Chapter 3 - Bloodbath

Musky air thickly permeated the Waiting Room. Earlier in the morning, Bliss' stylist woke her and escorted her via hovercraft to her current jail cell. Much less lavish than the training centre suite, a room composed of unfinished concrete. There wasn't any reason for glitz and glam now, nobody left to placate, no time left to be wooed or soothed.

Her stylist dressed her in a bodysuit that stretched from her throat to her wrists to her ankles. The material was thin and brown/red/orange. Then, she was given looser canvas pants and a jacket of the same colour scheme. Probably not a snowy or wet arena, or we'd freeze to death within hours. Her hair was tied back in a durable ponytail holder. Lastly, her stylist laced up a pair of steel toed boots, Bliss' fingers shaking too hard to accomplish the task herself.

The stylist said nothing as he worked. Bliss was glad for the silence, although it allowed space for her thoughts to assault her. But it was better than someone asking if she was excited for the Hunger Games to begin.

Too soon, the stylist guided her to a stainless steel metal plate. A glass tube closed around her, cutting her off from her last moment of safety. Her heart pounded in her chest, jarring, shaking her ribs. She let the adrenaline wash through her, not fighting the precursor to panic. Instead of collapsing, she readied her muscles. The hormones flooded her system, coursing through her veins. She was ready to jump, duck, run, fly, whatever the situation called for.

The metal plate jerked, then rose. Terrorizing sun beat down over Bliss' head. She kept her eyes open, painful in the searing light, but giving her pupils as much time as possible to adjust as possible. She took in the details of the arena, analyzing her surroundings, as the clock counted down from sixty to zero.

Hot, stifling. Not like the damp summers in D7, but a dry heat. Her lips already felt cracked. The tributes had been raised up into a great courtyard, ground desert rock, gravel, and sand. Massive buildings lumbered over the tributes on all sides and enclosed the courtyard, between twenty and fifty stories tall, Bliss estimated. They were crumpled and collapsed in on each other, not separated by cohesive walls. The ground level revealed lobbies and spaces to escape through. Bliss wondered what lay beyond, but for now, all that mattered was the decadent cornucopia in the middle of the red courtyard.

To her left was the D12 male- Bird Simmons, to her right the D2 male- Harp Vitto. He grinned at her wickedly. Shit, right beside a career. Bliss tried to locate her alliance. Lily was almost directly across from her, situated between the D6 and D3 males- it could be worse for her. Plum was to Bliss' left, several spots down, between the D10 and D4 females. Bliss and Plum had to beeline it away from the careers, or they'd die immediately.

The cannon boomed, indicating ten seconds remained on the clock. With each passing second, another boom sounded, until a final, earth-shattering cannon resounded through the arena, indicating the beginning of the 42nd Hunger Games.

Bliss and Plum made eye contact, and darted in the direction opposite of the cornucopia. She didn't see what the others did as she ran for her life. Bliss met Plum mid-stride and continued sprinting.

A final piece of Harlem's advice flashed through Bliss' mind: Find water. They could be dead in a few days if they had absolutely nothing, and she couldn't count on Lily to successfully grab anything- or share with Bliss, realistically- even though the girl was in far safer a position than her alliance members. Bliss made a split decision and broke away from Plum.

"Keep going!" Bliss yelled after Plum, and thankfully, he did. He reached the threshold of a building and tucked himself into the lobby.

The careers reached the cornucopia and the fighting began, a concert of weapon sounds and technicolour frames.

The D3M- Jolt, collapsed to the ground, a knife through his neck, felled by the D5 male- Callum, of all people.

The D1 male- Cable, shoved a sword through the D12 male's chest. RIP Jolt, Bird.

Bliss beelined for the closest bag and snatched a strap.

As she turned to run back to the lobby, she felt fire run across her abdomen. She stumbled back as Chase completed the arc of his slash. A rapier gleamed in the light. Her hands clamped over her stomach, but she had no time to examine the wound. She tried to run past him, but felt another line of fire drawn over her calf, and fell to the ground.

Bliss looked up at Chase, indignantly. He leered down at her and all she could think of was how much he looked like her brother. What a terrible way to die. Bliss skidded backwards, but kept her eyes fixed on him, and would until the moment she stopped breathing.

A cry erupted from a few feet away, Bliss thought it could be the D8 female- Cass. Chase weighed his options, then ran away to help her fight the D1 female, promising Bliss he'd be back. Bliss pulled herself to her feet and sprinted towards the lobby Plum disappeared into.

They stayed in place, waiting for Lily to catch up. The girl actually had ran to the cornucopia for a bag, and had gotten closer to the middle of the red rebar-metal horn than Bliss. Lily was running away now, pack fixed to her back.

Bliss stared down at her bleeding stomach. At least she saw no intestines. She wanted to brush the hair from her face, but her hands were saturated with blood. She stared at the red on her palms, and her hands started shaking.

"It's okay, you're going to be okay. At least it wasn't a real sword." Plum tried to joke at the expense of Chase's funny little weapon, and took her hands in his, reassuring her. She looked up at him and nodded, not trusting her voice. They both turned their attention back to the bloodbath.

Lily skidded, avoiding skirmishes around her and sprinted in their general direction, closing the distance. She'd caught a few stray knife strikes, but overall was unharmed, other tributes distracted and engaged in battle. Bliss let out a breath. Other kids sprinted to cover as well, fanning out in different directions, disappearing from the courtyard. Bliss saw the D8 male- Rubal, and D3 female- Filament, get away.

Plum signalled to Lily and she adjusted her course. Lily dove behind the counter they hid behind, luckily not followed. Nobody noticed her escape. The three of them peered over the countertop, and the careers and the Pack collided, weapons singing. Lily spared a glance for Bliss' wounds, but almost immediately turned her attention to Plum.

"Come on." Lily said, grabbing Plum's arm, attempting to drag the alliance away. After all, there wasn't any reason to hang around. They'd had enough excitement for one day.

A split second before Bliss turned her back to leave, she saw Harp lash out at the D5M- Callum. His back was turned towards the attack.

There was something familiar about his silhouette.

A blade materialized, blocking the decent of Harp's weapon. A second sword crashed through Harp's chest. Even from over a hundred yards away, Bliss could see the shock and betrayal painted on Harp's face.

Cable retracted his sword from Harp's body, and the D2 male crumpled to the ground.

All hell broke loose.

Bliss clutched her allies' sleeves. "The D1 boy just killed the D2 boy." She said, breathless.

Plum wheeled around and resumed his crouch, eyes locked on the chaos unfolding in front of them. Lily settled without protest, equally as transfixed. A career betrayal in the bloodbath hadn't happened for decades. Bliss wondered how long Cable would live after his crimes.

The D2 female- Peril, let out a bloodcurdling shriek at the death of her district-mate, and locked Cable into battle. She spewed hatred and curses. Their weapons clanged together, just one sound amongst the orchestra around them. Bliss lost visual on the fight as they danced around the edge of the cornucopia.

Bliss' district mate, Chase and the D8F- Cass, were still fighting Chant, the D1 female. Chant was far more skilled, but Chase and Cass were ferocious.

They traded blows, then Chant heaved her mace and Chase let out a soul-wrenching cry as his forearm splintered. The D9 pair- Weiss and Treble approached the ensemble. Chase and Cass looked relieved, sure to finish the D1 female with their assistance.

Instead, Weiss loosened an arrow at Cass. It hit her square in the the thigh. Beside Bliss, Lily covered her mouth, stifling a gasp. Another betrayal. Members of the original main non-career alliance who were not asked to join the traitors. Cass and Chase had been excluded.

Without another thought, Chase tore the arrow from Cass' leg and threw her over his shoulder, bolting for the nearest lobby. He carried her weight easily, not letting her pained screams or the threats around him deter his speed.

Weiss looked ready to give chase when an arrow fell from the sky and struck him in the left side of his abdomen. He fell to the ground, more out of surprise than because the blow was maiming.

The D6F- Sandy Buster, stood on top of a car in front of the lobby Chase sprinted towards. Sandy was formerly an outlier, not aligned with anybody. Maybe she'll have friends now.

Sandy released another arrow and it hit Chant in the upper arm. Bliss didn't observe Sandy demonstrate this skill during training week- the hits were either a secret skill or purely adrenaline and luck. The group decided to give up on pursing Chase. Sandy jumped off the car and followed Chase into the distant lobby.

Then, the D1 and D2 tributes whipped around the other side of the centrepiece, Cable backing Peril up. They were both bloody, but moving well. Chant's group remained on the sidelines, observing.

The D4 female- Mila, shot out from behind a car midway across the courtyard and joined the fight. Peril looked scared, unsure who she could trust, then reassured as Mila lunged for Cable.

Cable dodged and blocked as Mila assisted Peril in the brawl, unable to gain the advantage, but not taking any damage. The D11 female- Eddie, ran to join the fight.

There was a moment of confusion where Peril and Mila assumed Eddie was assisting them in killing Cable, and those few seconds were all Eddie needed to smash Peril's skull open with the hammer she carried. Red matter drenched Mila.

Mila screeched in frustration and lunged for Eddie, wrapping her hands around her throat. At the sound of her cries, her district- mate, Saber, ran to her, from within the cornucopia. He'd kill her for sure, Bliss thought, if he was hooking up with Cable a few nights previous.

Instead, he engaged Cable in battle, putting himself in between Cable and Mila, who still worked at squeezing the life from Eddie's throat. The D12 female- Callisto joined Cable in battle as well. What the hell? Plum and Bliss exchanged perplexed glances, wordlessly wondering the real composition of these alliances.

Mila finished strangling Eddie and joined her district-mate in the battle. She sunk her short sword into Callisto's kidneys, one, two, three times. Callisto twitched and fell. Cable and Saber parried, and Cable caught a glancing blow to the chest from a heavy, blunt weapon.

As Cable reeled from the blow, parrying Mila, Callum snuck up behind Saber and slashed his throat.

Mila lunged and clawed at Callum's face, pure hatred. As her nails sunk into his skin and tore at the flesh, Cable swung his sword high in the air, preparing a killing blow, then brought the sword into Mila's ribs. He adjusted the angle at the last minute, though, belting her with the flat side of the blade. Bliss heard Mila's bones crunch under the impact.

Mila yelped and began running/hobbling away. Callum indicated to chase her, but Cable waved the idea away. The intent was clear enough, they'd finish her off later.

A scuffle turned the boys' attention back to the cornucopia. The D6 male- Stila, ransacked the backpack supply. His eyes caught Cable's and he started sprinting. Much faster and more agile than Mila at this point.

Cable held his hand out, and Callum supplied him with a short blade. He weighted the metal in his hand for a moment, then heaved the blade towards Stila. It landed between Stila's shoulder blades and his body thumped against the ground.

Finally, there was silence. Cable and Callum admired the destruction around them.

Suddenly, Callum pulled Cable in for a kiss. Their lips met and lingered, then Callum grabbed a handful of Cable's ass. Cable chuckled into Callum's lips.

Suddenly, Bliss' memories made sense. Cable had been kissing Callum late at night in the training centre; Callum had been comforting the D1 boy as he cried.

Comforting him and assuring him he could go through with an epic betrayal. So, Callum was the master manipulator. He seemed to have Cabel wrapped around his finger. Another thought occurred to Bliss, Cabel shattered Mila's ribs as punishment for clawing at Callum. Her death would be slow and painful. Callum was someone to keep a close eye on, for sure.

A shriek broke the silence, and Bliss hoped the godforsaken bloodbath would just end. The D9 pair, Weiss and Treble, dragged the D10 girl- Dawn, towards Callum and Cable. Why hadn't they killed her yet?

"Well done. Take her inside, tie her up." Cable said to the D9 pair, breaking away from Callum.

Dawn stared back at Callum with angry tears in her eyes, palpable hatred in the glare. A knowing sneer rested on Callum's face. Bliss saw herself in Dawn and shuddered. Plum rested his hand on Bliss' back, rubbing soothing circles. The D9 pair dragged Dawn into the cornucopia, kicking and screaming. No cannon sounded, true to Cable's instructions.

Bliss looked at her counterparts with wide eyes, it was time to leave. Fear surged through her chest, she didn't want to find out the reason they were keeping Dawn alive. The trio wordlessly peeled away from the dilapidated, beige lobby and walked towards the other exit.

Overhead, cannons started booming. Bliss counted eight. Only eight dead, after all that? They didn't let the announcement of death slow their progress, pressing onwards.

They exited into another courtyard. Bliss halted and shot her arms out to either side, stopping her teammates progress as well. This courtyard didn't have anything in the middle- literally nothing. About thirty stories of empty space swallowed the air above it, a great cavern stretched out in front of them. There was a ledge around the hole, about the width of a sidewalk. The trio carefully walked around the edge, to the other side.

Lily grabbed the handle of the door to the next building. From the inside, someone forcefully pushed it open as she did so, slamming the door into Lily's face. Her nose crunched on impact and she staggered backwards towards the hole. Plum caught her in time, and she hunched over in pain as Sandy busted out the doors. Blood streamed from Lily's nose as she raised her head to savagely look at the small D6 girl.

Sandy looked eager to fight, but something in her faltered under the weight of Lily's gaze. Without paying attention to the rapier Sandy brandished- that possibly belonged to Chase- Lily pounced on the girl, grabbing the two backpack straps on her shoulders. Bliss stared at the blood on the end of the thin blade and wondered if it was hers.

Lily roared, and threw Sandy over the edge of the chasm before the smaller girl could swing. Her screams faded until her body sickeningly cracked against the bottom of the hole. A cannon sounded over their location. Lily panted with anger, furiously wiping away the stream of blood coming from her nose. She proceeded to the lobby doors. Bliss breathed shakily, another child dead, just like that.

"Wait." Bliss called out. Lily reeled on her, but before she could direct her anger at Bliss, Bliss continued, "I saw Sandy run off with Chase and Cass. They could be inside. Plus the cannon will draw attention. I'd rather not fight again now, what about you?" She finished, with enough gusto to make her point but not enough to piss off Lily any worse.

"Okay. Yeah. What should we do?" Lily asked. All eyes were on Bliss. Now that the initial waves of horror and terror from the bloodbath had dissipated, a plan began to form in Bliss' mind. She stared at the buildings surrounding her.

"Let's backtrack." Bliss announced.

"What?" Lily demanded.

Bliss thought of Chase, Cable, her brother Bryce, of their malice, of how they would go about hunting. "Everyone will be expecting us to run further away, yes? They'll hunt the grounds. Every single person in this arena is a threat, we aren't part of the greater alliances, I don't need to remind you, if they even still exist… Regardless, I'm looking at these buildings and… if all the floor are accessible, which I'm not assuming they are, still, there's a lot of space to run and hide.

"Gamemakers don't want us to spread out too much, right? We should do more exploring later, but if my guess is right, if we run away, we won't get far. We should backtrack to one of the buildings in the cornucopia courtyard and climb up as high as possible. Get to one of the tallest floors. We'll run up, not away." Bliss finished rambling, panting.

They'd already spent too much time here. Lily and Plum knew that. Unable to come up with a better plan, Lily acquiesced and began jogging around the perimeter of the cavernous hole, back towards the cornucopia.

They reached the lobby they initially ran through, and found a staircase off to the side. They climbed up and up and up, and eventually came to a blockage in the stairwell. There was a broken window on the facade of the building. Bliss peeked outside. One floor up, there was another open window.

Bliss pulled her body back inside the building and explored the floor they were on. Abandoned offices. There was no other staircase up. She returned to her allies.

"Okay, I have an idea. I don't think you're going to like it." Bliss said. Her allies attention was fixed on her.

"We need to climb to the floor above to get out of harm's way. Where we are now, anybody could climb up the stairs and find us. I don't think scouts will think to scale the outside of a building, though." Bliss said, evenly. It was well within her allies' capabilities, Bliss knew. It was partially why she'd chosen them. They were both exceptional climbers, as was Bliss. Bliss had her own reasons, and didn't know theirs, not that it mattered. All that mattered was the result.

"There's a pipe fixed to the exterior with fittings every few feet. It's precarious, but they can act as holds." Bliss finished. Her allies looked at her like she had three heads, then peered out the window to examine the situation. Lily looked fearful.

"We're exposed, though. This wall faces the courtyard." Lily protested.

"We're twenty stories up, easy." Bliss said. "The careers- or whatever we call them- won't have their necks craned up 24/7. People look at what's at eye level." She tried to finish confidently. Bliss was quiet as her allies pondered the risk.

"Okay." Plum broke through the silence. "If you think you can do it, I'm in."

Bliss injuries burned, but she was determined. She looked over to Lily, scared and combative. "You can do it, okay. You're a much better climber than me, anyways." Bliss said, trying to stroke Lily's ego. It worked.

"You got that right." Lily said, climbing through the window, her decision instant. Bliss and Plum smiled at each other as she disappeared. Minutes later, she called down. Her head poked out, body firmly inside the building a floor above. Bliss was next.

"I'm right behind you." Plum said. Bliss nodded and perched on the window sill.

Bliss made the mistake of looking down. The expanse stretched out before her, ground so far away the soles of her feet began to tingle. Fear stole her breath, and the clutched the frame for dear life.

A sound drifted down, she thought she might have heard Lily laughing. Her resolve strengthened. She unfurled herself from where she crouched, and grabbed onto the exterior pipe. Bliss weighed less than Lily, so she was sure it was solid. It was lucky Lily had gone first, testing the fortitude of the pole. Bliss assumed it was stable, but of course, couldn't be sure.

In a way, Lily's impulsivity worked for Bliss- Lily took the hit to the face earlier when she'd been the first to try and enter the lobby, she essentially risked her life to test the fortitude of the pole fixtures. Bliss was fine if Lily butted in first if it meant Lily took the damage.

The metal squeaked as Bliss shimmied up the pole, and finally, after a few excruciating minutes, Bliss swing herself into the window on the floor above Plum. She looked down to signal she was alright.

"Took you long enough." Lily said, testy. Bliss wanted to snap at her, but there was a time and place for everything. She remained quiet. Lily scoffed, unable to get a rise out of Bliss, and shut up.

Plum swung through the window, and finally, Bliss felt like she could breathe again.

"Explore the floor." Bliss said directly to Lily. Lily looked to Plum, eyebrow raised. Plum shrugged. Lily scowled at Bliss and dropped her bag, but cooperated.

As long as Plum was alive, there would be peace. Please don't die, Plum, we could go to the final two together. Bliss thought at him. But then we'd have to kill each other. The thought of Plum's death singed Bliss' guts, and she averted her eyes from where Plum quietly regarded her. She wrapped an arm around her stomach, trying to quell the nausea, but only ended up aggravating her wound. Now that she was sitting, relatively safe, she started hurting. Badly. The lacerations felt like fire on her skin. Plum sighed.

"Let's see if we can get you patched up. What do we have?" Plum said, motioning for her to hand over the backpack. He also retrieved Lily's then went through the supplies. Several large packages of dried meats, nuts, fruits. Some protein drinks. A few bottles of water. Very few bandages. No pain cream or healing ointment.

"I suppose we didn't get close enough to the cornucopia to get the good stuff." Bliss said, remorsefully, taking in their array of supplies.

"It's better than nothing." Plum looked at the floor. "You were brave, running back. I wasn't-"

"You haven't contributed nothing. I think even Lily would argue saving her life is more important than getting a backpack, so don't be too hard on yourself." Bliss said, trying to cheer him up, referencing how he prevented Lily from falling to her death after Sandy bashed her nose in with the door. Plum gave her a small smile.

Lily's heavy steps announced her return. Panem, you'd think she'd be a little more careful. Bliss kept her mouth shut instead of voicing the thought. The animosity faded when Lily revealed five plastic water bottles from behind her back, dropping a few in the process. Luckily, nothing perforated. Plum and Bliss stared openly.

"Look what I found." Lily said, genuinely happy for the first time since… Well, actually, Bliss didn't think she'd ever seen this kind of smile on the girl's face before.

"Thank you, Lily. That's amazing. Really." Bliss said. Lily beamed at her in response, then sat down with the other two. Plum patched Lily up, then began the more serious job of patching Bliss up. Bliss swore she could see jealous glances directed at her from Lily. The girl was chafing at Bliss' nerves, she'd gladly trade places. Being doted on by Plum is not worth nearly being disembowelled. Should Bliss have to explain this?

For the next hours, they observed the careers (?)- Bliss wasn't sure how to think of them now after the betrayal- coming and going in pairs, scouting parties likely. Every so often, they heard Dawn's screams drifting through their window. They weren't screams of fear, but of pain. She was being tortured, her cries of pain a warning to those still alive. Perhaps the intent was for everyone to scatter in terror, rather than regrouping and forming an alternative larger alliance. Dawn's screams set Bliss' alliance on edge; she found Plum gritting his teeth, and Lily endlessly cracking her knuckles. Bliss held her hands over her ears, trying to drown out the sound.

Eventually, as the sun was beginning to set, a ruckus came from the cornucopia. Bliss, Plum, and Lily returned to the windows to observe after taking a meal break. Bliss feared the worst, the bloody end to the spectacle that had become of Dawn.

Dawn was being dragged away from the cornucopia by the members of D9, seemingly at Callum's request. They started walking towards the wall of buildings to Bliss' left. Bliss' alliance would lose visual if the tributes below moved out of the courtyard. Bliss didn't want to witness Dawn's death, but she wanted to know what would happen, if for no reason other than to gather information about the careers (?).

Without communicating to her alliance, Bliss began to walk through the floor, all the way to the left. Lily and Plum followed. The building kitty-corner to them had smashed into the one they currently occupied. Cabinets tipped over in the corner, debris hung from the ceiling.

"There's nothing over there." Lily announced. "I already looked."

Bliss couldn't help but wonder, though, if there were any nooks or crannies to slink through. She approached the mess in the corner, ignoring Plum's warning calls.

Bliss crawled under a desk and around a pile of rubble. Another plastic water bottle sat in pristine condition. She tucked it into one of the deep pockets in her canvas pants. About a foot ahead was a wooden slat- perhaps formerly the top of a desk. Bliss called out to her alliance, asking for them to remove the wood blocking her path. They grunted and heaved, and finally it toppled away.

The absence of the wood revealed a small tunnel into the adjacent building, over piles of rubble. Bliss called for her allies to crawl after her. They emerged into the adjacent building on all fours, not yet standing, as the floor was slanted a few degrees from normal. The whole building must be tilted, a consequence from its partial collapse. They crawled after the sound of Dawn's screams, up the grade of the floor, to the windows across the room.

The alliance reached the windows and regained visual, and saw Dawn dragged by the collar of her shirt through yet another courtyard. It was a lavish, but unfinished garden. There was hardly any open space in the hundreds of square feet below.

Trellises and beds contained colourful, vibrant flowers. There looked to be beds with edible plants, and some with poisonous ones, some with both. Gazebos marked break points along the winding pathways. Vines snaked in every direction. The outsides of the garden had been constructed first, leaving the middle last.

A concrete mixer lumbered over an empty garden bed in the middle, centerstage. The mixer was turned on, spinning and groaning.

Dawn's piercing screams along with the mechanical whir of the mixer created a cacophony, a hellish soundscape.

D9, with the help of Chant, held Dawn down in the empty garden bed, then signalled for Cable to start pouring. Dawn made desperate, bone-chilling, indecipherable noises as the concrete poured over her body.

The liquid filled the container, and all that remained of Dawn was her head and hands, fixed in place by her attackers. She tried to spring out of the mixture before it hardened, but Chant wrenched her back by her hair. Cable joined the others to watch Dawn writhe misery. Callum pulled him close, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

Dawn wailed into the night and the next day, long after Bliss' alliance retreated into the building overlooking the cornucopia courtyard, long after the careers (?) had abandoned her, long after the anthem played and showed her the tributes who died that day; she was alone, calling for help, and eventually calling for death.

BLOODBATH DEATH COUNT: (8)

D2M, D6M, D12M killed by D1M

D11F, D12F killed by D4F

D3M, D4M killed by D5M

D2F killed by D11F

TOTAL DEATH COUNT (DAY 1): (9)

D6F killed by D5F