I crash to the ground, all the air knocked out of my lungs. Even with the makeshift earplugs, my ears are ringing like crazy. I must have bitten down on my lip accidentally, as it's throbbing with pain and the by now disturbingly familiar taste of blood fills my mouth.
I'm dazed and disorianted but manage to push myself onto my hands and knees and look at the Careers's supplies. Well, what used to be their supplies. It is now a smoldering pile of nothing. Completely useless.
I almost choke on my own laugh, it comes out as half a croak. We did it. We actually did it.
The Careers will be so mad.
I smile at the thought until I realise that they also will be coming. Soon. And I'm out in the open.
I crawl away as fast as I can, towards our camp for the night. I am still far from reaching it when I see an arm poke from the underbush, gesturing for me to come to them. Rue.
I join her in her hiding spot, which allows us to see the Cornucopia clearing without being seen ourselves. We also intercept Amber and she joins us.
Just in time. The Careers come thundering back.
Cato reaches the clearing first and to say that he is angry would be an understatement. He's screaming and raging like a madman, kicking at debris that has flown all over their camp, shoving Marvel to the ground as the other boy tries to calm him. My heart rate picks up and I can feel Rue shaking next to me. This fury is directed at us and if, by some bad joke of fate, he should come into our direction, our deaths will be slow and gruesome.
The boy from Three is chucking rocks towards what used to be the supply pile, obviously checking to make sure all mines went off.
They haven't, apparently. The blast of one last mine knocks the Careers off their feet. The force isn't anywhere near what it was when we set of multiple mines, though, and they scramble up again almost instantly.
Felicia is clutching her arm, which seems twisted to an unnatural angle. Marvel is fretting over Glimmer, who waves him off, pulling a shard that embedded itself in her leg out almost carelessly before gesturing to her District partner's own wounds. He looks down, seemingly surprised at the piece of metal sticking out of his chest. It won't kill him, that much I can tell even from here, but it'll hurt unbelievably bad once his adrenaline rush wears off. Clove is somewhat unsteady on her feet, pressing her hand to her forehead and pulling it away again, staring at her blood covered fingers in astonishment.
Cato and the boy from Three seem relatively unharmed. Before the smaller tribute can react, Cato has already snapped his neck, his scream of fury ringing through the arena.
Then the Careers turn to arguing. The girl from Four and Cato agree for once, saying only Peeta knew about the mines. Only "that idiot from Twelve" would be reckless enough to mess with them. Clove says someone must have tried to steal and blown themselves up, Marvel backs her up, saying there's no reason to go searching for someone who's probably dead. At least wait for the anthem, he argues. They have to patch themselves up first somehow.
"That girl from Five,"Glimmer says, only earning doubtful, even condescending looks from her allies."She had that look about her. Sly little witch. And she has those two twerps to do her bidding."
We stiffen in fear in our hiding spot, but they only laugh her off. Three tiny outer-district kids could have never pulled that off. I'd grin to myself if I weren't so terrified.
The Careers move away to allow a hovercraft to collect the body of the boy from Three before returning to the middle of the clearing and inventoring their backpacks. They didn't have alot of things on them, relying on their supplies as we'd figured.
They get water from the lake and use what they have to clean their wounds as best as they can. Glimmer sets Felicia's arm, the other girl spitting out a string of cusses. She must be in pain. Well, they all must be.
Cato has calmed considerably, focussing on them all getting patched up like his other allies. He almost tenderly reaches for Clove, wiping her blood off of her face for her carefully. Just as she leans into his touch, a parachute drops among the Careers.
I exchange a quick look with my allies. The timing of that sponsor gift was surely not a coincident.
The Capitol citizens must be eating up all those – for lack of a better word – sweet moments between the murderers from Two. They almost freaked at the thought of Peeta and Katniss, and now they have these two in the arena together. How positively tradgic.
But no matter. Gifts'll hold them over longer than we'd like, but half the tributes are gone and parachutes only get more and expensive as the Games continue. Five Careers eat more than gifts can provide, especially with them also needing medical attention.
With the Careers so immersed, we start crawling further towards our hideout. After a while, we feel safe enough to get up and continue on foot. I'm still somewhat dizzy, and so are Amber and Rue, but we make good time. We make the mistake of feeling safe, because suddenly, a voice makes us all jump in fear and surprise.
"That was you, then?"
)o(
I like Glimmer. Then again, I like almost all tributes. *puts Careers in a bag and smuggles them out of the arena* *pets Cato's head* *brushes Glimmer's hair cause it's so pretty*
damn stupid hunger games with all them lovely bbies having to do the dying thing ugh
boy from three still has no name in my world? I sometimes mentally refer to him as Brian but idek
I feel bad killing him but not even letting him have a name :(
