Eleven

The First Signs

Author's note: Okay, so I'm going to do something a bit different this time, so bear with me here. The italics at the beginning isn't from Sage's point of view. It's in third person. Then, we switch back, and that's Sage. But she doesn't know what happened when it was italics. Think you got it?

   It is night. Everything is dark and silent. The hovercraft with the Capitol seal moves swiftly through the trees. Looking. Searching. It passes a rock wall in the arena. Behind it, five tributes are sleeping. The hovercraft moves on, until it finds a tribute, alone. It lands in a tree and two figures emerge, one carrying a sringe full of liquid and needle, the other holding a pill. They lean down, and the one holding the pill inserts it in to the tributes mouth. Then, the other inserts the needle in the tribute's arm and injects the sringe. They get up, board the hovercraft and leave. They do the same to two more tributes.

"Only three?" One whispers to his companion.

"Yes. The disease will spread quickly."

The other nods and they board their hovercraft.

>>>>Sage's P.O.V.<<<<<<<

     I wake and stretch. I didn't sleep well last night. It was, well, hard to explain. I had little dreams woven and scattered around reality, if you get what I'm saying. You probably don't. I had, well, I think it was a dream, but I had a dream that a cloud or something massive was floating over me. It was bad. I don't know why, but it was.

                                                                      >><<

  I pick at my little breakfast of dried fruit and yawn. For the tenth time today.

"Hey, are you feeling alright, Sage?"

"I'm just really tired." And to prove what I just said, I yawn. Again.

"Wait. Listen." Asher presses his finger to his lips.

We stop and listen. There's some odd noises, like retching sounds and wails. Then silence. A cannon fires.  We glance at each other. No tributes could have done that.

"I'm feeling suspicious..." Rylan says.

"I'm gonna check it out." Cypress stands up.

So in the end, we all end up marching to the scene of crime. It's rather gross. There's liquid on the ground, and I don't want to know what it is. It's definitely not juice. There's no body, seeing as the hovercraft picked it up.

   After a few minutes of poking around, we hear something. Retching, wailing, then a cannon. We glance at each other. Something's going on. Then, we get out of there as fast as we can.

We're walking back to our camp, when we notice something else. A tribute. Leaning against a tree. Clutching her stomach. Wailing. She notices us.

"Please. Please, kill me. Kill me now!" She's wailing so hard we barely understand her.

"If you say so." Rylan looks at us.

"Yes! Please!" She screams. "Wait. Have you caught it?"

"Are you sure?" It doesn't seem like any body heard the words "Have you caught it?" besides me.

"Yes!"

Asher steps forward. "Sage. Knife, please."

I gulp and hand over a knife. And just like that, he slits her throat.

"Why did you do that?" Sienna moans. "That was terrible."

"It was for her own good." Asher replies with a grim expression. A cannon fires. Today is probably the most entertaining day for the Capitol. He hands he the knife and clean it on the grass. We make our way back to the camp in silence. When we get there, we see a package from a sponsor. Sienna smiles. "What is it?"

"Who knows?" Rylan says. "Let's find out."

We open the package and  something falls out. "A flare gun." Asher stares at it.

"What do we do with it?" I ask.

"I know." Cypress takes it and sets it aside. I don't see afterwards.

My mind wanders back when the girl asked "Have you caught it?"

"Do you know what the girl meant when she said 'have you caught it?'" I ask.

"No." They answer as one.

"Well, then, what do you think?"

Everybody goes silent. Then Asher speaks up. "I think it means 'have you caught the illness?'" He gazes at us.

"Oh! I never thought about it." Sienna's eyes widen. "An illness."

"It explains everything. The noises, and the vomit." Asher says.

"But why was there an illness?" Rylan asks.

"The Capitol."

I think about it. An illness. That seems reasonable. But I still don't know how bad it's going to be.

Author's note (again): 11 tributes dead! 13 alive!

Copyright © 2012 anniema3