terrified at their position, knowing that the majority of the Careers were going to be aiming for them. 'I'm going to have to try and save them, at least.' she thought, albeit with a small sigh, barely audible to anyone but herself, not that anyone would be listening at that time.'Loyalty counts for something, and I know they'd do the same for me.'

Glancing up once more, Abby's eye was caught by the countdown clock, resting comfortably at the top of the Cornucopia. It was a hologram, though not obviously to anyone who did not know the reason that they no longer had the real clocks. One year, a Tribute had killed seventeen others singlehandedly, using nothing by the countdown clock. Consequently, the whole thing had been over in a matter of days, which was why the Capitol no longer allowed the physical object to be used in the Arena, leaving the Tributes to only watch the projection in fear. 48 seconds.

There was less than a minute to go now until the Tributes would be allowed to leave their podiums, to fight. To kill. It was less than a minute until she may be allowed to be murder in the bloodbath that annually occurred at the Cornucopia. It was the time when over half the Tributes died, and when the weak were separated from the strong. Depending on which of these she was, in 48 seconds, it may be her time to die.

'I wonder which of them will be the first to fall.' Abby wondered, shuddering slightly at the thought, due to the morbidity of it. 'Before the end of the day, half of them will be dead. I might even be among them, but I'll try not to think too much about that. For now, I need to concentrate on staying alive, that's what's most important, after all. If I accomplish that, I'll worry about the rest later.'

She looked up once again, to see that the countdown clock read 26. 'This is it.' she thought, watching as the numbers ticked on and on. 'These people beside me will kill and die and fight for the right to the title of Victor. I know that my parents held that title twice, three more titles in my family than any of them have had, but does that really mean that I can be the same?' This was the question that she was constantly asking herself, as the numbers decreased by the second. Was she really the same as her parents?

Over the years, many people had compared Abby to her parents, to the point where she was almost sick of the comments. She had always wanted to be individual, which was extremely difficult in a country where the majority of conversation was dominated by the champions of the Hunger Games. Her parents were the most famous Victors in the history of the competition, having been the first to rebel all those years ago, and standing up in the rebellion against the Capitol not long after. Katniss Everdeen, in particular, and her husband, Peeta Mellark having a child who was entered into the Games at age twelve, it would be in the news for weeks and months to come. Especially if she emerged a Victor also, the only way that she would possibly emerge at all.

For the third time, the young Mellark looked up to view the progress of the countdown clock. 14.

'Just over a dozen seconds, and I will be running for my life.' Abby thought, having lost count of the amount of times she had allowed similar observations to pass through her mind since she had risen into the Arena. From the expressions of her fellow Tributes, they had also been considering such things, and from the looks of children from Districts Five, Eight and Ten, they were all expecting to have at most half a minute left to live. In all honesty, that was what the girl expected of them as well.

Unable to stop herself from doing so, the brunette looked over, her gaze being met by that of her District partner, Alex. Noticing that she was looking back, he nodded his head in her direction, as if to say what she wished to say in return. 'Good luck.'

Then, the claxon finally sounded.

0.

A/N: I know! Dramatic ending, right?! Please review, so we may discover the fate of our Tributes!