A Blooming Rose (hunger games fan-fic)

Chapter 8 (Day 1: the Bloodbath)

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 -

Rose looked around her. Weapons lay in and around the Cornucopia. Backpacks full of useful supplies, food, and medicine lay around, close to where she stood. Rose had her eyes set on one bag.

6 - 5 - 4 - 3 -

Suddenly her eyes fell on a pair of silver sais. They were meant for her; the Gamemakers had put those in for her. But they were farther away and a bit closer to the Cornucopia than she would have liked.

2 - 1

A buzzer sounded and Rose lept off the platform. Other tributes had done the same, but Rose had a small head start. Others still stood on their platforms, too stunned to move. Rose grabbed a backpack, hoping there was something good inside. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her to get to the sais. She looked to her left and saw the boy from District 5 coming after her, making her run even harder. She dove and wrapped her hands around the sais. She looked up and saw the District 5 boy about to attack her with a sword he had just picked up. Rose raised her hands and his sword landed between the prongs of her weapons. They held that stance for a moment.

Rose glanced behind District 5 and saw Loredana hurrying towards them, spear in hand. Rose smirked at the boy and pushed him off of her with her feet. The boy flew back into Loredana, who stabbed him with her spear. She helped Rose up and the two hurried off. Rose grabbed another bag, for Loredana. As they neared the woods, the saw Ash running towards them. They paused briefly to let him catch up, then dashed into the woods before anyone could follow.

Minutes later, a canon went off nine times.

Nine tributes dead, Rose thought. Fifteen of us left to kill each other.

The trio ran for an hour, without talking, without stopping, until no one could keep going.

"Let's take a break," Ash suggested.

The girls agreed and the three sat down under a large tree.

"Should we see what we have?" Loredana asked.

"It's probably a good idea," Rose said. "So we know what each other has."

Each one had a bag, Rose had given the extra bag to Loredana, and they emptied the contents on the ground. There were three water bottles, some extra food, two sleeping bags, a lighter, matches, and a medical kit, which Rose was grateful for. Weapon wise, they had Rose's sais, Loredana's spear, and Ash had axe.

"Looks like we got lucky with supplies," Loredana said. "We have enough food to last us a few days."

Rose looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky.

"Let's camp here for the night," she suggested. "We can make a shelter among those bushes and one of us can stand guard for a few hours. I can take first watch."

The other two agreed to this and they set out in making a small shelter that would protect them from any wind or rain during the night. When they had finished, it was a little after dusk. They snacked on some of their granola bars and soon, Ash and Loredana climbed into their sleeping bags. Rose stood outside with her sais in hand, ready for anything. Suddenly, the Capitol's anthem started to play. Rose looked up at the sky. Images of the tributes who had died that day flashed in the sky.

There was the female tribute from 3, meaning both tributes from 1 and 2 were still alive. Next both tributes from 5, the female from 6, the female from 7, both from 8, the boy from 10, and Jonathan. Rose stared, shocked, as his image disappeared in the sky and the anthem played once more before the logo disappeared in the sky. She lowered her head and closed her eyes.

I thought he would make it further than this.

A few hours later, Rose woke up Ash, who seemed startled.

"It's okay, Ash," she whispered. "It's alright. You're fine. You're up for watch."

Ash nodded and got out of the sleeping bag. He picked up his axe and stood under a tree. Rose climbed into his sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.