The Capitol Games

Chapter 11

It's  been seven days since the start of my journey through the Capitol Games. We still have a good amount of food, thanks to some surprising sponsor gifts.

I guess the people wanted to watch this kind of thing. Me and Sam's relationship, Crimson's past, the fact that this is going to end horrifically since two or more of us have to die.

The sponsor gifts started showing up a couple of days after we allied with Crimson. Me and Sam snuggled up against each other one night. That earned a gift. Another night, Crimson amd I had a nice talk about our lives some more.

It's all been food so far, except for one package, which held a compass. How that would come in handy, I don't know, but I held onto it just in case.

Strangely, some of the sponsor gifts have been from Sara, of all people. I thought she hated me (in the way everyone does, of course.) But I guess not, because she's actually the one who sent me the compass and a bit of food.

It's now the evening of the first full week in the arena. All together, 15 cannons have gone off, meaning there are still 6 people left to take out, not including our alliance.

"Hey guys," I said one night. "We should try to find other people to take out. We're really close to surviving to the end."

Crimson and Sam shoot each other a glance. "I don't know. We don't want to get ourselves killed, do we?"

"Neither do I, Sam, but we have to do something."

We all knew we had to do something. So now I see how the compass would come in handy.

The next day, we packed our things up and hid our spare weapons. We wandered around a while, carefully sneaking into each new area, quiet and stealthy.

We heard the first group before we saw them.

They had created a fire, a roaring sight, and there were several people there too.

"All but 9 people are dead. We can beat that Snow group and the other people," one person said, sounding male.

"We have to be careful though. The Snow alliance seems powerful. But to be honest, I would've thought someone else would have killed Scarlett and Crimson by now."

We sneak a peek at the speakers. Four people are gathered around a fire, all sipping from water bottles.

Suddenly, everyone jumps as screams sound from the distance, and then two cannons go off.

"Make that seven people who haven't died," the male voice said again, and everyone clinked water bottles. Then they kept chatting, completely  unaware of us.

I silently motion to Sam and Crimson. 3, 2, 1, Go!

We leap out of our hididng spot and fire our weapons. Umfortunately, the other group is ready too, and it turns into an even fight.

I am careful to dodge most attacks, smoothly avoiding most blows to me. Two people are attacking me, and I take out one by sliding out of the way of his charge, making him ram into a tree. I then stab his back with my spear.

BOOM!

The other person I'm fighting is an older girl than myself. She snarls at me and thrusts her weapon, a long knife, into my arm. I gasp from the sudden pain and yank away from her, clutching my arm.

I quickly glance over at Sam and Crimson. They're fighting bravely, but I can see the exhaustion in their eyes. This is going to be harder than we thought.

Someone lets out a bone-chilling scream. I see my attacker howling in pain. She's tripped over something and unluckily stumbled upon a nest of bees or something.

I watch in disgust as the bees (or giant hornets/yellow jackets, I should say) attack her, stinging and biting. But I have a feeling they do more than sting.

The girl finally falls to the ground, covered in large lumps that are turning purple. I back away, but there's no need. The insects retreat back to their nest right as her cannon goes off.

I cautiously tiptoe around theit home as I move to the other fights going on, not wantong to also be a victim of the painful poison. Crimson seems to be doing well, but Sam is in trouble. He's been wounded and is struggling against his opponent, who has him cornered.

I creep up behind the other guy and stab him ruthlessly, pulling out the spear as the cannon goes off. There are now only four kids left in the arena.

The girl who had been fighting Crimson backed off slowly, realozing her allies were gone. She slashed a branch from the tree above herslef and ran off, leaving us in a bloodied clearing with a huge bramch blocking our pursuit of her.

We didn't want to chase after her anyways. Sam looked pretty bad, so we pulled out Crimson's first aid kit and tried to fix his wounds.

"How... many... are... dead?" he asked, breathing shakily.

"Shhhhh," I whispered, stroking his hair. "Don't waste your breath. We killed three people. There's only one other person besides our trio."

"Then... if... I die... you can kill the other person, and be victors. I won't get in your way," Sam said, his eyes fluttering open and closed.

"No! Don't talk like that! You'll live, you will... I couldn't live without you."

"You might have to."

"I won't."

And then we're kissing, and it's like the world put on a fireworks display. The feeling of his lips against mine is the best feeling in the world, and I never wanted to stop.

But we had to stop, because he stopped kissing me, and his body was already cold and lifeless.

"No. Please. Please don't go."

I start sobbing into his shoulder, because the world has ended. Sam is dead.

And I can't do anything about it.