The Bloodbath:
Piper Hagen
I sit in my room, watching the television. I have decided to watch the bloodbath in private. Just thinking of last year's bloodbath brings back all of the bad memories. I don't plan to emerge into public, looking for sponsors, until at least tomorrow. That is, if Cherry even survives that long. Regardless, I know I'll need time to collect my thoughts.
Currently on the T.V., Tristan Honeybee is talking about the whereabouts of the tributes. "They are currently directly under the arena," he announces. "They are in private rooms, with no one but their stylist, and will be entering the arena in about five minutes."
During that time, all Tristan does is yap on and on about how excited he is that the Games are about to start. Finally, he announces that the tributes have been loaded into their tubes, and the broadcast switches to an overhead view of this year's arena.
As the tributes begin to rise up onto their platforms, Tristan begins to explain the topography of the arena. "The arena is very unusual this year," he says. "As you can see, it's split into three separate sections, sort of like islands, seperated by rope bridges. However, unlike actual islands, there is no water beneath them. Each circular "island" ends in a cliff, all around. Way below the cliffs, there's nothing except a white mist. Tributes who fall off any islands will certainly reach their end. The islands are arranged in a triangular fashion. The first island, is called Cornucopia Island. As the name would suggest, it's home to the cornucopia, and all of the starting platforms. It's the smallest of the three islands. To the northwest of Cornucopia Island, connected by a rickety rope bridge, we find West Island. This island is a rainforest, bursting with life. There will be enough food for all of the tributes, if they know how to get it. To the Northeast of Cornucopia Island, again connected by a bridge, we find East Island. This island is also a rainforest, and the same size as West Island. West Island and East Island are joined together by a third rope bridge, completing the triangle."
It's a pretty interesting arena, I have to say. There's going to be plenty of food in the rainforest, but I know the tributes will have to be careful in there. Rainforests are laced with poisonous berries. Hopefully the tributes will recognize that. My thoughts are interrupted by Tristan Honeybee's voice. "The tributes are all on their starting platforms. The countdown will begin... now!"
Osborn Trevis (D10 M 17)
As soon as my eyes adjust to the brightness, I get a good look around. At first glance, I feel as though I'm up on an island in the middle of the clouds. In front of me, I see the cornucopia and all of the other tributes arranged in a circle around it. However, behind my platform, there's about five feet of land, and then... absolutely nothing. It drops off into nothing. Looking down, all I can see is more of the cloudy mist.
Looking more closely around the arena, I notice that there are two more land masses like the one I'm currently standing on. However, they're much bigger, and are filled with tons of trees and plants. I'm too far away to tell what kinds of forest it is. With a jolt, I realize that the two giant land masses are connected to this smaller land mass by long, rope bridges. I'm extremely happy that I'm not afraid of heights. Those rope bridges look very shaky.
I peel my eyes away from my more distant surroundings, and focus on what's in front of me. I see the cornucopia; its glittering horn is filled with weapons, backpacks, food, supplies, and other miscellaneous items. Next, I scan the circle of tributes standing around the cornucopia. Finally, my eyes lock with Harvest's. She's five platforms to my right. When I see her glance over at the supplies, I know she plans to grab a few before running off. I don't blame her. It's a good thing we're both fast.
A metallic voice interrupts my thoughts.
"Sixty..."
"Fifty-nine..."
"Fifty-eight..."
"Fifty-seven..."
"Fifty-six..."
The countdown has begun. I look back at the supplies spilling out of the cornucopia, and devise my plan of attack.
Aria Law (D8 F 17)
"Fifty-five..."
"Fifty-four..."
"Fifty-three..."
"Fifty-two..."
"Fifty-one..."
I finally spot Lukas. He's almost directly across from me, which explains why it took me so long to spot him. I'm hoping he'll stick to our plan. Lukas's job is to grab simply one or two bags and a sword, and then take off into the forest. There, he'll find a temporary spot to hide. My job is to remain at the cornucopia to collect a few supplies and weapons. Then, I'll run off too and attempt to rendezvous with Lukas.
"Fifty..."
"Forty-nine..."
"Forty-eight..."
"Forty-seven..."
"Forty-six..."
"Forty-five..."
"Forty-four..."
I can't believe the Hunger Games are about to start. For days, I've been extremely anxious. I'm pretty confident that I'll make it far, but I can never know for sure. I just really want to avenge my sister's death. She didn't deserve to die.
"Forty-three..."
"Forty-two..."
"Forty-one..."
"Forty..."
"Thirty-nine..."
I look over at Lukas one more time, and he nods. I hope that means he will stick to our plan. He's got a career to his left, so he needs to watch out. I have no idea who's on his right because the cornucopia's in the way. I'm hoping it's no one too powerful.
"Thirty-eight..."
"Thirty-seven..."
"Thirty-six..."
"Thirty-five..."
I realize I haven't even looked at who I'm standing by. Looking to my right, I see the little boy from District Six. To my left is the girl from District Three. I could take either of them down.
Peyton Stanley (D6 M 12)
"Thirty-four..."
"Thirty-three..."
"Thirty-two..."
"Thirty-one..."
"Thirty..."
The countdown is halfway over. I'm so nervous that my whole body is shaking. I wonder if this is how Kat felt, exactly one year ago, knowing she was about to take part in a death match. I bet she felt stronger than I feel now. She was probably so much calmer than I am now. I hope that some of her strength rubbed off on me during the first eleven years of my life. I know I'll need it.
"Twenty-nine..."
"Twenty-eight..."
"Twenty-seven..."
"Twenty-six..."
"Twenty-five..."
"Twenty-four..."
Truthfully, Peter, Swirl, and I are just winging the bloodbath. We don't have a real plan. I don't think I'll grab any supplies. There's nothing near me that's very tempting. As I look over at Swirl, two pedestals down from me, I see her eyeing a pack of throwing knives. They're about halfway in between her and the cornucopia. I would never risk my life like that, but if she wants those throwing knives, there's no stopping her.
"Twenty-three..."
"Twenty-two..."
"Twenty-one..."
"Twenty..."
"Nineteen..."
I notice that there's a length of rope only a few feet away from me. Swirl, Peter, and I have talked a bit about building traps. We can't make traps without rope, and for that reason I decide I'll try to grab that piece of rope before running off.
Nylah Tracks (D6 F 17)
"Eighteen..."
"Seventeen..."
"Sixteen..."
"Fifteen..."
"Fourteen..."
"Thirteen..."
Cherry is just one pedestal to my right. I can't see Mapelle, so she's probably on the other side of the cornucopia. For one of the first times in these past few days, Cherry doesn't look like her normal happy and bubbly self. Her face is set in concentration, scanning the mass of land we are currently standing on.
"Twelve..."
"Eleven..."
"Ten..."
"Nine..."
"Eight..."
"Seven..."
Directly to my left stands the boy from District One. I catch his eye, and he smirks. He thinks he's so much stronger than me. I hate it! I guess he'll find out my true powers when the time comes. Judging by the look he's giving me, that time could be in seven seconds.
"Six..."
"Five..."
"Four..."
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
Ryland Yakavitz (D11 F 15)
The gong goes off, and I sprint towards the cornucopia. I have my eyes set on a green backpack and a long-looking knife. I ignore everyone around me and just run as fast as my legs can carry me. It's a good thing hunger has left me lightweight.
At last, I reach the supplies. I put the knife in my hand and hoist the backpack over my shoulder. One I'm situated, I take a deep breath, and run towards one of the rope ladders. However, I'm stopped short when I trip over another backpack.
When I try to get up, a big foot kicks me down. I look up to see the boy from District Two standing over me. I gulp. This can't be good. I try to get up again, but he still kicks me down. I guess this is it. I'm done for.
I'm thankful that the boy is really swift about my death. Apparently, he has other tributes to tend to. The boy sends a sword into my chest. To my surprise, it doesn't even hurt.
Alexandrite Dazzle (D1 F 17)
I'm all prepared to kill. I've got a knife in my pocket, a sheath of arrows over my shoulder, and a bow in my hand. Surprisingly, I didn't even have to fight anyone to get them. As I look around the island thing we're standing on, I see that about a quarter of the tributes have already fled. That means there's still plenty of tributes left to kill.
I look around, and spot a particularly weak-looking one. I don't want the other careers to know my full capabilities, so I'll stick to the smaller prey for the time being. I pluck an arrow out of my sheath, load it, and raise my bow. I decide to aim for the girl's leg, just in case the other careers are watching. The arrow imbeds itself in the girl's leg, and she falls to the ground.
Once I reach the girl, I realize that she's the little twelve-year-old from District Three. She looks up at me with big brown eyes, but I ignore her pleading look. I pull out my knife, and send it straight through her chest. She falls to the ground, her eyes still wide open.
Cobalt Cave (D12 M 14)
Misty and I have both grabbed two bags and a weapon, so we're ready to take off. We begin to run towards one of the rope ladders, but someone beats us to it. The boy from District One steps up between us with a smug grin on his face. "Awesome! A two-for-one deal," he says. He holds up his spear and advances towards Misty.
"No!" I shout. "I hold up the big knife I've gotten, and attempt to hit the boy with it. He knocks it aside like it's child's play. I'm forced to stand next to Misty, helpless, as the boy advances on her with a demonic look in his eyes. Misty is frozen in terror. The boy reaches her, and sends his spear through her stomach.
"No! Misty!" I shout as she falls to the ground. I check for a breath, a pulse, anything. Nothing's there. Tears form in the corner of my eyes and fall into Misty's dirty-blonde hair. Even when we were starving back in District Twelve, I've never felt as torn-apart as I do know.
The boy from District One, whom I've forgotten about, starts to laugh. "It's okay," he says. "You'll be joining her too." I don't even lift a finger to stop him when he sends the spear, already coated with Misty's blood, into my chest.
Marina Ebony (D4 F 18)
There are only a few non-career tributes left on the island. If I want to kill someone, it's now or never. I spot the girl from District Nine. She has three bags slung over her back and a spear. If I remember right, she's the one who sassed us careers at lunch. Plus, she's stealing supplies that should belong to the careers. They'll be happy when I kill her.
I run over to the girl with my bow and arrow in hand. "Hey!" I shout. "Drop the supplies!" She looks up as I reach her. I hold up my bow and load it. To my surprise, instead of running away, the girl advances towards me and knocks the bow out of my hands. Then, she thrusts the spear at me. It only hits my leg, but she doesn't seem to care. Once she sees I won't be able to chase after her, the girl turns around and sprints away.
After lying on the ground for only a few seconds, Sheldon jogs over to me. Excellent; he's going to make that girl pay for hurting my leg. However, he stops when he reaches me. He looks down at me, a weird look on his face. "You," he says quietly and slowly. "You never trained for the Games, did you?"
"Sheldon, that's c-crazy," I stammer. "Of course I trained."
"You're lying," he says calmly. "That girl just stomped over you without a sweat. This explains your low training score. After the reaping, you lied to save your own butt. You knew we wouldn't accept you in our alliance if you hadn't trained."
"Sh-Sheldon," I stammer, tears forming in the corners of my eyes. "P-Please."
"I'm sorry, Marina," he says. "You lied to the careers; the real careers. Now you'll pay the price." Sheldon picks up a knife that's lying on the ground, and sends it into my chest. "Have a nice death, filthy liar."
Jessie Harte (D2 F 14)
I haven't managed to kill anyone yet, which is kind of upsetting. I think it's because I haven't gotten over the layout of the arena yet. I'm not scared of many things, but if I am scared of one thing, it's heights. It's only my luck that this arena is made up of three land masses that end in endless cliffs. Plus, the only way to get from land mass to land mass is to walk over the rickety, wooden bridges. I think I'll try to keep my trips across the bridges to a minimum.
I scan the land mass I'm on for any non-careers. At last, I spot the only remaining one. He's climbing onto one of the rope bridges right now. I whip out my knives as he begins to dash away. He doesn't get very far. My first knife lands right in his skull. The boy topples off the bridge, right into the foggy abyss. Only now do I realize who he is; he's the boy from District Three. If I remember right, he's eighteen. Killing him should definitely impress the sponsors.
Before turning back to the cornucopia, I take a quick glance at both of the rope bridges. To my dismay, none of the fleeing tributes are in firing range. I walk over to the cornucopia, where the other careers are assembled. It doesn't take me long to realize that something's wrong. "Where's Marina?" I ask.
"Dead," Sheldon says simply.
"How?" I ask. "Who killed her?"
"I did," Sheldon replies. "She was a talentless liar. She never trained for the Games and wasn't going to volunteer. She said all of that stuff to save her own skin. So, I made her pay."
I decide to believe his story. I wasn't really that close with Marina, so it doesn't surprise me that she was hiding something. Plus, she only got a seven in training- the lowest of the career pack. Even if Sheldon is lying about all this stuff, Marina was the weak link of the career pack. I think it's for the best that she's gone.
"Boom."
I guess the Gamemakers have decided that the bloodbath is over. I'm actually kind of curious to see how many people died. For some reason, I don't think the number was very high. I don't see much blood scattered around.
"Boom."
"Boom."
"Boom."
"Boom."
"Boom."
The cannon blasts stop after six. It seems I was right about the number of deaths. Six is a low number for the bloodbath. There's been years where the number's been lower, but not very many. I wonder why the quantity of deaths was so low this year. I'm thinking it has to do with the arena. Maybe everyone wanted to get off the island quickly since there's only two escape routes. Well, whatever the reason, it just means there will be more tributes to kill later.
The Fallen (6):
Ryland Yakavitz (D11 M 15)
Killed by Mason. A sword was thrust into his chest.
Jennette Parke (D3 F 12)
Killed by Alexandrite. A knife was sent into her chest.
Misty Danielson (D12 F 13)
Killed by Glint. A spear was thrust through her stomach.
Cobalt Cave (D12 M 14)
Killed by Glint. The same spear that killed Misty was sent into his chest.
Marina Ebony (D4 F 18)
Killed by Sheldon. A knife was sent into her chest after being knocked down by Harvest.
Jarvis Scholl (D3 M 18)
Killed by Jessie. As he tried to flee the bloodbath on a rope bridge, a knife was thrown into his skull, and he fell to his doom.
Remaining Tributes (18):
D1:
Alexandrite Dazzle (D1 F 17)
{Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived}
Glint Sulf (D1 M 18)
{Jms2}
D2:
Jessie Harte (D2 F 14)
{ImSoCutee00}
Mason Riley (D2 M 18)
{Jms2}
D4:
Sheldon Thomson (D4 M 18)
{TheTributesWhoLived34}
D5:
Tadalynn Shipka (D5 F 18)
{Taylor1103}
Eridan Keating (D5 M 16)
{Nothing. Is. Real.}
D6:
Nylah Tracks (D6 F 17)
{CherryRedPanda}
Peyton Stanley (D6 M 12)
{Jms2}
D7:
Mapelle Green (D7 F 14)
{Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived}
Rory Cedarby (D7 M 16)
{teampeeta1227}
D8:
Aria Law (D8 F 17)
{Kelper142}
Lukas Cottingham (D8 M 16)
{ImSoCutee00}
D9:
Harvest Anson (D9 F 18)
{The Boy From Gallifrey}
Peter Grane (D9 M 13)
{Jms2}
D10:
Swirl Winters (D10 F 13)
{feistyflame}
Osborn Trevis (D10 M 17)
{The Koala of Doom}
D11:
Cherry Fairbanks (D11 F 16)
{TheTributesWhoLived34}
Kills:
Glint: Misty, Cobalt
Alexandrite: Jennette
Jessie: Jarvis
Mason: Ryland
Sheldon: Marina
Alliances:
Alexandrite/Glint/Jessie/Mason/Sheldon
Nylah/Mapelle/Cherry
Peyton/Peter/Swirl
Eridan/Rory
Aria/Lukas
Harvest/Osborn
Tadalynn
Had a snow day today so I decided to finish up this chapter! I waited a few days to begin it to make sure I was killing off the correct tributes. So, if you haven't noticed yet, all of the tributes I killed off were my own. The reason I reserved so many tribute slots for myself was so that I had bloodbath tributes, since I know no one really wants to spend time filling out a whole tribute form just so their tribute can die in the bloodbath. Since Cherry got the most votes out of my tributes, she gets to live for a little while longer. Plus, that means we get more POVs from Piper. Unfortunately, Sheldon's a hard-core career, so he'll have to stick around for a little while longer.
Basketball season has started up! Yay! I don't think it should cut down on my writing time too much. Since it's winter, I'll have snow days and winter break to look forward to, so I should find enough time to write. Speaking of breaks, I'm off until next Wednesday for Thanksgiving break, so I'll most likely get a chapter up before then.
Next chapter will wrap up day one of the Games. Characters with little to no votes will go next, so if you haven't voted in the poll yet, vote to save your favorite tributes. Also, if you have a tribute or tributes and haven't reviewed at all, I would consider doing so. I don't care if you don't review on every chapter; just review once every couple of chapters so I know you're still active. I'm not going to keep someone's tribute(s) alive if he or she isn't even reading.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans! Thanks for reading! :-)