I'm so sorry, but it's going to have to be a shorter chapter, this time! But y'all should be able to hang seeing as the last one was well over 4,000 words.
The chapters will be mostly between 2,000 and 3,000 words from here on out. They have to be a bit shorter because I for you to be able to keep track of Madge and Gale. On the bright side, though, this might mean quicker updates :)
Also, if it makes you feel better, this is probably the shortest that any chapter will ever get.
First Day Jitters
I open my eyes and am immediately blinded by the bright sunlight reflecting off of every surface around me. I shut them again, hoping that they'll, by some miracle, manage to adjust by the time my sixty seconds are up. I take a deep breath as the voice of Claudius Templesmith fills the air.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the seventy fifth annual Hunger Games and third Quarter Quell begin!"
I open my eyes again as I begin to count the sixty seconds in my head. I can see the cornucopia about twenty yards in front of my and all of the supplies strewn around it. The cornucopia appears to be in a deep valley surrounded by pine trees and huge, rocky mountains. Then I see what the sunlight has been reflecting off of: fresh snow.
Shit!
There'll be tracks everywhere, though, so if I'm being singled out by anyone, it'll be hard to decipher my foot prints from anyone else's. On the bad side, though, I'll leave tracks where ever I go, so that's one more thing that I'll have to worry about. But that's not the most important thing, now.
I look around me and see that Avan is two plates away to my left, looking confused. Penelope is two after her and she catches my eye. We're going to grab what we can and run. Whoever out lasts the other will wear their District token and get the supplies that we have left. I look past her and I see Gale on the plate next to hers. I want to jump off of my plate and into his arms. I want him to hold me and kiss me like he did last night. But that's not going to happen ever again. All I can do is try to live through this or at least make sure that, if I die, Gale or Penelope wins.
I look in front of me for the first time and see a backpack and knife about an arm's length away. I'll grab that, I decide, and then Penelope and I will run for it.
The gong sounds, and chaos erupts around me. The boy from six, who was next to me, lunges for the backpack, so I push him as hard as I can, bend over, grab it and the knife, then turn to see Penelope running towards me. I take off towards the woods, Penelope right on my heels.
In the distance, I can hear the yelling and screaming and the clashing of weapons that signal the bloodbath, but I ignore it and readjust the pack without stopping. Thankfully, there isn't much snow on the ground- maybe an inch, at most, so it doesn't hinder Penelope or I's running. I am glad for all of the practice that we have to do in District 12 with running down the tunnels in case we are ever stuck in the mines during an accident.
"Wow, District 12, how'd you get to be so good at running like this?" Penelope asks after about two miles and fifteen to twenty minutes of hard running.
"We did this for mining drills during school. It was in case there was ever an accident while we were in the mines. You had to be able to run for the lifts as fast as you could so that you could get out before all of the tunnels caved in," I explain.
"We never did that back in two. We hardly ever had cave ins. Only explosions," Penelope comments.
"We probably dig in different types of rocks and dirt because we had a lot of cave ins," I say.
"Do you have any idea how we can get rid of the tracks?" Penelope asks.
I think about it, but nothing comes to mind about how we could go about getting rid of our footprints with out leaving any other traces behind. Then, I have a brilliant idea. It might not work so well at first, but I'm sure that it'll be better than nothing.
"What if we walk backwards? Then at least no one will know which direction we're really headed in!" I offer up. Penelope nods and adds in her own idea.
"If we go single file in each other's footprints, it'll also hide that there are two of us," she says. "The only problem is, how do we start?"
I look around and see a large, rocky field in the forest.
"We'll go through there, then start with it. Who ever finds the tracks will think that they've lost our tracks in there," I say, and we start moving.
We climb and scramble our way through the rocks for about ten minutes until we feel like we've gone far enough. Then we start out again through the thick forest. This time, however, Penelope goes first, walking backwards. I follow her, my knife poised to attack and my eyes wide for any dangers in our path.
Penelope and I don't stop moving like this for miles. We keep going until we finally reach the edge of the forest, where a raging, freezing river separates the thick pine trees from the steep incline of the rocky slopes of the mountains that surround the forest and cornucopia. By this time, hours have passed and I'm shivering drastically from the cold that comes with twilight.
"Let's sit down and rest. Right here, in the cover of the trees," Penelope instructs. There are two large boulders that form a small crevice on the edge of the trees, so we squeeze in there to rest and sort through the supplies in our packs.
"I've got a pair of night glasses, two packs of dried fruit, a package of beef jerky, three knives, a sleeping bag, a pack of matches, a metal pot, a water bottle, iodine, a pair of gloves, and about two yards of rope," I say as I lay everything out .
"I have an extra blanket, three packs of beef jerky, a water bottle, about a yard of rope, a spear, two knives, a pair of mittens, two pairs of wool socks, four packages of dried apples, and a package of heating pads," Penelope says.
"What's a heating pad?" I ask, but it sounds like it'll come in handy here.
"Back in District 2, people will sometimes get stranded between villages on the way to things like the reaping and other stuff. We have heating pads for when they get frost bite after being stranded in the cold and snow," Penelope explains.
"We'll have to keep an eye on those. We can't lose them," I decide.
"No shit, Madge?" Penelope replies sarcastically. I roll my eyes and we both laugh a little.
"Do you think that we should start a fire?" I ask.
"Maybe if it's in here and if we can do some damage control with the smoke," Penelope says as she continues going through my backpack, for some reason.
"Hey, what's this for?" she asks as she pulls out what looks like a small fan with a large metal hook on it. I had skipped over it while going through my pack because I could find no practical use for it while in the middle of a snowy forest.
"I have no clue, but I don't think that it's going to be all that useful here, in the middle of a freezing, snowy forest," I point out.
"You're probably right, Madge. But still, when we move, I think that we'd better take it with us. Just in case, you know," Penelope says.
"Yeah, there's got to be a reason that it's in here, after all," I agree.
Penelope starts a small fire in the crevice and I fill the metal pot with water from the edge of the river. I take it back to the crevice and pour a few drops of the iodine in it and then let it sit. I grab some rope and begin trying to tie a few snares to put out, in the hopes of catching something. Also, it's something to do. I've never been one for small talk and, from the looks of it, neither has Penelope.
The fire starts up and most of the smoke gets caught by the boulders above us. Besides, there's a strong wind blowing, so it'll be hard to tell where the smoke is actually coming from. I realize that I could care less, though, about the careers. The fire's warm and the trap catches a small rabbit. It's so wonderful to have something to eat. Breakfast this morning feels like it was years as opposed to hours ago.
We begin to review small pieces of advice that we picked up from the instructors at the training sessions: most of you body heat is lost through the ground so sit on a back pack or pad. Sleep on one too. Put your hands in your arm pits to warm them up. Move around to avoid hypothermia. Stay as dry as possible. Change socks often, if you can. We say these things to each other like a grocery list.
Somewhere in the distance, we hear the canon. But the sound of the rushing river drowns out the sound of the individual shots. We will have to wait until the capitol projects the faces of each dead tribute into the air to know how many of us are left to fight it out.
Dusk gathers around us and we both look up to the darkened sky as the anthem of Panem plays throughout the arena.
"I'll count, you keep track of District numbers," Penelope says. I nod.
The first to appear is the girl from 3. Next is the girl from 4. Then appears the boy from five and both from 6. The girl from 9, both from 10, and the girl from 11 appear next. It stops after that, and I fight the urge to sigh with relief that Gale's picture did not appear, though I doubted that he would be stupid enough to take part in the blood bath.
"Nine are gone," she comments, "Which means that fifteen of us are left."
"6 and 10 are both out," I say, "and, if my assumptions about Avan are correct, 5 will be out pretty soon as well."
"I wonder what the career pack will look like this year," Penelope comments.
"Hopefully we don't have to find out first hand," is my reply. Mart, the boy from 4, still terrifies me. I don't ever want to see him again.
"Look, Madge, if, by some miracle, we make it to the top five, can we separate then? I don't mean to sound like a sap, or something, but it'd be a lot easier to kill an enemy than to kill someone who you know that you could have possibly been friends with, if things had been different, that is," Penelope asks me.
"No- I get it. If it comes down to you and me- or me and Gale- or even me and Avan- that would just be awful." I agree.
"I'd hate to have to kill my District Partner," shudders Penelope. I nod in agreement. "It'd be worse for you, though, since you knew Gale before hand."
"Yeah…" I mumble in agreement.
"How'd you two know each other, again?" she asks. I have to wonder what the hell she's doing. Gale and I's (almost/ kind of/ maybe) relationship is completely irrelevant. If anything, it'll reduce me to tears at the thought of what could have been. But I answer anyway.
"He used to bring us strawberries," I say. Then I add a quick "from the meadow." In case any Peacekeepers back in District 12 are watching. I wouldn't want Gale's family to get into any sort of trouble over something that I said.
I hear a rustling in the trees and Penelope looks at the fire sadly.
"We'd better put it out now. The Career pack might be out looking for survivors," she decides, as she stomps it out for the most part. There are still a few embers left glowing, though.
I put on the night vision glasses and start to push the large boulder near our crevice in front of the more exposed opening. There's still a way that we could get out pretty easily if the need arose, but it's harder to see from the outside world. It's the perfect place to camp out, though: Hard to find, but you're still not trapped like a rat.
Penelope unzips the sleeping bag and we both climb in after we put our backpacks underneath it to keep our warmth from being absorbed by the ground. She wraps the extra blanket around our shoulders and we try to squeeze closer together.
"I'll take first watch," I offer. She nods slowly, and I can feel her drifting off beside me.
I keep the night vision goggles on, and keep the embers from the fire burning underneath the pot for as long as I can. I'm worried about the glow giving away our position, but the warmth is nice. Eventually, though, I start up the fire a bit, stick the pot over it, then cook the meat until it's done. It keep my hands on the little pot too, until Penelope starts to stir from her sleep. It's still dark out and she offers to keep watch until the morning.
I wrap the sleeping bag around myself and shut my eyes as tightly as I can. I try not to think about the games or the faces of all of the dead tributes in the sky. I try not to think about how I might have to kill Penelope or Avan or even Gale. I try so hard and eventually, I start to succeed.
As I nod off, my only thoughts are of Gale and our families back in District 12. I wonder how they're all doing right now. But I push that thought from my mind as the tears threaten to start falling. I can't think about mom and dad, or Mr. Mellark, or even Gale, who is in this big huge mess with me. I cannot look weak. I have to be strong. I have to win.
No, I will win.
I will return home.
I'm not going to be another one of the Capitol's little casualties in the games. I'm not going to be their pawn.
I drew Maysilee for a reason, I realize, even if I didn't know it yet.
The Capitol doesn't- and will never- own me.
I'll find a way to defy them, in the end, I decide. I don't know what it will be or how I will do it, but I will find a way. I'll find some way. I have to. It's like daddy always said, "Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm".
Everything that they're doing to preserve heat, I learned on my backpacking trip. This is what I'm basing the Games off of the most. So if you're ever stranded in the wilderness with only your ipod touch and this chapter down loaded onto it… well, I'm glad to have been of service (the tone of my voice would be sarcastic, if I were saying this out loud).
Well, even though it was a shorter chapter, you should still review!