The Rebel Victor | I [THG]

Chapter Seventeen | The Arena

The light that filled the tube seemed incredibly bright, and there was almost a greenish tinge to it. But Quinns thoughts were still in the room below with her chat with Snow and the sight of Damien being beaten. But that was what Snow wanted, her distracted so she would die right away in the bloodbath, so she didn't have a chance. She tried to clear her mind, but the sound of her own voice echoing in the tube kept fogging her thoughts again.

But as her body left the tube, she saw that the arena already wasn't going to help her. The semi-circle of tributes was up on steep hill, Quinn could see the thick grass. Behind them, and on either side were trees. Tall trees, and the leaves were bright, lush green. Then in front of them was the thick grass and she could see big stones as tripping hazards. At the bottom of the hill, in the middle of a clearing was a big, gold cornucopia. Backpacks were scattered around, but there were no weapons laying around besides maybe a few knives-she wasn't close enough to be able to tell. But she was positive that the weapons and any other helpful supplies would be inside the cornucopia.

"The games shall commence at the sound of the gong," the voice of Seneca Crane filled the arena. "Good luck, tributes. And may the odds be ever in your favor."

As his voice faded, a triangle hologram appeared above the cornucopia with the number sixty on it as it rotated. Then, with a high pitch chirp, it began to count down.

Quinn quickly felt her heart thudding against her chest, this was the moment she had been most terrified of. The beginning of the games. She then decided to see who was near her, to her right was Fiona from One, to her left was the boy from a lower district-maybe Ten. But her eyes flicked back to Fiona when she remembered that she was an ally-Quinn was a career, she was in the career pack. How could she have forgotten that?

Quinn looked back at the cornucopia just as the number eight went by. She felt a lump begin to form in her throat-was a camera watching her right then? Was it watching her life flash before her very own eyes? The sound of the beeping brought her back to where she was-and then, as the gong finally echoed through the arena, her feet left the pedestal.

She could hear own breathing, but that wasn't as bothersome as the sound of other tributes running towards the cornucopia. She was used to running down the steep slope though, running up the steep sandy hills before the peacekeepers caught the orphans on the beaches was more difficult than running down a grassy hill.

She ran past the backpacks as she got closer, unlike the boy who had been next to her-he grabbed one and turned and booked it back into the trees. But she knew there had to be supplies in the cornucopia, supplies that would be much more useful than a backpack.

Fiona was a good few strides ahead of her, and Thomas from Three was ahead of her. But she was one of the first five to make it to the cornucopia. And like she had expected, inside it were silver weapons, a few barrels too-but that wasn't too important. She quickly scanned the weapons, there was a trident-but she wasn't sure about how great her aim would be with that, and she didn't have that much time. So she quickly grabbed a long piece of metal that was sharp at both ends, a double sided spear.

"You two have that side?" Thomas asked quickly, Fiona quickly nodded as she held two knives, one in each hand.

As she and Fiona hurried to step out of the cornucopia, another tribute had almost made it to the entrance, but Fiona drew back and threw the knife with such perfect aim, that it sunk deep into his abdomen. Fiona watched his eyes widen, and Quinn recognized him right away-he had tried to become her ally.

"Might as well get rid of twelve as soon as possible," Fiona said over her shoulder as she ran forward to grab the knife from him.

The bloodbath seemed to drag on and on, but the whole time, Quinn didn't have to use her spear. Nobody came close enough to her. Max, Leanne, and Fiona were the most aggressive right away. Quinn decided to take her chance to check the barrels while those three kept everyone at bay.

She pulled the lid open of the first, and looked inside-thin blankets. Then the same thing was in the second and third, so it wasn't all that useful.

Suddenly the sound of heavy footsteps entered the cornucopia, and they weren't alone.

"The rest of them all made it for the woods." Max announced, "Anything useful?"

Quinn shrugged, "Just a bunch of blankets." she stated as she tapped the barrel with her blankets. Leanne peered into one as if Quinn had been lying.

"Well we should each grab a pack and head out," she stated, her arms crossed over her chest, a bow over her shoulders along with a bag of arrows. "So the ships can pick up the bodies."

Quinn examined each of them, they were all so calm considering what had just happened. But Quinn nodded in agreement, they quickly scanned the cornucopia for anything useful-but they each had their weapon already. As they stepped out of the cornucopia, one cannon sounded, and then another-a total of five cannons. That meant there were nineteen tributes left.

But that won't last.

"I say we start looking for other tributes today," Leanne stated, looking at Max-nobody else. Just Max.

Quinn sighed and looked around, there was Fiona, Leanne, Thomas, and Max.

"What happened to Gennie?"

Max looked over his shoulder at her, "What do you think?" he replied.

The five of them each grabbed a pack and decided to begin haunting for the other tributes-they weren't going to waste any time. Then this arena, they had to get the feel for it-the cornucopia was surrounded by the thick green forests. But there had to be more to it.

"Four," Leanne called over her shoulder, "You looked like you had good footing-you take the lead." she stated.

Quinn felt her mouth go dry again, "Oh, uh, I'm not used to this sort of terrain...probably best-"

"I'll come with you..." Fiona stated from a few steps behind her.

Quinn sighed and nodded, "Alright."

The two of them brushed past the others and began the hike up into the trees. The ground was easy to walk on, but it was painful to slightly lean forward to keep from falling backwards with every step.

I hope you're enjoying this, Snow...