Dimensional {Harry Potter/Hunger Games}

Chapter 2 (Hunger Games)

Once she finally felt like she was a perfectly safe distance from everyone else, she stopped and examined what she had managed to grab. Zipping open the biggest pocket, she was relieved to find that she had scored a full body snowsuit, a space blanket and some dried food. In the second pocket, there was a leather strap that was connected to the handle of a small shovel. Liv knew she could use the knife that had been so kindly thrown at her to cut some slits and make a pair of eye protectors out of the strap. She knew the sun's rays were going to be brutal on the eyes since they were reflected so easily by the snow.

    After getting situated with her new gear, Liv continued to be on the move until the sun finally began to sink beneath the clear horizon, turning the fallen snow beautiful shades of pinks and oranges. Getting out her shovel, she dug herself a hole in the snow, just big enough for her to fit in, and settled down for the night. She was just about to put some more snow over the top when the sound of an anthem sounded through the arena. She looked to the sky to see the faces of those tributes that had died on day one. Although Liv had no connection to any of the people she saw, it saddened her to know that they had died for no reason. She was hit even harder once she saw that the boy that had come from District 10 with her had been one of the unlucky to be killed. He looked to have been about 14, one of the youngest in the games this year, and Liv felt almost a pang of anger towards everyone who had anything to do with the games. Pulling her hood even farther over her head and face, Liv fell asleep during her first night in the frozen arena with a heavy and rebellious heart.

    During the night, Liv had awoken to the sound of violent winds screaming over her head and the occasional burst of bitter, frozen air that would enter her hole. Along with the elements, she would also hear the sound of a cannon as many more tributes died of hypothermia. Liv was warm (relatively speaking) because of her space blanket and the ice reflecting her body heat. Although she was better off than many of the others, she promised herself that she would build herself a proper igloo the next day in order to keep her spirits up.

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    Sunlight entered Liv's temporary shelter below the snow, waking her from the light sleep she had been in and out of through the violent night. She dug her way out of the couple feet of snow that had fallen overnight and took in the warmth of the rising sun. Just as she was finally beginning to feel a bit more at peace in the arena, a cannon sounded, marking the death of another tribute. Liv could only think that the people of the Capitol (who were the only ones sick enough to think of the Hunger Games as entertainment) were getting bored of the cold-induced deaths. She was almost sure that no one in their right mind would truly travel around the dangerous arena in search of their next kill when their main focus should actually be on keeping their own body functioning for as long as possible. The conditions were rough for anyone, no matter what district they belonged to, it was quite possible for everyone to freeze to death before any killing actually occurred. With these thoughts, Liv had come up with her strategy for coming out of the 68th Hunger Games alive. It was simple: hold out longer than everyone else...survive.

As the day wore on, more cannons sounded and Liv's mind concluded that these were probably going to be the shortest games to ever take place. She predicted that over half the tributes were either going to starve or go hypothermic and that all of them were going to have some case of frostbite. Liv could already begin to feel it in her fingers and toes as they slowly froze through the gloves of her white snowsuit and black fleece lined boots. She found that she was thankful that whoever designed the tributes outfits had been kind enough to give them decent footwear. The boots were pretty warm, waterproof and allowed for decent enough traction on the wet, slippery ice and snow. The best part of it all was the socks; they were thick and woven of natural wool, probably from the coats of the sheep of District 10.  They reminded Liv of the home she knew she had in this dimension, where she milked cows as her job and lived in a small shack on the outskirts of the district. She had no family, nor did she know how she had lost them, but she knew that if she managed to pull through and win these games, she would give the people of District 10 a greater chance to survive.

The winters were brutal, especially since 10 was one of the poorer districts. Even though they supplied the Capitol with plenty of meat, beef, chicken, pork, veal—you name it, the people still starved. If she won, everyone would be given maybe five times the normal rations and even be given some of the special items that came with the winnings. Liv smiled at the thought of all the children celebrating with their families in the streets and their squeals of excitement and joy as they got the sweet taste of candy for the first time. Those thoughts gave Liv some temporary strength as she continued to cut out blocks of hardened snow for her igloo, but that strength weaned away once her mind wondered to how she was going to win. Her first challenge was going to be simply surviving the barren tundra and it's below zero temperatures and the second, most sickening challenge was how she would react to facing off with another tribute. Liv didn't want to kill anyone, the mere thought of it made her feel nauseous. Her mind was suddenly filled with images of her stabbing someone and watching the life flow out of them, just like their blood as it stained the pure white snow. She shuddered at the disturbing thought and she silently prayed that she would never be faced with a situation like that.

    The sun was setting once more and Liv was finally finished with her shelter. She didn't dare try and make a fire, fearing the smoke would draw her competitors straight to her, so instead she closed the opening that sat in the center of her igloo's ceiling. To be completely honest, Liv had expected to have been driven out of her camping spot by acid rain sent by the gamemakers by now, but it was as if they were treating her as if she didn't exist.