Wasteland - The 89th Hunger Games

The Snake Pit - Day Ten

Pablo knew something was off as soon as he cracked his eyelids open. Not only was he no longer in the same spot, but two other tributes lay in front of him. Confused, Pablo sits up and glances around, only to find that eight other sleeping tributes surround him. Eight. Someone was missing, although he wasn't sure who. The sound of running water meets his ears, and he glances to his left to see a running river, the water was pure black. Then he saw the valley before them, the sight of it made him nervous. Something was wrong.

'Better leave before the others wake up' Pablo thinks to himself. He was confused to as why most of the tributes were all put into one place, did they want the games to end so quickly? As he begins to walk, he quickly relies that something surrounds the tributes, something that looks like a large ring of leather. Then he notices the ring was moving. Snakes. Thousands of them, all swarming around in a circle around the tributes, the only brake in the ring being the river. Pablo knew that trying to jump over or run through the ring of snakes was useless, the game makers wouldn't allow it. They wanted the tributes to fight. Then something dawns on Pablo. Eight other tributes lay sleeping before him, eight easy kills. Eight steps further to home. Quickly, he pulls a ninja star from his bag, and scans each body, looking for the one that belongs to Byron. He finally spots him, the one closest to the edge of the valley. He wanted to torture Byron, to make him pay for killing Alfie, but now was the perfect time to eliminate him. He had to take the chance. He approached Byron's sleeping body, and prepared to throw the ninja star, when he heard someone stand up from behind him. Quickly, his head whips around to see Jase, looking around confused at the other tributes, for a moment, his eyes lock onto Pablo, but they are diverted away when Maya groans loudly beside him. The rest of the tributes all begin to stir at once, and Pablo quickly darts away from where Byron lays, knowing that now wasn't the time too attack. As each tributes eyes open, they all scan the area around them in shock, and Pablo even hears sobs coming from Skye, the youngest tribute left in the games. One by one they stand up, and everyone backs away from each other, most people to their alliances. The only loners of the group were Pablo and Kelsey, but that didn't seem to matter right now.

"Well," Byron says, smirking, "Looks like they want a show,"

Immediately, Byron begins sprinting towards the nearest tribute, which happens to be Kelsey, who quickly swings the bone that she holds in her hand at him. Byron jumps back, and slashes his knife at her, she only just manages to deflect it with the bone. Pablo was too wrapped up in watching the two tributes fight, that he didn't even notice Jase sprinting over to him.

"Pablo!" Skye screams, and he quickly ducks as Jase swings his knife at him. Pablo quickly tries to roll to the side, but Jase had predicted it, and kicked him in the back. Just as Jase was about to bring his knife down onto Pablo's head, a scream erupted from the valley before him. Every single tribute froze, all eyes turning to the pit. They all watch as Anna from Eight manages to scramble out of the pit, and for a moment, Pablo is confused why she was screaming, but then he saw it.

Byron was aware that Kelsey had quickly escaped while he was staring at the pit that Anna had just emerged from, but he didn't care, he was distracted by what emerged out of the pit after her. It was huge, its black eyes glinted in the sunlight and its forked tongue slid in and out of its mouth. It was literally a giant snake. For a moment, nobody moved, but then the thing let out a hiss, and it quickly snapped at the nearest tribute, which happened to be Byron. He quickly dives out of the way, crashing into Skye, who screams as the two of them topple to the floor. Byron immediately jumps up, expecting the snake to snap at him again, but it seems to be distracted by some other tributes. He quickly spins around to where Skye lay on the floor beneath him, only to find she was no longer there, he quickly glances left, just in time to see the bone heading for his face. He quickly raises his arm, and the bone hit's his wrist with a crack, causing him to howl in pain. He quickly glares at his attacker, and Kelsey's face pales, before she turns and darts over to where Jase is trying to attack Pablo. He then spots Skye running over to where Maya still sits on the ground, ever since she was hit with the rock, she's been quite out of it, she never speaks, and so far she's done nothing but sleep. Byron was about to turn away and focus on another tribute, when he sees the snake turn its attention to where Skye was running, and it's hissed loudly.

"Skye!" Joseph screams as the snakes head lunges forwards. Skye's looks over her shoulder, oblivious to the snake, a panicked look on her face. Byron watches in awe as the snake's head rams into Skye, knocking her to the ground, before it sinks its giant fangs into her chest. She lets out a pained scream, but it fades away quickly as the poison takes over the girl's body.

BOOM!

"Everyone, stop moving!" Zeke shouts from the far side of the ring, "It can sense movement,"

Immediately, every tribute freezes, all eyes on the snake, which is slowly devouring Skye's body in the center of the ring. He hears Joseph let out a sob, but he ignores it. The guy should have known his sister was going to die at some point, she was only twelve after all.

"Those of us who were in the mammoth cage know what to do!" Zeke shouts, "We all have to work together to beat this thing, otherwise eight of us might die, right here, and right now,"

Byron nods, and scans the area to see every tribute nodding in agreement, well, everyone except Maya, who just lays on the ground unconscious again. As he looks around, he quickly realizes that one tribute is missing, he can only see seven around him. Where was Pablo? His question was answered when pain explodes from the back of his head, his vision begins to blur, and suddenly his body goes limp, and everything goes white.

BOOM!

Megan watches in shock as Byron's body falls to the ground, and Pablo stands behind him, a look of satisfaction and relief on his face. The snake immediately turns to where his body collapses, and its head snaps forwards, and begins to devour Byron's body like it had devoured Skye. For some reason, nobody seems to care that Byron just died before their very eyes, Megan supposed that most of them were just relieved that

"What's the plan?" Anna shouts, and Megan glances at Zeke who stands behind him.

"Ok, Pablo and Anna are going to try and use their range weapons to kill the snake, Joseph, Kelsey and Megan will run around and try to distract it, Jase and I will go into the pit and try to attack the snakes belly, got it," Zeke says, and immediately everyone nods. Immediately, Megan brakes out into a sprint, running around the edge of the valley, so that the snake would leave the rest of the tributes alone. She hears a whizzing sound as Anna fires her first arrow, which just bounces off the side of the snakes head harmlessly.

"It's not working!" Anna screams, but Zeke and Jase have already descended into the valley, leaving the rest of the tributes to fend for themselves. She hears a loud hiss, and Megan glances over her shoulder to see the snake's head moving from side to side, at first this confused Megan, but when she spots Kelsey running towards the river, and it dawns on Megan that the snake is confused. There is another whizzing sound as Anna fires another arrow, but Megan doesn't see if it hit's or not as suddenly the ground gives way beneath her, and then next thing she knows, she's tumbling down the side of the valley, and doesn't spot until she crashes into the side of the snakes stomach. For a moment, she is too dizzy to stand, but when she does, she quickly realizes she's only a few meters away from the Foggy Bottom of the bit. She takes a step backwards, and immediately she hears the snake let out a hiss, and then she sees the snakes head descending into the pit at an alarming rate, straight at Megan. Megan screams, and sprints around the snake's body, and tries to ignore the loud smacking sound as the snakes head hits the rock where she was just standing.

"We can't do any damage!" She hears Zeke call from somewhere near the top of the valley, but she doesn't stop to answer him, instead she continues running. Megan doesn't spot the river until its a few meters in front of her, and only just manages to stop and leap to the side as the snakes head snaps at where she was just standing. Megan watches as the snakes head moves forwards a bit, it's nose accidently dipping into the black river. Immediately its head snaps back, and let's out a loud hiss which Megan can only describe as a hiss of pain, and then it dawns on her that she now knows how to kill the snake. Then she hears a cannon fire.

Maya is vaguely aware of two figures descending into the large valley before her, but everything is blurry, and she can't quite make out who they were. She saw someone run past her, and quickly notices that there are possible threats around her, people trying to kill her. She reaches for her crossbow, which lays a meter away from where she lies on the floor, and grabs it, and slowly pulls it over to her face, and looks through the aim. Maya wasn't even sure why she tried to use the aim, her vision was completely fuzzy, and she couldn't make out anyone. There was a scream from the valley, and suddenly she sees two figures emerge from the pit in front of her. With a groan of pain, Maya lifts the crossbow, and fires.