Chapter 12
Day 2
Today, we take a look at our supplies. We empty out the contents of our four backpacks on the ground. We end up with some matches, a couple lengths of rope, three dry water bottles, two sleeping bags, three microscopic first-aid kits, one good-sized bag of dried fruit, and four sheets of plastic. We dispose of the two extra packs and try to figure out how to divide the supplies between the two of us.
"We can each take a sleeping bag, a rope, a water bottle, two sheets of plastic, and a first aid kit," says Shadow, "We'll divide the matches. As for the remaining first aid kit, we can divide that, too. And the fruit. What about the last water bottle?" Shadow says.
"What if you take the water bottle and I take the fruit? If we're separated, since you're the better hunter, I'll have some food and you'll have water." I suggest.
"Okay," says Shadow. Apparently, he took what I said, about not fighting, to heart. It's a pleasant change, him listening to my advice.
"Speaking of water," he continues, "Let's find some."
We search for a lake or pond, but we don't even see a puddle. The closest to water we get all morning is some kind of riverbed, and it's bone dry. We give up our search soon after discovering the river, and start preparing for rainfall. There's little chance it will rain, but now it seems like our only way to get water. And we need it soon. I'm horribly tired, even though I had almost a full night's sleep, and I'm beginning to get a headache. I climb high into the trees to spread our four sheets of plastic out on the upper branches. I almost fall out of one when two cannon blasts rock the arena.
"Who was that?" I wonder.
"I guess we'll find out tonight," replies Shadow grimly.
After working hard, we enjoy some of our dried fruit. Then, we go to hunt and gather food. Shadow hunts, of course, and I gather. I can't find a single plant I recognize! I keep finding strange clumps of purple flowers, but they don't look edible to me. I find a little tree with some round orange fruits that look a lot like peaches. I'm just reaching up to pick one when I hear a cough behind me.
"You'll be dead in seconds if you eat that," someone says. I gasp and turn around to see a Career boy slumped down against a tree. I recognize him from the Training Center. He's the boy from District 1. Though it's only the second day, he's covered in dirt. He's obviously in a lot of pain. A bandage is wrapped around his head, already stained with blood. He closes his eyes tightly. It looks like he's waiting for me to strike.
"What happened?" I ask, even though the best thing to do probably is to run away. The boy opens his eyes again. He looks puzzled, like he wasn't expecting me to start a conversation.
"The boy from 11. We fought at the Cornucopia. The others thought I would slow them down. They left me here last night," he says. Last night? He's lucky that no one found him. The more I think about it, the more doubtful it seems. I stay back, in case this is part of a plan.
"Is this some kind of trick? Are your volunteer tribute friends hiding in the bushes, waiting to take me out?" I say angrily.
"No," he says, "They're probably on the other side of the arena by now."
"I don't know. We're a pretty long distance from the Cornucopia here. How did you manage to get this far?" I ask.
"Um…I was…unconscious. They carried me most of the way," he says reluctantly. He looks away from me, embarrassed. I'm not sure whether to trust him. Would a Career tell me something like that? So far, no one has attacked, so I step closer. I walk around his tree, making sure he has no weapon. When I finish, I call for Shadow. He runs over, expecting some kind of battle. His sword is drawn. Instead of angry or scared, he just looks confused when he sees me standing there, talking with a Career.
"What…?" I can see Shadow can't think of one question to ask in the millions probably forming in his head right now.
"I think we need to talk in private. I'm sorry," I tell the boy from 1. I pull Shadow aside.
"Why are you talking to a Career?" he asks, "Why didn't he attack as soon as he saw you?"
"He's injured. The boy from 11 cut him at the Cornucopia, and the rest of the volunteers left him here to die," I say, "We have to help him."
"We can't, Leda. If we just go around saving every injured tribute we find, we'll end up dead. And we have limited first-aid supplies," he says, shaking his head.
"But he's different. He's not like the other volunteers, and you know it. He would make a good ally, too. Neither of us can identify edible plants. Remember how good he was at the Training Center?" I ask.
"What about you? You're good, too!" he argues.
"Do you want a 71% chance of living every time you eat?" I ask, "I'd be dead if he wasn't here. I would have eaten poisonous fruit, from that tree over there. And we can't just leave him."
"Okay, fine. Let's help him," says Shadow.
We walk back over to where the boy is sitting.
"Well, I suppose you wouldn't have come back over here if you planned to take off," he says, "Why are you helping me?"
"Because you helped me," I say matter-of-factly.
We unwrap the bandages on his forehead to find a nasty gash, most likely from the blade of a sword. It's pretty deep, and it's still bleeding. I try my best to stop the flow of blood with some gauze from one of the first-aid kits.
"My name is Leda. This is Shadow." I say. The boy nods.
"Hold still," I tell him.
"I know you two. 8 and 6, right?" he points at each of us as he says our training scores. "District 2."
"Yeah," I say, surprised, "How did you…"
"My allies and I tried to learn about our competition. We figured, since you're from 2…"
"That we'd be Careers." Shadow finishes.
"What?" asks the boy.
"He means volunteers." I say.
"Oh, yeah. But when we saw the film of the reaping…" he says. I blush bright red. "Never mind," he says, seeing my expression, "My name is Luster." Oh, he's definitely from District 1. I wrap a bandage around his head to keep the gauze in place.
"There," I say, "Finished."
"It's getting dark," Shadow says, "We should head back." I nod my head and turn back to Luster.
"Allies?" I say.
"Thought you'd never ask," says Luster.
Getting Luster back to our tree proves to be a challenge. We help him up, but he immediately crumples to the ground again, unconscious. We try to carry him back to our camp, but he's too heavy for even the two of us.
"Why don't we find a closer tree?" suggests Shadow, "Like this one?"
"Sounds good," I say, "You lift him from the ground and I'll pull him onto a branch?" Shadow nods.
We soon find out that it's easier said than done. It takes a long time for us to pull Luster onto even the lowest limb of the tree. We eventually get him up about ten feet in the air. Then I help Shadow climb up, too.
We settle into our own branches as soon as Luster is tied into his. He doesn't have any supplies with him, so I sacrifice my rope. Shadow and I decided to alternate. Since we're so low to the ground, we need to keep watch.
The girl from 3 and the boy from 6 have died. Luster wakes up just as the Capitol's seal disappears.
"Whoa!" he exclaims when he sees where he is.
"We decided to put you in a tree for the night," explains Shadow, "It's safer up here. Want some dried fruit?" Luster nods and accepts a handful.
"Did I miss the…" he gestures to the sky.
"Yeah," I say, "It was the girl from 3 and the boy from 6." He looks confused.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"They're both volunteers…" he says, "That means, not counting me, there's only two left in our alliance."
"Who?" asks Shadow.
"The girl from my district, Flash, and the girl from District 7, Cacelia."
"District 7?" I ask.
"Yeah. It's strange that she's a volunteer. Even though she was alone in her district, she trained to fight in the Games before she was even eligible to compete. You should probably keep your distance from her, because she can throw that axe as well as she can swing it." He nods at Shadow. Luster must have seen Cacelia attack him at the Cornucopia.
"There were a lot of tributes in our alliance not from volunteer districts, like the ones from 3. Some of them weren't even volunteers, like the boy from 6," he continues, "Cacelia just had to have him and his partner in our group when she saw them fighting with swords. I think it's because she just wanted some more tributes from the other districts here. And the boy joined us. The girl refused." He suddenly gets a very angry look on his face. "We tried to get rid of her at the Cornucopia, and I actually got a chance to fight her, but she got away when the boy from 11 attacked me. I hope the others are tracking her down." Luster seems nice enough, if not a little…Careerish, but it's unnerving how badly he wants revenge. Talking about the Cornucopia battle, I have another thought.
"What about the girl from 4? Isn't she a volunteer?" I wonder.
"You mean Iela? She is," says Luster, "But she went off on her own after her district partner was killed at the Cornucopia." I nod.
"Let's get some sleep," I say, "I'll take first watch."
"No," says Luster, "I will." He unties himself and hands me my rope.
"Get some sleep." Shadow and I nod and settle into our sleeping bags. Before I sleep, I sit up again. Luster looks over at me. I take off my orange jacket and toss it to him.
"Since you don't have a sleeping bag," I say, and then lie back down, "Wake me up in a few hours." Luster puts my jacket over his shoulders like a blanket and leans back against the tree.
The next thing I'm aware of is Luster tapping my shoulder.
"Leda," he says, "Your turn to keep watch."
"Oh," I say, "Here, tie yourself in." I untie myself from the tree and hand the rope to Luster.
"Thanks," he says. He ties himself in and lies down.
After a while, my eyelids start to get heavy. I'm just about to drift off when I hear the unmistakable sound of crunching leaves. Footsteps. Voices. I see a little ball of fire that must be a torch. They're definitely Careers. Who else would talk this loudly in the middle of the night, when other tributes could be hiding in every shadow? Why are they here? It can't be a coincidence. I sit as still as possible, hoping the leaves have hidden me well. In a couple minutes, the torchlight disappears. I start to shake Shadow's shoulder.
"Shadow," I whisper, "Shadow!"
"What is it?" he says drowsily.
"I just heard some tributes walk by," I say, 'Do you think Luster might be signaling the other volunteers?"
"What? Why would he do that?" asks Shadow.
"This could be all part of a trap! He could have signaled them when he was keeping watch!" I say.
"Leda. Luster isn't signaling the Careers. He's part of our alliance now. Remember, you were the one who decided to trust him. Don't you still? After all he told us about the Careers tonight?" Shadow says. I nod my head, though I doubt Shadow can see it.
"You're right. This is crazy. I'm sorry, Shadow. Go back to sleep." Shadow gladly obliges, and soon I'm alone again. I rub my eyes, determined to stay awake.
In another hour or so, the Careers are back. This time, they've walked right under our tree.
"Why isn't he here?" asks a girl's voice. She doesn't bother whispering. Through the branches that conceal my allies and I, I can see two girls standing a short distance away. The one who has just spoken is holding the torch. I remember her voice from the interviews. She's the girl from District 1. Flash, Luster had called her.
"I don't know. See that tree over there? That's where we left him. And there are marks in the dirt here…. Someone must have dragged him. He should be over here," says the other girl. I can't see her very well, but she must be the girl from 7. Cacelia. The two remaining members of the Career pack have found our hiding place.
"He could be up in one of these trees," Flash suggests.
"There's no way he could have climbed," says Cacelia, "He would have needed help. And you can't make allies if you're passed out on the ground."
"Let's go back to the camp," says Flash, yawning, "We probably don't have to bother looking for him anymore."
"Yeah," agrees Cacelia, "We won't have any trouble finishing him off if we have to, even if he's conscious long enough for a fight." Flash starts laughing, and the two Careers walk off. Luster was telling the truth the entire time. I feel horrible. As soon as their voices fade away, I wake Shadow again.
"What?" he asks.
"You were right. The Careers came back. They were looking for Luster. Not because he signaled him, but because they want to kill him! I can't believe I didn't trust him!" I say.
"They must have noticed when his face wasn't in the sky tonight," he says, yawning.
"Yeah," I say, "I'm sorry I woke you up again. You can go back to sleep."
"It's okay. And since I'm wide awake now, why don't I keep watch?"
"Thanks," I say gratefully, closing my eyes.
