Chapter Forty-Three: Appreciate the Little Things

Day One

Catarina Lynn, District Five Female

It can't be more than ten minutes after the start of the Games before the Bloodbath cannons begin to go off.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I notice Spark flinching at each one even as he keeps running, and then they fall silent once more. Six Bloodbath deaths, which if I remember correctly, is well below average. While that could mean the Career pack is incompetent and an outlier should have an easier time winning, that also means more people stand between us and the finish line than usual. I'll take it as a mixed blessing.

Spark starts to slow down, but I'm not having that. "Come on," I pant, "we have to get as far away as possible."

Spark nods almost imperceptibly before speeding back up. Right now, my lungs feel like they're about to explode and my legs want to fall off, but I don't give a damn about either of those things. My life is more important than a few cramps.

We don't have time to waste. All we can do for now is put distance between us and the Careers and hope that they don't find us.

Galadia Devinson, District Two Female

The Bloodbath has ended, and now the rest of the Games begin.

Everything's going to start somewhat mundane, as the first thing we need to do is sort all our supplies the best we can. Thankfully, most of that's pretty easy, but that doesn't stop it from being pretty boring.

But that doesn't matter. I can handle fifteen minutes of boring if it makes our lives easier in the long run.

Godric and Sienna quietly talk while they sort through a larger pile near the horn while Clara continues to fume, which is not good. Maybe helping to sort the supplies and given something to throw her anger into, she'll simmer down and relax a bit, but if Clara explodes that's bad for all of us.

That doesn't happen, though, so we're left to move our supplies into one of four piles: Food, Weaponry, Shelter, and Everything Else. While most of our bounty is quite standard, a few things stick out from the rest. Sure, you've got joke supplies thrown in for a cheap laugh like a pogo stick and what I'm pretty confident is a gold medal, but then there's the stuff that's both unique and useful, like a handbook on the edible flora in the area. After a bit of searching, we find one of the vials of serum from the Bloodbath, which seems to glow in the afternoon sun.

"Let's put this somewhere that we can all easily reach it," Sienna says. That means it goes in the Cornucopia, right above where Clara's laying out sleeping bags.

The other vial's nowhere to be found, though. Chances are someone else got it. Unsurprising, but still disappointing.

We make short work of everything- having four people does seem to help. Everything edible goes into whatever containers we have (and barring that, inside the Cornucopia), anything shelter-related gets set up if possible, each of us picks a favorite weapon to bring into the Cornucopia and leave everything else outside, and the miscellaneous stuff goes wherever we feel works best. In what's probably about a half hour, everything's tidy and might as well be wrapped up in a neat little bow, ready to use at our leisure.

Wait. Now that I think of that…

"Guys, remember to pack getaway bags."

Clara does seem to have calmed down a bit, even if the bitterness in her tone isn't going away. "What the hell does that mean?"

I shake my head, but continue. "It means a bag of stuff we carry with us at all times in case the Gamemakers decide to blow up our supplies or we get raided or something. It'll be less of a problem here, because I'm sure we can hunt if we run out of food and there has to be a river or pond around here somewhere, but we need to have a backup plan if the Cornucopia gets wrecked."

Surprisingly enough, even Clara seems to agree on this, and in another ten minutes or so, everyone has a bag set by their bunk that they'll keep with them at all times.

Now that that's done, Godric pops the obvious question. "So, what's our plan for today?"

"I'm not a fan of sitting still all day," Clara says. "Let's go tribute hunting."

"I second that," I reply.

Godric shrugs, clearly not caring that much about what we do today. Sienna doesn't seem to like it, but even she says, "Fine. But can we please be back here before it gets dark?"

"Okay then," Clara says. "We won't be long today, it is our first day here. But before we go, let's sweep the area just to make sure no one's going to raid us the instant we leave."

"Counter-clockwise rotation," I say. "I'll go north, Godric, you go west, Clara, you go south, Sienna, you go east."

Glancing at the setting sun to determine my orientation, I stride about fifty meters north, and the others move to fill their respective areas in as well. Before long, everything's been cleared. While that's still no guarantee that we won't be robbed blind while we're gone, it means the odds of that happening fall off a cliff.

Once that's done, we grab our weapons, and we're about to leave before Godric interjects with, "Wait, shouldn't someone guard the Cornucopia?"

"Oh, right," I say. "How did we forget about that? Sienna, I'm assuming you'll volunteer?"

"Sure," Sienna says, almost looking relieved. She leans against the side of the Cornucopia, trident in hand, and that's the last I see of her as we march into the woods, ready to fight whatever comes our way.

Maxxer "Max" Bent, District Twelve Male

By my approximation, I've been running for about twenty minutes before I finally ease into a brisk walk.

Sure, it was (and still is) hot and sticky out, but considering the air here doesn't have coal dust to make it hard to breathe, I found the desperate sprint I started with much easier to maintain, especially since I don't have anything on my back to slow me down.

Well, now that I've gotten out of the thick of things, it's time to start coming up with a strategy, or whatever half-baked idea I can pass for one if I squint really hard. For now, I'll just assume that anyone nearby is hostile and has no intent but to kill me, so I'll have to work without allies.

Should probably get water first, because if someone doesn't find me, dehydration will be the first thing that kills me. After that, find a place to sleep that's at least somewhat camouflaged so I'm not a sitting duck the entire night. Then, and only then, can I start worrying about other things, like food and Gamemaker-made threats.

The woods are thick, but I haven't found something to trip on yet, so that's definitely a good thing. Just need to make sure I don't step on something that can kill me or fall into somewhere that will kill me or run into the sightline of something that can kill me… crap, why does every thought I have right now center around something wanting to kill me?

Oh, the beauty of the Hunger Games.

I charge through a thicket of dark green plants, beams of sunlight hitting me in fits and starts, trying to find a place to hunker down for now. Sure, I can't stay there because then I'll either starve or die of thirst, whichever is more painful, but it can't hurt to look for somewhere where I can catch a few hours of sleep without having to worry too much about being spotted.

Continuing on, I take three steps and then almost break my ankle stepping in some kind of hole. Stifling a curse, I keep moving-

Wait.

I turn back, looking at what I almost stepped in. It's a hole, alright, but it's way bigger than I imagined it would be. Probably big enough to fit me standing up (although not lying down yet), pretty empty, and when I crouch, it looks reasonably well-hidden from prying eyes. I don't think I'd be noticed unless I got stepped on.

I don't have a shovel, so I go hunting for a tree branch that doesn't look like it will shatter in a light breeze, find one, and with a combination of that and my fingers, begin pulling out clumps of dirt and carrying them far away until finally, I have the basics of a rudimentary shelter.

Finally, something has gone even close to right as of late.

Knowing my luck, though, it'll start raining any second and I'll get soaked, regardless.

Zari Morelett, District Six Female

Alexa's gone, and it's my fault.

There were a million chances for me to call her off so we could get going and all survive another day, and I didn't. Sure, Lacey could have done the same thing, but it's her job to get the supplies and be a team leader. All I had to do was watch over her, and I failed, one hundred percent.

Now, I have the blood of a thirteen-year-old girl on my hands. How am I going to face my siblings, or parents, or anyone, if and when I ever get home?

And I know that only one of us gets out of here, but I don't care. I still feel responsible for what happened, and it's already eating me inside. It's barely been twenty minutes, and I feel more broken than I ever have in my life.

I'm not cut out for this, not that I didn't already know that.

Lacey shouts, "Okay, we can stop," and that's enough for me. I coast to a stop before collapsing to my knees. There's nothing else I can really do at the moment.

"I'm going to check and see what's in my bag," Lacey says, casually taking the supplies she'd snagged off her back, not bothering to check the belt of throwing knives she picked up because I'm guessing she's pretty confident no one had the balls to steal any of those. I watch her as she takes everything out, mentally tallying what she got. A full bottle of water. A jumbo bag of pretzels that appear to be loaded with salt, probably on purpose. A single apple. A compass. A box of matches. A frayed rag that looks like it's never been washed.

Lacey checks and double-checks to make sure the bag is empty, looks for hidden compartments or secrets for a while, then stops. "Can you hand over your bag? I'd like to see what's in it."

I comply without a word. I didn't have time to check what was in it, but my bag felt pretty heavy so that has to mean there was something of value in there. At least, I hope.

Unfortunately, hope has no place in the Hunger Games. Lacey wrinkles her brow before pulling out a single object, a large, purple orb of smooth material with a couple of holes in it and a number on the side. She looks at it for a few seconds, trying to figure out what it is, but I know better. Might as well break the news to her, can't hurt any more than what I've already been through today.

"Lacey, it's a bowling ball."

She gives me a quizzical look. "What is that? I've never heard of it before."

"Bowling's a sport where you try to knock things over with a ball like that by rolling it in a very specific way. I've never done it, but I know people who have," I say. "I got a bag placed as a cruel joke. Go figure."

"Well, it is pretty heavy," Lacey says. "Worst comes to worst, we could tie it to a rope or something and use it as a bludgeoning weapon."

That's an extremely unpleasant possibility to think about, but I shove it down for now. I'm starting to wonder about how we're going to ration our food and water so it lasts as long as possible when Lacey gets another odd expression. "Uh, Zari? The holes in this bowling ball thing look weird, the colors don't match at all…"

Then her face lights up, and she shakes the bowling ball, producing an odd noise I don't think is supposed to come from it. The realization hits both of us at the same time.

"It's hollow."

Without a word, Lacey's pulled out one of her knives and started sawing through the hard exterior. Fortunately for us, she has at least a dozen of them, so losing one won't be too huge a deal if it breaks. That doesn't happen, a section of the ball pops out, and just like that, Lacey's reaching into the hole she made and pulling something out.

A vial of the blue serum we'd been shown such a short time ago seems to glow in the sunlight, lighting up Lacey's face almost as much as her overlarge grin does.

"Zari, you are either a genius or the luckiest idiot alive, because there were only two vials of this stuff in the whole field, and you found one." She puts it back in the bowling ball, taking care with it so as to not break it, then places it back in the bag while hiding it as best as possible.

"Well, supplies have been checked," I say. "What now?"

"We find a place to sleep, then we eat dinner," Lacey says, shaking the bag of pretzels. "There's probably enough in here that we can make two meals out of it, although they look pretty salty, so we might be better off holding off on these until we find a reliable source of water."

"Whatever works," I say, slipping everything I had control of back into my bag before I throw it over my shoulder.

I feel a little better than I did, now that I know at least I'm not totally screwed, but what happened to Alexa is something that will never go away. Not today, not tomorrow, not if I win the Games, not even if I die. That'll be part of the highlights of this year forever and ever and there isn't anything I can do to stop it.

I have to wonder how Lacey's holding up right now. She's clearly much tougher than I am if she could lose someone like that without even flinching, but here and now, that might be a good thing.

Maybe I'll ask her for pointers later. I sure could use them.

Author's Notes:

-I'm back, and I should update a bit more frequently now. I've got nothing else. Sorry for the short chapter this time around.

-Hopefully, I'll see you again for the next chapter. And hopefully, it'll be out more quickly than the last few.