Eleven

The Games

   When I wake up, I look around. Then I remember. I'm in the Capitol, about to participate in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games! Today is the Hunger Games! I get changed, and I walk out of my room. I am so dazed at the prospect of the Games being today and the possibility of me dying, I don't pay attention to anything until Blaze and I are on the Capitol hovercraft, getting something injected in our arms. "It's a tracker," the lady explains. "Hold still." 

  Afterwards, I am given my clothes for the games. It consists of a heavy jacket that you can take apart and turns in to two jackets, one soft and one coarse with a whole lot of pockets. I zip them together and it becomes the heavy jacket. There's also thick sweatpants and a cotton shirt that is gray.  I put them on and a voice says the games are starting at ten and now it's nine forty-five. I can't help but think, Why does everything start at ten? I decide I can wait longer, since I have fifteen minutes left.  My heart is beating fast and my palms are sweating. I calm myself by taking deep breaths and telling myself that I've got Cypress and she will help me. Rue, think Rue. You did this for her, I tell myself. "One minute," says the voice. I step into the plate and it begins to rise.

   The arena is by a large, slow river with rocky shores and a forest full of tall green trees. The Cornucopia is standing on a mini peninsula with rocks all over. One glance at the river and I think, water won't be a problem.  I look a few plates over, and see Cypress. She looks at me and gives me a look that says, just grab the stuff, and go. Right now we have ten seconds left. I count silently in my head: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Then, I run. And so do the other tributes. We're all running, until the Careers get their hands on weapons and they're swinging them as if they were machetes and we are the grass they've got to take down. I find Cypress and together we reach the Cornucopia. "Cover me," I tell her, and bend down to grab two sacks.  We run into the forest and scramble up an especially tall tree. I hand her the sack and we stay up there for a while, to make sure the we are mainly alone. Then, I gesture up to a larger branch. We climb up and sit on the branch.

"What do you have?" I ask.

"Well, seeing as we haven't opened them, I don't know."

"Oh. Okay." We open our sacks and look inside. I've got a little army green leather purse that is attached to an adjustable belt of the same color, a coil of rope, a Swiss army knife that I don't think can be used to throw at people like I wanted, and a canteen for water.

"What's this?" I hold up the purse thing.

"That's a fanny pack. The miners in my district use those too carry their tools. I've got one too."

"Do you have any knives?"

"Yeah, three."

"Cool, can I have them?"

"I don't fight with knives anyway."

"What do you fight with?"

"Hand-to-hand combat if I have too. Otherwise I'm mainly survival."

  We gather our things and climb down the tree.

   "Let's go and kick some serious butt," I say. After a while, we run into a huge rock wall at the edge of the forest. We also note that the Careers set up camp next to the river. Typical. I hear a rustle of leaves and grass. Cypress and I look at each other and I unsheathe a knife. Two people step out, weapons drawn. One I recognize as the girl from District 10, and the other I don't. He has light brown hair with blue eyes. Not exactly my type. We are one second away from fighting, until we all hear another rustle and voices. We all say it at the same time. "Careers." And then we run. We run until we reach the rock wall and we scramble over and hide behind it, waiting for the Careers to pass.

"You guys look like you could use some help," the girl from District 10 says. She's got dirty blond hair and kind looking hazel eyes.

"So do you," I reply. There's a awkward silence.

"Well, that was awkward," The boy breaks the silence.

"We could be allies." Cypress says.

I think about it.  "If we're going to be allies, we'll have to know each other's names. Mine's Sage. I'm District Eleven."

"Cypress, District Twelve."

"Sienna, I'm from Ten."

"Rylan, Nine."

I nod. "Cool."

"I'm thirsty." Sienna says.

"We didn't fill our canteens," Rylan informs us.

"Neither did we." Cypress tells him.

I stand up. "I'll fill all of them."

  I walk away, towards the river. I keep a hand on my knife, just in case. When I get to the river, another tribute is there too. I race up a tree and peer down at him. He looks like he's from District 5. He fills up his canteen and takes a sip. A few minutes later, he's writhing on the ground, clutching his stomach. A cannon fires. He is dead. I stare, terrified. I slowly climb down to get a better look at the water. It's slightly brown, with tiny leaves floating around. But that's not all. There's tiny little ivory colored worms squirming around in the water. That's why, I think. That's why they put that river there. If it wasn't poisoned, it would be too easy.

Author's note: The picture on the side is Rylan. =D

Copyright © 2012 anniema3