My Games: Johanna Mason

Chapter 3

DAY 2

My eyes flew open as the loud cannon sounded. I was breathing heavily and sweating, even though it was quite cold and early in the morning. I shook my head. I remembered that the arena was a world of the Gamemakers' creation, so they could bend our concept of time to their twisted agenda as well.

I wondered who the cannon was. Fourteen different possibilities surged through my head as I recalled the already-dead. Was it Titus? Amity? Cyprus? I decided not to worry. It wouldn't likely be anybody that I knew. Hopefully.

The only thing I could even be close to certain about was that the kill came from a career. Of the fifteen that survived the first day, six were careers, and nobody else ever formed alliances. Usually. Even if an alliance was formed, it would be extremely unlikely for it to have more than six members - in fact, if it did that means that I would be the only tribute not part of any alliance.

Titus, for sure, would not be part of an alliance. From what I saw last night, just the first few hours of the Games had changed him. Maybe Titus made that last kill instead of the careers? In training he was a skilled tribute, but he wasn't vicious or cocky like the careers. His training score, 6, was the highest apart from the six careers and Cyprus. That made me realize; the training scores were, overall, pretty low this year. Would that weaken my strategy?

There was no way for me to know. It would be up to the Capitol crowd and the sponsors. My strategy gives me a better chance of survival, but almost certainly kills off any chance of sponsorship. If I win, it would be unexpectedly. Nobody would guess it, if I execute my plan well. I could not afford to reveal my battle skills too early otherwise I would become a known target for the rest of the Games.

I decided just to calm myself down and have a drop - just a drop - of my precious water supply. It wasn't too warm yet. I decided against putting some ice into it as I didn't want to waste the ice so early, and it was still nice and cold in its little freezer-box.

Despite Titus' appearance last night, I suspected that nobody was near my exact location, so I deemed it safe to go down to the ground and practice throwing knives on the trees. I would need to increase my skill with the knives so why not do it now?

Quiet as a mouse I descended by the tree and, carrying my silver pack, silently ran through the forest looking for a suitable place to practice. Unexpectedly, I stumbled upon a small crevice. I almost yelped but firmly clamped my hand on my mouth.

The crevice seemed large enough to fit me, so I squeezed through it. Amazingly, there were little bumps on the sides of the crevice, as if it was made for going down. I used the bumps to lower myself until I almost gasped in shock. Under where I was, the crevice gradually opened up until it became a large cave at the bottom. In this cave were small, but thick trees, and a small and clear river. After eagerly reaching the ground, I beamed with excitement. This place was perfect! If the water was drinkable, then it had everything. I could use the trees to throw my knives at, and if I needed to escape, I could just climb up the crevice. Even though I was eighteen, I was small and quicker than most tributes. The best thing was that the cave wasn't even visible from the surface! Any tributes passing by would think nothing of it.

For hours I threw knives against the tree as quietly as I could, occasionally stopping for water. I had plenty of water, but I could not deny that I was hungry. The cave made me curious, so I decided to explore it, smiling as I went.

As I explored the cave, the smile faded from my face. What if someone was already in here? Everything in the cave was awfully quiet. Even the river (or was it a stream?) made little noise. This cave was made either to be a haven or to be a trap. If being pursued by a group, it would offer no salvation.

As I decided to leave and climbed back up the crevice, I heard footsteps. In a rush but silently climbing, I wedged myself deep in the crevice and ensured that I was invisible from all angles. At the bottom of the crevice, Terri from District 12 appeared where I was only a minute ago. She didn't seem to know I was just there, but I was anxious nevertheless. Her young, wide eyes were bloodshot and she was gasping. For a second she looked at me and by chance, our eyes met. She opened her mouth, probably to scream, but no sound came out. Instead, a sword did. It was pulled out and Terri collapsed, limply as the cannon sounded. Her body fell into the quickly moving river.

Where Terri stood, Apollon from District 1 held a bloody sword. He was tall and blond, and would normally have been 'hot' but looked tired and in pain. The rest of the careers caught up with him, looking in a similar condition to him. 'She's dead,' Apollon said.

The girl from 4, Torah, nodded. 'Good. A waste of time, but good. Now can we get out of here?' My eyes widened. They hadn't noticed me yet, but surely they would if they climbed up here?

'Okay,' said Amity. She looked pitifully small among the other careers. 'Let's go back that way.' She pointed to the direction from which they came.

Another girl, whose face I could not see, remarked, 'why don't we stay? Nobody will find us here.'

Lance rolled his eyes. 'Mara, we are the ones who are supposed to find them. Besides, the water is poisonous and the wolves will come out eventually. Let's just go back to home base.' Whatever Mara was going to say wasn't said. All the careers advanced back to where they came from. Terri's body stayed, oblivious to everything. It floated downstream, where it would most likely find its way to a claw like contraption to be taken out of the arena.

When I was sure the careers were long gone, I quickly crawled out of the crevice and climbed the nearest tree. Not long after I reached the top the emblem appeared in the sky and the music played. The two faces tonight were the boy from District 8 (who must have died in the morning) and Terri. That makes eleven dead, thirteen alive.

Before I could think of anything else, I fell asleep.