Chapter Twenty, Decreasing Disadvantages

Silyah bolted right up from her sleep when she heard a loud cannon.

"That was early," commented Silver calmly.

"I guess so…" Silyah squinted her eyes in an attempt to clear the sleep from them. "But I don't what is worst; waking up to a cannon, or to Effie Trinket." She laughed away the nervousness caused by the announcement of a tribute's death before adding: "Just kidding, we love you, Effie," just in case they were currently televised.

Silver grinned. "I wonder who it was," she said more seriously. Silyah felt her throat tighten. She wondered if Silver knew that she was messing with her head by making her think about Artemis. "With Caskar on the hunt and all…"

"We have to go…" mumbled Silyah, truly worried.

"The cannon went off, whoever it was is dead and most likely already picked up by the hovercraft."

"Yes, I know that and I certainly do not want to be the next one being picked up… I think we should keep on moving and that as soon as possible."

"Fine. Wake up Novia and I'll check the area."

Silyah nodded as Silver left. She stretched and combed her long hair with her fingers as she went towards the District 5 girl. "Novia?" she said, trying to be loud enough to wake her up, yet quiet enough not to attract any unwanted attention.

The small black-haired girl moved around and slowly opened her eyes.

"We have to get moving." The District 3 girl was already starting to fold the blanket she had slept on.

"Why?" Novia propped herself up on her elbows.

"Didn't you hear the cannon? Some deadly people already woke up, so I would not risk staying in one place…"

"I didn't hear anything… I sleep really deeply…" Novia got up, running a hand through her short hair. "Where is Silver?"

"She went to look through the forest."

"I see." Novia rolled up her "bed," handing it to Silyah.

The brown-haired girl placed the folded blankets in her coat's back pocket. "Do you feel alert enough to help me take down the tent?"

"Sure," Novia stretched, following Silyah as she went outside. A light yet chilly wind blew between the forest's trees and straight into the tributes' bones.

As the two girls got to work, Silver returned. "There's no one around us, at least as far as a ten meters radius."

Silyah's eyes grew wide. "Ten meters? You just covered a ten meters radius and you are not even a little out of breath?"

Silver shrugged. "I am used to chase after kids who just love to run from us, amongst other things."

Silyah sighed. She wished she could have the ability to run like that… The girl untied the last knot of the tent from a branch and shook that dark fabric free of leaves and insects. She folded and placed it with the other blankets.

"So, where do we head?" asked Novia. "Since we don't really know where the others are…"

Silyah undid their filter from above the extinguished remains of their fire. "Where did you get those rabbits yesterday?" she asked Silver.

"Not far from here, they seem to live in the area."

"Let's stay close by, but constantly in movement," suggested Silyah.

"Good idea," agreed Silver. "That way we can get familiar with the area while moving from place to place."

"We could also make some misleading foot trails," said Novia.

Silver nodded. Smart people these two…

The girls filled their water bottles up, ate a light breakfast made of the roots Novia had picked up the previous day and then left their camp.

Artemis woke up from his less than pleasant sleep, the sharp noise of a cannon ringing in his ears… Or perhaps it was the echo that could be heard from within the cave's walls.

The boy sat up and leaned away from the rocky wall, his back aching. This had been the worst night in his life and by far; he had been waking up every third hour or so because of his wound.

Letting his eyes adjust to the cave's dim light, he looked around. He was still more than alone…

Artemis slowly got to his feet. The slightest of movements shot tendrils of pain through his body, all of them heading towards his partially healed shoulder.

The slim teenager sighed, his stomach starting to rumble. He would need to find food fast. He would soon be way too feeble for his own good without nutrition. Although he despised the idea of being exposed in the arena, Artemis was left with no choice but to make his way out of the cave and was forced to bring nothing but his knife with him; he could not even support the feeling of his backpack`s strap on his collar bone.

He was not too far from his hideout and not too deep into the forest when he spotted what looked like a bird's nest in the branch of a tree. Artemis gritted his teeth. There was a possibility of finding a source of food in that nest, but even though it was not too high, he would have to climb to reach it. Even if his shoulder had been in a normal state, it would have been as good as an impossible task. He had climbed before in the arena, but a tree was different from a cliff; it was much more arduous.

Artemis observed his surroundings in the hopes to find an alternative solution… Some broken branches were lying on the ground… Artemis contemplated them for a brief moment. They would be long enough to reach the nest… The only minor problem would be that he would have to raise both of his arms in order not to let the nest fall over his head, most likely shattering its possible content.

A low and long rumble coming from his stomach interrupted Artemis's thoughts. He would have to do it.

The teenager grabbed the two branches, placing one in each of his hands. He took a deep breath and walked over to the tree, extending his arms above his head. As hard as he may have tried to approach the situation without forcing too much, is shoulder did hurt him… Artemis had to clench his teeth together to hold back a pained grunt.

Eventually, he managed to lock the nest between the two branches. He lowered them very carefully. A satisfied smirk played across his lips for a short instant. At the bottom of the nest were four small eggs.

Artemis took the nest and let go of the branches, heading back towards the cave where he planned to try to make a fire to cook himself a breakfast without being noticed.

He had almost reached his shelter when a faint beeping noise began to hover above his head. He looked up, searching for the source of the foreign sound.

A small silver parachute was lazily making its way down the sky… Artemis waited a few seconds for it to get within reach and caught it between his slim fingers. On a small card attached to the box that came with the parachute was a note…

"Clever boy," it read. The note was signed by none other than Artemis's mentor; Beetee.

Artemis took both his future breakfast, as well as the parachute back to the cave before investigating the content of his sponsor-sent silver box. It was an object with roughly the same shape and size as a long wallet. The boy undid the fastener at the side of the object, revealing a set of tools.

Part of a survival plan formed in Artemis's brain. Now, he actually had some type of advantage in those Games…

Artemis walked back to the area in which he had slept and began to work on making a small fireplace beside the pond using small rocks he found on the ground. He set the bird nest in the middle of it, removing the eggs from their only mean of protection. The nest would serve the purpose of tinder while one of the tools he had received had been labeled as a spindle.

Not losing a second, Artemis got to work, desperately trying to make a spark. If only he had listened to Butler more often… Things would have been easier at this stage.

He kept on working until he created a small flame. He then took a flat rock from the cave and cracked the eggs open on it. It was not the gourmet omelets he was used to, but it was better than to start the day with an empty stomach.

"Which way do you want to go?" Elon asked Caskar.

The alliance's day had begun later than most of the other tribute's day. Half of them had not even heard the first cannon.

The District 1 boy took another snack bar from his bag; he had plenty, he could certainly afford eating an extra one. "Acassie? Where did Artemis go when you let him escape?" Caskar turned to the short redhead.

"He headed for the caves, I think," she replied. "We can go back down to the Cornucopia or try to find them from where we are right now if you want to get to him."

"Which one would take less –" began Crelin before being interrupted.

"Let's go from here," said Caskar. "We'll follow the sound of the waterfalls and find him."

"Aye, aye, leader," laughed Geneva.

Caskar dragged his group through the woods and led them close to the river. They paused to fill and filter their water bottles and then walked along the banks of the big stream, not even caring about hiding or being subtle.

At one point, the group saw a few wild animals and decided to go hunt. They had snack bars, but there was nothing like meat to satisfy their hunger.

Once he was done, Caskar cleaned up the knife he had chosen as his hunting knife. He had caught two rabbits and a big squirrel.

"What will we do of what we don't eat today? It might be spoiled by tomorrow…" Kalheb held a chubby rabbit in his hands as he walked to Caskar.

"We'll burn it," answer the District 1 boy. "We won't give the other tributes the chance to fall on some free food."

"Nice kill, Kalheb," said Geneva as she got back from the woods, carrying three freshly trapped squirrels.

"Thanks, honey," replied Kalheb with a seductive tone. Both he and Geneva knew that there was no affection between them – only physical attraction – and they were both perfectly fine with it.

For once, Caskar was satisfied with his team. They were ridding the area of wildlife and keeping it for themselves. The laws of survival, thought the boy.

The Careers cleaned and prepared their kills before putting them in plastic bags obtained at the Cornucopia to keep them for later.

Even though they all stuck with one another for the only purpose of killing the others more easily and surviving longer, they had chosen to remain in the forest since they were now extremely close to the waterfalls and the current of the river was starting to get relatively strong. They would not want to lose a member to a mere accident just yet.

At one point through their progression, Caskar stopped abruptly in the middle of his trail.

"What again?" nearly screamed Elon. It had been the tenth time the District 1 boy halted without an apparent cause.

"I saw something move." Caskar squinted. He was sure that this time, something – a human – was close to them.

"We are in the woods Caskar! Of course some things will move around! We did not kill every single animal here," sighed Kalheb.

Geneva looked in the same direction as Caskar, a concentrated expression on her face. "I heard it."

Caskar turned to Kalheb and Elon. "See, I'm not that crazy," he whispered.

Geneva grinned. "Come on then!"

The Careers followed Caskar and Geneva, keeping a reasonable distance from them.

The boy from 1 pulled out his "killing dagger" from his bag. Now, Caskar could make out the shape of what, or rather, whom he was hunting. The figure had dark hair and a slim body…

Geneva smiled. "Look at that…"

The boy hoped that the person was chasing was the one he had been searching for… As if to make sure that the figure would not disappear, he launched forward, running straight towards it.

The tribute had heard Caskar's footsteps and all the sudden, vanished in the forest.

Caskar ran even more furiously, looking through the shadows of the trees around him in order to locate the tribute before an idea struck him… He decided to stop; his ears might be able to find the kid better than his eyes. Caskar smirked. He could indeed hear someone panting to his left. He turned towards the sound… There, just beside him, a small bush seemed to tremble. The tall boy walked beside it, just to give the tribute a little hope… He surrounded the bush, the biggest of the grins on his face. When he heard a muffled sob, he dived in, pulling the tribute by the hair.

Caskar clenched his fist in rage. That was not the boy he had expected to see. In fact, it was a young, dark-skinned girl, probably the one from District 11.

The tall boy from 1 tossed the girl into a tree and plunged his dagger into her heart.

Geneva grinned. One less tribute, she thought.

A cannon rang just as Delise Novo's body hit the ground.

"Let's get moving," said Crelin, walking towards the new Hunger Games victim.

For once, Caskar agreed.