Young Writers Society

~Clara~

I had almost fallen asleep by the time Denzo found me, shaking me frantically awake. "Clara. Clara?"

My eyes flickered open to see the worried expression on my brother's face fade into one of relief, and he drew away slowly. "You're alright," he started falteringly. "I thought ... you were just lying there and ... I ..." His face crumpled into an expression of anguish as he looked away.

Sitting up, I gave him a soft smile. "I'm fine. Are you okay? I saw you fighting, and ..." I trailed off as my thoughts lead me to the same situation Denzo's had. That one of us wouldn't survive; that one night we would look up and see the other's face in the sky.

I bit my lip, then shuffled towards Denzo to wrap my arms around his shoulders, as if to prove to both of us that we were still both here, still alive and together. A moment later, I shivered unwillingly. "It's cold," I murmured.

My brother nodded, pulling away to look through the pack that was laying on the ground beside me. "Is this everything?" he asked after a short pause, and I nodded. A frown passed over his face briefly.

"Do we need to go back?" I asked, anxiety obvious in my voice, and Denzo's frown deepened. "Not yet. It's still too dangerous. What you got is fine for now." he replied with a reassuring smile. "You should probably get some more sleep. I'll keep watch."

My protests were cut short my his 'no-arguments' expression before I could even open my mouth to disagree. Nodding reluctantly, I curled up against the tree once more, falling into the lull of sleep almost immediately.

Thankyou so much for the post!

I'm sorry guys, but im dropping the storybooks that i'm least active on because of a hectic school year already. I'M REALLLLLY SORRY! You're going to either have to kill me off or have someone else take control of me. I'M REALLY SORRY, AGAIN!

That is O.K. I guess... POst

Fawn Trell

There's only so long you can wait in a tree for someone, but every time I thought of moving or going to find our missing teammate, another tribute would stumble by beneath our tree. What were we, magnets or something? And soon it was getting dark... and cold, for that matter.

"Lets get ourselves covered up for the night. We'll find her in the morning." I suggested. I didn't mention how she might have been one of the cannons I'd heard earlier... we'd certainly find out later that night. We spread Elson's tarp over us, tucking it in around us like a cocoon. The slick plastic wasn't very easy to fall asleep on, though... Having an idea, I dug around in my backpack a moment, emerging with a sweatshirt. It was double XL, much too big for any one of them. I held it out in offering. "We'll share it. back-to-back. It'll keep us warm, plus the added body heat." I added the last part after seeing him blush deeply. Normally I'd never share an article of clothing with a boy, let alone a near-stranger, but things were different now. This was survival.

I eventually got him to share the sweatshirt, and we sat back to back in the tree, legs straddling the branches and the tarp hanging over it all.the sun set slowly, and we stayed awake as the temperature dropped. The humidity rose, adding a layer of dew to everything. Damn gamemakers. They couldn't let them have a good night's rest?

Soon, the anthem started. I volunteered to see who died, and stuck my head out of the tarp. Nothing bad. Just the boy who had stumbled by earlier. I was about to duck back in and say that Ilaina was still alive when I heard someone crunching through the leaves. I froze as the tribute's eyes passed over me, but it was obvious that she was seeing something else.

"daddy, where are you going?" The tribute called. "Daddy? Wait up, please!"

The girl tripped over some roots, falling to the pine floor. but I noticed that the needles were a different color then they were before. The new color was rubbed away in long streaks as the tribute dragged herself up to our tree. She curled against the trunk, shivering and gasping.

"I can't breathe, daddy." She whispered. "Why can't I..." The tribute faded off, and her breathing, though still heavy, remained regular. She was asleep.

I couldn't watch her anymore. my heart was pounding from the near find and her obvious hallucinations. I ducked back inside the tarp, slipping into the sweatshirt.

"Who died?" Elson asked.

"A boy tribute. Ilaina is still out there. Lets get out of the forest tomorrow and find her." I said. I didn't tell him about the hallucinatory fungus or the girl tribute who had fallen by our tree. He, at least, deserved a good sleep.

I didn't think I could ever sleep again.

Violet Beach has been taken by the fungus

~I know, I suck for taking so long. Thing's have been kind of hectic, plus, huge writers block every one of the trillions of times I look at this thread. No excuse, I know, but it's all I have~

Ilaina Mick

The whole sixty seconds before the gong sounded I checked out my surroundings, the Cornucopia, and the stuff I could take. My eyes zoned in on a length of rope and a backpack by it, each in level 4. I could get there. I ran quick and I knew exactly where I was going. That's what my mentor told me, to be aware of my surroundings.

A clanging rang through the arena and without hesitation I shot forward towards my goal. Along the way I grabbed random this and thats, not really paying attention, just getting potential supplies. Anything too bulky to scoop up as I ran was skipped over, because I knew what I needed and I didn't know what that was.

I reached level four with very little opposition, just running full speed without slowing down save for little grabs here and there. When I reached the backpack I unzipped it as I ran towards the rope and slip what was in my arms into it, along with the rope when I got to it. I could inspect what I got later, but now I decided to head north, like we planned, and hoped to just get out of there alive.

I just kept running and running, north right in front of me, not stopping for anything. Either people were too slow, already fighting, or just dashing for supplies because I didn't run head on to a weapon or tribute as I ran forward and soon I was too the lake and then farther on, almost to the forest. I decided to stop at the edge of the brush, just for a little break.

You know how when you're running really fast you're in survival mode and you can't hear or see anything that's not right in front of you? Well, because of that, it was only now that I realized that I was being followed.

A guy from 10 that, during the interviews, I nicknamed Spike not because of his hair or anything, but because he had large, spike-shaped scars all along his face and body, as far as I could tell.

Spike jumped at me, swinging a mace. I ducked, just in time, still getting my shoulder nicked by the weapon. Crap! Why hadn't I thought to grab a weapon?!

I leaped from the bushes, backpack strapped to my back, and, a little wobbly, tried to run, but it was no use. He swung at my legged and I hopped above it, but barely. I felt the sole of my boot catch on it and I went tumbling down a hill over the side of the bushes, just a little hill, but a hill nonetheless. A few yards rolling and I landed in a patch of thorns, tearing up my leg a little and my arms a little.

Spike barreled after me, swinging his mace, and I dodged. Improvising, I snatched a thing of thorns and forced it in Spike's face, piercing my hands in the process. Jerking away, he dropped his mace. I grabbed it and swung, not even really knowing what I was doing but acting on instinct.

I bashed him in the head and I could feel it cave in, much to the dread of my mind about my first kill and also to the despair of my physical body - I overswung and after the mace hit Spike, it kept going, abandoning his skull and crashing into my midsection.

I doubled over in pain. Tears sprung to my eyes and I let out a little cry before biting my tongue. Sparkles littered my vision for a bit, then left, taking light with them. In other words, the whole world went dark.

~Sorry if this is a bit incomprehensible. I wrote it really quickly, just trying to get caught up. Not my best work, but it'll do I suppose~

Denzo

It didn't take long before the gamemakers threw their first night time trap at us. And this one was designed to kill while you slept. I was sitting on the grass when it started to change colours. It seemed to spread like a wildfire, engulfing all it touched pretty quickly. That included Clara. I caught it pretty fast, but by the time I got to her, it seemed to have covered most of her clothes.

"Clara!" I yelled, "Wake up!" She stirred a little and opened her eyes.

"Yes?" She said. She seemed to still be half asleep. Her voice was very dreamy and it seemed like she was looking at things that weren't there. It must have been the fungus. I didn't know much about fungi, but I knew enough to know that it could be very bad news.

"You need to get up." I said.

"Daddy?"

"No, it's Denzo!"

"Don't be silly, daddy," she said while looking off into the distance. She was hallucinating, "Denzo has bigger muscles than you. And he's in the games... I'm so worried about him."

"Clara, you need to snap out of it!" It then dawned on me. I needed to get her out of the fungus. It was keeping her in a dream-like state. It was lulling her to sleep. I picked her up and the fungus seemed to retreat like a spider's web off of her body in one large clump. It seemed to search for its missing victim, and when it couldn't find her, it lached onto my shoe. I yelped and kicked it off.

"Denzo?" Clara said. Her eyes were regaining focus. Good, it didn't do permanent damage to her.

"Yes. We need to find somewhere elevated to sleep." Clara nodded and I went to the nearest tree and hoisted her onto a branch. She protested that she could stay awake, and I could get some sleep, but I said no. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was worried about the District 2 man that I fought. If he was still out there, and caught Clara, she wouldn't even have enough time to wake me up. I knew she could defend herself, but that man was too fast and too strong even for me.

I dared not to even sit on the ground and instead paced around the tree as Clara slept through the night.

Fawn Trell

I didn't realize I had fallen asleep until I woke. I was surprised by the warm mugginess and the feeling of being cocooned, and suddenly realized that in the night I had pulled my head and arms into the sweatshirt, snuggling into Elson's back. Weird. I didn't want to emerge, to face the games and whatever torture the day brought, but I had to. I ducked out of the sweatshirt and shivered as the cold morning air greeted me. Hopefully it would warm up... but then again, I'd seen tributes shrivel and burn from heat pumped in by gamemakers, so maybe the morning chill wouldn't be so bad.

I was overwhelmed by a burst of claustrophobia and pulled out protective tarp up over my head, instantly wishing I hadn't. the fungi had grown over the night, not only reaching up a few inched up the tree trunks, but seemingly tying the girl from the night before to the ground. but that wasn't the worst part. Twiggy outgrowths had sprouted from cuts, gashes, even the girl's eyes and ears. My empty stomach churned and flopped, but I had nothing to retch at the horrid sight. Her cannon had obviously gone off a long time ago, and the rustle of needles above my head signaled a hovercraft patiently waiting for Elson and I to move on so they could retrieve the body.

She moved the tarp, letting the night's dew run off. Elson stirred, moaning slightly as he emerged from sleep. I sighed, prodding him slightly.

"We have to go." I told him, and he blinked slowly, taking in my face slowly, in the same sort of 'is this real?' look I'd seen on tributes before her. that first night, when you woke up and realized the games weren't just a nightmare, that you wouldn't blink and find yourself back at home in your bed. I decided to let him adjust on his own and packed the tarp (which she folded neatly) into the backpack. He would no doubt see the body. I didn't bother trying to stop him. It was better for him to find out now then to be scarred even worse by the horrors the gamemakers would come up with later.

Elson -- Because I should have posted for him a while ago Also, I took the liberty of making it as if the previous year's games were actually our last storybook. I just feel that it could make a connection between the two without having any sort of impact on the games this year.

"My god!" I exclaimed upon seeing the body, "What... What happened!?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't see that." Fawn responded.

I could see why. It was horrible. Grotesk, and many other words to describe it. It almost made me want to just give up and die right there and then. I knew the gamemakers could be bad, but that. That was just plain terrible. It was like they were telling us that no matter what happened, they were in charge.

Maybe it had something to do with what happened in the previous year with Ivan and Acacia. The gamemakers wanted you to be underhanded and kill with no mercy, but Ivan was able to win by only killing another tribute with honour. Sure it almost killed him, but his disregard with what the Capitol wanted probably rubbed them the wrong way. Now he's a huge advocate for honour in the games. So much so that he was barred from training the new tributes from District 1. Now, the Capitol probably wanted us to not make the same choices as he did. The fungus was a message that was for sure. If we didn't do what they wanted us to, then they had nothing against killing us themselves.

But the poor tribute. That was too much.

"We best clear out." Fawn said snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What about Iliana?"

"We'll find her, but we can't stay here. It's dangerous." Fawn was right. Still, I knew she was alive somewhere and I wanted to get to her before anybody else had a chance to. If I had learned anything from previous games, it was that there was strength in numbers for the first portions of the games at least. Another one of the bad realities of the games. If you wanted to make it to the end, you needed to trust people you will need to kill in the future. I really didn't look forward to doing that.

"We should find some water then." I said.

"Yeah. There was a lake down south I believe. We might be able to catch Iliana if we head that way." Fawn said.

"Good idea." I said and I helped her pack up the rest of the supplies before we headed off to the unknown.

Ilaina Mick

When I woke up it was light out, but it was a morning light, with dew on the ground not yet dried and the air was both clean and wet while still being dry. My head pounded like while I was passed out I had banged it against a tree again and again. I moaned, forcing myself to get up, trying to remember why I had to, mind in a sort of fog.

Whispy smoke flooded my vision, but I could still see the world clearly. Voices sung mournful, wordless tunes, but all was silent apart from the chirruping of birds and the rustle of leaves blown by the calm wind. An acrid smell overtook me, yet all I could smell was sweet tea.

I noticed mushrooms all over me and wondered why. I brushed them off like wrinkles and smiled, their prickly surfaces velvet on my fingers. I whistled a soothing, raucous lullaby. It occurred to me that all I was feeling wasn't normal, but then I thought Well what about this situation is normal? Nothing and everything. I smiled.

A bag was laying by my side, also covered in mushrooms, but I shook them off; even though they were hideously pretty, they were encasing the zipper and I wondered what was in the backpack.

In it I found rope, a knife, a sweatshirt (good, because I was bone-chillingly overheating, and perhaps a sweatshirt could regulate that), a jar that read "poison", a flashlight, a water bottle, socks, bug spray, beef jerky, and crackers. Good. I was starvingly bloated and I reluctantly desired food of any sort.

The water bottle was empty, so I brought it to a lake a short ways away, which I was delightfully terrified of, and filled it up and took a long drink and filled it up again. After that bugs started buzzing around me so I sprayed myself, then ate some cracker-jerky sandwiches. Then I stuffed everything back into the backpack, stripped down, and went for a swim.

Fawn Trell

Another disheartening thought occurred to me as I hopped down from my tree, shooting another glance at the body. Every moment the camera flicked back to us, the poor girl's family had to see what had become of the poor girl. She'd said something about her father... He might be forced to watch us walk over his beloved daughter. I moved over to her, my hand hovering over her, over her shoulder, then retreated.

"I'm... I'm sorry." I managed, my throat tight from being close to the fungus and the tears that threatened. I promised internally to kill a career in her honor. Maybe that was stupid, and it wouldn't change much, but it was the only thing she could do.

Not feeling up to ransacking her body for clothes or supplies, I turned away, busying myself with rummaging through my backpack so Elson wouldn't see me cry. My hand rested on the jerky and my stomach flopped again. Food. I hadn't eaten anything since the previous morning in the capitol, and guilt flooded me as I realized the same was true for Elson. I had been the one holding the food, keeping it not only from myself but from him. I pulled out two strips of jerky and handed him one.

"Breakfast." I said with an apologetic smile. "Its small, but we'll have more of our supplies later if we don't catch anything." I reasoned. "Keep your eyes open."

Not five minutes later, a squirrel fell to the ground, Elson's knife stuck firmly in it's target. We hurriedly grabbed it up off the fungus, which had tried to grab it in the few seconds it had been on the foliage. Elson skillfully cleaned the kill as he walked, and I took no chances with him being distracted. I circled him as we walked, an arrow notched into my bowstring. Luckily no-one followed, and the fungi seemed to devour whatever gore Elson dropped on it. My eyes kept wandering to the fresh meat, and I wanted it... badly. Elson popped a piece in his mouth fearlessly before offering me a bit. I held the meat in my mouth, trying to keep it there as long as possible before swallowing. the longer this food could last us, the better. We split some of the more scrumptious organs, seeing as neither of us wanted to be greedy and take it from the other, while internally both wanted nothing more than to grab the food and scarf it down. Elson deposited all the inedibles behind a tree, where the fungus covered them. On went our search for Ilaina.

Which didn't take too long, really.

My first reaction was to think 'Who in God's name would be stupid enough to go for a swim, alone, on the second day of the Hunger Games?' Upon seeing the mushroom-covered backpack by the shore and the familiar brunette curls, I realized that Ilaina must've been affected by the funfus, but luckily not as much as the poor girl beneath our tree.

"Can you go out and get her?" I asked Elson. "I... well, I can't swim."

Elson's eyes widened, and I recognized his fear. Maybe he couldn't swim either. Or maybe he thought the fungi-affected Iliana might try to drown him. Both were good points...

"You know what? Let's go together." I stripped off the backpack, my jacket, and then started to remove my shirt.

"What're you doing!" Elson gasped.

"If tonight's anything like last night, I want to have dry clothes. You don't have to look." I stripped down to my underthings, prayed that my mother wasn't watching, and grabbed my dagger from my pack. I gave Elson a look, giving him a choice on whether or not to to strip before going after the affected Ilaina.

And then sent up another prayer.

"Please, don't let us drown. And don't let anyone steal our things. especially my clothes."

Keep em coming

bump...

I'm sorry, I will post in a day or so but I'm so busy at the moment

I'm going to try to post tonight but I've been really busy during the week and *really* busy this weekend. I've got to do homework now