#ttiac

‘Morning,’ I whisper.  I take the faintest of steps near Natasha, and sit next to her. ‘Today’s the final day....’

‘I know... I never imagined it’d feel like this or if I’d even be here.’

‘Me neither... you hungry?’ I unfold myself and collect the resources bulging out of the bag, and I pass the food across to Natasha. Silence...

And then we hear a sound, quite a sinister sound, something to expect on the last day in the arena.

‘Zippy, kill the bird in the sky.’ I announce, he observantly follows my commands, and flies upwards with his beak darting through the cloudy breeze. As the massacre above tries hard to distract us, we’re sunk into the feelings of despair and desperation... We were so desperate for a life out of the games or so desperate for life to end. We were desperate to escape, but we knew that only one could win. I hear the rattling of the roofs as the stomps shatter through the lands of the arena. Its back, it’s marching towards us. Its mouth is sweating for energy. I push Natasha out of the way and the mutt pounds me to the ground, its razor claws dancing in front of my eyes, taunting me aimlessly. I could feel the wet slime on my arm from its mouth as I shook from its heavy figure moulding me into the shape of the roof. The chaos felt like it lasted a lifetime, but the warm droplets of redness smeared across my neck told me its current life form. Natasha rolled the body to the edge and tossed it over to the sea, as a party of piranhas twirl around it. Natasha collapses to the ground, her back towards me with her head falling into the palms of her hands. What had just happened?

‘You were amazing, Zippidy. Remember that we love you.’ She whispers to him as she let tears fall down her face.I set out a neat preparation of fabrics to lay out for Zippidy, he's gone. I take a final stroke at his prickle strands of hair shuffled across his face messily. The silence falls, and so does the sun.

Are you feeling better?’ I ask. ‘Yeah, I think so.’ Natasha replies. ‘Good, but we both know what’s coming next...’ My head rolls to the direction of the floor.

‘There’s no way we can get out of it. Only one comes out...’ ‘My life means nothing to me...’ I whisper in a melancholic manner.

‘No... You can’t...’ She shakes her head. ‘It’s easier if I die.’ ‘No, there has to be something for you back in your District, there has to be.’ ‘Nope, nothing.’ ‘Your family... they must realise how strong you are for getting this far.’ ‘I’m not strong, people have just sacrificed my life for me, I don't know why - and it wouldn’t change things at home.’ ‘How do you know? They could be willing you to kill me and come home.’ ‘They won’t be... they haven’t cared for me my entire life; I doubt they’d want to care now, and anyway, your life is more important. You have something to fall back to, a new chapter that’s waiting to unfold in your life.’ I smile. ‘But yours could be more important...’ ‘If I go back, I could be going back to a world that shoved me in a corner like before. But if I go now, then I get to see my friends again. I’ll tell them all about you...’ ‘Stop...’ ‘No, you need to realise you have a life that is waiting for you outside of here. If I win, I’ll just be a sad, lonely victor.’‘ ‘Don’t talk like that...’ ‘Well, it’s true. I’ll die. That’s what I want - my last request.’ The tears build in her eyes. She always knew this wasn’t going to be an easy day. ‘I guess arguing will get us nowhere.’ She tries to smile. ‘No... It won’t’ I tilt my mouth, trying to smile, digging my teeth into my bleeding gums to prevent the tears from escaping my eyes. Natasha stands, not replying in any physical way.

‘I guess I should do it myself.’

‘I just can’t... We’ve been through so much.’ The tone of desperation rolls up my heart like a piece of scrap paper.

‘I know.... but we can’t argue forever and one of us has to go home...’ ‘I’ll do it...’ I hear a whisper.  We embrace in a hug for the last time. It is a tight hug. Like saying ‘I never want to let you go’. I am crying so much now. I must have cried a river with all the tears I’ve wept today. I move away, knowing what I have to do next. 

I get out my scythe and i raise it to my head. ‘They want an interesting death, don’t they?’ I try to laugh, but I’m just shaking, my blood shivering uncontrollably.

‘Do it, slice my neck, and push me off.’ I whisper close into her ear. I hear the weeping, the fatigue in her cries. I know it kills her now, but soon, she’ll smile. We stand at the edge, her hands slowly folding across my body, her left arm cradling my back tightly. The other, taking the scythe from my palms and slowly dragging it to the floor, then it rises. I smile. I feel the coldness of the blade barely touching my naked neck. I hear the wind echoing the sounds of birds singing stressfully. I can smell the perfume of dry blood scattered across the arena. I can see Natasha, her face marked with creases and oiled with salty tears. “Any last words?” She asks - her throat barely capable of projecting the voice inside of it. “Bye...Have a great life – you deserve it.”

‘Goodbye, I’ll never forget you’ 

The crystals fade as my eyes open clearly, a new day has begun. My arms are left empty as the ones that were once close to me are now probably the furthest away from me, not even in this realm. My arms try to hug a pillow, never forgetting the memories I had with these people. As I roll over, I see a briefly familiar face. It’s Natasha, and I wake her up. Today could be our last day in the arena... Who knows? We gnaw at the bag of capitol food, as the sun disappears from all existence. Silence is the only sound to be heard, the only air to be consumed. Natalie and Arrian are gone, only one person can win. There’s a high chance that one of us will win, but then again, someone could die easily. My mind settles its way back to the time where I was laying across the crimson stained grass, being pounded to the ground by a guy spitting like a dog. I guess everyone knows I’m weak... They don’t know that really – they can think it though. I shiver as the solitary floorboards cry at my  cold ankles. I don’t make much contact with Natasha, the time is ticking away, but I don’t want to kill. Why should I continue to kill, when ending lives brings so much pain into my life, it’s not worth it. I’m the reason that Arrian is dead. I could’ve ran back and saved him, but I didn’t. I could’ve saved Natalie too, if I never ran into the feast aimlessly. The floorboards shiver this time, and so does the earth around the building. It’s alerted us, and Natasha gets up to her feet, her leg recovering nicely. “I’m guessing your legs better, then.” I whisper. She nods her head.

“It doesn’t feel safe around here anymore, Noah.” Her voice raises through the room.

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you just hear that?”

“The shaking of the floor?”

“No, Noah the shaking of the arena,” I can feel my eyes bulge out, gasping uncontrollably.

“I think we need to get as far away from the cornucopia as possible. And that river, we need to get away from it.” She points to the window, her leg shaking slightly. And as I look towards the window, I see a large bird moulded into the colour of the brown shredded wallpaper.  I forgot about winning the bird yesterday, and to be honest I don’t see how it’s going to be helpful at all.

“There he is! It’s Zippidy! Yay!” Natasha’s clapping to herself amusingly.

“Zippy? Is that his name now?”

“Zippidy you mean! Yeah, it always has been!” She gently lays out her hand to the falcon and his feet delicately roll onto her fingertips, twitching its head. Since when did we name it Zippidy?

I mutter to myself, putting all the food into our sacks and collect the fabrics and materials for sleeping with. I still hold them all; just to be sure that Natasha doesn’t have any problems with walking. She knows where we’re going, after all.  Each cautious step finally leads us to a long and tall building, and we enter it, with Zippidy obediently swishing his head in all directions.  The building was like all the others we’ve been in before, and when we got to the top we felt another shake. It was stronger this time.  The shaking was over. “Richard must still be alive...” I say.

“Richard, how do you know him?”

“We saw him during the training results in the capitol, remember?”

Natasha is looking outside the window now, her head following the rhythm of the waves.

“Where are the cannon blasts? These waves are just too hectic...” Her voice is barely audible over the river flowing wildly around the arena.

“I’m not sure...”

“Oh, I have an idea!” Natasha runs over to Zippidy and whispers in his ear and he flies through the window.

“What did you do?”

“Zippidy will find out where Richard is. He’s quite an observant falcon if you haven’t noticed.”

I give Natasha a confused look, but then I realise what she’s done.

“Wow, that’s the best idea i’ve ever heard!”

“Haha, well thank you!” She gives a toss with her hair and looks at the water, it’s only rising.

A noise pierces through the atmosphere, it sounded like a gun.

“He has the gun...” I whisper.

Did Richard shoot Zippidy?

We wait in the long silence, hoping for a cannon blast to fill the noise, but it doesn’t, and then we hear the flapping of a wing appearing by the window.

“Zippidy, oh gosh... Your wing!” Natasha’s cradling the falcon in her creased hands, her palms slowly stained by the bloody wing of the bird. The creature is hiding between the holes of Natashas fingers, twitching at the horrendous wound splattered onto its wing. Natasha heals it, and after a while the bleeding stops and its head rises. Relief has grown onto our faces, and I notice its wet body.

“It must’ve made contact with water,” Natasha feels at its damp arm.

“That must mean Richard is on the river....”

“But how, I mean to be in a place like that, you can’t survive without ... A boat.”

“He must be on a boat then! The game makers might’ve placed one in a hidden place, just incase everyone gets affected by it.”

“Noah, if we stay here then we’re gonna be affected by the river...”

I look out at the window, the water is rising, and I climb out, groping onto the end of the roof to find a stable concrete platform above me. “We can climb up here!” I shout.

We roll onto the roof of the building and as Natasha is trying to get up I hold her hand to help her. The falcon is by our side, gradually flapping its wings at a faster pace, trying to recover. The waves crash and fly throughout the arena. Groups of trees and buildings and plants are mixed in with the sea as it only grows larger.

“Look, doesn’t that seem odd?” Natasha points to the sea, and we see grey sparkles in the glimmering water, swimming violently.  I look closer at them.

“What is that?” The group multiplies each few seconds, building an uncontrollable army.

“They’re piranhas, can’t you see the way they move and group together? Apparently, a hint of blood makes them go crazy; we don’t wanna be going in that river anytime soon.” I look at Natasha, who is glaring at the sea, and I notice that her skin is growing pale. I cover her in fabrics from the seats I found in the subway.  And as I notice a spot of blood on her shoulder from the falcon, it hits me.

“I know! This may seem a bit odd, but just pass me that bag over there.”  Natasha gives me a concerned expression, and slowly picks up the bag with a spare hand, letting it dangle towards me. I eagerly open it and take out the cup I found from the bloodbath in the arena. I get out Natashas dagger, and I scrape at my arm.

“Noah what are you doing?!”

I hush at her, “Be quiet, we don’t want to alert him.”

I manage to pierce the knife into my arm, and the hot red mess drips out into the cup and onto the roof like it’s dancing to the beat of a melancholic melody.

“Come here Zippidy.” I say, and I attach the cup onto its legs.

“Be careful, and put this onto Richard’s boat.” I point at the cup patronisingly, and it barely manages to fly away in the distance, twitching at the stench of fresh blood.

“The boat... So you want the piranhas to eat at the boat?” Natasha’s voice echoes through my bristle ear.

“Yeah – hopefully him too.” 

“Here, let me fix up your arm.”

The time progresses slowly, as me and Natasha were desperate to hear the sound of the cannons. The water splashing together has become a relaxing sound and the sun is out surprisingly, turning a jubilant red.

“I wonder what’s gonna happen after the games?”  It’s Natasha. Her voice sounds peaceful, and quite sympathetic. The waves must have been too overwhelming for her to handle.

“Well, you’ll get to meet your family again, and that boy you told me about - the boy who you can live the rest of your life with. You can live the rest of your life a happy and normal life.”  

“But what about you?” The question makes me hop about like a bunny escaping from its predator.

“I don’t know, I guess nothing really,” Natasha’s eyebrows fold over her eyes, she looks confused.

“I don’t think I’ll have a purpose after the games, oh well.”

“No not oh well, Noah you can’t think like that.”

“I’ve thought like that my whole life, not much will change.”

‘Tributes! Commencing at noon, there will be a feast. To make the feast more exciting, we want people to actually fight for what could help them the most. Each group of tributes will receive a parachute in about 20 seconds. That is all.’ We look at the sky as the echoes die down. It’s just me and Natasha, now. No more Arrian. As the sun twirls through the trees, I think back to the last time I saw Arrian. Turning my head as I ran away from his corpse, my feet moved to the rhythm of the cannon blast. The heavy panting noises fled my mouth as I heard the last sound ever to be heard of him. “Noah! Run!” The ringing in my head won’t go away. Something appears in front of me and Natasha, the parachute. I turn my head at her, and I make my way to the parachute. Opening it I let the bullets pour into my hand. “They’re bullets...” I stare at them - why bullets?

‘Bullets, like for a gun or something?’  Her hands are buried in her stomach and she shakes her head slightly.

“Yeah, I guess...” As I slowly enter back into the realms of reality, the bullets in my hand roll around like they’re participating in a race.

“Well.... there’s obviously going to be a gun in the feast.... don’t go for it’

“Why not..?” I reply hastily. Shouldn’t getting a gun in a feast be a good thing? I clench my fist, covering the small pebble-like figures cradled in my palms and I turn to Natasha again.

'Tributes will obviously fighting for it... and it’s a way to get killed....’

“Oh yeah, how’s your leg?” She’s holding it securely, as if it would fall off if she let go.

‘It feels much better...’  Natasha holds herself up barely, grabbing onto the flaky trees as she shakes uncontrollably, then falls back down like an anchor dropping into the sea.   ‘But I can’t put much weight on it...’

‘You can’t participate in the feast’ I announce, stating the obvious. I need to be sure that Natasha realises that going into the feast won’t only be the death of her but it could also be the death of her family also. I’m not sure her loved ones at home could handle a life without her. The best thing would be for her to stay as far away from the feast as possible. I glance at her leg delicately painted with ointment, the wounds are healing but they’re still bulging brightly across her pale skin.

‘I know.... are you going to go?’ 

“Of course, we need all the help we can get if someone’s gonna win this!” And then it hits me. Only one can win. My smile melts instantly and I run my hands through my knotty hair.

‘Well at least let me help you stay alive’

‘Okay, but how? If you come on the ground with me then you’re going to get killed because you can’t run... and if you get caught off guard... you’re going to die..’

‘I don’t know...’ The voices are silent now, and the wind is flying through the ruins cautiously.

“I know!”  My voice rises higher than the clouds on a sunny day. My head falls, in shame, if we die, then it’ll be all my fault.

‘You could be on the top floor of one of the surrounding buildings and have the window open and you could be armed with your bow and arrows to help out if I get in any trouble...’  I suggest - my voice turning into a gentle whisper.

‘That’s perfect!’ She smiles gracefully, and then it disappears.

The deafening sound of the bushes swishing together alerts us, and we gather our weapons.

“Noah...” The whisper can barely be heard of the crunch of sticks appearing now and again.

“Noah...” The voice repeats, in a more desperate tone. Who the hell could it be, how do they know my name?

Her face travels past the shining leafs and I wave my hands in front of Natasha’s bow.

“Don’t shoot,” The arrow is lowered, and her life is safe.  “She’s my district partner!” I shoot up and my arms are around her, it’s Natalie, My district partner.

‘Hi Noah,’ her voice is memorable and it’s a nice sound to hear. It reminds me of my life a few days ago – I miss that.

‘Natalie, this is Natasha....’ I move my body for her to see the injured girl, looking confused and mislead, then the smile recovers back onto her face,

“Hiya,” She limps slowly, and then decides to stop.

“Hello, what happened to your leg?” she asks curiously.

‘Oh, it got attacked by a mutt croc thing, it’s getting better though.’

“Natasha can’t walk,” I say, stating the obvious like always.

“Are you going to the feast?”

‘I was thinking about it, but I didn’t think I’d have much of a chance of surviving it...’ Her voice is confused, but weirdly collective.

“Don’t worry! Natasha’s got our ba-,” I grin, seeing Natalie has really lightened my mood.

‘I know... I heard... that’s how I found you and knew it was you....’ she interrupts.

“So, do you want to join me in the feast?”

“Yeah sure,” she replies, coolly.

‘What kind of weapons do you have?’ Natasha asks.

‘Well, all I have is poison.’ She drags out the bottle of weirdly coloured liquid and plays with it dully in her hand.

‘Oh, that’s okay; we can always just poison the top of my arrows...’

“That’s-!” I scream unconsciously.

“A great idea!”  I say a little quieter this time.

‘Okay, so we probably have a few hours til the feast so... what do we do in the meantime?’ Natalie rubs her sore neck, showing the dirt marks all over her dry arms. The state she must’ve been through...

‘Well, we have to get me on the top floor of one of the buildings that surround the cornucopia.’

  ‘Noah, can you shoot?’ Her head turns slightly, and I reply.

“I’m alright, I guess...”

‘Good’ she says as she takes Natasha’s shimmering bow and arrows from her and plants the equipment into my hands.  We gather our supplies and then Natalie lifts Natasha up, holding her tightly. Once we’ve made sure that our supplies have all been gathered, we make our way to the building.

We see two buildings after an eventful journey and I decide to turn left, after all, making the right option is always wrong. I raise the bow, aiming through the suspicious holes and gaps through the building. The wind is carefully watching are footsteps, moving silently because it doesn’t want to alert us. We are eventually welcomed to the top floor of the building, the fact that we didn’t see a single person or creature frightened me. It made me think that something demonic is going to come, and it’s not going to hold back for anything. I peer through the shattered window and I hear heavy breathing behind me coming from Natalie. “The Cornucopia’s outside this window,” I whisper. The window opens and shuts barely; I guess it still fulfils its purpose in a way. “You can cover us from here” I smile softly, time was slowly ticking away. I join them on the floor, and we talk about our past, the future. We give each other subliminal messages of our opinion on the Capitol and we spend the rest of our time laughing quietly.

“The bags are on the table,” It’s Natalie, appearing by the window. “ We should begin to make our way to the bottom floor.” I choke on the bile in my throat, trying to escape. I stand up slowly. This could be the last time I see Natasha, and I’ve already lost Arrian. I could lose Natalie, too. I could lose myself. I’ve already lost myself, I’m dead in my mind, and I’m not me anymore, really. We dip the arrows in the poison and prepare them in the best way for Natasha to wield them with her bow. We spare our final goodbyes with a heartfelt group hug, and then me and Natalie leave Natasha behind, with her arsenal.

The building is a blur, and Natalie is constantly groping at her hair nervously. I take the lead, and we leave the building to Cornucopia. Everything should be alright I mean Natasha’s covering us, but... What if the rest of the tributes have figured out our plan? What if we’re being followed? I mean Natalie easily found us, I’m sure someone else could’ve heard and watched from afar. I kick the dirt on the ground and walk faster. We decided that I should make a run to the table, with Natalie running behind me. The time was ticking and we could easily die. We had to be careful. The cameras are probably rolling on the tributes, and the world is probably watching nervously, I definitely would. I see the table. There’s no time to waste in a place like this, and there’s no point in waiting for someone to make a move. I run. The parcels on the tables covered in leaves and broken pieces of pine are my target, if I just get there and grab what I can then run back everything will be fine. I turn to check if Natalie is still alive. Her face widens as I turn around to find a boy throwing me down to the ground, the vulgar aroma of his bloody arms mark me. I try to push him out of the way; I try to get rid of his knife smiling at my neck. I see his hand hit at Natalie, and she screams into my ear and I hear her pound into the ground, moaning in agony. The cold knife is strangling me, and I try to plant my head into the ground. Through his teeth I can hear him growling, spitting like a wolf. “Are you ready to die, be humiliated like in the training room?  You’re lucky to be alive. You rotten bastard, when you die I hope everyone sees how much of a selfish bastard you are. You’re a rotten bastard!” He sniggers, growling at me, making my death as traumatic as he wants it to be. He’ll do anything to gain attention. A scream startles him, interrupts him from his ‘show’. Someone’s been hit. If Natasha’s missed, and hit Natalie, then I’ll be dead in three more seconds. One... The moaning continues. Two... I can hear the rustling of footsteps, and the boy starts to choke me with his knife. Three... I can’t breathe. I’m struggling for a gallon of delightful air; I can feel myself blacking out. I’m safe. He runs away as he realises that his partner has been hit, and I’m picked up by Natalie. I cough at the ground, and I wipe the dry spit off my face. Natalie picks me up again and we slowly limp towards the parcels. We pick the three remaining boxes up and make our way back to the building. I shake and my neck is throbbing as we reach the top floor.

A group hug reveals that we’re all alive, but I can’t get Arrian’s face out of my head, is that how he felt, the last second before he died? I was on the brink of it, I knew it, I could feel the life escaping out of my body, but I got saved. I hide my neck to the others, pretending to stroke the back of my shoulder every now and then, and covering the mark with my shirt. We’re safe. We open up the bags, and find gifts of all sorts. Medicines, food from the capitol and water come gushing out the bag - everything to want from a feast. And then Natasha opens up something peculiar, a lifeboat. We gasp in excitement and talk about our hopes and dreams, all feeling the guilt in the back of our minds. Only one of us will win. We spend the rest of the night talking and eating and this night was probably the most luxurious night in the arena. Time goes ever so fast when you’re having fun, but it went quite slow for me at times. The food reminds me of the time in the Capitol when I first met the members who’d help me get sponsors and I wonder if Hadrian has forgiven me. If I had a chance, I’d tell him how sorry I was. I fall asleep hoping to feel how I felt the second before I almost died.

I look up into the sky and see the faces of 2 fallen tributes. Now its down to the final 5. I can't afford to die now, I'm so close to winning. I can't fall asleep in building 6 because of the constant thoughts keeping me awake and the ruble is getting uncomfortable. I wake up in the middle of the night and stand guard for the remaining hours of darkness. When it begins to become light out, I leave the building just to see what the streets look like now. The crocodile has made a huge mess of it. Nothing is left besides the ruble. I think we need to get out of here. “What is it?” I hear Richard ask. I didn't even notice him come up behind me. “I think we should go that way,” I say as I point to the other end of the street. He agrees and we start to make our way to the building. We are discussing which path to take when we are interrupted by a loud noise. An announcement.

“Attention, tributes, attention! We want you to know that we are really kind hosts. And today, we all woke up to the smell of ‘Give’ to please our final contestants, and because we appreciate your whole sacrifice and courage, we have brought you a feast! In a minutes, at the Cornucopia, some items will be placed. Now is the time to treat you well! Fight for what you believe is yours! And remember, May the odds be ever in YOUR favor!”

I look at Richard dumbfounded. Something big is going to happen soon. I start to frown. What could we need from a feast? We already have enough food, water, and weapons. Whatever it must be, it must be essential to us. We have to hurry before other tributes come. We start running as fast as we can down the street when we hear a beeping coming from the sky. We stop in front of building 5 to see what it is. A parachute 

“It’s a parachute!” I say. “Look! It says 1 and 2! It’s ours!” The parachute blows into the building.

“Look, there’s not much time, so I’ll get the parachute and you go to the feast. Guard until they send the items. I’ll see you there, and if someone wants to steal, you know what to do.” Richard says. I smirk and head off running towards the cornucopia.

I'm sprinting with my dagger in hand getting closer and closer the the cornucopia. I arrive and stand in front waiting for the feast to come. I go inside and grab another knife. I feel as though I need a weapon in each hand. As I turn around to go guard again, there is a tribute in my presences. He was going to try and steal things from the cornucopia. Just another thing in the way of my victory. I run to him and pin him on the ground. I don't even know who he is, but he needs to be killed. He looks up at me and tries to get up but its no use. I thrust the dagger down into his chest and get rewarded with lots of blood. I hear a cannon go off just as I stand up. I can see Richard running towards me with the parachute in hand.

"He was getting in my way,” I say about the tribute. He just shakes his head and opens the parachute. Inside, there are 4 bullets.

“Bullets?” Richard says to himself.

“Looks like we will need guns. They also sent us one. I guess I will keep this gun. You can have the one we got from the Cornucopia.” I say.

He gives me 2 bullets from the parachute and keeps 2 for himself. We decide to leave behind the medicine. It's just more things to carry around. We evenly divide the food between us. I have a knife, gun and 2 daggers. Richard has a gun and 4 knifes. 

“Thank you.”

It's down to the final 3. We can't afford to be allies any longer without guaranteeing it to come down to the 2 of us. I don't like to be dependent on people, but to be honest, I probably couldn't have come this far in the games without his help. 

“I wish you the best of luck” I say

“Let the best of us win,” he replies, “and I wish we don’t end as the final two.”

Originally Submitted by Noah

Originally submitted by Amanda