Chapter Nine: The Bloodbath 

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut as the plate lifted her to higher ground, she didn’t want to know her surroundings anymore. She wouldn’t know anything soon; all that would be left of her was a corpse that would be shipped back to District 1 for her parents to bury.

Her ears filled with the sound of the wind as the plate came to a stand still but she didn’t open her eyes, she kept them tightly shut and stood as still as she could. She was going to be sick. 

Along with the wind, the ticking of a clock drummed in her ears, it went along with her heartbeat so Lucy couldn’t tune it out. The sixty seconds that made her stay on her plate had begun and if she moved off the plate she’d be blown up by landmines before the games had even begun.

When Lucy had counted ten beats of her heart — Fifty seconds to go — she opened her eyes and the first thing that caught her eyes was the cornucopia, the sun gleamed off its fantastic structure and the weapons on the inside made Lucy’s heart skip a beat.

Even she had to admit that she had enjoyed the training in the training centre and would love to get her hands on one of those weapons again, but even if she did get a weapon she’d have to kill someone and that thought sickened her.

She stopped fantasizing over getting a weapon and brought herself back to reality. Forty seconds to go. She turned her head a little and saw Marvel; he looked more ready than ever. An evil glint stood out in his eyes and he was focused on grabbing every spear there was to offer in the cornucopia...

But he looked up and saw her watching him.

He stopped staring and turned his attention to her, the evil glint left and was replaced with a friendly expression just for her. He didn’t mouth any words of reassurance like in the reaping or like on the hovercraft, no tips as to what to do just a smile that meant a lot more than words could ever express.

25 seconds. Her heart beat was getting faster. 20 seconds. Lucy noticed Rookie grinding her teeth in determination. 15 seconds. Was there a ringing in her ear or was that her imagination? 13 seconds. Could she hear Marvel’s voice? 12 seconds. Were people laughing at her? Could she hear the people of Panem mocking her? 11 seconds. She wiped away a tear quickly. 10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds...5 seconds...4 seconds...

Three...

Two...

One...

The world flashed around her, tributes running wild, some going towards the cornucopia and others running straight to the forest surrounding it that Lucy had just noticed. And this only meant one thing.

The bloodbath had begun. 

Her first instinct was to step off the plate, she was the last one to and she felt her cheeks go red as probably just one of the cameras that was broadcasting The Hunger Games to the world was on her...

"Marvel?" She whispered, looking around for him and then she spotted him. He’d acquired all the spears and a knife; he’d done what he wanted. But what he was doing brought tears to Lucy’s eyes.

He was stabbing a knife into a tribute’s chest; her face was terrified but Marvel showed no remorse. Tears flowed down Lucy’s face as she realised the truth. This is what Marvel had always wanted to do, kill other tributes, he was probably fed up of Lucy begging him not volunteer, all this time he wanted to go into The Hunger Games.

It was now clear.

Marvel had turned into a killing machine.

Because Marvel was born to kill.

Lucy had never seen Marvel being so vicious it almost scared her, she clutched the locket around her neck and tried to forget the new Marvel before her eyes and tried to remember the kind one that she was more familiar with. 

Lucy slashed a tear away from her face and as she did, a searing pain hit her arm and she screamed in pain. She fell to her knees as a tribute ran towards her and pulled the knife he had thrown out of her arm. 

"No!" She cried out in pain, tears streaming down her face. The boy didn’t reply and this time aimed for her chest, he put a foot on her chest and held the knife above his head. "Marvel!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "Marvel!" 

The boy brought the knife down and held it against her throat, breathing in her face menacingly. 

"It's good to bring pride to my District —" he laughed. 

"MARVEL!" Lucy screamed, closing her eyes. "MARVEL!" 

He moved the knife to her chest and was about to stab her in the heart when she rolled over and the knife hit the grass. The boy tribute struggled to get his knife out of the ground and Lucy saw this is a good opportunity to flee.

She scrambled to her feet and ran towards the cornucopia. She couldn’t see through her tears and looked around for a good weapon, at first she just saw a knife and thought that would do but then she saw a bow and arrows and couldn't believe her luck. She picked them up and also grabbed a backpack. She slung the backpack on her back and the sheath of arrows on top. 

She held the bow in her hand threateningly and moved out of the cornucopia and looked at the tributes still fleeing, some were still being killed. They looked like scared ants trying to flee from danger. 

She looked up and saw Katniss from District 12 looking at her bow and Lucy held it firmly in her hands so that even if Katniss attempted to get it, she’d shoot her...no, what was Lucy thinking? She couldn’t kill anyone for the fun of it; she’d only kill if she were in danger...

"DON’T JUST STAND THERE!"

Lucy looked up and saw Clove viciously killing the boy that had tried to kill her a minute ago; his blood sprayed everywhere as she tried to forget the searing pain in her arm.

Clove snatched the boy’s knives from his cold dead hand and placed them in her knife vest then ran back towards the cornucopia.

Lucy looked around gingerly and ran out of the cornucopia and took an arrow from the sheath on her back and aimed it at the tributes running around but didn’t dare let any go flying.

She’d let them go...for now.

"Oh, look who we have here!"

Lucy spun around and saw Cato, his hands mucky with blood that was presumably not his own. Lucy shivered and her face was full of terror as he picked her up by the throat.

"The first tribute in the history of District 1 tributes to get a training score of four...such an easy target! It'd be a shame if you died today wouldn't it?"

"Please! Please don’t kill me! I beg you! I’ll prove those Gamemaker's wrong. Please don’t kill me, Cato! I’m sorry about what I said in the training centre! Please!"

"Fine...but don’t hang around!" He hissed in her face. "Stop crying like a baby, go kill some tributes! If you don’t kill one tribute in this bloodbath I will kill you! And you know I will!"

Cato let go of her neck and she gasped for air. She must have gone a bit blue but she didn't care, she was still alive. 

"One kill..." she whispered to herself. "One kill, you can do this."

Lucy was being terribly selfish; she couldn’t even describe her actions to another. But something told her she had to kill a tribute.

Lucy walked into the middle of the cornucopia and was looking around for a tribute to kill when she was shoved over and she fell to the ground. She squealed as the District 4 grabbed hold of her shoulders but Lucy spun around causing the girl to fall and they both spun. But the District 4 girl managed to get on top of her and hold her dagger to her face. 

Lucy shoved against her but she was too strong so Lucy rolled over again and managed to claw at the girls face and she growled. Lucy took her knife and was about to stab her when the District 4 tribute tried her technique and Lucy ended up with the short straw again. 

"I'll kill you!" She growled as Lucy bit the girl's hand and made it bleed. 

"Not before I kill you!" Lucy retorted and arched her back, bringing her legs up and kicking the girl in the chest so she flew back and Lucy ran towards her. She dug her knees into the girl's shoulders but and was about to strike another vicious move when the District 4 boy grabbed her hair and pulled her back. 

"NO!" She screamed and spun around advancing on him, elbowing him in the face and then advancing back on the District 4 girl. 

Lucy grabbed a nearby dagger and stabbed her in the face, blood spurted everywhere as the District 4 girl pushed against her. Lucy yelled as the girl grabbed Lucy's knife and held it threateningly as Lucy grabbed hold of her throat. 

"You won't win! I saw you in the training centre! You've only just learnt how to fight! You only got a four as a training score!" The girl snapped. "You're weak! You think your District partner is going to save you now when he's not! You're not going to get out of the arena alive!" 

"Your right, I'm not!" Lucy yelled as the girl pushed her back on the ground and dug her right knee into Lucy's chest. "But I won't die today!" 

As the girl pinned her down and shoved against her hand that she was trying to push her dagger up to the girl's throat. Leaning on her backpack and sheath of arrows was quite painful but she didn't care. She wasn't going to die. 

She managed to get the dagger against the girl's throat as Cato killed the boy from District 4. The girl screamed for her District partner, it hurt Lucy's ears but the girl didn't stop pushing against Lucy. 

"You're not going to win this battle!" The girl taunted. 

"No," Lucy shook her head and then her expression suddenly turned dark. "But I'll win the war."

Lucy rolled over violently as Cato came to watch and started laughing as Lucy stood up and snatched her knife back from the girls hand and then held the dagger in one hand and the knife in the other. 

She didn't even bother to pin the girl down as she held the dagger above her head and stabbed the girl in the throat and then again in the eye, blood sprayed everywhere and when the girl tried to weakly escape Lucy let her knees drop and she pushed them against the girls chest. She felt some of the girl's ribs break and then with one quick motion she cut off the girl's air way by cutting through it with the knife. 

She panted desperately and looked around the cornucopia. She moved away from the dead District 4 girl and sat next to her, with tearful eyes. 

What had she done? 

She shouldn't of killed the girl, she wanted to get out of the bloodbath alive just as much as she did. Lucy sobbed and looked at the dead girl. 

"Oh what have I done..." Lucy whispered and put a hand on the girl's face. 

"And that is a perfect example of a tribute I need in the alliance," Cato snarled as he picked her up by the coat and she looked at him dumbstruck. 

"Cato? What have I done?" She asked as he shoved her bow back in her hands. "Cato?" 

"Shut up," he snapped and dragged her over to where Marvel and Clove were sitting on two crates in the cornucopia. As Cato dragged her towards them Lucy saw that Marvel and Clove were wearing faces that looked like they belonged to psycho’s. Psyhco’s that had just finished a successful killing spree...

 But just like when they were waiting for the countdown, Marvel lost the evil glint in his eyes and his face softened as he approached Lucy. "What did you do to your arm?"

"A boy threw a knife at me..." she sniffed as Marvel took off his backpack and began rummaging through it as Lucy sat on a crate opposite his.

While he frantically looked through his new belongings, Lucy looked around the cornucopia and saw that it was practically empty apart from the leftover supplies and corpses of dead tributes. Lucy studied the faces of them all and was relieved when she didn’t see Rookie’s. Rookie had got away.

But the tributes lying on the floor were long gone. Gone forever. 

"A-ha!" Marvel exclaimed as he pulled out a tub of ointment. "Put that on your wound, it’ll be gone in no time."

"Are you sure?" Lucy wondered, studying the pot. She probably had some in her backpack but hadn’t taken a look at the contents yet.

"Yeah I’m sure." He smiled.

"Your District partner killed off the District 4 girl," Cato said suddenly.

"You did?" Marvel gasped looking at Lucy.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! She attacked me! Oh what have I done..."

"No that's good! In fact that's fantastic!" Marvel beamed. "I knew you had it in you!"

"B-But I killed a person!"

"That's what The Hunger Games are all about, deal with it," Cato snapped at her.

"Lets go and tie these supplies up." Clove said.

"Yeah, but anyone got a plan to keep ‘em safe?" Cato grumbled in his deep voice.

"I don’t know, I’m here to kill," Clove spat, adjusting one of the knives in her knife vest.

"I’ve got an idea," Lucy piped up as she shrugged off her little rain mac, along with her bag and began applying the ointment that Marvel had kindly let her use. “But I’m not smart enough to perform the operation.”

"Go on then," Cato pulled an amused face and folded his arms like he was listening to an idiot.

"I think we should dig up the de-activated land mines and place them around the supplies and re-activate them so if anyone gets near them they’ll die!" Lucy grinned and handed Marvel back his ointment.

"Great thinking, but how are we going to get anything?" Clove rolled her eyes. "We’ll get blown up ourselves!" 

"You didn’t let me finish," Lucy frowned. "We put them underground in a specific position so we know exactly where they are and have to hop around them to get our supplies, simple."

"So we have to play hop-scotch to get our supplies? Neat," Marvel laughed.

"Hey!" Cato yelled suddenly and a boy emerged from behind Marvel and looked thoughtfully at Cato, he was the boy from District 3.

"Go dig up those landmines!"

"Yes, Cato," the District 3 boy nodded then set to work.

Cato rounded on Lucy. "We’ll keep you for the brains," Cato said as he took out his sword and aimed it at her. "But learn to fight or — " he slowly moved the sword so it just touched her neck. "District 1 will have your body but I’ll keep your head as decoration..."

Lucy nodded vigorously and held up her bow. "I managed to get this! I think the District 12 girl was after it!"

"‘The Girl On Fire?” Cato mocked. "I like your thinking. 

Learn to use it and be an actual career. Besides, I stand by what I said."

"I can use it!" Lucy retorted, she grabbed an arrow and pulled it back. The careers stepped back as she aimed it and a thin tree trunk and it hit it perfectly. "You underestimate me, Cato."

"Alright, rich kid, you continue doing your bow and arrow what not and actually kill some tributes, The Hunger Games is not a place to wimp out when you’re a career."

Clove, Cato and Marvel began gathering up the leftover supplies and Lucy went to go and get her arrow. As soon as she pulled it out of the tree trunk she sat down on the floor and opened her backpack. It consisted of: a bottle of water, a pack of dried fruit  and a sleeping bag.

"Essentials..." she muttered and then looked at the trees, if they weren’t going to run down their supplies they’d have to use them wisely...or use nature as an advantage...

As Lucy put her things away the District 3 approached her and she eyed him, suspiciously. The only person she truly trusted in this place was Marvel.

"Hello," he smiled.

"Um...hi?" She managed to say as she stood up and gripped her bow so tight that her knuckles turned white, she would take Cato’s advice if the boy attacked her. "You’re from Rookie’s District, right?"

"I am, but she told me as soon as the games began she’d run straight to the forest and survive on nature, go solo...braver than me."

"Keep on good terms with the careers and you might last longer, that’s what I’m doing."

"Do you class yourself as a career?"

"Considering I got a 4 in training I don’t consider myself a career but others do, they’re born to kill and bred to die, I will only kill if I’m attacked."

"Same strategy as me — "

"KEEP DIGGING UP THOSE LANDMINES, LOSER!" Cato yelled at the boy and he walked off and continued his job as the careers shifted the leftover supplies into a pile. "AND YOU GET OVER HERE AND HELP!"

Lucy got up at lightning speed and ran towards Marvel and helped him with a crate. 

"Thanks," he said. "Don’t talk with the District 3 scum, you’re better than that."

"What about Rookie? She’s a good friend, right?"

"Lucy, she’s probably dead. I knew she’d die in the bloodbath."

"But the landmine boy told me she’s gone solo and is in the woods."

Marvel bit his lip. "Perhaps she is, but we can’t afford to feel sorry for her. We have to make our own plans to survive, right?"

"I guess..." Lucy whispered then looked up again. "Marvel, I don’t want to be a killer."

"I know you don’t, it must be terrible for you to do this stuff but I will say this, you have to at least try. Don’t make Cato kill you, Lucy, I’d never be able to get through The Hunger Games if that happened, not with my best friend gone."

"Yes you could, you could go home and — " Marvel tossed the crate on the pile and Lucy squealed.

"Lets get some more supplies."

"OK..." Lucy whispered and followed Marvel back to the cornucopia.

*      *      *

Sooner rather than later, Lucy, Marvel, Cato and Clove were sitting back on the four crates they had left off the pile and ate lunch as the boy from District 3 began re-activating the landmines and burying them underground, following Lucy's pattern that she had shown them earlier. 

"I'm glad I'm not in the arena alone," Lucy smiled as she took a bite into an apple. "Here we've all got plenty of food to keep us going." 

"If you hadn't of killed the District 4 girl you wouldn't be eating at all, you'd either be out in the arena alone or dead," Cato spat. 

"Leave her alone, Cato," Marvel said. 

"Shut up, you can't make me do anything!" 

Marvel held his hands up in defense as he continued to eat some dried fruit that he had acquired from the pile. 

"I say we go hunting after this," Clove smiled as she peeled the skin off her apple with one of her knives. 

"Hunting? Already?" Lucy asked. 

"Well you don't expect us to sit around all day and watch the world go by do you? We've got to kill some tributes, that's what it's all about." 

"I suppose so..." 

"If you don't change your attitude you're out of the alliance," Cato spat. 

"Cato!" Clove frowned. "She's not as bad as you think, she can throw knives too! I taught her!" 

Cato grunted as he stood up and lifted his crate and shoved it in the District 3 boy's hands just as he was about to eat some food. The boy hopped around the underground landmines then placed the crate carefully on the pile before hopping back and getting Clove and Marvel's crates that they had dumped there. 

Lucy sat and watch as they boy hopped back and fourth, placing the crates carefully on the pile and felt really sorry for him. 

"Go give your crate to landmine boy," Cato said and Lucy stood up and placed her crate well away from the landmines. 

Marvel, Clove and Cato talked amongst themselves as the boy put Lucy's crate on the pile but Lucy stood there and waited patiently for the District 3 boy. 

"COME ON, WE'RE GOING HUNTING!" Cato yelled at Lucy who nodded quickly before turning back to the District 3 boy who had just hopped back to safety. 

The boy looked around and saw that he really didn't have a choice about eating lunch...Lucy held up her index finger to him and reached into her pocket and produced the apple she was going to eat. She then took out her knife and peeled the skin off the apple then cut it in half and handed both pieces to him. 

"W-What?" He stuttered. 

"Take them," she said as she put her knife away. He looked at the cut in half apple and Lucy gestured for him to take them and so he took them gratefully. 

Lucy began to walk off when the boy stopped her in her tracks. 

"Your bow, Lucy," he said. Lucy spun around and the boy handed her her bow. 

"Oh, thank you," she laughed. "Stay here and keep watch over the supplies, don't want to get in Cato's bad books," she winked and then ran over to Marvel who'd waited by the side of the forest as Cato and Clove stormed ahead. 

"Most certainly not," he shook his head and sat down near the cornucopia and kept watch over the supplies.