104: The Games (A Hunger Games Story)

Chapter Nine

Here it is. The day where the games begin. Me and Clo walk to the hovercraft, holding hands, amid the screaming crowds on either side, Peacekeepers surrounding us to make sure everything goes well. As well as it can go, with us fighting to the death in under a hour. An Avox walks up beside me and gives me a handwritten note.

Dear Rowan and Clo,

These are the tokens for your district. I received them in the mail during your interviews. They are two rings, one made out of pine and one walnut, with a metal leaf embedded into them. I hope you like them. I am sorry, but I will not be joining you on the hovercraft, as I am going to be helping Johanna in the Control Room, to try and keep you in the running. I still have faith in you, so go burn up that field.

I unfurl the satchel that the Avox gives to me, and inside are two beautiful rings, one made out of pine wood and a silver leaf, one made of of walnut and a gold leaf. I slip on the pine ring, and hand the note and her ring to Clo, as we continue walking towards the hovercraft.

We get up into the hovercraft and strap ourselves in, and then I look at Clo. "This is it," Clo says quietly. "Yeah," I say. I see a tear tracing its path down her cheek. I wipe it away gently, and squeeze her hand. "It's going to be okay." I say, realizing that it is not, ever, going to be okay. Because only one of us can make it out alive. But instead, I try to calm her down by telling her my plan. "You run, you hide, I attack, I follow." I say, in quick, short sentences. We've gone over our plan a million and one times, but I seem to forget those as the hovercraft rises, now with every tribute on board. I don't want to lose hope. I will not lose hope. I will bring my sister home, no matter what it takes. The ride to the arena takes about 50 minutes, leaving us with 10 minutes below the arena. Candy, Clo's stylist, gives me and Clo some words of advice, before she leads Clo off into her tunnel. I grab some food, and at 9:54, I walk down my tunnel. Inside there is a room with a plastic tube, and my outfit for the games. I quickly change into the skin tight black shirt, beige army jacket, and utility pants with lots of pockets. All in all, a pretty standard uniform for the games.

I've seen this before, all I have to do is walk into the tube. And that is what I do. As soon as I walk in, the pedestal begins to rise, and I hear a computerized voice counting down from 60. 59, 58, 57, 56, and by 55 I can see the arena. The arena looks like a wooded forest as far as I can see, with a couple of rivers running through it. By 40 every tribute is up on the pedestals, and I can see Clo across from me positioned to run away from the bloodbath. But then another tribute gets my attention. It's that fat boy from three, what's his name? Albert. He's preparing to jump off. Does'nt he know? Does'nt he know that he'll be killing himself? Apparently he does. He jumps, and the landmines explode. Shrapnel flies everywhere, and one nearly hits me, but I duck just in time.

The remaining twenty three of us are still recovering from the shock wave when the gong sounds. "Ladies and Gentlemen, let the 104th Hunger Games begin!" says Jacob Torbjornsen, the announcer for the games. What an annoying voice. And then we all spring into action. Clo runs, and she grabs a blue and black backpack. She runs straight to the south,I take a mental note of that, as I will have to track her down later. But I need to focus on not dying, for now. I see a belt, with 4 daggers attached to it, and I realize that is my first target. I grab the daggers, and quickly whip one out, and out of the corner of my eye I see the first kill of the bloodbath, the girl from District 1 spearing the boy from District 12 in the chest. But in the split second that my attention got diverted, I see the boy from District 6 bearing down on me with a club.

I throw my dagger, but since I am off balance, it only hits his hip. He goes down, screaming in pain. Seconds later, the girl from district 4, Courtney, runs up and slits his throat. I am in a bit of a lapse in the action for now, so I take the time to grab two backpacks and put my knife-belt on. In the time that that takes, both of the tributes from 8 are killed by the boy from District 1, one slammed against the steel cornucopia after picking up a bow and arrow, and the other one found a rusty axe in her chest. Then I'm up again as the girl from District 12 comes at me with a grenade. That I'd like to avoid, so I throw my knife at her, but it wobbles and starts to fall, magically, into her explosive. Short trigger on those things. Kaboom. 

Out of the corner of my eye the boy from 5 gets slashed to pieces by the boy from 2 and the girl from 9 comes up behind me with a sword. I dodge out of the way, but the tip still manages to skin my collarbone, and I realize that she could be a challenge, but while I take the time to think she manages to grab one of my packs and run while I dodge an arrow shot by the girl from 4. I chase after her and her superior weight slows her down, and my momentum sends me crashing into her. I take a piece of wood from the debris of Albert's suicide and slam it into her skull over and over, and over again. She falls limp, and I run off.

I've had enough of this. I grab a slingshot for Clover and regain my backpack from the corpse of the girl I killed, and then make a beeline for the trees. I don't want to be around there when the Careers take stock of who's left, and start hunting.