Chapter 29

The person in the camp is obscured from my line of vision, so I try to stay hidden. I get behind a tree and try to get a good look at the person. Looks like the boy from District 7, Blackburn. I can handle this. He seemed friendly enough when I was waiting to be called for the private sessions.

I step out into the camp in plain sight and say, "Oh, hi Blackburn. What are you doing here?"

He seems surprised by my appearance but answers, "Well I found this camp here and decided to take advantage of it by cooking this fish that I caught by the stream."

"Ah, that was really smart of you," I purr as I get a bit closer. Flirting never hurts.

He blushes and says, "Well… I'm guessing this is your camp, so I should probably go."

"Wait," I say before he leaves. "Did you happen to see Rhett?" I might as well ask. If he didn't attack me when he first saw me then it probably means that he doesn't want to kill. Well there's that, the possibility he's unarmed, or he thinks that I'm armed. He must remember my 12.

"No," he says with a confused look on his face. He probably doesn't even know who Rhett is.

"Oh, okay. Thanks anyways."

He nods and walks off. While his back is turned I silently pick up a bow and a sheath of arrows. "Wait!" I say again before he gets too far.

"What?" He's a bit annoyed now. Then he turns around and sees my knocked arrow aimed straight at him.

"Would you mind handing my knife set back, please?"

He gulps and puts the knife set down. Then he backs away slowly, as if I would actually shoot him.

"Wait!" Third time saying it, and it must get on his nerves.

"What?" He says through gritted teeth as he turns around.

"I can't send you out there unarmed. You'll die. Here," I say, tossing an ax near his feet.

He looks at me surprised, but doesn't question it. He doesn't want me to change my mind and take it back. Even if he does charge me, I'm still probably faster than him. He picks up the ax and picks up the pace a bit, not wanting me to hit him in the back or anything.

When he is far out of sight I make sure that everything else is still here, and then run around again. I need to find Rhett. I hear the gurgling of a stream and run for it. I go so fast and I'm so preoccupied that I run straight into somebody.

"Lily, you're not supposed to be running around like that."

"Blackburn… At camp… Gone now... Not alone out here…" I somehow manage to croak out as I gasp for air.

He just pulls a face and says, "Of course someone else is out here. You couldn't have expected us to be the only ones who figured out about the door."

"No. I'm not worried about Blackburn out here. If he figured out how to get here, then the others will too."

"So?"

"The others. The Careers."

A look of realization dawns on him and it is soon replaced by fear. He quickly covers it though, probably more for my sake than his.

"You know, you don't have to protect me from the dangers of the world. I know it's an evil place already. I've experienced the evils firsthand," I say quietly. He obviously didn't want to worry me by looking scared in front of me.

"I know, I just…" He can't come up with a good excuse other than he probably wanted to protect me, like I said.

"It's sweet that you wanted to protect me, but that isn't necessary. I'm not like other girls who expect pampering, and who expect others to take care of them. I like to take care of myself. I trust other people, and then they show me why I shouldn't."

"Oh…" He says uncomfortably. "Well, why are the Careers after you? I don't think you've told me yet."

"Changing the subject? Alright, I'll let it slide. Well they betrayed me, and Alexander is among them. I don't know what I really did to piss them off, but they were unfaithful from the beginning. By the way, Alexander got his shin bone shattered from a club in his hell hole. I just wish that I had been the one to make that happen."

He smiles shyly, and then says, "A betrayal in an alliance? Already? I thought that those would come up later on. And shattering his shin bone? From what you've told me, he deserved it."

"Yea, already. And he does deserve it. Oh, and they also killed Grey. He had been the only one in the Career pack to be on my side."

"Grey? Really? Wow. And why do you guys call yourselves the Careers?"

"Karina decided on it. She thought that since 1, 2, and 4 were so much stronger than the other Districts, we should get to name our alliance. She decided on the Careers because she thought that since we were all such good fighters, we could kill and fight as a living."

"That's… Creative."

"Yea, but I came up with the 'pack' part. We are like a wolf pack, since that's how we had always moved, in a pack. But Karina had come up with the terms 'hunting' and 'game'. When the Careers go looking for victims she calls it hunting, and she had always referred to the other tributes as game. It had annoyed me so much."

His mouth forms a silent 'O' and he stops questioning me.

"Are you hungry?" I finally ask, breaking the silence.

"A little."

"I'm going to go hunting."

"Oh no you're not. We have food right at camp, why not eat it instead?"

"Didn't you notice? I only have nonperishables in there. They will last for a long time. But they will run out pretty fast if we're both eating them. We need to look for food. If you won't let me at least go hunting for fresh meat can you at least help me find some plants to eat or something?"

He sighs when he realizes that I'm right, and puts my arm over his shoulder to support me.

Every once in a while I lean down to inspect a plant and pluck it if it's safe, if not I just leave it alone. "Now this all makes sense. In training, the plants did give me a hint as to where we were going. The plants there grew in either wetlands, like inside, or in extremely rough conditions, like the barren wasteland we're in now. Otherwise known as, the ruins of District 13."

"I never stopped by the plants station except for that time when I apologized to you. I have no idea about any of these."

I smile and say, "That's alright. I'll give you a crash course."

After that I narrate myself, announcing the name of each plant and saying if it's safe or not. After the sack Rhett brought is full, we head back to camp. I make sure nobody is there, and then check to see all of our supplies are still there. We couldn't carry all of them.

"We need to move camp. Now." My voice is filled with panic now.

"Why?"

"One of the spears is missing. That, and a bag of dried fruit."

"Shit." He mumbles under his breath, and then we get to work. Our stuff is packed up within 10 minutes and then we're done. Rhett's stuff is in his bag, and I returned all of the other stuff to their proper places. We carry one backpack each, and alternate carrying the last bag. Rhett had insisted on carrying it, but it's full of weapons so of course it's heavy. In the beginning he had been reluctant to let me take it, but now after 3 hours of walking he's grateful for the load off his shoulders when it's my turn to take the bag.

"So," I begin. "Was there anything going on between you and Lavender, or anyone else for that matter?"

"No, why do you ask?"

Just then a cannon goes off twice, and the bodies of the twins from 3 are lifted away by a hover plane. Yesterday after we had gotten back from hunting, the bodies had disappeared from the area and I had wondered what had happened. There's my answer.

"RUN!" I shout. Someone's close, and they're armed. It's hard to tell from such a long distance, but I think I can see the blood dripping from their still bodies.

Rhett and I crash through the forest, and we make a lot of noise. We hear footsteps getting closer and closer, and I don't think that I can run for very much longer. My wound has opened yet again, and it hurts more than last time.

We come across a tree taller than all of the others, so I begin to climb out of pure instinct. I am weighed down by both backpacks on my back, but I somehow manage to go as far as I dare, stopping when the branches don't seem likely to hold my weight. Rhett doesn't follow me though.

"RHETT! YOU HAVE TO CLIMB UP HERE!"

"I'M SORRY LILY, BUT I CAN'T!"

"OF COURSE YOU CAN!"

"NO, I CAN'T. I CAN'T CLIMB, AND I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS."

I take off both of my bags and hang them on a branch above my head. I scramble down the tree, and I hear the footsteps getting closer by the second. "Please, Rhett. Get on my back and I'll help you get up there." I need to protect him. He's helped me so much, and I just can't stand the thought of losing him.

He looks surprised by me coming back down to get him, but shakes his head. "No, I don't think you're strong enough to get both of us back up there. Save yourself Lily. Please."

"NO! Please, just listen. I'm not leaving you down here to die. I won't let that happen. Just trust me, please Rhett." My voice gets frantic. The footsteps are no more than 100 meters away.

"Lily, you have to leave. Just please, I'm not worth it. Your life is more precious than mine, anyways. My life is worth nothing to anybody."

A life, worth nothing? He sounds like the Gamemakers. I can't leave him here, I care for him too much. "Rhett, your life is not worth nothing. Just please, you have to live."

"Give me one good reason."

Something finally clicks in my mind, and it all makes sense. "Rhett, do you believe in love at first sight?"

My question catches him off guard but he answers, "Yes."

"The first time I saw you, I had been dreaming. You had said something about bringing me back home, to my family. I understand that now. My visions are usually of my past, but that dream had somehow shown me the boy I would come to love. I saw you in the Reaping videos, and it was incredible. Who would've known I would be facing the boy that I love? Whenever I was with Alexander, I had a feeling of uneasiness, like that wasn't how it was supposed to be. I suppressed it, and now I know what it meant. I didn't love him. I have extremely strong feelings for you. I might even truly love you."

With that, I pull him into a hug and everything truly does make sense. With Alexander, I had wanted it to seem like everything made sense so bad, that my mind let me think that it did. Now there are no illusions, and I know that I don't need to kiss Rhett. Nothing needs to be forced. There is no need to rush anything, like I did with Alexander.

"That was a long reason. And it took you just about forever to figure it out," he says, lifting me up and spinning me in the air.

I laugh and smile, until I hear the footsteps again. 50 meters, if that. "Put me down, we need to get up that tree."

He nods and puts me down, so I let him get onto my back and I start climbing. It takes a lot longer than last time, but I don't stop. I use my last bit of strength to hoist us both onto the branch, and we're just in time. Literally 2 seconds after I've hoisted us up, Giselle runs in. She's from District 6. She spots us and smiles wickedly. She's holding the spear. Correction: the spear she stole from our campsite. It's covered in the crimson blood of Chance and Doyle.

Rhett and I settle onto the branch while Giselle just watches, and I reach for my packs. I get a bow and a quiver of arrows, and then nock an arrow. "Hey, there Giselle. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just thought I'd check out the scenery around here. Thanks for the spear, by the way."

Rhett shoots me a look like 'How could we leave the campsite unattended so often?' I just shrug at him then shout back down. "No problem. It's looking pretty heavy there, why don't you put it down?"

"Nah, I'm stronger than I look." She begins to advance towards the tree, so I pull back the string.

"You don't want to do this, Giselle."

"I don't what to do what? I don't want to win? Of course I want to win, Lily."

"You're giving me no choice here, Giselle."

"You always have a choice," she says, still advancing towards the trunk of the tree.

I release the arrow, and it hits her right in the throat. I remember the image of Sakura yesterday, falling at my hands, at my arrow. "I'm sorry," I whisper, leaning my head against the trunk of the tree. A cannon goes off, and I know that she is dead. "I've had 2 kills so far, Rhett. I'm a murderer."

"You were only doing what you had to, to survive. Besides, the Capitol is behind all of this, pulling all of the strings. Technically, everyone is dead because of them, not you. You can't blame yourself for what they did, Lily. What they're making you do."

"But I didn't have to kill them. I could've just let them kill me, I could've just died instead of killing. There is no excuse for ever taking the life of someone else, Rhett."

He stays silent, and I fall asleep. I'm so tired now. Sure, the climbing was gruesome, but I can handle it. That's not what drained all of my energy just now.

Killing is what drained my energy, because it is the single most difficult thing I have ever had to do.

I know what you guys are thinking, 'She killed without much hesitation, how can she say that it's hard?' Well she's doing things out of instinct, trying to stay alive, as is the human nature. Some people have the will to live, and they will do things like that to achieve it. Those were my wise words of the day, maybe for the month. Who knows?

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Bye!