Echo Spark’s POV:

‘’ Tributes! Please step into your tubes!’’ Booms the voice of the President from speakers in the small room I am in.

As I approach the glass tube in the corner of the room, I take one quick glance around me. The room resembles some sort of ancient waiting room in a doctors that I remember seeing in an old history book from school. There is a small table in the centre, with a single steel chair in the corner. There is an armed Peacekeeper standing at attention at the doorway – and I know there is a second on the outside as well. The room is pale, grey walls, grey floor, grey ceiling.

As I step inside the tube, I nervously fidget with the titanium collar fitted around my throat. It isn’t that noticeable, as it is skin tight and the inside is slightly cushioned so it isn’t irritating to wear. Although the collar isn’t that annoying to wear, I am not in any way looking forward to seeing what it can do in the arena. From what Piper described, it won’t be pretty.

As I step into the tube, the doors shut behind me. I gulp and stare the Peacekeeper in the eye. He is smirking at me, and as I begin to ascend, he chuckles – although I cannot hear him because of the tube. I try to hide my anger, but fail and end up flipping him off with my middle finger as he disappears from my view.

There is a brief moment of darkness as I ascend through the ground and after about thirty seconds I emerge at ground level. The brightness is a lot more intense than the dark room below and it takes my eyes a moment to adjust. When they do, I glance around frantically – eager to take in as much of my surroundings as I can in the time I have. The first thing I notice is that Osmo is standing on the pedestal directly beside me. Upon further observation, I notice that all pairs are stationed beside each other.

The next thing I notice is the clearing we are in which is surrounded by towering evergreens that circle us. The trees are giant, and I cannot see much else over them. They are also too closely packed to see through them.

‘’ Welcome tributes, to the One Hundred and Twenty Fifth Annual Hunger Games, or the Fifth Quarter Quell. I am very excited to announce that this year’s arena, and the attractions you will face have been voted for by the Capitol audience, so you can thank them for what you go through.

I wish you all the best of luck, and I just want to say you have been a pleasure over the last few weeks. May the odds be ever in your favour, let the games begin!’’ The voice of President Tiberius Snow booms throughout the arena, and I notice the look of disgust on most of the faces around me. As he finishes speaking, the sixty second countdown begins.

I glare around the semi-circle of tributes, making eye-contact with as many tributes as possible to show I mean business and I will not back down. As myself and Osmo previously decided, we will both be running to the cornucopia. It is a big risk, but we can’t afford to separate, especially with the distance limit of the collars.

‘’ What are you doing Acacia?’’ Gasps Ike suddenly, he is to my left and Acacia is to his.

‘’ I’m sorry Ike, I can’t do this.’’ Sobs Acacia, who – only now do I realise – is crying.

‘’ What do you-‘’ Begins Ike in both confusion and shock, but before he can finish his question, Acacia steps forward and off her platform.

BOOM!

There is a collective gasp from the circle of tributes as the ground beneath Acacia erupts in a deafening – yet controlled – explosion and her body is blown apart. The explosion echoes and is followed by a cannon fire. I realise this is the first time I have witnessed a tribute step off their platform. My mouth hangs open in shock. All eyes turn to Ike as he stands rooted to the spot. Unable to move and unsure of what will happen next. His collar begins to beep.

‘’ This is interesting.’’ Says the voice of the President from nowhere in particular – it seems to be coming from everywhere.

‘’ What’s going to happen?’’ Questions Ike with a gasp, I notice his hands are shaking as he fidgets with the collar around his neck.

There is no response from the President as the beeping on Ike’s neck begins to quicken.

‘’ Help me! This isn’t fair! I didn’t know she was going to do-‘’ He begins to scream, however in mid sentence he makes a choking noise and falls to his knees, clutching the collar around his neck.

We all stare at him in horror as his face turns from red to blue and then to purple. He does not say anything else, instead he falls forwards and off the pedestal. There is a second explosion and as he explodes, his insides mingle with Acacia’s on the ground.

BOOM!

I gasp aloud again as the cannon fire booms and simple gawk at the blackened spot on his pedestal. It is Osmo’s voice that snaps me back to reality and I glance at the countdown timer.

‘’ Ten seconds.’’ Exclaims a booming robotic voice – seemingly from within the cornucopia.

I clench my fists and ready myself to sprint – unfortunately I can do nothing for the fallen two tributes now, I have to focus on myself. I glance at Osmo and he nods his head confidently. Next I quickly glance around at the other tributes, most of which look as though they’re about to run towards the treasure trove of supplies in the centre of the clearing.

‘’ Five seconds.’’

I run my eye over the stacks of camping and climbing supplies, weapons, food and drink and quickly locate a bow and quiver of arrows. I spot a second quiver a few meters away, but it soon dawns on me that there is only one bow. I am in direct competition with Alistair. I need that bow.

‘’ Three. Two. One.’’ As the voice says one, there is a boom and as one, we all sprint forwards towards the supplies. I leap from the platform and dash across the grassy floor toward the cornucopia with Osmo running a meter or two behind me.

I see Alistair straight ahead of me; he is running for the quiver of arrows sitting on their own – obviously unaware at the moment that there is only a single bow. I make the most of this advantage and scoop up the bow with the arrows as I arrive in the centre of the clearing as the majority of other tributes do. I glance at Osmo beside me as he retrieves a bag, a small hunting knife and a loaf of bread from the ground.

‘’ Let’s go.’’ I yell as the sound of swords clanging against each other begins to sound.

We turn and begin to head back the way we came but I freeze as Brutis sprints for me with a sword gripped in his hand. He swings it for me and I duck, before he can swing again Pious screams somewhere near us as he is attacked by Ravina. Brutis curses and flees from where I am with Osmo, now only focused on keeping his partner – and therefore himself – alive.

‘’ Dickhead.’’ I mutter angrily and load my bow, reading to put an arrow through his back but Osmo hurries me along as a dagger whizzes past my head. I curse again and the two of us sprint from the clearly, leaving the bloodbath and disappearing into the trees out of sight.

Ravina Quill’s POV:

‘’ Please Ravina no!’’ Screams Adaline as she struggles to keep up with me as I rush in pursuit of fresh meat.

‘’ Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf?’’ I cackle as I chase Cricket and Odhan with an small hunting axe in each hand.

I swing both for fun as I run after them, they scream and beg for mercy from me as they flee – as does Adaline – which makes me laugh even louder and more viciously. They will be fun to kill at the rate they’re going now. They’re basically crying and I haven’t even caught them. Yet.

‘’ What’s wrong with you?’’ Screams Adaline as I roar loudly with glee.

‘’ You can’t spell slaughter without laughter!’’ I laugh in response and pick up the pace, eager for some bloodshed.

‘’ Please! Stop this! Don’t hurt us!’’ Cries Odhan as I draw closer and closer to them – only a meter or two away at this stage.

As he continues to sprint away from me, I lunge at him and pull him to the ground. He roars in agony and squirms as I pin him down. Cricket stops for a second, clearly unsure of what to do. But as he runs back towards me to defend his partner, I bring my axe down hard on Odhan’s neck and it slices halfway through him. He cries out in pain and this brings Cricket to a halt again. Adaline screams mingle with Odhan’s, but hers continue after he silences and slowly bleeds out on the ground.

BOOM!

Cricket’s mouth drops to the floor as a cannon fire sounds signalling Odhan’s death and he screams loudly as he flees the scene – exiting out through the forest, which is a lot smaller than I first thought.

Cricket Wakely’s POV:

No. No. This is bad. This is very, very bad.

I sprint from the forest and make my way up a dirt path. As I leave the cover of the trees, I take in my surroundings. Ahead of me in the distance in a hill, leading up to what seems to be a cluster of buildings. A couple of hundred meters to my left, there seems to be a cliff and the sound of crashing waves echoes from there throughout the arena.

I make my way along the path in a hurry with Ravina and Adaline close behind me. The venture Odhan convinced me to make to the cornucopia has proved just as fatal as I had expected it would. He is now dead and I will be soon following. As if on cue, the collar around my neck begins to beep.

‘’ Oh no.’’ I sob, tears rolling down my face.

I scream in pain as the collar around my neck begins to pinch me. It feels as though razor sharp knives are beginning to grow from the side of the collar pressed against my neck. Judging from the blood pouring from my throat and gurgling into my mouth, I am correct. I roar as the knife-like blades stick into my throat and cause me to collapse from blood loss.

Cricket?

‘’ Mom?’’ I say, unsure if I am speaking aloud or inside my head as the knives dig deeper into my jugular.

It’s OK honey. You’re safe now. Just come give mommy a hug.

‘’ Mom!’’ I beam as my eyesight turns red and then fades to blackness.

BOOM!

Bell Cyrus’ POV:

‘’ What was that? The fourth death? It hasn’t even been an hour!’’ I say as we sprint along a dirt road to the north of the cornucopia forest. There is a large clump of trees in the north, huge evergreens mingled with large oaks – towering into the sky.

‘’ We have to keep running until we get to those woods. We’re not safe out in the open.’’ Explains Margo and I nod my head.

He has a bag slung over his back and a long, black handled sword in his hand. I too have a bag that I snatched from the cornucopia and a stack of throwing knives.

‘’ I wonder who that was.’’ I wonder aloud as we run.

‘’ Probably Blossom and whoever her partner is, I can’t remember her name.’’ He suggests.

‘’ Phox.’’ I add.

‘’ Oh yeah. Phox. Well yeah, I say the two of them are dead.’’ He explains.

Sadly, he is most likely correct.

When we finally reach the trees about thirty minutes later, we are both sweating crazily and are also out of breath. The oaks rise high above us as we enter the cluster of trees and the ground is littered with small twigs or leaves that both crunch and rustle underfoot. We walk a further five minutes through the closely packed trees and then we come to a quite large clearing among the trees that contains a huge pond.

‘’ I guess this place is as good as any.’’ I say and we take a seat on some of the many rocks that surround the pond and pull open our bags to see what we got from our trek to the cornucopia.

I go through mine; it contains a small set of throwing knives – score! – along with a sleeping bag, two empty plastic water bottles, a torch, some wire and a roll of bandages.

‘’ Get anything useful?’’ Asks Margo as I fill the water bottles with the water from a small stream trickling from the river.

‘’ Not really, water bottles and a few more knives. Not much else that we’d be needing. What about you?’’

He spreads the contents of his bag out onto the ground around him as I examine the bottle in my hand – which appears crystal clean. On the floor before us are a second plastic bottle which is also empty, some raw meat, pork I think, a small hunting dagger, flint and steel and finally water purification tablets. The last item causes me to pull the bottle away from my lips before a drop of it enters my mouth.

‘’ They’re obviously there for a reason.’’ I say, examining the tablets. ‘’ How do you think they work?’’

‘’ Luckily for you, I spent an hour at the survival station and learned about this.’’ He smiles and winks at me.

I smile back at him as our eyes meet. I then slowly move my eyes down along his face and stare at his lips. He places his hand on the side of my face and pulls me closer to him. I giggle and then our lips meet. The kiss is soft at first, gentle – as if Margo is afraid of hurting me. But when I kiss him back, it becomes more passionate, and he pulls me onto him. We lie with one another, wrapped in each other’s arms and kiss beautifully.

Pious Carrington’s POV:

I follow Brutis’ lead down a huge set of wooden stairs, built on the face of the cliff that lead down the side of it and down towards a sandy beach. The stairs lead to a dock area with a single building and a few wrecked ships floating in the dock.

I have a spear clutched in my hand and Bruno also has a sword. Brutis also carries a bag over his back. Unfortunately, I was unable to retrieve one when we ran into the cornucopia as I was attacked by Ravina.

We move down the steps quickly, taking them at two at a time and if I’m honest, I struggle to keep up with Brutis. He moves with great speed, with reason – however dark or cruel that may be!

‘’ What’s the plan?’’ I ask as we walk across the dock towards what appears to be an old fishing shop – long since abandoned.

‘’ We look for Belle and Margo. I think they’ll want to team with us, especially after me receiving the top score for the guys.’’ He explains and I roll my eyes. He really is stupid.

‘’ Are you sure that’s a good idea? Belle made it quite clear she didn’t want to team with us. Finding her might not be-‘’ I begin, trying to be helpful but he cuts me off.

‘’ Of course we have to team! I might not have if I hadn’t been stuck with you, but we won’t win this alone.’’ He argues.

I don’t respond to his idiotic comment. If we find Belle, she will kill him, and therefore me too! I can’t let that happen. Then again, this island is huge. The chances of us running into them anytime soon – if at all – are pretty slim.

Bruno leads the way into the rundown fishing shop and I follow with my spear in hand even though I am sure there are no tributes waiting for us inside. The shop used to be an old bait shop, there are freezers full of worms – all dead now in their containers – and the walls are lined with photographs and there are a few fishing rods on display as well.

‘’ These could be useful.’’ I say, picking one up and examining it.

‘’ Do you know how to fish?’’ He questions.

‘’ Not really, but it can’t be that hard. Look at the amount of bait we have.’’

He nods in apparent agreement and grabs a fishing pole from the stand along with about ten containers of worms and we head back outside. We walk to the end of the pier and sit at the end, dangling our legs over the edge and tossing our fishing rods into the water after we have attached the bait.

I glance up along the beach that stretches endlessly before us, apparently surround the whole island. About one hundred or so meters away, there is a huge lighthouse sitting in the water. That will probably be a place worth checking out if we have time, although it would require a swim which I’m not a fan of.

‘’ This is weird.’’ I exclaim suddenly, accidentally speaking aloud.

‘’ What?’’

‘’ We’re in the Hunger Games, and we’re sitting here in the sun fishing.’’ I explain.

‘’ That will change when it really kicks off. Like the President said, there will be a few attractions voted for by the Capitol citizens to spice this up a little.’’

‘’ The joys of it all.’’ I reply dryly and there is a small tug on my rod.

‘’ Get something?’’

‘’ Dinner hopefully.’’ I smile and lick my lips as I real in the rod.