I woke up the next morning. I was apparently the first awake. I lightly shook Maggie's shoulder. She slowly opened her eyes, "Good morning. Let Grace sleep in. We can go wake up the boys. Well, only you know 'bout Leo... But Reed is okay to wake up."
Maggie and I jumped out of the tree. We ate a few berries and went over to the boys' tree. Reed wasn't there! "Uh, Maggie? Is there something I should know about with Reed?" I asked worried. She shook her head, and I saw she was freaking out as well. I searched the arena and finally heard a muffled shout. I ran over to find Reed and the 12 year old girl from District 1.
Reed was captured by a 12 year old girl? She was a Career though, so she was a threat. Apparently, little Miss Career had found a pointy stick, and now had it against Reed's throat. She was just a kid though, I couldn't hurt her! But I saw a terrified look in Reed's eye and was ready to kill. "What to you want?" I hissed at the girl.
"I don't know. He's as good as dead now, though, Bri," the girl sneered. "Wait!" Maggie yelled. "Um... we have some food, and water. You can have two baskets of each if you let Reed go." At the sound of food, the girl seemed to relax. "Give it," she said quickly.
"Kid, you can trust us. Sit down, relax, and I'll get you food and some water. Do want berries or walnuts?" Maggie told her. I started up a fire. The girl fell for it and ran to the fire. I didn't want to kill her anymore, I felt too bad. "Let's not kill her yet," I told Maggie. Her face went soft and she nodded. We fed the girl some berries and water. "So- warm..." she said, leaning towards the fire.
"What's your name, honey?" I asked her. "Crystal," she whispered. She seemed to be savoring every berry we fed her. "Look, Crystal. We want to help, we really do. How 'bout you take some stuff for the rode? Neither of us hurts each other?" Maggie asked. Crystal nodded and smiled. She gratefully took the food and water and went off on her own.
We woke everyone else up. Maggie and I chose not to tell them about about Crystal. We quickly ate, Reed wove a bag, and we headed off to the Cornucopia. By noon that day, we were at the Cornucopia. It was obvious that no one had been here before. I grabbed a bow and so did Maggie. Each person in our little group took a pack. Mine had a sleeping bag, a jar of cream, a flashlight, and night vision goggles. We really hit the jackpot. Grace took some knives and daggers. I knew we had a good chance of winning. But then something happened.
Finn and Mags popped out of the bushes all scary like. Grace ran up to Mags to help; She looked like she was about to faint. Finn didn't look too much better. "Finn, are you okay?" I yelled. I had barely known him. But his father and mother were good friends with my mother, and that was good enough for me. Leo looked at me like I was nuts. He seemed to do that a lot.
Finn gasped for air. Mags screamed at the top of her lungs. "Run!" they gasped together. Reed and Leo started running. "Guys! You are SO terrible! They're children! They're only 13!" I yelled at them. I picked Mags up, she was so light, and began to run. "Why are you helping?" Mags asked me. I ignored her and kept running. Reed and Leo each had Finn. Maggie was assisting them. Grace ran along side me, holding up Mags's head.
Finally we stopped at our clearing. "Hornets. Hybrids." Finn and Mags muttered mindlessly. "Bri, why are you doing this?" Leo asked me. I glared at him, "Why can't you just trust me?" He was taken a back by the volume and stern-ness of my voice. I went and sat by Mags. District 4? I thought. I could use a little help. I'm helping your tributes, any help? But I could almost here my mom saying, "Come on, push it a little more Bridget."
I wrapped Mags in my arm and started playing with her hair. I kissed her forehead and laid her down to sleep. A water bottle with a tapping device that took water from trees now sat in front of me. I moved Mags closer to the fire, covered her with a blanket, and went to sit next to Leo. "Really a waste of time?" I whispered to him. "Now we have water where-ever we are."
I put Finn's hair behind his ear. I covered him with a blanket. He looked up to me, "Why?" It was such a simple question, yet so hard to answer. "Because... I could never live with seeing you die. And... I just want to help." I knew that was a really bad answer. Finn smiled and fell asleep peacefully.
"Let's leave them," Grace suggested. "No!" I answered almost immediately. "I mean... It's just that I love them. So maybe... I'm not saying they should join us... But we should give them some food. And, uh, yeah. Then we can send them on their way."
"Then I'll kill them." Reed said. He walked over to Mags. "NO!" I screamed. I threw myself over her. "Why do you have to be so stubborn and protective?" he asked me. I held Mags close to me. I hoped District 4 was watching this! Leo jumped up and slit Finn's neck.
I jumped up as well. I ran to Finn and tried to care to his for wound. But a minute later, the cannon shot and Finn's hand went limp. I screamed and held his, now dead, body close. "What is wrong with you!" I screamed at Leo. "Bri, Bri, calm down..." Grace whispered. Though I could see that she was disappointed as well. Mags leaped up and ran strait to Leo. I held her back though.
"HE KILLED MY TWIN BROTHER!"
I hushed her, "Shh! I know, he's terrible. I promise, I PROMISE, I won't let him near you. I jumped to protect you, and while I was protecting you, he got Finn." Mags's face was covered with tears. I packed her her a basket of food and water, and some matches. "I will see you later," I whispered to her. I kissed her forehead again and waved goodbye.
For the rest of the day, I kept my distance from Leo. "Tell him to go to Hell..." Grace suggested in a whisper. I laughed. Since Finn's death, I had not stopped crying. "Bri..." Leo tried for the millionth time.
"Maggie, come on. We can go hunting for deer or something." I finally said. Leo looked at me with sad eyes and I quickly looked away.
Maggie and I walked away and sat in a tree. Soon, a rabbit walked past. I shot it with an arrow and retrieved it. I wiped off the arrow and took the rabbit back to the group. On the way, Maggie spotted a deer and shot it. The deer was hard to carry back, but we managed. The group was slightly hard to find, and it took us a really long time. But we found them.
I started up a smokeless fire (this time getting the wood by myself) and started cooking the deer. Soon, it was night. We ate the dear and went to bed. I laid out the giant sleeping bag so that it was one, big blanket. Reed took the sleeping bag he got, did same, but covered us on top. This night was colder, so I was glad we had the sleeping bags.
