MPHFPC ➵ The Hunger Games AU (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 11

.☆ POV- Enoch

I dragged my shoes across the floor, making my way over to a table with a bit of space between a small boy around my age and a brawny girl.

The boy turned, met my gaze, and immediately whipped his head back to stare at his plate. I sat down beside him, causing a teenager next to Brawny to scowl.

"You got a problem?" I snapped.

She considered this before saying, "Only thing I got a problem with is your salty attitude."

"I could say the same to you." The argument amused me slightly, enough to distract me from the cruel reality of this world for a short sample of time.

"Hey, guys, cut it out," a tall kid with goggles interrupted.

Brawny nodded. "Anyway, who're you?" She directed the question to me.

"Enoch. And you lot?"

"Millard Nullings," said the kid next to the Goggles Boy. "That's Hugh." Pointed next to him. "Bronwyn." Brawny. "Emma." Salty. "Horace." Scrawny. "Jacob." Average-looking person. "Fiona." Silent girl.

I scooped some potatoes onto my plate and shoveled them into my mouth. "Are you all allies, or?"

Bronwyn answered. "Yeah."

"All of you?"

Fiona nodded.

"That's bloody insane!" I couldn't help but say. "All of you? Only one of us is gonna win these Games, and I'll be stuffed if it's one of you."

"Fine then, hope you enjoy yourself before you're slaughtered, no one to protect you!" Hugh frowned.

"Maybe I will! But not before you see that traveling in a big group is a suicide mission!" I retorted.

Hugh nearly pounced across the table, grabbing for me in frustration, before Millard and Jacob held him back.

Jacob gripped Hugh's shoulders. "We know what we're doing."

I just grunted in reply and stuffed my mouth with bizarre-tasting meat.

"Are you from District 11?" Horace asked. His voice was soft and nice.

"Yeah." I bit off another chunk of food. "What's it to you?"

He shrugged. "Just asking."

As silence fell over my half of the table, I organized a scrappy battle plan in my head. After this, I could check with the Careers perhaps, see if I could team up with them. That would assure my passing of the first few days at the least.

The worst part, though, was that I felt some odd connection to these stupid kids before me. Like we were supposed to battle out the Games together.

No.

Nonsense.

But... I felt it. It was there. I tried to shake off the feeling as I emptied my plate and left the table. It didn't go away, even as I introduced myself to the Careers.

.☆ POV- Horace

Bronwyn, Jacob, Hugh, Millard, Fiona, and I were all sitting down, tying knots. I found myself squeezed beside Bronwyn and Millard, who was chattering a mile a minute with Hugh.

"Hey, Bronwyn?" I said, shoving the end of my rope down a loop.

"Yeah?"

"Could we ally with Enoch maybe?"

She seemed confused for a second, her expression either reflecting my words or the mess of string she was holding; I couldn't tell. She looked up and shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know." I pushed a twisted strang up and around my knot, complexifying it. "He seems like he might be good to have." I didn't put in my admiration of his confidence. That was personal, and something no one wanted to know.

"Sure, long as you talk to him, I suppose," Bronwyn answered.

I murmured my thanks and stood up, glancing around for Enoch's now-familiar blond hair, raccoon-like blue eyes, and pale skin. I drew in a breath when I saw him practicing weapons, surrounded by Careers.

They were talking, maybe even recruiting him.

I felt my last bit of hope for allying with him wink out as I turned around in defeat and sat back down.

.☆ POV- Millard

It had not dawned upon me before this day how unfortunate I was to have met possibly the best person in this world. This damned world.

I laughed along when he smiled, as he talked, trying to shut out the genuine affection that I'd experienced with so few. To numb my heart. So it wouldn't hurt less when I murdered him.

I had to.

I had to.

I didn't want to.

I really didn't want to.

"Hm? You alright, mate?" Hugh asked, planting a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." I couldn't tell if I'd fooled him or not (blessing it was that I'd been born with a permanent poker face that made my expression difficult to read) but nonetheless he let it go.

"So... I suppose I'll see you soon."

"Right," I said. God. Why did this kid have to be so nice? Why did he have to make it so hard?

As I walked to rejoin Althea, I felt a heavy stone rest in my heart, a heavy burden fall upon my shoulders. I'm going to have to kill Hugh.

And then a worse thought occurred to me. Hugh's going to have to kill me. Then I internally slapped myself. A worse thought? Selfish. I was selfish for putting my life above others'. But wasn't that what we were all doing?

Surviving.

It was at that moment I wanted to cry. What hope was there for humanity?

I choked back everything I'd been holding in and swallowed. To settle with later.

I turned around and caught a glimpse of Hugh- my new friend, my best friend. He was walking with Bronwyn, both of them about to leave.

"I'm sorry," I said, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. It felt good to say the words. "I'm sorry I'm going to beat you until my hand turns crimson with blood, mine and yours, because I'm scared for my life and too selfish to do anything reasonable about it."

I inhaled sharply and let the beat of my shoes clacking against the floor fill my ears, distracting myself from the motion and energy around me.