Never Feel a Thing (A Hunger Games Fanfic)

The Means...

Author's note:  I do not own The Hunger Games.  All rights go to their respective owners.

The 35th Hunger Games - Day Four

Atlas

This was it.  This was the end of the line.  This is what we had been heading towards since the games began, since that gong was rung and twenty-three of us were condemned.

Before the five of us stood an inexpliable clearing in the midst of dense foliage which had only grown denser and more unmanagable as time went on.  It was large, but empty of life, as not even the sound of insects could be heard.  It occurred to me this might have been an intentional design choice on the part of the gamemakers, who may have cleared the insects out specifically so the audience could hear every sound of what was about to occur here.  The only thing that was there, was what looked to be a gigantic, smoke black machine which took up a large part of the center of the clearing, producing the smoke which had guided us to the center of the island.  Hell, that might have been just as intentional as everything else in this arena seemed to be.  Jack, ever the gearhead, regarded the machine with a look which was an interesting and somewhat amusing cross between reverence and awe.

I realized that this was where we had been inexorable moved towards.  Not just the end of the games, not just the end of us all, but this specific location, which had been prepared painstakingly long before these games had even started.  This place had always been where it was going to end, and the slight tremors which were now always felt under our very feet confirmed it.

This is where it would all end.  This is where we would all die.

The girl with blonde hair and disarming brown eyes, Kelly, briefly met my gaze.  She knew it too, I could see in her eyes.  Maybe in a way, we had always known.  And I wondered if the others had known as well.

Satisfied with my reasoning, as a almost always am, I looked at my erstwhile allies one last time.  The little girl, the colossus who had saved me, the tree girl with dexterous movements her body type seemed to grant her no right to, and the boy with flaming hair I called my friend.  Whom I still did call my friend.

And oddly enough, here, faced when the end was when it hit me.  Jack was my best friend.

Finally, they all took their gaze from the clearing and met my eyes, and they all stiffened resignedly, standing up straight and facing the inavoidable truth with dignity.

"The careers first."  I said, as we had agreed.

They all nodded wordlessly, and that was it.  That was the end of it all.  Friendships, bonds of trust, oaths of loyalty, all perfectly good, all perfectly sound, now vanished into the wind.

Henric held up his scythe, Jack pulled out his knife slowly and quietly, Kelly tightened her grip around the arrow poised in her bow.  Maybel's bow.  But that was alright, as I got the feeling that Maybel would have liked Kelly had they ever really gotten a chance to meet each other.

Lila pulled out her small knife and I instantly felt pity for her.  There was absolutely no chance of her being the one who comes out of this fight alive.  And you cannot ever truly understand the true meaning of the phrase "absolutely none" until you have seen this frightened little girl, trying to put her bravest face on, trying to let us know that she hasn't given up, that she still believes she might ever have a chance of seeing her family again.

I shot Henric a worried look and he nods.  He'll take care of her.  He always has.

And lastly, I looked at Jack.  Of the one million and counting emotions I had felt at that very moment, I'm not entirely if even one of them could be considered hate.  That was just it, I didn't hate him.  I didn't hate any of them.  But this is the way things had to be.