Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. Nor do I own the invention known as 'spell check', which has both aided and made my life miserable.
Seeing Glitch perched next to me, knife raised made me think one thing: betrayal. After that it made me think another thing: Holy crap, I am going to die. I should have known our alliance wouldn't last into the arena. Now she was going to kill me, just like she was probably going to do to every other tribute in the arena, rather they like it or not. I knew I shouldn't have trusted her. I shouldn't trust anyone. I catch her eye. I'm surprised to see it focused in the distance.
"They're coming, we have to go." Glitch said.
"What?" Um…at this rate I'm confused. Then I realize. She does want to help me. The knife isn't aimed at me. It's aimed towards the trees, just like her eyes. I hear the splashing of human feet again. About four pairs, maybe more. They are headed this way.
"Come on. Draw your bow. Ready an arrow" She grabs my arm and drags me along the branch; while she does this I take out my bow and position an arrow. She then drops my hand and jumps to the next branch. She motions me to follow. I think back to my dream. I think back, to falling to my death. The blood in my head is pounding harder than ever now. I need to jump though. I take a deep breath and mimic her movements. I land on the branch of the next tree. Glitch grins and nods, taking off faster, jumping from branch to branch, with myself in close pursuit, bow still loaded and at the ready for any sign of attack by the pursuers.
We kept this up for twenty minutes. Flying through the trees, it reminds me of birds. The scenery would be beautiful, if we weren't running for our lives. I wasn't really paying attention my surroundings though. I was trying too hard to keep my balance, and make sure I didn't lose my footing. Those chasing us were still able to keep up. Glitch stopped. I barely managed to keep from ramming into her, and almost drop my bow and arrow. I started to fall. It's a good thing I didn't though. I jumped to the branch beside the one that Glitch rested on to keep from tumbling off of the branch. The running had almost become routine, it seemed weird to stop so suddenly. We were now in the cypress portion of the arena.
"It's no use…They will keep chasing us… We are going to have to fight… or trick them, but we can't outrun them." Glitch said in between heavy breaths of air.
I looked down. I tried to concentrate on my breathing. The splashing was getting louder. We didn't have much time until they arrived. When I raised my head to look and see if Glitch had an idea I almost screamed. There was a cluster of snakes at the end of the branch that I was sitting on. Not ordinary snakes either. Assassination Pythons, they are mutations. They were created by the Capitol during the time of the Rebellion. They, much like Trackerjackers, will hunt and kill whatever disrupts them. They live in groups of five or more. They are huge. They kill by strangling their prey. They are unnaturally fast. The branch I'm on is bending under their burden. Just a bit more weight and it would snap.
I turn towards Glitch, finding her deep in thought, probably trying to figure out how to fight or perhaps just how to make it out alive. I hesitate before interrupting her train of thought. "Glitch, I have an idea."
"What?" She asks annoyed. I can tell I interrupted her train of thought. As an answer, I point to the end of the branch. She looks to where I was pointing and gasped.
"It just needs a bit more weight, and it will snap, we can wait until their under it. The snakes will land on them and kill them all, or at least some of them. "
Glitch grins, her features lightened up by the ingenious idea. "Good idea. Actually, it's a great idea. How about you jump, the force should break the branch."
"What if I fall with the snakes?" the idea of my dream becoming a reality frightens me.
"I'll catch you. I promise. Don't worry you can trust me." Yeah, sure, what makes you think I should trust you, I think in my head. Then again, if I do die, at least I'm taking others down with me…
"Ok." I stutter, I still don't trust her, but what would be her reason to kill me? She would be that much closer to winning, says that annoying contradicting voice in my head. The splashing stops. I look down and see six tributes. It's the Careers.
Three boys and three girls. They are hunting in a pack. You can tell which ones were from the same district. There are two blonds with pale skin, due to years of pampering, two brunettes with a light tan and two with black hair, and a really deep tan, which oddly resembled fish. We are pretty high in a tree; I'm not sure what type of tree though. They look pretty heavy. I don't think they would be stupid enough to climb up to kill us.
"How is it going, Alec, Darcie, Demetri, Ethan, Allia, and Electa?" Glitch calls down. How does she know all of their names? Does she have a secret alliance?
"Not bad Glitch, who's your pathetic little friend?" A boy, with platinum blond hair, from District 1, I think, says. Even though I don't know him, I don't like him.
"Be nice, Demetri, her name Is Glynn." Glitch shouts in a tone of false patience.
"Wait, so, you blew us off for the twelve-year-old? That was your alliance?" The girl, with coal black hair, District 4, says in utter disbelief.
"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Glitch grins as wide as she can, to make sure those down on the ground can see.
The girl shook with what could only be anger. "Why, you jealous, Allia?" says the boy from District 4 in a taunting tone.
"Shut up, Alec. No one cares what you have to say." Allia snaps back.
Alec lunges. I watch them take part in a fist fight. None of the others step forward to stop them. "What do you think is the chance of them killing each other?" I whisper into Glitch's ear, while I nervously eye the Assassination Pythons. Glitch tries to suppress a laugh.
"Unfortunately for us, it's not that likely." Then she yells down forty feet to the Careers. "So, one of you guys going to come up here, or are you just going to stand there and try to kill each other?" Alec freezes in mid-punch. He and Allia drop their hands to their sides, embarrassed almost.
"Hey, Darcie, I've seen you climb trees back in District 1. You're up." Demetri shrugged to the thin, blond haired girl, who I supposed was Darcie. I recognize her as the one with the spear that had lost interest in me on the first day in the arena. She was at least 120lbs.
Darcie begs to differ though, "Yeah, but only, like, fifteen or twenty feet high. I'll, like, die if try to climb that high. The branches won't support my, like, weight." I roll my eyes. I'm no grammar genius, but I think it's grammatically incorrect to use 'like' so much in the same sentence.
The boy from District 2, Ethan, I guess that is his name by process of elimination, steps up. "I might be able to throw my spear that high… but they probably would be able to get out of the way before it hits."
They had been moving as they talked, almost like looking at us from different angles will pose a new opportunity to kill us. They were now in the perfect location for me to drop the Assassination Pythons on them. I look to Glitch. She nods. I take a deep breath. I hope that I can trust her on this. I scrunch down and with all my power kick off. When I land back down on the branch, I feel it snap under the pressure of my foot.
I know I'm falling. I know the rush associated with falling. Three years ago, when I was nine, I climbed dangerously high into a tree, over one-hundred feet high. It was a month after my brother's death. My father had to beg me to come down. I finally did, about an hour after reaching the top. Forty feet from the bottom I accidentally stepped on a thin branch and it snapped underneath my foot. Time seemed to slow down. Then, as if to make up for lost time, it speeds up as you fall. I broke my left arm; it hit a branch when I fell. That was it. My father said I could have had a lot worse. I hit almost every branch on the left side of the tree as I fell. None of them hit my head. For once, I was lucky.
Time still hasn't speed up. I know shouldn't have trusted her. Time starts to accelerate, death time I think. Then I felt a painful yank on my arm. I look up. Glitch caught me. I could tell she struggled to pull up my weight, but she managed. I heard a crash, followed by screams. I looked down. I instantly wish that I didn't. The scene unfolding below me terrified me.
Demetri, Alec, and Allia were taking off, sprinting, into the woods leaving their companions behind to die there unpleasant deaths. Snakes had gotten to three of the Careers. Ethan's muscular body was being constricted by two of the larger snakes. Electa had only one smaller Assassination Python attacking her, but it was around her neck. Darcie's frail body was being strangled by three snakes. They weren't screaming. They were close to dead. All of the air was pressed from their lungs. They were all goners. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't help them.
"Come on, let's go." Glitch helped me to my feet. I was a bit shaken. I still can't believe she saved me.
We took off through the trees. Over the course of ten minutes, we heard three cannon fires; one for each of the teenagers that we had left there to die. After what seemed like hours of jumping, we stopped to rest. Breathing heavily, we sat down on the branch of one of those trees with the thick branches that I didn't know the names off. Glitch took off her backpack. It was a brown color, and was fairly large. I wonder what is in there. She took out a water skin and started taking little sips of it. I did the same with mine. It was getting dark.
We were resting on a fairly large branch. Big enough for both of us to lie down on side by side without falling off. We had agreed to stay there subconsciously. We haven't talked since we killed those three tributes. The Capitol's symbol shined into the sky and the anthem started to play. There were three faces in the sky tonight. The faces that belonged to Ethan, Electa, and Darcie; the three Careers strangled by snakes. Only nine tributes left. There were less than half of what there was to begin with. I looked over to Glitch. The look on her face was grim.
I finally convinced myself to go to sleep. If she wanted to kill me, she would have let me fall to my death when the branch snapped. Once again, I dream of falling; only I'm the one watching this time. I can't make out the face of the person, who is tumbling towards their death. I hear the cannon fire and I bolt awake. I look to my side. Glitch is still there, sleeping beside me. I let out a deep breath that I didn't even know I was holding; or why I was holding it.
Ok. I kept thinking that this was chapter seven, but I managed to figure out that it is chapter six. My math skills are bad, but not that bad. Anyway, read and review. Thanks for reading.