The next day, I wake to a sleety downpour. Icy rains jumps down on me. I elbow Paris in the ribs, and his eyes flutter open. The goosebumps run up his arms, as I break into his bag, which is laying lazily at his feet. Under his food, water and daggers, I find his waterproof, crumpled at the bottom. I shove it in his arms and begin to wake the others up. We need to get out fleeces and waterproofs on, or we'll all get hypothermia. Valerie is curled up asleep in her vest and three-quarter pants. I shake her awake and throw her jacket on her. Sirena and Finn both slept in their jackets, but I wake them up all the same. Mason and Pearl prove more difficult to rise. Eventually we splash water on their faces.
"What?"
"Do you want to freeze to death? Put your coat on. And follow me."
I bolt towards the thick trees in the wood. Selecting a tree, I begin to club. When I'm about two meters up, I slip on a sodden branch. I land on my side. As the careers crowd around me, I jump up.
"Paris, go to that tree!" I point to another tree about four meters away.
"Sirena, Finn, those two please." I point to two more trees so that we make a square.
"Mason, up here. Valerie, grab that green sheet!"
She grabs it and throws it to me. I tie a corner to my branch and throw the next corner to Paris. He does the same. We create a sheet to cover the supplies.
"Good thinking!" Finn yells as a canon goes off.
A hovercraft hoists the pale figure of a girl up. Instantly, I recognise the cropped red hair and the number 11 on her t-shirt. Willow. Her jacket is tied with a complicated knot around her waist. Her hair is flecked with sleet and hail, like a frosty tree. She has literally frozen to death.
"I don't like this arena." Murmurs Mason.
"I think I've figured it out!" I exclaim. "Everyday, a different climate begins. In five, this happens a lot; cold one day, boiling the next. By winter you have a cold and hypothermia. My best guess is to wait until the sleet stops, then we will be able to tell."
Everyone nods at my ideas.
"What time d'you s'pose it is?" Asks Pearl.
"Noon." Says Finn simply.
OoO
The sleet slowly turns to rain and by nightfall, it's over. The only dead tribute today is Willow, unless in our haste to cover the supplies, another tribute was shot down. I think this as highly unlikely, and I am correct.
"When will we take this down?" Asks Sirena.
"Two days, in case it tips it down again. Or we could just pin it to the ground and cover it with mud and leaves when we leave to hunt." I say.
"Speaking of which, we need a decent meal to keep going." Says Finn. "I can fish."
"Finn, there won't be a good enough lake for miles, and even then, the fish'll be tiny- and be infected with something." Says Sirena.
"No, I was thinking, Flicker and I could go find a rabbit or two for us, while you get bread and things ready." Suggests Paris.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go. I think two daggers and a spear should do it."
OoO
Paris leads me deep into the woods. I climb halfway up a tree and get my spear ready. A small deer ambles past. I take it down by the neck with my spear. Paris hauls it onto his back with ease.
"S'pose we should get something else?" I ask.
"Yeah. Just, whatever you do, don't pick up any berries. They could kill the lot of us."
In the end, I decide on gathering some pine out of a tree. I'd seen the District Seven male do this last year. He came third. Paris gently steers my shoulders in and out of the trees and back to camp. Within half an hour, Valerie has built a fire and Sirena has cooked the meat. We had a fair bit of game left over, so we split it between us to keep us going. I convinced everyone to chew pine.
That night, I can't sleep. I tell Finn to go to sleep, telling him I'll take the night shift. I pace along the camp, spear in hand, waiting for a twig to snap, a branch to rustle, a tribute to run. None of this happens. I sigh in relief. I won't murder anyone tonight. Mid-thought, Mason sits up.
"Go back to sleep." He orders. "You've done two night shifts already, and you deserve some rest. Go on. I'll go until morning."
I do as I am told. I curl up in my sleeping bag, waiting for sleep to come. When it doesn't, I turn to face Paris' sleeping figure. He sleeps on his side with his arm tucked under his head like a pillow. I try to mimic his slow, steady breathing, but give up. I lay on my back, using his torso as a pillow and grab at any free sleep available.
OoO
My eyes flutter open.
"Morning. I'd get out of that sleeping bag if I were you." Valerie's even tones snap me out of sleep.
"Why?" I ask yawning and rubbing the back of my neck.
"Feel the heat, Flicker. Get your sleeping bag away, and get your shorts and vest on."
I slip out of my bag and turn away from the rest.
"Do you mind if I...?"
I don't want the Capitol to film me dressing. I don't want the others to see me dressing. They are older than me, so they understand. I dash into a clump of trees and change in record time. I use the fabric belt to tie my fringe out of my face.
When I return to the camp, Paris has a bottle of my water out ready.
"Valerie and Sirena went out before we woke up. They got the water out of trees and small streams. We should have enough to last three days." Says Mason.
"Good. My tongue feels like sand paper." I swig at my bottle, emptying a quarter of it. I grab the sun cream out of my bag and slather it all over me. Everyone does the same. I sit under the shade of the cornucopia, guarded by its pointed rim. I feel the sweat dripping off me.
"Drink more. You're bright red." Says Sirena. I finish my bottle.
"We're not going anywhere to day." I state simply. We could get lost, miles away without water.
By the end of the day, no one has died. The Gamemakers want blood, or they will be brutal. Last year, five days without a killing went by, so they sent a pack of squirrels, which were actually mutts. The tributes tried to hunt them, and ended up getting ripped to shreds. Not a pretty sight.
OoO
That night, I wake up from a strange dream, filled with squirrels. My eyes flutter open, and I see Sirena replacing everyone's berries with a poisonous replica. When she settles down to sleep, I silently throw the berries into a bush. She put the most in my box. I swap her non-poisonous strawberries with mine. I'll explain to the others in the morning. I lay back down, next to Paris, with a smug look on my face.
OoO
We all awake groggily. The heat has taken its toll. I force everyone to down another bottle of water. We will find it in the morning. I keep shooting secret looks at Sirena. She looks at everyone's packs.
"Why don't we have some fruit, it has plenty of juices in it!" She says innocently.
I nod my head. She grins as I open my pack. Cleverly, I miss out my strawberries, just to annoy her. I eat two slices of apple.
"Aren't strawberries meant to have cream with them?" She asks dumbly as she begins to chew one. She opens her mouth to speak again, but she drops on the ground. Poisoned.
Everyone looks between her and me.
"What happened?" Asks Mason.
"She's been poisoned, Numbskull!" Says Paris .
"I did it." I say quietly. "Before you ram your sword into my stomach, I had reason: I woke up in the night, and saw her replacing our berries with that stuff."
"MoonShadow. Almost as deadly as that night lock stuff." Says Valerie .
"Yeah, that. She was putting it in our boxes, and I thought... She'd know if it were me, and she could have killed us all!" I sob.
Part of me is stressed and angry, but the other half of me wants to play up to the Capitol. I'm the youngest. I should use it to my advantage.
"Hey, it's ok. You're right. If we let her get away with it, we could all be dead. She is- well was- always sly. " says Finn.
I nod, reassured.
"The weather's not bad today. And we could do with some more water." Says Paris.
"Well if we get the water, we might get a spot of tribute hunting in there as well!" Says Pearl.
OoO
Our water bottles are all full. We have combed the forest for an hour. Then I see it. A mountain. I point to it and begin to climb. When I get to a ledge, I see Buckley. I look back at the careers and hold up ten fingers. I point at Valerie and Mason to go sidewards, Paris and Pearl to go the other way, and Finn to go round the back. When we are positioned, I silently roll onto the ledge. Dagger in pocket, I creep up behind him. Suddenly, I jump on his back and pin him to the ground. One knee either side, he struggles. He is stronger than I expected, but I'm determined to not take a dart to the head. I punch his face in one swift movement. As I turn to reposition, he rolls around. He knees me squarely in the stomach, and aims a punch at my nose. Another to my eye. As his third punch us about to release, I put my forearm in front of us. His fist makes painful contact with my wrist, but I can tell it's not broken. He helps in pain and sits up. I break free of his knees and arm, and elbow his mouth. Once. Twice. Thrice. His mouth is bleeding. He kicks me in the side. I stumble slightly, before I regain my stance. I aim a painful kick to the stomach. He begins to stumble away. Paris looks at me and nods.
Breath in. Aim. Breath out. Throw.
The knife skids across the air, lodging itself deep between his shoulder blades. He is already dead, but his body falls, down a cliff.
I breath deeply. I killed him. I killed another. I didn't intend to. It just...happened.
But that is what the Games are. Death lottery. You kill, or you die.
OoO.
When we are at camp, we eat the leftover game. The Fallen Tributes project in the clear sky. Sirena. Buckley. Baylee. Her canon must have gone off at the same time as Buckley's. Eleven of us remain. I must leave. Soon.
OoO.
When I am extinguishing the fire, Paris comes to me. We are the only ones at camp; Pearl and Mason have gone to hunt and Finn and Valerie are finding the other tributes.
"Look, I know you want to leave. And... I-uh..."
"What?"
"Can I come with you, as an ally?"
"Yes. But we need to plan. And quickly, too."
We decide to pack a lot of extra things. Paris selects a large rucksack. We keep our waist-pouches, but empty the contents of our other bags into this one. We then decide to take the left over food, including a rabbit we cooked last night. We take more batteries for our torches and more medical equipment.
"Where are we going?" He asks.
"We could take the long way to Buckley's mountain. We might have to stop in a tree, but if we leave now, we might get there. Take some extra weapons as well"
I collect every one of my spears, knifes and even a slingshot. Paris still has his weapons on him. We decide to take turns carrying the bag: him first, then me.
Our footsteps are disguised by the fern and pine needles on the ground. After about two hours of fast-paced walking, I break into a run, and he closely follows. When we get to the mountain, we climb it is an extremely quick time. It's co,d at the top, so we bundle on extra clothing as we make a small tent out of the kit Paris slipped into the pack. Within minutes, we have a roof. I prop the bag up on a rock. We both look out. We have a clear view of the old camp, but they can't see us. Paris lays his head on the pack.
"Stop worrying. We can organise tomorrow, ok?"
"Yes."
I lay my head on the ground.
"Come here. You'll have a bad neck if you do that." He says softly.
I crawl to the end of the pack. Curling up on the ground, I stroke my nose. It's a habit I've had since I was little. It used to calm me. I hope it still does now. Paris reaches over and scoops me up in his arms easily, like I'm a feather. He sits me in his lap. Tiredly, I burrow into his chest, being rocked to sleep by his beating heart. I realise just how tired I am.
OoO.
I must have dozed off. When I lift my head, I'm not curled up like a cat on Paris' lap. I see him, gazing out of the den, watching a pool of blood spread around a girl.
"Who?"
"Eight. The Fallen is about to start."
We both gaze at the sky. The faces of Bobbi, a Cherish and, surprisingly, Sam, flash up on screen.
"How did he die?" I ask.
"By the looks of it, dehydration. He was clutching a tiny, empty water bottle when the hovercraft got him."
I nod.
There is only me, Paris, Pearl, Mason, Valerie, Enya, Finn and Eve left now.
A glint of silver catches my eye. A gift, a sponsor!
The note on the outside says:
Flicker,
You look in need of a good wash. Here.
Pixi.
Inside the little box is a little tube of soap. I store it in my bag, I will use it later.
Paris also has a sponsor, a piece of mint cake.
"The note from my Mentor, Crystal, says eat as much as I can. But I want to share it with you."
He gives me half of the cake. It's gorgeously rich. It fills me up more than the berries or coconut cakes. We feast until it is gone, not a crumb or a lick of cream left. I decide to take a look at our old camp. Pearl and Mason are asleep and Valerie and Finn are on watch. They all have scratches scarring their faces, while the rabbit and squirrel lay limply, with chunks torn out of the undercooked flesh. They've been fighting over food. Their fire is small,and looks like it burned out quickly. Finn looks like he's in pain. Then I see why. His arm looks like it's broken in three places. I know for a fact they haven't had a spinster yet. He'll need a sling and painkillers, or he could die. It's his weapon holding hand.
Pearl looks slightly messy. Her hair is sticking up and her eyes are puffy. She's been crying in her sleep.
"They'll all kill each other." Paris murmurs .
I nod.
Suddenly, a scream echoes through the air. A canon roars. Eve is picked up. I squint and see a bite wound in her thigh. A snake bite. I haven't seen any snakes in the arena yet. But I can guarantee that they are all venomous. I'm surprised Enya has lived this long. I've been wondering what she showed the Gamemakers. It wouldn't have been spears, she'd have know better than to make a fool of herself. I'm pretty sure I saw her at the slingshot station at least four times. She was also at the identifiers twice. That must have been what she showed them.
"What did you show them?" I ask Paris.
"Darts, sword work and I had a go at net making. I think that knocked a point off."
"Well, I'm going to find a rabbit. You stay here. Tell me of any casualties."
I crawl out of our den. Within two minutes, I see a stray rabbit. I throw a knife at it and carry it back. Paris cooks it for us and we eat like a pack of wolves. I rub the grease on my lips, because they have started to crack. I take the night shift while Paris sleeps soundly.
OoO
When I next wake up, I a, awakened by a yell.
Enya had attacked the camp. Finn, who had managed to get in a tree, was aiming his sword at her. The bodies of Pearl and Valerie lay on the ground. As Enya throws a knife off the floor at Valerie, who was still twitching, Finn releases his shot. Enya spits a mouthful of blood before crumpling to the ground. Three canons fire.
Now it's just me, Paris, Mason and Finn.