Chapter 27.- Oak Peacewood
I can't move, I can't do anything as the arrow the District 1 girl has fired flies towards me. Luckily it lodges about ten feet in front of me. I turn and run into the woods without a second thought. My mind is full of the blood and gore I have just witnessed; the bodies of the tributes on the ground, all who I trained with and sort of knew- at least none of them were Aldar. I keep running for ages, until I gasp for breath. I didn't take anything from the Cornucopia except for a loaf of bread. I'm going to be in for a rough time I'm guessing. I choose a suitable tree and climb up high into it; I start pulling off bits of bread as soon as I'm settled on a branch. It doesn't take long for the fighting to stop and the cannons to go off. I count: 1…2...3…4...5…6…7. Seven dead tributes. Seventeen left to play. That's more than I thought there would be.
I stare at the trees around me, and think of home and how far I've come. My mother, hysterical at our goodbyes. My workmates who never even said goodbye. And Aldar- how can I even think of Aldar? Where is he in this arena? The light starts to fade eventually, and the air begins to chill. How many hours have passed? Too many I'm thinking. All my rage has dissipated and has been replaced with overwhelming fear. I'm terrified of what the night will bring, what the morning will bring. What the next weeks will bring.
I wait until the Capitol symbol flashes in the sky and the anthem starts to play. I climb higher in the tree to see the tributes that died today. In the sky their pictures are shown: the first is the District 3 boy, then both from 6, the boy from 8, both from 10, then the girl from 12. Each picture is briefly shown, then the anthem wraps up and I'm left in the dying light. I keep looking at the sky, though. I think about the interviews last night. The District 12 girl's interview. Nothing special at all. Dressed in a plain black dress. But now she's dead. And the rest of them, how the District 6 girl had such an attitude to Octavio, how Jet snapped his answers out. I climb back down to my previous branch and lean against the trunk of the tree.
I must drift off at some point because when I become aware of my surroundings again it's pitch black and icy cold. Somewhere in the distance I can hear voices. Terror overwhelms me again: the big group, the 1s and 2s and the girl from 9, they must be hunting down the rest of us. I sit in silent fear as the voices come closer, then appear directly below me. Two of them have torches, the others have weapons. "Stop being annoying, Silver," the District 2 boy says. "I'm not being annoying, I'm being reasonable. Why don't we look for them in the morning?" "Because, idiot, they aren't going to be expecting us during the night," the District 2 girl says in an exasperated tone. "Well then, let's go find some tributes then," Silver says, but I can hear the lack of enthusiasm in her voice. "That's the spirit," her district partner says, and they move on.
I almost jump out of my skin when I hear the scream. "Please, no! No!" a girl cries. I hear her running; hear the pack running after her. One final agonizing scream- then a cannon. I block my ears with my hands, try to shut it out. I don't know who it was, but she's dead now. She's dead. The number sixteen runs around and around my head. Sixteen left, sixteen left. I can't stop the tears from pouring down my cheeks. I want to throw something, but I don't have anything, and if I throw something they'll kill me too. I'd be dead just like the girl. So I sit there on the branch, sobbing quietly, my hands pressed over my ears. I don't know how long I sit like that. Finally, the dawn comes. And so do the beasts.