Act 4 - Chapter 10 – The Winter

Jake walked quietly through the woods. Blood still dripping from the Katana and his shoulder. Instinctively he found his way back to the base he had found 2 days ago although he was only half conscious due to the blood loss that was quickly amounting. He emerged into the old structure and saw 3 figures standing there.

"Jake?" he heard one of them say

He then noticed it was Alisa. Jake then came to his senses and saw the other two people were Samuel and Will.

"You crazy bastard" said Samuel laughing

"We thought we lost you"

Jake then realized one member of their group was missing

"Where's Ramirez?" asked Jake

Samuels then lost his smile

"He didn't make it" answered Samuel

"Oh" said Jake solemnly

"It's ok, I took one of theirs as well" said Jake

"We heard" said Alisa

Alisa then noticed the wound on Jakes shoulder

"You're bleeding" she said

Jake had completely forgotten about the wound Mike had inflicted on him.

"Quick, lets stitch you up" said Will

Will had had basic first aid training back in District 9

Jake sat down and his wound was stitched up and bandaged. The four of them sat round in a circle.

"How are we supposed to honour Ramirez?" asked Jake

"I think we should all say the best thing we remember about him" Exclaimed Samuel as he stood up

"Besides the cameras might be on us and maybe his family are watching"

"I will start" continued Samuel

"He was a loyal friend" He said

"He was a fun guy" said Will

"He cooked the best food" Said Alisa

"He had a good heart…" finished Jake

"We should get some rest" said Alisa

"We will take it in shifts to watch" she continued

The next morning Jake was awoken by multiple howls in the distance

"Get up quick" shouted Alisa

Jake stood up quickly noticing the other three packing in a rush

"What is it?" Asked Jake

"Wolves" replied Alisa

"Lets move" shouted Samuel

Jake picked up his belongings. He then noticed the bushes rustling in the distance as some creatures were moving through.

The group left their base in a hurry, running through the woods

"What do we do" Asked Will as they ran, hearing snarls and growls behind them.

"We should head for higher ground" Said Jake

"They won't be able to follow us up a cliff".

Jakes adrenaline allowed him to ignore the pain in his shoulder. As the group came out of the forest they saw a rocky cliff in front of them.

"Climb quickly" ordered Alisa

The four of them ran towards the cliff and began to climb. Samuel being the most athletic was in font and reached the first cleft in the cliff. It was only a few meters up but it was enough to stop the wolves. Samuel helped to pull Alisa up who was second. Jake was struggling due to his shoulder but Alisa and Samuel grabbed both his arms and hauled him up. Only Will was still climbing. Will was getting more frantic as the wolves got closer, in his panic he slipped a bit but manged to hold on. It was then that Jake got his first glimpse of the wolves. They were not ordinary wolves, they had a strange mutant like appearance and were bigger and more ferocious. "They must be mutations" Jake thought to himself. The wolves came charging towards the bottom of the cliff and were growling and trying to jump up to reach the tributes. Will had just placed one of his hands on the cleft when one of the wolves manged to jump up and grab onto his leg with it's teeth.

Will screamed in pain as the creature held onto his leg. Only the resilience of the boy from District 9 prevented him from letting go

"Help! he screamed

Alisa and Samuel grabbed onto his arms attempting to pull him up as Jake kicked the wolves head trying to make it let go. This however was futile as the wolf held on. Jake then drew his katana and planted it into the wolfs head. The wolf instinctively let go and let out a howl as it fell into the rest of the pack at the bottom. Jake, Alisa and Samuel then hauled Will up who was bleeding. Will winced in pain as they bandaged his wound.

With great difficulty the group made it to the top of the cliff, they had to drag Will up. At the top of the cliff they saw many pine trees. They walked through the trees with Alisa and Jake supporting Will. They came to a little ditch in the woods where they decided to sleep for the third night.

The night drew in and even after eating the four of them were tired.

"You saved my life" Will mumbled

"Well now we are even" Said Jake jokingly

To this Will smiled.

It was then Jake noticed it had begun snowing and was fast settling. Jake felt the cold pierce his skin. This was definitely not natural as it had been warm in the day. "The Gamemakers must have changed the climate" he thought. There had been no deaths all day, so the Gamemakers needed to make the tributes more desperate or in the worst case kill some of them to keep the audience interested.

Two tributes were watching them from a distance

"Four tributes working together" Said Frank to Ellis

"We will pick them off one by one"