CHAPTER NINE!

THE START.

IT IS AS IF HER LEGS move on their own accord. The young brunette sprints straight for the opening she had seen earlier, dropping her hand down to retrieve a small backpack which lays in open space. She tries to block out the screams of her fellow tributes as she flees the scene, putting as much distance between herself and the rest of them as she can. As she moves, all she can think about is those poor families who are having to watch their children perish on live television.

Rosalie manages to manoeuvre around the trees, letting herself slow down when she doesn't hear any noise behind her. Her lungs are burning as she averts her gaze, looking to find where to go next. All she notices is how the further she goes, the less trees there are, it's as if it completely transforms into a different landscape. Instead of the green shrubbery, she's met with large buildings, their windows smashed and several walls caved in.

The brunette knows that the Career tributes, the people she fears the most in these games, would still be back at the Cornucopia so she gives herself a moment. Her hand lays on the brick of one of the buildings, the scratchy surface rubbing against her fragile skin. She hisses lightly as it scratches, blood lightly seeping from her wound. She needs to be careful or her cause of death may be infection.

At this moment in time, the buildings appear to be the safest place for her and for that reason, she makes her way into the one that seems the least rickety. She enters one of the rooms that will allow for a quick escape, the back of it missing a wall, and takes a seat.

A loud booming noise can be heard and she knows that the bloodbath is now over. The Careers, more likely than anybody else, have probably already wiped out half of their competition. She hopes that Zachariah is okay, if she doesn't win maybe he can. It would at least benefit her family in some way, a few extra rations to survive on.

The canon sounds a total of thirteen times, that's thirteen children who have just been murdered in cold blood. The toll can be seen as rather high for the first day, and there will likely be more to come. However, with the arena being incredibly large, there is no doubt these Games will still last for an extended period of time. Rosalie has, unfortunately, seen it happen several times. Not everybody will die at the hands of others either, quite often there are other circumstances out of their control.

When the noises stop, she pulls her small backpack towards herself and opens up the zipper. The bag gets turned upside down, the contents spilling out onto the floor. A small bottle, filled to the brim with water, is what she sees first. The rest includes a beanie, which confuses her, a pocket knife, a small packet of dried fruits, rope and what looks like some sort of beef jerky. It's enough to keep her going a few days, well maybe not the water.

She's from District Four, the water will be something she can hopefully find pretty easily.

Rosalie allows herself to take a few sips of her water, not wanting to use too much. However, she realises that if she doesn't have a little bit now, she will suffer from dehydration.

She carefully places the stuff back in the bag, bar the beanie and the knife. She slips the cotton hat on and holds the weapon in her hand for safety reasons. She has no doubt that it's sharp enough to cause some serious damage.

The hours drag on by and as nightfall begins to settle around her, she begins to feel the cold all the more. It would explain the beanie in her bag, not that it's exactly the warmest thing she's ever seen. The sounds of the animals begin to die down and soon enough, the Capitol theme replaces them.

Rosalie moves and sticks her head out the broken wall to look up at the sky. The faces of the tributes begin to show. It's goes straight to the girl from District Three and she knows that all the Careers have, once again, survived the initial onslaught. She lets out what can be seen as a sigh of relief when District Four is skipped — Zachariah is still alive in here somewhere. Both tributes from District Five and Six are gone, the boy from Seven, the girl from Eight, both from Nine, the girl from Ten, the girl from Eleven and both from Twelve.

The brunette closes her eyes after seeing some of the faces, some of them can be no older than fourteen and already they have passed on. It's a cruel world, one she hopes future generations won't have to survive in. This is something she would not wish on anybody, no matter who they are.

"I'm sorry," She mumbles to nobody in particular, but it's meant for those who are gone and for those families who have to go through the pain of watching them go.

The girl huddles back in the house, knowing it's not smart to start a fire at night time. She's pretty good with the cold, back home they used to swim on really cold days and she was fine. So, hopefully, she'll be able to survive the weather here. She drifts off to sleep.

When she awakes the next morning, she's well aware she should not have allowed herself to sleep like that. Relatively unarmed and extremely vulnerable, anybody could have come by and killed her whilst she was out. 

Rosalie allows herself to have a little more water and a few pieces of the jerky that she had stored away, she will need some sort of energy for the day. Then she wiggles her way out of the building and into the sun. The backpack is on and the knife is being clutched tightly in her small hands, ready for a fight.

Today she is going to go in search of water. It seems like the most practical thing to do — you can survive without food for longer than you can without water. She's read many books, her brother has drilled these things into her brain since she was younger just in case. She misses her family, most of her strength comes from them.

Sticks and leaves crunch beneath her feet, the slowness of her steps not able to stop that. A small smile pulls her lips when she hears the chirps of birds around her, finding some sort of serenity in a bad situation. The sounds of nature have always soothed her, more so those of the ocean but she's sure she won't get that here.

The fact that she has yet to see another human being is rather comforting, who knows what would happen if she did. These people, more specifically those from One and Two, are rather cruel and calculated. They don't care who you are nor where you're from — everybody is simply something in the way of their victory.

Her head snaps up as the canon sounds, her heart rate increasing ten fold as she thinks about who it could possibly be. Shaking her head, she continues on her journey to find some drinkable water.

The sun lightly heats her skin as she continues on, she knows her face will end up sunburnt as it always does.  Trudging along, she cannot help but notice how truly quiet it is. Back home she never had much alone time, there was always noise and people talking. Here, she's all alone.

Her eyes pick up on the fact that the plants she's nearing are those usually found near the water and she sighs in relief. Then it comes into sight, a body of water.

Rosalie's pace picks up as she heads towards it. Kneeling down beside it, she grabs the bottle from her bag and drinks several mouthfuls. Her hand dips into the water and she then pulls it out, tasting the water. Fresh Water.

A relieved chuckle falls from her lips, the bottle quickly being filled by the brunette. She closes it up and then turns around, her breath hitching when she sees the arrow pointed directly at her skull.

NOTE!

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