Yes, it's yet another filler! But the action will start again next chapter, hopefully. You're probably getting bored but that's your fault. Check out 'The realisation of hunger' and give me some requests and reviews, but don't neglect this because this poor story needs reviews too! Can I just say a big thank you to all who have reviewed, 'let the foxx fly' and 'tmousey21' to name a few. You've all been REALLY helpful and I'd LOVE it if I had EVEN MORE reviews! Mwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
June takes us to her camp. It's pretty basic, a small hollow in the ground with the blanket I gave her carefully placed there alongside a sleeping bag. This small camp was carefully hidden behind some bushes, but she could have chosen to camp in the trees, providing better cover for her. I mention this but she just shakes her head vigorously, as if the very idea was enough to kill anyone. It looks like I'm not the only tribute here who's afraid of heights.
We try to get June to talk but she won't, she claims she can but she still refuses, evidently with a reason but she won't give it away, well, she probably would but she isn't speaking. She's as quiet as an Avox.
Vivian and I add our items we managed to quickly snatch from our camp before we had to flee. I look at June with interest, puzzled.
"Have you encountered anyone?" I ask, wondering how she's been, "Since you met me, I mean?" June nods solemnly. I pause, what happened? But I can't say that, it's not a yes or no answer.
"Did you kill them?" Vivian asks bluntly, I'm shocked. I didn't want to say that. I remember how hard it was for me to tell my step-sister that I am a murderer, let alone two complete strangers. But June just shakes her head and I let out a sigh of relief. I don't know who it is or what happened, but I know that June's not a murderer, like me. That would damage her poor little heart beyond repair; I know what it did to me.
We sit around the camp and even light a small fire. We need the heat and if anyone sees it we should be able to handle them. There are three of us after all and the only other alliance I'm aware of is between Anvike and Precious and I don't even know if it's still happening, they could have broken up by now. But if that had happened I'm sure I would have heard a cannon fire as at least one of them died. No, they're clever enough to know that they should stay together for a while longer. We might be in the last seven tributes but there are still several others to count, which Vivian seems to be doing.
"There's us three, then there's Anvike and Precious, Dral and someone else." She says, pondering the thought.
"Rip." I say simply, "Rip Knead, district nine. No-one's seen him; no-one's heard of him. Nothing is known about him or his whereabouts since the bloodbath, he didn't even kill anyone there. He just scarpered off, which came as a surprise to us all due to his size. We thought he would have given us a bit of trouble."
I stop speaking when I notice both June and Vivian staring at my intently.
"What?" I ask, surprised.
"Kara, you know the most out of all of us. I didn't realize it until now, we didn't know. You've been in the careers. You know what they think about every tribute, and most importantly you know how to stop them." Vivian says. I check her eyes but she's talking seriously. I close my eyes with concentration. I have to explain about all the tributes.
"Anvike – he's ruthless and won't stop at anything. Death means nothing to him, or if it means something it means pleasure because I saw him repetitively stabbing the girl from district three, relishing every moment. Yes, he likes death. Then there's Precious. She's like Anvike's minion. She's shallow and has no feelings of her own. Maybe she likes Anvike, maybe not; I don't know why she follows him. All I know she's as deadly as she is pretty.
"OK, now onto Dral, he tries to get on with people and doesn't like death or killing, but he'll do it if necessary. Like me. Also he can climb trees and is a great hunter – gatherer as well as being great with a sword. Then there's Rip. The careers were shocked to see that he didn't fight in the Bloodbath, but that's all I know about him, I know as much as you two. June, the careers basically forgot you exist, which is a good thing, same with you, Vivian. Except maybe a bit more alert about your presence because of your eight in training. They asked me about you a couple of times but I told them that the eight was evidently a fluke and that you were useless and nothing to worry about."
"Thanks Kara!" Says Vivian sarcastically, evidently put off.
"Would you have preferred it if I had told them that you were a real threat?" I ask, and Vivian seems to turn it over in her mind.
"OK, thanks Kara." Vivian says again, no sarcasm in her voice this time.
"Right, well I think we're either going to be driven to tributes or tributes are going to be driven to us, so maybe it's better if we go of our own accord. I say we go tomorrow." I say softly. June nods quietly.
We pack up most of our things, even though we just settled into this camp her we still need to be ready to go for the morning. June is the only one without a backpack, she's been keeping everything in the sleeping bag she has. I don't know where she got it from, but I doubt she has any sponsors so I guess it was from that skirmish with Suzie. Vivian and I divide June's stuff between us and we stretch up, relaxing. It's time to go to bed, tomorrow we go tribute hunting again, but this time with a twist. This time the tributes will be hunting for us too.
We settle down to sleep in the small hollow, our necks cramped and squished together, but with June's sleeping bag and blanket along with our goat skin blanket we get to sleep quite comfortably for once, but the nightmares which I had driven away come back again, and this time they're worse than they used to be.
Six tributes stand above me; I lie on the floor, paralysed, unable to move. They all hold a dagger and support an evil grin on their face, happy, contented. Just like the smile Martha-Rose Fall gave me when she died. First Dral plunges a dagger into me, then Rip, then June followed by Precious and Anvike. Then finally Vivian stands above me, a scowl mixing with the smile making her look both deadly and vicious.
"You don't buy all those lies I fed you about us being step-sisters?" Vivian coos in the voice of Debbie and plunges her dagger down at my heart, finishing me off.
I wake up and glance around me madly. June is scowling at me angrily and then I notice why, my foot is in her face. I quickly stumble up and mutter a quick apology and then dash off to Vivian who is fixing breakfast in a pot. What tales that pot would tell if it could speak, tales of being placed in the Cornucopia, splattered in blood from a dead tribute, used to serve for the Careers and then fished away by Dral in desperation and hope that I'd join him. Then I stole it from him and carried it up a mountain to suffer Vivian's cooking, just to be dragged back down into the woods and to use to cook for three.
I pause. Unless all the others have teamed up, which I very much doubt, we are in the majority here, we are the force to be reckoned with. I look around the camp at us; the girl who got a ten in her training score and her newly revealed step-sister along with the little girl from district seven who refuses to speak. What a group we make, three lonely girls wanting to get back home. But only one of us can live, if any of us do.
Vivian passes us a weird concoction she's brewed and I taste it. It's nutty and has a wholesome flavour. It really is quite delicious. I slurp up every last droplet. It reminds me of the food I used to have at home when I realize it is the food I had at home. It was cooked by the same person probably. Vivian helps out with cook sometimes, she once set fire to the kitchen and was banned to go anywhere near there for a whole year, but afterwards she was back with a spring in her step. Vivian does like cooking, she really does.
We finish off all the stew and pack the final things and then brush ourselves down and hoist the backpacks onto our backs. We're now ready to go and get some tributes and make sure that one of us can win this death game.
I LOVE the next chapter, it's officially my favourite, it even beats schapter 30! I've only written up to chapter 37 so after a couple of days everything might be going a bit slower! But don't worry, I will not stop until I've written it all (which could take a while seeing as I have exams in a few weeks)=D