A/N I'm soooo sorry, I just noticed it has been almost two months since I last posted. Feel free to shout at me.
The gong goes off, the Hunger Games has officially started and I'm running. Unlike my fellow tributes I'm not running towards the Cornucopia The Careers are confident in their fighting ability to go straight to the Cornucopia for the weapons but others are running around trying to get the stuff closer to the metal plates. I don't need weapons to hunt my food and I don't need warm clothes or sleeping bags. So I am running away from the bloodthirsty chaos. When I was on the metal plate I could see the arena but now as I run I can really get a sense for it. The dirt is red and there are a few shrubs every now and then; they are small and only reach mid-way up my calf and have thorny leaves. Rarely, I see a hole in the ground; I think they are burrows. The red dirt and the vegetation remind me of somewhere, but I can't place it. Suddenly an image flashes into my mind. What I had taken for mutts earlier now resonate to me as kangaroos. They probably aren't the real deal just mutts anyway, but it is clear to me that the arena is supposed to be the Australian Outback. The Gamemakers have recreated a country that no longer exists.
I have been running for three hours and I'm starting to get tired. I can usually run for ages but it is terribly hot, I guess that is the point it is supposed to be the Australian desert: boiling hot days and freezing cold nights. I find a flattish rock and sit down and gather my thoughts. I notice that while I was mindlessly running I was subconsciously following a creek. I'm incredibly lucky to have found water so easily. The creek is very shallow and muddy, if I was a human I would have to use iodine or boil it before drinking it. Of course, the water might not last, the Gamemakers love to drain us of water, and it's all part of the Game. I go back to the mental image I tried to form during my minute on the metal plate; there are a few of these creeks zigzagging throughout the arena. This means my fellow tributes won't have to worry about water for the time being. "Jacob! You are doing it again." I reprimand my self. I am not allowed to care for the other tributes. I close my eyes to think. "Water: Check, Food: Now that'll be harder." I say to myself. The Gamemakers have given us water but food will be an issue. If this is a true re-creation of the Outback then most of the animal will be small and hard to find, the burrows are small, sparsely spread out and well hidden. The best option is those kangaroos, but even they are hard to kill, as they are very fast. Unless one is particularly good at archery or throwing knifes or spears it would be very hard for them. Luckily I don't have to worry about that as when I'm in wolf form I am as fast.
If I were a human the next thing I would worry about would be shelter and staying warm at night. This is a desert and temperatures can easily drop to around 45 degrees at night. Again my heart goes out to the other tributes, I don't have to worry about the cold, but if they don't have warm clothes or sleeping bag available they would be very cold. But there is nothing I can do this is the Hunger Games and it is my job to win and return to Nessie. Suddenly a canon goes off, and then another and another. The fighting must be over; each canon blast represents a death. I count them; twelve and I feel sick with myself when the first thing that I think of is "Halfway there."