Timber

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Bloodbath

⚠️Trigger warning: All things you might find in a Hunger Game including violence, death and blood⚠️

The reverberating toll of the starting bell resonated throughout the Dodecagon, its haunting sound embedding itself in Hazel's psyche. In that suspended moment, her limbs seemed frozen in time, while her heart thundered relentlessly within her chest. There was not a single other sound. No birds chirping. No wind. Just the starting bell's unsettling chime. If she didn't know better, she would almost mistake this for one of her nightmares. But this was worse, so much worse.

Around her, tributes catapulted off their designated discs, hurtling toward the Cornucopia. To her left, Lara tentatively began to jog forward, holding her bound hands awkwardly in front of her as she moved. On Hazel's right, Ian focused on the cuffs adorning his wrists. He grabbed his left thumb with the opposite hand and pulled it upward rapidly until there was a soft, sickening crack of tissue, the joint displacing itself. He grunted as his thumb contorted at an unnatural angle. Bracing himself, he pulled back on his left arm and his injured hand slipped through the cuff, grotesquely deformed yet free. Hazel shuddered at the sight, praying he was going to stay occupied freeing himself, at least for a while.

Hazel's gaze shifted back to the center, several tributes were still making a determined beeline toward it, among them, Silus. Her heart threatened to leap out of her throat as she witnessed him darting toward the hornet's nest. His arms pumped and knees nearly reached his chest as he ran.

She instinctively took a step forward on her disc, but something unusual caught in her line of vision. She abruptly halted, staring at the peculiarity – a faint shimmer in the air, like a strand of sunlight catching on a spider's web, or the subtle shine of a fishing line.

As her eyes adjusted, focusing on the anomaly, more became apparent. Had they been there before? They crisscrossed the ground around the Cornucopia, almost invisible against the backdrop of the arena. Hazel's mind struggled to comprehend what she was seeing, but before she could piece it together, a sudden scream to her left startled her.

Lara had made it several yards towards the center, but now she was bent over. She reached down, but in a blur of motion, Lara's feet were suddenly yanked from beneath her, her body being swiftly hoisted upwards. It all happened in mere seconds – Lara dangled helplessly, suspended by one ankle, which was ensnared in what Hazel now realized was a trap. The wire, nearly invisible against the arena floor, had been expertly camouflaged, waiting for an unsuspecting tribute to trigger it. It reminded Hazel of the snare traps Mag's had used to win in the 11th Games. Hazel began to feel a cold sweat as she watched Lara struggle, like a trout caught on a line. Lara screamed and writhed, desperately trying to free herself. But her frantic movements only caused her to swing more wildly, the thin rope biting deeper into her ankle.

Hazel's heart leaped into her throat as she witnessed Silus still running. She tried to yell and warn him about the snares, but her voice was drowned in the chaos. Then, it happened – Silus paused briefly, looking down at his feet. No. His ankle was suddenly jerked upward, his torso landing on the grass below briefly before his foot was snatched by an unseen force and he was hoisted up into the air like he weighed nothing. He was now dangling upside down, suspended nearly 10 feet in the air, helpless.

Hazel's feet couldn't move fast enough as she flew off her disc towards him. Her heart was pounding, her boots making soft sounds in the grass as she urged her legs to go faster than she had ever gone in her life while her eyes frantically scanned the ground for any signs of additional traps.  The arena had become a minefield, with more tributes being yanked into the air. She noted three more tributes caught in similar traps, their struggles causing a brief hesitation among others who had been charging towards the Cornucopia.