Sunshine - A Hunger Games Story

11| Scream

The next morning, Henri wakes up at around 4. I get to sleep after that because I'm fairly certain less people would be out hunting this early in the morning.

After that, we assemble a trap to catch some food and wait all day long, not needing to risk anything any more. We get a squirrel and eat it for lunch/dinner. The second night is Henri's first watch. No one died but the anthem still played. At 2 o'clock, I am woken up for my shift of night watch. To wake myself up so I am not vulnerable if anyone attacks, I walk around, searching for danger before it finds me.

Everything in the forest is quiet when a scream splits the silence. It's coming from the river. I run over to the tree line overlooking the water and strain my eyes to see in the dark. A small dying torch light lays on the opposing bank and the water splashes around. The splashing turns into bubbles and soon after, a cannon fires. I run back to Henri.

Then, we pack up the water filter after cautiously filling up two more bottles. We're going to find Faith and Floyd.

Henri and I make our way through the forest, away from the river, towards where Faith and Floyd went. At least I hope this is the direction they went. The two of us trek through the forest of weeping willows, maple, and oak trees. Helicopter seeds and acorns scatter the ground reminding me of home. As we walk, we come to a clearing with a wooden cabin in the middle. Outside of the cabin is a woman with dark brown skin and a bandana in her hair. The older woman is crying over something in front of her.

"Mom," Henry shouts. He starts running over to the woman before I can stop him. I follow. As I come up on Henri's mom, I see what she's crying over: a dead body. "Lisa!" The woman sees us and runs into the hut, slamming the door. "Mom," Henri sobs "where are you going." We both run into the cabin and find 8 different people circled up and crying. When I close the door, all of their heads snap to me so I can see their faces. It's my mom, dad, Dominic, Isaak, Tyson, Jill, and Tyson's sister, all circling a body on the table. Theo.

I gingerly approach Theo's bloody body on the table, my hands covering my mouth. No. They killed Theo. Snow killed my 9 year old brother. My mom pulls me into a hug and I feel her pet my hair. Why is my family in the arena? "Mom,"

"Ayesha! It's a monster! Look out!" I look up to see a slimy purple monster head resembling a slobbering hyena. When the dragon-hyena mutt sees me look up at it, it snarls at me and I jump away. My mom's clothes fall off the creature, it's chest which holds flesh with gaping holes in it. I move in front of Henri, protecting him from the mutts. I draw my sword. I watch as the rest of my family and friends' skin melt off their bodies. Theo leans up off the table, blood still coating his abdomen. He gives me a look of immense pain and screams out as his golden skin falls off in liquid globs. I scream at the horrid sight. My mom's mutt charges at me, claws swinging wildly.

I block the strike with my sword and stab the mutt in the eye. The mutt transforms back into my mom, only this time with a bleeding eye. I can't bring myself to stab it as the mutt is in my mom's form, but I stab a different one that's coming up to us. My blade connects with the second mutt's head, slicing it ¾th of the way through. The mutt lands on the floor changing forms from Dominic and an older girl's body: Henri's sister. Tears are pouring down my face by now as I am forced to disembowel my family members.

Henri shouts and I look over at him. The mutt from outside is now attacking him but he is using a sword to fight it off.

Two more mutts run at me. One slashes my face and I cut deeply into It's guys. My mom's mutt changes back so I stab it's heart. My mom and Jill fall to the floor. Jill's body buffers between Jill, Henri, the boy from 3 and Sydney.

The real Henri pats my shoulder and says "run" as he runs out of the cabin. I slowly follow him, backing out as I stay wary of the mutts. The remaining mutts shift into the people I love: Isaak, little Theo, my dad, Tyson, and Tyson's sister. I get a hold of my shaking body and raise my sword up once more.

They are mutts. No humans. You're not killing humans. They are not even alive. You can do this.

I take the first advance towards my father and cut the mutt's arm. It screeches and scratches at my sword. I cut the mutt's throat open and strike Isaak's mutt in the gut. Isaak's guts spill out onto the grass. I think I'm about to puke. Theo's mutt turns back into its dragon-hyena form so I stab at its heart. Tyson's sister does the same making it easier to kill the monster. For the final mutt, I stab it in the gut. Watching it die, I see Tyson with a pained look on his face. He starts coughing up blood and looks up into my eyes. His expression tells me 'Why? Why did you do this to me? Ayesha, you betrayed me!'

"No. It's not you. You're a monster, not Tyson. It's not real. This isn't real," I yell, sinking to my knees and pressing my hands to the side of my head. I can hear Tyson gasp as blood fills his lungs and suffocates him.

Henri places his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. I grab his hand and hug him, making sure that he is real. I sob into his hair for I don't know how long before I pull myself together again. We make our way back into the forest as the sun sets. No one died today.

I take the first watch, my eyes sting from the after effects of crying. I hate that I broke down in front of Henri. Everyone in the Capital probably saw it meaning we won't be getting sponsors. My family all saw meaning I'll die with them hating me for killing their look-alikes so violently. My hatred for the Capital grows and I imagine Caesar announcing how entertaining my battle had been.

In the morning, around 10 o'clock when I reset a few traps and found a few berries to eat, two muddy tributes came stumbling into view. I raise my cleaned off sword up and Henri holds the trident up next to me. "Hands up," I command. The two tributes freeze and slowly turn to face me.

"Ayesha? Is that you," The girl tribute questions.

"Thank God. I thought we would never find you."

Faith and Floyd! "Oh, thank God. I didn't want to kill anyone today."

"I'm thankful, and glad I'm not dead. What happened to your face?" I run my fingers along the scratch running down my forehead. I will need to clean it soon so it doesn't get infected.

"Mutts. A story that I'd rather not get into," I explain.

"Understandable. How are you Henri?"

"Don't go into the cabin. It's like a horror house but real. Faith, right?"

"Yep-a-roo."

"Why are you covered in mud?" The district 5 tributes walk over to us and sit down against a tree nearby.

"To blend in. So we can observe," Floyd says plainly. A cannon rings out over our chit-chat. "5" Floyd and Faith say simultaneously, nodding their heads in agreement with the other. "Speaking of which, let's keep the volume down so we don't attract unwanted attention."

"Hell, if they want to come, let them. We're the biggest group in the arena. Maybe attracting attention will speed this up a bit." I agree, the Hunger Games has been taking quite a while this year. "In over 77% of all games in Panem history at least half the tributes are dead within the first 10 hours and in 61% of games, ¾th of tributes are dead by the third day. We are on day five and only 5 kids are dead. I thought if the Capital was going to kill me they would at least make it quick."

"What have you guys figured out about the arena from your 'observing'?"

"No one is still around the cornucopia anymore so it's free for grabs. I saw your buddy Fred heading towards the mountains. Right Floyd."

"Yeah. 2, 9, and 11 all went toward the mountains on the opposite side of the map. All boys. I expected them to be the ones to take control of the gear, but they left when Scary Mary died."

I laugh. "You call her Scary Mary too."

"Everyone does," he says. "Did," he corrects.

"2, 9, and 11 is the group I've elected to call the dipstick gang. Shorter and easier to remember."

"I'll remember that." Faith smiles. Henri does too.

"2, 6, and 8 are just 2-6-8. They might be in the forests too," I supply. Floyd agrees with me and says that 268 is across the river but still in the forest. He also explains how both from 10 are working with the boy from 3 to make traps for them as they supply muscles. The rest are scattered around the arena.

At night time, after seeing the girl from district 11's picture in the sky, Floyd offers to take the first watch and Faith says she'll take the second one. For the first time in a little under a week, I get a full night's rest. With a few night terrors.