The 200th Annual Hunger Games - The Ultimate Games

The Ultimate Games - Day 5 (Morning)

Camille Garza POV

It all happened so fast.

The sun rose. The bird sung. Rudy sat beside me, an arm wrapped around my shoulders as he divided food portions between us. It wasn't worth keeping it anymore, he said. The games would finish today.

The games would be over today.

May as well eat all the food we had.

It was a hearty meal. Wholemeal bread from a sponsor, thick slices of chicken-like meat from some sort of bird, and some tomatoes and lettuce we gathered last night, eaten in a sandwich whilst we watched the sun rise. For a minute, I forgot we were in the Hunger Games. I forgot only one of us would make it out alive.

And then Rudy said my name, and told me he had to tell me something. I'd looked over at him, imploring eyes meeting his, and my gaze snapped to the blonde figure some metres away, creeping up on us with a katana in her grip.

Valentina.

"RUDY!" I screamed, and pushed him to the side. Valentina's katana swiped where Rudy was moments previously and I leapt to my feet, grabbing my fighting staff. Rudy grabbed his bow and fired an arrow at Valentina, but she ducked underneath it and charged towards us again.

I stepped towards her and hit at her stomach with my fighting staff. The impact knocked her away, making her wheeze out something incomprehensible, and I stepped forward and hit her again. Valentina staggered back, falling onto the ground behind her, but she quickly jumped back to her feet as a knife stabbed into the ground where she was moments previously.

Suddenly, Valentina turned and slashed her sword through the wood of Rudy's bow. The weapon snapped clean in two.

"Shit," Rudy muttered. He tossed the broken bow to the side and grabbed one of his arrows from his quiver, trying to use it as a short range weapon.

It wouldn't work. I already knew it wouldn't work.

Valentina flicked her katana at Rudy, and the arrow was ripped from his grasp and sent flying across the clearing. Valentina swung at him again and I lashed out with my staff, blocking the first blow, but then she whirled around and stabbed at him again.

It happened so fast. Too quickly. I couldn't stop it, couldn't intercept it.

The katana buried itself in Rudy's chest.

I wanted to scream. Rudy gasped out something, his lips smeared with blood. I watched as Valentina pulled her katana from Rudy's chest. I watched him slip to the ground, his blood staining the dirt. I opened my mouth in a scream. I felt like I was underwater.

Then suddenly Valentina slashed at me with her katana, and I was jolted back to the present.

I blocked her first blow with my staff, my blood pounding in my ears. Rudy laid motionless on the ground, his breathing beginning to falter, and I felt my eyes fill with tears. My only friend. And soon he would be gone.

I jabbed at Valentina with the staff, catching her along the side. She cried out and fell to the side, stumbling on the ground, and I gripped my knife from my scabbard and lunged forward, slashing viciously. She rolled out of the way just in time, then spun around and tackled me to the ground.

I grabbed Valentina by the neck, locking my fingers around her throat and shaking her around wildly. She choked and gagged, attempting to slash at me, but her arm was in too awkward a position and my grip was too tight. I wanted her dead, I wanted to kill her.

BOOM!

I faltered. My hands loosened. I felt my heart begin to pound rapidly in my chest, and tears began to prick at my eyes.