The Tribute and the Victor

Chapter 14

"Ladies and Gentelmen, let the 73rd hunger games begin!" I heard Claudius Templesmith's voice boom out.Great. Just great. Possibly the worst arena they could have picked. Desert arenas were known for being extremely hard to survive in because of the exhausting heat and the lack of water. Also, the sand would make it almost impossible to run in. I guess the odds were defiantly not I'm my favour now. Suddenly I caught a glimpse of Calix staring at me. He looked just as terrified as the rest of us did, but then I noticed him focus on something. A bow in the cornucopia, with a set of arrows right next to it. That was his. I then started to focus again and remember what Caleb had told me. Run to the cornucopia, grab food, water, weapons and then get out of there. Suddenly I realised the booming voice of Claudius Templesmith was counting down and he was already at ten. 10 seconds left...5 seconds 4...3...2...1...no second thoughts. I just ran. Straight into the cornucopia and didn't look back. As I rummaged through the pile of goodies I noticed a huge beige bag sat in the middle of the pile. I picked it up without hesitation. What next? A water bottle, spears and a bag of nuts and raisins. Done. Now I needed to get out of there. By then I realised some of the careers had also reached the cornucopia and were already slaying their way through their victims one after the other. I suddenly made a mad dash away from the cornucopia but before I could get out of range something had hit me. A knife. Just then I looked up to see Hemlock running towards me with two other knives in his hands I looked down to see where the knife had hit me...straight in the thigh. I reached down to pull it out but soon realised that the huge beige bag was in the way. I had to do it. I dropped the huge bag full of all kinds of possible goodies, pulled out the knife and ran for it. I was in an extreme amount of pain but I had to keep going, I ran and ran, for about an hour until I couldn't run anymore, I then dove down behind a huge rock in the middle of the never ending desert and hid. I quickly peered up from behind the rock to make sure I hadn't been followed. No sign of anyone anywhere. Good. I then looked down at my wound. It was excruciatingly painful, all the sand that had blown itself into the wound didn't help either but luckily it wasn't too deep. It should be able to heal quite quickly which was good as i didn't have any time for injuries. I then looked down at what was left of what I had picked out from the cornucopia. A long and slim bag of 6 spears with straps to put over my shoulder, an empty water bottle and a bag of nuts and raisins. I stared at the empty water bottle as I felt my mouth suddenly dry up. I needed to find water. And I needed to find it quick. I grabbed my long bag of spears and stuffed the water bottle and the nuts and raisins inside, but made sure I pulled out one of my spears just incase I met any tributes along the way. That's when I remembered my alliances. Where were they? Did they all make it? Where they looking for me now? So many questions ran through my head. But right now my main focus was water. If I didn't get it soon, I would be dead before the real games even started. I set off in search of water, looking high and low for any small oasis's but I was unsuccessful. Everywhere just looked the same, I felt as though I was walking round in circles. No water anywhere to be found. 'Im going to die out here for sure' I thought. Hours went by and still no sign of water. My head started to hurt and I couldn't think straight. I started to see mirages and dive for the imaginary water. I took out a dried raisin and tried sucking out what little juice there was, but it didn't help. Suddenly my hurting head started to throb violently and made me dizzy. And that's when I collapsed, falling unconscious in the process.