Fenn’s bloodbath
Fenn blinked hard, the bright sunlight blinding him as he emerged onto his platform. It was eerily quiet – he could make out the faint sound of waves lapping and of animals cawing, reminding him of the jungle he and Valentine had visited in the capitol. But these sounds were dulled. The air was humid, hot and thick, almost too thick to properly carry sound, and cutting through it all were the sounds of heavy breathing, though whether from himself or his fellow tributes Fenn couldn’t tell, and a monotonous beeping that counted down the seconds until the bloodbath. The blinking numbers above the cornucopia indicated that there were 50 seconds left until friends became enemies. Until some people here took their last breath.
He glanced to his side and forced his face into a small smile, though it could have been a grimace, at Cordelia. They stared at each other for a moment, before resuming their respective analyses of their surroundings. Past Cordelia Fenn could see Aphrodite, though his gaze did not linger on her. He actively suppressed the thought of their slumber party mere nights ago. Everything had to be different now.
Fenn steadied himself – he did not enjoy the heat, but the wetness of the air was familiar, even comforting as he breathed deeply. Slowly he assessed his surroundings, his eyes now adjusted to the bright light. The arena was breathtakingly beautiful and, he thought with a sick twist in his stomach, probably somewhere he’d have loved to explore if it were not a slaughterhouse. He could make out several islands, both floating and on the ground, mostly covered in dense foliage. He almost smirked, recalling hours spent hacking through dense undergrowth with Allium, before he remembered that whatever hid in that foliage was probably not to be trusted. Separating the islands was a sparkling shallow ocean, and Fenn could make out, even up here, the silver of fish flitting beneath the surface.
He pulled his attention back to the Cornucopia, seeing the 15 second warning flash out of the corner of his eyes. He could not see a spear, though he figured a spear was not too difficult to fashion from supplied found around the island. He could already see Cordelia angling herself away from the Cornucopia and, though they had agreed on this strategy, for a moment wished they had decided to run immediately together. He didn’t want to hang around long.
Fenn crouched, gritting his teeth and preparing to launch himself from the platform. He would have to hope the careers did not come straight for him, and rely on his speed to dart in and out as quickly as possible.
When the countdown reached zero, there was a beat of silence and the world seemed to slow around Fenn. He joined the tributes running towards the Cornucopia, thankfully keeping pace with the careers, and dodged under a fist that came his way, not bothering to check who it was. Fenn grabbed the short scimitar he had seen near the entrance and one of the backpacks, and ripped away without a second glance, continuing to run past the Cornucopia to the edge of the island. For a moment he thought Aphrodite might come after him, her eyes following him, but Jae appeared and Fenn felt almost thankful until he glanced back and saw Aphrodite slitting his throat, a coldness in her face that scared him.
Fenn leapt from the edge of the island and caught one of the thick, woody vines dangling from its base, trailing down to the sparkling sea below. He nimbly descended the vine, not caring to look back to see whether he was being followed. About three quarters of the way down, Fenn tucked the scimitar into the strap of the backpack and released the vine, diving down to water and careful to angle himself so as not to hit the bottom.
He briefly looked up at the sun to direct himself and set about swimming to the jungle just north of him, welcoming the familiar rhythm of swimming to distract himself from the blood-soaked ground and dead glassy eyes he had run through to get down here.
