Chapter 7
39…..
I felt like I was going to faint…..
20…..
This is for real
12….
Take deep breaths Prim
9….
Focus on the easy backpacks
3…..
You can do it Prim
1….
It´s time,
Go!
It took me some time to react, everything seemed to be going too fast, what finally brought me to my senses was the crippled boy from 10 who was surprisingly good at hitting others with rocks.
I ran for the Cornucopia keeping an eye on the Careers, who were busy fighting off Thresh, Rue told me about him, the serious 18 year old boy from her district, he was tall and muscular, the only one scarier on this arena than the Careers. I found a small green backpack near some bushes and I went for it. I was about to get it when another familiar face picked it, it was Rue, she returned the backpack and we ran out of the bloodbath as fast as our legs could manage.
We walked for about 2 hours without saying anything; we just wanted to get ourselves as far as we could from the Cornucopia or other places the Careers where likely to go. The adrenaline kept us going, we were both panting and sweating, and it was only day one.
We finally stopped at a nice big pine tree, Rue climbed flawlessly but it took me about 12 tries to get to the top with Rue. Since we had been all silent since the bloodbath I decided to break the ice a little bit.
"Thanks for being my ally" I smiled.
She smiled back but didn´t look up.
I opened the green back and examined the contents: one small knife, a packet of matches, and a small pack of crackers and to our surprise a sleeping bag!
We decided to share the sleeping bag since it was probably going to be really cold at midnight, we got inside the sleeping bag, and it was really comfy (considering that I was suspended on the top of a tree in the middle of an arena where we are all supposed to hunt each other down.
The anthem played and we saw the faces of our fallen tributes; both from 3, the girl from 4, both from 8, the boy from 9 and the girl from 10.
So the career pack made it flawlessly, I thought
I wondered where Peeta was…
The following days Rue and I focused on staying well hidden. The crackers were gone in 2 days and we needed to find some food.
We found a small berry bush while exploring the area; the sun was coming down so we needed to hurry,
"What do you think Rue?"
"Edible" she said with a smile, after all we were starving, I could see my ribcage!
I smiled; I continued to pick up some berries while rue took a small piece of cloth from the backpack to put the berries.
I couldn´t wait to taste the sweet reddish juice of the berry, after all they reminded me of my home and how Katniss would gather berries and apples to keep me and my goat happy, oh how I missed my sister.
I was so busy thinking about my sister when I heard some footsteps coming towards us.
"Rue…" I whispered
She heard them too; we ran into the berry bush and waited.
My heart pounded out of my chest, the moon was out and our path was dark, we heard the footsteps closer each second.
Something was wrong, Rue was shaking and being extremely loud and the visitor hadn´t attacked us.
I took a peek from the bush and saw a pair of boots, limping toward a tree to steady his body, it was a boy, I could tell from his clothes. He definitively saw us by then, Rue was sobbing with fear, I was biting my lip, so I wouldn´t scream.
He got closer to the berry bush, Rue was sobbing so hard it hurt, and I just closed my eyes, waiting for it to end.
"Hel…" said the visitor in a feeble voice before collapsing in front of us.
I was first to get out of the berry bush, Rue was still on shock.
The figure in front of me was about 14 years old, blood covered his face, he had a huge cut on his chest, he would surely die if we didn´t help him, "Rue" I said, she was still in shock, I cleared some blood from his face; I gasped, it was the boy from district 4.