Thank you for everyone reading and for all the lovely (and rather panicky) reviews! The games are fully underway now, be worried.
Fun facts: Originally a lot more people died in the bloodbath, I've rewritten so many scenes. This is probably quite a good thing, as they're now much bigger roles in the story.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
We've walked for ages now, so there shouldn't be any chance of the careers catching us. It's likely that they've stayed by the Cornucopia. According to Claire's watch, we're nearing the afternoon. I hear a boy's scream at one point, but no cannon goes off. Claire takes the bottle out of the bag and drinks a bit.
"Where would we find water? That's not gonna last very long." I ask, the air feels as if it's getting warmer. She looks up, trying to see over the trees.
"There should be some kind of lake or river here. So we'd need to go more uphill to find it" she hands the bottle to me, I take a quick sip. "Then again, this is an arena. They can do whatever they feel like doing." I take off my jacket and tie it round my waist. It's definitely getting hotter.
"Still, it can't hurt to go by basic logic." Maybe the game makers have been nice this year. Claire recalls seeing some mountains earlier, so we're mainly head in that direction, me with the sword and her with the pole. As we're walking, a bird flies past us. I instinctively grab the bow before realising there's nothing I can do without arrows. The arrow clearly triggers something in Claire's mind as she starts talking.
"Did you see what happened to the others? I only saw Angela getting supplies and Melina heading the other way from me." I think back, pushing memories of Dalston and Desmond from my mind.
"Bloom was there, he seems to have joined the careers pack. They were all gathering weapons, so they'll all be pretty dangerous." Claire takes a piece of fruit out of her backpack and offers it to me; I decline so she begins to chew on the end.
"These taste disgusting." She whispers. A loud shout from beyond the tree line gets our attention; I jump, quickly jumping in front of Claire with the sword, prepared to strike. I lower it as I see Emmy, but raise it again as I see her pursued by a yet unknown tribute. Neither of them seems to have noticed we're here. The other tribute screams and swings their weapons, Emmy attempts to hit them with the large chain in her hands, but she's backed up against a tree. Failing this, she kicks them in the stomach.
"Just leave me alone! I haven't done anything." The tribute swears, and lunges at her but is cut off when she swings the chain again, shrieking, this time hitting it bluntly across his head. The tribute falls to the floor. Emmy swiftly grabs his weapon and buries it into him without hesitance. Claire grips my hand when the cannon starts. Emmy stands back and raises an arm to her head as the hovercraft appears above the arena, the dirt around the area is thrown into chaos as the claw descends and picks the tribute up, his head lolls back and I can see the face of Jakes, a final grimace stretched across his features. The axe is lifted up with him.
"She just…." Claire whispers.
Emmy just killed someone.
This is a mistake, that can't be what happened.
Emmy herself seems very shocked; she lingers for a moment before dropping the chain. "We should get out of here." Claire goes to leave, but I stop her.
"No, wait she seems… upset." I walk forwards slowly. She still doesn't notice me "Emmy?" She stares at me, blank eyed, before realising who I am.
"Professor…Did you… see that?" I nod. She frowns. "I just... I killed him" she stares at her hands, as if realising for the first time. "I need to go. Unless, you want to attack me." She backs away slowly, picking the chain back up from the floor. "I wouldn't blame you really. I'm not exactly a good person to have around." She walks away, not even watching us, as if she's already resigned to not surviving. I can't just let her go; she'll be dead in minutes. There are doubts in my mind, but I can't ignore her.
"Emmy wait-" Claire looks at me, wide eyed. I can see her questioning me.
"I'm not sure if-" It's a lot to ask, telling Claire she needs to see the best in a girl who just did such a thing. But I've seen who Emmy really is, this isn't her.
"This is the right thing to do, do you trust me?" She bites her lip before nodding.
"I do." I call again.
"Emmy. He was going to kill you. I don't…. applaud what you did, I can't exactly forgive it either" she looks startled " But I'm not going to abandon you." She stops and looks at me "Come with us." She offers a small smile, waiting a second before walking over.
"You're sure?" Claire places a hand on her shoulder.
"Yes." I hand her the backpack to carry as she slings the chain- mildly bloodied, but nobody dares bring it up- round her shoulders. "What happened anyway?"
"With… that or with the Bloodbath?"
"Anything."
"I picked up this chain" she rattles it "when the countdown ended. I was planning to use it for traps, I also picked up a few bandages, but I must've dropped them, they'd be really helpful now." She rolls up a sleeve, her arm has a few cuts on them, they look painful but don't seem too dangerous. "I knew Jakes was going after me but I didn't think it'd be so soon. We ran into each other by the lake and he started chasing me. I've been runningfor such a long time."
"Is it because of the rivalry in tra- … Hold on, lake?" I put an arm out to stop Emmy as Claire grins. "You found one?"
"Yeah there's one just back-" she goes to point one way, then stops and points another way. "I was there but I don't know where… there is." I look back to where we've just walked. Claire walks over to the trees.
"Well, when we saw you, you ran from over here." Claire gestures behind us. "So, maybe if we went in that direction, we could find it."
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A few hours later without anything eventful and we still haven't found the lake, Emmy seems pretty disheartened. I can feel my throat complaining, but I don't want to take the last of the bottle in case we don't find anything else for a while. Emmy purses her lips.
"I was sure it was this way… but I was going fast, I can't remember if this is the area I was in." Claire folds her arms.
"I don't think we'll find it today, so we should probably set up some kind of shelter." She looks at her watch. "We've probably only got a little while before it gets dark."
"I'm impressed they let you bring that watch in here." States Emmy "It's pretty damn helpful." I can't help but react to that.
"Come on, You don't need to talk like that."
"I didn't realise 'damn' was such a bad word'" Emmy laughs, to be honest I'd heard a lot worse at the Bloodbath.
It's good to see her happy, but I can just see her killing Jakes over and over again in my head.
"Hershel's got a point." I really don't.
"Oh shush, you're not my parents." We stop in front of a large tree. "This should be good for a shelter. Shall we set up here?" Claire takes the pole and stabs it into the trunk.
"We need some kind of cover. Take your jackets off." We both hand our jackets to her and she hangs them over the pole. She collects a couple of larger sticks from the floor and uses them to prop the cover up. When she's finished she claps her hands. "It's not perfect but it'll do for tonight." Emmy holds out a hand to me.
"Hey Professor, if you give me that sword I'll take the first shift." I'm apprehensive, she probably needs more sleep. And I don't want her to think I don't trust her.
"You really don't need to do that." I reluctantly draw the sword, but I don't hand it over just yet.
"Hey, you let me join the alliance." She takes the sword from me. "I owe you one." I resist going to sleep just yet, as I feel like I need to see the fallen tributes. Just to make sure everyone's okay.
Each night, they show the images and statistics of the tributes who have fallen during that day. It's mainly to show people how many of us are left, but I'm just wanting to know who the cannons were for.
The capitol fanfare goes off just as the sun sets. I brace myself, hoping that none of the images are of my friends. Claire comments that they've done a lovely effect, considering we're really just looking at the top of the arena. The first face shown is Marion from District 4, second is Ilyana from 12.
Emmy stares at the ground when Jakes appears. I wait for more but there were only 3 cannons shots today so… that's it.
"Dalston." I whisper. I find myself smiling "Dalston's still alive." I'm relieved, though I can't imagine what the tributes from the other districts are going through right now. I can't say that I greatly knew any of the dead tributes, but neither of them deserved this. Even Jakes, though I'd never tell Emmy. It feels like a weights been lifted from my shoulders though, I can still find them. And I'm not the one responsible for someone dying.
"It's still pretty early, but you get some rest so that we can head out tomorrow; I'll wake one of you up when you're needed." Emmy goes and sits a few feet away from the shelter, sword in hand. There doesn't seem to be any room for arguing with her, so we head inside. There isn't much room, but with just the two of us it isn't so bad. Claire wishes me goodnight before turning over to fall asleep. I look outside the shelter, the fake stars cover the sky as the arena turns pitch black.
One day down, who knows how many are left to go