Hunger Games: Not a Pawn in their Games

Chapter 9 of my Hunger Games story, enjoy.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.


Facing the Gauntlet

Kai's mental alarm clock didn't fail him; he opened his eyes as the sun was rising. His sleep had been fitful; at least three tributes had passed him during the night, luckily not seeing him.

Even more luckily for me they weren't the Careers.' He thought with relief; he had seen one of them, the boy from District 8, but didn't know who the other two were.

Nobody was here now, that he could hear, but something sent a shiver down his spine. It was then he heard it, the rustling of the leaves; only there was no wind to make it happen. His feeling of dread mounting he turned his head and saw the source.

'A Gamemakers trap; the jungle it's…it's alive.'

Behind him, trees were moving on their own accord; vines flailing out, branches closing over. It was getting closer and closer to him; if he stayed where he was, he was sure either the branches would crush him, or the vines try to choke him. There was no time to get down; his only option was to stay ahead of the trees coming to life. He still had everything with him; much to his relief, so he took off immediately, relieved that he hadn't put on so much weight he couldn't use the tree tops and branches to move. He leapt from the tree he was on to the next, manuvered through the branches and leapt to an overhanging branch, swung from it over to the next tree and continued along the trees; keeping only a few steps ahead of the danger behind him.

Finally he reached another jump; he would need to swing from the overhanging branch again. Luckily he had managed to put some distance between himself and the trap; so he had time to prepare himself. He took a deep breath and leapt, he grabbed the branch, was about to swing, and then it happened. Either he had miscalculated his own weight, the strength of the branch, or the Gamemakers trickery. Whatever the reason, the branch broke and he fell to the ground. He had turned in mid-air and was now facing the ground when he landed; using his arms to break his fall. No bones broke but when he hit the ground an agonizing sharp pain lanced through the lower left part of his abdomen, just above his left hip. He jerked and heard a snapping noise. He looked down and saw the area where the pain originated from, it had been pierced by a sharp and thin wooden steak; already the wound was bleeding, but blood loss was limited thanks to the steak still being in the wound. He then realized the trap was still coming and forced himself to his feet, despite his pain. He had no time to remove the steak yet. Half-running, half-limping he continued to try and outrun the trap, occasionally stumbling over his own feet. In desperation, stealth was the last thing on his mind. All he cared about was getting away and survived the trap, wondering if there were more waiting.

He stumbled again and this time, fell to his knees, breathless and in pain. Anyway who came by after the jungle stopped pursuing him; would have a trail of blood drops to follow, he was sure.

'Can't stop now, need to…keep…going.'

However when he put his hand on the fallen tree next to him to pull himself up, he rapidly pulled it away with a cry of pain. His hand was red and swollen, blistering before his eyes.

Kai realized immediately what had happened. 'A second degree burn.'

Pulling himself to his feet he saw that he was in trouble. Behind him, the jungle was still alive and catching up with him. Now in front of him, the jungle was on fire and also rapidly approaching him, he was caught between two traps. He was about to move off when he heard it, and realized he was caught between three.

"This way, I heard it." Came Citlali's unmistakable nasal voice. "The scream came from over here."

Kai groaned. 'Great, trees trying to kill me, fire coming towards me and now the Careers are braving the dangers to try and kill me too…If I go the only way not blocked off, I'll likely fall into another deadly trap.' He pondered for a moment and made his choice. 'It's my best chance.'

So, rather than run away, he headed in the direction the Careers were coming from, keeping himself on a parallel course, so he wouldn't run right into them.

The steak lodged in his abdomen was painful, his right hand in agony, but still Kai hurried on. It was then he heard a cry and instinctively dodged. But it wasn't enough; he saw Janela smirk as she straightened up and felt the pain and blood run down his left arm, just below his shoulder. He looked down at the gash, she had thrown one of her knives and it had just missed a direct hit, cutting only his arm as it passed.

"There, get him!" Janela cried out.

He took off running, the Careers pursing him now; the fire and jungle blocking off his escape routes and funnelling him into keeping straight. He could hear them whooping and cheering behind him and was worried they were gaining ground. He then heard Citlali's voice again, this time calling out directly.

"You're mine coal brat, you won't get away!"

He looked behind him and saw there was still some distance between them, his injuries however meant that gap would likely close soon. It was then the path dropped into a steep hill and Kai, not seeing it, fell and tumbled down the hill, sending more pain ricocheting through his body. He landing with a grunt and, ignoring the pain pulled himself up and back, realizing to his relief there was a small overhang, he pushed himself underneath and out of sight.

He fought to get his breathing under control; silencing himself as he heard the Careers above him.

"That's one hell of a drop." He heard one of male tributes say, either Asher or Chase as the voice sounded older. "Well, the cannon didn't go off; he's still alive."

"So where is he?" Another male voice, younger, Caspar.

This time it was Alazne who spoke. "Down there somewhere; hiding no doubt, so what do we do now?"

While the Careers debated their choices Kai gingerly explored his sensations; apart from the pain before he now felt bruised and his muscle were screaming, his lungs burning as he tried to pull enough air into them. Luckily his falls hadn't broken any bones; just as he reached this conclusion he heard the Careers agree on a plan; the fire had stopped so they decided to leave and let the jungle take him. They were now going to find a victim and give Caspar his first kill. He tried to move but found it futile; they were gone but he could hear the jungle getting closer. However then, to his surprise, it reached the edge of the drop and went still. Several minutes passed before he realized the trap had ended and he was now safe. He let out a long breath and took off his backpack; the small pack and trap he set with it would now be lost, and pulled out his medical supplies and began treating his injuries.

Once he had treated his burned hand and the cut on his arm, he turned his attention to the steak lodged in his abdomen, the only way to properly treat the wound would be to pull it out and remove his shirt, treating it directly. Keeping medical pads handy he put the small bit of wood in his mouth to stifle any cry and grasped the steak; with as much strength as he could muster, he pulled it out; the pain was intense but not enough to break him; he quickly got to work staunching the bleeding and then removing his shirt and treating and bandaging the wound. Finally he pulled his shirt back on; all his wounds were treated now and at no risk of infection. He was shocked to see how much time had passed; surviving that trap had taken most of the day. It was then he realized something else; his brown was sweating and not just from running; he had pains in his joints and muscles, he had a bad headache and a skin rash, all symptoms of dengue fever, something his medical pack didn't have treatment for. That night he did not have the strength to climb a tree and remained under the outcrop, surprisingly, despite the deadly traps, nobody had died that day. Kai took a careful sip of water and prayed for access to one of the Capitol's wonder treatments which would cure him of the illness he had just contracted.

The following morning he awoke to discover that a sponsor had landed near him; he quickly checked it; it didn't contain the medicine he needed, but he had a feeling it had been sent before his illness had manifested. It did contain something he needed though, the components to make his caltrops; plus a note from Aviva which read quite simply 'stay strong and wait for the next sponsor' and he knew, without a doubt, that she was working on getting him the medicine. He knew one thing; he would need to maintain a good balance of fluids. He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain, noting that his other injuries weren't as painful now. With everything stashed in his backpack and his weapons strapped properly to himself. He decided he would need to gather what he needed to make his bombs, along with materials for making a Ghillie suit from scratch. Battling dengue fever while grabbing various materials from the jungle wasn't easy, but Kai was used to hardship. Life in District 12 was always a hardship after all. It was then he heard dark growls and knew right away they had to be Muttations, Kai froze and looked around, catching a glimpse of one of them as they ran past, after other prey at the moment, Mutts that resembled tigers, fitting for the current terrain. He decided to try and put as much distance as possible between himself and the Mutts. He stopped as two things happened at once, he found himself once more blocked by a swamp and he heard the growls of the Mutts and screams before the cannon boomed.

Kai pondered for a moment, then an idea occurred to him as he noted the clump of reeds growing by the swamp. He cut one of them free and worked on it until he fashioned a makeshift blowpipe. Now, if he had the means to make the dart more deadly, he would have the means to use it as a deadly weapon now. Satisfied Kai began to make his way around the swamp, looking for a route that would take him safely away from the mutts. He gripped the wooden branch he had fashioned into a makeshift spear tightly. He hadn't gone more than ten paces when everything happened at once. He heard the growls again and then a sound of steel and sharp pain in his right leg which made him trip. He looked down and saw his foot had been caught in a man-trap, luckily one without blades. However he knew if it wasn't for the boots he was wearing, it would've taken his foot off at the ankle. But now he was trapped and he could hear the mutts approaching. He had dropped everything he was carrying in his arms except his spear. He gripped it and looked around wildly as the Mutts drew closer. He saw the bushes in front of him move and readied himself; he could see there were at most three of them, one leapt out at Kai. He quickly thrust with his spear and killed it, yanking the spear free and did the same with the second one, only then the spear broke.

The sweat was pouring off him, the combination of his trapped leg, his sudden loss of a distance weapon and his dengue fever was starting to catch up with him. The third Mutt leapt at him and pinned him to the ground, he struggled desperately to keep its jaws from getting anywhere near to his throat as he stabbed at it with the broken end of his spear. Suddenly the Mutt roared and rolled off Kai as a sword was pulled out of it. Kai now found himself still trapped with two other tributes standing over him.


End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.