Midnight Azalea-A Story of the 34th Hunger Games

Chapter 14-Horn of Plenty

The morning starts with breakfast, screaming, nail biting, and nightmares. A glorious coupling of that and that.

Marcus relaxes me, and tells me if I'm tense I'll die very easily. We go down to a hovercraft where I have to suspend myself in a neon blue chair and wait for a graceful woman to insert a needle into our forearms.

I sit next to the girl from six and the boy from seven, Axel. He seems readier than ever with his white grin and tapping feet. The girl from six though, Nina, is not prepared. I can just see her running away and painting herself green to hide away in the bushes. If there even are any...

Rumors have been going around about what the arena will be. Some say barren desert with sandstorms and lava pits, and some say an endless ocean with small islands, with boats you have to make in order to finish off the drowning tributes on other islands. Finally, some outsider tributes say it's a thick forest, with no end, with trees ten times the height of the Tribute Center, which is pretty high, and branches that sway and scream, pulling in tributes to crush with the trunk. I agree, this tributes are creative, but that's not a very good thing.

"Your forearm," demands the woman. She readies her syringe and sticks the needle straight into my arm.

I wince in slight pain, but I over exaggerate. "What is it?" I ask as, next to me, Nina is still clutching her forearm.

"A tracker, so we can keep track of your position in the arena." She says this in the most bored way possible, halfway through the sentence moving on to the hunk next to me, who keeps no expression when the tracker is inserted. I can tell he's tough, but he's going to much to tell everybody he is, like Natiel.

Then I remember how mad I am at him.

The hovercraft announces proximity to the arena, and we are escorted out and into a tiny section of the catacombs under the arena.

My heart pumps as I am whisked away with Marcus. We walk into a small chamber where in the middle stands a clear tube and a metal plate. Marcus takes my black and grey jacket from the hanger and puts it on me, also taking out a small necklace of wood that has a crescent moon on it.

I stare at the fine carving and look him deep in the eyes, worried. "What is this for?" I say.

He shushes me, and a voice over the intercom announces the remaining sixty seconds of my life until I apparently enter this tube and rise up into the arena. I've seen this in past games, with a close up shot of a girl rising up with her boots pasted on her metal plate, holding a charm bracelet. I've also seen one instance where somebody tried to run off at fifty seconds, so excited for the Games he was blown into pieces by the mines that ensure his loyalty to the rules under his metal plate.

"Should I run in?" I ask him, scared once the voice speaks thirty seconds.

"No, it'll be a giant bloodbath," he tells me. I finally see his eyes for the first time through his thick sunglasses, but they're not there, just crevices. I don't ask. "Run and find water, but don't kill many tributes at first. Wait until you have to." He kisses my forehead for the last time.

Ten seconds.

I step into my risen tube, and he tips his hat at me. My feet are glued to the metal plate, my heart pumping so fast I feel I might pass out in here. The glass tube encloses and I can't breathe, just thick air.

I close my eyes, then I begin to rise into the air. My breathing becomes more relaxed, and my sight is blank once I let my irises see the arena.

Shallow water is up to my boots, lapping up over the worn leather. I view the black trees with no leaves sprawling around, swaying in the wind. They enclose us. All of us. All twenty-four of us where only one will win. In the distance is a tall mountain where I can barely see the peak over the low hanging golden clouds. It looks plausible that you can climb, because it's woods then good climbing,-a few steep patches but mostly green. Finally, I take a look at the tall golden horn that shimmers and sparkles a little due to the clouds covering most of the sun. It's hot out here!