Part 2 "The Odds"

Trigger Warnings: Violence and Violent Deaths

10.

The countdown started. Alexandrite screamed what she believed to be her last message to her family. After that, there was silence. Then Inga laughed loudly, pointed and shook her head. But Alexandrite just looked ahead, trying to focus on something, anything, tears falling down her cheeks, her expression cold.

Fifty. Nona saw the sword and wanted it, but decided it would be better to be practical and grab a pack filled with useful supplies. Then again, she would need to get to that sword in case someone tried to get to her. And looking over at that evil smirk on Inga's face, she wouldn't be surprised if she tried to kill Nona or someone else here with her bare hands. Maybe the sword was more practical in this case.

Forty. Latia found herself looking around at the Arena. There was nothing here. No grass, no trees, no water, no animals, no way to climb up the walls.

Thirty. Patch zipped up his jacket, wrapping his arms around himself. He looked around and found it very hard to breathe. How was he going to run? Oh no, he was going to have to run. He started to cough, but he brought his fist up to his mouth and stifled it, willing his sickness to keep the evidence of its existence to a minimum. He would not look weak right now.

Twenty. Emmer couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. It looked like Isley's maze. It really did. He'd studied the maze blueprints very, very carefully with what little time he'd had. But the walls, they were supposed to be—

Ten. Marrow wasn't sure if he was actually seeing the walls move or if that was just fear making his head act all silly. But it couldn't have just been in his head, he could feel the vibrations from here, even standing on his platform. The ground had to be shaking and it had to be from the fact that the left wall was sliding slowly to the right, providing what could only be an opening, a way out of the bloodbath. The wall straight ahead started doing the same thing shortly after. He looked to his right, then craned his head to look behind all of them. Those walls weren't moving. He looked around at the other tributes, taking in their utterly shocked faces. Either they saw the walls moving too or they had all gone mad together. Both were equally possible. This was the Hunger Games, after all.

The horn blew. And everything that happened, happened in the blink of an eye.

The Careers, naturally, ran straight for the Cornucopia. The girl from District 3 was a mad woman, shoving, hitting, kicking and punching people to get past them. Eventually she found herself up against the girl from District 4, then for some reason the District 3 girl froze up and the District 4 girl took advantage of that and stabbed District 3 with the efficiency of someone who had been fileting fish her whole life, killing her.

Grant fought the boy from District 6, beating him until he couldn't move. Eventually, he stabbed him in the throat to put him out of his misery.

Maizie decided to go out like as much of a warrior as she could. Looking over at Inga, who she hated, seeing her as nothing but a rabid, gross animal when they were training, saw how she was looking at that tiny kid, her own district partner like he was fresh meat after a week without food. How evil do you have to be to go after the weakest tribute, someone from your own district, just for fun? Maizie didn't even like Emmer but she couldn't imagine being sick enough to try and do something like that to him.

So, more out of spite than honor or a desire to protect, Maizie got in front of Inga and spat in her face, smiling, proud of herself, even as Inga grabbed her by the hair and brought her head down against Inga's own platform, crushing her skull. It was weak, but Maizie was still laughing and smiling, even as Inga used the heel of her boot to smash Maizie's face until it was unrecognizable. She'd still gone out smiling, making a point to continue smiling no matter how painful it was so that Inga would have to live with that image. Even when facing painful and inescapable death, Maizie Nanahara was cheeky and defiant.

Inga was still angry and when she saw the District 3 boy who was in the process of trying to gouge out the eyes of the District 7 girl, Inga tackled him and beat him to death. The District 7 girl ran, unable to see and actually ran face first into the east wall, the impact knocking her unconscious.

Alexandrite didn't think. She ran towards the opening on the left past everyone, so fast she almost looked like a blur. Wicker, who was fast himself, managed to grab a pack and followed her towards that opening. He urged Latia to come with him, which, after a brief moment of hesitation, she did. Emmer followed them as well, and so did the girl from District 6 who managed to get a bow, barely missing the girl from District 10 who tried to wrestle it away from her. Emmer managed to get through just as the wall started to close back up again. The District 6 girl barely made it past the skin of her teeth.

Marrow managed to wrestle his way past some others and get a pack before running towards the north opening, the same place the boy from District 7 and Patch decided to run to as fast as they possibly could. Patch still couldn't believe that he'd made it just as the wall closed. He placed his hands on the cold concrete and realized that there really was no backing out of this now. He'd quite literally chosen his path and had no choice but to stick with it. The only way out was by winning or getting carried out. And he was here with two of the most skilled tributes. He didn't like his odds.

…

Just as the west and north walls began to slowly slide closed, the south and east ones began to open. Dove saw this in the middle of fighting with Nona over a pack. Nona had gotten hold of a sword and was holding it up at Dove, the tip barely grazing her chin, insisting that she drop the pack. Dove looked at the east opening and decided to abandon the pack, running over the District 7 girl's body. Inga, who had finished the District 6 boy off and was now covered in both his and the Maizie's blood, screamed at Nona not to let her go. Nona ignored her, deciding that nothing was really lost by letting the District 10 girl run away. After all, how long could she really survive out there? None of them even knew what was out there.

Inga, however, was furious and ran after the District 10 girl, but tripped over the body of the girl from District 7. She stood up, looked down, instantly became frustrated, raised her right foot, preparing to bring it down on the District 7 girl's neck, but Nona looked away, disgusted, and covered her ears before she could see or hear anything. Nona actually felt her insides start to twist themselves in that moment and she heaved until she threw up. She heard buzzing in her ears and was able to just raise her head up slightly, noticing that there were a lot of dead bodies all around her.

Lee had just run a spear through the heart of the District 12 boy. Servius had swiftly killed both the District 12 girl and District 11 boy with a sword. Sky was walking away from the now still body of the District 11 girl whose eyes were still open.

The east and south doors began to shut and the other Careers all walked towards her, some of them even looking proud. Nona felt like she was going to be sick again.

"Okay," Sky said, sounding out of breath. "I think that's, what, like, nine tributes who are down for the count. Not bad. Not bad, everyone. And look, we still have all of the supplies."

"And we're not who knows where in a terrifying maze," Grant tried to joke, getting everyone else to laugh along with him.

Inga was not in a mood to joke and said, her voice accusatory. "Nona, let someone go."

They all looked at Nona in confusion, but not accusation. They stood there waiting for an answer. Nona didn't answer. Instead. She threw up again. The other Careers, except for Inga who stubbornly stood there with her arms across her chest, gathered around her to see if she was okay. But she didn't look up at them. She couldn't look up at them. They'd killed people. These same people who had become her friends these past few days. Who she'd laughed so easily with over lunch. And now…now they were all in a box and the last one standing won it all. What would they do to her in order to be that last person standing?

What would she have to do? She supposed that would all depend on how badly she wanted to go home.

…

Patch slowly turned around and realized that the boys from districts 7 and 10 had already run ahead of him. He didn't even see them anymore. The path ahead looked the same as the other side of the wall, only it was a very narrow hallway. Patch looked above head and saw that the sun was shining. For the time being he could probably keep walking and he would only start running somewhere when he saw one of the two boys. That is, assuming they weren't lying in wait for him.

After a little while of walking, zipping up his jacket and wrapping his arms around himself protectively as he did so, Patch came to a point where the path in front of him was just a little more narrow. He was curious why the gamemakers had decided to make this path so much smaller. Patch ran his hands over the left side of the wall as if what he felt was going to tell him something, then he looked over at the right side. Realizing that there was nowhere else to go but straight, he took a deep breath, hugged himself even tighter and walked straight ahead, hoping that he was heading towards somewhere safe. Or at least a place that wasn't extremely deadly.

…

What Patch didn't know was that Marrow and Heron had run as fast as they could, neither one with a weapon in their hands so neither one was looking to fight the other.

Eventually they both stopped at the same place, Marrow almost bumping into Heron. He didn't fully trust that Heron was even here, but still, he walked up to Heron's right side and saw what he was seeing and giving careful consideration to: a fork in the road. There were three individual paths—left, straight and right. All identical, each resembling the path that he'd just spent however many minutes running down. There was nothing to indicate which would be ideal for either of them to go down. That was no doubt intentional.

Heron looked over at Marrow distrustfully, and Marrow kept his hands at his side, clenching his fists in preparation for anything stupid this other boy might try to do. However, the other boy didn't seem to want a fight any more than Marrow did and just started running down the far left path. As soon as he did, just as it did with the walls at the start of the games, a wall slid to the left, blocking any access to that path, in or out.

Marrow almost jumped with fear. He would need to get this right or there would be serious consequences. Or maybe there would be none at all. Either way, he had to make a quick decision and he decided maybe the safest thing to do would be to get as far away from the District 7 boy as possible. So he went down the path on the right. And the wall closed behind him just as it did for that other boy, clearing up any lingering confusion about whether or not going back was an option.

…

Alexandrite, Latia, Wicker, Emmer and Alba ran until it felt like their lungs were on fire. Eventually they all found themselves in a bright, sunny open field. They also noticed that towards the left there was a pond and taking up a whole corner on the right, a garden full of vegetables. Then it felt like the Earth was shaking. They turned around and saw that the entrance that they had come through was closing, the wall going sideways like a gigantic sliding door, until it was as if there had never been an opening at all.

Emmer ran towards where the wall had closed and felt for a space of some kind, anything to indicate that there was a way to open it up again manually, something Isley's plan had indicated was an option. No such luck, at least not so far. Emmer let out a defeated sigh. Something else that he'd read in Isley's plans: the only way out was forward. But the doors would open again by themselves after a certain amount of time. They couldn't stay here forever, no matter how wholesome a scene this appeared to be.

When everyone was done looking around, they exchanged glances at each other. Then they all turned to look at Alba, a short fifteen year old whose long dark hair was being held up in a double ponytail, the only one of them with a weapon, and one she had clearly displayed that she knew how to handle. After a brief look of confusion, Alba seemed to realize this, rolled her eyes and held up her hands.

"Relax," she said. "I'm not going to shoot anybody. Not unless one of you comes after me first."

"Toss the bow," Alexandrite insisted simply. It was clear by her tone that whether or not she actually did this was not up for discussion.

"I'm not gonna do that," Alba said.

"Look, we're all gonna be here a while," Wicker said, trying to play peacekeeper. "We should at least try not to pick a fight with each other—"

"I don't care if you don't like it," Alexandrite said, coming off a little pushy now. "It's that or nothing else."

"Well, then I guess it's nothing else," Alba said defiantly.

"Guys!" Latia shouted over all of them, getting their attention. Emmer noticed for the first time that she had freckles dotted across her nose and the tops of her cheeks. "What are we doing? We don't know where we are, if that water is poisoned or if that food is even edible, and we don't know when that door is gonna open back up again or if there's another door somewhere else around here and we should go through it or if something bad is gonna come out of it. So I don't want to hear any more whining or petty squabbling. What's your name?"

She was addressing Alba, who seemed taken aback by this.

"Oh, uh," she briefly hesitated. "Alba. District 6."

"Well Alba from District 6," Latia said with the authority of a leader. "I'm Latia and this is my district partner from Five, Wicker. And this is our, I don't know what she is, but she's Alexandrite from District 1."

"Yeah," Alba observed her, intrigued. "A Career who can't fight. Fascinating."

Alexandrite narrowed her eyes and glared at Alba.

Feeling a little annoyed at being left out, Emmer spoke up and decided that since no one else was going to introduce him then he may as well do the honors himself by stepping forward and saying, "Hello. My name is Emmer Skadsen from District 9."

"He's the stupid ass who volunteered," Alexandrite deadpanned.

"Okay, I get enough from my district partner," Emmer fired back. "The last thing I need is to hear it from you in here right now."

But as he mentioned Maizie, even if he didn't do it by name, a terrible feeling came over him. Where was Maizie? Did she go through one of the doors? Did she make it out alive? She seemed like the kind of person who would and could survive anything. But at the same time, somehow he just knew that something bad had happened. He couldn't say what and he couldn't say how he knew, but he just knew.

"Look," Alba said firmly. "I don't want to kill anybody, and I definitely don't want anyone to kill me. So until we get out of here can we just agree to a truce?"

Everyone exchanged glances with one another. It didn't seem like anyone had a problem with this idea. No one here was a savage, Latia thought, they were survivors. Granted when times were dire those two things could overlap, but if she had anything to say about it that wouldn't happen this time. Not in here, not with this group.

"Great," Latia said with authority. "Here's what's going to happen: we're going to take a breath, then we're going to take a look around and try to find a way out. The first person who finds anything, say something. If we don't find anything, we just make camp here. As long as there's not an exit, there is a truce, understood?"

Everyone nodded or murmured an agreement.

"Great," Latia said, quoting her father Dr. Clarke Burns, "Now let's get to it."

…

Patch was surprised at what was at the end of his path: an oval-shaped open space with a few beams of sunlight shining through the branches of the high trees overhead. Though the strangest thing was that the trees were growing from the top of the walls, and even someone like Patch who grew up surrounded by so few green things knew that was impossible. Then again this was the Capitol. That was when he got a probably not very smart idea to open his mouth and, not quite sure where the cameras were, shouted as loud as he could:

"Oh sure! You don't have the time to make sure the districts have adequate medicine, freshwater or electricity, but you can make a tree grow out of concrete. Thank you for all you do for us! We're all so grateful."

Patch smiled, looking around and seeing that also in the room looked like an abandoned playground with a see-saw, slide, swings, sand box, all of which looked rusted and long-neglected. At the center, nearly touching the ceiling was a metal observation tower. Patch walked around the back and saw a spiral staircase up to the top of the tower. As he walked up there he wondered what he would find. He also wondered if the Capitol would find a way to punish him for his little outburst.

Then he got up there and froze. There he was, the big boy from District 10. The biggest, strongest tribute. And he was looking right at Patch with a strange, curious, almost distant expression.

Wow, Patch thought, it really was impressive how on top of things the Capitol was. They had the strangest priorities.