Chapter 10: Feast

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"

- Helen Keller

As if the trident wasn't enough, I realize there is still another gift left in the bottom of the parachute. A net. Not a cheap net like the ones I've managed to weave together out of grasses and reeds, but a real net, most likely the product of my home district. Even after I discard the empty parachutes, my sponsors still don't seem to be done. Through out the morning, I receive a new full water bottle as well as healing salve and bandages for my arm. Last night I tied a t-shirt around my injury as a bandage, but during the night, blood had soaked through. The wound stings more irritably than painfully, but the more I more my arm, the more it hurts. The healing salve and official bandages are accepted with gratitude. Capitol medicine is really incredible; I should be good as new in no time.

After applying the salve and wrapping up my wound, I take time to reflect on the remaining tributes. There's seven of us. I vaguely remember hearing a cannon as I was running last night. I can only assume it was Dusk's. Besides myself, there is Antigone, the girl from three, both from seven, the boy from eight, and Ivy. I decide I currently have three main goals. The first, avoid Antigone at all costs. She is the tribute I'm most concerned about, since I have little idea what to expect from the other tributes besides Ivy. All I know about these tributes is that the boy from Seven received a nine in training, the boy from Eight and Ivy earned sevens, and the girls from Three and Seven both have sixes. Antigone has a ten like I do, and I've seen what she's capable of.

My second goal is to kill any tributes I come across before they kill me. That is easier said than done though. The other tributes probably know the arena better than I do, putting me at a disadvantage. I could check my snares, but Antigone knows where they are, and could be at any one of them, waiting for me. I think the best solution would be to gather the snares, and reset them in different locations. It's doubtful I could trick Antigone into getting caught in one, but at least she would no longer know where they were.

I tightly squish all my supplies into the backpack and head out. I have four snares in all, and I want to gather and relocate each one of them as quickly as possible. I am careful and vigilant, examined each area carefully before swooping in and unsetting my snares. All goes well, and I don't run into any other tributes. As I approach the third snare, I realize I'm in for a surprise.

"Come on," the voice of a panicked girl is muttering to herself. Peering around a bush, I see the girl from Seven has been ensnared in my net. She appears to be alone, and is trying without any success to reach a dull, rusty knife attached to her backpack. Unfortunately, the net make it impossible for her to twist completely around to grab hold of it. "How could I be so stupid?"

Although I doubt this girl has any, I look around for any possible allies before stepping out from behind the bush. The girl's eyes widen as soon as she sees me, and tears begin to form. She can't be older than fifteen. My age, maybe a little older.

"No, please," she begs. To some of my former allies, this begging would only egg them on. As for me, the best I can do is try to ignore it. The girl pauses, and I can assume she's trying to think of a quick, last minute plan. "Y-you'll regret this! Hawk! Hawk, help!"

Hawk? It takes me a moment to remember Hawk is the name of her district partner. I hesitate, wondering if he's close by. I shake my head. I'm just wasting time. Hawk is probably no where near here, and if he were, his district partner would have called him sooner, wouldn't she? And even if he is here, that's all the more reason to kill quickly and move on. Maneuvering the trident with ease, I stab the girl directly in the heart. Then I run. I can come back for that snare later.

By the time I find my last snare and to reset all of them in new locations, I have a few hours of daylight left. Now what? I take a sip of my water, plotting my next move. As I ponder, I remember seeing large cliff that overlooks the river. You could probably see the whole arena from there, or at least the canopy of the trees. At the least, I can figure out how big this arena really is. I have a destination.

My plan sees flawless, until I climb nearly all the way to the top of the cliff and hear voices.

"-can't help but wonder if it's her," a boy is saying.

"We could have gone to find her, you know. In fact, it's not too late," a girl replies. It's not Ivy, and it's certainly not Antigone, so the only possibility is the girl from Three.

There's a short pause before the boy replies. "No," he sighs. "I told you, it will be harder that way."

From context, I can only guess the boy is from Seven, and not Eight. These two are definitely allies, an alliance I hope will break up before I come across them. I'm outnumbered two to one. Attacking now would be suicide. Even if I did manage to kill one of them, the other would almost certainly do me in. The best option is to hightail it out of there. This cliff is taken, but that doesn't mean I haven't gained valuable information. Mission accomplished, if in a different sense than originally planned.

Mags sends me more soup once I settle down. It is a simple beef broth this time, but I'm thankful for hot food any day. Four faces appear in the sky tonight. Dusk. Roman. Mariah. The girl from Seven. I wish I had Merit here to tell me her name. I feel bad for not knowing it. The anthem ends, and the forest returns to darkness, but I don't try to sleep. With an alliance of two and Antigone both out there somewhere, I'm a little on edge.

Sleep must come eventually though, because I wake up to a booming, echoing voice. I jolt upright, at first thinking Hawk and his ally have found me. I relax only when I realize it is only the famous announcer, Claudius Templesmith.

"- tributes!" he is saying when I start paying attention. "Congratulations on making it to the top six! The Capitol and your districts are extremely proud of each and every one of you. I would like to invite you all to a feast held near the Cornucopia at sunrise tomorrow. This feast is not mandatory, but highly encouraged. Each of you will find a backpack with your district number on it. Inside, you will either find a necessity or a luxury depending on your current well-being. Participation is strongly encouraged, or else you may regret your decision. Best of luck to you all, and may the odds be ever in your favor."

So that's it. A feast. Thanks to my sponsors, there isn't anything I really need. But skipping the feast would be deadly. I guess I'll just go somewhere where I can watch and wait for the right opportunity.

Around the crack of dawn, I stake out a spot in the treeline overlooking the Cornucopia. I'm surprised to see a wider, more stable looking metal bridge has taken the place of the rickety swinging bridge we previously had to put up with. The bridge is wide enough for a fifteen-feet-or-so long table to stretch across it with several feet on several sides. The bridge has rallings, but it would be easy to simply push a tribute over the edge. I don't know what the outcome of the feast will be, but I'm not going to be the first one there.

The girl from Three, to my surprise, is the first one across. Where is Hawk? With her back turned towards me, she begins to eat some of the delicacies. Before I can begin to wonder what she's doing, Antigone creeps out of the trees, moving efficiently but silently. Honestly, she looks terrible. Her hair is even more of a tangled mess, and her arms and neck are cover in an angry red rash, as if she rolled in a patch of poison ivy. On her tail, Hawk begins to stalk her. All of the pieces suddenly fall into place. This must be an ambush. If I wanted to, I could probably save her, but hen I was fighting with Dusk, she made no move to help. Why risk my live for someone who would not return the favor?

Just as Antigone raises her knife, about to throw, Hawk hoots like an owl, and his ally dives under the table just in time to miss getting hit by Antigone's knife. Antigone whips around to face Hawk, reaching for a knife a second too late. Before she can fully react, Hawk's machete is buried deep in her chest. She falls, an expression of pure shock etched on her face as her cannon booms.

I'm shocked, too. Antigone was a highly trained career. She was so focused on killed what she believed to be a foolish tribute, that she had failed to pay attention to all sides around her. She was the foolish one. I was sure she would have known better.

Hawk runs to the girl from Three, who has crawled out from under the table, and high-fives her. They stand around for a while, looking around them and talking, although they're too far away for me to hear a word they're saying. Hawk takes his machete out from Antigone's corpse and wipes it clean. The pair seem to be waiting for more tributes, but there's no way Ivy, the boy from Eight, or I will go charging in where two tributes are at the ready, even if Eight and Ivy are in the area. Soon, the tributes from Three and Seven seem to realize waiting is pointless. Hawk stands up, picks up the District Seven pack, and shakes his ally's hand before turning around and dashing off in the opposite direction. The girl stares after him for a moment, twirling her knife in her hand, as if contemplating whether or not to literally stab him in the back. Then she takes her pack and takes off too, but in a different direction.

It's quiet for a while. Then Ivy jogs out. I have a feeling she'd be running, but she's paler than when I last saw her, and her teeth are gritted in pain. Turns out she was not far from me at all. Ivy swipes her pack and is back across the bridge in a flash, not touching the food. She then heads for the trees, coming close to me, so close, I could toss my net out and spear here with my trident, but I don't. I owe her. I owe Raisin. Just this once. Maybe I can't afford to be selective, but I can't kill her.

As she disappears, I debate whether or not I want to grab my pack. Before I am able to decide, the boy from Eight dashes for the feast. He's seemed to have lost weight, and I'm guessing he hasn't eaten much these past twelve days. He picks up a few pieces of food, then his pack. He hesitates, then reaches down to pluck a second pack up from the table. My pack.

For some reason, I'm irritated. I may not need whatever is in that pack, but I feel like I've been stolen from, and that does not settle well. So when the boy rushes straight towards me, I don't hesitate to throw out my net out. It encloses the boy, and he falls to the ground. Quickly, I make the kill and snatch up the District Four backpack. As I retreat deeper into the forest, I can't help feeling sick when I realize I was thinking of how easy that was. When did I begin thinking like a killer?

Author's note: This chapter is up earlier than expected, but I have much better reception in the car than in the cabin I'm at, so I'm taking advantage while I can. Since there are four tributes left, next chapter is the last 65th games chapter. :)

Who do you think will be in the finale with Finnick? Who do you want him to battle?