I wake up with a wave of embarrassment washing over me. I feel like everything Kyler said was true. He called me out on what I was thinking and everyone saw, the whole of Panem. I pick my head up looking out the crack of the tent. I see Nick and Keanan sorting our food supply of fruits, berries, squirrel meat, and the little bit of bread we had left. I see the two of them laughing and joking around, which only proves Kyler's point that we aren't taking this seriously. Acting like this is a camping trip instead of playing the Hunger Games.
Speaking of Kyler, when I look out at of the tent, I don't see him. He isn't in the tree he so often lingered around. Jace is in the corner of the tent curled up, I don't want to disturb her, but in Kyler's tree I see a long object lying in the tree. I get up slowly from my position sliding through the opening of the tent. Keanan and Nick are wandering by the water so they don't notice me creeping to the tree.
As I get closer I see the object is a spear, its laying on its side up the tree branch. I turn my head to the little branch that used to hold the brown backpack that belonged to Kyler. But it is empty; there is no backpack, no bag of spears, just this one spear. I look at the lone spear more closely and I see deep carving right away, I turn the spear slightly and I see the message clearly, 'sorry.' It says
Kyler left, he is on his own. I don't understand why he is sorry, I'm the one that felt sorry, but then again I'm not too sure why I am sorry either, Now that I thing about it, I'm angered. Jace, Keanan, Nick, and I have been nothing but nice to him. Letting him join us, giving him food. But he paid us back with deserting us and telling me the reality I would have like to keep secret. He understood my mind better than me. I pick of the spear up, with so much anger built up in my fingertips, soon as I lift it close I throw the spear down leaving it alone. It makes a noise that makes the boys jump and turn my way, I walk close to them.
"Kyler left." I say trying to hold in my anger, which is hard because I rather be screaming and getting it all out of me. They look at me but back at each other.
"What? I thought he went hunting or something." The two of them look confused trying to figure out why he would leave us. Keanan says he will wake up Jace so we can discuss this together.
"I just don't understand why he would leave." Jace says while taking a bite of a pinkish berry she has in her hand. I know why, I think to myself. He didn't want to be around us, who are creating false hope. But of course I don't say anything I keep my mouth shut and shrug. Everyone seems to believe than I am just as clueless as everyone else but the way Nick's eyes glance over me it makes me wonder if he knows I know more. We take turns looking at the single spear with the deeply carved words on its side.
"I wonder how he is even going to survive." Nick says when he is holding the spear in his left hand. "He didn't even take any food." He makes a good point, Kyler I know now, is an intelligent person, but he only took his spears and his backpack, but then I remember there's a lot of things about Kyler that is mystery.
We aren't really doing much for the rest of the day. We sit around a bit antsy seeing as though the games have been boring, and not many deaths. The Gamemakers are sure to throw in a twist soon. Jace won't stop talking about Kyler, and how we should try to find him. She feels like he will never survive. He won't, but he knows that, I want to tell her. But I don't of course because then I would have to tell her what he told me, and that's embarrassing.
Later on in the day Nick comes up to me holding his backpack,
"Hey, want to go hunting?" he is smiling me with his smile, and as much as I much rather stay here and avoid any trouble in this arena, I can't find it in me to say no.
Jace and Keanan are going to stay at the camp, which isn't that bad since they aren't the best at hunting. We walk over leaves and branches mostly in silence, but it's nice to be alone with just Nick again. I see him out of the corner of my eye fumbling to get his knife out of his pocket. Then I remember his hand.
"Your hand still hurt?" I say looking at his hand trying to unloop the blade of the knife from his pocket. He shakes his head no but goes back to unsuccessfully trying to get the knife out. I sigh because obviously his hand was hurting and he couldn't get his knife without hurting it more. I finally get tired of seeing him struggling and step in front of him and untangle it quickly and place it in his good hand. He laughs.
"Thanks Hailey." He says, I can't help but notice this is one of the very little times he has called me Hailey, usually I'm Mellark and he is Hawthorne. Not that I mind being called Mellark, it's just wonderful hearing him say my name. I smile back at him because his smile is wonderful and contagious.
"I'll go this way, you can go that way if you want." I say pointing to an area with big trees; I figured if we split up we would find more prey.
"Trying to get rid of me Hailey?" He teases me, smiling some more. He said my name again. Oh shut up Hailey, focus on what's important, I think in my head. There's no use drooling over the way he says Hailey, and no matter what context he says it in, the sides of his mouth go up.
"You caught me!" I say jokingly. He laughs softy and makes his way to the way I pointed. I head the opposite way, getting my knife out. I'm glad I said yes to go hunting, because doing this reminds me of back home. It reminds me of mom and shorty after I think of mom, I think of dad, and then shortly I think of Will. Maybe I can pretend like I am in the Woods outside of District 12.
I get to this big area where I can tell there are a lot small animals, so I have to make sure I don't startle them. I start walking slowly but as soon as I lift my feet I hear a loud noise that automatically makes my heart jump. It sounds like a growling of some sort. My heart is beating. A twist, the Gamemakers added a twist, and of course it is on me.
I hear it again. Then I hear branches breaking. I am breathing heavily and I am yelling in my head to run away. I need to get out of here. But before I get my bearings straight a huge figure emerges from behind a tree. It lets out another growl and I'm pretty sure I am going to scream.
It's a bear, a gigantic bear, it was brown and terrifying. The bear noticed me of course and it is looking at me with its big brown eyes. My first instinct is to run, because obviously a knife is no match for a big brown bear. I wish I would have brought the spear Kyler left behind. I turn quickly on my heels and I run. The bear growls and I hear it's footsteps after me.
Mom told me about a time she got chased by a bear, I used to laugh at the way she described her fright and how she was running so fast she couldn't feel her feet. Now I wished I remember how she got away, how she was able to defeat the bear, because right now I was running so fast I couldn't feel my feet, and my mind was drawing a blank.
Maybe I should yell for Nick. That seems like a good idea. I don't scream Nick's name but I do scream. I know it's a bad idea because the other Tributes will hear me. But maybe they'll come to find me, and the bear will turn to them. The bear is growling behind me, reminding me that he will get me soon. My legs are running so fast, that I almost think I could get away, but then my foot hooks on to a vine that is on the ground. I go flying head first to the ground. My ankle immediately fills with pain as it twists underneath the vine. The bear finally catches us and comes close to me. I am trying to take my foot out of the tangled mess, but it won't move at all and it's throbbing with pain
I close my eyes, ready to take whatever the bear was going to do to me. I picture my mom and dad watching this, wanting to do everything they can to stop it; mom is probably hiding behind dads back, while dad is looking away. Back home Will is probably freaking out while Haymitch is willing me to use my brain and figure a way out of this.
But when no pain comes I open my eyes to see a spear flying into the bear's heart. It turns over to its side dead. I look over the bushes to see someone. I get to see a glimpse of those green eyes before he runs away from the area. It was Kyler. He disappears into the trees.
"Hailey?" I hear behind me. The voice is frantic. I turn my head to Nick's worried face on me on the ground. His eyes bulge when he sees the big dead bear in front of me, but he runs to me with his knife in hand to cut my foot from the vine free. My ankle is still throbbing and I can't stand up. Nick helps me up and holds me slightly so I can limp back to the camp.
On the way back in between the sobbing of the pain, I tell Nick that the bear came out of nowhere and how Kyler helped me, how he left without saying anything. Walking back to the camp both of us seem warily, afraid another bear will jump out and eat us.
When we get to camp Jace and Keanan run to us immediately wanting to know what happened. We tell them everything, even about Kyler. They looked freaked out, Jace wraps my ankle in bandages, and it still hurt.
Its night and I let everyone go into the tent and go to sleep, while I sat out here, because I couldn't sleep. Of course I can't sleep again. I'm thinking of that bear, and Kyler's eyes before he ran away. I'm thinking of everyone I know watching this back home. I am sitting by the water, not even on the rock I used to sit on. I am hugging my legs and I am sitting with my feet so lightly of the water, it cools my toes and makes me feel refreshed.
I want nothing more than to go home. I feel like such a child thinking that but I can't imagine anyone is thinking anything but that. I feel warmness on my cheek. It's the first time I'm crying in the arena. I let a couple tears fall but no more than that. I don't like the idea of the whole nation seeing me cry.
Then in the sky I see something bright and shiny. As it gets closer to the ground I see it is silver and something is attached to it. It's a parachute. Something from my parents, the idea makes me cry thinking there hands touched it. I jump up immediately to catch it.
The parachute holds a small basket. I open it right away to see a small loaf of bread, big enough for one person. The bread is still warm. I take a nibble out of it and I notice the taste right away, its dad's bread. My tears are coming down again, I'm so filled with joy it's unbelievable. It's the idea that dad is watching me right now, and this is his way of helping me since he can't communicate with me.
I hold the bread tightly in my arms and whisper, "Thanks dad."