The 68th Annual Hunger Games

Chapter 18

 "Hey four." Said a voice from beside me, making me jump. I threw a punch, but the body from which the voice came from threw back his head making, making me miss by centimeters.

 It was a boy from one, who was at least six foot, and looked terrifying. Another boy was running over to him, a knife in his grasp, looking ready to kill. If they wanted me dead, they would've killed me by now.

 The boy handed me a knife, and headed off back to the cornucopia, to were I followed. Hardly any of the tributes had managed to jump, and the boy from five had even thrown himself down.

 "I need to get my friend." I said, my voice sounding more worried than I intended, my breath slow from the jump as I entered the dark cornucopia, grabbing a few bags for Marine and I, and finding a rope and a few weapons, the boys from one and two doing the same.

 "Well get her then." Said two, looking more calm than he should be.

 "Why did you help me?" I asked, knowing I should really be getting to Marine, but curiosity always go the best of me.

 "We might need you later." said one, as he threw a knife at a girl from nine who'd just come into the entrance, killing her instantly. "Now go, before we change our minds."

 A few tributes had gained the courage to jump, but as I neared the edge, I saw a few bodies down below, as well as hearing the screams of a girl. My heart started to pound out of my chest, searching for Marine. I neared the edge, to where the screams seemed to be coming from, and found the girl from two hanging off the edge. I remembered how to boy from two had saved me, and pulled her over the edge. She didn't even say more than a thank you, just ran away as fast as she could.

 I searched around all the podiums, looking for Marine, my heart speeding up as thoughts of the worse brushed through my mind. Finally, I spotted someone waving on the other side of the arena, a blur of blonde hair forcing me to dash over.

 A began to tie multiple nots in the rope, into a lasso shape that I couldn't do all that well, but dremembered my father doing for when he wanted to dock the boat. It took a few attempts for me to get it out to Marine. But in the end she managed to grab it.

 "Tie it around your waist and jump!" I shouted out to her, watching her shaking hands fumble around her waist as she was instructed. 

 She jumped, and missed, just as I predicted, but just as I was about to heave her up the edge of the wall, I felt a hand attach itself to my neck, I wrapped the rope around my wrist, and snapped my head around, to see a pale, ginger girl from what must've been ten, looking at me with wide eyes, panic pulsing into my face.

 "You'll help me." She said in sharp breaths, her hands tightening around my neck. "Or you'll die."

 I nodded my head sharply, wanting her to let go,the rope pulling on my hand as I heard Marine shouting my name from below. I needed to get Marine up.

 The girl took her hands, and took a step back, her body ridged and stern, before turning around, taking guard on us both, which I was grateful for, even thought she'd just tried to kill us both. I began to heave Marine up the side of the building, which was surprisingly easy, probably due to her tiny weight,

 Once I'd pulled her over the edge, she lay on the side for a while, her entire body shaking. I handed the bags to the girl from ten, and grabbed Marine's weak body, pulling her onto my back, and pulling us both from the ground.

 I began to look around the roof of the building we where on. The tributes from one, and two had managed to get away somehow, along with others from some minor districts. There was two or three tributes still on their podium, and I felt obliged to help them, but all around the roof fights were emerging, in between dead bodies and rubbish and debrey that was already there.

 My eyes began to wander, and I couldn't see any other way off the roof other than down the side, but I couldn't take Marine down with me. I glanced at the girl from ten, and she seemed to have come across the same dilemma, and she began to pace around. It was like we weren't even there, the other tributes were too bothered fighting the ones they were currently engaged with.

 I could feel Marine shaking violently on my back, and that was the only thing I could concentrate on. I pulled her up, and headed towards the cornucopia, a knife bared in my hand, weaving in between other tributes. I must've killed at least one of them, and definitely injured two. The girl from ten was rabid, stabbing people with her knife who weren't even in the way of her.

 Once I was back in the cornucopia, my eyes went to work again. I had a hunch, but that was all. I clambered onto my hands and knees, casting Marine to one side for a second, running my hands around like mad. I was becoming more and more grateful for the girl from ten, and made a mental note to discover her name.

"Yes!" I shouted, pulling up a trap door from the floor, taking Marine and cradling her in my arms, before heading down the stairs, followed by ten.

 "How did you know?" Marine whispered to me, her hair bristling my ear as we descended down the rickety ladder, which seemed to go on for eternity.

 "Normally, the sensible tributes dart away from the cornucopia as quickly as they possibly can, but this year, they clearly wanted a bigger blood bath.. it just made sense." I replied, wondering how I did come to the conclusion in my head, putting into words not helping in the slightest.

 We arrived in a lobby, kind of room, which was covered in upturned sofas,, with the stuffing flowing out of their dirty material. The carpet was coming up in the corners, and the wallpaper was peeling off in larger chunks, graffiti covering most walls. There was one source of light in the room, which was a hole in the wall, which let in a long stream of dusty light, showing us the way to the old door.

 "We need to find a building." Said ten. "Somewhere we can shelter. You never know, there might be food."

 "Lets see what's in our bags first." I replied, deciding that the food in these buildings would be off and probably poision. I watched a rat scuttle across the dusty road in front of us, running into a nearby building. At least we won't go hungry, they'll always be rats.