Sixty seconds. That's how long we're required to stand on the metal circles before the sound of a gong releases us. If you step off before the minute is up, then the land mines blow your legs off.
We're on a flat, open stretch of ground. A plain of hard packed dirt.
I notice Cato. He's about ten tributes to my left. He's looking at the cornucopia, ready to get right into the game. The gong sounds.
I do the stupidest thing I could have done. I run right to the Cornucopia. I lunge right into it and pick up a package of meat strips and a light blue backpack. Somehow, in that huge mess, the Careers haven't managed to find me. I escape the Cornucopia and run full speed into the woods. I'm happy that I got away alive. Peeta however, I have no idea what happened to him.
I keep moving, running, putting as much distance between myself and the other tributes.
I immediately find a small pond and take a drink.
It's late afternoon when I start to hear the cannons. I count and find that there are eleven dead in all.
Suddenly I start to cry. What if Cato died? Why do I care? I shake the thought from my head. Of course he's not dead. He's a career.
I bet he's killing somebody right now, not thinking about it twice.
I slump down on my pack, exhausted. I am hungry. But more than that, I'm tired. I should have eaten more while I was in the Capitol. I look in my pack to see what I managed to get. I have one bottle of water. A loaf of bread. An orange.
Night has now fallen. I eat a small chunk of bread.
Oh, I'm sure Cato, Clove, Marvel, Glimmer and the girl from District 4 who I found out was named Amber are hunting tributes. Itching to use the weapons they found.
I have climbed trees plenty of times. Katniss took me out to try to hunt a couple of times. I couldn't kill the animals so I usually sat up it a tree while Katniss would hunt.
I pick my tree carefully. It's a willow. The tree is set in a large clump of other trees, offering concealment.
I don't have a sleeping bag, tent or blanket. I'm cold. I don't make a bed for myself, but I can use the bag for a pillow…
How did I make it this far? I was one of the three smallest tributes. It makes no sense. A thought crosses my mind. Did the Careers leave me alone on purpose? No way. But then again, Marvel and Cato wanted me to be in the alliance. So maybe it wasn't just luck that let me survive so far.
Now the recap of the deaths appear in the sky. All the Career tributes have survived. Not a surprise. Finch is still alive. The boy from 10 made it. Both from 11, and Peeta and I. And I think maybe the girl from 8.
I'm relieved but not surprised that Cato is alive. Rue is alive too. Now that's surprising. Rue is just as small as me, so I never really thought either of us had a chance. I allow myself to drift off knowing that I made it through the night….
Snap! The sound of a breaking branch wakes me. How long have I been asleep? Judging by the lighting outside, I guess I've been asleep maybe two hours. I look to my right and find a small fire. A girl is putting her hands over it to warm herself up. I roll my eyes. The Careers will obviously find her and kill her.
And I'm in a tree next to her. Why couldn't she have just gritted her teeth and made it through the night, like me? I sit in my tree for the next couple of hours before thinking about leaving for another tree away from this girl. I decide to go through with it and try to get down at quietly as possible. I gather my stuff and I'm on the ground walking to find another tree when I hear a scream, shortly followed by happy cheers from the Career tributes. Cato yells out "Twelve down and eleven to go!" which gets a round of appreciative hoots.
So they're in a pack. I'm not surprised. And here I am, on the ground. Great.
I climb up the nearest tree I can find. Unfortunately, the tree is sort of isolated from the other trees.
"Better clear out before the body starts stinking," Cato says. They are heading towards me, I can hear it. Maybe I can clear out to another tree…
Not a chance . They are too close.
They're about five yard from my tree. They have flashlights and torches. They could easily find me.
"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" Marvel asks.
"I'd say yes. Nothing to prevent them from going in immediately," says Glimmer.
"Unless she isn't dead," Marvel says.
"She's dead. I stuck her myself," I hear Clove say.
"Then where's the cannon?" asks Marvel.
"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done,"Amber says.
"I said she's dead!" says Clove .
The argument breaks out until Glimmer silences the others. "There she is! I found her!"
Five flashlights point to my face a few seconds later.