The 200th Annual Hunger Games - The Ultimate Games

Game 1, Day 3 (Afternoon)

Eve Smith POV

“Well…” Arwin said awkwardly as Aria and Honour sat down next to each other. “This is weird.”

Aria sat on the ground like a little kid, rocking back and forth slightly and eating pear slices.

“Who knew Aria had a heart?” I asked with a smirk. Fern elbowed me in the arm, and I swore angrily. “Okay, okay. Jeez.”

“Where are they going?” Shane whispered. I shrugged as Aria and Honour suddenly sat up from the ground and took off at a sprint towards the cliffs.

“Look! There’s people fighting up there!” Arwin said quietly. She pointed, and I saw a group of tributes fighting each other. Two people were desperately trying to defend a smaller tribute, whilst two other tributes were aggressively attacking them.

“Looks like World War 3 is about to begin.” I muttered. “Should we go?”

“I say we go up the cliffs, but we stay in the tree line.” Benji said from behind me. “If it gets really bad, we can get away.”

We all nodded assent and walked out of our hiding spots. Shane led the way across the ocean, until we eventually reached the cliff face. Slowly but surely, we climbed up the cliff face. As soon as we hauled ourselves up to the top, Fern whimpered in pain.

“You OK?” Benji asked. Fern shut her eyes tightly and shook her head, her legs still dangling over the cliffs. I ran forward with Shane and hauled her up the rest of the way. Fern sat on the ground, wincing in pain as Arwin quickly retreated her wound. It had cleared up a bit by now at this point and was no longer life threatening, but it caused Fern a lot of physical pain. A lot of pain she couldn’t afford to have at this point in the games. There were 13 tributes left, and only 8 came out victorious.

“Only 5 more deaths until it’s all over.” I murmured.

“It won’t be over in 5 more deaths!” Fern snapped angrily. “It’ll be over once Murphy’s crowning the damn victor! It’s not all rainbows and smiles, Eve. Stop trying to sugarcoat it!”

On a normal day, Fern’s aggressiveness wouldn’t get to me that much, and I would let it slide. But the intense heat of the sun, our limited supply of food, and the conditions we had been in recently, all gave me a much shorter temper. And, just like that, my self-control and temper snapped.

“You know what, Fern?” I spat. “Shut the hell up. You’ve been complaining nonstop ever since I found you guys, and it gets really fucking annoying.”

Fern stared at me, her face contorted into one of anger. “Excuse me?”

I stared back at her with my eyebrow arched, daring her to retaliate. And she took the bait.

“Are you fucking serious, Eve?” she shouted angrily. “I almost got killed by Aria at the bloodbath!”

“And I almost got turned into a fucking shish kabob by Hunter!” I snarled. “You don’t hear me bitching about it! As hard as it may be for you to hear this, Fern, you can be a bit of a whiny bitch sometimes.”

“HEY!” Shane shouted angrily. “Don’t talk to my girlfriend like that, Eve, or I swear to god I’ll rip your head off!”

“Stay out of this, Shane!” Fern said. She turned back to me, an angry snarl across her face.

“What’s wrong?” I said coldly. “Can’t handle a fight without your boyfriend?”

“Shut up, Eve!” Fern scowled at me. “You know, at least I HAVE a boyfriend. At least I have someone who cares about me! Who do you have? Oh, that’s right. NO ONE!”