The Hunger Games: Multi-Verse

Day 7

Peter Parker's POV

Gale has been stressed all day. Last night, very late, we heard a cannon. But no one had appeared when the anthem had shown in the night sky. He was worried that the Capitol was scheming something terrible against the rest of us remaining tributes.

His anxious state was really starting to get at my nerves. Not annoy me, but affect me. Rub off on me. I began to feel as if I was being watched from every angle — which, technically I was. We all were. But that hadn't creeped me out before. I guess the whole thought of the Games had weirded me out, but it hadn't truly bothered me yet. Or maybe the horribleness of it hadn't settled into my thoughts yet.

What creeped me out was that the people watching could end my life with the press of a button. They cradled my future in their hands. I was useless. I could make it all the way to the end. I could kill the remaining ten or eleven tributes. And they could still choose to slay me anyways.

And when I actually thought about it, the people watching would rather see me gruesomely murdered than have me live. They would rather see that.

Now I was much more alert. We walked through the woods, Hawkeye in the back and Gale leading. I constantly listened to the sounds of the forest, fully prepared for anything the Gamemakers might throw at us. As the one with spider-like abilities, I assumed it was my job to keep audible tabs on our surroundings.

And then Gale held up a hand, signaling us to stop in our tracks.

We had reached the origin of this Games. We were staring in on the Cornucopia, looking at the two Star Wars creatures — the short orange alien and the human-shaped woolly mammoth — guarding the Cornucopia.

"Go time." Hawkeye muttered, coming in line with us and pulling an arrow from his sheath. He fitted it in his bow and took aim.

I watched tensely as he took a moment's pause, and then let the arrow fly through the air. The arrowhead, of course, found its home, right in the neck of the big animal. It let out a large roar, but it wasn't exactly a roar -- almost like an animal yelling. It yanked the arrow out of the back of its neck where it had deeply sunken, and then the creature turned around, trying to spot us through the trees.

"Uh, Mr. Barton?" I asked nervously, "D'you think you have another arrow you could use?"

I was not in the mood to fight this thing that was now walking in our direction. Its small orange counterpart leapt up and began trying to tug the beast into the shelter the cornucopia provided. As the beast began walking to shelter, Hawkeye ripped another arrow out of his sheath at the speed of light and let it fly until it sunk into the skull of the beast.

The beast sunk to its knees, leaving the large-headed orange creature to fall against his body, sobbing. A cannon boomed.

"Don't waste the arrows. Go grab them!" Gale instructed, but Hawkeye shook his head.

"I can't get a good aim of that orange thing and I don't know what weapons it has available -- or what skills it has to fight us with." Hawkeye countered with an eerie tone. Gale rolled his eyes. I cringed, not enjoying the rivalry growing between the two skilled archers. Both wanted to take and call the shots.

Minutes later a big ship appeared over the body of the mammoth thing, and the other orange thing crawled back to the cornucopia. Hawkeye had his arrow trained on it the whole time but couldn't get a clear shot. The ship reached a huge claw down and pulled the big animal's body from the arena, along with two of Hawkeye's arrows.

"Guess we'll wait it out. It can't stay in the Cornucopia forever." Hawkeye settled against the tree trunk.

"We're staying here?" I asked incredulously. Being so near the cornucopia, such a central area to the Games, felt dangerous.