I awoke to my body being slammed on the icy ground forcefully. I screamed from the pain in my leg and from the fall. I clutched my leg hoping to stop the pain, but it was useless. I heard noises around me, possibly tributes getting ready to kill me. I pried my eyes open to see who was about to kill me.
Instead I see a woman, my mother. She was in the arena? "Mom?" I moan in shock.
"Ebony, you need to be strong." she tells me. "You need to fight to win." she encourages me. I was so confused, so I asked "What's going on?!" with hysteria.
"Wake up." she commands. I thought I was up, I wondered if this was a weird dream.
"But-- mom-- I." I stutter.
"Win." she finished. Then she blurs away, and my mind plunges into an even deeper darkness than before. I thought I was dead until I feel a sharp pain in my face.
"Get up!" someone yelled, but it wasn't my mother. I opened my eyes to see the same place, but instead of my mother I see a group of tributes. I rubbed my face with my hand where someones boot had hit it. "What's your name?" a girl with long bleach blond hair asked.
My voice is shaky and weak, but I force out, "Ebony." I see her look to a boy in the group as though waiting for an answer on what to . "Who are you?" I ask still in a daze. I had a bad feeling these people where trouble.
"My names Alexandra." The blond girl said. "District 7."
"I'm Ethan." said the boy with dark brown hair. "District 3."
"I'm Claudia." A girl with red like hair. "District 9."
"We teamed up to take down the competition, including you." Alexandra said.
I was unable to respond to this. I wasn't going to waste my time chatting with them, so I force myself off the ground slowly and painfully. It was a sad attempt, they were laughing too.
"We don't want to kill you." Claudia said between her laughter. "We want you to be apart of our group."
I'm shocked; why would they want a dying girl in they're group? Even more questions enter my mind like, how did I get here, where did that career go, and did anyone else die. "Why?" I ask weakly. I'm standing now, but only by the support of a tree.
"You have potential. Your 10 in training. Your confidence." I laugh a bit at the confidence thing.
"Okay." I said blankly. I was confused and tired. My plan was to stay solo, but I can't just say no. They'll kill me. "You look tough enough." I lied, they looked fine, not tough though.
"Great, we'll fix you up. I think you got something from a sponsor." Claudia said holding up a white package with a parachute connected to it. It was torn open already like they eagerly thought it was there's. I wondered who would waste they're money on a mess like me. I guess someone thinks I'll win, maybe I should. She tossed me the package and I examine the contents. A large roll of bandage, and a dagger of intense sharpness and beauty.
It was an odd mix, but I raised my head and silently thanked the cameras. "I'll help you clean up." Ethan said as he roughly grabbed my arm and led me to a small riverbank. I collapse at the end and begin to wash out my bloody wounds. "What happened to you anyway?" he asked.
I consider weather or not I should tell Ethan of my buffalo encounter, or the career girl. What else do I have to lose though? "I ran into a wild buffalo." I said remembering the great beast. "It was a mutt. It attacked us, well me." I said realizing I didn't want him to know about the career. I was unsure why I was being so secretive.
