Wasteland - The 89th Hunger Games

The River Of Death - Day Nine

Jospeh's sighs as the sun rises over the arena, signalling the biggining of day Nine, another day of death. Both he and Skye have been feeling horrible about what they did to Helena, but now the image of something worse plagued their minds.

"We're almost there," Josephs says as the ground begins to slope upwards. He casts a glance over his shoulder to see Skye slowly trailing behind him. She was deathly pale, and had a sunken look in her eyes, one that could never be healed. He turns back to face the front, and continues up the hill. Every step causes Joseph pain, but he continues pushing forwards, the thought of water driving every step. As he climbed, he was vaguely aware of something that sounded like screaming and yelling, but he ignored it. All he could think about was water. When he finally reaches the top of the hill, he sees nothing but the bright blue lake, his mind seems to skip over the tributes that were in an all out fight on the lakes edge, and he begins to walk down the hill. Skye follows him, her eyes locked onto the lake as Josephe's were, the two of them walked in a zombie like trance, it wasn't until they heard running footsteps did they snap out of it. The pair spin around to see Zeke from District Three creeping up on his District Partner, Marge, only to have her spin around and barley miss the boy's knee with the bone that she wield in her hand. Skye and Joseph watch in horror as the two tributes spar, Joseph's eyes drift to where Megan stands behind them, her dagger in hand. What happened next was a blur, Megan stabs the knife into Marges arm, and then Marge once more pins Megan to the ground. The next part made Josephs stomach churn. He couldn't tear his eyes away as Zeke swung the hammer, hitting Marge in the side of the head with a loud crack, blood spraying everywhere. He then hit the girls head again, and he was vaguely aware of Skye throwing up over herself beside him. Joseph didn't wait for the two tributes to turn around, he just grabbed Skye's hand, and ran.

Joseph glances over to where Skye lays, and watches her face twist into one of pain and terror. Another Nightmare. Each night, the two of them were bombarded by horrible nightmares, most of Josephs consisted on watching him self kill people, something he wouldn't do for fun. The nightmare never portrays it that way. The image of Marge's crushed skull flashes through Josephs mind once more, and he resists the urge to scream. The image reminded him of something, a tape of the Seventy-Eighth Hunger Games, one that he came across by mistake. He wished he had never found it, he only watched a couple of deaths, but he stopped after a certain one that gave him nightmares for years. It was around Day Two, and there were still Nineteen Tributes left alive, the others perished in the bloodbath, all of them fell at the hands to the same person, the boy from District Six, Jake. There was only one career remaining, the Girl from One, who was trying to steal supplies from the cornucopia when the boy caught her. She was tied to a table that lay in a house not to far away from the cornucopia, where the boy did something allot worse to her than what Zeke had done to his District Partner. Jake had broken every single bone in the girls body, laughing as the girl screamed in agony and begged for mercy. Three hours after Jake had begun to brake the girls bones did the canon fire, and do this day, the image of the girl strapped to the table haunted Joseph, but as it turns out, he may never have to see it again. Never again.

Anna almost screams as the snake brushes past her leg, but quickly clamps her hand down over her mouth, not wanting to two tributes nearby to hear her. She has been following Phoenix and Yasmin for days now, waiting for the right time to strike, and hopefully today was the day Yasmin's canon would boom through the arena. Right now, Yasmin, the two were eating breakfast. Yasmin's katana lays at her side, and Anna had learnt that Yasmin's reflexes were extremely good, but it seems that the girl has pretty poor hearing, because Anna hasn't been exactly silent. Anna has noticed that Phoenix and Yasmin haven't been getting along, and it seems that just one more argument may push them over the edge, and that's what Anna hopes will happen today. Anna watches as Yasmin mutters something she couldn't make out, and Phoenix scowls at her, before standing up and walking away. Yasmin turns her head away from him, and glares at the ground. Anna was so wrapped up in watching the pair, that she didn't notice yet another snake approaching her, not until the snake began to wrap itself around her legs. Anna's eyes widen when she feels something pull her legs together, and she looks down to see a large, brown snake wrapping her knees together, slowly making it's way up to her waist. She wants to let out a scream, but she knows that if she does, she would be dead. Instead, she rolls around on the floor quietly, trying to free herself from the snakes grasp, but it was no use. Her legs begin to ache, and the snake hisses happily, as it wraps around her legs again. She scowls and tries to hit the head of the snake with her fist, but it quickly dodges, and wraps around her thighs, squeezing them tighter and tighter. She quickly reaches behind her, and grabs an arrow from her quiver, and stabs it at the part of the snake that is wrapped around her knees, but the tip of the arrow didn't even sink in a millimetre, not matter how hard she pushed. The snake lets out a hiss, and suddenly, the snake opens it's mouth and dashes forwards for her face. She yelps out loud, and leans back, the snakes jaw snapping shut just a few centimetres from her face, and her legs are suddenly squeezed even tighter, pain shooting up and down her legs. She lets out a cry of pain, and then suddenly the snakes grip loosens, and the next thing she knows, it's gone. For a moment, Anna sit's there confused, but when she hears footsteps approaching her, she realizes what just happened. The game makers didn't want the snake to kill her, no, they wanted a fight, and they needed to draw Yasmins attention, so they made Anna make one. Anna quickly rolls to the side as Yasmin's katana slices through the bush, slashing the air where she had just been sitting. Anna quickly grabbed her bow, and notched an arrow within a matter of seconds, and then fired. Yasmin was prepared, and quickly side stepped, before charging at Anna, and slicing her katana at her. Anna leaped back, but Yasmin managed to cut a shallow wound on Anna's arm. Anna tried to load another arrow, but Yasmin was too close, and Anna only just managed to side step another of Yasmin's attack, but she sidestepped straight into a tree. Yasmin quickly kicked Anna's feet out from beneath her, causing her to fall to the ground in pain. Yasmin quickly stomped on Anna's left knee, causing her to scream in pain. Yasmin gripped her katana tightly and raised it, but before she could attack, there was a whizzing, and Yasmin yelps in pain.