Dead Man's Gambit / Haymitch Abernathy

09. The mountain of the beast

ACT I, CHAPTER NINE
❛ the mountain of the beast ❜
content: blood/gore, violence, ptsd (flashbacks), gaslighting/manipulation.

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     Renfri's eyes adjust to the dim cave light quickly. Her gaze is drawn to the golden Cornucopia, gleaming in the only stream of sunlight spilling through the skylight dug high into a jagged ceiling. The surrounding scenery surprises her enough to tear her gaze away from the weapons that shine like silver beacons for the taking.

It's a massive circular cave, with the only real exit being the twenty-yard wide, pitch-black tunnel carved into the east wall. On all other sides, eroded stone walls rise high into the gloom above. Upon further inspection, though, she sees the dark maws of smaller caves—crawlspaces, really—peppered across the other stalagmite-ridden walls.

Glossy black rocks, uneven boulders, fallen stalactites, and white stones litter the ground around her pedestal. No.

Not white stones. Her breath catches in her throat.

Bones. Gnawed, splintered, dismembered femurs and ribs and jawbones and spinal columns, tossed like breadcrumbs around the pit she's landed in.

Renfri's skin crawls. They have to be fake. The Capitol couldn't have put real remains in here. Surely not. Still, the sight makes her feel sick. Is this supposed to be a burial ground? Or a feeding site?

She forces a sharp breath of the musty cave air into her lungs, refocuses her attention on the immediate threat. A hundred yards away, resting atop a thirty-foot-high pile of boulders, the Cornucopia spills out spears, daggers, maces, bows and arrows, and a wicked variety of swords onto the sun-beaten rocks below. Other supplies are scattered amongst the boulders and the bones in the dark: wooden spoons, rusted tin boxes, grimy satchels, broken knife blades. All the junk is nearest to her. The real haul is strewn around the mouth of the Cornucopia, in the sunlight.

The pile of boulders is so tall Renfri cannot see the tributes on the other side. Down here at the bottom, it's dark enough most tributes are only black shapes in the gloom. She thinks she sees Jasper's tall form off to her left, but it's so dim she can't be sure it's not Skinner. Frustrated, her vision flicks back to the swords above. Eyes skimming the rocks, trying to find a path up.

The minute must nearly be over. Sweat beads on her brow. Just as she decides on a course, the first ten-second gong echoes throughout the cave.

Calm flows through her. She assumes a running stance, boots poised on the edge of her pedestal. Her heart beats in time to each gong of the bell. Until, finally, at one, she lurches forward.

She meets the loose-packed earth running. All she can think about are the weapons and getting to them before anybody else does. She clambers up rock to rock in relentless pursuit. Adrenaline keeps her body moving forward, straight into the burning sunlight streaming from the skylight above.

She's panting by the time her hand locks around the sun-warmed hilt of a cutlass. Yet she does not slow. Not until she's on the level ground at the top of the boulder pile, standing beneath the arching mouth of the Cornucopia.

Other tributes are climbing up the rocks around her, black figures in her periphery. She hops over a pile of spears for a silver bow and quiver of arrows. Someone screams, made double by the echo of the cave. Suddenly, Jasper and Lex are there, an arrow already strung on Jasper's bowstring. Blood drips down the entire left side of Lex's face, streaming from his bruised knuckles clenched tight around his spears.

"Bloom's behind us. We stick to the plan," Lex tells Renfri hurriedly. He wipes the river of blood out of his eye with his jacket sleeve, eyes wild and twinkling. "It's not my blood, don't worry. C'mon, let's finish this up!"