Tremble Tremble the Animals Assemble
The ride to the arena was one of bubbling, uncomfortable awkwardness. Half the tributes stacked in a hovercraft, the other half flying side by side. She kept her head low not exactly wanting to make conversation with the intimidating boy from two or the snoring pregnant girl from twelve.
Once in the underground room that held the tube to her hell hole she felt a swarm of nervousness overcoming her. She rocked on her feet, then let out a long warm breathe as the computerized voice commanded her to enter the tube. All right reality, I’ll see ya soon. And with that thought Cassia entered the confined space.
Some part of her brain told her to close her eyes during the entrance to the games, so that she did. She saw it as some sort of twisted way of shutting out all her old world thoughts and allowing for only new thoughts of survival. This was going to be the hardest trial of her life. But she knew she had the will to get at least out of the cornucopia alive. It couldn’t be that hard right? She would just run in the opposite direction of the goods and she would be for the most part in the clear.
The floor began lifting upwards and she cracked her neck just wanting to get it all over with. The countdown had begun already and bright streams of light were shown creeping past her sealed eyelids. Once the floor came to a halt, she opened her eyes to another planet entirely. Her head swiveled side to side witnessing a knock dead (no pun intended) surprising environment surrounding her.
Staring into the horizon she could witness heat rising up from the ground, and she could count the number of trees in the area on one hand. The heat was seeping through her uniform and she knew she would have to try and find an area out of direct heat or else she would be battling just another factor, heat stroke. Just before Cassia thought she had her plan down, a rumbling engulfed the arena, causing tributes to stumble a slight bit on their podiums. Then in the distance a cloud of beige dirt was rising and coming towards them, carrying a storm of wild ferocious animals. Zebras. Elephants. Rhinos. And more.
This was something only from primary school stories, but Cassia knew too well this was not fantasy, but real and lethal. The gong rang out and she leaped off her podium, watching in panic as tributes were trampled in the stampede. Not only were the trampled, but blood was seeping out of their bodies as easily as the juice from an orange. Then she felt bile rise slightly in her throat as she witnessed the boy from seven literally throw his district partner into the line of fire.
With all the chaos exploding around her Cassia turned to a random direction and just ran. Ran anywhere but where the animals were coming from and she didn’t care where her feet would take her. She wasn’t an exceptionally good runner but she was god damn sure she would run until her legs fell off rather than be one yard closer to that kill fest. She looked in each direction, and quickly behind her finding neither human nor animal was on her tail. As of that moment, of course. Let the games begin.
