The Mentor - A Hunger Games Story

2 - DURING

Haymitch swallowed every nerve in his body as the platform rose. His skin twitched and screamed for him to find anywhere to get out of the elevator-of-death. But his brain was already focused on the next task.

Light flooded into the tube from above, and Haymitch rose to his tiptoes to see as much of his surroundings as he could before the games started. His eyes broke the surface of the tube, and he had to blink several times to put everything in focus.

The first thing he saw were large shapes looming in the horizon. He had seen a few on the train-ride to the capital, but they still shocked him to his core. Mountains. But these were much larger, and much closer, than those he saw on the train.

Haymitch was soon up to his waist in the tube, spinning in a circle, trying to take it all in.

They seemed to be in a valley, closed-in completely by mountains. The giant landforms were snow topped and plunged haphazardly every which-way. At the base, where he and the other tributes were located, were shimmering lakes, and dense trees that lead to the mountain's base.

The cornucopia, which was the hub of the games with all of the weapons, was located in the middle of the valley. The victors were aligned in a equidistant circle around it. The tributes to his right and left were from the tenth and eighth district, respectively. He barely had paid attention to them in training, noting they were both weak and less-than intelligent. Sure enough, they were both gawking at their surroundings.

The countdown began, the loud speaker cutting through any serenity. Haymitch positioned his feet away from the cornucopia. He wasn't stupid enough to die at the hands of the bloodbath, even if it meant getting supplies.

At "four", Haymitch looked to his right to see if anyone had the same idea as him. But he noticed that the tributes closest to him were still looking at their surroundings, eyes glazed. Almost if they had no clue what was about to happen.

As the cannon went off, Haymitch jumped off his platform, twisting in a 180 degree turn. He sprinted as fast as he could, towards the cornucopia. Sure enough, out of his peripherals, he was virtually alone. At least concerning the tributes closest to him in the circle.

He splashed in the lake, hoping it was not too deep. It went up to his thighs, but no higher. He could hear splashing water all around him, knowing some tributes were also not delayed from the views.

He blindly grabbed for two things closest to him, and turned as quickly as the water would let him.

Soon enough, he was dragging himself out of the water and dashing into a cluster of trees. One tribute was still on their platform. Haymitch almost slit their throat with the knife he grabbed out of pity.

But there was no time. Screams had started behind him, as the bloodbath began to take its first victims. The sound of the cannon was almost as quick and persistent as his heartbeat. He had told himself he would count, but there were too many, too quickly.

Haymitch ducked into a tree line and started scrambling up the hillside as fast as he could. He realized quickly that besides the area with the cornucopia, everything in the arena was uphill. Forget fighting each other, the high elevation and lack of water would kill all of them.

He paused briefly to sort through what he'd grabbed at the Cornucopia. He had managed to get a knife and a small red backpack. He rifled through the backpack to find a canteen of water, a few dried meats, a bandana, and three more knives. He threw backpack over his shoulder and clenched the largest knife in his hand. He continued scrambling up the hill, which had quickly turned into the side of a mountain.

His body quickly became fatigued, so he forced any distraction he could think of into his head and he kept climbing. He figured that if he could get farther up the mountain than any other tribute, he could wait it out. He figured the game-makers would force him down somehow, but at least for the first few days he wanted to stay as separated from the others as possible.