Acee Hal, District Three (15)
The platform rose to show me the Arena, and I assessed it as the timer counted down. Thick rainforest stretched out around a bronze Cornucopia. Bronze is a good conductor. That could be useful. The Careers were clustered at ten o' clock. I was small enough that they would pick off a few others before they targeted me. That was all the time I needed. I had my plan, and there wasn't any room for fear.
The gong sounded. I ran obliquely toward the Cornucopia, grabbing the nearest backpack without stopping. I pivoted and dashed into the trees, leaving the Cornucopia and its bounty behind. I tried to count the number of screams that stopped abruptly. At least six Tributes were dead, probably more. I didn't stop running until my legs started to ache. I needed to conserve some energy for finding a camp, so I slowed to a walk.
I made my camp on high ground, beneath the low branches of a thick tree. I knew mosquitoes preferred low areas, and I didn't want to deal with malaria. Most Tributes would head for water, and I would need that too, but if my pack held anything like I hoped, I would be all right. I opened it and took a look.
Inside my pack I had a compass, a simple pocketknife, a small coil of wire, a plastic bag filled with nuts, a thin foil blanket and packets of sugar and salt. What I'd really been looking for was the bag. I dumped the nuts out into the backpack and wrapped the bag around a leafy branch. By morning, transpiration would line the plastic with clean water. I had food, I had water, and I had the supplies I would use to win the Games.
After a night of rest to regain my energy, I laid out my supplies and started to brainstorm. Aside from my backpack, I also had an endless supply of wood, vines, stone, and dirt. Any one of those could be crucial. A plan started to form. It was daring and audacious, but if it worked, the Games would be mine.
I crept around to the back of the Cornucopia. The Careers were out hunting, but they knew their strategy. They'd headed for low ground to find the water most Tributes would gather around. The girl from Four was sitting in the Cornucopia guarding the supplies, but she didn't notice me in the forest behind her as I stared making my weapon.
I molded the foil blanket into a ball and poured in the packets of sugar and salt. I added any sharp bits of rock I could find and sealed the edges shut, making a package. I hooked one end of the wire through the foil and crept out to the platform behind the tail of the Cornucopia. With a little prodding, it was easy to siphon off some of the electricity used to raise the platform. I turned it back off, attached the other end of the wire to it, and waited for the other Careers.
Three cannons later, the rest of the Career pack approached the Cornucopia to regroup and relieve the Four girl. I waited for them all to disappear into its mouth and made my all-or-nothing move. I crept to the platform, threw the foil ball over the top of the Cornucopia so it dangled in front of the mouth with its wire along the bronze cone, and hit the switch on the platform just as I jumped into the air.
Electricity rushed into the wire and the heated sugar and salt exploded the foil bomb. Bits of rock and molten foil sprayed everywhere and the Cornucopia glowed and sparked as the copper conducted the electricity. Any Career touching the Cornucopia was instantly killed and the ones who weren't were caught in the explosion. If I hadn't been in the air when I hit the switch I would have been zapped with them. Four cannons were followed by pained moans and eventually the other two cannons followed. I broke the connection by stepping on the wire with my rubber-soled shoe and advanced to take my spoils. In the Games, everything's a weapon. Even something as sweet as sugar.
Acee's smarter than I am, so this doesn't capture the extent of her ingenuity. I did the best I could by looking up old clips from Macgyver. Her bomb is based on a real recipe for a sugar bomb, but some details are fudged and the result is far more spectacular than it would be in real life. It's best not to look too closely at the details.
I don't have much idea what Acee looks like, but she's slight and looks sharp and clever, like a raccoon.