District Eleven's Aerin Sevani's POV
Did that girl really think she was going to get away from me? Did she think that she could get away with that sneak attack of hers? I was going to make her pay for that, and I was going to get my backpack back. Those supplies weren't for her. She didn't deserve to have those supplies. I mean, did she go into the bloodbath field and risk her life for them? No, she didn't. And yet, she stole them. Attacked me and stole them like some petty criminal.
I don't know what made me angrier. That she attacked me or stole the supplies. Either way, I chased her with the thought of giving her a world of pain when I catch up to her.
She wasn't that strong, but because she had snuck up on me and struck me from behind, well, almost behind, it gave her the advantage. But despite her lack of physical strength, it still hurt when that branch hit me, and when she had kicked me in the testicles. God damn it did that hurt. And then, to make things worse, she threw dirt in my eyes. I think I could feel pebbles slide around inside my eye lids. Rubbing them and trying to pick them out while running wasn't very effective. That is, if they can be taken out in the first place. I hope they can be removed from my eyes.
Those were dirty tricks, and those dirty tricks were the only reasons why she was able to run away right now. But she wasn't going to get away for long.
Sure she was smoothly navigating through the forest obstacles like some sort of animal, but I'd catch up to her, I knew that I would. It was only a matter of time. She'd get tired, or eventually trip on something, it was only a matter of time before-
Stars appeared in my vision as I found myself on the ground. Pain rippled through my body as I looked up and saw the blonde tribute from Twelve vaulting over a moss covered log and disappear from my sight.
Damn it! As I scrambled to my feet, I kept on thinking that I couldn't let her get away, those supplies were needed. They weren't hers.
I ran towards the look and jumped over the log to continue the chase, only to discover that I couldn't see where she was. All around me was the green and brown of forest, but no sign of anything with a head of blonde hair or a bright yellow backpack.
No! No! She couldn't have just disappeared like that! I just tripped over something and suddenly she was gone? She couldn't have been that quick! She was behind a tree, or hiding in the bushes, or something! I just have to look around and spot something human shaped and yellow, how hard can that be? You're in a woodland area, it can't be that hard. And if I can't spot her, I'll kick her out of her hiding spot before lifting her up and continue to scrape the rest of her face off!
Kicking the underbrush and looking behind trees and logs and looking up those same trees to see if she was above me, I tried to find her, but I couldn't find her. I felt myself getting frustrated as I started to kick the ground harder.
She got away! I can't believe this! That backpack was the third of a set of three! That backpack was supposed to be for Sami! It wasn't as big as the other two, but it was big enough to hopefully contain some-
Sami! Angel!
Thinking of them, and now looking around the forest with these new found thoughts, I suddenly found out that I was a long way from where we were supposed to meet up. I can't believe this! I had chased Eve for a backpack, only to leave my allies in the dust. Did they even know where I was? Did they even know that I had gone out on a wild chase? Did they even know if I was still alive or not?
How long have I been chasing her? Five minutes? Ten? What were the girls thinking right now? Were they in danger?
Hitting myself, I kept telling myself how stupid I was. I let such a stupid issue overlook what was really important. My allies. I couldn't survive without them, and they couldn't survive without me. Or at least, survive as well as we would be surviving if we were together.
Forget Eve, she isn't important. That backpack, she can have it, I still have two, that should be enough to hold us out for a while.
Turning back and running back towards the cornucopia, or, at least the direction I think the cornucopia is at, I hoped that Sami and Angel were all right. Hopefully they hadn't been attacked by another tribute while I was away. If they were and I wasn't there to protect them... Ugh. I felt disgusted with myself.
Now that I wasn't focused on the thief, I now felt as if the backpacks were lighter. In fact, I felt as if there was weight on my right shoulder, but there was none on my left. Wondering what was up with that, I turned my head back and saw that over my right shoulder was one backpack. I looked over to my left shoulder, and saw that there was nothing hanging over my left shoulder.
Realizing what that meant, I gave out a heavy sigh of annoyance, directed more to myself than anything else.
First, I gave chase to that girl, leaving my allies alone in the dark, possibly worried about my well being, and put them in danger. Waiting around near the cornucopia could get them discovered, and if they wandered too far away from it, it would be harder for us to find each other. And if we didn't meet each other by nightfall, well, let's just say that the longer we're away from each other, the more difficult it'll be for us to finally meet up. That, and they didn't have any supplies with them.
Second, I got so obsessed with that backpack that I didn't even realize that a backpack had fallen off my shoulder. I wanted to gain supplies, but instead I lost even more. Way to go Aerin, you're losing the Hunger Games in the first ten minutes you're in it. Ariana is probably cursing at you back home and shaking her head. As she should, I told myself with my head down.
Because, third, I didn't know where I was, and my allies didn't know where I was.
Well Aerin, let's go on an adventure. Let's find Sami and Angel before something bad happens to them. I doubt that anything bad happened to them though, they're smart, so they're probably doing better than you right now.
I felt myself smile at that thought. Yeah, they're probably doing better than me right now because they don't have my problem. And, well, I didn't lose all the supplies, I still have a big backpack with me.
Slinging both straps over my shoulders, I continued to make my way towards the girls.
Yeah. Don't worry Aerin, the girls are smarter and in better control of the situation than you are. That made me feel better, and gave me hope that we'd be able to find each other. The girls are either hiding somewhere effective, or put up some sort of sign to tell me where to go. Something that I'd know, but something that the other tributes wouldn't.
I smiled some more as I thought of my sister telling me that I shouldn't be worried about them, they should be worried about me.
District Twelve's Evanlyn "Eve" Scott's POV
Hearing the footsteps back away from me, I allowed myself to exhale the air that had been building up in my chest. I had been holding it for so long that I thought that my lungs were going to burst.
Thank God, I thought that he was never going to leave. Aerin had been like a rampaging animal chasing after its prey. He had been angry, and tunnel versioned solely on me, wanting to tear me apart limb from limb.
I didn't look back. I couldn't look back, not with all these low hanging vines and tiny trees and logs and other things in my way. One wrong move and it was bye bye Evanlyn. I continued on my path, swatting away those that could be swatted away, and avoided those that could be avoided.
I wish I could say that I avoided everything in my path, but that would be lying. I hit some of the obstacles in my way, causing me to nearly trip or stumble or significantly slow me down. I nearly fell to the ground a couple of times, but I righted myself and continued to run.
It was painful, because I felt some of the obstacles brush against the injured side of my face. It sent shockwaves of agony through my entire body, but I didn't stop. I kept on going hoping that something will go right for me. Nothing seemed to be going right as Aerin, from the sounds of it, was tearing his way through the low hanging vines and breaking his way through the low branches. He was so angry he was ignoring the injuries that he was giving himself, and that in itself was scary.
But then he tripped over something, possibly an over large tree root. I know that he tripped because I heard him grunt before I heard pieces of sticks and leaves rustle across the dirt. I felt some joy knowing that something was going right for me. But I also knew some other things, and it killed any good feeling I had in me.
I knew that he wasn't even close to giving up, and I knew that I couldn't continue on like this. I didn't know how long Aerin could run, and he seemed to be able to navigate the forest well enough that it was going to be a challenge to get away from him, so I did what I had to do.
When I jumped over the rotting log I dove into a thick bush of ferns and held my breath.
Aerin. It was hard enough to just get a backpack from him, I couldn't take him on in a full on fight. It would be like a dog taking on a bear, it could only end badly for the dog.
I was just thinking of pets and how one could help me in this situation when I heard Aerin jump over the log and start searching for me. Frantically searching for me. Aerin kicked everything that was in front of him, and all he was doing was making himself angrier. Seeing Aerin like this might have been funny if his anger wasn't directed at me, or if it didn't remind me of the peacekeepers or angry shop owners that often chased me.
The way that he searched for me and the expression on his face were just like them. He also had the same intentions as them. I felt my right shoulder start to sting, right where I had gotten injured. I didn't want to rub it, I didn't want to scratch it, because doing just that might reveal my location. The slight shuffle of brush might be enough to alert my chaser, and I really, really, really didn't want to have more than a scar on my shoulder along with whatever else Aerin had already given me.
I felt sweat, or was it blood, run down my face and onto my chin. Just feeling that made me want to wipe my face, but I already knew how painful it was to wipe the right side of my face, and I still didn't want to move.
Starting to feel the stress get to me, I readied myself mentally to start running as Aerin continued to kick at the foliage. He was getting closer and closer to me, so even though I didn't want to, I would have to run some more. I didn't like it, but it was a much do.
Feeling the warmth of some kind of bodily liquid run down my face, I felt as if that was the thing that was going to give me away if getting kicked didn't.
I was ready to run, but then Aerin just stopped kicking. He stopped, just like that, and just as quickly as he stopped, he ran away from me.
I didn't expect this. I didn't think that he'd just up and leave me alone, but he did, and I was happy for that, even if I didn't know why. I didn't have to fight Aerin, and I didn't have to run away from him either and be scared that he was going to catch me.
No. None of that was going to happen to me, not now. I wasn't stupid enough to think that I could avoid all the fights that were going to come to me, but I'd like to avoid them in the beginning. And this was one fight that I didn't want to continue, as I've told myself too many times during this almost confrontation.
Aerin had run away and was out of my sights, and while his foot steps were getting quieter that didn't mean that he was getting farther from me. For all I know, Aerin could just be making his steps quieter in an attempt to make me think that he was running away. I wasn't going to fall for that though, the peacekeepers did tricks like that back home, so I knew what to look for.
Doing the only thing I knew I could do, I waited. I felt the sweat or blood on my face start to drop from my chin and splash onto the ground. I think my imagination made it louder than it should be, because it felt as if a pot was being thrown into a sink full of water.
It's not that loud, I told myself. Aerin can't hear a drop of sweat or blood hit a stick, and neither can you. But all I could hear was splat splat splat. It made my head and face even warmer.
My head started to pulse, and I felt the right side of my face start to pulse as well in numerous places. More warmth spread through my face, but that part especially. But I waited still, not wanting to take any chances.
The pain in my face started to get worse by the second, and soon the fire in my face that I had somehow forgotten about was back with a vengeance.
Holding on as long as I could, I didn't let it bother me until I couldn't take it any longer. I grabbed it with my right hand and cradled it as I held back tears. It hurt so badly, even worse than when I took that knife to the shoulder. A hundred times worse. I tried not to shout though, but I think I let something escape my mouth.
A warm, sticky substance crawled along my right hand as it started to make its way down my arm. But I hardly noticed that as my face felt like it had been whipped a thousands times.
I had seen the whipped backs of those that got caught breaking the rules back home, did my face look as bad as their backs?
Forget about that for now, I told myself. You've got to fix yourself up.
I nodded to myself and slowly forced my hand away from my face, despite how much I wanted my hand to just remain there until it didn't hurt anymore.
Slinging my backpack off my back, I zipped it open, and turned it upside down, dumping everything that it contained to the ground and hoped that there was some kind of medical stuff in there. Thank God that there was something in there that could help me.
Seeing that bottle of disinfectant gave me hope that I at least wouldn't die of infection. I grabbed the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and held the bottle over my head before I poured some over my open wounds.
As soon as the liquid hit my wounds, it felt as if I had splashed acid on my face. I wanted to scream, and I did, but luckily I kept my mouth closed and my teeth tight. It didn't travel far, I hope.
Nearly dropping the disinfectant as I fell onto my elbows, I continued to hold back tears, though I suspected that they were already working their way down my cheek bones.
I breathed in and out. In and out. Heavy as first, but I got myself to slow down, slow down and calm down. At, calm down enough that I was able to think again. My heart was still threatening to break through my ribs though.
Ignoring that my agony had just doubled, I picked up the bottle cap and screwed it back on before looking into my pile of supplies to see if there was anything else that could help me. Something that I could place on my face and stopped the bleeding. Some bandages or something.
I saw a long coil of rope, a survival knife in its sheath, two packages of dried fruit, and a pair of black socks. But nothing directly medical. God damn it! There were no bandages! What was I going to do now? Bleed to death if I didn't hold my face the entire time?
No! Calm down Eve! Think this through, there's got to be something in this pile of supplies that'll help you.
Lifting myself to my knees and taking a sniff of air to stop my running nose, smelling the metallic scent of blood, I looked at the supplies in front of me. A knife. Some rope. A pair of socks. Two packages of dried fruit. What could I do with those items?
I could eat the fruit, I thought. Food always made me feel better. Food could make anyone feel better for a while. But that would be a waste, I wasn't even hungry. I eliminated the food being any good at the moment.
Socks. They could be used as improvised bandages. Yes. Okay, that's a start.
Rope. It could... It could... It could... It could be used to keep the socks from slipping off my face. Yes. Yes. And the knife could be used to cut off the amount of rope that was needed, nothing more. And speaking of nothing more, I'd only need one sock right now, not two.
Yes. That's the way to think Eve. Those items, other people might have thought of them as useless, but not you though. I felt hope rise within me as I reached for the first item on my list.
I grabbed the roll of socks and pulled them apart from each other. Throwing one sock to the ground, I picked the knife up with my free hand, and used my teeth to take hold of the sheath so that I could pull the weapon out.
Spitting out the weapon holder, I placed the black blade into the black sock and sliced it in half, tearing it until it made one large black square of fabric. I set it down on my knee, careful to make it avoid the ground.
I then grabbed the coil of rope, measured how long the two pieces of rope would have to be to wrap around my head and tie a knot to hold the fabric.
As soon as I got the measurement, I cut the first length of rope, then used that piece to measure the second piece, and cut a second piece.
I twisted the knife around and stabbed it into the ground before taking hold of my makeshift bandage and stretched it before placing it on my face, making it as air tight as possible. I then placed the sliced sock on my face and pressed it into my face, feeling what seemed to be every stitch in the garment. They were all rough and seemed to want to grind into my flesh.
Now using one hand to keep pressure on the improvised bandage, I grabbed the first piece of rope and looped it around my head time and time again until I managed to grab it with both hands. Using my wrist instead of the back of my hand, I managed to tie a knot in the rope before I moved onto the second piece of rope.
I grabbed that rope and, while still holding onto the sock on my face, wrapped it around the back of my head and around to my teeth and back again. I bit into the rope and allowed my hands to die a knot on top of my right cheek.
The pressure of the rope sent waves of pain through my head, but I knew that it was better than not having it. I dealt with it, knowing that that agony was going to settle in a couple of days, but right now, it felt as if it'd go on forever.
Looking at my supplies, the right side of my vision was blocked off because of the sock around that part of my face. My sights were cut in half, and that made me tell myself that I'd need to be even more careful until the bleeding stopped. I couldn't wait for that day.
Feeling horrible still, but satisfied that I worked something out for myself, I picked up my remaining supplies and placed them inside my backpack save the knife. I placed the knife inside the sheath and clipped it onto a thick, sturdy belt that I just realized I had.
Arena clothes. We had been changed out of our old clothes before we entered the arena. By who or what?
The throbbing in the side of my head intensified and I stopped to press my head on the sock while giving out a winch and moan.
I removed my hand from my head when the worst of the pain was over.
It doesn't matter who changed my clothes, I said to myself. I've got more important issues to deal with right now.
I got to my feet and slung the backpack over my back and began to walk away from the cornucopia.
Water. I need to find a source of water. Water was of top priority. Second is shelter. Then food. Then something to replace the dirty sock when I take it off my face. Which might be sooner than I'd like, because I could already feel the build up of blood soaking through the fabric around my face. Those two socks weren't going to last long. I could clean them if I find a source of water, but that depends on the source. If it's small, then it's a no go. But if it's big, there's a possibility. That is, if the water isn't poisoned or something.
So many things that could go wrong. So many things that had already gone wrong.
I had half my face peeled off, I was in intense pain, and I was rapidly losing supplies and was in danger. And I hadn't even spent an hour in the arena.
All this for a backpack. I let myself give out a sigh as I continued to walk.
District Three's Nessa Christine Johnston's POV
"Slow. Down!" I tried to shout, but gasped more than anything else, to my ally, Max Starling, who was running way too fast for me to keep up. Plus, I was getting tired from running from the bloodbath area to here. The strong heat was beating down on my body, and it didn't do me any favours as I ran. It made me sweat and I could feel thick drops forming on my forehead and soak the back of my shirt. "I'm. T- Tired!"
"What!?" Max called out, surprised, as he slowed to what looked like a light jog to him. "We haven't even ran that far. And I want to distance myself from the careers as much as possible before sunset so I can sleep soundly and not be worried that I'll get killed in my sleep. And I thought you had a bunch of energy inside of you, like you were hyperactive or something." He must have gotten that from the times he saw me not wanting to stand still and just had to keep on moving. I could see why he would think that, many people had made that assumption before.
"I may have a lot of energy, but I have little stamina." I explained to him as I had to others before him.
I had a lot of energy inside of me, but that didn't mean that I could run a marathon. Right now, I was wheezing more than I was breathing, my lungs felt like they were going to explode, and I was sweating from exhaustion and the heat around us. I didn't like this place, and, aside from being in the Hunger Games, I didn't like the situation that I was in. I didn't like running more than I needed to.
But he was right, the further away from the careers we were the better. I didn't want one of them to attack us in our sleep. Or any other tribute to do that for that matter. "But your right, we have to distance ourselves from the cornucopia." As much as I hated it though, we had to get away from the bloodbath field and the careers. "Where should we head to?"
It didn't seem like the best question now that I thought about it, because right now, we were in a city part of the arena. While others headed in the same direction as us and ran towards some part of the city, some of the others ran for the jungle, not that this was too different from the jungle, this city had all the features of the wild jungle except for the buildings, concrete, and other city objects that were covered in moss, vines and plants. Or a combination of them. You had the whole area to choose from.
Max had slowed down enough for me to catch up to him before he, thankfully, came to a complete stop started to look around and examine the surrounding area. I looked with him and wondered what was the best place of rest for us. There were lots of places to choose from. A building here, a place of thick underbrush there, lots of places to camp and hide in.
A building was good because it offered protection from the weather of the arena, and there were more places to hide if another tribute showed up. We could hide somewhere in the building and launch a sneak attack on them if needed. The underbrush however was someplace that other tributes might not expect us to be in. The lack of shelter from the elements was the disadvantage of taking refuge in plants however.
As bad as the greens were, I couldn't help but look around the abandoned and ruined city in awe. This was the first time that I ever saw real live greens in front of me. District Three didn't have any sort of wild life around it, not even outside the electric fences that kept us inside the district. This was the first time that I saw any kind of wild life in front of me with my own eyes.
It was something all right. Really really something. A lot different than seeing it in picture books or seeing it on a T.V screen. This was real. Somehow, just seeing those made me feel better. A sort of comfort that I was able to see something that I normally wouldn't?
"Let's head into that building up there," Max said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked at my ally and saw that he was pointing to a tall building in front of us that was covered in green vines and yellow wild flowers growing in the moss. "Let's head there and check out what supplies we have and make a plan from there. Better to be in there than out in the open."
"Sounds good." I told him glad for the upcoming break and shade. He was too fast for me and it was way too hot out here, even with my jacket off, so I was glad to be getting a rest for my legs and getting out of the sun, even if just for a couple minutes. But I also dreaded on what he'd say when he found out that all I managed to get from the bloodbath area was an empty half liter plastic water bottle and a small bag of nuts. He'd freak out at me maybe, I know he's nice and all, but he ran closer to the cornucopia than I had and got a backpack full of unknown supplies. His backpack was small, but I guessed that it contained items that were of more use than my two items that were about five steps from my platform. If I told him that I was scared of going against the bigger, stronger tributes for better supplies, I hoped that he'd understand.
We walked to the outside of the building before opening one of the two doors that made a sound that reminded me of nails running on a chalk board. As soon as we were inside the temperature dropped, not to a nice cool temperature, but to something that was at least bearable. Better here than out there, I told myself.
Max and I closed the door before walking across a floor that was seemed to be more suited for outside then it did inside a building. The floor we walked on inside of this building had grass that went up to my knees and it had some yellow wild flowers mixed into it. The walls weren't much different then they were outside either, they were cracked and covered in vines that ran to the ceiling. Max and I walked to the center of the entrance room before we sat down in the soft grass and rested.
So this is what grass feels like, I said to myself as I rubbed the green spears, loving the feel of the foreign material below me. No wonder the kids in those books liked running bare foot in those fields, or liked to roll around on them. It's soft and feels nice. A lovely place to be if it weren't in a place that was going to be full of death.
"You know," Max said with a little laugh as he patted the ground. "This could be a good spot for a picnic if my backpack would allow it." I wondered what a picnic was as I watched him sling his backpack off his shoulders. And while he was still smiling, he laughed a little, but like there was little to laugh at. "But this backpack is so light that I don't think I'll have anything in this thing, after all, this thing was close to my platform and everyone knows that all the good stuff is near the cornucopia. I just hope that it has water in it, I can go for a long time without food, but water, water is a different story." Suddenly, I didn't feel that worried anymore, he hadn't ran that far either, he had avoided the cornucopia, just like I had. His backpack was probably almost as lousy as the items I had. Probably, but not likely.
"I don't know if this is much help," I told him as I as I reached into my jacket that was tied at my waist and pulled out the small water bottle and a small bag of nuts and showed it to him. I was worried that he'd be disappointed in me for getting so little, but after what he said, I was only worried slightly. He smiled at me before saying.
"At least you got something," He told me. I felt a somewhat better hearing that. "Something is better than nothing, we might need that bottle later, you know, to hold water and such." Relief flooded inside of me, he wasn't mad. I then felt my eyes look towards his backpack and wondered what kind of stuff he got. Did he get food? Water? Medicine? Weapons? We needed more than my empty bottle and a bag of nuts to survive this, what was in that backpack could either help us or not. What we really needed was either a bottle with water in it or at least some water purification things. "Okay," He said. "Now for my backpack." I then saw him excitedly zip open the backpack before his face instantly fell.
"What's wrong?" I asked him before looking inside the backpack myself. I then saw what had made him look sad, because I was now sad, and more than a little disappointed, as well. Inside that backpack, the backpack that could have helped us in terms of items, was full of nothing but air. I sighed deeply before letting my disappointment take over. Nothing. A big, fat, nothing.
"Well," I heard Max say. "Look on the bright side, at least we have a backpack to carry things in." I then felt myself smile. He was right, at least we didn't have to carry everything in our hands and pockets now. And if we did find anything, we could use it to carry the heavier objects.
"Yeah." I told him taking my jacket off my waist and placing it into the backpack. "Yeah." I then heard the cannons fire to tell us how many tributes died in the bloodbath. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Five tributes died in the bloodbath. I'm sure glad that I wasn't one of them. After all, I had to prove to my parents that I was a miracle child.
I had told Shooter during my interview that I would defy the odds once again, and I would. I had beaten death once, I will do it again.
A/N: Here's some food for thought. If someone intends to do evil but they end up doing something good, does that make them good or evil?