Katniss turned over and over in her bed, winding herself up in her covers. The fact that the games were tomorrow seemed to be just outside her powers of comprehension. She smelled the perfectly clean sheets. This was the only way she would ever experience luxury like this. She went up to the roof to escape her room.
Peeta had beat her there. The colorful city flashed at them. She stood next to him.
"What do you think the arena will be like? Do you-" she began.
"You know," he said, talking over her, "I want to die as me. I don't want to just be part of their system. I don't want them to take who I am."
"So, you think there'll be, like, trees? Or..." Katniss mumbled off.
"I just," he sighed, "I don't want to play their game."
Katniss shrugged. "Okay. Kill yourself then."
"I can't. There's a forcefield so you can't jump off the roof."
"Okay. Seriously, man? If you wanted to kill yourself, you could."
He turned to look at her. "How-"
"Break glass at dinner," she stabbed at her neck with her fist, "weapons in the training room," she sliced across her throat.
"But-"
"Stab yourself with a pen! Drown yourself in the bathtub!" she became more animated.
"I-"
"If you don't want to play, you don't have to man," she started backing away, looking at him with widened eyes and arms stretched out to either side, "You don't have to."
xxx
At last, the moment had arrived. Katniss found herself under the arena with Cinna, standing on the metal plate that would push her up into the hands of the Gamemakers.
"Cinna?" she said.
"Yes, Katniss," he said with a deeply sad look.
"I appreciate everything you did for me."
Cinna nodded, his eyes sorry.
"But," she continued, "If you really cared about me, you would've actually done something to help me besides make sure I looked cool before I died, like an escape plan."
The plate lifted her away from Cinna into the sun. Twenty three other tributes rose out of the ground in a wide circle around her, grass stretching off into a forest. The golden cornucopia gleamed in the light, stocked full of fun survival items. Claudius Templesmith's voice boomed around them.
Haymitch said to just run, thought Katniss, But I can't just leave with nothing...
"Psst, hey!"
Katniss looked at the two tributes closest to her.
"No, not them, down here."
Katniss looked down. A bright orange backpack with a pair of big white eyes sat about ten feet in front of her.
"You gotta pick me up."
The countdown began, and the tributes got into various positions of readiness.
The white, cartoony eyes bored into her.
"What?" Katniss hissed at the pack.
The starting cannon went off, and Katniss lunged for the pack, scooping it off the ground by a strap. She was yanked back suddenly. A boy tribute had the other strap, and was headed in the other direction.
She jerked it toward herself. "Get your own talking backpack!"
Blood splattered out of the boy's mouth and he collapsed, spluttering. Katniss pulled the other strap over her shoulder, and saw a girl with a shiny new case of knives coming her away. She turned and ran.
"Oh my gosh, you are seriously not affected by that?" cried the backpack in a high voice, "That kid just-AAAGGHHHH!"
The girl flicked out another knife, and it cut cleanly into the orange fiber.
Katniss swept across the grass and was soon in the shade of the forest. She slowed to a jog.
"Oh, why?" called the backpack, bouncing along with her strides, "The pain!"
Katniss tugged the knife free and slipped it into her pocket. "Shut up Backpacky."
"Oh, Backpacky, original," coughed the bag.
Katniss ran on, eventually transitioning into a walk, crunching through the underbrush. She stopped once she felt she was at a safe distance from the other tributes and knew she had not been pursued. She slipped off the backpack and laid it on the ground in front of her. She began removing the contents and placing them around her in an organized manner.
"I guess there is some good stufff in here," she said, rustling around at the bottom of the bag. She put on a pair of big, rectangular sunglasses, "What do you think?"
"You could do better," answered Backpacky.
Katniss set the contents of the bag neatly back into place, and continued through the darkening forest. When the light had almost totally faded , she scaled a tree, found a sturdy fork, looped herself around the trunk with her belt, and settled into her sleeping bag. Just as she was beginning to drift off despite the extreme circumstances, she spotted a light. The light of a fire, warming up a little glowing ball of the forest.
"Wow, what a noob," said Katniss, looking on.
"Better not bring anybody over here," Backpacky said, "Idiot."
"I kind of hope she dies."
There was a terrible scream that seemed to ricochet around the trees and bounce right into Katniss's ear.
"Well, okay, now I feel bad," said Katniss, settling back down into her plastic sleeping bag.
"Don't," Backpacky said, looking straight up at the sky, "She was a fool."
Katniss slept uncomfortably.