Maya ran. She ran and she ran, her heart was pounding through her chest, her breath shallow and laboured. The thicket of jungle vegetation and trees whipped at her face but she barely noticed the stinging. She glanced back and instantly regretted it. The four-legged creatures were tearing through the trees and leaping over boulders effortlessly, their snarls low and menacing. The sunlight glinted off their grey scales as they moved as a pack; their white eyes hungry for blood.

I am not ready to die today, her thoughts answered in response.

Legs burning with the effort, her senses reached out to find anywhere she could go, anywhere she could hide. Her eyes darted around and at the ground - now was not the time to trip and any small slip-up would mean death.

And not a quick one too, she thought grimly.

More sunlight had broken through the trees up ahead and Maya’s heart leapt just a little in hope for an escape.

Please don’t let it be a field, she prayed. Anything but a field.

She hated this arena and had hoped it wouldn’t be the jungle with its sharp foliage and its prickly heat. Vividly she remembered the 80th Hunger Games, long after the second rebellion to the Capitol, in which young Ryla had been chased into a field by laboratory made and enhanced primates. It hadn’t ended well for the poor girl and Maya was determined not to share the same fate.

There it was. The sound of rushing water. She heard it before she saw it. Perhaps the odds were in her favour. Below her, some thirty feet down was a waterfall. There didn’t appear to be any way to climb down. The only option was to jump into the river and Maya had already estimated there was no way of knowing what was in the river if anything at all, or how deep it was. She realised she could just as likely be dashed on any sharp rocks below the water’s surface. These creatures could be averse to water or they might not be. Maya had no way of knowing since they did not resemble any manner of creature that walked the earth. They were not natural.

Better this than a field where they could just run me down, she thought. She could hear them, they were close, too close. She needed to survive.

With a deep breath, she urged herself on and jumped into the river below just as she saw a few of the creatures spring forth from the trees and arrive at the exact spot she had stood.

Her whole body jerked as she plunged into the water. The water was cold and it disorientated her. The temperature change a shock compared to the humidity of the thick jungle above. Underwater she couldn’t hear anything but the silence of the river and the distant beating of the waterfall. It was darkness all around her, the end of everything.

The water could not take her fall any longer and she kicked, using her arms to push herself up to the surface. A small part of her was cursing herself for not being a stronger swimmer but in coal producing District 12 there wasn’t anywhere for her to practice her swimming close to where she lived.

As soon as her head broke the surface she gasped, filling her lungs with air and immediately swam over to the rocks by the waterfall, careful not to get pulled under its powerful torrent.

One glance up almost made her freeze if she hadn’t been so desperate to get away. It wasn’t just a pack of them, there were hoardes of the creatures, lining the length of the river as far as the eye could see. They were all sniffing and snarling in unison. Their white eyes hardly blinked. Their ears pricked up, listening for sounds beyond the river, sounds she would be making.

The rocks cut her hands and legs as she scrabbled over them to the side of the waterfall and onto the ledge. She stood with her back to the wall, facing out to the river.

Movement. Up ahead. One of the creatures had dislodged themselves from the pack and leapt into the air.

It was the splash it made that struck Maya hard with a resounding fear that tore through her very being. It was the signal that told her to run. It occurred to her that the creature was probably a scout, charged with testing the environment in order to find out her whereabouts.

Skirting along the ledge, she could see directly behind the waterfall that there was a shelter, a cave of sorts. There was nowhere else to go and out of the corner of her eye she saw the creature’s head break the water’s surface. Maya was well aware of the notion that this could be her final resting place.

She shook her head, fighting down the rising panic.

No, she thought. Not if I can help it. Her urge to survive, her will to live, was strong.

The place behind the waterfall was damp and it echoed with her footsteps.

Not good, she thought with a grimace, thinking of the large pointed ears upon the creatures’ heads turning this way and that.

The space wasn’t particularly large. Maya likened it to a similar size as her family’s communal space at home. Unlike her family’s living room at home, there was no door. No exit. Only a wall of damp rock.

A dead end, she thought. The hairs on arms stood on end. No way out. She had trapped herself in.

With dismay she unzipped her bag, fingering the contents; trying to find something - anything - that would help her. Her hands felt the torch, a small length of rope, some matches. There. She felt the cold reassuring grip of her pen knife. But even as she took the knife out she rationalised with herself how a diminutive pen knife could possibly ever stand up to viscous creature of that power and size.

There must be something else I could use, she thought.

A shadow loomed to her left, on the outside of the waterfall.

Snarling. She could hear the creature snarling. It was perhaps seven metres away. Close. Too close.

Her left hand clutched the pen knife while her right hand rummaged through her pockets. She retreated as far away from the snarling as she could and stopped when her back hit the rough jagged edges of the rock wall. Her hand pulled out a small vial from her jacket pocket. It was her mother’s perfume. They were permitted to take in one sentimental item into the arena and she had chosen this clear vial simply so that she could smell her mother’s sweet fragrance and instantly it would feel like home.

In her desperation, an idea struck her. Gripping the bottle tightly, she sprayed it liberally into the air in front of her, the spray particles of the sweet fragrance dispersing visibly in the air just as the creature’s head come into view. It was huge. It’s scaly grey presence filled the tiny cavern so much so that she could barely see the waterfall behind it. The small space was plunged into near darkness in the creature’s shadow.

Maya barely breathed. The creature towered over her, it’s chest heaving, There was nothing she could do now. This is it, she thought. She knew she was no match for this creature. The pen knife would be useless she knew, her only hope would be the perfume and she had no way of knowing whether it would work. She stood as still as possible, her feet rooted to the spot.

The creature was sniffing and its ears were pricked up, listening intently as it stalked its prey.

Her eyes met the creature’s white eyes as it came closer. It looked at her without really seeing. It should have sprang on her by now, should have torn her apart limb-by-limb the instant it had shown its head.

It was moving cautiously and as it moved closer, Maya could see why. Its white eyes were cloudy.

It’s blind, she realised. The creatures are blind. To follow her they had to listen and follow her scent.

Her odds were not looking good. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought the whole arena could hear it. She held her breath slightly, fighting for it not to be heard. Her whole body was rooted to the spot, not daring to move. She was sure that she smelled too, the unmistakeable stench of sweat after all the adrenaline and running. And if not, then she at least smelled like the river.

The creature crept closer, cautiously, continuing to sniff. The sound of its sniffing seemed to echo throughout the small cave. Huge jagged fangs protruded from its mouth, saliva dripping in small puddles on the ground. Its teeth reminded Maya of a cross between a snake and a shark. It stood towering over her then bent its head like a dog sniffing the ground. It sniffled the air that had just been sprayed, her mother’s perfume still lingering in the air, slowly descending in a mist.

Maya could hardly believe her eyes at what happened next.

It stepped back. It looked affronted then confused - as though not sure what to make of this foreign smell and whether it was hostile or not. If Maya hadn’t been so terrified for her life she might have found it comical. Its ears were pricked and on alert as though it sensed a possible threat. It began to back away slowly, cautiously and as it neared the waterfall it turned and darted back along the ledge and out of sight. A soft splash further up ahead confirmed to her that it was swimming back to where it had come from, to rejoin the rest of its pack.

A full five minutes must have passed before Maya slowly let out a breath. Taking light tentative steps she edged closer to the waterfall and stepped onto the ledge, spraying the perfume bottle in front of her three times. Just in case, she thought.

She heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the fake sunlight as it fell upon her face. She stood there, listening to the roaring of the waterfall.

The creatures were gone. She had survived. Thanking her mother and her lucky stars, she gave the small vial a kiss and released a sob she didn’t realise she had been holding back.

No time to cry now, she thought. She needed to move on. There was only more danger ahead and she didn’t know what was waiting for her.

The odds were in her favour this time but next time, she might not be so lucky.