It's too far away for me to see what's outside but I don't make an attempt to go closer. As soon as I turned the corner I heard laughter and that's what's keeping me still. The laughter is repeated till all of the people outside are laughing. I back away, for surely that many laughs means the careers.
I duck back behind the hedge hoping that they didn't hear anything, I extract the black knife. I know I can't possibly win but maybe I can take down a few. This knife was obtained because a career fell, they aren't indestructible.
A cannon fires and I can almost feel them look in this direction, towards the maze. I hold my breath, wondering if they will come running. They remain silent though until a boy's voice says,
"Right, thirteen down, ten to go." And the rest laugh. I back away silently and return to the path. There must be another way out, there must be. I keep deluding myself with that thought. Whereas before I was keeping the cornucopia behind me, I am now keeping level with the outer hedge, where I know lays the rest of the arena.
I can feel the heat on my skin as it attempts to beat down the chill that has spread through me since I found the exit. An hour later and I am still on the tips of my toes, clutching my knife. My stomach grumbles and I eat my final apple whilst resting against the hedge.
That was my second encounter with the careers in three days and in three days thirteen people have died. I keep holding onto the thought that there must be another way out, because they wouldn't leave us to the mercy of the careers but realistically they stuck children in an arena to fight for the death, isn't this exactly what they would do?
I look closer at the hedge and pull apart leaves with my hands and eventually try thrashing at it with my knives but it doesn't do much and I give up on my attempt to get through the hedge reluctantly, I turn and keep walking.
The hedges here don't provide as much shade so the sun blares down. I wipe sweat off of the back of my neck, thankful that my ponytail stops just short of the nape. I keep walking, until I need to rest and my tongue feels like sand paper.
I gave up a few hours ago and put on my sunglasses as the sun was giving me poor visibility. It's late afternoon and I'm as far away from the exit as possible in such a short time span. There's no cover here now and I'm desperate to get out.
I see some more mosquitoes and pull out the insect repellent spray. I see the mark on the bottle that shows it is extremely flammable and am overcome by an idea so ridiculous as to be ludicrous but it could work.
I pull out my knives before realising they are coated in matt blood. I dig around in my bag instead hoping beyond reasonable hope to find something reflective and pull out a granola bar. So irritated at the current uselessness of this object I rip it open in fury.
I decide not to waste it and eat the bar which is deliciously sweet. I'm about to put the wrapper away before the inside foil catches my eye as the light bounces off of it. I slit the rest of the glued foil so that it unravels into a small rectangle of single foil.
I turn and face the hedge, finding the weakest part. It's a good thing the gamemakers have been making the sun brighter, hotter and drier. I hold up the insect spray so that it's level with my waist and spray.
I watch the beads of spray collect on the leaves and quickly fumble with the foil. I hold it up so that the light is reflected off and intensified and slowly direct at the leaves. Holding my breath, I watch as the line of light hits the sprayed leaves.
I wait but nothing happens. I hadn't really expected it too but I got carried away with the idea. I let my breath out slowly. Thinking that I will just have to come up with a plan to get past the careers, I start to lower my hands. Only that's when I see the leaves start to smoke.
The tips of the leaves are releasing swirls of light grey smoke which turns clear as it reaches eye level. I watch as small sparks form which burn the leaves away but only char the twigs. I watch as leaf after leave ignites and crumbles into grey ashes. Eventually all the leaves in a small circle close to the edge of the hedge have burnt out creating a small groove in the hedge.
I take out my knife, still coated in blood. And hack away in sweeping motions at the charred twigs to make the hole progressively larger. It's about a third of the way through the depth of the hedge and the hole is about a metre in diameter. Over the next hour I manage to burn and hack my way through to the other side of the hedge.
I stick my head through the hole and climb through effortlessly, landing on the hard ground coated in blades of grass. Grass? I look down at the short green shoots, I run my fingers through them letting their smooth sides caress my fingers. I pluck one of the strands and hold it to my nose inhaling the scent.
I sat on the small square of grass of the park in District Three. It's the only patch of grass I've seen in the whole District. We'd seen pictures of how it used to be in school, the whole park use to be coated in it and it was one of the main attractions of what used to be called New York.
Nowadays Central Park was mostly avoided except for young children who came to play on the rusted metal frame work that use to make up a playground. At this time of day it was deserted and Connor and I were sat under a tree on the edge of the park.
The sun would be rising soon but we'd got one of the early morning trams for the factory workers. I leant my head back onto the bark of the tree, my fingers weaving their way through the blades on the ground. It had rained recently; I love the smell of wet grass.
Connor trapped my hand under his, entwining his fingers with mine. His grip so firm, hands so warm, so reassuring. I looked up shocked; we'd never been so close before, I could smell him. Oh God he smelled good.
"Tori," He said, his voice sounded strong but forced, though this was something he'd rehearsed many times before hand "don't leave." Where was I supposed to be going? We'd only just arrived. His hazel eyes sparkled with emotion as he spoke.
"Well of cour-"I'd replied, wondering if the early morning was getting to him.
"No, Tor, I mean when we're older, when the orphanage is far behind us. Just promise we'll be together." He said, staring me right in the eye, a serious look etched on his face. I could see the fear in his face of my answer.
I nodded, I opened my mouth to say something, about how stupid it was that he would even question that, we were friends, best friends, did he just think that I was just going to abandon him one day? Just up and leave him, never to see me again? I opened my mouth to say all that but instead my lips found his mouth. And none of that seemed to matter anymore.
That day changed everything; I'd always seen myself as self dependant, reliant on nobody else but me for my own survival. That was the day when I realised that the one person I needed in my life was him. We lay on that grass patch all day, curled in each other's arms. We watched the people walk past, the children play. We'd watched the sun rise and the sun set.
And now I will probably never see him again. I drop the blade of grass and look up. I stare at a forest, tall closely knit trees all grouped together. My sunglasses rest on my nose making everything seem darker. I feel a splash on my arm, cloudless rain. I would smell the wet grass again.
Only rain doesn't burn and the skin where the rain fell has begun to blister. Something's not right. So I act instinctively and run, straight into the forest as the rain gets heavier.
It's coming down fast now and my skin feels like it's on fire, luckily I have glasses on so I can still see. I'm still holding my knife. I can't take it much longer. Trees surround me so I do the first thing I can think of.
I dive into one of the tall trees, with leaves that tumble down like those of the trees from last night only the whole way down. I would be invisible in there.
In fact, it would be the perfect hiding place from the careers. If it wasn't for the fact that someone else was sitting on a branch right above my head.