The
24th Hunger Games: Part Five: Disaster
His dreamless sleep ended abruptly, the cannon
echoing in the early morning like a terrifying alarm. Kaede gripped the axe tightly in his good
hand, trying not to move from the hiding spot.
At first, there were not any other sounds, but then a scream –female by
the pitch- broke out in the nearby stretch of trees. Instinct told him to run, but the arena had already
worn thin the trust he had for instinct alone.
He waited, tense all over, in the bush he had slept in, not moving a
muscle, only listening for the next clue.
Regardless of whether it was other tributes hunting her or the arena
itself, he would eventually have to move.
The question was not if, but of where and when. If he moved too soon he could be spotted, and
if he went in the wrong direction, the error itself could be fatal and
unfixable.
Whichever
tribute had screamed didn’t repeat the action, but he could still hear her
moving. The speed she traveled at sent a
chill down his spine as he realized she wasn’t being followed, at least not by
other tributes. She was utterly alone.
He
sat up, and tried to look over the shrubs, staring in her direction. The effort did him little good, too many
trees blocking his view of her. When her
scream broke out again he made his decision, grabbing his new bag and axe, and
running.
At
first, he didn’t look back, afraid of finding the girl at his back ready to
kill, or whatever was chasing her. Pace
though, was hard to measure when you didn’t know the danger at your heels.
Pivoting,
he stopped for a long moment and looked at what lay behind him. The turn immediately gave him a visual on the
girl, but it took him much longer to realize what she was running from. Rising at most a few feet off the ground was
a grey wispy fog, but instead of it having been caused by rain, this one seemed
to form on its own. It crept over the
forest floor like a phantom, but no matter how far and fast the girl ran, it
kept pace with her, lapping at her heels in a taunting fashion. She didn’t slow her speed, but from where he
stood, he could see her starting to stumble on flat ground, fatigue setting in.
While
pausing had allowed him to know what exactly he was fleeing from, it had also
allowed the fog to get a start on him.
The closer it got, the more he could see its interior, currents of
electric charges running through the thin wisps like a lightning cloud. That detail was all he needed to start
running again, but faster this time, the bag banging against his back as he
charged forward. He didn’t know where he
was going, only that it was toward a hill, Kaede darting around trees, and
nearly colliding with them as he tried to keep an eye on the fog behind
him. Whatever was feeding it wasn’t
letting up, the fog acting like an unrelenting predator, and Kaede its doomed
prey.
Somewhere
nearby the girl screamed once more, but this time, he knew she wasn’t going to
make it. He no longer looked at the fog,
quickening his strides, and ignoring the beating of his heart, which hammered
inside his chest. The hill itself was
steep, but the trees that had lined its peak had given no sign of the drop he
was now facing. Just within that second
of realization, he knew he wouldn’t be able to fight the pull of gravity that
now tugged on him. His running only made
to push him like an invisible hand, down- down the rough terrain, tripping, and
stumbling as he tried to keep himself aloft.
Behind, he could hear the faint sound of the cannon as the girl from
before finally laid dead, the breath gone from her body. The sound merely reminded him why he was
running, getting him to pick up the pace.
He
didn’t dare look at the mass of fog that slowly, but surely crept at the
landscape after him. Kaede sucked in a
swath of air, letting his legs carry him, even when his body felt as though it
were shutting down. His muscles ached
with every jolt, and his lungs burned, not from inhaling the air from the fog,
but from running.
The
ground at his feet transitioned quickly from leaves and pine needles to pebbles
and rocks. His shoes protected his feet
from the change, but traction became an entirely new issue as he slipped,
losing his footing completely. The fall
itself became a slide, and he found himself hurtling to the bottom of the hill,
right in the direction of another tribute.
Their
bodies collided, sending him into a tumbling halt. He could feel her presence beside him as the
world spun, his head swimming in circles, but it did little to help him. He knew instinctively that he should be
reaching for his axe, but his body was in a state of shock, paralyzing him in
that defenseless position. The other
tribute on the other hand, had no such problems, a spear already in her hand,
its point angled at him. Her spear
though, made no move from its deadly spot as she scanned him, assessing things
he could only guess at.
“Which
one are you?” She had no doubt been
keeping track of the tributes left in the arena, but her question caught him
off guard. Kaede remained silent,
casting his gaze to his axe, which was only inches from his hand. He could either answer the question or try to
fight it out. “Answer me,” she snarled
at him, her spear’s tip poking into his neck, eliminating the choice of
fighting.
“District
seven,” he replied, rasping out the words as he tried to gather his breath.
She
raised her eyebrows, taking in his form, and probably remembering who and what
he was. “Seven?” The incredulity in her voice revealed exactly
what she recalled of him. It didn’t make
him like her any more than her spear did.
“Yes,
and what about you?” The frown on her
face deepened, her green eyes darkening.
“One.” He kept his face blank, but he could sense
her annoyance at his silence. The
careers had split up –even if it was just her- something that rarely ever
happened. Mentioning it to her though,
would most likely get him skewered, and that was the one thing he did not want.
*This is a fanfiction based in the Universe of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games, while most of the characters are OC's I am not profiting off of it any way, and do not own the rights to this amazing story world, or any characters that come from the actual books***
