The 100th Annual Hunger Games

Chapter 9

As the dawn arrives I continue walking. I only heard one cannon during the night. I reach a clearing in the woods and skirt past it after seeing some odd looking bugs in the grass that I don't want to associate with.

After a while I find myself walking back, returning once again to the Cornucopia, like a homesick bird. Another cannon goes off when I reach the Cornucopia, and I realise I am just in time to see a young Careers death. One of the older girls, about my age, attacks him for no apparent reason and cuts his throat. I clap my hand over my mouth to hide my gasp. Seeing a person act so heartlessly makes me feel sick and I struggle to hold down my measly chicken breakfast.

Once the hovercraft has taken the body away, the Careers desert completely and I hear them shouting about the lake and some ‘easy pickings’. The girl showed no remorse whatsoever for killing the boy.

I wait at least ten minutes to be sure the coast is clear and then sneak out. I am much faster this time, but just as quiet. I find a first aid kit and decide to keep it, but grab a load of spears to be dumped. I grab as many blades and first aid kits as I can carry and hide them under the bushes with my bags. I then return and get some left over blades.

Even though the Careers haven’t returned, I quickly carry all of my stuff to the water fall and hide it in the tree thicket. I go through the first aid kits. Bandages, stomach pills, a syringe, some dissolvable stitches, gauze and alcohol swabs in each. I put them all into two first aid kits instead of the four I got. Suddenly, three cannons go off in quick succession. The Careers must have reached the lake.

I decide not to send the blades away this time. I bury them instead. I follow the bank a few feet and climb into the water where I push apart the silt and clay easily. I bury the blades there, where I will remember them and no-one else can find them.

I get some water and go through the bags again. I throw the chicken downstream as it is too old. I refuse to die in the arena from something as stupid as food poisoning. I see a rabbit near the thicket and throw a knife that slices its head off in one clean cut.

Out of the blue I hear people near the trees. I quickly hide the bags under some wild bushes and crawl in after them. And just in time, too. Two girls and three boys climb into the stream and start laughing.

“Did you see the way the little boy wet himself?” One of the girls guffaws, and I realise they are joking about what must have just happened at the lake.

I learn that they killed the three tributes by jumping out of the bushes and stabbing them until they stopped breathing. They continue to make sadistic jokes about who they killed but I blot them out and concentrate on being quiet, and not puking. Time passes very slowly, but eventually they get bored and return to the Cornucopia. What a surprise they will get when they reach it.

I get out from under the bush and curl up by the thicket. I stare at my reflection in the stream bubbling past me. How must Alexia have felt in this situation? Even though there is a difference between twenty-three and seventy-one opponents, she was still in the same boat as me. Was she confident she would win, or was she scared of losing? Did she think about home and her family, or did she just concentrate on the arena? I’ll never know.

Night comes and the anthem plays. Only twenty-eight remain in the arena out of seventy-two. I could make it out alive if I keep up what I'm doing.

An hour or so after the anthem I hear the screaming and sit up. It’s a long way away, but is still unnerving. A cannon booms and I hear more terrified screams. That's when I realise that I am missing a bloodbath.

Over the next hour I hide underneath the bushes and listen to the screams. I am absolutely petrified and I feel really vulnerable, even though I know the bloodbath is far away. I’ve already heard four cannons. The Careers must be having a killing party. I gulp down some water but fear continues to shock me and I curl up in a ball and try not to scream.

It feels like morning will never come but eventually it does. I am relieved when the light breaks through the bushes leaves, but I am still shaken. I remain under the bush and eat and drink until I feel strong enough to run if I need to. But I can’t stop reliving the night . Seven cannons burst over the course of an hour or two. I can still hear the screams of terror, feel the fear in my bones...

After the sun reaches high enough in the sky that it provides heat, I drag myself from under the bush and force myself to eat, drink and move. I try to forget what happened but it doesn’t work so I just concentrate on running.

I run for miles, just moving as much as I can. Haunted by last night, I run until the sun begins to set and then I find some bushes to sleep under near a pond.

The anthem plays as I start to catch my breath and the sky shows eight faces, including one that died during the day while I ran. Roslyn isn’t there thankfully, and I feel relieved. I remind myself that she is not my ally and whether she lives or dies shouldn't affect me but I just can't help it. I try my best to sleep.