Hi guys! So, this one's more of a filler chapter, but nonetheless, let me know what you think! :D By the way, next Monday, I'm unlikely to be able to upload a chapter, so apologies for that, but I hope you'll review to let me know what you think is going to happen, and whether you like it. And of course, enjoy!
Today, I am not awoken by a cannon shot – a somewhat pleasant change. However, this is not to say my night's sleep was pleasant. It was a good hour before I managed to fall asleep – every noise startled me, and once I was sleeping, gory nightmares haunted me as, in my head, I re-watched every death I'd witnessed so far. The night's sleep was not comfortable – the rock has no longer sustained any heat, and the ground has left my back stiff.
However, I find I am not shivering. The temperature is significantly warmer than it has been the last two days. When I open my eyes, I see Melissa is still asleep, a metre or so away. Sitting up, I scan the cave and notice something that was not there last night.
Near the entrance of the cave, is a parachute.
As the first parachute I've seen, this comes as such a relief. I pray the mentors have listened to our pleas and given us some medicine for Melissa. I move over to it, and pick it up. With a twist, the metal case opens, revealing a pot. I open this and am overjoyed to find a white paste in it. Surely, this is the medicine Melissa needs – I beam as I wake up Melissa. I feel bad about doing this, but I don't know how long she can go without it.
'Melissa' I hiss.
Her elbow swings into contact with my cheek, and I am flung onto my back. When I look up, cradling my bruised cheek, she's upright, eyes darting around the room, before she sees me, and the tension in her body eases.
'Oh.' She sees my cheek. 'Sorry. My bad.'
I suppose I can't be too annoyed that she's a little on edge. We are, after all, in a fight to the death. I scoop myself up and hand her the pot of medicine.
'Looks like someone thinks we have a shot at winning.' I say, passing it to her.
Her face lights up. We remove the bandages to reveal the horrific sight of Melissa's leg. It's scabbing over poorly, and is currently a patchwork of bloody shades. We get the paste on it, and leave it exposed. I hear my stomach rumble, and take this as our cue for breakfast. We decided yesterday, with Cam, that we'd go without lunch for as long as we could – sticking to two meals a day to conserve our food. This is sensible, but I sense my stomach will protest come lunchtime. District 5 is slightly richer than Melissa's District, so unsurprisingly, this wasn't a big deal for her, as she regularly misses lunch anyway.
We eat half of the edible plants Melissa found. They taste nice, but aren't particularly satisfying. The small amount of meat we had left went with Cam. We drink most of the water we have left (which isn't much), leaving just a small amount for emergencies. Melissa protests when I suggest I leave to search for water, but the lack of fluid is becoming an issue, so I decide to go water hunting despite her opinion.
My hunt for water is unsuccessful. The bombs have left the ground bone dry, and the forest is now a blackened graveyard. I search for a while and as I become desperate I travel further than perhaps I should do. However, at no point do I knowingly come across any other tributes. This gets me thinking about how many there are left. Three cannons went off last night – Cam, one of the District 3 pair, and one other. This means that there should be ten of us left. Not long before they'll start interviewing our families. Along my journey, I get a glimpse of the remains of the castle ruins. If they weren't ruins before, they certainly are now, as the bombs have reduced it to a pile of rubble. Eventually I return to Melissa, have failed in this mission.
The gift from our sponsors has worked a miracle on Melissa's leg. When I return, she is pacing around the cave. As agreed, we don't have lunch, and my stomach feels empty for the rest of the afternoon.
'What do you think we should do with this thing?' She gestures to the rock we'd been using for heat.
'Not much point keeping it now, I guess.'
'Yeah, that's what I was thinking.'
She picks up the rock, and is walking over to pass it to me, when she suddenly stops.
'Hey, Connor' she begins, eyeing the rock, 'Look at this.'
I walk over to her, and join her in examining the rock. I quickly notice what she's spotted. On the bottom of the rock, in dark crimson lettering, there is a '4', about two inches tall. She passes me the rock, which is heavy, and I examine it for a good few minutes, to no avail.
'Maybe we don't throw it out yet.' I say, and we place it back in the cave.
By late afternoon, we have decided that we need water. Melissa's leg has already become healed enough for her to walk well. Running may be painful, but we're not planning on getting into any encounters, as we leave in search of water. We leave the rock in the cave, as we plan on returning, but I hoist the now rather empty bag onto my back, as we leave the safety of the mountain.
We travel along a rocky path, making sure to stay close to high rocks for cover in case we see another tribute. However, we eventually decide that we're not going to find any water here, so we risk going into the remains of the woods. The ground below us is coated in ash, and scattered with now-harmless rocks as we walk between the spiralling corpses of the trees.
In terms of hiding, there are many black fallen trees that would provide a great form of cover, and Melissa has the clever idea of smearing ash over us to blend in with the trees more. When we suddenly come across another tribute, I am glad Melissa had this idea.
Not yet being aware who it is, we silently duck under a fallen tree. The other tribute is a girl, and is some distance away – she clearly hasn't noticed us. Melissa taps me on the shoulder, and points to a rock on the ground. The number '11' is written on it, in the same maroon lettering. My attention turns back to the girl, who I realise is Frizz – the district 3 girl, which means it was her district partner who was killed in the blast, and not her.
Sensing that she is safe, she kneels to the ground, where many of the dead bombs lay. She picks one up, around a foot wide, and plays with it in her hand, viewing every edge, before silently placing it back on the ground. She then picks up another and does the same. After doing this strange activity a few more times, she eventually starts scanning the rocks on the floor. What is she doing? Eventually, she does a little jump as she spots what she wants. Stepping over the rocks on the floor, she picks up one, about two metres away. But, as she picks it up, the strangest thing happens.
The rock seems to melt away, leaving a metallic ball in her hand. My mouth is wide open – I can't understand what I've just witnessed. So, the bombs have something inside them? A ball? She then lifts off the top of the sphere – a lid of some kind – and proceeds to hold it up to her lip, and swallow the contents.
'Water' I whisper to Melissa, 'They've got water in them.'
We watch Frizz for a while before she eventually leaves our view and, like her, we start searching the ground. Having no idea what was special about the rock she chose, we start picking up random ones. The first one I pick up has a crimson '6' written on it, whilst Melissa's has a '5'. Nothing happens, so we return them to the ground and continue searching. I pick up a 12. Nothing happens. Melissa picks up a 10. Nothing. I pick up a 2. Nothing.
By this point, we are fairly out in the open, as the disused bombs are scattered throughout the twisted black trees and blackened rocks. If we didn't have any other option, I'm sure we would've given up by now. I pick up one with another '2' written on it, and start smashing it on the ground to no avail. Melissa searches a '5' all around for some form of button or lock, but like me, she has no success.
Melissa's leg begins to hurt, so she takes a break, resting up against a fallen tree trunk. I decide to gather rocks, and bring them over for her to examine. Picking up a 3, an 8 and a 9, I carry them over to Melissa, and then return to searching. This is beginning to get tedious – it feels like we're never going to find the key to unlocking these, when I suddenly hear a yelp from behind.
I turn to see Melissa, looking at her hands, where the rock she is holding slowly begins to melt. The black exterior crawls off the shell and the District 8 girl is left with a metallic orb in her hands. I scramble over to her.
'It's our Districts!' she says, 'That had an 8 on it.'
On top of the sphere there is a little indent, which can be used to lift the lid open. Melissa flips the lid open, and immediately takes it to her lips, gulping it down, before passing it to me and letting me do the same. Now we know what we're looking for, we search for more. I spot a 5 and pack it into our bag, but that is all we find, despite having seen another 5 earlier. We head back to the cave.
We've spent longer than we realised, and as we arrive back at the cave, the sun is beginning to set. Being part of the synthetic arena, the sunset is over in a few minutes, leaving the arena dark. Settling down, we await the parade of the fallen before allowing us to sleep. The Capitol anthem booms, and we await to see our faces. As the anthem ends, the first face appears.
The District 3 boy stares into the arena as the first victim of the bombs. He is followed by the freckled face of the girl from District 4 – the first Career to die in the arena. We all know who comes next, but to my surprise, Melissa looks Cam in the eye as he appears in the sky. Her face is cold and dark, and her eyes are buried in shadows.
With cold souls, we fall asleep, and I reluctantly welcome the nightmares that follow.