As I wake up, I notice Aiden staring at me. I give him a smile and sit up. "I should go hunting soon..we need food." He nods and I get up and take my bow and arrows. I walk about fifty yards or so down the trail and end up catching three squirrels. As I'm heading back I hear a bit of rusteling in the bushes. I turn to see a little girl's face. It's Sarah. She has to be twelve or so and is amazing at climbing trees. She got a ten in training scores. "Hello Sarah." I say casually. She looks scared but holds her ground.
"Hello Percy." she replies. There's no way that I'm going to kill her. She's too young and if anyone wins, I want it to be either me or her.
"Allies?" I ask. Her eyes widen. This was most likely not what she was expecting. She thinks about it and holds out her hand.
"Allies." She repeats. We shake hands and I take her back to our camp. Once I am finally done introducing her to everyone, I hear Iris come out.
"We're going to be allies with her?" She asks, somewhat annoyed.
"Yes Iris. Yes we are." I say giving her the back off look. She rolls her eyes and starts cooking the squirrels. Considering that I have a jacket, I give Sarah the blanket and tell her to keep it. This is a calm morning but I know that we're going to have to move because most likely, everyone will be in the forest and we chose an obvious spot. I see Aiden and give him a quick hug before we head out.
"Percy, we have everything right?" Sarah asks. I nod and we start leaving. Aiden leads, I come in second, Iris is third, and so on. We keep a good pace and I have my bow loaded at all times. It takes a while but we finally find a good water source. I drop some iodine to cleanse it and we continue moving.
It's been about an hour of calm and it doesn't surprise me when I finally hear voices a few yards away. "We have to find them." says a girl voice. "She needs to be killed immediately. I'd love to kill that loverboy too." Lover Boy. The nickname that the carreers gave Peeta. I signal everyone to climb up a tree. Sarah and I are up in one in no time at all but the others take about five minutes. Just in time too because I hear them coming.
"I'd love to kill loverboy in front of Persephone too..." says a guy voice. "And also that little girl...what's her name Sarah? Yeah that would be primo." I feel rage racing inside of me so I decide to take a risk.
"Why hello, how are you?" I ask with a sweet voice.
"Oh, we've been wonderful. And you?" The girl responds back.
"Amazing. You know, the air's much better up here. Care to join me?" I ask.
"Sure, why not?" I hear the girl getting out a knife. Since I am in a separate tree from everyone else, I decide to let her climb up a bit before I climb higher. I race up the tree, making almost no noice at all and take a seat on a sturdy branch. She starts out well at first but she ends up falling after about eight feet up. "Maybe I'll come up later but please, be my guest to come down."
"I would, but I am not in the mood right now." I reply with a snobby tone. I can almost hear the people from the Capitol cracking up. I grin and look down in her direction. "I really do wish you could but since you can't..." I hold my bow up and shoot her in the chest. The cannon goes off and I see the others staring at me. There's one muscular man, a fifteen or sixteen year old girl, and five others. These are easily known as the Career pack. "Anyone else care to join me?" I ask.
"You're good, Persephone but you will die. There's no doubt about that." says the same guy who talked about Aiden.
"Oh will I? And why do you suppose that?" I ask getting ready to kill him too.
"Becuase you have a weakness and we all know what that is." I know what he's talking about. More specifically, who he's talking about. Aiden.
"You better be careful, or I could kill you right here and now." I reply in my normal tone.
"Fine..kill me. But I'll know and the whole country will know why." I want to shoot him in the chest but I know that he's right.
"Move it. I'll take care of you later." I say but that's when a knife zips from the tree next to me, into his head. The cannon fires. two down, five to go. The others dart off and I swing from my branch to the ground and hunt one of them down. We move over hills and jump over branches until I finally jump on top of him and stick a knife in his back. The cannon fires. I grin and whisper something in his ear.
I see Aiden racing to me and we embrace. I am scared, nervous, and freaking out. I feel my hands shaking but refuse to let anyone in Panem think that I am weak. I pull away and turn to everyone. They look panicked too. "You guys allright?" I ask. They all nod and Iris gives me a mischevious grin and I shake my head with a smile.
"Sorry, but he was ticking me off..."she says. I smile and give her a hug. You've got to love Iris. We continue and keep our minds pre-occupied by talking about simple subjects. Mainly they involve home and friends and that kind of stuff. I talk about my little brother and Iris talks about her little brother too. We keep walking and eventually decide to make camp in a place that's concealed by trees. Sarah asks to camp near me and I say okay. I eat some of the squirrel meat and hand her a huge chunk.
"Wow...really?" she asks, stunned.
"Yeah. Really." She smiles and takes a huge bite. After a while I begin to hear yelling and screaming. It sounds like it's coming from the careers. We all get up and quickly grab our packs. Aiden grabs my hand and we run as fast as we can away from their voices. But soon, they catch up to us and tell us to run. I was already and don't stop. Soon my legs get tired and I plunge to the ground. Aiden picks me up and runs. I know now what they're running from. Something that they can't escape. An earthquake.