So, I am finally back. Hooray! But not for long… I am spending about two months abroad in Germany as part of an exchange program. I expect to be busy doing… well, stuff, so I would not encourage you to hold your breath for regular updates. I'll try to get another one (or two) in before I leave and I'll be sitting at my host family's home for about a week in July while everyone at the Gymnasium (the German equivalent of High School) I attend takes their version of finals, so I'll try to update then. I get back home at the end of July, so I'll be able to update then as well.
I did a lot of revamping for my story. I changed my idea of what the arena would be like a lot, so that delayed updates a bit. I also got sick and lazy.
Anyways, enough of my rambles. On with the story.
Third Time's a Charm
It's a bit warm out when I wake up so the snow has melted quite a bit. The sun looks like it's been up for about an hour- maybe two- so I assume that Penelope let me sleep in a little bit because nothing really happened last night. I see her down by the river, watching for any sign of life on the other side. Her back pack is already packed and with her and I can't help but worry that she's getting ready to abandon me in my sleep or something. But I see a bit of the food and I'm still in the sleeping bag, so I guess that she's just decided to pack up early. I let out a relieved sigh, though, when she walks towards me with no signs that she's regretting our teaming up.
"Get your stuff packed. I didn't hear any canons last night and the Capitol isn't very patient," Penelope mutters.
"Yeah, well, it looks like it might be another easy day ahead!" I say, attempting to be optimistic. Penelope doesn't seem all that amused.
"Look, Madge, the careers will be scouring the forest for any tributes that are left. It's the game plan that we're all taught from the moment that we enter the District 2 Training Center: kill the others as quickly as possible and, while you're at it, try to 'accidentally' knock off a tribute or two that's in your alliance. The bigger the threat they are, the better," Penelope explains.
"So no resting tonight?" I ask grimly.
"No resting until one of us actually manages to win this thing," Penelope smiles grimly.
It's early morning and Penelope and I have both decided to go hunting and gathering for a bit before we actually set off to look for another place to set up camp. I have to admit that it doesn't really feel like the actual Hunger Games and it's starting to bug me. I feel like either Penelope or I should have been attacked or even killed by now because, to use a common cliché, it's too quiet. From what we see on television, the Games seem to be nonstop action from start to finish (well, except for a few times when too many tributes are just trying to wait it out). It's probably some fancy editing, courtesy of the Capitol and Game makers.
I try to snap my mind back to reality as soon as I realize that it's wandering, though. My spacey tendencies are not going to be an advantage here in the arena. In fact, they are probably my greatest weakness in these Games besides my inability to actually fight or use a weapon well. My seven in training was just a fluke generated by my inability to properly censor my thoughts or think about the long term consequences of my actions. Or Haymitch's feelings of debt towards my dead aunt.
Either way, though, I (according to the statistics gathered throughout the run of the Games) should be dead by now.
Dear Lord, Madge, can you just FOCUS? My mind yells at me.
No! I could die any second and I have the right to space out a bit, I retort.
Then I realize that I am arguing with myself.
I decide to gather some berries which, thankfully, takes a lot of concentration because of the risk of gathering poisonous ones on accident. I wouldn't want to be that one idiot girl who died from berries. I don't think that I could ever live that down. Although, I would be dead if that happened, so I don't think that it would matter all that much.
I take a deep breath, shut my eyes, and when I open them I see that I am looking at one of the strangest things that I have ever seen. One of the many mountains that surround the arena seems to be collapsing towards the river. I continue staring, trying to figure out what is going on, when I hear voices on the other side of the river shouting.
I recognize one of those voices.
It's Gale.
What the hell is he doing?
But there's no time for that. Gale needs my help and badly.
He seems to be struggling through the rubble towards a fallen log that reaches most of the way across the raging and terrifying river.
"Gale, over here!" I shout before I can stop myself.
He sees me and nearly faints.
"Long time no see, huh?" is the only thing I can think of saying.
"What the hell are you thinking, Madge? We need to get out of here!" Gale grabs my hand and takes off through the forest, running blindly through the thick mud.
"Gale, slow down!" I pant. "There's no one on our trail and you don't know where you're going!" I gasp, and I'm right. There isn't anyone on our trail and Gale is running blindly away from Penelope and my camp site.
"Madge, you never know! We need to get out of here!" he hisses.
"Then let's go this way," I snap. Gale rolls his eyes, but follows me, albeit, quite begrudgingly.
"We're leaving footprints," he points out.
"We're packing up camp anyways. It won't matter," I reply.
Out of nowhere, the earth begins to move. Literally move. I hear the creaking of trees in the distance and the rumble of dislodged rocks on the mountain side. I feel Gale grab me and his nails dig into my shoulder as he wrenches me away from a falling tree. Then, as suddenly as it begins, the shaking and rumbling of the earth completely stops. I hear the crashes of a few more trees in the distance over Gale's heavy breathing in my ear.
"What was that?" I finally manage to whisper.
"It felt like a mine collapse, almost, but not really," Gale replies thoughtfully.
I nod, remembering the way that you could feel the shaking of an explosion gone wrong during an accident in the mines. This felt similar, but even more deadly and frightening than the slight tremors that wracked across the ground in 12.
We keep moving carefully and listen for the sound of a canon. None comes.
The Game makers will surely want to up the ante seeing as there were no unfortunate casualties of the shakes.
"So you and Penelope, really?" Gale jokes, obviously trying to continue the rather awkward attempts at small talk he and I have been making. I decide to try and play along again, but in this situation, it's not exactly easy or satisfying.
"Yes, really! And what about you? Did you and Byte team up or did he ditch you?" I try to joke, but Gale's face turns stony. I don't need to ask in order to guess what has happened to his ally. Well, most likely, former ally.
Gale and I continue our struggle through the thick mud in silence. The squelching sound from beneath my shoes only adds to the awkwardness of the current situation. I'll admit that I do not possess the world's greatest social skills, but I highly doubt that anyone could make this situation less awkward. One of us is going to die, this mud makes the most disturbing noises, and Gale kissed me. He really kissed me. I know what I want to talk about: where's our relationship at now? But this is the Hunger Games and, as everyone saw last year, love does not belong in the arena. Besides, I don't want to have that conversation on national television. And I'm sure that Gale doesn't want to do so either.
I settle for the awkward silence coupled with the sound of my boots squelching as I try to pull them out of a particularly thick and sticky clump of mud. I freeze when I feel a pair of large and strong hands grip my waist. I swivel my head and look straight into Gale's light gray eyes. I swallow as I drop my eyes and try to control my blushing; knowing that if I keep looking into those stormy eyes nothing good will happen.
"Here you go, Madge," Gale whispers as he wrenches me out of the mud. I climb onto a fallen tree's trunk.
Gale follows me as I scramble up a series of rocks and boulders jutting out of the ground in an effort to avoid the mud. Out of nowhere, the ground begins to shake again. Gale grabs me and keeps me steady as the crashing of trees and the rumble of avalanches begins again.
The ground steadies again, so Gale and I continue. We're getting close to camp when we hear the crashing of a tree near by and a loud scream that cuts off suddenly as if whoever made the noise was punched in the gut. I begin to run towards the sound and Gale can do nothing except follow me as I crash through the forest.
"Oh, Penelope," I whisper when I see her. She rolls her eyes as I pull the hair out of her face. A sarcastic little fighter to the end, I see.
"Madge, what's…" Gale starts to ask as he stumbles up behind me. Once he catches sight of what's going on, though, he immediately falls silent. "Do you think that maybe I could move or roll it? Would that help at all?" he whispers once he's taken in the situation.
I am about to give him my rather solemn answer when Penelope speaks up.
"Of course it won't, you moron," she snaps.
She has a point. The tree falls right across her chest and abdomen, while her legs are caught up in the branches. A thicker branch must have caught her in the side of her stomach, because blood is slowly leaking from beneath the tree into a pool that surrounds her. Her face is a gray green color and her eyes are bloodshot. She coughs deeply occasionally, and each time a bit more blood spews from her pale lips and splatters onto her shirt. It's not hard to see that this is her end.
I feel the tears beginning to gather behind my eyes.
"Go, Madge. You're crying and you know that I can't stand it when people cry," she hisses.
"I won't leave," I whisper hoarsely.
"Madge," Gale whispers into my ear, "she's right. We can't stay forever and we need to get out of here in case more trees start to fall."
"No one deserves to die alone, Gale!" I snap. This shuts him up and he looks on solemnly for a few more seconds before he mutters something about gathering up the rest of Penelope's supplies that way we have something to live off of.
"Madge, please just get out of here. You have a chance, Madge. A really good chance, but you need to use your head, not your heart in here. Please, just leave me," Penelope whispers. I can see the tears that are threatening to spill.
"I won't leave, you, Penelope," I insist. She coughs again, blood spewing quickly now.
"Good luck, Madge…" she whispers and she closes her eyes, coughs one last time, and then the canon booms.
"Where are we headed, Gale?" I ask as we trudge through more mud, pausing only when the trembles began again.
"I know that this seems a bit risky, but seeing as the only water source in the arena is the river…" Gale begins, but I feel the need to interrupt.
"Or the mud," I add.
Gale gives me the famous Hazel Hawthorne stink eye.
"Fine, or the mud," he rolls his eyes for effect. "But look, most tributes will choose to stay closer to the river: there's water, possible food, and not as many trees to dodge. Almost no one will be in the forest tonight." Gale explains.
"Yeah, I'll give you that almost no one will be in the forest- and for a pretty good reason, too," I argue.
"Yes, so if we stay in the forest we won't run into the career pack, Madge," Gale says.
"But we will most likely be crushed by trees, Gale," I counter.
"Not if we stay somewhere safe, Madge," He grins. I raise my eyebrows.
"Where?"
"How about a large, sturdy, metal cornucopia?" he suggests.
"It's freezing in here," I mutter as I wrap myself in the sleeping bag, my teeth chattering violently in the cold of the late evening. The metal cornucopia seems to suck all of the heat from your body. Even sitting on the backpacks, I am still frozen solid. Gale finishes putting out our small, rather unnoticeable fire and plops down next to me. His arm casually finds its way around my shoulders. I decide not to comment on it, all things considered.
"Are you okay, Madge?" he asks quietly.
I want to give him some sarcastic answer about how wonderful it is, knowing that I will never see my family again. How wonderful it is watching a girl I might have considered a friend die. How wonderful it is knowing that this could easily be the last moment that Gale and I ever share. But instead, I murmur a quick no. Gale doesn't intrude or try to pry any further: he knows what we'll see tonight in the sky and he is aware of the reality of our situation.
The anthem blares through the silence and stillness of the night. We look up and find the faces of both tributes from District one. Gale murmurs something that sounds like "rock slide" as his form of explanation. I don't pry. I just brace myself for what's coming next. Penelope and her District Partner, Oliver, appear. I assume that Oliver also died in the rock slide. The screen goes blank and the stillness of the night returns.
There are still trees crashing in the distance, but I ignore the sounds of danger as I drift off into a deep sleep.
"Madge, wake up! Please, wake up!" I hear Gale hiss at me.
The cornucopia is warm and the bright light of day surrounds us. A smell of cooked meat fills my nostrils and then I see the look of pure dread on Gale's face. He pulls me to my feet, to the very edge of the cornucopia, and pushes me into the raging fire that surrounds us.
Also, I am so sorry that it took me two whole months to get this up! I am so sorry!
Please review :) it would be totally awesome!