They spent the next hour clearing the Cornucopia of any useful items, taking valuable time picking out personal favourites from an assortment of weapons. After a very thorough search Genevieve came across two throwing stars and grinned tucking them into her crossbody bag for later. She was a little pissed that Caspian had gotten his hands on the tridents which would only make him harder to take out later.
Rex found a group of spears that he had taken possession of as Marla took her pick from a group of swords. While the others were busy looking through the weapons Genevieve grabbed a bottle that contained a water filter and a small first aid kit to add to her pack.
She cleaned off her katanas with a rag from one of the first aid kits, before sheathing them again. By the time they were ready to move the sun has reached the middle of the sky. She understood why their outfits hadn't included jackets now that warmth was beating down on her skin from all angles. What she didn't understand was the wet suit-like underlayer considering that she couldn't see any water for miles around.
Soon a loud buzzing noise and dark shadows in the sky indicated that the body collectors were ready to descend. They took that as a sign to leave the clearing and head off into the forest to hunt for any tributes who hadn't gotten far.
They walked about a kilometre before they come across their first sign of life. A trail of blood leading to the base of a tall pine tree
It belonged to Ginger, the boy from six, Marla had cut him quite deep for him to be desperate enough to stop so close to their base, she was surprised he had even managed to scale the tree with the injury in the first place.
His head jerked down towards the sound of leaves rustling and his face was contorted with pain. He was clutching his side, taking deep breaths and trying not to panic
He paused for a second then pleaded. "Wait, let's ally— don't kill me! Please— I just need to... ugh." He vomited down the side of a branch and Seraphina looked affronted at the display.
Caspien looked knowingly at Genevieve and she got the hint immediately. She was the most nimble out of the career pack so she would have to scale the tree because there was no way they were going to wait for him to jump down.
She adjusted her footing on a low branch and pushed herself up scaling the tree with ease. The boy panicked, trying to heave himself up but he failed miserably, only serving to irritate his wound more. Genevieve angled herself carefully as she grabbed another branch so he didn't throw anything towards her as she continued to climb.
"Please— No you can't!" He yelled
"Oh but I can." Genevieve simpered sweetly as she swung a leg up to strike him in the middle of his chest causing him to lose balance and fall down to the forest floor. He failed to grasp her from where she was situated on the branch below him as he fell and she began to climb down to where his mangled body lay, spread out on the ground.
"There wasn't a cannon." Caspian observed as he grabbed a knife from Marla and cut the boy's radial artery open. Seconds later the cannon sounded and Pertan whooped "6 down, 17 to go!" Marla followed his celebration by listing who else was left and Genevieve couldn't help but smile at the thought that it would all be over soon.
The sun had almost set by the time they made it back. Starting a fire was the first priority so they could heat up some ration packs and share them out equally. Genevieve hummed appreciatively at the taste, even capital scraps were better than district food. As they finished up their food a buzzing noise caught Genevieve's attention. She looked up to find a drone circling their group. "Sponsor Gifts." Serpahina preened gazing upwards. The package dropped down from above with the aid of a parachute and landed in Caspian's lap.
Genevieve peered over his shoulder assuming that the gifts were for both of the tributes from four. He unwrapped the packing quickly and tossed it aside to reveal lay two pairs of climbing boots complete with spikes on the bottom for grip. They were state of the art capital technology and were obviously meant to be used on the masses surrounding them.
"We can climb the mountain tomorrow" Caspian stated, turning towards the rocky range. Genevieve pulled on her shoes on straight away discarding the leather running shoes that were made of a cheaper material. The spikes on the bottom could also be used in hand to hand combat against an unsuspecting victim.
"We could split up," she said, twirling a throwing star around her fingers, while she looked up at the fake night sky. She wondered if it was actually night in Panem or if time moved faster in the arena. "We'll have to split up to get more tributes. We need to keep things entertaining after all."
"What will you two be doing, if we're off killing tributes?" Pertan asked, suspicion evident in his face.
"Scoping the area, something must be beyond those mountains." Genevieve muttered lacing up her shoes. Marla and Seraphina seemed to be considering her proposition, because both of them had furrowed their brows as if they were weighing up potential options. Pertan didn't look convinced but he held little authority in the grand scheme of the group so his opinion didn't really matter anyway.
Rex spoke first. "I think it's a good idea. There might be tributes up there as well. Who knows."
Marla yawned and nodded her head in agreement. "Sounds like a plan. We should get some sleep if you two are planning on scaling the mountain."
Rex got up stretching his back and headed to one of the tents they'd unpacked earlier. Pertan followed shortly after just as Genevieve was about to get up she felt Caspian's hands on her elbow tugging her back down. Something in his eyes told her not to move so she stayed put until they were the last two left out in the open.
"We got a letter along with the package." Caspian said, producing a white envelope that he had stashed in his pocket.
"Read it out then." Genevieve gestured to him, intrigued.
Caspian nodded his head. "To Cas and Gen." He narrated frowning at the nicknames. "Good job at the bloodbath today but the capital knows you can do better than that. You'll want more kills tomorrow or the arena might shake things up a little. Enjoy the shoes. Finnick." The letter only confirmed Genevieve's suspicions. The bloodbath had been too tame. If they didn't put on a show the game makers would do it for them, by unleashing some kind of enemy into the arena with them and that was the last thing that they needed to happen.
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𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 | Finnick Odair
Fanfiction'I don't like that falling feels like flying 'till the bone crush' As the reigning victor of the 65th Hunger Games, Finnick Odair is no stranger to adoration and attention. But when he finds himself inexplicably drawn to Genevieve Coppergrove, distr...
