The Ninth Hunger Games

Chapter Three

I was awoken by a bell ringing out in the hallway. I stretched underneath my covers, wondering where I was for a moment. Then it hit me and I froze. Today was the day. Today was the day. The day on which I more than likely died.

It's not a dream. Oh, please no. Let me wake up. Please, let me wake up. I shut my eyes tight and willed myself to wake up in the real world. When I opened my eyes again, I was still in the green room. Still in the games.

I rose slowly to find a girl standing in the doorway. She was holding a bundle of clothes. She laid the clothes out on the bed. "The person's clothes match the color of their bag. So, in your case, sky blue."

I looked at the clothes. A sky blue t-shirt with a dark blue seven on it, a long sleeved, dark blue shirt, and a pair of jeans. "Can you go outside?" I asked her. "So I can change."

The girl smiled and stepped into the hall. I tugged on the long sleeved shirt and then the short sleeved one. I pulled the jeans on and stepped out into the hall. "Done," I stretched my arms out and let her look at me.

She smiled at me. "Very good. There's a jacket in your bag. It's dark blue. Follow me," she started walking.

Matching her brisk pace I started to ask questions. "So, are we being bet on? Are there going to be lots of weapons? What all is in the cornucopia?"

"Yes, bets are being placed on you." She started. "I'm not sure about the weapon status, and popular items in the cornucopia are: food, medicine, clothes, weapons...the usual stuff," she said. We finished the walk to a door with "Paris Mallory' written across the front. She opened the door for me and I walked in. It was a small room. Three paces in any direction. A thick door stands directly across from the one I entered.

"So," I said, "I go through that door when they say, walk straight to my spot, and stand there for sixty seconds. Right?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Good luck." She looked around nervously. "Are you scared?"

I blinked at her before nodding. "Yes, I am." I answered truthfully.

She nodded. "I always ask my assigned person that. Good luck, Paris. You'll need it," and with that she shut the door and forever changed my life.

Standing in that room was the most nerve wracking thing I had ever done. I tried to get out the door, but it was locked tight. No escaping tributes this time around, I thought. I put my hands in my pockets and felt a piece of paper. The scoring sheet! I realized. The girl who had led me here was very nice.

I stuck the sheet back in my pocket and paced around some more. When are they going to call us? I thought miserably.

Then, over the intercom, "Attention. Attention. The games will begin in three minutes. That is all."

I sighed with relief. I was almost out of here! I pulled the score sheet back out and looked at it again. I had an eight, Nemo had a ten, Anikan had a nine, Catalina had a nine, Nickolas had a nine. Those were the people I needed to watch out for.

The intercom crackled back to life. "Attention. You will walk out of your door on my mark. You will walk straight forward to a round disk in the ground. You will then stand on that disk for sixty seconds. When you hear the cannon, the games may begin. Thank you." The intercom died and I went and stood in front of my door.

"Three, two, one, now." The intercom said. I swung my door open and walked in a straight line to my round disk. Everyone around me did the same.

Now is the best time to size up your opponents, I told myself, so I looked around. Everyone was wearing clothes the same color as their bags. Rosebud looked cold. Or scared. She's always cold...

"Thirty seconds."

I looked at the cornucopia. My bag was positioned directly in front of me. I would reach it with ease.

"Ten, nine, eight,"

I got prepared to run.

"Seven, six, five,"

I took one last look around my fellow competitors. Catalina caught my eye and gave me a wicked smile. I still felt really uncomfortable around her.

"Four...Three...Two..." A cannon sounded.

Catalina was first at the cornucopia. I was right: she was fast. She grabbed her bag and ran. As she went past him, Nemo threw a rock at her. It hit her ankle, but she kept going. Nemo and Nickolas were the second ones there. They grabbed their bags and looked through them. Anikan crept up behind them to grab a sword and her bag before running off to the horse field. Marlee, Emma, and Rosebud all grabbed their bags and some weapons before running to the barn. Giovanna dashed into the cornucopia; she probably wouldn't get out of there alive because Nemo was fighting Morgan. I grabbed my bag, a sword, and a dagger before running out.

"Look, Nemo!" I heard Morgan's voice call. "We can get her first! She'll be our first kill!"

"No!" Nemo's voice sounded rough. "Emma, Rosebud, and Marlee will team up. Catalina and Anikan will team up. That leaves Paris all alone. We need a plan before doing anything else, Morgan."

I kept running.

I ran into the horse field and went beside the lake. There was a small dip in the ground, so I hid there. I caught my breath and looked at everything in my bag. A first aid kit, a loaf of bread, a camp stove, matches, a bedroll, and a water bottle. I spread the bedroll out on the ground. I'll stay here for tonight. I decided. I set up the camp stove and then, as well as my muscles would allow, relaxed. I was pretty safe here.

I looked up out of the dip to see what was happening. Across the lake in a sunny area was Anikan. She sat in the middle of a ring of sticks, roughly ten feet in every direction. Shut up, math! I screamed at myself. I hated it when I did math in my head. Giovanna crept up and sat just outside the ring of sticks. How is a ring of sticks protecting her? I asked myself.

"Here," Anikan said. She tapped something on her device. That must be her district token. Lucky. "Come on in."

Giovanna cautiously stepped through the ring of sticks. Anikan tapped her device again, but nothing I could see changed.

I went back down into my hollow. A large pine tree gave umbrage. I sniffed in the familiar scent. Ah, pine. I got the feeling I would be talking to myself a lot. I lay down on my bedroll and stared up at the tree. It was so beautiful.

"Over here maybe?" I heard a voice ask. Marlee, I thought, drawing my sword. The girls would get it if they came over here.

"Yeah," Emma said. "By the lake there." I saw her point to a random spot by the lake. The little group of three walked over to it and spread out their bedrolls and camp stoves and what not.

I sighed and sat on my own bedroll. I was bothered by the fact that most everyone had decided to come here, to the lake. What if the boys came? Only Anikan a and Giovanna would be protected. I frowned and nervously ate a piece of bread. We would all die anyway, but I was kind of wanting to die later.

"I wonder where everyone else is?" Emma asked.

"Anikan and Giovanna are there," said Rosebud. "We saw Catalina go to the barn, and the boys are somewhere in that field."

The rest of the day was spent in uneventful silence.