When I wake up the sun is just appearing over the horizon. The only other ones up are Emerald and Angel, they must have swapped with Alex and Murray during the night. Lydia's - who is still asleep at the moment - leg looks swollen, not just a little swollen though, it's about twice as big as it was before. The bandage on her leg didn't do much help, overnight it has turned the crimson colour of blood.
After what I can only judge to be about half an hour or so, The rest of us are all awake. Alex and Murray were the only ones that were up long enough last night to see which of the tributes had fallen. Both from district 3, both from district 5, the girl from 7 (She's the one i recognise as the girl that tried to kill me in the cornucopia), the boy from 9, The boy from district 11 and both from 12.
Today we're hunting. We decide to do so over in the area of the lake, that way we won't run low on water, and foes will be drawn nearer there because it is the only water supply. I wonder if the tributes from 11 knew that when they were camping out there, maybe if they did know they would have been more cautious... and maybe both of them would have been alive.
We've divided up the food supplies between us all. We each have some bread, apples and berries, as well as our weapons, water and tools. Getting through all of the tree's is increasingly difficult, not because of all the branches, but because of all the wildflowers tangled around the grass. It's hard to keep balance, but i guess it will be just as hard for the other tributes too. They couldn't have gotten too far yet, but by the time we've reached the foot of the mountain range, we haven't found any.
"Should we split up again?" Angel suggests, "It'd be better to cover more ground than for us all to walk in a pack. Besides, it's not as if we can't defend ourselves on our own."
"Hmm... I can see why not," Lydia says, "We should go in pairs though, just in case. I haven't felt that good since the lizard mutt bit me..."
"Ok, pairs it is then," Murray says, "Who's going with who?"
"Well, Lydia and Flint could go up the mountain, they're the only ones with gloves," Alex suggests, "I'll go hunt around the other end of the lake with Murray. Angel and Emerald, you guys circle around the mountain edge to see if there is any caves or small crevices that they might be hiding in."
"OK, meet back at the lake by nightfall" I say, why am I so comfortable about the fact i'm hunting with someone i don't even know, who is clearly injured, even when there is other tributes or even mutts out there that might even be hunting me!?
Scaling the mountainside is much easier than climbing through the tree's, there's less sharp edges and after a while of adjusting to the rocks, it's an easy hike. We don't talk much though, and when we do, it's only about our districts, what we'd do if/when we win and what we though of the Capitol when we first arrived. She's a lot different to who i thought she was. Her and Alex aren't just district partners, they're also close relatives, cousins i think. Their families must be devestated knowing that only one of them will be coming out.
After about 15 minuites of climbing we are quite far up. I can see the cornucopia from our position, and near the lake I can see a tribute. We're too far up to make out who it is, but it's not that difficult to notice two larger tributes - most likely Alex and Murray - crashing through the foliage. I can tell by the screams that the tribute was a girl, but they are silenced when her cannon cries out into the arena.
We climb for another 10 minutes before we need to rest. The rocks are quite warm, we eat about half the food we each have and before we finish, a beeping noise catches our attention. Another parachute! It lands on the ground at Lydia's feet, invraged onto the front of the container is the number '2'. A needle lies inside of the box. It must be for when she got attacked by the lizard mutt, maybe they're more deadly than they look. She injects the needle into her arm. After about an hour, her leg is almost healed. Of course there is still a large cut running across her calf, but she seems to have stopped limping when she walks.
After another couple of hours, we've reached the top of the mountain, or at least as far as we can go. Instead of having a forcefield cover the edge of the arena, the mountains curve in slightly, making it almost impossible to climb up, even with the right equipment. We decide to circle back down the mountains, and hopefully find another enemy.
We're halfway back down the mountain when Lydia stop's me. She points to her ear, indicating for me to listen carefully. She has found something! Only when I take a few steps further down can i hear it. The short squeak from boots being dragged across the rocks, but where is it coming from? A short distance away I can see a small pile of rocks. Yes! That's it! The tribute must have tried to conceal there hiding spot in hopes that no one would find them, but they didn't do a very good job, i can see the blood stains dripping down the side of the rocks.
I draw a knife from the inside of my jacket and step over to the rocks, there is a small gap inside the rocks were I can see the cave floor. A figure moves past on the ground. That must be our target. We can't move any of the rocks, it will give away our location. From what we know at the moment, the tribute doesn't know we're here. Even if we move the rocks slightly, the whole pile may fall down into the cave, we can't risk it, he might be armed like we are. He moves past on the ground again, is he pacing? Why?
"How much water do you have left?" I hear from inside the cave.
Theres more than one of them, but how many? Two? Three? I can't risk just throwing a knife down there and hoping it hits someone, and if it does, the rest of them will find out that we're both here.
"Not much... only half a bottle, how much do you think it'll last?" A female voice comes from inside the cave.
"Nothing longer than a day. That's all we have left, plus your injured" Says the male tribute.
One of them passes under my vision, neither of them have noticed us yet. There's only two of them so we could probably take them but... how do we know that they don't have any weapons and that we won't be injured in the process.
Lydia taps me on the shoulder. I move back away from the rocks so that she can see in. That's what i think she is doing anyway, but instead she lifts up a large rock from the top of the pile. Screams echo from inside the cave before the rocks tumble in and crash onto the cave floor. A cannon sounds, and the rocks must have crushed one of the tributes.
I climb down the fallen rocks into the cave, where the male tribute is on his feet, an axe in his hand. I throw the first knife, but he blocks himself with the axe head. For someone who has only spent a couple of days in the training center as his preparation for the games, he certainly has picked up a few skills. I don't hesitate to grab two more knives from my jacket before he charges towards me.
I dive to the right, just dodging the blade of his axe and I spin around on the floor, digging my knife into his thigh. He lets out a yelp of pain, but he lands ontop of me. He rams his axe down, but i'm out of the way just in time for it to miss my head. His knee ontop of my left arm is trapping it, so with my free arm i send out a fist to his head. It knocks him off balance and a grab my knfe in time to plunge it into his chest before he can attack. As he falls back down in pain, his axe cuts open the side of my left arm. A cannon sounds and he is dead.
Searing pain shoots through the whole of my arm. I manage to flip the boy off of me but when i examine the wound a small pool of blood forms on the ground. Lydia's, who was busy gatherering enough rocks from outside of the cave to make a make-shift staircase for us to get out (which was actually a smart idea because the pile of rocks that caved in onlly filled up to about half the cave height) has just came down into the cave. She has a shocked but serious expression on her face. She takes off my jacket and rips off one of the sleeves. She ties it around my wound. She seems as if she has done this all before.
"You seem to know what your doing..." I say, hoping that she does and she is not purely winging it.
"My parents are doctors," She replies, I don't know if she is telling the truth or if she is just reassuring me, but since there isn't any other explanation i guess I have to believe her. "They taught me a bit of what they know incase I did get reaped for the games."
She ties the knots around the wound quite tight, but wat can i complain about? I don't see any blood coming through it. It's hard to move my arm around without the pain shooting through my arm, so i guess i won't be able to throw another knife for a while. I take the jacket off of the male tribute and put it into my pack. I don't need it right now, I can't tell if it is the whole arena or if it's just the mountains, but it's quite warm. It's hard to get out of the cave, but with Lydia's help I just about manage. The hike back down will be difficult, but I think it's the best thing we could do know, we can't hunt anymore, i'll slow us down.