Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games.
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Marcellina Arnoult, 16
This building was creepy.
It was dark inside, with only a few bare bulbs flickering with orange light to illuminate each corridor. Cracks ran across the floor and up the walls, and spiderweb hung in almost every corner. Along the both sides of the hallway were small rooms, each with heavy metal doors with barred windows.
Marcellina stopped to peer through one. Calpurnia grumbled. "Ugh. Don't touch that old thing. It's probably rotten."
"I just want to see what's inside," she replied.
The room beyond was only lit by the moon outside, but it looked almost empty, containing only a metal bed frame, a toilet, and a sink.
"What's in there?" asked Sorcha, seemingly off-hand.
Marcellina shrugged and described the little cell. Luminita frowned deeply and stopped by the next door to have a look inside for herself.
"What now?" groaned Sorcha.
"It's a prison," she replied, her gaze distant and thoughtful. "I think–" Her expression lit up. "I think I know what this is!" She grimaced. "Not that it'll help us."
"Well, don't leave us in suspense!" Calpurnia snapped.
"Yeah, what is this?" Marcellina asked.
"It's the arena for the First Quarter Quell," Luminita replied.
Sorcha scoffed. "How would you possibly know that?"
"Deduction. This is a prison, there's only been one prison arena. And we were meant to be running the Second Quarter Quell, this is a Quell arena, just… a different one."
Calpurnia huffed and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh. That's such a cheap trick."
"Enough of one to trip the players up though," she said.
Switching the arena would remove the advantage any player that had managed to make a plan for the Fiftieth might have had. Make it more like the real Hunger Games.
"What do you think the forest over there is then?" asked Marcellina, pointing through one of the windows at where a wall of trees were shadowed by the night and stood out against the darkness. The Twenty Fifth had been long before her time, and she'd never been one to obsess over old Games, but she was sure that arena had only been the grass and the prison.
"I'm not sure. Maybe just another area of the arena," she replied.
"I thought the First Quell was just a prison," Calpurnia said huffily.
"Maybe we can explore tomorrow then."
Marcellina shuddered, remembering the dying players shown in the sky. "Explore?"
"We should know what's around us."
"And I want to hunt," agreed Sorcha.
"No, but what if we get killed like those other players?" Marcellina protested.
Sorcha glanced at her. "This is the Hunger Games. People die."
Marcellina scrubbed her eyes with one hand. She didn't want to die.
Radiance Sterling, 17
He had followed the tracks along for a little way, but as the sun set and it got darker, he was forced to turn back.
Luminescence and Etheria had set up a small camp inside a thick clump of trees. One of them had been lucky enough to get a small tent, and they had set it up between three of the largest trees. Unfortunately, it was a bright, neon green, like the lights from an arcade.
Radiance came to an abrupt stop, staring at the monstrosity. "You sure it's a good idea to also in that thing?"
Luminescence held up an armful of branches. "We're camouflaging it. And one of us'll be keeping watch."
"I'll do it," Etheria said.
Luminescence's tent then.
"We'll take turns," Luminescence said.
"But I can–"
Radiance shook his head. "It's the way these things are done. Means we can all get some sleep. No point messing up because we're too tired."
"Alright," she conceded.
"You want the first watch then?" Radiance asked, ducking between a pair of trees to collect an armful of rainbow coloured leaves. Everything here was far too bright. But since everything was that way, hopefully their tent should blend in.
"I hope Iridescence is alright out there," Luminescence said.
Radiance scowled at him. "You, worried? After you made us abandon Phoenix?"
"We didn't–"
"We did," he said, and dumped the leaves over the tent.
Luminescence groaned. "Radiance…"
"Are we doing this or not?"
Silently, the three of them camouflaged the tent as best they could, though it still looked very out of place in the woodland. Still, hopefully few people would be wandering around hunting during the first night, and if they were then they'd fight. Even if the thought of actually killing someone turned Radiance's gut.
"I'll take the second watch," Luminescence said, staring off through the trees. Did he feel guilty for leaving Phoenix to her fate? He was the eldest of them all. Radiance had always entrusted him to watch out for them.
"Wake us if you hear anything."
Etheria nodded. "Okay. Sleep well." She hesitated, looking at them. "I'm sorry about your sister."
"Yeah," Luminescence muttered, and crawled into the tent.
"Radiance?" Etheria asked.
He shook his head. "He's right." With that, he crawled into the tent and settled as far from Luminescence as he could.
They'd failed Phoenix.
They had to find Iridescence in the morning, lest they fail her too.
Luminita Summerfield, 17
After much argument, it was decided that they would set up camp in two of the cell rooms, one for Calpurnia and Marcellina end another four Sorcha and Luminita. Separating that way felt wrong to Luminita, they'd all survived the bloodbath and should stick together, but she had quickly been outvoted by Sorcha and Calpurnia.
"No offence meant to her, because she's great and we should stay in contact after we get out of here, but doesn't it feel so much better to just have sister space?" Sorcha asked as she unrolled her sleeping bag. Because of course she'd got a sleeping bag. Luminita had only got a blanket. A bright yellow blanket.
There's a little yellow bird.
She clenched her fingers into the blanket, balling a handful of it in her fist.
"You're not happy," Sorcha said.
"Of course I'm not happy! You've dragged me into a death match!" Luminita tossed herself back into her makeshift bed, staring at the cracked ceiling above her.
"Ugh, you're so dramatic," Sorcha grumbled.
"This coming from you?"
"What's that meant to mean?"
"You have to be one of the most dramatic people I know."
And she'd dragged her into this entire mess. Luminita had been along to watch Sorcha make a mess of the entire Game, not because she actually wanted to compete in the Hunger Games.
How many other players had entered for the same reason? What about those whose faces they'd seen in the sky? Why had they been here? Fun? Peer pressure? The experience?
And now they were dead.
"Luminita?" Sorcha said quietly, her voice echoing in the darkness.
Luminita groaned, running her hands through her now loose hair. She'd have to do something more practical with it in the morning. "What?"
"I'm sorry for getting you into this."
Luminita sighed. She knew Sorcha. She didn't mean that. She was just doing what she had to not to shatter their fragile relationship.
"Yeah," she muttered, staring into the darkness. "Whatever."
Maximillian Marcus Badondé, 18
Everything here was far too bright. Even in the dark the colours burned into his eyes and swirled behind them like a crystal rainbow. Maximillian rubbed at them with the palms of his hands, but it did little to help.
How was he ever meant to find somewhere to rest here tonight?
He continued to make his way through the breathtaking meadow until the dark of the night blotted everything else.
Maximillian sank down behind one of the trees and pulled his bag into his lap. If he had some rope, he might be able to set some traps. He pulled the contents of his bag out into his bag. A canteen of water, two packs of dried jerky, a pack of matches, and a pair of socks.
No rope, no wire.
He groaned, stuffing everything back into the bag. Maybe he could do something with some of it, but realistically what he needed to do was get his hands on more arrows, take out a few other players, and hope they had better equipment.
He forced himself to keep going a little further before exhaustion started to weigh on him. It probably wasn't safe to sleep on the ground without being able to play traps and so searched the meadow around him for the sturdiest tree, testing the lowest branches. Finding one that would hold him, he climbed about halfway up and settled on the biggest branch, pressing his back to the thick trunk.
In the morning, he'd have to find someone with some supplies he could use.