59 SECONDS.

Remember, Enobaria had said, the sixty seconds you have before the gong sounds and you're let off the platforms are crucial. It's where you get to tabulate your surroundings, aim for what you want to go for, commit. Once the countdown ends, you surge to the Cornucopia, gather your weapons, and eliminate as many tributes as you can.

Iko glanced around. They were in some sort of enclosure—thick stone walls that were almost twice her height, closing them in with only one exit where the gates had been torn off their hinges—one so big Iko couldn't imagine what it would've been used to hold. Behind her, a thin watchtower stood erect. Overhead, a metallic bridge had been constructed, like a viewing platform spanning from the tower to another on the other side, bisecting the enclosure. Beyond the walls, towering trees wept damp air—giant trees—taller and larger than any she'd ever seen. And beyond them, a soaring range of forested slopes wreathed by fog thick as a cataract lay on the edge of the arena. Janus was right. Humid environment, clear blue skies, thick air rich with the smell of earth. They must be in the heart of a valley, or at least some place on lower ground. If she strained her ears, over the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears, she could catch the faint roar of a waterfall, or rapids, nearby.

All the tributes were placed in a circle, equidistant from the Cornucopia in a randomised order. Alex wasn't within sight, so he was probably on the other side of the giant structure, closest to the gaping mouth that must be twenty feet tall and wide, spilling over with valuable supplies vital to their survival. Unfortunately, until she could get her hands on her precious knives, or any other weapon, that meant Iko was going to have to deal with fighting with her hands when the clock ran down to zero and all the tributes surged to the Cornucopia to fight over the supplies. Another sweep of her surroundings calculated Opal three spots to her left, and Elias on her right. He met her stare with a burning glower, nodding in acknowledgement. Like Alex, Sage and Titus must be on the other side of the Cornucopia, since she couldn't see them. No matter what, they had to make sure the Cornucopia was theirs. No other tribute outside of the Career pack will be allowed to escape with any of the supplies if they could help it.

A breeze cut through the enclosure, tickling the nape of her neck, which had begun to slick with sweat, crawling down her skin from her hairline. Iko kept her eyes on the clock as the seconds ran down. She flexed her fingers, adrenaline flooding her veins, an electric current surging through her blood. Her lips curled into a vicious snarl.

0 SECONDS.

At the sound of the gong, Iko shot off her platform, diving in to the heat of the tributes charging towards the Cornucopia. No time to think. No time to slow down. Iko didn't dare look over her shoulder as she reached the mouth of the Cornucopia. In periphery, Iko spotted a tribute charging her way, and her eyes scrambled for a weapon. Anything. But everything had either been claimed or were buried deep inside, where she wouldn't have time to scrounge. The boy was closing in. Iko sized him up as he neared. He was a foot taller than her. Skinny, but frenzied with adrenaline. He was dangerous. But she could snap his neck in seconds. Like a mantra, Enobaria's advice ran through her head.

If the enemy is in range, so are you.

"Iko!" Sage hollered, somewhere deep in the Cornucopia. Waving her hand, her red hair flashing like ruby flames in the sunlight. Iko turned, and without missing a beat, Sage tossed her a katana. Iko caught it by the hilt, unsheathed it, and swung with all her might into the chest of the boy from Six, who didn't manage to stop himself in time before impaling himself on the blade.

Incoming fire has the right of way.

It gave a sickening squelch as Iko unstuck it, letting the body collapse in a heap to the ground. Iko lunged for the Cornucopia, joining Sage in the shade. She'd managed to get her hands on a sword, and was fending off tributes who thought they could get lucky enough to nick some supplies before running off. A couple of them snuck between the crates of supplies, trying not to draw attention to themselves, only to be met by the two Careers. Iko took pleasure in watching their faces pale in fear as she ran her blade through a boy tribute's chest. None of them made it past Iko and Sage, who slashed and hacked away at whoever came near them.

The easy way is mined.

As expected, Alex was already at the Cornucopia, quiver full of arrows slung over his shoulder, facing off the boy tribute from Eight. One tribute lay by his feet, limbs tangled in an awkward position, an arrow shot through her heart. Wielding the bow in his hand like a staff, Alex slammed one end of it into his opponent's throat, sending him staggering back, choking on a broken gullet, before nocking an arrow and sending it straight through his eye in one fluid motion.

From where Iko and Sage stood, a good few feet under the shade of the Cornucopia, Iko couldn't see where Titus and Opal were amidst the chaos of tributes scrambling for their lives and attempting to kill each other. As the bodies fell, as Iko spotted a spear shooting through the air from the left of the Cornucopia and slicing through an escaping tribute's skull, instantly killing her, Iko assumed they were fine on their own.

Professionals are predictable, it's the amateurs that are dangerous.

A gunshot went off to Iko's left, and the bullet lodged in the crate just inches from her feet. Something silver and sharp gleamed, catching her eye. Knives. A dozen of them, arranged according to size in clear sheaths on a belt. A sick thrill shot through her blood as she snatched it up instantly. Iko turned just in time to see Elias grab the girl from Seven from the back. Panicked, the girl thrashed and bucked wildly, and the gun in her hand went off again, this time, pointed towards the sky. Elias was much bigger than her, and definitely much stronger, but, seized by fear, the girl managed to slip out of his grasp and whip the gun across his face. Her hands trembled as she held the gun up. It was obvious she had never handled one before. Before the girl from Seven could line up another shot, a knife whistled through the air and embedded itself between her eyes. Breathing hard, Elias glanced at Iko as the girl fell. Annoyed at his distraction, Iko gestured for him to move on.

The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:

Further away from the Cornucopia, Titus tossed Opal another spear, and, in synchrony, they launched them at two tributes who were making off with bright orange backpacks. They stumbled and dropped like flies, spears shot through their chests. One of them was so close to the exit he left a trail of blood as he collapsed against the wall of the enclosure.

a. when you are ready for them

A flash of movement towards the exit caught Iko's attention. The others were locked in combat elsewhere, too distracted at more pressing matters to tend to the fleeing tribute. Seizing a sword lying atop a crate, Iko leapt over the supplies in her way. She tossed the sword in Elias' direction without looking to see where it fell. The girl from Eight was escaping. There was no time. With her left hand, Iko snatched up a long blade from her belt, still minding Enobaria's instruction to keep her fellow tributes thinking she was sinistral. As she sprinted after the girl, who had a brown backpack hiked over her shoulders, Iko lined up for the shot, and let it fly. The knife struck the girl square in the back of the head. She dropped to the ground like a stone.

b. when you are not ready for them

Before Iko could collect her knife, someone tackled her from behind and the ground beneath her feet tilted. Both tributes went down hard. All the air knocked out of her lungs. Blinking hard to recover from the shock, Iko reached for her knives, but it was too late. The girl from Eleven already had her pinned down, and her hands were clamped around Iko's neck in a chokehold. Teeth gritted as she gasped for air, Iko dug her thumbs into the girl's eyes and pushed hard, until blood trickled down Iko's wrists and the girl began to scream. Her grip around Iko's neck went slack. For a second, she went still, and then she coughed up a mouthful of blood onto Iko's face. Without wasting a moment, Iko shoved the girl off her, catching sight of a silver arrow sticking out of the back of her neck, severing her spine. Alex.

Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at.

"You alright there?" Opal asked, offering Iko a hand up. She loomed over Iko, the dark silhouette of her head eclipsing the sun.

Chest heaving, Iko accepted it, and let Opal pull her to her feet.

"Here." Opal handed Iko back her knife, and Iko slipped it back into its place on her newly acquired belt. She must've pulled it from the dead girl's skull earlier. "I cleaned it just now. It was soaked to the hilt in her brains."

Iko nodded, but didn't thank her.

"That was fun," Sage remarked, coming over to the two girls. Her grin was broad, and her eyes were glimmering with something dark, something that ran in their blood, too. Iko couldn't tell if her freckles had magically multiplied overnight or if it was just blood speckled across her face. Maybe it was in her hair too. That could explain why it looked more red than usual. When Sage caught sight of Iko's shirt, which was soaked almost black with blood and sticking to her chest, Sage made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat. "Aw, gross. Someone threw up on you?"

Shrugging, Iko peeled her shirt away from her skin. "It doesn't matter. They're dead now."

It was over. From the silence and general lack of activity, Iko assumed everyone else who was still alive had made off successfully—though that would be short-lived. Wiping the blood off her face with the hem of her shirt, Iko surveyed the enclosure. After the bloodbath, they were meant to disperse so the hovercrafts could come collect the bodies before they started stinking and spreading unnecessary diseases within the arena. But first, they needed to double back and check if the tributes were still breathing. If they weren't, they'd make sure. There was no tolerance for error in these Games.

In the aftermath of their destruction, Iko eyed the fallen tributes. Blood coated their bodies so thickly, a dark red blanket drowning every inch of their skin, that if it weren't for the district numbers stitched to the back of their shirts, it was almost impossible to tell apart one corpse from the other. So far she counted ten bodies in sight, but there could be more scattered on the other side of the Cornucopia. She'd already forgotten how many she'd executed. Who could blame her? In the mania of the moment, she hadn't exactly been counting.

Elias emerged from the Cornucopia with a second sword in hand. Lip curled in disdain, Titus kicked a tribute in the shoulder, watching as they rolled over, limp and lifeless. Splitting off from the girls, Iko joined Alex, who was preoccupied with combing the area, searching for any surviving tributes.

"Had fun?" Alex asked, lifting a brow as he shot her a curious smirk. And then his eyes darted down to her blood-soaked chest. Amusement flashed over his features. "You wanna go look for a new shirt?"

Iko shot him a flat look. "I'm fine, thank you." Her voice was cold, but not cruel.

Alex snickered. Then his eyes caught on something and mild surprise flickered over his face. But it was gone so quickly that it could've been mistaken for a passing shadow as he bent down to pick up a dead tribute by the collar of their shirt. At first, Iko began to ask him what he thought he was doing, until she caught sight of the tribute's face, slicked with blood, and then the number on the back of his shirt. A boy who couldn't have been older than thirteen. Young, innocent, dead.

District Four. Sage's district partner.

"You think she'd care?" Alex asked, his expression carefully blank. All of a sudden, Iko's skin crawled. The cameras were ruthless. They were everywhere. They were always watching. Any flicker of emotion would be broadcasted and eaten up by whoever was watching. Everyone could see everything.

"No," Iko said, finality stamped in her frosty tone. And then she recalled Sage's exact words when they'd first met and Titus had asked about her district partner. "He's a shrimp."

When it became clear there were no survivors, Alex whistled to get the others' attention. They gathered at the mouth of the Cornucopia, all their weapons collected and in dire need of a cleansing to get the blood out.

"I counted twelve dead," Elias said, his voice quiet as thunder, though his dark features betrayed nothing. In his hands, Iko spotted the gun that the girl from Seven had been holding onto. Iko doubted Elias knew how to use it either, but she wasn't going to step up and teach him how to. Imparting skills at this time wasn't the smartest idea. Plus, Iko didn't know how to feel about sharpshooting practice in this half-urbanised, half-wilderness environment. They could be drawing the attentions of whatever predatory muttations the Gamemakers had cooked up in their headquarters.

"We need to clear out so they can collect the bodies," Alex said, a sharp bite of commandment ringing in his tone. "Take what you need. Backpacks, perishables, water bottles or canteens, whatever weapons you like. We won't be back until nightfall. Opal, you and Elias will stay and guard the Cornucopia tonight. Hang around outside the enclosure for the time being. Once the hovercrafts leave, you two come back in, and you don't let anyone else touch the supplies. Try to catalogue what you can so we know what we're working with. Everyone else, get ready." Amber eyes ablaze with a minacious glint of excitement, he flashed them all a grin so vibrant Iko could hear the hearts of the girls in the Capitol shattering instantly.

All this blood still wasn't enough. Not for them, anyway, when their blood still thrummed with a poisonous thrill, the lick of something deadlier in their veins. Now that they've had a taste of what it felt like to finally be killing machines, now that they've spilled first blood, they wanted more.

"We're going hunting."

* * *

IN RETROSPECT, they should've been focused more on reconnaissance rather than hunting down the remaining tributes. Just to get a feel of the arena. After all, they had to assume that everywhere was hostile territory, considering the Gamemakers weren't being paid to make things easy for them. Entertainment compromised a secure environment. And they needed to find a water source. Urgently.

But Iko knew that Alex wasn't stupid. They could kill two birds with one stone, anyway.

Avoiding the brightly coloured backpacks out of practicality, they'd each collected whatever they needed—two canteens each incase they found a water source, a pack of beef jerky to share—with Sage and Alex carrying lengths of rope and tarps in their packs if they needed to shelter from rain.

Elias had found an impressive assortment of firearms in one of the crates, and a morbid amount of ammunition. Alex had been firm about them taking only one round's worth. Rationing would do them some good for later. While Alex brought along his bow and arrows, Iko had her knives, hanging from the belt like an impressive set of teeth. Sage carried with her a katana, and Titus had opted to leave his spear behind in favour of a sword. They each carried one rifle, confident enough in their abilities, and almost trigger-happy with excitement to use them.

And then they set out, leaving Opal and Elias at the tree line of a forest separated from the enclosure by a wide dirt road that circled the walls and rolled on into the distance on the other side of the enclosure. Earlier, at least half a mile after they'd cleared out of the Cornucopia, through the canopy of those monoliths of pine trees, they'd spotted the hovercrafts flying overhead twice. Once, before they collected the bodies, and a second time in the opposite direction, presumably after.

Once the hovercrafts were gone, the arena lapsed back into its serene silence, with only the screaming bugs and squalling birds overhead and the quiet roar of a waterfall in the distance to serve as white noise.

On their way out of the enclosure, Sage had pointed out the aggressive scratches on the walls of the enclosure that Iko hadn't noticed prior to the bloodbath. Like something had been clawing against the walls, desperate to escape. Three lines in parallel. Deep gashes in the stone, too. Titus had shaken off Sage's observation with a cocky smirk.

"Don't worry. I'll protect you if you're scared," Titus said, shooting Sage a sleazy grin.

Livid, Sage merely hip-checked him as she stormed past in a rage.

Since then, they'd been quiet. Careful to make as little sound as possible while they ventured into the deepening forest incase they woke something that didn't need waking, or alerted another nearby tribute to their presence. Although, the dense underbrush—bursting with colours so bright and so exotic it looked like nothing either of them had ever seen, and so determined to trip them up and impede their progress through the forest—was making it difficult to do a good job of being soundless. With Alex in the lead, the others weren't so quick to follow as they crashed through ferns and bushes, twigs and stiff roots cracking loudly beneath their boots.

Titus swore violently each time a root tangled around his ankles.

Out of frustration, Sage had taken to hacking at the leaves in her way, the slashing of her blade slicing through the air with each swing.

Even though Sage was cleaning the path for her, Iko wasn't so lucky either. As agile as she could be, swollen roots and small ferns still clipped the ends of her combat boots. The afternoon humidity wasn't improving their quickly rotting mood either. Sweat trickled down Iko's back, and her shirt smelled too much like blood, the pungent, coppery scent stinging her nostrils.

"You ever seen trees this big before?" Titus wondered, frowning curiously at the giant pines standing over them like monoliths. Their trunks were as thick as buildings, and Iko didn't think they could be scaled from the ground up. They paused for a little while, looking up at the tree Titus was studying with a puzzled frown on his face, before Alex hurried them along.

"It probably means we'll have bigger mutts," Alex said, stepping through the underbrush with little issue. "Big trees, higher oxygen levels. Makes sense, right? And maybe the Gamemakers were inspired by a different time." He pointed out a patch of exotic looking ferns, larger than the ones they'd seen in the forests at the foot of the mountain ridges back home. They were coloured different, too. Even though she wasn't an expert on plants, nor had she paid much attention at all in her science classes, never in her life had Iko ever seen such strange plant life. Unlike her, however, Alex had always been a model student in school. "I've never seen anything that looks like that in my botany class." He turned to Iko. "Have you?"

Iko shook her head. Strange plants, enclosures that were bigger than necessary to hold regular animals, strange markings on the walls. It made sense. "They could be poisonous, for all we know."

In periphery, she saw Sage recoil from a bright red flower at the base of a tree.

Titus shrunk away from a fern with red and purple leaves.

Late afternoon turned the sunlight a rum-coloured orange, falling through the canopy in broken streams of light and soaking the ferns and the forest floor. Still, there were no tributes in sight. No threats, either. Perhaps the Gamemakers were going easy on them. It was around then that Iko heard the first of the cannons sounding off, cleaving through the silence as they slipped through the underbrush. They stopped short a mile out into the forest to listen, their faces inclined to the sky, fragmented by the canopy.

Alex mouthed the numbers as he counted the shots.

Twelve.

And then silence.

Twelve tributes dead. Twelve alive.

Six left to play with.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.
in the case that my writing fails me i made some aesthetics to give u all an idea of what the arena looks like

yes this is a result of me rereading jurassic park for the 2837273727372th time. yes i love dinosaurs and they will appear at some point. yes my characters are going to suffer.

anyway, if this fic isn't being updated within the next 2 weeks or so, it's because i'm prewriting. if i do update miraculously, then it's because i'm impatient and there will probably be 1828182828 mistakes and inconsistencies