Chapter 7
When my eyes open, I blink against the bright sunlight. The light burns my eyes and I blink several times to get them to adjust to the light change. I can feel my eyelashes sticking together, which means that I have been asleep for quite a while. The pale blue sky shimmers above me, and I think about how the sky isn't supposed to shimmer. My confusion escalates as birds fly overhead. Then I remember where I am.
I'm in the arena as a participant in the Hunger Games. I was shot in the shoulder by my own brother, and then stabbed in the chest. I should be dead, but I'm not. I don't know what happened to me after I was stabbed. I remember a massive amount of blood pooling around me, but other than that all I remember is now. I just woke up on the ground in the arena. I don't know where in the arena, all I know is that as far as I know I am still there, unless I'm dead of which if I am this must be hell I don't want to relive this arena for all of time.
The strange shimmering sky is just another part of the Gamemakers fun. I can't remember how I'm alive. All that I remember is that I was attacked by Resin, and then he ran away. I don't understand why he would run away when he had already overcome me. Oh well. At this rate I'm going to die from bleeding out. Pain racks my entire body when I attempt to shift my position to inspect the damage.
The arrow is no longer protruding from my flesh. I distinctly remember it being lodged in my shoulder when I passed out from blood loss. My tank top has been pulled off of me to keep it from sticking to the wounds, and my chest and shoulder has been wrapped tightly in a thick white bandage. How did I get bandaged? I didn't even know that this place had bandages. I am unable to move without pain exploding across my body, so I decide that it might be best if I just stay put.
I feel strangely exposed just lying in the open, but moving is not an option, because every time that I move, my bandages are stained red with blood. The red liquid seems to be constantly seeping from the wounds but it seems to spread faster when I make a movement. I put my head back on the ground, and pay attention to the textures of the dirt and grass beneath the part of my back that has been exposed to the elements. The grass is both soft and prickly, and it is kind of nice to just take in the sounds of the forest around me. The more I think about it the more I come to the realization that there is no way that I put these bandages on myself. I attempt to sit up, and pain rips across my flesh causing me to cry out in agony.
I slap my hands over my mouth, because out there somewhere, there are other Tributes that are just itching to get a weapon into me, and to hear my cannon sound. Every cannon shot is one step closer to going home, and I know that every person still alive wants to go home, so the cannons are a sign of relief. One more person down that isn't me is what most of them will think as they stalk and attack each other.
I lay there wondering about how the Capitol is keeping track of which Tributes have survived. Obviously their bodies would have to be removed from the arena, but how do they display the deaths to the Districts. My guess is that they would want to show each death in its entirety. I sense a movement to my right, but I am in no condition to move.
I reach for my knives, which I found placed a couple feet away from my injured arm. My fingers can barely brush against the smooth wooden handle of the first knife, so there is no way that I am going to be able to grasp it to defend myself. A twig snaps and my head automatically turns in the direction of the sound. My memory completely floods back to me as a figure steps into the clearing. It is no accident that I am still alive. It might be miracle perhaps, but not an accident.
I remember why Resin fled. Kayos got him off of me. I now see him striding toward me in concern with heavy even steps. He obviously isn't a hunter with those heavy footsteps. His clomping would set off an alarm for any game within a half mile radius. My heart begins to pound in fear as he steps toward me. I cannot allow myself to trust anyone in this arena anymore. The last time I did that I was attacked to the point of being immobile, so it seems like a fairly legitimate reason to me.
"Well look who's back from the world of the lost" His voice rings out in a clear and strong manner. My eyes flit back and forth as I try to at least imagine what an escape route might be if I could move. It makes me feel slightly better to at least know that I have thought of an escape route even if it cannot be carried out. He crouches on the tips of his feet, and smiles at me. He has bloodstains on his shirt, and I am unsure of whose blood it is. There are several scratches on his face, and his beautiful blonde hair has been grazed by a sharp knife as some areas are shorter than others. I take his attitude in, and take him as a nonviolent threat for the time being and change my thoughts to my own body's needs.
My throat hurts, and I'm pretty sure that my entire neck is bruised from when Resin jammed his knee into it, so I don't say anything. I swallow painfully and grasp at my neck with one hand to feel around to see if my assumption of the bruising is correct while I attempt to as secretly as possible grab one of my knives just in case this meeting turns sour. I nod in greeting to the boy as he plops down next to me and hands me one of the knives that I'm desperately trying to get a hold on.
"Go ahead. Kill me. I mean I only saved your life, and tended to you after you passed out. No big deal or anything." His look tells me that I owe him, and the fact that I am supposed to be his ally makes me drop the knife before croaking out my words.
"I'm not going to kill you, but what use am I to you now, why couldn't you have just let me die. I'm sure death would hurt less." I jump as the second cannon of the day fires. I remember that each shot signifies a dead Tribute, and begin to count them. I count eleven cannon fires, and add the one from the before the gong rang out. Twelve dead already. They must have been waiting to see if I was going to die before shooting off the cannons.
Twelve Tributes are dead, and their bodies must be heading back to their families. Twelve left to play the Games. I have no idea who has made it through the first day, and I am hoping that they give us some indication. I know that Joiyse is dead, but there are eleven other fatalities. I look up at Kayos to see his mouth moving rapidly. I guess I tuned him out as my brain processed the situation.
"What?" He rolls his eyes in frustration and balls up his fists.
"Nothing." I raise an eyebrow, but figure that this isn't the time to be pressing. I need him to keep myself alive. I nod at him and turn my face away. I don't want to deal with drama right now, but I'm sure the people of the Capitol would absolutely love to have some sizzle to these Games. I'm sure the Capitol would love some flirtation and romance to be thrown into the mix of death and pain. I know that they like things to be constantly exciting and I'm sure that the makers of the Games have to anything possible to make sure that nothing gets dull.
I feel Kayos' hand press against my forehead, and flinch in surprise. He laughs at my reaction and leaves the back of his hand in place for a few moments before removing it slowly. His hands are large and warm, and they brought a sort of comfort to me. For once in my life I felt completely safe with him, and this was a very dangerous thing to feel. I shake my head to clear it of the thoughts and wince as pain pours into my shoulder and neck. Well one thing is for sure, my neck is definitely bruised. I watch Kayos' face as he screws up his face into a look of pure thought. It makes me smile, and he looks down on me and shakes his head.
"No fever, but I'm going to need to change your bandages, you've moved quite a bit, and its bleeding through." I look down, and see bright red stains across almost the entire bandage. My eyes widen at this, and I stare at him. He put these bandages on me, which means that he was the one that had removed my tank top. I blush and turn my face away again. I shouldn't be this affected by a guy giving me medical treatment, but for some reason the idea repulses me, and my self-conscious factor plays a large role in this reasoning. I glare silently at the ground.
"Come on Keziah, I know you aren't thrilled about this, but I need you to work with me here. I'm going to see if there is a first aid kit with a needle and thread." I hear his footsteps recede and turn my head back to the sky. He's going to try to sew me back together. If that will help me save Resin, then fine. I force myself into a sitting position, relishing the pain as a form of being alive. Blood has begun dripping off of the bandage and down onto my stomach in thin trails, like my wound is crying. I almost laugh at this, and watch the blood in a trance.
When Kayos comes back, he proudly holds a first aid kit from the cone that I am assuming is fairly close to this place considering that he has only been gone for a few minutes. His eyes widen at the blood, and he shakes his head in mock despair while shaking his shaggy blonde head at me.
"Sorry." I mumble the word almost silently as he sits beside me with a bottle of water and the first aid kit. His gaze is stoic and forlorn as he looks through the kit pulling out the supplies that he feels that he will need for this procedure. Bandages, needle and thread, matches, ointments and a salve of some sort. He ponders his job for a moment and looks up.
"You ready?" His gaze locks with mine, and I remember I'm supposed to be seductive and mysterious for the audience. I cringe as I put my arm behind me to support me as I turn to him, looking as sly as possible.
"Oh honey I don't know. I don't know you that well." I smirk in amusement and wink at him, and he starts laughing hysterically. I smirk in amusement and ponder what the audiences reaction is right now. I'm sure they are amused by our banter, but what of the reaction from the Districts. I'm sure that they think we are acting stupid and childish and that we should just get this over with. I'm sure most of the Districts wished that I had died, for I had either killed their children or am standing in the way of their return.
"Well, I've already seen pretty much everything you have to offer sweetheart, so suck it up and let me play doctor." A snort of laughter escapes from my mouth and I press my hand to my mouth as I try to stifle my laughter. I hold up my hands in his form of mock surrender, and look into his eyes as he removes the bandage from my shoulder first. The colder air makes the now exposed flesh pucker with cold and I suppress a shudder from the chill. It's a small and jagged edged wound from where Kayos had to rip out the arrow, but it has almost closed and blood has stopped seeping from it, so he washes the wound gently, getting rid of any remaining dirt and pieces of arrow. I hadn't seen the cloth, so he must have found it while I wasn't paying attention. The water on it is cold and numbs the wound slightly, making the pain cease slightly for the moment. He seems pleased with his work, and moves on to the wound in my chest.
As he unwinds the bandage, I remove my gaze from him baring my flesh to him, and instead watch his face as he works intently. His face contorts and his facial expression changes constantly as he works with such precision that I have complete faith in his abilities. His concentration is amusing to me and I have to force myself to keep from smirking at him.
I wince in pain as the last layer of bandage is pulled from the wound, and he mumbles an apology as his work continues. I can feel the sharp pricks of the needle and pull of the thread as he closes the wound on the right side of my chest. The wound is deep, and blood continues to flow freely from it, I can feel the blood trickling down my chest as he works. Once he knots the stitching together, he rewraps the wounds and looks into my eyes.
"Thank you." I return his gaze just as strongly, and slowly get to my feet. The stitches pull uncomfortably, but no blood stains the bandage, and I take that as a good sign. I grin at him in satisfaction at his work being as this is the first time I have been able to move freely for hours. I loved the feeling of being able to use my fight ot flight mechanism again, and was glad to be able to grip my knives again without having to worry if I was going to be able to aim or not.
"Of course" He looks at his feet and hands me my knives, then starts walking in the direction of the trees. I stare after him as he walks away before realizing that he has stopped to see if I have begun to follow him. Irritation flames up in my, but I force it down, I cannot afford to have my one and only ally walk away from me because I got mad at his caring about me.
"Where are we going?" I look at him in confusion and follow him slowly into the unforgiving clutches of the dense foliage. The sunlight is partially blocked out, and it casts beautiful moving shadows of the flickering leaves. We are beginning to hunt, Tributes are the prey, and we are the hunters.
As the sun sets, Kayos and I choose a spot in the trees to camp for the night. A copse of bushes provides the perfect cover for us, so that any passing Tributes would be unaware of our whereabouts. At least that is what I hope for. I am still not strong enough to run away from any attacker right now. I plop down on the ground and start to think about what could be happening out there right now. I'm sure there is another alliance of Tributes, and I know that they are strong. From what I had observed in the training room, they were skilled and ruthless. They seemed to really enjoy the idea that they were going to be able to murder people and completely get away with it with no punishment whatsoever, well if you don't count the whole being thrown into an arena and being forced to fight to the death until only one remains. I suppose that isn't a huge problem for those Tributes however, they seem cocky, and cockiness could prove to be a very bad thing in here. One false move and that's the end. There are no second chances.
I breathe deeply at the familiar scent of pine, and am immediately relaxed. Kayos gave me some sort of medicine a while ago that took away all of the pain from my wounds, and I am able to function completely normally again. I still continue to bleed slightly, but it has gotten to the point that I am not longer afraid that I am going to bleed out anymore. I wonder if my father is being forced to watch this as it goes down, and wonder if he is terrified by what has become of his children. I'm sure he is, I can't imagine my father being proud of us taking away other children from their families, and I know that he is not at all thrilled by my decision. Now however is not the time to be thinking of people that I can do nothing about. I turn my attention to Kayos and watch his blonde head disappear around a tree. I decide that it's time for me to get up and actually start pulling my own weight in this alliance, and since I know that Kayos is incapable, I roll to my feet to go hunting.
I hear a scream in the distance, and my eyes widen. Someone is being chased. If I had to guess, I would assume that Vivi, Liasion and the girl from 4 are hunting. Obviously they have done a fairly acceptable job of it. I put their hunt out of my mind as I focus on my own. My footsteps are as light as air as I follow a game trail, hoping to come upon some animal. I grab a few leaves and throw them into the air to test the direction of the wind. I need to make sure that I don't mess this up. Now is not the time to scare away any potential game by making careless mistakes. A twig snaps behind me, and I throw my knife instinctively. From the sound of the snap whatever it is; is fairly large. I spin around anxiously to see what I had taken down, and my eyes widen in shock and horror.
A girl falls to the ground with my knife in her stomach. Her scream pierces the air, and gurgles to a stop after a few moments. I didn't mean to kill this one. Her long brown hair fans out around her small dark body. She must have been one of the Tributes that made no impression at the opening or the interviews, because I don't remember ever seeing her before now. I had meant to kill those people at the cone, but this one I thought had been a wild animal. Her tread had been too light, and her presence too quiet for me to have distinguished the difference.
"I'm so sorry." I whisper to her as she dies, my hand instinctively grasps hers and I squeeze it reassuringly for her. I know that she knows that she is not going to be okay, but I know that if my child was here I would want someone to stay with them when they were afraid. I know that I would want someone to stay with Resin if something happened to him, so I stay. I feel her small fingers have started to slacken their grip on my hand. I kiss her forehead softly, and watch as her eyes hold mine until the moment she dies. They hold no anger, only fear. She probably thought that she could go home if she just stayed invisible. I close her eyelids and stand to leave her. I can't afford to stay here and see what they do with the bodies, because to be completely honest, I really don't want to know.
Her cannon sounds and I kiss her forehead once again in farewell before retrieving my knife and retreating into the bushes. She couldn't have been any older than fifteen. Her family and friends now call for my blood, and will hope to see me die. All of us have families that think that we will be coming home, but the truth is, only one of us comes out alive. Twenty two families will be completely destroyed by the Hunger Games. The more I think about it the more I am sure that I recognized her scream. She had been the one that cried out a short while ago. My heart pounds in alarm. Her attackers would have been close behind her, and will be in this area. I have to leave, now. They will have heard her scream from being hit and they would be coming to see what was going on. They will want to know if their victim is dead.
I stream back to the copse of bushes where Kayos and I have decided to hide, only to smack right into him. He spins around in fear, raising a large sword over his head to retaliate. I retaliate instinctively and grab two of my knives, ready to attack at any sign of betrayal. I was not going to fall for the trust aspect twice in one day. The knives are thin twin blades, and both my knives and his sword glint in the pale light that shines through the trees.
"It's me!" I put my arms over my head in protection and wait until I see the tip of the blade embedded in the dirt. He pats me on the back and let out a sigh of relief. I guess he has no intention of turning on me, at least for the moment. I slowly unclench my fists and place my knives back into their sheaths on the belt. I close my eyes for a moment and take a deep breath to calm down my frantic emotions. I hear him begin to speak and snap my eyes open.
"Gosh Ziah, don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack." I can hear the faint sound of his heart pounding frantically. We collapse into the bushes and move the branches to cover our little clearing. Hopefully the branches cover enough of the clearing to cover the front of the bush. There is a thicket behind us, so all that we have to cover completely is the thin top.
I start working to cut off the smaller branches in the middle of the bushes to create a sort of a tent for the two of us. The thick handle of the serrated blade makes the work easier, and the rhythmic sound of the sawing is calming to me. I love the sound of metal on wood, and the small pile of wood shavings that have piled below me is soft and powdery. I can sense that Kayos is watching me work, and I shiver involuntarily. I hear his faint laugh and his deep silky voice sounds quietly.
"I make you nervous don't I?" I look at his face in the setting sun to see his quirky cocky smile plastered across his face. The shadows make the contours of his face seem deeper, making him look older. I don't even know how old he is. My heart races involuntarily and I silently curse my inability to keep my emotions under control. I really hope that my face isn't showing my emotion, because if there isn't a fight going on somewhere in the arena, I'm sure either we or the other alliance are front and center on every screen in Panem.
"Don't flatter yourself; everyone in here makes me nervous." I roll my eyes in irritation and turn back to my work. I haven't completely lied to him, it's true that everyone in this arena does make me nervous, now the fact that he makes me especially nervous is beside the point and irrelevant to the situation. I cannot allow myself to be nervous for any reason other than those situations that would be potentially fatal to me or my small alliance.
"Come on, we are going to have to talk at some point if we want this alliance to go smoothly." I stick the knife into the wood of a branch and plop into a sitting position, motioning for him to continue in an indifferent manner. I love the idea that to someone in Panem, in fact to many, I am a mysterious being. I return my gaze to him. He raises an eyebrow in frustration and moves closer to me. My shoulder begins to prickle, however I am not sure if it is from my injury or not. I roll my shoulders to relieve some of the pain and tension from my healing muscles and wait for him to continue.
"Do you want to track Tributes, or wait for them to stumble upon our hiding place?" I lift my gaze and smile in anticipation. I have actually enjoyed today, aside from the whole getting injured situation and the accidental death. I wish I could just erase that from my memory, but there is only so much that one can do to erase a tragedy from one's mind.
"I think we need a plan about targeting Tributes. We can't afford to just go in and attack people; we will only get ourselves killed." My intense gaze fixes to his and I give a seductive smile. His brown eyes look confused for a moment before the realization crosses his face.
"Oh no. Not a good plan. Not going to happen." I frown at his reply, and reply soundly.
"Would you kill somebody that you are attracted to?" My voice purrs out and glides softly through the air between us. His gaze falls to his feet, and I smirk in anticipation.
"You know that I wouldn't." I rub his shoulder gently to get him to look me in the eye again. I smirk at him as my plan begins to formulate in my head, it's absolutely perfect.
"Neither would any other person in this arena. That's our tactic. Seduce the Tribute, and then the other will kill them before they know what hit them. It will be easy, and the Capitol will love our manipulative nature." I cock my head to the side and smile in amusement. The people of the Capitol would adore the drama and pain associated with manipulation and fake love. It's absolutely perfect. The Capitol is all about being fake and remade, so what better way to get sponsors than to become one of them. I'm obviously not actually an uncaring manipulative person, and I'm definitely not that great at being seductive, but how hard can it be to fake it.
"I don't know, maybe it could work." His voice trails off to a whisper.
We both jump in alarm as the anthem of Panem sounds throughout the arena. I grasp one of my knives and prepare for some sort of Capitol planned attack on the remaining Tributes. Perhaps they feel like the Games have been too easy so far I don't see how anyone could possibly see this as easy seeing as thirteen people are dead in the first day, but the Capitol is a never ending question so anything is possible when it comes to them. We look at each other as the sky lights up with the seal of the Capitol.
I look to the sky as the face of the boy from District 3 lights up. This must be the Tributes that have died today. The girl from 4, both Tributes from District 5, Joiyse from District 7, Both tributes from 8, the girl from District 9, she's the one that I accidently killed, both Tributes from District 10, the boy from 11, and both Tributes from 12. The seal of the Capitol reappears, and the sky goes dark.
So the Power Tributes have been diminished. The girl from 4 and Joiyse are dead, leaving only Vivi and Liasion to prey upon the other Tributes. Kayos and I are going to start our hunt in the morning. Thirteen Tributes dead, and eleven left to play, and all in one day.
I curl up on the ground and try to fall asleep. I can sense Kayos behind me, and I roll over to face him. His brown eyes take me in and he rolls onto his back staring at the stars. I move closer to share his warmth, as my shirt was beyond repair, and the jacket doesn't keep out the nip of the plunging temperature. I swear I can hear him sniff in amusement, but at this point my only point of caring is that I need to stay warm, and this is the only thing that I can think of right away. The temperature has plunged from the warmth of the day, and I watch the top of the arena. I don't understand how there are stars on the ceiling of what I assume to be a dome, but who am I to complain, it's actually kind of nice to see something that reminds me of home.
I stare up at the stars before I drift into a light sleep in our little cove feeling like I am in the pits of hell, with only one way out. Death.
There is a girl that I have never seen before running through the forest. She is tall and lean, which means she is probably from the outskirts of the District. She has light pale skin, and long dark hair that has been braided down her back. I watch as she sneaks through a wire fence and runs into the forest that lay beyond the fence.
There are no fences in District 1. This must be somewhere else. I sneak from my hiding place and pad silently after her to see where she goes. She looks behind her to see if anyone is following her, and I guess she doesn't see me because she keeps running into the depths of the forest. The browns and greens of the trees in the forest blur together as I race to keep up with the lithe girl. She looks to be about sixteen, and I pause as she suddenly stops at a tree. What could possibly be so important about a hollowed out tree. She doesn't have anything to hunt with, so there is no way that she has found game in there unless she plans to kill something with her long slim hands. Her hand reaches into the hole and I watch as she draws out a long slender well-worn bow with a sheath of what looks to be handmade arrows.
She pulls back the bow and I watch as the arrow sets itself on fire. Flames burst out around the girl as well, and I watch as the wildfire spreads. I scream out in shock for the girl to hear me, but she is trained on whatever she is aiming at. I watch as she releases the arrow and it pierces a single white rose. I stare in confusion and return my gaze to the girl, but she has disappeared. The flames still rage on, but the girl on fire is gone. I guess that would be the best way to describe her. Flames came off of her entire body, and the one spark grew into a wildfire. The girl on fire. I hear a cawing noise above me, and turn my head to the noise. A large mockingjay is soaring a few feet above me. I have never seen them this close before, and this one is beautiful. The bird has black feather with a brown tint, and stone grey eyes that I have never seen on a bird before. I had only seen this color on one other person before, the girl that was on fire. I lock my gaze with the bird's and it angles down toward me.
I brace myself to be attacked, and open my eyes to see a pair of boots standing before me. The worn brown leather is definitely not birdlike, and I manage to unclench my hands from behind my neck, and stand up straight to see who has managed to sneak up on me and protect me from the mockingjay. Stone grey eyes meet my gaze, and I scream.
I watch as the girl smiles, her long braid moving in the wind like the flames that dance around her body. She shines like the sun in the morning light, and she is almost not alive with her glowing body and too bright eyes. It's almost as though her eyes are also on fire the grey color seems to be swirling and swaying. She looked as though she herself was a bending of light, both there and not all at the same time. She looked as though she was from another time, with a worn leather jacket, worn pants, and solemn, stoic facial expressions. This girl looks as though she has been through a lot in her life. Her face looks aged, like she has been forced to lose her innocence before her time.
"Who are you?" My voice comes out as little more than a whisper, and the girl grasps her bow more tightly. She looks over me thoroughly before shaking her head in sadness. Why is she shaking her head in sadness at me? I don't know this girl, and I am fairly sure we have never met, but she seems to know exactly who I am.
I feel a lapping of water at my ankles and look down to see red liquid flooding the clearing. I look up at the girl in horror, and she just stares at the liquid.
"Your sacrifices will not be given in vain in the end. I promise each and every one of you that." I crinkle my face in confusion, and look around me to see others have come into the clearing. The river of blood has gotten stronger, and now laps at my knees. I take in as many of these people's faces as I can. I see the girl from today, Joiyse, a beautiful girl with blonde hair, a young girl with dark skin and wild hair that looks to be the same age as Resin, an older man that looks drunk, a smart looking man and a woman that clings to his side. I see that the man is holding a piece of wire, and I continue to glance around. There is a larger boy with blonde hair, several young children their faces sad and fearful. I look at the girl and see every one of their faces in hers. She seems to be the keeper of every single one of the souls in here. A small blonde girl steps out from behind her, and the girl on fire screams in agony. The screams echo throughout the clearing as every single person joins in. A small teen that holds a knife steps out from behind a tree with a large blonde boy with a sword. I stare at them and realize that I am screaming as well.
"The bloodshed must end. Fire is spreading." The words spew from every person in the clearing, and the girl on fire rises into the sky while transforming into the beautiful mockingjay that I had seen earlier. Its wings catch fire, and the bird disappears into a ball of flames. The river of blood floods over and pulls me under, and I open my eyes to see the others close their eyes and sink to the bottom. These must be Tributes from a time after mine. This must be the future. I close my eyes and let the river take me.
My eyes snap open as I hear a twig snap on the other side of the small clearing. I prod Kayos in the side before rolling to my feet silently. I had fallen asleep with a knife in my hand, so I crouch in the brush and wait for another sound to pinpoint my target. Kayos has managed to remain asleep and I hiss in frustration. There is quite a bit of wind this morning, so there is rustling in the trees and bushes making it hard to tell where any noise is coming from besides the wind. I train my ears to the noises on the ground and wait.
A crunch of leaves sounds to my left and I throw my knife at the threat. I hear a thud, and step out of the brush to see a rabbit lying on its side, dead. Huh. Well I guess that's one way to hunt. The rabbit is small, but it should be enough to feed two people for one meal at least. Its brown fur is soft and warm, and I giggle in excitement and grab the rabbit to carry it back to our cove.
Kayos snaps awake in alarm and jumps to his feet. His eyes are moving swiftly trying to find the threat, but his focus seems to be off because he is turned in the wrong direction.
"Gosh you're slow. I brought breakfast, so stop trying to be all macho, and go back to your nap." I drop the rabbit on his face and drop to the ground. He pushes the rabbit off of him and a trail of blood trickles down his face and he smiles at me. I roll my eyes in irritation at his inability to awaken in the sight of potential danger. He might be more of a threat than I had initially anticipated. Although he can fight, there is quite a problem if the boy cannot spontaneously transfer from one task to the next. I push the thought away and refocus my attention to the tasks ahead of us for the day. We need to eat and get moving.
"You're such a good provider for us dear." I laugh and push him over.
"Yeah, I am. So you get to make the fire. Have fun don't die." I blow him a kiss and shoo him away while I work on our entrenchment. I skin and gut the rabbit to the best of my abilities, and toss it out to Kayos, who has gotten a pretty good fire going. I watch the clear smoke billow up into the air, and am relieved that Kayos had the common sense to use dry tinder and that he had managed to put matches inside one of the backpacks from the cone. He hands me a pack, and I examine the contents. First aid kit, two quarts of water, some crackers, and two loaves of bread made from some weird kind of gritty grain that is not made in District 1, and some extra knives.
I guess he really has thought ahead. This amount of water is not going to last very long in this heat, and I haven't seen any streams or any water sources as of yet. The food is going to need to be kept until it is absolutely necessary because we don't know what could be out there. I'm sure that the makers of the Games have some trick or twist planned, and we need to be prepared. I smile at him in gratitude, and he stores a serrated knife in his pack before standing up and holding his hand out to me. I grasp his wrist and hoist myself to my feet. My wounds hurt significantly less today, with the obvious pulling at the stitches, but that seems to be the extent of the problems, and my eyes gleam with mischief. Capitol medicine is amazing.
He smiles at my obvious improvement over night, and lets his face go blank with seriousness. This is obviously not a time to joke around. Today we try to make progress in our attempt to get home. Well at least for him. We both know that only one of us will get home, but the odds are that someone else will kill one of us before we have to try to kill each other. I look up at the pale blue sky and take in all of the smells of the arena.
"You ready?" his eyes twitch with anticipation, and I jump up and down in excitement.
"Let's go hunt." My voice comes out as silky and secretive, and I' sure that the cameras are on us unless there is a fight, so I pop out of the brush and give the air a mischievous smile. There let them think about what that means, they will think many things about me, that I am cruel, unjust, that I will turn on my ally when the time comes, that the other Tributes are going to kill me. Well I am ready, and I refuse to back down for anyone or anything.
I grab Kayos' hand as a support to get out of the bush and we head out on our mission to lower the playing field.
