The 70th Hunger Games

Chapter Fourteen

I stay ridged still, shaking uncontrollably, my eyes wide with fear. "Where is that boyfriend of yours? Shame he isn't here to save you," the voice snarls. "Haydon will be so pleased."

His fingers slips and I snarls as best I can. "Let me go. He's on his way right now, so you better get out of here."

"Is he now? Perfect. Just what we want. You see, we were hoping that he would show up along with your other career friends. You see, it's a trap, and you're the bate."

A chill runs down my spine and I almost choke. "You can't win against the Careers."

"Really? Not even if all the other tributes gang up for a mass slaughter?"

I feel a swirling in the pit of my stomach and I swallow hard. The phrase 'butterflies in my stomach,' doesn't begin to cover it; more like a nest of killer bees.

"Clearly you haven't met Marla," is all I manage to say. Suddenly a knife is to my throat, pressing hard but not hard enough to choke me.

"The team is going to be so pleased. Let's get you over there."

He helps me to my feet, tying a rope around my wrists so tight I feel blood beginning to trickle down my fingertips. The boy dips his fingers in and writes a place name of a bare bit of bark. Then he turns me round and I see for the first time the cruel, malicious smile.

I recognise him vaguely as the boy from district seven. I scowl at him as he grins, wiping blood across my face. "Pretty little thing you are. Shame you won't survive to show the world."

Show the world? You don't get more publicised than this event. I can almost guarantee we are both on the big screens all over the country right this minute. More to the point, I can almost guarantee that the thousands of Capital Citizens are chanting at the screens for him to kill me.

"Who is your team?" I growl through gritted teeth.

He shrugs vaguely. "Different tributes who thought it was time to show the Careers a taste of their own medicine. You'll get what's coming to you."

"Have you lost many so far?" I ask.

He pauses, his silence speaking a thousand words. "My district partner was the first to go you know? My friend at school," he says.

I nod. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Doesn't sound very Career-ish," he grunts.

"It's not. I'm not. I trained yes, but that doesn't make me selfish and heartless. The only heartless people in these games are Marla and Tigre. They're the ones you should want to kill, not me and Chris, not even Vine or Butch. Mind you, they'd probably kill you before you got within five miles of them."

He growls. "We're stronger than them. We haven't trained, but we have numbers, and we have one thing in common. We have hearts."

"No one's stronger than Jaden when she wants to kill," I say, trying to keep a composed face. "I've seen it."

"Pah. You couldn't hurt a fly. I doubt you've seen a dead body in your life before, not even in these games. Well, that's all about to change."

"Maybe, but which bodies will the dead ones? Are you willing to risk your life for a bunch of kids that have to die for you to win, and a rebellion against the Careers that you can't win anyway. Your hate for us will get you nowhere."

"Shut it, District 4. Nobody want to know what you think, you're a blooming Career," he snaps as if here is someone else nearby. Maybe there is.

I shrug. "Fair enough. If you insist. But don't say I didn't warn you."