The 73rd (A Hunger Games FanFiction)

Chapter 2

I was lying awake in my sleeping bag, still breathing clumsily and feeling light-headed because of the fumes, but at least we had found somewhere to make camp. Last night we had looked through our packs. It turned out that I had picked up a pretty useful one, as it contained some hardy leather gloves, a frozen fillet of breaded fish, a litre bottle of water and a sleeping bag. However, Talea had not been so lucky, as whilst she had also got a sleeping bag, she had a packet of biscuits, a small rope and an empty bottle of water. When we had found the rope and the empty bottle, I was boiled with rage at the Gamemakers. They were patronizing us by giving a useless plastic bottle and a piece of rope the length of my arm up to the elbow. At first we had thought of using it as a belt and hooking things onto it so that we could carry our supplies on the move whilst having a spare hand, but the items would just fall off, we discovered.

We had only eaten a cracker and a bite of fish each, accompanied by a sip of water, last night, so I was feeling a little dizzy along with nausea from the fumes. I was tossing and turning, unable to let sleep drift its misty waves over me. Talea was sound asleep, occasionally moaning, but I was wide awake, too scared of the threat of the Careers. They would surely be prowling the interior of the volcano at this very moment, looking for more helpless victims. The Gamemakers must have been on their side as they had dimmed the fiery glow of the lava and embers for the night.

I slowly got up, reaching my legs out of my sleeping bag and trying to be as quiet as possible as I didn't want to startle Talea out of her sleep. She had earned it. I half-heartedly promised her silently that I would be back before she woke up.

If I was still alive, that is.

I slithered out of the smooth, cushioned fabric and slowly got to my feet. I gingerly made my way over burning coals into the next cavern. It was huge and long, making me wonder whether this was the main arena. I spotted a perfect hiding spot, behind a ledge of rock with a peep-hole to look out from. My ankle was stinging, but the gash was a little better. Talea had helped last night to stop then flow of bleeding by tearing off a strip of my shirt and binding it tightly around my ankle to make a tourniquet.

I crouched down as low as I could go and lay in wait for the Careers. It was unlikely that they would find our camp, as it was well hidden and the Careers weren't very smart on principle. This time I would be able to see them through my peep-hole.

Sure enough, I heard steady footsteps coming towards me once again. A large boy with a spear emerged first, followed by a small, wiry blonde girl and a lanky ginger boy. The first boy and girl must be the one I heard the day before, I realised, but I hadn't seen the ginger buy before.

Also, I was that there were only three of them. Two of them must have been killed,  but with this monster of an arena that was an unsurprising fact.

The large, brutal-looking boy stepped forward.

"Where do you think that blasted Talea's gone?" he asked his comrades. He had a harsh voice, somewhere between gruff and high-pitched. He was storming with rage, which I suppose I could relate to.

"She can't be far away," said the lanky ginger boy, a touch submissively. He had no features or characteristics that immediately stood out to me, and he didn't look as tough or power-hungry as the others, but I guessed that even he could snap a neck as quickly as breathing.

"I'm going to be the one to kill her, and nobody will stop me," the large boy threatened. I had just noticed the wild gleam in his eyes; it was almost inhuman, the rage and bloodthirstiness behind his human face.

The ginger boy nodded, agreeing, but the small blonde girl stayed silent. She started to walk slowly and ominously forward. A sly smile played on her lips.

"There's somebody hiding," she teased playfully in a singsong voice. Her eyes were already scanning the rocks around her, and before I had time to duck down and remove my eye from the hole, her eyes had flickered upwards to meet mine.

Before I knew it, her knife was at my throat.

She slowly brought me round to face her comrades, relishing the triumph of her knife at my throat.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" she whispered happily to me.

The boys noticed that she had caught me and both smiled  with satisfaction.

"I see we have a new companion," smirked the large boy. He came round to touch my face. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

"Robus," hissed the girl. "You do remember that this is the Hunger Games, where we kill so that we can win?"

"I know," protested Robus. "But we're doing so well, I think we've got enough time to have some fun with her before we kill her."

"No, we haven't," said the girl staunchly. Even though she was the smallest, she might well have been the toughest.

"Jeez, Summer!" said the ginger boy exasperatedly.

"But," continued Summer. "She is allied with Talea."

At these words, the red gleam appeared in Robus' eyes once again. He thrust his face forwards to mine.

"Where is Talea?" he barked at me.

I was utterly spooked at how the girl, Summer, had known I was teamed up with Talea, and how she had also figured out where I was hiding.

"It's all right, Robus," said Summer calmly. "I've got a knife at her throat so she's covered. We'll make her tell us where Talea is. But don't worry. You can still kill Talea. I'll kill this girl."

She raised a second knife and looked at me, gradually bringing it closer to my face.

Suddenly, Talea burst into the cavern. She looked disarrayed - her hair had taken a life of its own and her eyes were wild and desperate.

When she saw Robus standing right in front of her, she froze where she was standing.

Robus' eyes lit up, and started to gleam hungrily. He whipped his sword out of its sheath and held it next to her face, examining the two.

Talea exchanged a last, desperate glance with me, and we both clicked for the first and final time.

At exactly the same moment, we struck. With the element of surprise on my side, I whipped around and threw Summer's own knife at her, and with a backward glance at Talea grabbing Robus' sword and sticking it into him, I ran.

I ran far and fast, blindly, with no idea of where I was going but with one fact stuck in my head - I had to get away from the Careers. I collapsed onto the steaming floor in some faraway cavern, holding my sides after running so fast. It was the worst thing I had ever done, leaving Talea there. I never wanted to, but she wanted me to. I could see it in her eyes. Either I die or both of us die, I could hear her saying. The words were still ringing in my head.

It was still possible that she had got away, but very unlikely. Robus was not the sort of opponent that you could escape from.

Sure enough, the screams began to reach me. Robus must have been killing her real slow. I was worried at first that I was too exposed where I was lying, but I expected that everybody else would be like me - trying to get to sleep and last the night. I was sure that the Gamemakers wouldn't stir up trouble for anyone tonight. For once, they could sit back and watch the show. I almost cried thinking of Talea, but I knew that that would just detract sponsors and I could do with as many sponsors as possible.

For now, I curled up and tried to get back to sleep, trying to block out the bloodcurdling screams that were crushing my very soul.