DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins does.
Chapter 12
I walked even deeper into the jungle the next morning. I didn't want to kill anyone, at least not in the way I killed that girl yesterday. But I knew I had to; this was what expected of me now.
I held this time three knives in my hands, just in case. The axe was in my backpack, safely secured in my sleeping bag.
I didn't hear a thing though; only the sound of birds. They chirped in pleasure, not having a care in the world. Those brainless creatures were also making it very hard for me to concentrate on other noises.
I decided to make camp at around noon that day after my unsuccessful hunt for tributes. I did better in hunting bunnies and caught two. I built a fire and waited for them to be cooked.
I looked around me. This place looked nice; there were a lot of trees here, and a big pond not too far away. The air though wasn't as good as the air in my district, probably because in my district the trees were actually real. Those trees… well, they weren't made of plastic, they looked real enough, but they weren't actual trees. The Capitol probably found a way to duplicate trees or something, and those duplicates, as nice as they were, just weren't the real thing.
When I started eating the first bunny I heard something. A cracking twig. It looked like something, or someone, accidently stepped on it.
I got on my feet quickly and grabbed the knives that were still next to me. I turned around, but didn't see anyone.
And then an arrow shot at me. I dodged it quickly and looked at the place the arrow came from with narrowed eyes. I couldn't see anyone.
"If you're trying to kill me, at least do it face to face and don't hide like a coward!" I called impatiently.
Jeez, those stupid tributes.
I heard a chuckle. "So I guess you aren't really that lame," A female voice said, and then the girl who said it walked out from her place behind a tree.
I looked at her with narrowed eyes. Her skin was dark, which probably meant she was from District Eleven. She wasn't big, but she had some muscles after years of working in the field. She pointed an arrow at me, but still didn't shoot.
"Did you kill anyone yet?" The girl asked me, looking interested.
I was surprised by the question, but decided to answer anyway. "The male tribute from District Six and the female tribute from District One."
"District One?" The girl asked, sounding surprised and impressed.
I nodded my head, my eyes not leaving hers. Did she really like to have small-talks with her prey? "What about you?"
"I killed the female tribute from Twelve," She said flatly.
I wasn't impressed to say the least. The girl from District Twelve was tiny, only twelve. This girl probably lurked for tributes behind the bushes and shot an arrow at them when they passed. Or maybe she was too afraid to shoot the bigger, stronger tributes so she shot the younger, more pathetic ones. Like the girl from Twelve, and me.
She took a deep breath as she looked at me, and prepared to shoot, but right as she was about to I threw a knife at her. It hit her forehead, and she shivered as blood ran from her cut to her eyes.
She shot at me an arrow, but missed me because of the blood that dripped to her eyes. She couldn't see me clearly, which was just awesome.
I threw another knife at her, which missed her. She then loaded another arrow and shot it at me. This time it hit me right in the arm, and I gritted my teeth as I pulled it out.
I opened my backpack quickly and grabbed my axe; it wasn't a big one, but it was in a decent size and was sharp enough to cut a person's throat. I lifted it and was about to throw it at her when I heard something.
A lot of somethings.
It was a weird sound, an unfamiliar one. One that I didn't like, that made me feel disoriented and uncomfortable. The girl from Eleven lowered her bow in response to the noise, but I didn't hit her; we were both too concentrated on the noise.
It got closer, and I wanted to run away, but my legs were like stuck to the ground. I couldn't move from the panic that washed me, and by the looks of it, the other girl was in the same state as I was.
And then the creatures came from the trees and I could see clearly what they were.
Insects.
Lots of them, and they were all coming to us.
They were Capitol made, I was sure of it. This meant trouble; this was dangerous. My legs finally moved, and I took a step back as the insects, those big insects, came closer to us in a terrifying speed. There were hundreds of them, and they made this horrible ticking noise as they came.
I started to run, the only thought in my head was to escape those creatures. The other girl ran behind me, but she was closer to them and they got closer to her. I felt something on me and realized it was one of the insects. I shook my hand, trying to get it off me, but the insect, that looked like some sort of a beetle, was still on me. It started walking up my arm until it got to the cut I got from the other girl's arrow. I cried a horrified cry as the beetle dug its way inside my cut and walked inside of me. I could see it moving underneath my skin.
I wanted to vomit, and I was horrified and panicked. I grabbed one of my knives and, with only one thought in my head that I had to get this thing out of me, cut my skin where the beetle was. I hit the beetle and killed it, though now I had a very deep cut that I made.
I ran even faster, determined not to have another beetle on me, when I heard a horrified scream. I turned my head to look at the girl from Eleven; I could see the beetles crawling inside of her, and her eyes were wide with horror.
I felt bad for her, I really did, but she had to die and I had to live. So I didn't stop running and left her behind. I heard a thump and realized she fell to the ground; she didn't stop screaming.
The beetles kept on coming, and I was desperate. I had to find a way to escape them. Should I keep running? No, they would catch me. Should I climb up a tree? They can probably climb better than me. Then what should I do?
And just as I was about to give up, I saw a pond. I jumped into it quickly and prayed that those beetles weren't able to swim.
Apparently they weren't, and so they just circled the pond, waiting for me to get out of it. Like I'd decide to get out of the security of the pond and go to them.
Brainless insects.
I would stay in here forever if I had to.
I could see the girl from Eleven screaming on the ground. There were insects on her, next to her, inside of her. She stopped screaming after a while, and I realized she fainted. Not long after, a cannon boomed.
And that was the end of the District Eleven girl.
The insects weren't finished with her though; they ate her, from the inside and outside. I closed my eyes at the sight of it. I wanted to throw up again. It was disgusting, horrible and just plain awful. But this was the Hunger Games, after all. The Capitol citizens liked this kind of shit.
When I heard a hovercraft coming I opened my eyes again; the insects were still circling the pond, but the other insects left the girl's body. It didn't look like a body anymore; it looked like a torn rag.
After the hovercraft left with the girl's "body", the insects shifted in their place. I looked at them challengingly, wanting them to get the hell away from me.
And they did; after what seemed like hours, they decided to leave. I didn't get out of the water until the last of the insects disappeared.
I shook terribly from the cold and from disgust. I built a fire and tried to get warmer, but I was cold inside. My body was able to function and work, but what was inside of it, my soul and heart, were dead and cold.
I received another bandage from my sponsors, and bandaged the cut I made with it. My skin was still tingling from the way the beetle got under it; it was a weird, horrible feeling.
The anthem played and I looked at the sky; the girl from Eleven's face was shown. She smiled a nice smile. She didn't look deadly. She looked like a regular girl who just wanted to live. And now, she was dead, and everyone except for her family and friends will forget about her. She wasn't memorable; she was just a girl who died in the arena.
Nothing special. She wasn't the first to die for the Capitol's entertainment, and she definitely won't be the last.
This was exactly why I needed to survive. I wanted to be memorable; I didn't want to leave this world without leaving an effect on someone. No one would miss me if I die, no one would remember me. No one would care.
And I needed people to keep thinking of me after my death; I didn't want to be forgotten.
Yuck. Yuck, yuck yuck yuck yuck. I hate bugs. Always have and always will.
Hope you review, and have a lovely, bugs-free day :)
