Chapter 16
There is a cabin in the woods. There is a cabin in the arena. I try to wrap my head around the thought even as I observe the place.
The cabin is made of large logs, with a big window displayed in the front. The roof is compiled of old shingles. There is an eighty-two cm width of clear land around the perimeter of the cabin. It appears abandoned and unused for months.
"Let's take a look inside," I suggest.
"Sure," Haymitch replies, pulling out his knife. "But I'm going in first."
Unsheathing my own knife, I follow as Haymitch walks to the door. Quietly, he turns the handle and pushes the door in. The whole time his other hand grips onto the knife, raised up and ready to use anytime.
The cabin is pitch black and smells of stale air. Not a single sound comes from inside. Cautiously, Haymitch finds the light switch and flicks it on. It is completely empty, and so we step inside.
We stand in the single-most biggest room the cabin has. To one corner is a kitchen cabinet, with two others on either sides of it. Another corner is taken up by a small kitchen table and two chairs. The other corner is occupied by a bed. And a brick fireplace sits in the forth corner. The wooden floor creaks, and looks old, but is otherwise in good condition. The wallpaper is fading, frayed, and ripped in several places, but is also otherwise okay too.
In fact, considering how the outside looks, I expected the interior to be on the dilapidated side. But it all looks rather nice. All things considered.
It doesn't look much different to an average Seam house, I realise.
I go to the kitchen sink, which has a big window placed over it. After turning the tap, I discover that it produces running water.
"Look, Haymitch," I call his attention, "water. But I wonder if it's safe to drink."
"If you use that kettle to boil," Haymitch points out, "it should be fine. Most poisons in the arena act just like bacteria and can therefore be neutralised when heated at a high temperature."
"How do you know that?" I asked, amazed.
"I had a theory by the second day. After boiling some water I got from a pond, I tested it. And as it turns out, my theory was correct." He doesn't elaborate any more.
"Oh. Okay then." Finding the kettle, I fill it up and leave it to boil. Fortunately, the stove is in working condition.
I notice then a small archway in the wall between the kitchen table and the bed. Entering through the archway, I discover that it leads to a bathroom.
"There's a bathroom in here!" I exclaim.
Haymitch leans against the archway, pocking his head in to have a look himself.
It's not very big. Just spacious enough to accommodate a small sink, toilet, and shower. The floor is tiled and the wall matches that of the wall in the main cabin. A small window is placed right above the toilet.
I stare longingly at the shower.
Even in merchant houses, showers are nonexistent. The closest thing we have is a wooden bathtub, where you need to draw water from a well. It's only since I've been to the Capitol that I recognise and know how to use a shower.
"Use it," Haymitch says, nodding towards the object of my attention.
"It might not be safe," I reply weakly, the desire to feel clean almost overriding my usual caution.
"It'll be fine. The water in this cabin may well be safe. Besides, any poisons in the arena are only effective when ingested directly into the intestines or bloodstream."
I look at him incredulously. "And how do you know that?"
"Observation," Haymitch says simply.
"Okay," I eventually give in. "But first, we need to take care of some things."
"What things?"
"Evidence that this place exists," I reply. "We should turn off the main light out there and just use the light in here."
"The window out there has a blind I'll draw down," Haymitch offers.
"Great," I say, "and the window here doesn't have a blind. But, I'll use a jacket to cover it up." Thankfully it's small enough that not even I can crawl through it. That means it won't take that much to cover.
We go about doing what it was we set out to do until everything is done.
"I'm going to take a shower now. You should rummage through the kitchen cabinets and see if there is anything useful in there," I suggest.
"Okay," Haymitch agrees, taking the torch out of one of the packs we dropped on the bed.
Satisfied, I go back into the bathroom and quickly undress. I drop my clothes in a pile before hoping into the shower and drawing the curtain that separates it from the rest of the bathroom.
I let the sprinkle of water wash down on me, careful not to let it get into any deep cuts least the water be poisonous. It feels soothing as I clean my hair thoroughly, looking down and watching the muck and dirt get washed down the drain.
Feeling clean and all better again, I get out. I then take a towel that is hanging on a hook and dry myself off. As dry as can be, I put my clothes back on and step back into the main room.
Seeing Haymitch lying down on the bed, one arm over his eyes and one leg bent at the knee, I ask, "Found anything?"
He simply shakes his head.
"That's okay," I continue, "There's a toilet roll we could use as bandages in there."
"Take it," Haymitch says, not changing his position. Rolling my eyes, I get the toilet roll and put it in a backpack.
"You should take a shower too," I state. "It'll be dark soon. Take a shower, and then we'll eat."
"Okay," Haymitch says, getting up and heading for the bathroom. I grab the torch left on the bed and decide to explore outside. Turning the handle, I pull the door open. Or at least it is meant to open. I try again. No luck. I put the torch down and am about to try a third time when I hear hushed voices.
"Yeah, she's in there. Hurry up and get the blowtorch, Hunter."
"It's right here."
I go deathly white. Hunter is the name of that District 1 tribute.
Hurriedly, I rush into the bathroom.
A shirtless Haymitch turns around at the sound of me entering. He's just about to pull his pants down, having unbuttoned and unzipped them already, when he sees me.
"Donner, what-" he begins.
"Shh!" I warn. "Tributes. Two of them."
"Do they know we're here?" Haymitch asks, putting his pants back on.
"No," I answer with a shake of my head, "they think it's only me. Haymitch, they're going to torch this cabin with us in it."
Haymitch grabs his shirt, puts it on, takes down my jacket covering the window, and pushes it though the open window all in a rushed fury.
"Okay, get our bags and throw them out there," Haymitch instructs, pointing to the window. "But get your blowgun first. If they plan on trapping us, they'll first torch our only easy means of escape."
"The front door," I say dazedly.
"Right," confirms Haymitch, "but we can still jump out the front window. If they figured that much out, we can expect a battle on our hands once we escape."
I nod grimly before hurrying off to retrieve our bags.
The main room begins filling up with smoke. Quickly getting my blowgun, I toss the rest outside.
The front door is on fire now, the flames slowly spreading out.
Haymitch has already pulled the blinds back and is ready to jump by the time I return.
"Let me go first. They're waiting out there, expecting to see you jump out."
"But when they see you," I follow, "they will hesitate in confusion. We'll have an element of surprise."
"Exactly," agrees Haymitch.
Without another word, he jumps out the window, covering his head with his forearm. I quickly follow suit.
I land in time to hear Hunter say to his ally, "You said she-"
Haymitch and I quickly draw our weapons and go on the offensive.
I aim the dart at the first target my eyes see: the brutish District 1 girl.
From the corner of my eyes, I see Haymitch tackling and slashing at Hunter.
Ruby somehow manages to dodge the dart and runs towards me.
I aim again, this time at Hunter. He merely sustains a scratch. I need to work better on my aim, I think just before I'm tackled to the ground. Upon impact my vision goes black before it's replaced with a sharp burst of white, having smashed my head into the ground. My hand unclenches; dropping the blowgun somewhere I can no longer see it.
On her knees, Ruby puts her legs on either side of my waist before sitting down. I scream as the full weight of her body crushes me.
She grabs a bunch of my hair, lifts my head up, and punches me.
A violent pain like never before consumes my entire face. Hot blood gushes down my now broken nose. My eyes are reduced to slits, not being able to open any wider than they already are.
As Ruby mercilessly pounds in my face again, I somehow manage to retain enough sense to reach towards my hip and draw out the knife strapped there.
As she punches me a third time, she doesn't notice me raise the knife and stab her behind the back of the thigh.
She gives a monstrous animal bellow as I pull out the knife. Before she can react, I stab her hard in the calf. As Ruby releases that animal sound again, I quickly pull out the knife and crawl out from under her before she comes back to her senses. I stand up and get in a defensive stance when Ruby gets back on her feet. Her left leg is unsteady but she manages to stand.
Ruby swings her fist in an upper cut, but I dodge the attack easily. As I dodge, I thrust the knife at her. She screams as the knife finds the side of her torso. I move behind her and kick her back before she even knows what's going on. Ruby lands on the ground, on her knees and hands. As she is about to get up, and I prepare to deflect any of her attacks, there is the sudden blast of a cannon.
We turn our heads to where our district partners are fighting, to see which one of us lost an ally.
Haymitch stands over the body of Hunter, his entire right arm covered to the elbow in blood. Relief overwhelms me at the sight of him still alive.
Ruby screams in frustration at the lost of her ally. She gets up, picks up two bags that were hidden, and runs deep into the woods. Knowing full well she'll be outnumbered if she were to continue fighting.
I go over to Haymitch just as he finishes searching the body for items.
"Find anything?"
In response, Haymitch holds up a blowtorch. I look down to see where the blowtorch came from. Hunter had on him a small pack, in which he carried the small blowtorch in.
"Is there anything else in the pack?" I ask.
Haymitch stares intently at the blowtorch. "No," he finally says. He then gets up and walks past me. "Let's go."
We go to the side window of the cabin and pick up our things. Fortunately, the fire hasn't spread to this side of the cabin yet.
The noise of crackling fire follows us as Haymitch and I move off.
After getting a decent distance away from the burning cabin, we finally find a spot to rest for the night.
With nothing else to eat, Haymitch and I are reduced to one chocolate bar each and some mints. Chewing is particularly painful for me, as I'm pretty sure Ruby broke my jaw. She also split my lip, so that makes eating all the more difficult. My eyes are able to open fully now, but ideally I would like to put some ice on it. My broken nose feels blocked and badly displaced. Fortunately the bleeding has stopped. Wanting to get it sorted out, however, I feel around my nose before correcting it. Thanks to the first aid lesson back at the Training Centre I am perfectly capable.
There is a dull crunch, quickly followed by a flash of pain as my nose shifts place. Not quite there yet, I do it one more time. This time there is a pop before pain shoots up my skull. And with that, my nose is back in place; if a little sensitive.
The anthem plays on time. Tonight's death recap only features Hunter.
Then the anthem ends, leaving the world in silence and darkness again.
As is routine, Haymitch takes the first watch. I lie down, grateful for the loss of another enemy tribute.
A few hours pass by before I wake up. Sitting up, I yawn and stretch my stiff limbs.
"You can rest now," I say, turning to Haymitch. "I'll take over."
Wisely choosing not to argue, Haymitch lies down and gets comfortable. "Don't let me sleep too long."
As I keep watch, I notice that it is now down to the final eight. Back home, our family and friends would be interviewed.
Our private lives would be put on for more show, with family and friends answering personal questions about us.
The sun has risen for an hour when I decide Haymitch would want to be woken up. I get up and kneel down beside him. Shaking Haymitch by the shoulders, I rouse him. He is something of a light sleeper and snaps his eyes open quickly. Haymitch rises onto his forearms, looking at the sky.
"The sun has been up for an hour now," I tell him.
"Okay," his replies.
We then eat a chocolate bar each. As I pop some mints into my mouth and watch Haymitch open his own container of mints, I shake my head. "We can't live off this stuff much longer," I comment.
"Something will turn up," Haymitch replies, opening his last coke. Looking into my pack, I see only one full bottle of orange juice. Pulling out my two water bottles, I find one completely full. The other is empty.
"I had only time to fill one bottle," Haymitch explains, seeing them in my hands.
"So you didn't get to fill your bottle."
"No," answers Haymitch, digging into his pack and pulling out a water bottle. He shakes it. It doesn't make a sound.
I offer my last bottle of orange juice to him. "Here."
Haymitch shakes his head. "You keep it."
"No," I decline flatly. "You gave me a full bottle of water already. You should at least get this." I wave the bottle in front of him.
"It's oka-"
"Something will turn up," I repeat his words. "Just hold onto this for now."
And reluctantly, that's just what he does. I smile in satisfaction.
Once we're packed up and ready to go, we get up and start walking. I mentally steel myself for another hard day of hiking.
The day stretches on, as does the distance we cover with each step we take. Several times I ask for a break. All those times Haymitch would say just a little further, that we couldn't stop just yet.
Eventually, it's midday. We rest, eating a chocolate bar and nothing else, having exhausted the rest of our meagre food supply.
Suddenly, I notice something floating in the sky. I point it out to Haymitch.
"It's a parachute!" I note in wonder, as it gets closer and closer. Never before have I seen a more wondrous or welcomed sight.
As the parachute descends, it gets caught in a tree. Without a word, Haymitch scales the tree its suck in. Soon he is back on the ground with the parachute.
"What did Konrad send?" I ask excitedly. At this point, I'll accept anything.
Haymitch makes short work of the few strings holding the parcel together. He opens it to reveal a whole tin of drop biscuits.
My eyes well up with tears at the sight of those biscuits. Drop biscuits are the standard biscuits of home, so naturally it has me thinking back to District 12 and everything we left behind.
I think of the cracked and cobbled street on which Meredith and I would walk every day. I think of the smell of baking dough as our mother would make these very same ration grain drop biscuits.
Blinking several times, I grin. "Something turned up. Which one of us do you suppose they're for?"
"It doesn't matter. We're sharing them," Haymitch states matter-of-factly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. I grin even bigger.
By unspoken agreement, Haymitch and I decide not to eat any biscuits yet. We both want to make it last for as long as possible and hold onto our reminder of home for just that moment longer. Deciding to move on instead, Haymitch puts the tin away before moving off.
The day eventually reaches mid afternoon, and yet it feels a lot later. Maybe it's because of the sky not looking as bright as it should. Or, maybe it has to do with the arena being darker than usual for this hour. I begin to wonder if the volcano will soon erupt again. This thought has me feeling extremely anxious.
I look up, panicked. Barely able to hear over the sound of rushing blood in my ears, I register that Haymitch is saying something.
"What?" I ask dumbly.
"Are-" Haymitch stops short of his sentence when something else takes his attention.
"What is it?" I ask again.
Before he answers, I feel something land on my head. Touching that spot, my hand comes back wet. Surprised, I continue to look at my hand before I see a drop of water land on it. The drop is slowly followed by more. And more. And more, before it soon becomes blatantly apparent.
The Gamemakers have sent us rain.