Chapter 90 - Separate Ways

As he looked above him he saw that instead of standing under the blue sky they were all standing underneath a dome like structure made of solid and smoothly polished rock which was perhaps 50 meters in diameter. It didn't seem to be built by the Gamemakers out of individual rocks but with their technology it narrowed down the process of finding out in which arena they were. As a countdown started he continued to observe his surroundings to figure out where he should go.

As he looked to the sides he saw that three openings had been made into the dome, one almost directly across of him leading into what seemed to be a flat area covered with long grass. Sadly visibility was low as everything was eventually covered in mist a few hundred meters away from the entrance.

To his right he saw the air flickering with heat. Although tropical tall trees grew in the front he managed to make out the wavy dunes of red and orange sand not far behind them.

At his left he saw a large body of water, a large lake or perhaps even the sea. Looking around he managed to spot a few islands every here and there, some not even that far away from the entrance to the zone. The seemed to be covered in green and could probably be a nice spot but he didn't trust it. The Gamemakers wouldn't make a wonderful relaxing spot without at least putting a few killer robots on them and only poisonous food to eat as well in case the tributes were a bit skilled.

Based on the symmetry of this place and the placement of the entrances he assumed that there would be another one behind him. Although the countdown had only a few seconds left he decided it was still time. Turning around on his metal plate carefully, as he didn't want to get blown up by the still active mines that would only deactivate once the countdown finished, he saw a large rain forest, covering all his view. Turning around towards the Cornucopia once more he made his final decision.

He didn't want to go into the plains as the visibility was very low which was extremely bad and could potentially get even worse, causing him to get lost, aimlessly wandering around without any possibility of orientation. He distrusted the sea and the beautiful islands as they seemed to good to be true, he didn't like the endless sand and the good visibility in the desert so the only viable options for him was the rain forest although he knew he would curse everyone for the blood sucking mosquitoes. Additionally he had been felling a slight tugging sensation towards the rain forest which he simply couldn't explain. It was mostly this strange feeling that caused him to make this decision.

Turning his attention back towards the countdown that was being displayed on top of the Cornucopia he saw that only five seconds were left remaining. Seeing the tense states of the other tributes he got ready to sprint forwards as well. Even Aster who he spotted a few tributes away, close to the desert exit didn't look around much and was instead focused towards the front, looking closely at the objects around the horn.

He was interested in what she was going to pick if she even chose anything. He personally decided to just grab a deep red medium sized backpack which was about 10 meters away from his position, somewhere in the middle, relatively close to the edge of where the items had been deposited. He could aim for better items but then he would have to fight with a lot of other people which was to much of an inconvenience for him at the moment, especially when everyone would be going after him first as he had achieved the highest score and would be their greatest adversary.

The seconds moved lowly and by now even though the start was merely 8 seconds away the tension was quite high.

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As soon as a loud sound signalized the start of the games Kaiser sprinted forwards, his eyes pinned on the object of his desire, the red backpack. Grabbing the handle with his left hand he turned around and made a beeline for the trees. As he turned around he saw that quite a few people had been a bit to slow when they had started and hadn't even reached the outer circle of item placements. Curiously instead of passing by him when they met a lanky guy decided it would be a good idea to throw himself at Kaiser and try to strangle him. Kaiser grabbed the guys extended right hand with his own and pulled further, causing the guy to turn around halfway.

Closing in Kaiser let go and instead opted for kicking the guy in the back, pushing him further towards the center. While he had turned around he noticed that by now quite a few of the career tributes had reached the center although another thin and large guy had been the first to reach a weapon as they were a bit on the outskirts. That boy decided to try his luck and chose to throw it at Kaiser. Hit the lanky boy in front of Kaiser fell down, the knife buried somewhere in his lower abdomen. Deciding to pull it out which cost him an extra second Kaiser once more moved towards the forest. While running he shouted back:

"Thanks dude. Without your help I couldn't have made it. Great support there."

"No...problem. Don't mention it." Was all the bleeding and already delirious man managed to mumble although to Kaiser it was still audible even at his distance. Passing a few others that had been a bit late but didn't want to mess with a muscular and well fed guy with a knife in his hand without problems he passed the treeline and entered the forest.

Just before the the cornucopia was out of view and beyond the thirty meter range of the radar should someone check at the entrance, which he thought was ridiculous since everyone wanted to get as far away as possible in the beginning. Soon he climbed a large tree once he saw that no one was focusing on him and began to observed the others. Now he saw that the room that the cornucopia was placed in had actually been carved out of an enormous snow capped mountain that towered far above the room. Long, steep almost wall like foothills that extended from the mountain separated the individual zones from each other. Focusing back on the cornucopia he observed the actions of his fellow tributes.

The career tributes had gathered around the cornucopia with whatever weapon they could grab first and began to drive the other tributes away from it to safeguard "their" resources. That was always the achilles heel of the career tributes. Should they have no food and weapons available then they had almost no chance of winning. As easy as that.

Most tributes tried to grab something from the edge or even tried to get closer to the center without getting instantly murdered by someone. Aster however had used a moment when another tribute had gotten to close for comfort to the large pile inside the cornucopia and had been speared through by Superbia (District 1) with a throwing spear and rushed inside the cornucopia. Grabbing a large backpack, a full set of knifes which she bound to her waist and a large coil of wires which she stored inside her backpack. Using another similar situation she advanced towards a small but seemingly strong individual who belonged to District 10 (Livestock) and looked like it. Using one of her knifes she slit his throat cleanly and slowly placed him down without giving him even a chance to make a noise. Once she had confirmed that he was already well on his way and close to death and the tribute that had made a disturbance was already fleeing she ran as well, disappearing into the mist that covered the grasslands.

After observing everything four people had been killed so far which was extraordinarily low compared to the normal games. About 7 had moved towards the sea part and jumped in. About five people chose the desert, three additional people had run past him into the rain forest. The rest which was 4 had chosen the misty plains.

The career tea had split in two, one half carrying their loot into the desert as it had great visibility and they didn't want to swim with all their loot. The other half had chosen to pursue the ones that had fled into the misty plains. Especially since Aster had killed one of their own, wounded their pride and seemed quite strong with an 10 as a score in her evaluation. Each team consisted out of one from each District meaning 1, 2 and four. Additionally the male tribute from District 9 followed the team that carried all the things into the desert. Not to far into the desert they placed everything down, still relatively close to the trees that stood between the cornucopia room and the desert.

Feeling that he had seen enough Kaiser left the tree and continued along the sides of the mountain. Somewhere the snow had to flow down and create rivers. Otherwise he might be able to find other clues on where it could be or catch rain water.