“Are you ready?”
Berkeley stood outside his room, some compassion showing in his usual
bored expression. Kaede could only stare
down at himself, taking in the outfit that had been sent up only that
morning. It wasn’t anything special,
mostly a thin shirt that was fitted to his skin, pants, boots, and a jacket
that felt too warm for the heated room they stood in. The clues were right at his fingertips but he
still felt unsure of where he was being sent.
Berkeley sighed beside him, and ushered him out the door, staying silent
as they made their way out of the tribute center. “There’s most likely a forest.”
Kaede
snapped out of his thoughts, stumbling a little from surprise, but Berkeley
made no move to wait for him. “How do
you figure that?”
“The
jacket, and shirt. Hot during the days,
cold at night, though that’s pretty much anywhere these days.”
It
made sense. “Oh.”
“Look,
it’s alright to be scared, Kaede. I was,
but don’t just shut it in, that only leads to you freezing on the spot, and
getting killed like an idiot.”
“So
don’t freeze?” Berkeley looked at him
like he was stupid, but nodded anyway, probably out of pity.
“Don’t
freeze. Just remember to run, and not go
for the weapons. Beyond that, I can’t
really help you.” They stopped in front
of an aircraft, some of the other tributes already on board. “I’ll see you right before you go up.” With a last nod, Berkeley disappeared from
the launch pad, leaving Kaede to board.
Kaede
paused at the ramp of the ship, staring at the Capitol person standing just
inside, and the tributes who merely sat in their seats, no sign of fear on
their faces. He was sure his own had an
expression of terror.
The
Capitol lady approached him when he still didn’t move, but she didn’t seem
annoyed. “Please, sit.” She motioned to one of the seats, letting him
strap himself in. Once he was situated,
she leveled a device near his arm, and shot something in it, the small object letting
out an equally small light. He didn’t
ask what it was, he didn’t want to know.
That line of questioning only made the games that more real.
He
didn’t know the two tributes on either side of him, both likely from the
farther out districts, but directly across from him was the district one boy,
who now leaned back in his own seat, his eyes closed. There wasn’t even a flinch as the aircraft
lifted upwards, beginning the trip to the arena. He simply sat there, taking a leisurely nap
on their way to certain death.
Kaede
looked away, and down at his hands, the only things that would not attract
attention at that moment. His left hand
was unusually still, while his right shook with nervous energy. Sighing heavily, he sat on the hand, hiding
it from the others and himself. Don’t shut it in. What had Berkeley meant by that? How exactly was he supposed to let it out?
There
was a shudder as the aircraft landed, the ramp opening up to his left. They were in a large hangar, all of the
sunlight shielded out, and the exits consisting of twenty-four small
hallways. Each hallway was marked with a
district number and a male or female symbol.
He spotted the one marked with a seven, and followed it down to a
door. His hand touched the knob, but it
was a long moment before he actually opened it, the fear creeping up on him.
The
room behind the door was tiny, meant only to house the cylindrical elevator and
the tribute. Berkeley though managed to
stand calmly next to the elevator, allowing Kaede some space to breathe. “We don’t have much time, so if you have any
questions, I would ask them now.”
There was silence as
Kaede slowed down his breathing, trying to regain some sense of composure. When he spoke, his voice betrayed him, every
word forcing him to take a large gulp of air.
“How long do we have?”
“They are about to
start the countdown.”
He nodded, sitting on a
small stool in the corner. “How did you
win?” There was a rustle as Berkeley
kneeled down in front of him, true pain showing in his eyes.
“I survived. I knew my strengths and weaknesses and I
played by them.”
“Tributes have one
minute before Games start,” a cold voice said through the one speaker in the
room. It was a struggle to reign in his
breaths again, the fear plaguing his mind, and making it difficult to focus on
anything else.
“Kaede.” He forced another breath out of his lungs,
the panic not letting up. “Kaede!” Berkeley snapped at him, shaking his leg. The panic didn’t go away, but the focus
returned, his green eyes locking onto Berkeley.
“Keep it together, remember not to shut it in.”
His confusion at
Berkeley’s words must have shown, because the sympathy returned in that moment,
Berkeley patting him on the knee.
“How?” He could hear the crack in
his voice, the fear that was driving him mad.
“How do I do that? Look at my
hand!” His left hand still hadn’t acted
up, but it was surely waiting for the right time. “They are going to kill me,” he wanted
Berkeley to stop it, to make it go away, but he knew; he knew that even Berkeley
didn’t hold that power.
“Turn it against them,
Kaede.” He took Kaede’s ruined hand, and
held it up. “Make them realize that you
are someone worth competing with.”
“Thirty Seconds before
start,” the voice spoke blandly.
Berkeley stood, and offered a hand to Kaede, helping him stand.
“Let’s get you in
there.” Kaede nodded, and stepped into
the elevator.
“Berkeley,” he paused
in the entrance of the elevator, turning to look at his mentor. “Thank you.”
The cylinder made a ‘click’ as it sealed shut, locking him in, though he
could still see Berkeley standing nearby.
Distantly, he could hear the countdown continuing, soon to be reaching
zero. Anxiety gripped onto him again,
his breathing becoming shallow, and his hand finally aching. He didn’t look at Berkeley now, afraid his
fear would show much too clearly on his face.
Kaede clenched his bad
hand, testing its strength warily, attempting to drown out the countdown from
his mind. It must have finally reached
its end he realized as the cylinder lit up, and he was lifted into the
sunlight.
Blinding light was all
he could focus on at first, his eyes unable to quickly adapt to the ferocity of
it. Slowly, he could make out the
shadowy forms of his opponents, all positioned in a semi-circle. He stood on a raised platform, identical to
those that the others stood on, the platforms and cornucopia being the only
metallic objects in a sea of green.
Grass covered the ground, and in every direction there was a forest that
seemed to go on forever no matter which way you went. The Cornucopia was equidistant from each of
them; a steel object that rested just in the middle of the circle. Dozens of weapons glistened in the harsh
light, each he had already displaced from his mind. The arena itself was silent, save for the
countdown which echoed around them.
“Let the 24th Hunger Games begin! And may the odds be ever in your favor!” A loud voice startled him to attention, but
he didn’t move, remembering Berkeley’s reminder. “Ten.” Instead, he stared at the array of
weapons, searching for the familiar even if he wouldn’t ever use it. “Nine.”
There wasn’t a tension to the silence, only an intense
concentration. “Eight.” Kaede leaned forward on the platform, keeping
his hand steady even as a short burst of pain shot through it. “Seven.”
His eyes focused on the Cornucopia, picking a small spot to fixate on,
his plan good enough to fool himself. “Six.” In his mind, he chanted ‘run to the trees’,
trying to keep his body in line, and not moving toward the one area that would
get him killed. “Five.” He took a deep breath. “Four.”
Beside him the other tributes prepared themselves. “Three.”
Run to the trees. “Two.”
Run to the trees.
“One.” The cannon rang
out, Kaede flinching at first from its abruptness. That hesitance cost him as he watched the
other tributes dart forward, only a select few dashing into the woods. The careers were quick, taking the weapons
first, or killing those who had already managed their own. Kaede’s chant left his mind as he stood there
paralyzed. It was a bloodbath, one body
hitting the ground, and then another. As
each body fell there was a loud cannon shot, marking the exact moment they
died. Mason, the district two boy closed
in on a small girl, and his machete ended her in several clean swipes, her
blood spraying the ground. That smile he
had worn the other day was present, a smile that pushed out the simple fear of
death, and pushed Kaede into a scrambling run.
He didn’t attempt to pick up any of the scattered bags, he just ran, not
looking back at the gory mess he had fled from.
They were laughing he realized as his heart rate slowed. They were killing kids just like them, and
laughing, enjoying, the mayhem of the rampant death.
Once he had put a wide
enough distance between him and the cornucopia, he dropped behind one of the
trees, struggling to take breaths when the panic still burned inside of
him. He no longer could hear their
laughing, or the sound of the cannon, but it did little to ease his
trepidation. His right hand didn’t shake
now, but his left throbbed uncontrollably, Kaede cradling it against his
chest. He was safe for now, but it
wouldn’t last, he knew it wouldn’t.
Berkeley’s advice had gotten him past the cornucopia, now he had to pull
himself through the next part. He didn’t
have supplies or a weapon though, and that lack was something he wouldn’t be
able to ignore for long.
It remained silent as
he leaned against the trunk of the tree, its roughness bringing him back to
reality. The bright sunlight the games
had started under was dimmed, most likely now late afternoon, and soon it would
grow dark. If the Careers hadn’t left
the cornucopia, they would now. He would
have to move, but that took more than just standing, it required a determined
mind, something he didn’t have right then.
Without the sound of cannon fire, the feeling of being hunted was
becoming worse, the Careers unseen and unknown.
Kaede stood from his resting spot, and finally looked at his
surroundings, taking in the sameness of each of the trees. They all looked nearly identical, useless in
trying to pinpoint his location. He had
run, and now it was costing him. No
supplies, so he would need to make his own cover, and food.
The sun was getting
lower and lower as he dragged branches still filled with leaves to a nearby
hole, layering the pieces. One after the
other he dragged and mounted the branches, draping them together as best as he
could. With the low lying bushes, and
shorter trees it looked inconspicuous, at least to the untrained eye, which was
all he could afford. After all the parts
were placed together, he dropped down behind the wall of nature, and tried to
settle down. A task that became harder
when the Panem theme played in the air surrounding him. It didn’t just come from above, but from
every crevice of the arena, destroying any chance of sleeping he had had. In the sky, the Capitol symbol flashed, and then
a stream of faces, all those of kids he had seen fall at the Cornucopia. With them came the knowledge of their origin,
the small girl killed by Mason being from District twelve, and the others, six
in all, coming from Three, Five, Eight, and Ten. Her name had been Iris that was all he knew,
besides the fact that she had lived too short a life. He was now one out of eighteen tributes left. It seemed wrong to simply wait for one of the
Careers to end him now.
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