Running With The Careers- A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 7- Bloodbath

Brady Thompson told me he loved me exactly three hours, ten minutes, twenty-two seconds ago, and I can't stop thinking about him. I haven't been able to sleep at all, but I need to, because in that arena every second I give in to fatigue will be an invitation to death.

It's no good. One hour, two, three pass, and my eyelids refuse to close. I can't stop thinking of what terrain I'll be thrown into. Dessert? Swamp? A frigid wasteland? Above all I'm hoping for trees, which may give me some sort of food or shelter. Often there are trees because barren landscapes are dull and the Games resolve too quickly without them. But will the climate be like? What traps have the Gamemakers set up to liven up the slower moments? And then there are my fellow tributes......

The more anxious I am to sleep, the more sleep stays away. I see a slip of paper on the little desk. My feet leave the bed and I make my way over to the desk, only thinking about the games and Brady. I wouldn't see Brady again until the Games started. I couldn't let that happen. I pull on a fleece jacket and step out the door, the paper in my hand.

When I get to Brady's door I knock lightly but receive no answer. I sit my hand on the door handle and find that it's unlocked. I push the door open and slip inside.

Brady looks so peaceful, curled up under his grey comforter. I envy him, he can sleep like he's not worried at all. All because he isn't scared of what will happen to him, he just wants to protect me.

For all I know Brady could turn into one of those raging tributes, the kind who tries to eat someone's heart after they kill them. There was a guy like that a couple years ago from District 6 named Titus. He went completely savage and the Gamemakers had to have him stunned with electric guns to collect the bodies of the tributes he killed before he ate them. Still, I don't think Brady would ever be like that.

I open the slip of paper and scribble down four words. I Love You too. I slip the paper into Brady's hand and head back to bed. I lay down my head and finally get some sleep. The dreams however, were not as pleasant.

**************

I was right. I never saw Brady this morning. Katrina comes to me in the morning. She gives me a simple shift to wear and guides me to the roof. My last dressing and preparations will be done in the catacombs, under the arena itself. A hovercraft appears out of nowhere and a ladder drops down. I place my feet on the bottom rung, and then it's like I'm frozen. Some sort of current glues me to the ladder while I'm lifted safely inside.

I expect the ladder to release me then, but I'm still stuck when a woman with a white coat approaches me carrying a syringe. "This is just your tracker, Aaliya. The stiller you are, the more efficiently I can place it." she says.

Still? I'm a statue. But that doesn't prevent me from feeling the sharp stab of pain as the needle inserts the metal tracking device deep under the skin of my forearm. Now the Gamemakers will always be able to trace my whereabouts in the arena. They wouldn't want to lose a tribute.

As soon as the tracker's in place, the ladder releases me. The woman leaves and Katrina is retrieved from the roof. An Avox boy comes and directs us to a room where breakfast has been laid out. Despite the sickening feeling in my stomach, I eat as much as I possibly can. The only thing that distracts me is the view from the windows as we sail over the wilderness below. This is what birds see. Only they are safe and free. Unlike me.

The ride lasts about half an hour before the windows black out, suggesting we're near the arena. The hovercraft lands and Katrina and I go back to the ladder, only this time it leads down to a tube below, into the catacombs that lie beneath the arena. We follow instructions to my destination, the chamber for my preparation. In the Capital, they call it the Launch Room.