The Hunger Games: New Origin

Chapter 6: Day Two, Cooper, Blake, and Kaylee

I wake up to a loud cannon. I sit up straight and look around. Nobody's missing. I walk over to a random bush and look behind it. There was a young girl, probably six, lying dead on the ground. She had some berries in her tiny hand and some juice on her top lip. It was nightlock. I walk away from the bush and look over at Coby, who was lying on a tree.

" Good morning," I say to him.

" Morning," he says back. When everybody woke up, we grabbed our bags and started moving away from our sleeping spot. We stop walking after a couple of hours and set bags down on the ground.

" I am gonna go pick some fresh berries," I say to my group.

" I'll go with you," Addiana says. We start walking and we walk about four yards and find a bunch of bushes with delicious looking berries. We walk over to a patch of bushes and start picking the berries very cautiously. I hear a rustle in some bushes and turn to the noise. I feel my heart start beating really fast and my stomach starts churning. Something inside of me is telling me to run, but I stay put right by Addiana. The rustling starts getting faster and Addiana finally notices. A tall muscular body pops out of the bushes.

" Oh, look at what we have here." the person says. As soon as he says it, a lot more people step out of the bushes. Including one of the prettiest girls, I have ever seen. I knew her. It was Shelby, the girl who tried to kill me during training. Which meant this huge group of people was every single one of the careers. I look to Addiana and mouth, run. We turn around and start sprinting as fast as we can through the woods. We go past our friends.

" RUN!" I yell at them. At first, they are confused but then they see the careers gaining up speed. I turn around and find all of our friends, sprinting behind us. Cooper was in the back, slowing down. I start to worry, but I keep running. Finally, something happens.

" HALEY!!" Cooper screams. I hear him start screaming bloody murder, and I knew something bad was happening. I turn around and start running towards him.

" COOPER!!" I scream when I get to him. He is still screaming and the group of careers is surrounding him, then they start attacking him. It takes two hits with an ax and then his cannon goes off.

" NO!!" I scream, tears running down my face. I try to run to Cooper but Coby grabs me around the waist. I try to fight him off. I had to get to Cooper. The career named Shelby walks over to me.

" Oh, was that your brother? Oopsie," she says to me, and then starts laughing. She gets down into my face and laughs in it. I feel anger start boiling inside of me. I turn around and grab a sickle. When I turn around with the sickle in my hand, I slash Shelby's face. She falls to the ground dead. The other careers start walking away. When they finally go away Coby lets go of me and I run to Cooper's side. I look at his stomach, which is streaming with fresh blood. I start crying again, tears running fast down my face.

" I am so sorry mom," I say to the sky between sobs. I look down at Cooper and close his eyes. I feel someone grab my shoulders, and I see it's Coby. I get up and take one last look at Cooper. Tears start streaming down my cheeks again. We start walking away. Paige, Addie, and Addiana stayed by me but then eventually move up with the others. I stay in the back, my knife drawn, and tears rolling down my cheeks. When we finally find a spot to stop to sleep, I throw my stuff onto the ground and crumple to the ground next to a tree. I hear some dinging and my friends start running around.

" This has to work." says a voice that sounds like Kaylee's. I hear footsteps come closer to my ear. Someone taps my shoulder and a picture lands in front of my face. I look at it and see that the picture is a picture of Cooper. I sit up and wipe my face.

" There is a note also," Kaylee tells me. She hands me the note and I un crumple it. The note is from my mom. It says " Its okay sweetie. None of this is your fault. You are trying and that's all you can do. Just remember that Cooper is in a safer, less scary place, and he is happy there. Stay strong and remember, you are an innocent child put in a difficult position. Love, Mom!" I smile and look up at the sky. I know she can see me, and I know she knows I am grateful. Being called innocent makes me feel a lot better since I feel like a monster. I lay down on the ground, hug my picture close to my chest, and close my eyes.

It has probably been about two hours because it's dusk, and I hear a high pitched scream. My body jolts up, I draw out one of my knives, and I spin around. When I spin around, I see Blake sitting on top of Addiana, holding a knife at her throat.

" Blake, what are you doing?!" I ask. Addiana is trying to throw Blake off of her, but he is too strong.

" I thought we were getting this killing thing started. You are lucky I waited and didn't kill her in the bloodbath." He says. Kaylee runs towards him, her sword is drawn. As soon as she reaches Blake, he stabs her square in the forehead.

" NO!" I scream. I draw my sword and get ready to kill him, but then a long sword goes through his stomach. Kaylee's cannon goes off first, and then Blakes right after. I go over and close both of their eyes, do the tribute sign at the sky, and go back to my tree. I slump down onto the ground and slam my head against the tree. I look down at my picture of Cooper and then the capitols anthem begins to play. I look up at the sky and there are only three pictures that pass through. The first picture is Cooper. I look and a small tear rolls down my right cheek. The second picture is Kaylee. And the third picture was Blake. My tears feel hot against my cheek, and I feel the anger bubble inside me. He was my friend, and I trusted him. He betrayed me and all of our friends. The anthem stops playing and the sky goes dark.

I may have survived my second night in The Hunger Games, but somehow I feel like I am dead.