The games: Day 1. Mid-afternoon.
District one's Lynsa Fylar's POV
The Bloodbath was over when the last non-career tribute left the cornucopia. All that remained here now was us careers, our allies, and the dead bodies that littered the area. I looked around the bloodbath area and looked at the bodies of the dead tributes that were killed. My district partner Griffin kicked the head of the district nine girl that he had beheaded before starting to look through one of the many crates near the cornucopia. I then looked to district eight boy that Lucifer had slashed in the neck. Both so lifeless now. Their facial features in permanent fear as they saw death heading towards them. I looked farther into the field and saw the bloody, scattered pieces of the fat district twelve boy laying on the blood covered ground around the starting platforms. I then looked in the direction of the next victim of the bloodbath, the blond, pale boy from six who laid face down on the ground in a pool of blood, dead.
"Two." I said slinging my new bow over my right shoulder.
"Two what?" Asked Evaline who was standing beside me while Griffin, Lucifer, Howl, Shoney, and Arrowe all looked though the crates and looted the remaining backpacks and individual items scattered though out the bloodbath area. Whatever the other tributes didn't get, we got, not that we really needed them, we had everything we needed in those crates and maybe more.
"We only got two people." I told her thinking of the girl Griffin killed and the boy Lucifer had killed.
"Three actually." I heard Howl announce "I killed that district five girl before she was dragged off into the jungle." Ok then, three victims that were killed by us, two dead by other means making a total of five dead tributes.
"That's right," I heard Lucifer say angrily as soon as Howl was finished "three, we only killed three tributes in this bloodbath and two other tributes died of other causes! That was fucking pathetic!" I looked to him to see him pull out a black and red coloured two litter thermos full of water from one of the many crates near the cornucopia before tuning towards us. "I mean! Come on! What the hell were you all doing!?" He then looked at Griffin and Howl "besides me! These two were the only ones that killed someone!" He then turned to me before shouting and pointing to me while holding up the thermos "what were you doing Lynsa!? I thought you were an ace with those arrows!"
"I-" I stuttered before telling him about the situation that happened to me earlier "I couldn't find a bow and some arrows until the bloodbath was over." It was true, I looked and looked for a bow and some arrows but couldn't find any. It was only till all this ended did I find what I needed. Lucifer looked displeased when I told him my answer.
"Oh really? Cause if I remember correctly, I found a bunch of bows, and lots of arrows near me easily! I even shot one!" He might have found them then, but I didn't. Before I could say anything to him, Lucifer turned towards Eva and directed his anger to her. "You! Reaped career girl! What about you? What's your excuse?" I turned to see Eva looking at him straight in the face, fearless, before saying to him
"None of them got close enough to me, they all ran in the opposite direction." She seemed unafraid of him. I saw Lucifer smile widely before saying
"Alright, fair enough, I was having that problem too." Lucifer then turned to Arrowe and Shoney who were raiding a weapons crate full of knives. "What about you two!?" He called to them.
"Got none." Arrowe called to him while Shoney remained silent and just shrugged his shoulders giving no excuse or anything. He didn't even turn towards Lucifer when he gave his shrug, all he did was keep on looking into the knife crate looking at it's contents. I then saw Lucifer turn away from those two before turning to the biggest person in our group.
"And you!" He shouted to Tharizdun who was staring into the jungle, back turned to us, just, staring creepily into the jungle like there was something in there that he wanted. "I thought you were supposed to be a feared killer! Why didn't you kill anyone!?" When Lucifer was done shouting, he turned towards us slowly, creepily, and smiling sadistically with his sharp pointed teeth before answering
"I let them go." He answered deeply.
"What!?" Lucifer shouted angrily "You let them go!? What for!?" Yeah. What for? I never imagined that this guy would just let tributes run free. Tharizdun still smiling and looking at us then answered
"We're going to have some fun looking for them. I mean, the fun would have been cut in half if I didn't hunt for them. Hunt for them...hunt for them...hunt for them." So that's what it was, he didn't kill them because he couldn't, he let them go for the sport of finding them. He was going to hunt them down and kill them like a kid looked for buried treasure. I looked back to Lucifer, and again, he didn't look pleased with the response he got, but he pressed his teeth together and let out a low growl before turning back to the crates that held the majority of our supplies.
"Whatever then! We'll hunt them down later!"
District three's Nessa Christine Johnston's POV
"Slow down!" I shouted to my ally, Max Starling, who was running way too fast for me to keep up, plus, I was getting tired from running from the bloodbath area to here. "I'm tired!"
"What!?" Max called out surprised as he slowed to what looked like a light jog to him "we haven't even ran that far. And I want to distance myself from the careers as much as possible before sunset so I can sleep soundly and not be worried that I'll get killed in my sleep. And I thought you had a bunch of energy inside of you, like you were hyperactive or something." He must have gotten that from the times he saw me not wanting to stand still and just had to keep on moving.
"I may have a lot of energy, but I have little stamina." I explained to him. I had a lot of energy inside of me, but that didn't mean that I could run a marathon. Right now, I was wheezing more then I was breathing, my lungs felt like they were going to explode, and I was sweating from exhaustion and the heat around us. But he was right, the further away from the careers we were the better. I didn't want one of them to attack us in our sleep. Or any other tribute to do that for that matter. "But your right, we have to distance ourselves from the cornucopia. Where should we head to?" It didn't seem like the best question now that I thought about it, because right now, we were in a city part of the arena. While others headed in the same direction as us and ran towards some part of the city, some of the others ran for the jungle, not that this was too different from the jungle, this city had all the features of the wild jungle except for the buildings, concrete, and other city objects that were covered in moss, vines and plants. Or a combination of them. You had the whole area to choose from.
Max had slowed down enough for me to catch up to him before he started to look around and examine the surrounding area. There were lots of places to choose from, a building here, a place of thick underbrush there, lots of places to camp and hide in.
"Let's head into that building up there," he said pointing to a tall building in front of us that was covered in green vines and yellow wild flowers growing in the moss"let's head there and check out what supplies we have and make a plan from there. Better to be in there then out in the open."
"Sounds good." I told him glad for the upcoming break and shade. He was too fast for me and it was way too hot out here, even with my jacket off, so I was glad to be getting a rest for my legs and getting out of the sun, even if just for a couple minutes. But I also dreaded on what he'd say when he found out that all I managed to get from the bloodbath area was an empty half liter plastic water bottle and a small bag of nuts. He'd freak out at me maybe, I know he's nice and all, but he ran closer to the cornucopia then I had and got a backpack full of unknown supplies. His backpack was small, but I guessed that it contained items that were of more use then my two items that were about five steps from my platform. If I told him that I was scared of going against the bigger, stronger tributes for better supplies, I hoped that he'd understand.
We walked to the outside of the building before opening one of the two doors that made a sound that reminded me of nails running on a chalk board. As soon as we were inside the temperature dropped, not to a nice cool temperature, but to something that was at least bearable. Max and I closed the door before walking across a floor that was seemed to be more suited for outside then it did inside a building. The floor we walked on inside of this building had grass that went up to my knees and it had some yellow wild flowers mixed into it. The walls weren't much different then they were outside either, they were covered in vines that ran to the ceiling. Max and I walked to the center of the entrance room before we sat down in the soft grass and rested.
"You know," Max said with a little laugh as he patted the ground "this could be a good spot for a picnic if my backpack would allow it." I then saw him sling his backpack off his shoulders. And while he was still smiling, he laughed a little, but like there was little to laugh at. "But this backpack is so light that I don't think I'll have anything in this thing, after all, this thing was close to my platform and everyone knows that all the good stuff is near the cornucopia. I just hope that it has water in it, I can go for a long time without food, but water, water is a different story." Suddenly, I didn't feel that worried anymore, he hadn't ran that far either, he had avoided the cornucopia, just like I had.
"I don't know if this is much help," I told him as I as I reached into my jacket that was tied at my waist and pulled out the small water bottle and a small bag of nuts and showed it to him. I was worried that he'd be disappointed in me for getting so little, but after what he said, I was only worried slightly. He smiled at me before saying
"At least you got something," he told me "something is better then nothing, we might need that bottle later, you know, to hold water and such." Relief flooded inside of me, he wasn't mad. I then felt my eyes look towards his backpack and wondered what kind of stuff he got. Did he get food? Water? Medicine? Weapons? We needed more then my empty bottle and a bag of nuts to survive this, what was in that backpack could either help us or not. What we really needed was either a bottle with water in it or at least some water purification things. "Ok," he said "now for my backpack." I then saw him excitedly zip open the backpack before his face instantly fell.
"What's wrong?" I asked him before looking inside the backpack myself. I then saw what had made him look sad, because I was now sad as well. Inside that backpack, the backpack that could have helped us in terms of items, was full of nothing but air. I sighed deeply before letting my disappointment take over. Nothing. A big, fat, nothing.
"Well," I heard Max say "look on the bright side, at least we have a backpack to carry things in." I then felt myself smile. He was right, at least we didn't have to carry everything in our hands and pockets now. And if we did find anything, we could use it to carry the heavier objects.
"Yeah." I told him taking my jacket off my waist and placing it into the backpack. "Yeah." I then heard the cannons fire to tell us how many tributes died in the bloodbath. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Five tributes died in the bloodbath. I'm sure glad that I wasn't one of them.
Day 1: Early night
District twelve's Evanlyn "Eve" Scott's POV
I managed to get away from the bloodbath area alive, but the real games had just started, now I just had to hope that nobody would find me till the final two, I didn't want to take any chances fighting anyone before that time. At the end of the games most tributes were injured in one way or another from fights with either other tributes or the mutts, or both. I was going to try and stay as uninjured as possible so that I'd have an advantage over my enemy.
But that was if I didn't freeze to death on the first night. I placed on the jacket that I had removed during the day and zipped it up all the way. The jacket only helped slightly, it was a thin, simple jacket, if I didn't get something to keep me warm for the night I might die of hyperthermia tonight. I couldn't let that happen, I had a family to take care of, I had done things that nobody in the district would even think of doing, I helped my family to just make ends meet, what would they do without me? I leaned against a tree before looking inside the bright yellow backpack that I managed to get from the bloodbath field and hoped that my some miracle I had something that could help me with the cold. Last time I looked in the backpack there was a seven inch survival knife inside a sheath which was now clipped to my belt, two packs of dried fruit which I hadn't eaten yet, and an extra pair of black socks. I didn't know what I'd need the socks for earlier, but now, I could use them to keep my hands warm at least. I grabbed the socks and placed them over my freezing hands and felt instant relief. But as good as the socks were, I needed more for the rest of my body. I continued my search inside the backpack and found nothing more. Damn.
I zipped up my backpack before looking around to see if there was anything that could be done here. There was a lot of underbrush and twigs around in this jungle, I could maybe try to make a fire and keep myself warm for the night, or at least most of it. But that could attract unwanted attention. And how could I start a fire in the first place? I wasn't good enough to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together last time I tried. Cut off the bark from the trees and cover myself with it? Maybe, but would it really be the best means of keeping myself warm? Maybe. But what about hiding? I looked at all the underbrush at my feet and decided that I should at least try the tree bark and use it as an improvised shelter.
I pulled out my knife and pressed the tip of the blade into a section of the tree beside me. I felt the knife sink into the tree and I started to separate the bark from the tree by shoving the blade in the opposite direction of bark. When I shoved the blade sideways, a loud snap sounded before a large piece of bark fell to the ground in front of my feet. It was big, a little taller then I was and wider then my body. Four more pieces like that and I should be good to go.
Four pieces later and I was set to make my shelter. I took the biggest piece and decided that it would be the roof of my makeshift shelter. I took my knife and carefully stabbed a few air holes into it before setting two other pieces in place to make a sort of tent like thing. I then placed the fourth piece on one side, sealing off one exit before I started to rip out some underbrush to cover my shelter. I didn't want the others to find it easily.
I ripped underbrush and moss from various places surrounding me and even added small sticks to make it look like this place had been undisturbed by humans. After tossing everything onto my shelter, I took a step back to admire my work. My four pieces of bark that looked almost like a coffin or cave, depending how you look at it, and it looked great. Honestly, I just needed to crawl into it, place the last remaining piece of bark on it, and it would camouflage me from the world. I saw a flash of light appear in the sky and I looked up curiously to see what was happening. Up in the sky above me was a Capital hovercraft, they were going to show the five victims that died today. Let's see who's cannons were fired earlier. The first one to appear was a picture of that district five girl, the second picture was that black eyed pale boy from six, third was that boy from eight, then the girl from nine, and finally, my district partner who got blown up by his own stupidity. The sky then went dark again before the hovercraft flew away. Nineteen more tributes I thought as I sheathed my knife before going down on my knees and crawled into my newly made shelter backwards. I continued to crawl until I reached the end and gently placed the last piece of bark up out front.
Inside the shelter that I made, the ground was hard, it was still cold, but not as much as it was before, and it was a tight fit so I couldn't move around that much. But it kept me hidden, and it will hopefully get warmer in time with my trapped body heat. But all and all, this was a lot better then sitting outside and hoping that the arena had mercy on you. I looked at the socks I was wearing in my hands and was glad that I wore them, not only for the heat, but the protection from the wood splinters. I smiled as I thought of my family, if they were watching me right now at home, they could see that they didn't have to worry about me, I could take care of myself in the arena. For tonight anyway, those dried fruits weren't going to last forever, but for now, I'll rest here and know that I could survive the elements of the games with my smarts.
A/N: Sorry about this, but all work and hardly any play is my excuse, so don't expect updates too fast. So, what do you guys think of my games so far? And yes, there are going to be slow paced moments and such, but don't worry, there will be plenty of death later.