#apogday1

The trees ahead of me seemed camouflaged enough and whilst the sun was still shining and there was still some warmth, I sat down and slept for a few hours and by some miracle when I woke up I was still alive - it seemed as though nobody had found me yet. So as the sun started to set and daylight faded into twilight, I collected my things up and got moving hopefully as far away from the competition as possible. I continued to walk south for a little while longer until I realised that if I continued to walk that way, I might not be a supply of water. I doubted that I got a sponsor and I didn’t want to risk dying of dehydration either, so keeping to lake to my left I continued to follow it and it eventually started to bring me east. The sky continued to get darker and darker and with this darkness I knew that people were going to be sleeping soon. I however, found myself more alive whenever the day became night and stars began to shine. For a moment I could have pretended that the stroll I was having was just a regular one and that I wasn’t really in a pageant fighting for my life but I was, and I just couldn’t pretend anymore.

I carried on following the lake east before it headed north again and I saw a small collection of trees up ahead where I decided to take refuge for the night. Ahead of me a small bridge and to my right some sand just like the other holes. I wondered if any of them in particular were special. Before losing the last of the light, I took my bow from around my shoulder and loaded an arrow. I wasn’t awful with this weapon, but I wasn’t fantastic either. And if now wasn’t a prime time to practice I couldn’t think of a time to do it. With my back (stupidly) to the water, I faced the trees in front of me and squinted a little to distinguish between them. I pulled back the string of the bow and focused for a few seconds before letting go and watching the arrow soar and somehow lodge into the tree trunk. I ignored the fact that I wasn’t actually aiming for that particular trunk but the fact that it actually stuck was good enough for me.

I repeated this, for perhaps half an hour until there was virtually no light to do so. I retrieved all of my arrows again before sitting down and leaning on a trunk for a few minutes thinking about what was next. Would they send me another alligator? Maybe even a swarm of bees or a plague of some sort, who knew? Maybe they were in a particularly awful mood. I had only heard one cannon since the Bloodbath and just as the thought crossed my mind, a loud blare of music nearly made me jump out of my skin and the sight of the Capitol seal confused for a couple of seconds before I read the words ‘The Fallen’ and then I understood. A part of me wanted to turn away the second I saw Declan’s face flash up first but I knew that if I was actually going to find the strength to fight and keep myself alive then I was just going to have to. But it was awful, it was all just so horrible. There was so much violence, and so much blood and so much death already. And the games had just begun. I silently prayed for all four of the people that lost their lives in the Bloodbath but it didn’t hurt as much as when I saw Adam flash up in the sky.

“No…” my hands flew to my chest and I shook my head as I remembered the nice and shy boy that I encountered after the Parade. He was so sweet, and so kind and he didn’t deserve to die so young. It was the parts like this that made me so angry. I wiped the tears that had fallen away and let out a frustrated growl because no one of us deserved this. I could now see why they protested and rebelled so violently now.

As I wrapped my hands around myself to keep warm in the cold, the sound of a beeping came from above me and then a little parachute landed not far from me. At first I felt a panic start to rise because I felt like it belonged to someone else and that they were close by, but then I realised that I was being an absolute idiot. I crawled from my spot and opened up the large parachute and gasped at the contents of it.

The Capitol seal appears in the sky between the branches of the trees and I see the boy from Three be killed by Clifton.  Didn't think he had it in him, but now I know.  Then I see the girl and I'm face-to-face with myself impaling her with my spear.  I place my head down and miss a few more recaps.  When I look up again, I see Delilah finishing off a boy.  I shake my head lightly.  I wasn't surprised, but I was a little disappointed.  I had been hoping she wouldn't go down that route, but I should have known better.  Now, I just wanted to steer clear of her.

I was proud of myself, but I couldn't look at the place where Adagio's body had lain. Since my fight with him, the hovercraft had swooped in and taken him away. Despite all the training it was still a little weird to take away someone's life. 

But enough with that talk, I have to get going. My collected items laid on the seat beside me and I took a mental inventory of what I had. The weapons I had acquired included Adagio's machete and a pack of shurikens. I examined each shuriken, relishing the new weapon. We didn't really dwell on these in training, but they seemed as easy to throw as knives. 

I had also gotten a shield. Man, was that ever lucky. I would be even more unstoppable with this bad boy along for the ride. I grinned from ear to ear. This was perfect. 

The real treasure trove laid in the backpack that was left behind. I unzipped the top and quickly pulled out my haul. There was a few pieces of food that I set off to the side. I would pick at it when I had chosen my place to stay tonight. 

The fun stuff was next. I produced a grappling hook from the backpack. I grinned at my discovery. That would be so useful in the future. A blanket and mattress came out next, thankfully I would have a good sleep tonight. Next, I picked out a tube of anitbiotic ointment which would be great for my shallow cut on my leg. Better to be safe then sorry. 

I unscrewed the tube and squeezed out a little onto my finger. I rubbed it on the shallow cut on my thigh. It stunk a bit, but otherwise it was fine. I ripped a piece of my uniform off of my sleeve and wrapped it around my thigh. It was only a shallow cut, but I think that wrapping it up would be more than a enough. 

I placed the tube of cream on my pile of growing supplies. This was a good start to the Games, I must say. I had supplies, weapons,  a shield, a kill under my belt and a golf cart. 

I shoved my supplies back into the backpack. I stuck the machete out of the top of the backpack, so it was ready for me to grab if I was swordless. I put the shurikens in my pockets for quick access and laid the sword on the seat beside me. Finally I strapped the shield on my left arm. I was ready for anything. 

The afternoon had fell away to evening and I had to start thinking of finding somewhere to hole up for the night. North of me was a stretch of water. I decided to head that way because then I would have something that prevented tributes from sneaking up on me from behind. 

I started the engine of the golf cart. I was almost giddy with excitement; like a 10 year old at Christmas time. It roared to life and I sped off towards the body of water. I stopped just shy of 10 metres from the water. 

There weren't any trees for cover, but this was as good as it was going to get. I cut the engine of the cart and slid out. The sun was setting and I needed to set up camp quick. I took out the mattress and blew it up. It took a while, but I was at least getting a good night's rest tonight. My head was still pounding, but as far as I could tell it wasn't going to make me dead just yet. 

I moved the mattress to the side of the cart that faced the water. It would at least make me invisible to those staring at it. I could surprise anybody that comes snooping near my new cart. 

The girl from Three, the girl that I had killed, her face appears in my mind.  I squeeze my eyes shut to erase the mental image of the young girl's scream as the life left her.  I open my eyes, still trying to erase the guilt.  I had killed the poor girl who didn't even have a chance to live.  But she did come after me first, I try to tell myself.  She did arm herself and try to hurt me.  What I did was in self-defense.  My breathing slows down a bit as my convincing slowly starts to work, my mind tricking itself to absolve the sin that I had committed earlier.

I sigh and lean back on the trunk of a tree, wondering how Delilah was doing.  I wonder how Avery is doing... she's probably paired off with Zeke.  I smile sadly to myself.  I should have tried a little harder and made my feelings to her known.  Good for Zeke, though.  Went in for the swoop and he got the sweet, kind girl.  I shake my head lightly.  This was no time nor place to be dwelling on the missed opportunity of what could have been someone that I might have really liked.

I'd never played golf before but it didn't take a genius to work out that we were in a golf course. I was mildly disappointed at the lack of golf clubs. After I cleaned myself up I got up to head further south when I heard this kind of growl behind me. I knew that running away from whatever thing was behind me would be a bad idea because it would just chase me, so instead I slowly turned around and in front of me was an alligator, and a ferocious one at that. I felt I was going to be standing there for eternity thinking of an escape plan. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t just stay there, I didn’t want to fight it and there was no way in hell that I was jumping into the water where it came from. Directly behind me however was a tree trunk and a sturdy one as well. I slowly moved my hands behind me to feel for some branches and when I felt something that I could put my feet on, I turned around and jumped onto the trunk. Almost immediately after I moved, I heard the ground start to pound as the alligator chased after me. Another scream involuntarily left my mouth as I desperately started to clamber up the tree for my dear life and with the thing practically snapping at my legs I was surprised at how I was evening manage to stay onto the tree. I held onto the branch for my dear life and felt like I was shaking like a leaf waiting for this thing to go away. My eyes were screwed shut trying to block out the growling of the unnatural beast and I wished so much that I was anywhere other than where I was right now.

After a few moments I managed to reopen them and peak down to the ground where the alligator remained, however it seemed as though alligators could most definitely climb trees. My dangling body was hanging off of a branch which would the alligator would probably be able to get to in a couple of seconds going the speed it was going and I felt bile rise up in my mouth. I was going to die in tree killed by an alligator. I started to wonder if this was some sort of a sick joke conducted by the Game Makers. They knew that I had two choices. I could kill it or I could let it kill me and we both knew which option I was inevitably going to choose. As soon as the creature was about halfway up the trunk, I shifted my position on the branch and gripped onto the end before swinging my body off of the wood and dangling a little before jumping off. Bending down to help absorb some of the pressure, it wasn’t going to be long before the alligator was back so I took my bow from behind my back and loaded an arrow with a shaky hand and prepared myself for when it came back.

And it was like before I could even blink it was starting to get closer and closer. As I continued to back up, the thing just got closer and I shakily let go of the arrow and it instead flew off and hit the tree trunk, nowhere near the alligator. I loaded another one - this one less shaky than the last and I breathed a little to steady myself. If I was going to actually try to kill this thing then I was going to have to try and get a clean shot. I didn’t want it - whatever it was - to suffer. When I let the second arrow go in lodged itself into the body of the alligator but did near nothing to slow it down. It was disheartening and before I could load another, it had opened its jaw wide and went to snap my leg off. I managed to jump out of the way quick enough, but not without it slicing my leg with its razor sharp teeth in the process. The teeth were unnaturally sharp and it was then that I knew that this alligator was no creature of God. With myself on my back, I sat up and pulled my hand axe out and without a second of hesitation I launched my body onto the creature and repeatedly slammed the sharp head into the fishy flesh of the creature until it eventually stopped moving. I dropped the axe the second I had convinced myself it was dead and moved a stray piece of hair out of my eye before standing up to get back the first arrow that missed, and then pulling out the one in the alligator’s body before walking back to the tree and sliding down the trunk slowly, suddenly exhausted by everything I had just experienced.