The Hunger Games: Different Version
One-by-one the glass tubes that concealed all of the tributes rose from the ground to reveal the arena.
A field of grass lay before Katniss' eyes and she got lost in the thought of home, the field of grass that she used to run on before exiting District 12 and escaping out into the woods.
'The woods,' she thought to herself, what she'd give to be back there with Gale right now, but no matter how hard she tried to imagine being back there, the reality of the arena grew on her, 'I have to kill people if I want to survive.'
As she scanned the arena, she locked her eyes on a shiny silver bow, nothing like she'd ever used before, but still, it was a bow, a bow she knew how to use.
She reared her body forward, waiting to dart towards the bow, when she noticed Peeta staring directly at her, as their eyes met, Peeta shook his head and looked towards the forest, of course she knew running for the bow would mean placing herself in the middle of a blood bath 'Haymitch said to run as far away as possible and to find water', every thought crossed her mind and before she could contemplate changing her mind, the timer had ended and she found herself crossing to the bow, luckily for her she was a fast runner and so was able to get the bow and head for safety.
She ran towards the South side of the arena and on her way managed to acquire a backpack full of essential supplies: a water bottle, a flashlight, a sleeping bag, a knife, some rope and a box of skewers.
"What could I possibly need skewers for, is there a barbeque around here or something?" she could almost hear the laughter of the Capitol and managed to force a slight smile herself, as she carried on walking south from the cornucopia, she came across a small river of water and proceeded to fill her bottle up, "so that's water sorted, looks as though it's getting dark, next step find somewhere safe to sleep."
After searching for about five minutes, she found a rather large, climbable tree, "it'll have to do, not going to find anything better really," when she'd found the highest point that she knew she'd be safe sleeping on she began to doze off, but was woken when the tree began to vibrate and threw her off balance, "Maybe a tree isn't the safest place to sleep, unless..." she remembered the backpack she'd picked up at the cornucopia and began to rummage through it in search of the rope, "I can tie myself to the tree with this, making my chances of 'death by falling' a lot slimmer."
After tying herself to the tree she noticed a figure darting through the trees towards the tree she was concealed in, as the figure climbed the tree, Katniss could hear cries of laughter following, "Come on, he went this way!" shouted a girl.
'Careers' thought Katniss, 'if I keep my breathing minimal and make no sound they shouldn't realize I'm up here, I'm so far up anyway so I suppose I'm kind of hard to spot'.
The breathing from the boy climbing the tree got heavier and louder, indicating to Katniss that he wasn't too far away from her branch, suddenly she felt a hand on her leg and she froze, "Katniss?" Katniss opened her eyes through sheer curiosity and saw the one person she was actually glad to see, "Peeta, oh my god, I can't tell you how glad I am to see you right now," he hauled himself up onto the same branch as her and put a finger on her lip and pointed to the careers below, "Great! We lost him! I told you stopping to kill that girl would give him a better chance of escaping, especially when Cato always has to create tension before he kills someone!" a sort of growl emerged from a boy's mouth and suddenly it was clear to Katniss and Peeta that it was Cato, "it's not my fault I love watching their necks snap!" a tiny gasp, luckily not loud enough for them to hear, escaped from Katniss' mouth and a rush of fear filled her body luckily, not long after, footsteps fled away from beneath the tree, "they've gone," said Peeta, "They've been chasing me all day, I honestly thought they'd kill me," Katniss looked at Peeta who was as red as anything, "have you had a drink at all?" Peeta shook his head and then pointed to a small knife concealed in his back pocket, "this is all I managed to pick up at the start, it was right in front of my platform, better than no weapon at all right?" she nodded and then held out her water bottle, "you sure?" she nodded and kissed him on the cheek, "what was that for?" she shrugged, "I'm not too sure myself, let's just say it was for managing to climb up here," she giggled as Peeta took small sips from the bottle, "we'd better get down before they start searching the trees or something stupid," she suggested before climbing down, "think you can get down?" Peeta nodded and after getting three quarters of the way down the tree, slipped and fell, whereas Katniss jumped and landed right beside him, "thought you said you could get down," she smiled and helped him up, just as he gained his feet they heard footsteps stampeding towards them, "they must've heard you fall to the ground, let's get out of here" she beckoned, pulling Peeta deeper into the trees.
The thunder of footsteps died down allowing Peeta and Katniss a moments rest, "they must've gotten tired or turned in the wrong direction," said Peeta falling to his knees and slowly sprawling out, "hey, you okay?"
"yeah, I think I sprained my ankle though, you know, when I fell out of the tree," Katniss bent down and carefully rolled up the bottom of his trousers, "yeah, that's definitely bruised, not broken of course, but really badly bruised, might take a while to heal aswell, unless there's some magic bush out here that can heal it for you... but I seriously doubt that," Peeta laughed a little but was clearly in a lot of pain.
Katniss hauled him onto her shoulders and carried him all the way to a nearby lake, "so who did the careers stop to kill last night when they were after you?" Katniss asked,
"Oh, I'm not too sure exactly, think it was the girl from district 9," as Katniss set him down a rock by the edge she said, "she seemed kind of reserved in training, never spoke once to anyone, have to admit though, I prefer others killing them, I think it'd probably haunt me," Peeta nodded, "it's like I told you, back in the capitol, I'd have to kill at least someone when the time came, but until then I wanna just let them battle it out, don't you agree?" Katniss also nodded and then carried on to say, "What I'd give to be back at home, back with Prim, with my mother, with everyone," Peeta looked at Katniss for a while, staring deep into her emotion-overload expression, "you seem troubled," Katniss looked up in confusion, then said, "well I am a little, it's just I don't think being allies would help us, I mean think about it logically, twenty-four tributes go into an arena, forced to kill eachother until only one victor is left, the operative sentence being 'one left', I don't think either of us would be able to cope with killing the other," just as Katniss gave a sigh, the seal of Panem appeared in the sky and some slight background music played before Seneca Crane, the head gamemakers, voice was heard all over the arena, "attention tributes, as of now there is a slight rule change, the previous rule of one tribute allowed to be crowned has been discarded and another in its place," a slight pause followed before he carried on to explain the change, "two tributes, if from the same district, may be crowned, this is the only rule change."
The expression on Katniss' face immediately changed and before she knew it, she'd got her arms wrapped tightly around Peeta, Peeta seemed to hesitate a bit and then he also threw his arms around Katniss, "thank god! I didn't want to have to kill you, or you kill me for that matter," suddenly he pulled away and quickly kissed her for the whole of Panem to see.
"So, you really do like me?" Peeta kissed her again before looking deep into her eyes and saying, "like you? I love you for heaven's sake, I've loved you since I first saw you by the bakery and even more when I found you in that tree, bundled up in your sleeping bag," he smiled right at her, "in a way you sort of saved my life, I wouldn't of even thought of coming this way, I'd probably be walking right into a storm of remaining tributes, the cornucopia is practically a death trap and in a way, no where's safe around here," Katniss rose up from her rock and scanned the perimeter, "well you can tell me more about saving your life and how much you love me when we get you somewhere safer, I think we should head in that direction," she stated whilst pointing to a nearby waterfall and helped Peeta to his feet before hauling him onto her shoulders.
With the weight of Peeta on her shoulders (literally), it took her just over twenty minutes to walk a five minute distance, after slipping him off of her shoulders, she slumped to the ground, "that was quite tiring and to think, I'm used to hauling..." she quickly stopped before she spilled all her secrets about the woods, she knew that if she let anything slip not only would she be I trouble, but so would Gale, "hauling what?" said Peeta looking rather concerned.
"Oh, I used to haul crates for my mum when we moved in, then when my Father passed away, she packed up lots of boxes with any memories of him and told me to carry them up into his study," she quickly recovered and in all fairness, it wasn't as though the cover-up was a lie, her Mother actually did ask her to do that because she knew that Katniss was the only capable one, "True, but surely I'm heavier than crates and boxes," Katniss shook her head.
"Surprisingly, you're not. I would've thought with all your muscles and stuff you would be heavier, guess that's where judging people by their looks leaves you."
"I only just realized, never gave me a response. Well apart from the shoving me into the wall and shouting in my face."
"Oh," she looked into the distance, quite unsure of her feelings for Peeta, "I'm not too sure really, you see, I'm not good with words or guys, infact I'm quite useless when it comes to stuff like this," as she got lost in her thoughts, she felt Peeta's hand on her shoulder, "Katniss, I wasn't lying when I said I've loved you forever, but I just need to know if you feel the same way, just answer yes or no," Katniss looked into his eyes for a brief moment and when Peeta demanded she tell him, she leaned in and passionately kissed him, she knew Gale would be watching but she honestly didn't think about it long enough to regret it, 'I do love you' she thought to herself, as they pulled away, Peeta let out a sigh of relief, "So, I'll take that a yes?" Katniss nodded and then hugged him, "I'm so glad we don't have to fight eachother," Peeta said holding her body close to his, "I agree, but for now let's not think about fighting, I have to conjure up a way to repair your ankle," she said as she looked around, deep in thought as to what would help when suddenly, "Attention tributes, only six of you now remain, so now a new game has been put into place, all of you are to report to the cornucopia at dawn, injured or not, first you will al receive a parachute with an essential for your means of recovery before the game," a slight pause followed before Seneca carried on, "then, two names will appear in the sky, and those two are the people who must fight eachother until only one is left, this will carry on until two victors, if from the same district, or one victor remains, this is an order and if disobeyed will come with high consequences."
"Dawn," Katniss said to herself, "we still have a bit of time to sleep, but I'm gonna have to try and haul him up there again, shouldn't be too far though."
