The Last Hunger Games

Chapter 16 - You killed someone with an axe?

"So how did Flavius die? I would've thought he had a pretty good chance of winning," Avita says.

"It was this morning, maybe about 1am? Something like that. I'm not sure though, because I was.. Well actually, I'll just tell you what I've been up to."

"Yeah, go on then."

"Ok. So, unlike you, I actually went to the Cornucopia, and got this belt of knives and that rucksack. After a little incident involving and axe, I -"

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold up. You actually killed someone with an axe!?" 

"No! Stop interrupting! As I was saying, I found an old house and stayed there that night."

Avita interrupts again. "So you did or you didn't kill someone with an axe?" she says. As we speak we get into our sleeping bags; she somehow managed to get one too. 

"I didn't  kill anyone with an axe, you got that?"

"Yep. Carry on."

"Ok, so day two. I was gonna go and search for water, but then I saw these three tributes and decided to follow them," I continue. "They went into this big, old warehouse place and I got bored of earwigging so I went into the woods. Oh, and they thought your name was Avory." I'm surprised that Avita doesn't laugh at that, so I carry on. "Pretty soon after I entered the woods, the entire warehouse blew up -" I make big gestures with my hands along with some sound effects-"and I was knocked unconscious for hours."

"What did those tributes look like, Celestia?" Avita seems worried now. 

"Um, two boys: one blond, one brunette - oh, and there was a girl, you should've seen her hair, it was as thick as rope," I say.

"Oh no!" she replies, and bursts into floods of tears. I fling my arms around her and try to be comforting. 

"It's ok. What's wrong?" I say, and the waterfall of tears ceases slightly.  

"Sorry, I'm such a crybaby. It's just that I think that was my friend Amelia and her brother. I don't know the other boy. But now, they're, oh, they're dead!" she says, and the drizzle of tears starts again. Where she gets the energy to cry from, I have no idea. 

"Not to be rude or anything, but wouldn't you have seen their faces in the sky?" I say, hoping not to trigger more crying. 

"No I didn't actually. I was camping out in a different basement that night, and I didn't bother to look. Oh, Celestia, I feel so bad!"

"Why? It wasn't your fault," I say, zipping up my sleeping bag and putting the hood over my head. It warms me up a great deal.

"It is though. I'll tell you how," Avita says, and I listen. "Amelia was in my class in school; we met when we were little, but never really acknowledged the other's existence. We weren't friends, but then our friends became friends, so we sort of had to be friends, you know?" I nod. "You probably saw in her picture that she was tall and strong, much stronger than her brother. She was never the smartest of people, but her wit and strength made up for it. Anyway, during training she saw me swing a few maces and throw a spear or two, and asked to be allied with her and her brother. I can never remember his name. I politely declined and walked away. Truth is, those two would've made great allies any day, apart from the risk of having to kill them of course. And that was a risk I wasn't willing to take." Fair enough, I guess. Avita continues: "At lunches during training, I 'overheard' them backchatting me, discussing all kinds of ways to hunt me down in the arena, and their new nickname for me was Avory. Well actually it wasn't really a nickname, more of a joke: they would pretend to forget my name, joke around, calling me Avory, and so on, so on."

"Avita, that's horrid!" I exclaim.

I've never had to put up with much bullying in my time at school, you'd be surprised to hear. Probably because everyone was too scared of what Grandfather would do to them or their families if he found out anyone was bullying me. As a result, my school years have been a breeze. A walk in the park. A piece of cake. Oh.

Except for that incident a month ago. 

I remind myself again to forget about him, and try to push it to the very back of my mind as I listen to Avita. 

"Eh, you get used to it after a while. Anyway, the, uh, reason why I, er, think it's my fault is because, sorry." She sniffs and wipes her eyes. "They knew about my skill to scan for pods with just my eyes. You know, like how you can tell what's poison and I can tell where pods are hidden. And I think that maybe, if I'd just said yes to being allies with them, they wouldn't have been killed in that dreadful warehouse explosion. Wait. They will be on my kill list now, right? Especially now that the stupid Gamemakers have got my 'confession' on camera. I bet you this basement is rigged with cameras everywhere." I nod in agreement and we sit in silence for a few minutes. Then Avita's facial expression changes from one of guilt to one of anger. Her sudden outburst makes me jump. First she points to a small black dome in the dark corner of the basement which is obviously a camera, even if it is barely visible in this poor light. 

Then she says, almost yelling,"You know what? I finally get it. I finally get the reason why the Districts hated The Hunger Games from the start. And now I hate them too! But you see me and my cousin here? One of us is going to win this, no matter how many mutts you throw at us. I know you Gamemakers can see this, even if the public can't, and here's what I think: You can take your bleeding Games, Plutarch Heavensbee, and shove 'em up your ar-" she glances at me -"nose! Shove 'em up your nose, Plutarch Heavensbee!"

And with that she throws her mace at the wall, destroying the camera and good chunk of wall, too.