Hey, I say as if it hasn't been two years. I am finally gonna try and get back in the habit of writing. Of course I do not own The Hunger Games.
Falling Chapter X
My saviors are none other than Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne. They stand in the entrance of the Grand Mall, arrows nocked but the bows not raised. I begin to wriggle myself out from under Ariel. She isn't heavy, but at the current angle it is easier to roll her over me. I sit up on the floor, by now Gale and Katniss are at my feet. Gale holds his hand out, I grab it and he helps me to my feet.
I notice that the area has grown quiet, and see that the televisions in the middle of the room have been turned off. Most likely a way to keep us on our toes, and not be distracted. I can't help but suspect if another tribute is nearby. I see Gale visibly relax, but Katniss still has that intense look of determination she would always show. I remember this look when she would bring squirrels to sell to my father, she would leave with at least two loaves of bread or she would take her business elsewhere. She always had that same look when she meant business and Katniss rarely had time for anything else. But in her eyes I see the burden that has grown in the past year.
The two have bags under their eyes as if they have had a sleepless night. Their clothes are covered in dirt and dust, and I notice Gale's pant leg is missing a portion near the ankle. Both are carrying large backpacks. Upon further inspection I see that the bags are also have quivers filled with arrows outfitted on the side.
"Thank you for the help," I say as I dust myself off. Katniss immediately claims the two arrows, not even bothering to look at Ariel. But I do, the red haired girl has a look of confusion painted on her face, even in death. I think of Maverick. I feel a twinge of hurt at the thought. But with Ariel the same feelings do not come. I feel no sorrow for her. No shame, or regret, rather I feel like a burden is lifted.
At Ariel's side her trident lays, very near pristine. At first glance one might think it was never used. I pick it up, it has about two inches on me as far as height, and begin to turn it in my hand. I look to Gale and Katniss with their bows, I doubt they would find use for this weapon. I then look between two of the tines and see scorch marks from the knife. I rub my finger over them and they are gone.
"May I?" I ask holding the trident up in front of me. Katniss and Gale share a look of disinterest.
"Well I certainly don't have any use for it." Katniss says looking at Gale. He only nods in my direction. She then moved towards the nearest stall and began putting food into her bag. "Gale, I will gather food you get some water." At her command Gale moves across the room to start claiming drinks.
"I take it you are okay then" Katniss says in an absent minded tone.
"Yes I'm fine thanks to you two," I say reaching down and collecting my knife from under the table. I sheath it and place it in my backpack.
"Lucky for you we came around when we did," Katniss says still clearly lost in her own mind. Suddenly she stops and turns around quickly. "Have you seen Prim?" She asked with a sudden sense of urgency.
"No, I haven't seen her yet," I reply. I see Katniss make a face of distain before returning to her raid of the food stand. "What about Soot, or Rinem? Has there been any sign of those two?" I ask out of genuine curiosity.
"They aren't our priority right now," Katniss answered with a cold voice. She unwraps one of the burgers as she hands another to Gale. They both begin to eat with no hesitance, quickly as if someone was going to snatch the food from their hands.
"We are wasting time here Gale. We need to keep moving. Peeta you are more than welcome to join us, but I want you to know from the beginning, both Gale and I are not trying to win. We are trying to get Prim out of here alive, whatever that takes," Katniss explains, food still in her mouth. She places the last of her meal in her mouth, turns around, and starts walking towards the door.
"Sorry about her, she is just worried about Prim," Gale adds "Wait up Katnip."
I hesitate for a moment weighing my options. There is an unspoken rule in the games that teaming up with the tribute from your own district often doesn't end well. Most of the time it doesn't matter as one or both are usually killed early, but it sometimes leads to betrayal, paranoia, and a general sense unease.
"Wait up" I say as I sprint to catch up with them grabbing Ariel's pierced backpack on my way. Something is leaking from it but I have no time to check. I hang it from the tines of the trident and follow my new team mates out the door. "I'll stay a while with you two."
"Great," Katniss answers over her shoulder, her voice laced with disinterest.
"So where are we headed exactly?" I ask trying to keep up with the pace Katniss was setting. We have left the Grand Mall and are now walking away from it inward toward the center of the arena.
"You will be lucky to get any answers out of her," Gale says. "She gets like this sometimes. So focused on the task at hand that all else. Sometimes I wonder why I follow her," He finished making a point to be louder to get Katniss' attention.
"We are looking for Prim," Katniss says coming to an abrupt halt across the street from the Grand Mall on a street corner right next to the dilapidated apartment buildings. She then raises a finger to point into the distance. "Higher ground is a blessing for fighting, hunting, and tracking. The first building to rise above the others is where we will have the best view unblocked. And after two earthquakes we want to be somewhere safe. I imagine since all the buildings are still standing that they are made to withstand the force. But a lot of things don't add up, at least not yet."
"Speaking of things that don't add up" Gale said "I think that the arena is rearranging itself."
"Yes, I think it is happening to the entire arena at that." I decide too late it might be best to give information on a need to know basis.
"What makes you think that?" Katniss asks looking perplexed.
"Isn't it obvious?" Gale intervenes saving my hide. "Think back in Twelve. The tailor shop, the Justice Building, and the bakery-" He says pointing at me. "-are all close together. The Seam and the Shops are far away from each other. So why would this ghetto-" he motions to the apartments. "-be right next to this pristine market? Furthermore since we left those apartments this morning nothing has matched design wise." He finishes by pointing at the Grand Mall.
"And then there are these." I say pointing to the crevice in the road.
These answers seem to satisfy Katniss, as she simply turns around and begins pointing again. "Well if that is true then things are better than they seem. We can set up camp in that first tall building and then just stay there, the arena will bring us new places to explore," She then turns back to Gale and myself.
"But knowing the Gamemakers they will bring us enemies too," Gale adds in an almost condescending tone.
"But it would save us the trouble hunting them down," I say. "Save for a possible career pack, most people will probably be on their own. A three to one advantage would be very good," I add quickly. I then turn to look inward of the arena. "So that first skyscraper, we better hurry to get there soon."
"Bread Boy is right, we don't know when the arena could move again," Gale comments also looking to our destination. He then looked to the sky. "We better hurry it's gonna get dark soon."
I decide to withhold information until they can figure it out for themselves. Katniss has already said she will kill me when the time comes.
"So what are we waiting for?" Katniss inquired as she began walking inward, setting a brisk pace. "Keep up boys." She says from ahead. Gale and I exchange a look.
"Come on bread boy." Gale said as he jogged to catch up.
I take one last look at the Grand Mall and begin after them. We walk a few yards in silence and I can tell they are comfortable with this. For them this is just another hunting trip, only this one won't end with a squirrel for my father. Or a bird for a town official. This game is deadly. And I'm hunting with two who are prepared to die.
We get maybe two blocks before Gale remembers I am there and tries to make conversation.
"So tell us, what have you done so far?" He asks from beside Katniss, not even bothering to look back at me.
"Well I jumped into the arena. Some entry hazard huh" I say as if it were something fun I can remember fondly. "I got to a small cornucopia and there was only this backpack waiting for me. I got an electrical knife, a revolver with five shots left"'
"Wait, five shots left? So you started with six?" Gale asks with a glint of humor in his voice. "What did you fire one just to see if it worked?"
"I sure did." I respond in a sarcastic tone. "And it conveniently placed itself in the head of a boy from District 10."
At this both of them stop in their tracks. Gale turns around and I could tell he was genuinely curious. Katniss turns her head to look at me from her peripheral vision. I can't help but feel like she is sizing me up. Though they have stopped I keep walking, stopping only when I stand directly between them.
"Congratulations, Peeta." Katniss says stoically looking at me dead on. "You were willing to take the first step in getting out of here. Many lose the game by not taking that step."
Her comment catches me off guard. She has a point. In seventy four years there hasn't been many who could claim they won the games without blood on their hands. The Gamemakers are rarely so kind as to let someone walk away like that.
"I only did what needed to be done." I whisper as I look to the ground. I feel waves of negative emotion roll onto me. I hold it in with everything I have. I am starting to get disgusted at how easy it is fighting these feelings.
"Let's keep moving," Katniss says, blatantly wanting to break the tension. She starts walking, leaving Gale and I behind. I use the trident as a walking stick the bag swaying as I walk. It is no longer leaking.
"So Peeta." Gale begins, his voice laced with unease. "You were telling us about the supplies you found."
I stop for a second and try to remember where I left off. "Some matches, some medical supplies, jerky rations, and an energy tonic. Oh also a pair of sunglasses, but I don't know what they do because I put them on and my vision warps."
Gale slows down at the mention of the sunglasses and turns to look at me.
"May I see them?" He asks softly.
"Sure." I respond passing him the trident with Ariel's backpack and taking my backpack off to begin digging through it.
"Boys, keep up," Katniss said from up a head. "I don't want to be out in the open too long."
Gale ignored her as I finally dug out the sunglasses from the bottom of the backpack. I hand them to him and he immediately returns the trident to me and puts them on and his walk begins to falter. He starts walking slower and begins looking at the ground almost as if he isn't sure if the ground is still beneath his feet. Gale takes the glasses off, and hands them back to me.
"Hurry up." Katniss called again from ahead.
"Katniss has something similar but they are kind of different. Hold on to those, I don't know what they do but the Game Makers don't put useless things in the cornucopias." He said before sprinting forward to Katniss who was now a ways a head of us.
I place the sunglasses back in my bag, and I am about to start jogging forward but a sound catches my ear. It's the sound of metal hitting what sounds like the ground and bouncing a little. I turn around and see nothing. But about a block and half down the street I see a steel garbage can slowly rolling away from the alley it came from. I panic and sprint over to Gale and Katniss. I look back and still see nothing but the garbage can.
Gale having heard me running has stopped and turned to see what the commotion is. At his reaction Katniss draws her bow, and nocks an arrow.
"We need to move now." I say quickly.
"Why, what is it?" Gale said readying his own bow.
"I think someone is following us" I say pointing my trident at the trash can.
"I don't think it's a tribute, they would have attacked by now." Katniss said aiming her bow at the alley that the trashcan came from.
"Maybe another rat." Gale said aiming his at the trashcan. "Maybe if we are lucky it's the one that owes me an arrow."
"I don't think we are that lucky." Katniss says. "Peeta you are better for close combat, you go check it out."
"We got your back." Gale said with a nod.
I begin to walk forward towards the trash can, keeping the trident at the ready. As I am halfway there I look back and see Katniss and Gale still with their bows ready and waiting. As I near the trashcan I begin to peer down the alley. I see nothing but a dead end, a few doors. And two more metal trash cans. I stop at the one knocked over and gesture at it with the trident. Katniss gives me a nod, and using the butt of the trident I slam the trashcan away. Throwing it into the nearest building. As nothing happens I move closer and gaze into the emptiness of the trashcan. After giving another glance down the alley and determining that there is no present danger I jog back to Katniss and Gale.
"Sorry, my bad guys" I say despondently, looking away.
"No it's good you caught that. We certainly didn't." Katniss says before shouldering her bow once more. "Now let's get moving again."
With that we take off again down the road again. The silence returns fairly quickly. We walk for a moment in total quiet.
"So." Gale says. "You got your supplies. And then what?"
"Not much I just walked." I reply somberly. Thinking carefully at how to voice my words. "I walked when it started raining last night I took cover in a building. Just before going to sleep the arena did its thing. After it happened I did my best to calm down, and go to sleep. And I made sure I wasn't vulnerable of course. When I woke up, there were three people near me fighting. Two on one, I didn't want to get involved with it."
"Who were they?" Gale interjects, cutting me off.
"I was getting to that." I say smugly, hoping he would get the message he was being a little rude. "The two of them were boys from 10, the cousins."
"Aries and Maverick?" Gale says again cutting me off.
"Yes." I say shooting a look at the back of his head. "Anyway, they got the upper hand and knocked out the boy from 5." I immediately turn to Gale and stop him before he can speak. "Lectric the small young one. Anyway they knock him out. Aries offers to scout ahead and let Maverick handle Lectric. But after he leaves Lectric wakes up and starts talking to beg and plead for his life." I explain.
"So then Lectric says that he knows there is someone nearby. And by someone he meant me." I continue. "So Maverick doesn't quite believe him, and he drags Lectric off so Lectric can show Maverick some proof. And just as I was getting out of my hiding spot the arena moved around again. Well as much as I can gather Lectric ran off in the confusion while I took advantage of how distracted Maverick was and shot him." I finished.
"Then what did you do?" Gale asked clearly interested.
"Well at first I was sick to my stomach, but then I rationalized he was going to kill me if I didn't do something. And even if I only wounded him he might come back later, or die slowly and painfully." I finished.
Gale and Katniss said nothing. This time the silence was even more uncomfortable. I couldn't tell with Katniss but it was clear Gale was slightly unnerved. Then I realized I had forced them to remember that the other tributes were humans too. Without them forcing themselves to disassociate would they really be able to handle the Game.
The silence stayed much longer this time. Katniss was still leading us but I couldn't see a visible change. Gale, however, was clearly shaken. He looked down at the ground, worry lines littered his face.
"So what did you mean another rat?" I ask genuinely curious, but wanting more to break the tension. "Earlier, you mentioned another rat. What happened?"
"Well, long story short, there are mutts in the arena already." Gale replies as if it is a somewhat sore subject. But that could just be from the previous conversation.
"Well we have plenty of time, why not tell him the long story?" Katniss responds, sounding almost grateful for the change of subject.
"We met up just before sunset yesterday." Gale started. "After we jumped we began the games as best we could. My cornucopia had a bow and some arrows. A few vials of toxins, a rope, some water and some jerky. Also some water purifying tablets and some kind of fire starter."
"Mine had the bow and arrows." Katniss said cutting him off. "I also have some throwing knifes, a medical kit, glasses that let me see in the dark. Some kind of powder that makes poisons less effective, it will make you sick depending on what you try to cure. I have some water and a few poison tipped arrows." I nod at their selections. Then look to Gale for him to continue with his story.
"I began walking inward" Gale continued. "But where I was it started raining before I could get more than a few blocks in. I took shelter in some kind of clothing store. I ending up locking myself in its back room. I fell asleep and was woken up by what I thought was an earthquake. The part where I was must not have moved too much because it was over in an instant. I thought it was something small nothing to worry about. But then I heard the canon and I just thought it was worse in other places."
Gale pauses for a moment. "After that I tried to sleep some more but I heard a commotion in the store. I peeked outside of my hiding spot and saw another tribute I didn't get a good look at him but I know he was a boy. There was a back door that led out to an alley. I didn't wanna risk a fight so I bolted out back into the rain."
Another pause in his story. "I don't know how long I ran for, all I know is that I literally ran into Katniss and almost got shot."
"How did that happen?" I interject
"She was walking with her bow drawn, and as I turned a corner I ran into her causing me to trip she only stumbled and aimed her bow at me." Gale said like it was funny.
"He scared the daylights out of me. I had an arrow ready because it was already after dark. The area I was in didn't move at all but I felt a great shaking and a powerful wind. I didn't know what to think so I just took cover I ducked into an alley, taking cover behind a dumpster when the commotion calmed down I exited the alley on the other side and started walking inward. I didn't get ten blocks before he almost knocks me to the ground." Katniss says as if the mere memory was enough to annoy her.
"Well once she realizes it's me she starts to calm down." Gale has a slight blush at this point. "So we decide to look for shelter for the night. Our first mistake. We walked for a bit then found these apartments that kinda matched the ones across from the market. I stood watch and Katniss maybe got an hour or two before we realized we weren't alone. There were rats in the walls at first I was able to ignore it. Suddenly they get more frantic and excited. I thought something wasn't right so I woke up Katniss. The rest of the night we were stalked by a rat mutt. It was huge bigger than a dog. Really fast too. The room we were in had several doors and it kept circling us and looking for an opening."
"Damn." I said in shock, mutts where usually used in the end of the game to corral tributes closer together.
"Well the big bitch was just trying to keep our attention, because on the wall behind us we didn't notice that the normal rats were chewing a hole. Well the regular rats aren't as smart as the big one cause when it tried to go through the hole it got stuck and only managed to bite my pant leg. I shot an arrow into its head, and it barely seemed phased. Honestly I think I was more deterred when Katniss slammed a lamp in its face. After she did that it went back into the wall so we moved but we still couldn't find a clear opening to escape. At least cornered we could stand our ground. Had we run away I can't say the thing wouldn't have caught up with us."
He had my full attention as we walked. Katniss just kept ahead not paying us any attention.
"So we wasted a couple of hours in that standoff. Katniss had one of those poison arrows ready but she never got a clear a shot. I watched the walls to make sure they didn't try again. Suddenly just before dawn the big one ran away and all the ones in the walls we could tell where flooding out to get away. Next thing we knew we are on the ground rolling towards a wall. We slam into the wall and suddenly everything stops. Katniss and I grabbed our stuff and got out quick before the rats came back."
As he spoke I began to grow paranoid about other mutts in the arena. I think back to the garbage can from earlier. I stopped real quick to look behind us we had put a considerable distance between us and the grand mall. Still nothing or no one behind us as well.
"So we walk for a few hours and end up in a park. We stop to rest because we are exhausted. So we are in the park on bench and we look up at a tree and it is full of jabberjays. Well we think they were jabberjays. The colors were wrong but the shape was unmistakable. So we think they were some kind of mutt but we couldn't be sure. Rather than test our luck we kept moving. We almost ran into Ariel ourselves, but we got lucky she was already preoccupied tailing you. She was following you before we found her, then we followed her for about half an hour."
"And you didn't think to step in before we started fighting?" I asked indignantly.
"We didn't know it was you." He said defensively. "Our original plan when we realized she was tailing someone was to just wait til she fought whoever it was and then pick off the winner of that fight. I swear we didn't realize it was you until we saw you two fighting then you know what happened next."
"Right." I say skeptically. From then on the walk was silent I could tell Gale wasn't in the mood to talk after that. After about twenty minutes of walking we arrived to the building we set our sights on. As we neared I realized it was larger than I originally thought. The hotel I was in last night was only ten stories high, this one had to be fifty.
We walked up to the building and automatic doors opened before us. We walked in the front lobby area was simple. Fancy looking furniture was sporadically placed with all the chairs on one side of the room. Large glass windows looked out onto the street. Once again there was a pair of elevators next to a door marked 'stairs'. The front desk was sparse. A bolted down computer, a bolted down jar filled with pens, a bolted down printer, and an envelope with 'Master Keys' written on it in marker. After looking at the side of the room where the chairs were I noticed a lot of papers on the floor as well as some magazines. Gale grabbed the envelope and noticed it was glued to the desk.
"Gamemakers always thinking ahead." He said, I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or serious. He opened the envelope and pulled out five key cards, similar to the one in my back pocket but without the black stripe.
"Five keys and three of us." Katniss said. "They must have been expecting a larger group."
"Well we only need three keys so." Gale began. He turned to the bolted down printer and pulled on the handle to the paper feeder. He took a few pages out and threw them at the rest of the debris from the shift. He dropped two keys in the paper feeder, then handed one to me and one to Katniss. "If we find someone to join our group we know where the spares are." Katniss nodded at him.
We then walked to the elevator and saw that it didn't have the usual up or down keys just a small black box jutting out of the wall where they would be. I put my key next to the box and the elevator to the right of us dinged open. We got in and saw a wall of buttons, one for each of the fifty two floors. I look at Katniss who is looking at Gale. The doors close.
"We should probably go to the top to see farther." Katniss said.
"True." Gale said. "But we shouldn't go to high or we will have a hard time seeing below us"
I then added "So why not meet in the middle? Fifty two floors so we should try floor twenty six."
Gale and Katniss just looked at each other and then shrugged. Gale then reached over and hit the button for floor twenty six. The elevator began to go up, the ride like most of our walk was taken in silence.
When we arrived to floor twenty six we were greeted with a plain wall. We exited the elevator into a long hall way. Nothing decorated the walls. We followed the hall into a large room divided into square workstations.
"Offices." Gale said simply.
We kept moving around the floor the office space seemed to comprise the middle of the building. When we found an outer hallway we saw enclosed offices with floor to ceiling windows. I opened one with my master key to look out the windows, this building was higher than the ones surrounding it. And while were too high to see beneath us we could easily see the surrounding streets. I turned to Gale and Katniss.
"You two get some rest. Find somewhere if the arena moves again you won't be bothered. I'll take the first watch." I said. Katniss looked like she wanted to argue but didn't say anything. Gale just waved over his shoulder as he walked away.
A/N I wanna apologize for taking so long, but as I said at the top imma try to be better at updating. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Leave a review telling me what you thought. -Eddie