I do not own Glee or The Hunger Games
The second he's released, Puck runs to the solid gold Cornucopia as fast as he possibly can. The run not even making him tired. He's not sure how he managed to beat everyone there, actually mostly the Careers, but he doesn't care. While grabbing a backpack that weighs at least ten pounds, he spots a smaller one for Scarlett. Swiping four knives, two spears, bow and arrows for Scarlett and looks around for anything else. She finally stands next to him, panting a little bit, and he thrusts the things he grabbed for her into her hands.
"Anything else you can see that we could use?" She's looking on one side. "There's only weapons over here."
He instantly sees two decent sized nets so he throws those over his shoulder then grabs an ax next to them. "Shit." He mumbles to himself as he spots two Tributes coming towards them. "Scarlett, can you take out those two people coming in?"
Scarlett plucks out an arrow and quickly shoots it through the guys heart, then another one through the other guy right next to him. A canon fires off. Puck is surprised at how she did that so easily, but these are the Games. No time to focus on taking lives. He spots another set of arrows, so he puts those on his shoulder, not really seeing much else that could be of use to them. Puck nods at Scarlett and they run off towards the woods. No one else has even gotten this far, some are scared to go into the water. He takes advantage of this and leads Scarlett towards the beach. On the way, he picks up a few palm tree fronds and throw those over his shoulder too. Never know when it could be handy.
"I think we should stop somewhere a little further up, set up some traps then make a little shelter. Anyone who comes in this direction we can take out."
She looks back to the beach and the bloodbath that is going on. There are screams from the girls and she swallows hard. "Yeah, sure."
"If you want to set up the shelter, I can work on the traps."
Scarlett nods, looking at all the things he managed to carry and sets off towards some trees. She takes his backpack along with her and one of the nets. Puck makes quick work, tearing the net carefully into two so I can set up traps that will either catch an animal which can be used for food or it'll grab anyone who walks by it. He's proud that he did it all so fast since it was harder in training. Guess since he's going to rely on them, it's important. Throwing some leaves and debris on it, he turns to look for Scarlett, only to find she seems to have completely disappear.
She better not have taken my stuff and just left. I'll look like the biggest dumbass of these Games. He groans and lets out an aggravated huff.
Puck's neck snaps to the left as he hears a twig breaking not too far away from him. Someone isn't being too careful out here. Quickly, he looks around, squinting to see if he can see anything that looks out of place. Nothing. He's starting to get pissed off then he sees something reflecting so he walks towards it. Once he spots Scarlett smirking, he shakes his head and steps into the shelter.
"You did a hell of a job with this thing." Puck is impressed with her. He looks up, noticing she has the net hanging on two branches with the fronds over that then leaves from the trees on top of it. They're sitting in between two bushes that she cut the middle out of but put them in front and hanging off the net to blend in. She made it to where they're facing the traps and the beach, so if anyone is coming towards them, they'll be taken out easily. "I knew you'd be good at this, I mean you got the hang of it in training. Shit, it's even roomy in here." He stretches out slightly just to see how much room there is. Puck could easily lay down he wanted, considering he was half a foot taller than Scarlett. "We might be able to sleep till tomorrow and go from there."
She blushes and mumbles out a thanks. "Want to look through the packs?"
Puck nods then opens his. Dried fruit, fishing wire, a bottle of water, dried meat, another knife, a thin sleeping bag, a small first aid kit and a pack of crackers. "It seemed heavier when I picked it up."
Scarlett opens up hers and also finds a pack of crackers, dried fruit and meat, a coil of wire, a box of matches, a pair of sunglasses and a light jacket. "We'll have stuff to last us a little bit, but we should probably use it for emergencies."
He nods. They hear another twig break, but no sign of anyone again but it's closer this time. They put everything back into their backs and put them behind a bush, waiting for this person to show up. Scarlett nudges him after a few seconds and they notice a patch of red and blonde hair show up. District 8. A scream echoes through the forest, and the girl is raised up by the net. The guy rushes over and tries to free her. Scarlett quickly sets her bow and sends an arrow straight through her heart. The boy jumps back looking around then again when the cannon goes off. He tries to get her weapon and pack off her back quickly before the hovercraft arrives.
Puck knows that he has to kill to get further into the Games, so he quietly moves out of their shelter, knowing he wants this to be painless. He swiftly throws the spear, going right through his spine. The cannon goes off. Puck quickly grabs their weapons, backpack, and the arrows out of their bodies then cuts down the red head but quickly sets up the traps again. Once he's back in the shelter, a hovercraft appears and grabs the two bodies.
"It's getting dark, should we start a fire?"
"Are you insane?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean Puck?" She looks pissed off and ready to shove a knife into his throat at any second if he says the wrong thing right now.
He shakes his head. "It might give us away." Scarlett looks embarrassed and drops her shoulders. "See if there's anything useful in their backpack." He examines the blade of the machete the boy was carrying.
"Hey, they have a flashlight, another pair of sunglasses, fishing hooks, an empty water bottle and crackers."
Puck looks over at the backpack and smirks. "We should split them up into our packs and ditch that somewhere. Use it as bait or something."
"Bait?" She stares at him like he's grown another arm.
"Yeah, I'm sure there are other people who didn't get anything trying to get the fuck away from the Cornucopia."
Scarlett nods slowly and hands him the glasses and fishing hooks, putting the rest into her pack. "Tomorrow we should look for a water. Then look around for some other Tributes. Fresh food."
"Yeah, sounds good. Try to get some sleep. I'll keep watch for awhile."
She smiles. "Wake me up when the Anthem starts to play. Or if something happens."
He looks out the opening and remembers what Brittany said to him. Don't think of…her and remember what Finnick told him. Finnick…what would he think of this set up right now? Would he think it's smart? He sighs and stares back at the trees. Don't get distracted. Easier said than done.
Hours later, the Anthem starts to play with the Capitol seal in the sky. Puck pokes her ribs to wake her up. He looks at Scarlett, then peeks up into the sky along with her. The tributes from District 3 appear in the sky, then the ones from 5 and 6. Then the two that they killed, the blonde and red head, also the ones from 9. The sky turns dark again and they back up against the tree trunk, keeping their ears open. He wonders if a lot of the Districts ended up staying together or if the water really just didn't work well with them. After a few minutes, Scarlett pulls out her water and dried fruit, sharing it with Puck.
"Look over there," She nods towards the opening, "Lightning. Do you think it'll rain?"
"I doubt it. No thunder, but even if it does, we have this shelter you built." He pauses to chew, not wanting to be completely disgusting and talking with his mouth full. His mother would kill him when he gets home if she caught him doing that on TV. "What kind of fruit is this?" He stares at the wrinkled piece in his hand and wrinkles his nose.
"I don't know. I'm just eating it because I'm hungry." She chews another piece. "I miss the Capitol food."
Puck chuckles and just shoves the whole piece in his mouth. "We'll have to really think about the edible plants table from training when we head out tomorrow."
Scarlett hums in agreement, then looks over at Puck or what she can see of him. "Get some sleep, I'll keep a watch out."
"Wake me if anything happens."
She nods and puts on her glasses, which they figured out were to see in the dark instead of actual sunglasses. While he sits back against the tree trunk, she hums to herself but not loud enough to give them away.
Puck looks peaceful sleeping for someone who said he wants to use the backpack as bait. Scarlett lets out a huff, jealous that he has so much to look forward to. She could just kill him in his sleep, get rid of him and hide in a tree until everyone kills each other off and go home. She mentally slaps herself for thinking that, reminding herself of what's waiting for her at home, nothing. It's easier to just help him get back to District 4. She's seen him and Rachel near her house and then again around town. Every now and then she would see them holding hands at school or his arm thrown around her shoulders. From what she understood, he would go to work on the docks early, go to class then be excused the rest of the day after lunch to go back to work on the boat. Sometimes he would even pick her up after her classes.
She's actually jealous of Rachel. Puck mostly changed his personality when he decided to be with Rachel, going back to the guy he was before his father died. Scarlett saw him flirting first hand when he made a move on her best friend. The next day her best friend was talking about how good he was physically. No one was ever interested in her. She was even jealous of Santana. The girl had beautiful skin and a body that every girl in their area wanted. Girls at school would whisper about her.
She lets out a sigh. It won't matter anyways, she's in the Hunger Games. She'll die before she gets to go back home. In a wooden box.
Another burst of lightning lights up the sky. It seems bigger than the rest, but she ignores it. In a few seconds it starts to rain but the lightning stops. She looks out, seeing if the traps are okay. No food in them and definitely no bodies. She lightly pushes on Puck, hearing him grunt in return. Once he opens his eyes, she makes him put on his glasses and look outside.
"Rain. Great." He pulls out the empty water bottle and holds it out, waiting until it's about halfway full. Then he grabs the flashlight to shine on it to see if it's drinkable.
Scarlett watches as he shines the light on it, she sees that the water is dark. Pulling off her glasses, she looks at it a little more, but gags. "Puck…" He looks over at her confused. "I think that's blood."
Puck takes off his glasses and looks at it closely. "Shit, that's nasty. Why is it raining blood?"
She whimpers and looks away from him. "Please just pour that out or something. It's disgusting."
He pours it out, then sticks it in the backpack. "We're going to need to find water now. Especially to clean that out." He spits out in disgust. "I wonder if the sponsors can send a map of the fucking place." He sits back against the tree trunk and cross his ankles. His glasses are back on as he stares out into the rain.
"Finnick is probably laughing at us right now, wondering what the hell we're doing under a tree."
He huffs. "At least we're dry. Everyone else might be laying on the ground or stuck up in a tree." Puck looks around, seeing a Y shaped twig. He thinks back to a previous Hunger Games, when someone made a slingshot. It didn't work in their favor, but he thinks of everything they have here. The branch looks like it could be stable enough. Instantly, he pulls out the wire and the jacket.
"What are you doing?"
"Remember the year after Finnick won, or maybe it was before that…" He thinks about it but then rolls his eyes, "how someone made a slingshot? We should have things here to make one. See if you can find anything elastic on that jacket."
"Um, okay." She searches, but nothing elastic really presents itself. Then she remembers that Cinna put her hair up with something like a rubber band. She pulls it out.
"Don't you want your hair up?" Puck looks at her while pausing from stripping off the bark on the branch.
"Well this band in my hair is elastic. I'll just use some of the fishing line to tie it back up." She shrugs.
"Oh, thanks. Put the jacket on, you look cold." He starts to assemble it then grabs a rock nearby to test it out. Puck manages to break a branch with it.
"That's great. We could probably hide in trees or something. You can use that then I can use the arrows too."
Puck stares at her in the dark with his eyebrows raised. "That's a great idea."
"Thanks." She starts rubbing different shapes into the dirt while Puck grabs any rocks he sees around them. "What do you think the Careers are doing?"
Scarlett is still looking down when he glances at her. She already looks like she's given up and it's only the first day. "Honestly? Probably out hunting. Don't they train for this or some shit?"
"Do you always cuss this much?"
"You sound like Rachel." He smirks and then frowns at bringing her up. "Don't like it?"
"It's not that. I just don't think I've heard someone say half of those words, ever."
"Get used to it." He nudges her then goes back to collecting rocks. "So who is waiting for you at home? Any lucky guy?"
She blushes, embarrassed that she doesn't, but he can't see it. "Nope."
He pauses. "Well why the hell not?"
Letting out a un ladylike snort, "Not everyone can get anyone like you Puck."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I can't just go get whoever I want, unlike you." She sighs.
"The fuck? Yeah you can."
"Whatever Puck."
He groans and turns towards her, his knee moving into her space while he brings the other up to lean his elbow against it. "Bullshit. You're pretty. Didn't you see yourself when they showed the opening ceremony and interview on TV? Those guys were drooling over you. I'm pretty sure at one point or another, each one of the guy Tributes wanted to fuck you." He usually hates talking to girls like this, but if she's going to be his companion for however long they're in this Arena, he won't have her being all insecure.
"Please, it would've been one last fuck before they come into this place." She moves her hand around in the air then rolls her eyes.
He chuckles. "The lady says fuck." He moves back to how he was sitting before.
She rolls her eyes and sits the way he is. The rain is coming down harder and she can't believe that Puck said she was pretty. She blushes and smiles. In her mind she's happy, but she knows that this won't mean anything after the Games are up.
"You better hope they aren't showing the two of us on TV." She says after a few minutes.
He doesn't move. "Why?"
"Rachel would probably be really mad that you called me pretty."
This makes him look back at her. "I'm pretty sure they won't. They'll probably be showing something more entertaining than us talking about something lame. Plus she's a midget and she couldn't hurt me even if she tried to punch the shit out of me for saying that." He winks at her.
She smiles at him and they both keep a look out for anyone who might be walking by. Shortly after they quit talking, the rain stops. The two take turns keeping watch throughout the night, trying to get some sleep before things start to heat up again tomorrow.
