II
-Jenny-
Jenny woke up the following morning and had to fight a wave of panic that had settled over her like mist. She was in darkness. She tried to sit up but hit her head on the ceiling.
And then she remembered.
Fool.
She had settled for the night in small cave about sixty paces from the tree line around the cornucopia. She'd gathered up some stones and tried to cover the mouth of the cave but still keep it looking like a natural formation. She'd achieved some small measure of success. Enough at least for her to survive the night.
She took a sip from her water bottle, which she'd filled from a nearby river. She was hungry too, but she had nothing to eat. She could go back to the cornucopia and see if anything was left there, but the idea didn't sit well with her, mostly because she mentally labelled anyone who headed back there as an idiot. She could try her hand at hunting, though she wasn't much good at it. It was where Jensen, the other tribute from 2 had shined, hunting an survival skills. She decided it would be best to take food from someone else. Make an impact on the Games. But to do that she'd have to find someone. She shifted around so that she was facing the mouth of the cave and started moving the stones slowly out of her way, pausing to listen every so often.
Right, time to claim some spoils for myself.
-Cam-
The morning had brought Cam a fresh perspective on his situation, and not a good one. Not only did he lack water, but he lacked food too. He got up, feeling a lot more exposed in the morning light than he had in the evening, and scanned his surroundings. He couldn't see any sign of other tributes, so he started making his way down from his perch. He decided to circle south and approach the cornucopia from another angle, hopefully he'd find a river or something on the way.
As he got down to ground level he saw tracks through the dusty floor. Human footprints. He thought briefly about following the tracks and trying to get the drop on someone, but he didn't want to fight hungry and thirsty. It wouldn't end well for him. He smiled to himself as he saw that the tracks were heading towards the tallest building.
As he headed towards the forrest some part of his brain, a part long buried under years of living in "civilisation" was screaming at him that he was being watched.
Looks like our friend who left the tracks has woken up, he thought. In reality it could be anyone, but Cam couldn't see them, and the thought that whoever could see him was a hundred feet in the air was a comforting one.
The trek to the cornucopia was a quiet one. There were two cannon shots, but neither of them the result of Cam's actions. He found a river nearby, with a small cave and an odd looking rock formation, not the kind of thing that appeared in nature. It looked like they'd been piled near the cave entrance. Of course it was hard to tell what was natural, considering the arena was entirely man made, but something about the cave triggered that small part of Cam's brain. He went over to investigate it.
The cave was very small, you couldn't even sit up in it without hitting your head, and it looked like someone had been in there recently. Maybe spent the night there, or something. Whoever had been there had gone, which, Cam thought, was a good idea.
And then he heard someone.
It was a sound that would be easily missed, if it weren't for the silence that followed. Like the animals knew something bad was about to happen and would stay quiet and let it.
Cam drew his sword and adopted a low crouched position, scanned his surroundings. He couldn't see any movement, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. He turned slowly and there, off to his left.
Two people, neither of them doing a particularly good job at being stealthy. Cam was having trouble recalling their names, but he thought that maybe they were from District 4.
There was a coin flipping in his head, as to whether he should leave them alone, or try and take them down; which he figured was quite achievable if he could get the drop on them. With luck they'd both be down before they knew they were being followed. Then he saw one of them take a sip from a bottle, and the mental coin flip was suddenly irrelevant.
Cam was going to have that water one way or another.
-Jenny-
Where there's water there's food.
Jenny had no logical basis for her conclusion, but the two tributes she was following were as good a bet as any as to getting her hands on some food. Arcardi and Mel, the two from District 4. Jenny remembered them as being throughly unexceptional during training. She was sure she could take them if she could catch them unawares.
And then she noticed someone just appear from the undergrowth like a spectre. He had a sword in his right hand, and his left was balled into a fist. He was about six paces behind them and to their left when he went for them. He crossed the distance in an instant and had his sword buried in Mel's back before either of them knew what was going on.
Credit to Arcardi, when faced with a fight or flight moment, he chose fight. He had one of the small crossbows Jenny had noticed at the cornucopia in a makeshift holster on his thigh. He took a step back from the Spectre and drew the crossbow, but he was much, much too slow. The Spectre grabbed his wrist and aimed a blow at the tribute's elbow. Jenny's arm twinged in memory of the blow, and she suddenly knew who the Spectre was.
Sadly for Arcardi he didn't have the presence of mind that Jenny had had to exploit 11's position, and he stood still, looking almost confused as the crossbow fell from his grip.
11 threw himself forward elbow first into Arcardi's face. Jenny heard quite clearly the sound of Arcardi's nose shattering even as far back as she was. Somehow Arcardi remained upright, so 11 kicked his feet out from under him. Arcardi fell to the ground like a sack of flour.
So that's what he had in mind for me yesterday. Bastard.
11 picked up the crossbow and started examining it for a moment, before he fell onto all fours and started retching his guts up.
One canon shot sounded.
Mel. Arcardi must still be alive.
Jenny emerged from her hiding place, knife in hand, well aware that now was her best chance to get rid of 11.
11 took a ragged breath and weakly lifted the crossbow and aimed it at Jenny.
"I wouldn't if I were you," he said. "I quite obviously don't enjoy killing," as if to accentuate his point he gagged again, "but I'll do it, if you don't give me a choice."
11's aim was well off. He was seriously threatening the Oak that Jenny had been hidden behind, but not Jenny herself.
Every muscle in Jenny's body was aching to drive her knife home and get it done, but she stayed rooted to the spot. She wondered if it was a misplaced sense of honour that was keeping 11 alive. Maybe she couldn't bring herself to kill someone who was quite clearly in no position to fight back. But then she remembered the first day, she'd had no qualms about putting that boy down. And then 11 had saved him, for a short while at least.
"How about we split what they had and go our separate ways?" Jenny said.
A cannon shot rang out. They both looked over to Arcardi. He'd stopped breathing.
11 heaved again.
Jenny took a step towards Mel's body.
"Absolutely not," 11 said. "All their stuff comes with me."
Jenny was about to argue when she heard someone shout, "Over here." She turned and saw one of the tributes from District 1.
She looked back to 11, panic in her eyes, and saw the fear cloud his expression.
With visible effort he fought his way to his feet and rolled Arcardi over and started taking the bag from his shoulders. Jenny did the same with Mel, an unspoken truce between the two of them.
Jenny looked back and saw five people running for them. She started running deeper into the forest but 11 grabbed her arm and said, "Follow me." He started running in the opposite direction, which would skim them across the clearing around the cornucopia and into a part of the arena Jenny hadn't seen yet.
She stayed still, frozen, unable to bring herself to follow 11.
He turned and saw her stood there, lost in indecision, then he saw the group behind her. Distressingly close now. "Trust me," he said.
And she did.