The Arena

Chapter 7

I woke to the sounds of rushing water. I rolled over to find that I was beside myself, Laim had left already. His clothes and pack were both gone. I got up quickly from my spot and got dressed. I knew that he had to of had a good reason for ditching me. I mean we wanted to be at the end of this together didn't we. Just the two of us. In minutes I am dressed and ready to go. Only I have no idea what to do. I am unsure if I have anyone on my side in here, maybe Darius really was trying to protect me, maybe Laim was the one who wanted to trick me.

Just as I am about to loose it, I hear deadly screams. But not ones of someone dying, no this was much worse, this person sounded as though they were being torn in pieces alive. I grabbed my bow and pack and sprang into action, I found myself running towards the horrifying screaming rather than away from it. Just as I reached a clearing I saw a young girl being held by two Runners as they were slowly tearing her limb from limb. I was paralyzed by fear. I myself had never seen Runners, in my village we only hear stories of their cruel ways of keeping order, this was enough to make entire villages never step out of line with the Republic.

Finally I gather myself and take aim at one of them and let my arrow go. It hits him right in the heart, his partner now aware that there is another tribute close by that needs to be killed drops the now mutilated and helpless moaning girl to the ground with a sickening sort of thud. He begins to smell the ground for me and I know that I only have moments to get positioned and take aim before he finds me. I quickly grab my bow and fire, hitting him in the eye. I quickly grab another arrow and aim it at his temple and fire. As soon as he hits the ground I am on him recovering my arrows and the one that is protruding out of his partners chest. I see that the first Runner had a small device on his wrist and that it seemed to have moving dots on it in two colors, they were tracking us, I could see that there looked to be 8 Runners in total and from what I could tell the only ones who had been killed were the two I had just taken out.

I turned my attention to the girl laying on the ground. She was still alive and in a lot of pain. I looked her in the eyes and motioned for my knife, killing her would be the humane thing to do. She was in pain and for all that I could tell she was going to die slowly and painfully if I just left her, so kneeling down next to her, I kissed her forehead and told her I was sorry and thrust the blade into her. After a few seconds I heard the cannon and saw her face in the sky.

Gathering her things I surveyed my surroundings once more and left quickly only this time in the opposite direction of the green blinking dots. One by one tributes began to fall, I saw faces flash on the screen and the air was filled with the sound of screams the smell of blood, there were six of us left. The other half of the tributes had been taken in a matter of hours. But I knew that their killings were not quick and simple, but they were long and terrifying. I could only imagine the other tributes begging for death in the arms of a Runner and them just looking down at the poor sap with a sick twisted smile on their face.

In all of the deaths I had yet to see Darius' or Mags' face and luckily Laim had not been one of the six to die. I looked at the device that I had taken off of the Runner, It seemed that the Runners numbers had gotten knocked down to five. This was of some hope, because I would rather a fellow tribute catch me and kill me than a Runner. From the looks of it they were spreading out, no longer working in twos to try and kill off the tributes. I decided that I needed to make my move and do what I could to kill off the last of them, this would be an easy task. The first two I had encountered earlier in the day had gone down with little resistance and I would rather give my position away doing something like this than waiting for more of them to be let in the arena.

I was running at a pace that I did not know I could run, the trees and bushes became a blur. I came up on one Runner and without so much of a thought pulled an arrow and shot at him. It hit him in the arm and although he was down he was not dead, I ran towards him my knife in my hand in in one swift movement I slit his throat and then quickly pulled my arrow from his body getting ready to face the next Runner that I saw.

To the left of me I heard a noise and suddenly was on the ground a Runner on top of me trying to bite at my face. Trying to keep him at a distance and reach for my knife was challenging all I needed was another Runner to show up and then my life would be ended. I tried reaching for my holster that housed my knife but I found myself not wanting to let go of the hold I had on the Runner. Knowing that if I let go I would surly die, I tried in my mind to come up with a plan B. Seeing no other option I let go of my hold and quickly reached for my knife, I made a swishing motion and caught him in the throat but not before he had bitten me and taken a chunk of my shoulder in his mouth.

I found the world around me growing dark and I knew that if I didn't seek shelter that I would die if not by a tribute then by a Runner himself. But I had lost all control of the ability to move my legs and though in my head I was screaming at them to move they could not. Just as I was standing up I saw everything go black and felt myself falling to the ground. I only remember being caught the sound of a mans voice telling me that it was going to be okay. I don't know why but I chose to trust him, either because I knew either way I was going to die, or because he would genuinely take care of me. But I fell unconscious in the arms that were carrying me away.