A Shot in The Dark

Chapter 6

By: WonderGirl556

AN: Hey y'all! Since the soccer season is over for me, I have a ton of extra time on my hands! So updates will be more frequent! A mega thanks to all of my lovely reviewers: EGilly, Amelia, Strawberryluv, itsjillian, and Dramione-Fan 17! Another giant thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and took the time out of their day to read this story! I love you all!

It's still day four, and we have found our way into the woods, just to get trapped there.

Gale and I send each other bewildered looks before silently dashing off in the opposite direction of the Junior Peacekeepers. The last thing I see before bolting, is a gargantuan pile of weaponry being doled out to the eagerly waiting "hunters".

After sprinting for a good 5 minutes, we were on the edge of the woods, nearing the fence. Our unspoken course of action was to get out, now.

Out of the blue, Gale stops, he grabs my wrist, as I continue running, and yanks me back into his broad chest.

I give him an inquisitive look, this is not the time for romantic gestures.

All he offers me in response, was the point of the finger. Which directs my vision to the two Peacekeepers, who are patrolling the fence. I guess they are here if one of their precious "Future Protectors" gets lost.

I mouth the word "Thanks." back to him. He returns with a smile, before we head back into the woods.

This time we are more cautious, they should have their weapons by now, and are out scouring the land, searching for an unsuspecting squirrel. Who knows how many "bonus points" they would get for bringing back two humans.

I shiver at the thought as we near the small stream that runs through the woods.

We use the river as cover for our voices. Hopefully the sound will be enough to drown our voices out.

"goddamnit!" Gale yells. "Those idiots are going to wipe out all the game for weeks! And all to win a freakin' competition!"

"I know! It pisses me off!" I reply before asking him: "What are we going to do?"

"We need to just wait them out, it's only three hours." he logically responds.

"You're right." I respond.

Then the thought crosses my mind, what about our traps?

"Shit!" I exclaim "The Traps! Those meat heads aren't the brightest people, but with their training, they'd be able to distinguish a man-made trap when they see one. And it wouldn't be that hard to put together that it's been us in the woods all this time"

"Damn it!" he angrily replies. "We'll have to leave them."

"That's three weeks of work Gale!" I nearly shriek, "We can't afford that amount of food loss!"

Gale runs his fingers through his hair as he thinks, "We'll have to retrieve them. Let's split up. You take the seven near the lake, and I'll take the other eight."

I nod in response.

He pulls me into a hug, which I eagerly return. "Stay safe Katnip." he whispers.

"You too." I respond, "Meet up here alright?"

He nods back at me.

Gale releases me and I shoot off at top speed towards the lake. I have a lot of ground cover, the lake is about 2 miles away, and all the traps are scattered a quarter-mile away from each other."

I make it to the first trap without a problem. There's a dead rabbit in it. I smile. "At least something good has come out of this." I murmur to myself as I put the snare and rabbit into my game bag.

I breeze through the next 4 traps, there's nothing in them.

I approach the sixth trap an hour after the Junior Peacekeepers were released.

My hunter's hearing catches the sound of rustling leaves.

On instinct, I snatch my bow, which had been safely stowed away on my back, and load it. I shift over so I am mostly hidden by a large Maple tree.

The rustling continues, followed by the scattered sounds of snapping twigs. No mere animal is heading my way, it has to be a Junior Peacekeeper.

I keep my bow raised, and try to steel my nerves for what is about to come next. If the leaf rustler sees me, I am going to have to kill him. Because if he sees me, he will run back to his "commander" and tattle. I will be publicly whipped, and pretty much guaranteed to never set foot in the woods again.

The sound gets closer and closer, and I panic, the thought of having to take another human's life away terrifies me, so I unload my bow, and scurry up the Maple tree.

I climb as swiftly and silently as I can, hoping I will be out of sight.

I am about 25 feet up when my assailant crashes out of the bushes.

I remain frozen on my branch, not daring to look down at the being bellow me.

Finally after a couple of minutes, of silence, I hear crunching sound again, they've left.

I wait a minute after they've left to release the breath I had unknowingly been holding, put my bow on my back next to the quiver, and cautiously climb back down the tree.

Once I am back on the ground I chuckle and say to myself, "I guess Peacekeepers don't know a snare when they see one." I pick up the empty trap and set it my bag, next to the others.

"Oh, we know." a low voice says behind me.

I snatch the bow off my back and reload as I whip around to face the voice.

It was Cato.

Hehehehehehehe! I'm so evil! I left you with a cliffhanger! Review and maybe I will update faster! ;) I lied! ~*insert meme here*~ It will most definitely make me update faster! Until next time me loves!