The Capitol's Tribute

The first thing I felt was pain. A throbbing pain in the back of my skull.

I grunted, rolling over on lumps of something, forcing my aching eyes open. It was blindingly bright out and I winced, pulling the blanket that surrounded me over my eyes. I popped my eyes open again and sat up, throwing off the blanket and looking around.

I was in a tent. The walls were leaf green and the ceiling flap was open, letting in light. Judging from the uncomfortable bumps of branches, I figured I was up in a tree somewhere. There was no memory of getting up here rattling around in my sore brain.

I made to get up and escape when the entrance to the tent zipped open and in popped Freddy Mason.

“Freddy?” I breathed in relief.

He grinned happily, “You’re up for real?”

“For real?” I questioned.

“You’ve been in and out for three days now.”

“Three days?” I almost screamed.

Freddy laughed, “Yeah, you’ve been pretty useless so far. You were barely coherent enough to get yourself up here. I thought you were going to fall and kill yourself.”

“You let me climb a tree?” I asked irritably, “In my blacked out, not-remember-a-thing condition?”

He shrugged, “You survived. Besides, you were mostly just dehydrated. You would wake up and I’d give you some water and then you’d go back out again.” He set his bag down, pulling out two cooked pheasants. “You know, I thought you were the one who was supposed to be taking care of me, not the other way around.”

I sat up a little straighter, not wanting to fully stand in a tent high in the trees. “Excuse me, but who was dying of dehydration because they saw you trying to fight someone twice your size without a weapon and gave you their supplies and an axe without a second thought?”

Freddy’s cocky expression failed, his large brown eyes stared at me thankfully, “I never did thank you for that. I’m sorry, Rixa. You kept your promise.”

His strong face just a front. I had been out for three days. God knows what had happened since I met up with the careers and Brant. Brant…

“Who’s left?” I demanded.

“Me, you, Brant,” I let out a small sigh of relief, “Malum, Velvet, Ridley, Bruno, the girl from Three, the girl from Five, the boy from Eight, the boy from Nine, and the girl from Ten.” Freddy named them off on his fingers. There were exactly twelve of us left.

The career pack was one short. “What happened to Gusto?”

“Brant.” Freddy answered grimly, “I saw you fall. Brant heard the canon and thought it was you. So did I. But, Brant just stabbed Gusto in the back and ran off. It was chaos. I waited for the hovercraft to get you because you didn’t deserve to die alone. But when it didn’t come I went down to check on you and you asked me about Peeta and Finnick.”

“Oh,” I said quietly. Brant had murdered someone. I didn’t know how to respond to that. He had to know I was alive now that my face hadn’t shown in the sky. He had to be looking for me. I had to start looking for him, too.

Freddy handed me one of the pheasants and the jug of water I had given him. “Eat up; you’ll need your strength.”

We replenished in silence. Once we were done, I told Freddy I needed to find Brant. He understood and began packing up two bags.

“What are you doing?” I questioned.

“Getting some supplies. You never know what we’re going to need. What if we run into the careers and can’t get back here? We’ve got to be prepared.” Freddy answered simply, zipping up the bags and tossing one to me.

“‘We’?” I shook my head, “Freddy, what’s left of the career pack is after me. The only way I can keep you safe is if you stay here. Thank you for taking care of me but—”

“But nothing,” Freddy cut me off angrily, “You promised, Rixa!”

There it was again. That stubborn promise. Freddy was never going to let it go until one of us was dead.

I eyed Freddy, trying so hard to size this confusing kid up. One second he was killing some tribute without a blink of an eye, the next he was tearily bringing up my promise to not leave him alone. I didn’t understand it but there was no point in trying. Freddy was going to stay by my side until the end—and that was the end of that.

“Let’s go.” I said gruffly.

Carefully we climbed down the tree. I was impressed with Freddy’s cunning to camouflage the tent and put it high up where no one would see or expect it. I wondered if Jenna had given him some ideas for hiding out until the end. And then I wondered if she had told him to keep me close so I would be vulnerable and easier to kill later on. Looking into his innocent eyes, I couldn’t imagine Freddy doing that, but everyone knew that the Games changed you. It was like a contagious disease that went through you like a fever. Brant had been infected. I only wondered when I would catch it.

It was quiet as we walked along the pathway. The trees became thinner and sparer as we continued on our journey. I glanced up, watching a pack of birds fly high in the sky. Freddy stopped to take a sip of water as I memorized the scenery. A large mountain stood towering above us, looming ominously in the grayish-blue sky.

I wasn’t sure what it was about our surroundings, but something felt off. The safety of the tent had disappeared. We were out in a cage with vicious predators—tribute and Capitol-made.

“So, only two tributes have died since the bloodbath?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, it’s been quiet.” Freddy put his water away, “A little two quiet if you ask me since they both died three days ago.”

I stopped trying to take my own bottle out and glanced over at Freddy, “No one’s died in three days?”

Freddy shook his head. The faux-world felt too quiet all the sudden. I couldn’t see the birds anymore. I couldn’t hear their chirps and wings flap. The hairs all over my body stood up, alerting me that something was wrong.

“That’s not good.” I muttered.

“Depends on your definition of good,” Freddy said, “If you’re still alive, I’d say it’s pretty nice. But from the Capitol’s point of view—”

Out of the corner of my eye, opposite the monstrous mountain, something fuzzy and white lifted up. I turned my head, staring directly at it in the distance. It was a large wave of some sort of mist. It didn’t look deadly but I would give my water bottle that it would kill you slowly and painfully.

“Freddy,” I said quickly. He stopped talking, staring at me in the alarm of my tone. There was a writhing scream somewhere in the direction of the mist wave. Freddy and I stared into the forest. The scream ended suddenly and I gulped. A canon blew off in our ears. “Run.”

Freddy and I took off through the remainder of the forest, the scream still echoing in our ears. My breath was heavy as we jumped through brush and made our way closer to where the Game had all began, the Cornucopia.

The wall of mist was forcing us back to the Cornucopia to make the Games more interesting again. After the big bang of a start and so little casualties since then, the Capitol was getting anxious and bored. They had to spice it up. I dreaded what was waiting for us at the Cornucopia besides the careers.

Freddy’s foot caught on something. I grabbed him before he could stumble over and we broke out into the meadow. The shining Cornucopia stood gleaming invitingly before us. But that wasn’t our safe haven. Eight tubes stood on our starting blocks.

Eight. There were twelve of us—well, eleven now—left. Not all of us were going to make it. But, the ones that did were going to have to fight their way out once the wall dissipated and the tubes came up. That was the main point of this.

“Freddy,” I breathed once we reached the tubes. Tributes ran out of the trees one by one, stealing a tube and locking themselves safely in. “Take that one!” A single tube was set invitingly for him.

“What are you going to do?” He panicked.

“I’ve gotta wait and save one for Brant.” I explained, “GO!” I shoved him forward and he hopped it. The tube slid up, locking him in.

I stayed in a protective stance with my knife, saving two tubes for Brant and myself. My rapid gaze searched the edge of the trees for him as tributes kept staggering in. There weren’t many tubes left, he had to hurry.

I checked on Freddy and he waved his arms. Something connected with the crevice of my shoulder and I went down. Another canon went off and I watched as Malum and Ridley snagged my tubes.

“No!” I screeched. By the time I scrambled up, they were safely in, giving me smug looks.

I frantically looked around. All the tubes were full. I ran into the middle of the circle, searching for Brant. Across the way, hidden from my eyes, was Brant. He slammed his hands against his tube, trying to get out to grab me. But once the tributes were in, they couldn’t get out until the Gamemakers were ready to let them kill each other.

He yelled my name. It sounded muffled. I clamored over to him and placed my hands on the glass. Brant looked on the verge of tears.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to come up with a plan to survive. “Meet me by the mountain. Get way as quickly as you can.”

Before he could respond I hurried to Freddy and told him the same words and ran out of the circle. I stepped backwards continually, staring up at the impending wall. There had to be another way to survive. Eight tubes and twelve tributes. They wouldn’t want us to die out that quickly. Four gone before the tubes lift and Malum is release upon them? It wasn’t likely they wanted the show to end so rapidly. There had to be another way out.

I surveyed the wall, spying something atop one of the trees that was tall enough to escape its menace. I squinted briefly. It was the dark-skinned Bruno who had spared my life during the bloodbath.

I swerved around, sprinting to the forest farthest away from the wall. My limbs burned and threatened to give out but my foolish will to live wouldn’t let me. I slammed against a tree and started climbing up it manically. I grabbed knot after branch after limp, scrapping the skin off my palms, tearing at my fingernails. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

I had to live.

Once at the top, I came to the horrifying realization that my tree wasn’t tall enough. I whipped my head back and forth, trying to find the perfect tree. Three trees over, was the only one that would escape the wall (at least I hoped). I fearlessly threw my body to the nearest tree, sliding a bit but otherwise catching myself. I did it again to the tree after that. The wall was over the tubes now, closing in on me quickly. I flung over the gap, missing the intended limp and fell, scrambling the grab a branch. More skin ripped from my arms and cut up the pants where my knees desperately tried to hold on.

I caught myself, smacking on a large branch almost half-way down, knocking the wind out of me. For a moment, I was too dazed to move. But, the wall was three-fourths the way across the meadow and I was out of time. I wretch upwards, moaning with pain, finding it harder to grip with blood covering my skinned-hands. I forced it out of my mind, tears trailed down my faced and I carried myself upwards, throwing my backpack to the earth floor to stop it from slowing me down.

My hand clamped around the final branch and I hoisted myself up, breathlessly. The wall followed moments later but I couldn’t let out the desperate sigh of relief. I was in the clear for the wall of mist. But my brother and Freddy weren’t. None of us were really. Not until this was over and we were either dead or the Victor.

Bruno had disappeared from the trees. The wall was trapping me up in the sky. The tubes were lifting up.

No one was in the clear. No one was safe. We were all just waiting for the Capitol to change up the Game a little. I suddenly wasn’t so sure why I had wanted to live so badly. Becoming the Victor was far worse. You survive; you’re forever playing the Capitol’s Game.

There was no way out.