The Loric Games

Chapter 26: The World is on Fire

Number Three's POV

A gong signals our freedom...Or rather our death.

I feel that I'm taking a leap off a cliff, right into the raging waters of the Cornucopia. Let the death games begin. I remember what Christina and John said about trying not to get in the middle of the bloodbath. I see Nine beat everyone else and then bolt for the woods. Six was on the adjacent platform and she vanishes as soon as she gets the chance.

I'm reluctant to do anything. I stare at the blurring figures of the other tributes and my eyes catch the long strawberry blond hair of Glimmer. My heart stops when I see her going after another tribute, viciously, a look of anger creases her forehead. The Glimmer I see is not who I liked...she's a monster, she's a killer... She's a...

Career...

I pull myself back to reality, long enough to realize that I'm a sitting duck if I don't move. I run to the nearest pile of supplies, grab a bag and run. My heart is beating against my chest, empowering me to push on, despite my desire to turn around and grab Glimmer and shake her, telling her she's becoming a monster.

Maybe she was already a monster...a side you could not see...

I shake the thought from my head as I go as far that I can into the forest. I hear two cannon blasts, indicating the death of two tributes. Part of me knows that it wasn't any of the Garde or Glimmer.

I hike up out of a ravine and continue on my way. I have no idea where I'm going, I'm walking without any purpose. The entire time I think about Glimmer. I wonder what she's doing now and whether she was one of the Careers that killed the two tributes at the Cornucopia. The thought makes me sick to my stomach. The beautiful and bubbly girl I had talked to, kissed and gave my heart to...turned into a... savage killer within 60 seconds.

I'm sweating buckets and I take a look at the position of sun. I've made considerable distance since being at the Cornucopia and it is now late afternoon. I know I'm going to have to stop and re-hydrate soon. But this is nothing for me, I can hike almost 15 miles in one day. I know I have a distinct advantage over everyone else in this arena. Like I've said before, I lived in the wild for almost three years, always on the run from the Mogs. I learned how to cover my tracks, make smokeless fires, how to hunt and find food, clean animals properly and cook them properly.

I'm so lost in my thoughts that I don't see the sun setting. I suddenly hear some strange humming sound. I turn around expecting some kind of mechanical device to be hovering over me, maybe a camera to get my good side... if I had one. I search, but there's nothing. I start to hike, but something tells me to stop. I guess its my intuition or whatever gives me those weird dreams. I somehow know if I go any further, something bad is going to happen.

I stare in front of me. Everything seems normal. Just more trees. I'm missing something. I take a stone from the ground and pitch it in front of me. I expect it to just disappear between the trees, but something else happened. The stone hits something solid, makes a mechanical sizzling sound and comes right back at me. I duck just in time to avoid getting hit in the face. The stone rolls to me. It's been scorched and is now smoking on the grass.

"What the hell?" I say to myself.

It takes me a minute to realize what happened. I hadn't realized it, but I've made it to the edge of the arena. The boundary that keeps us from escaping the Games and running off into the horizon to be free of the Capitol's wrath and tyranny.

I pick up another stone and throw again. The stone comes flying back, sizzled and burnt. I'm glad I listen to my intuition or I most likely have been fried like a piece of bacon. I decide that this will be useful in the long run. If we're all going to escape the arena, we need to know how big it is and if we can find a weak spot. We're not really sure how we'll penetrate this formidable barrier, but we will escape...we have to.