20: Searching

Gale POV:

I wake up in the cave, Katniss slumped down next to me. I yawn loudly and nudge her and Aravis awake. Waiting for them to get up, I take a look outside. The sun is just rising, casting bright rays over the forest. It must have rained here last night because the ground around us is wet. I turn around when Katniss prods me in the back.

"Come on Gale," she says. "We don't have time to be sitting watching the sunrise. We're low on food, low on water and we need to find the career camp so we can poison their food."

"You decided to go through with that?" I ask.

Katniss shrugs. "It's the best plan we've got, other than sit in our cave and try to outlast them until something forces us out."

Aravis comes up behind us. "You can hunt?" she asks.

"Yes, it's how we got the food we gave to you when we found you," I reply. "We've been sponsored quite a lot, but Haymitch hasn't sent us anything that we couldn't get by ourselves."

"I haven't been sponsored much at all," Aravis admits. "My mentor Electra sent me a loaf of bread near the beginning of the games, before I found the career camp, but that was it. I probably don't have that many sponsors. Who wants to sponsor the average girl from 5 when the can give to the star-crossed lovers of District 12 or the careers or Thresh?" she asks bitterly.

"Maybe it's just that you've been doing well without sponsors," Katniss suggests, just to cheer her up a bit. It's fairly obvious that that isn't the reason that Aravis didn't get sponsored much. "And you're hardly average- you're in the final six. If you were average you would probably have been a bloodbath tribute," she continues.

"Thanks for trying, but I know that I'm not sponsored because there are others that they like better. And I ran away from the bloodbath- I'm not stupid enough to think that I could survive that," Foxface replies. "So, you were going hunting?"

"Yes, we're going hunting," I reply. "Are you and Katniss OK from yesterday?"

Aravis nods. "The anti-venom worked really well."

"I'm fine," Katniss says. "My cut wasn't bad, it wasn't deep, it's already healed over." I look at her and see that she is right, all that is left is a small scratch that could have easily come from something simple like the barbed wire fence in 12. "It's your arm I'm more worried about, how is it?"

I shrug. "It's fine I guess. I mean, I can feel it, but it's not that bad." Maybe I lied slightly there. It hurts- actually quite a bit. But I can still function and it's not infected or life- threatening, therefore saying that it is not that bad could be considered true. I just don't want Katniss to worry too much about me though, or try and protect me more, or not let me help her. "So, hunting?" I suggest, changing the subject.

We exit the cave and split up in a small area. Close enough to hear an ally's cries for help- hopefully- and get there in time for them to be safe. I will never forgive myself if something happens to Katniss and I am not there to protect her. Like at the feast. Yes, I was protecting her by shooting Cato, but I still had to watch her terror as Clove nearly mutilated her face. Thank god the cut wasn't deep- probably wont even leave a scar.

I stalk towards the source of a rustling noise. Not big enough to be a tribute. Prey. As I put an arrow in my bow, my mouth waters at the thought of sinking my teeth into some freshly cooked rabbit. Just like in District 12, which Katniss or with Rory and Posy. My mind wanders towards them. I wonder how they are coping with my absence. Is Rory hunting for them? How is Posy getting on?

I shake the thoughts away and release the arrow. There is a small squeak of pain and more rustling, with stops after a second. I push away the bush and see what I shot. A squirrel, an arrow straight through its heart. A perfect shot- now why couldn't I have done that yesterday? I yank the arrow out, ignoring the unpleasant squelch of the flesh and the blood that comes out. I stick the arrow back in the quiver.

After debating whether to hunt more or find Katniss and Aravis, I decide to find the others. They've probably caught something and our catch won't keep for long. A squirrel and one or two other things should be enough to feed us for the day- it's more than I got in District 12 even because of sharing with my mum, Posy and Rory. I wish I was back with them.

I catch a glimpse of fiery red hair and sneak up behind Aravis. Appearing behind people is a trick I've always enjoyed, I've always been proud of my ability to sneak up to people undetected. It should be useful in our plan to poison the career's food- only sneaking past them to kill them, not behind them to surprise people for fun. I feel slightly sick at what's been happening- I've got into the Games. I'm using my skills to kill people without remorse- like a career. Like the people that I've always detested.

"Aravis," I say once I'm right behind her.

She whirls around on me with a knife out. Glaring, she puts the knife back in the belt. "You scared me," she accuses. "I thought you were another tribute." Guiltily, I remember that I would have probably reacted the same way. It was good for me to practise my stalking, but not on my ally in the games. If she was quicker she could probably have stabbed me.

"I'm sorry," I reply. "Just practising being unnoticed for this poisoning the career's food. It worked- didn't it?"

"Yes, it worked," she mutters irritatedly. "Like you couldn't tell."

"No need to be so stressed about it," I respond. "I scared you a bit, that's all. Nobody got injured or killed."

Aravis sighs. "You could have though. If I was a bit quicker with that knife.." she trails off. I open my mouth to say something, but she speaks before I can. "If I was a better tribute," she bursts out. "If you were a career, I would be dead by now," she says honestly. "I've been too blasé about these games ever since I became your ally. Running from mutts, going to the feast- if I keep thinking that being your ally will make me safe and keep making reckless decisions then I'm going to get killed sooner or later."

I mull over her words for a few minutes. Thinking about it, Aravis has been a lot more reckless since becoming our ally. She's still been more careful than us with quite well thought through plans, but she has been a lot more willing to take risks. Before she was hiding all the time, now she's in the open, hunting. She's a lot less elusive to every tribute now, not just us. They see her as a contender.

"The feast was a necessity for you," I say, choosing my words carefully. "Although you are right- being mine and Katniss's ally has put you in the crossfire. You had to take more risks."

"Perhaps," Aravis replies. "I'm also getting a bit attached to you. That was one of my biggest fears in the games," she admits. "Making friends with tributes. Having allies who would risk their lives for me- like you and Katniss did at the feast. I hadn't intended to make allies," she continues. "My original plan was to outlast the others using cleverness, but when you needed an extra person for your attack on the careers it was too good an opportunity to pass up."

"Because they were the biggest threat and you would need to show yourself sooner or later- the game makers would force it," I complete nodding. That makes sense, she joined us to get rid of the bigger threats- the career pack. But in the process we've become the bigger threat and now we will find it hard to kill her. Her plan to survive with our alliance worked spectacularly, even if it did put her in the crossfire.

"Yes," Foxface nods. "A single tribute against a six person alliance would almost certainly die. I thought that the career pack would break up or be attacked without me being involved though, so I could just wait until they destroyed themselves without anyone seeing me as much of a contender. But now I'm part of the strongest alliance."

Thinking about it, Katniss, Aravis and I are the biggest and strongest alliance. Cato and Clove are second best. It isn't very often that there is an alliance between more than two people this late in the games, even less common that the strongest alliance doesn't contain any careers.

There is a moment of awkward silence between us.

"We should find Katniss," I state, changing the subject. "I caught a squirrel so far, you?"

"Nothing yet," she replies. "Do you know where Katniss went?"

I gesture at the general direction Katniss was hunting in and set off, picking up my rabbit as I go. Aravis hurries after me. We find Katniss quickly, she has caught a rabbit. Enough prey to feed all of us, I think. We light a fire and use the sheet to stop smoke from escaping. We heat the rabbit and squirrel and feast on our game. We are all pretty quiet whilst eating, sometime sharing our thoughts. Just a normal meal in the woods.

When we are finished, Katniss pulls me up. "I think I found the career camp when I was hunting," she informs us. "I'll show you where it is, Cato and Clove weren't there." Following Katniss, I wonder where the District 2 camp is. Cato and Clove are probably hunting, maybe us. Maybe Thresh though, he's still a contender. I'd forgotten about him over the last few days, but he has a chance at victory.

After around fifteen minutes of walking, Katniss pulls back some branches. "Here it is," she whispers, gesturing to a clearing. "Do you have the cyanide?" I nod and pull the small bottle out of my backpack. I look around the clearing. Cato and Clove have been sponsored since we last saw them. They also have a backpack, full of food and sleeping bags. Some spare weapons are littered on the floor and the District 2 backpack from the feast is on the floor.

I take a look inside it, but it is empty. I wonder what Cato and Clove were given, what gift would they need to help them survive? Maybe it was something that would help them kill us, I think anxiously. I pick up a knife from the floor and fiddle around with it in my hand for a few seconds. Something doesn't feel right- like we should get out of here fast. Maybe it's just being in an enemy camp. I shrug off the feeling and put the knife in my belt. An extra weapon can't hurt.

I unscrew the cap of the cyanide bottle and pour some of the pills out onto my hand. I can probably easily put them in the career water and food, they are very small. I take a loaf of bread from their backpack and slowly press the cyanide capsule in, being careful not to break it. The bread is left looking normal, nobody could tell that it is poisoned.

I put another capsule in their water bottle before the anxious feeling comes back. I hear a twig snap behind me. Looking back for a second, I see Katniss. Her face morphs into a scared look and her mouth opens. "Gale, run!" she shouts. I grab a sword from the floor and run towards her. She starts running too and I see the faces of Cato and Clove in front of us.

They caught us at their camp. Our plan has definitely backfired.

xXx-X-xXx

Sorry for the long wait between updates, I was on holiday and there was no Internet access. I hope you enjoyed the (rather late) chapter and as usual, please review, follow or favourite. Thanks.

-MoonOfPluto