Rick Riordan's Hunger Games [PJO AU]

Ep 2 - "Arena"

President Clair's eyes were alert as she watched the dozens of screens. "You must be ecstatic," she said to the Head Gamemaker dully. "So much action on a single day."

Rick was indeed smiling gleefully. "Luke is certainly interesting. You must be sad that Nico survived the bloodbath."

"He'll die soon," she said dismissively.

He sighed, "Yes, well, since you got Bryce to kill 'Maria' it's not going to be as compelling anymore. I wonder how long it'll take for the tributes to figure out the arena?"

◼▲◼

When Beckendorf's face flashed across the night sky, Piper felt her blood run cold. Something had happened after they'd left the Cornucopia.

After the girl from 3, Silena appeared. Piper's mouth fell open. There was only one explanation.

Bryce roared out his anger, and birds scattered into the skies. He slammed his axe into a nearby tree. "The TRAITOR! I knew it!"

"Wait," Percy caught at his arm before he could go running. "They could've gotten attacked by someone else. We should check if Luke is also dead first."

Bryce shook him off, "Are you dense? After the bloodbath, there were only two cannons. It was Silena and Beckendorf. Luke betrayed us."

Clarisse had gone white, "Don't blame Silena." Piper didn't want to condemn Silena either, but it had been her idea to trust Luke...

Bryce scowled, "Oh, I'm blaming her."

"Hey!" Piper shouted, deciding this was enough talking. "We need to go now. No one's guarding the horn, and we need those supplies if we want to survive."

"She's right," Percy agreed, "come on."

They sprinted through the rainforest, their feet thumping on dry hard-packed dirt. Piper wished she'd brought a coat with her — somehow it was freezing in the night. Secretly she was glad they were going back.

When they reached the clearing and were halfway up the hill, it was still dark, but they could see the wreckage.

Their supplies at the Cornucopia had been reduced to ashes.

◼▲◼

Annabeth was up early the next day.

Thalia was asleep, and she took the opportunity to bandage her shoulder.

The forest was pretty vast, and she hoped that Luke would be able to find them soon. She needed to take stock of the arena, and also make some sort of path for Luke to follow so he could find them.

She squeezed out of the cave, pulling away the vines that were concealing them to be met with cool air. It was much warmer than it'd been at night, but she still shivered as she carefully looked around. Nobody was nearby.

It was likely that Luke had burned the supplies. Annabeth had told him to only do it if the arena allowed the other Careers to not notice immediately, and since the Careers would obviously go into the forest, they wouldn't be able to see the smoke.

She found a little patch of strawberries by the cave and pulled some off their stems, thinking hard. The layout of the arena did not make any sense to her.

Namely how it was split into four sections — forest, meadow, desert, and tundra.

But who would go to the last two? There was no logic to it. It wasn't like any district would have an advantage in those environments.