Sam, Storm, and Gannet stayed at their impromptu base camp for another full day, using the canyon stream for food and keeping out of sight of any unwanted eyes. Gannet and Sam managed to piece together a sturdy piece of wood into a decent weapon by fire-hardening a carved tip into a blackened point; if nothing else, it'd make sure the little band had more than just one spear on hand if bigger or nastier tributes came looking. Things felt edgy, however – two days passed without a new kill, and by now the Capitol audience would be thirsting for blood. No doubt Phaeston Rex would be all too eager to give them what they wanted.
"C'mon," Storm got the three moving just after sunrise. "I want to take a look around on what's further down the canyon. Maybe something we can use."
The medicine that had floated down via parachute had managed to heal up Sam's shoulder into working order; it still hurt and ached as she tried anything but basic motions, but it had closed a seal over the injury and seemed ready to go.
"What are you looking to find?" she asked, throwing the backpack over her shoulders.
"Well, we're out of…basically, everything," Storm fretted as the three got on the move. "So whatever we do find helps, as long as it doesn't try to kill us."
Like everything else we've found, Sam wanted to say. The Gamesmakers wouldn't let that opportunity pass; sending something else to kill them would just be too much fun.
The desert air had cooled remarkably from the hot, dry atmosphere of the opening few days. While the unending gorge of sand, dust, and sparse eucalyptus vegetation never ceased to greet them in every turn and gully, gray clouds hung low over the sky. The sun peeked out from behind the shroud now and then, casting ugly shadows across the rocks. Things seemed all too quiet for Sam – on a day where the Games had to drum up some excitement, a damp pallor had taken over instead.
"Time for some rain?" Sam offered hopefully in the late morning, eyes up amidst the cloud cover.
"Could use it," Storm agreed. "Be nice for also what I have in mind."
He looked to where Gannet led the three, taking point with the wood spear twenty yards ahead of them. She seemed oblivious to what they were doing, taking her time looking around rocks and patiently wading forward to ensure danger didn't lurk behind some unseen boulder.
"Little bit of cover would do good if we want to see what kind of advantage we can gain," he spoke quietly to Sam. "Gannet would probably get spooked, but I…want to head up to the Cornucopia at some point. See if the Careers left anything behind. Tough sell, but since there was really only one way down if you didn't take the fast way like I did…"
"Yeah, I kinda took that too," Sam grimaced, remembering her near-fall to her death just after the gong had sounded. "Why would it be bad for Gannet?"
"Well, we're dramatically increasing our odds of running into the Careers, for one," Storm said. "She's risk-aversive, so I dunno how well that kind of thinking would go over. Nothing risked, nothing gained, right? We need some real weapons, some supplies we can carry around. We're running on empty here."
"If you say so," Sam rolled her eyes. "She's not helpless."
"Well, yeah, but in a straight up fight?" Storm tried to clarify his point. "She's handy with knots or keeping you from bleeding to death, but if that big kid from 2 comes around the corner, we're probably looking at a mess."
"That'd be happening regardless," Sam countered.
Storm smirked, kicking a rock down into the stream. "Sam, we have to run into the other kids eventually. There's no going around that. If nobody else kills Hadrian, then he's coming here."
Sam said nothing, but Storm was right. She knew that…the Careers had four highly-trained killing machines, what with Hadrian's brute strength and Royal's quick lethality leading the way. Even the three of them together probably stood no chance. The Careers would have numbers, they'd have experience, supplies, weapons, probably a few days of eating and resting well. Sam wanted to give herself the intelligence edge, what with both her and Gannet seemingly holding that edge, but she couldn't be absolutely sure there, either. Royal had already proven to have a keen mind for killing.
And what about the other tributes still wandering about? Most of those left hadn't made much of an impression on her, but her district mate was still alive and kicking somewhere in the desert arena. Laredo was no slouch, either. She'd seen enough of him between the Reaping to the interview to know he would be a formidable force to whoever he ran across. That he wasn't dead yet was testament to a survivalist's mind – he clearly hadn't gone into the Cornucopia's blood spree, and he'd been able to eke out a living on what the arena offered.
A flash of lightning in the distance brought Sam out of her line of thought. A storm was rolling in – and not the Storm who plodded along the canyon next to her, but the dangerous one that flashed from above. Sam took the time to remind herself that the tribute Storm was also dangerous, but he'd made it clear that he didn't want any part of killing her off. She questioned why she really believed him for what seemed like the hundredth time – had he been sincere under the stars, saying he had nothing left to look forward to? District 12 was a laughingstock amongst Panem, but that bad?
The better question really was if she could kill him if it came to that.
Gannet waved the two of them forward after an hour as the river picked up steam. Sam had preoccupied herself by eating leftover fish from the few they had caught in the river, and having something new to focus on at least kept her from sliding off into deeper thoughts. She had to be here and now – no telling what could jump out at any minute.
"The river splits ahead," Gannet knelt down on a large rock and used her ad hoc spear as a drawing tool in the sand. "Left and right. I don't know which goes where, or if we're just going in a big circle."
"We've been slowly curling to the right the whole time," Sam noted. "I dunno for sure since I've been stuck in the canyon pretty much the whole time, but I'm pretty sure I saw a part that extended off from the Cornucopia back at where we all came from. I'd make a bet that the canyon starts and ends at that point. The arena can only be so big."
"So what's left, then?" Storm raised the point. "Just a branch of the river?"
"Well, uh," Gannet explained. "The water's actually coming from the stream on the left and going into the one on the right, which this one we've been following also feeds into. I think if we follow that it takes us to wherever the end is."
"Then that's probably where everyone else is headed," Storm asserted. "So let's avoid that."
"Or they're not going that way because they have the same thought," Sam countered.
"What's there to lose? Either way there's a chance we run into people."
Sam looked to Gannet for a deciding vote, but the girl from 4 had no desire to go against someone. That's right, Sam thought. She's still not really sure where the loyalties lie here. After all, only one person comes out of the Games…
"Alright. We'll do it your way," Sam relented to Storm. "Let's go left."
Where had her hardheadedness come from? Back in District 10, Sam had always been called the sweet one, or quiet, or shy. She'd even been too afraid to speak much on the train, outside of when Dallas or Laredo had managed to get her to do so. Yet in front of Storm she felt compelled to offer her opinion, and with Gannet in tow she felt as if she had to make the right calls. A few days had forced her to throw aside all forms of shyness and step up as a leader – lest her life be forfeit if she didn't. With Storm and Gannet beside her, Sam felt as if she had more than just her own life to be responsible about now. Two of the three would have to die eventually, but why hasten that?
How are you going to kill them, a voice whispered in the back of Sam's head. You think you can backstab sweet lil' Gannet in her sleep? Maybe Storm lets you kill him; maybe he's being sincere. How do you kill the little girl from 4 who shouldn't even be here? You'll always think of yourself as a murderer.
It's not so hard, a conflicting voice spoke up as the three rounded the corner of the canyon and headed down the left river. Killed off Troop pretty well, didn't ya?
He was going to cannibalize you. That was an accident.
Damn skippy one.
Sam wondered what her friends and family back home in District 10 would say. Some were easy to predict – Clara would probably have a heart attack at the notion of murdering someone, even with her tomboyish attitude that provoked arguments more often than not. Jake would advocate survival at any costs – after all, nothing was too good for his sister, right? Those other people were just faces.
It was up to Clay to break the tie. What would he say, the poor kid from the worst areas of District 10 who'd managed to strike up a friendship with the well-to-do girls?
"Sam," Storm's quiet voice took over, breaking her internal debate. "We…need to talk. While Gannet's up there being leader."
So he's going to decide things for you. Great.
"'Bout what?" Sam kept her eyes low as she asked. The boy from 12 had a keen sense of reading her mind…just as she'd wanted some clarity, she could already feel that he was prepared to broach the topic of the third wheel of their alliance.
"You know what," Storm said patiently. "I don't have much to look forward to; you know that, we talked about that. But…there's three of us."
Sam feigned indignation. "What are you trying to say?"
Storm sighed, getting to the meat of his point. "When the crowd's thinned out a little bit, and if the three of us are all still standing…"
He looked up, ensuring Gannet was far enough ahead to be out of earshot. "Do you want me to be the one to kill her off if we get there?"
"How can you say that?" Sam kept her voice down, but added a note of poison to her tone. "She's our ally! We don't even know what's gonna happen between now and whenever this thing ends! What if she saves your life, too?"
"Then you can thank her for me when you go home," he replied grimly. "Look, she's a nice girl, pleasant, sweet. Unfortunately, we don't really have the liberty of weighing who's nicer at this time. Besides, who knows what's under her skin? Maybe she's a cold-hearted killer under there, or maybe she's just a nut like me who doesn't even care anymore."
"Maybe you should try talking to her like a person!" Sam replied acidly. "She's not just some tool like that spear or this backpack."
"Troop wasn't a tool either. Neither are the other kids we have to kill."
And now you've gone and made yourself look like a weak, emotionally-invested idiot, Sam, great. Great job for anybody watching.
She didn't care too much about sponsors – after all, someone had liked her enough to send her the medicine after the mutt attack. What worried her more was that Storm had once again hammered an emotional pressure point – and once again, he was right. The boy from District 6, the Careers – they all had family and friends. She only saw Gannet as more partly because she was a small girl with a young frame, with a friendly personality to boot.
Give her Hadrian's brawn and attitude, and she's just another tribute.
Now he's done it. Here come the tears.
"Why'd you have to say that?" Sam sat down on a sandstone rock, placing her head in her hands and refusing to look at Storm.
"Sam, I-" Storm paused, unsure of where to proceed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it personally."
Another crack of thunder sounded off down the canyon as Sam sniffed into her arm. "Yes you did. You weren't getting what you wanted so you had to bring that up. It's bad enough being here without always thinking about what we have to do. What I've already done."
Inside her head, Sam didn't blame Storm for mentioning Troop. She'd done that enough on her own, reliving the death and encounter a hundred times since it'd happened - and all that in just a few days. The way he said it, however - with a certain level of vitriol, with an acceptance as if that was the way things had to be - it made her feel angry and loose on the inside. Sam wanted a target to hurl her emotions out at, someone to direct the bad feelings against, and Storm was an easy one. He wouldn't fight back with her when it came down to emotions.
Gannet came trotting back, alarmed at first by the scene. "Are…are you okay?"
Storm cast a wayward glance her way and Sam struggled to wipe away the anxiety that littered her face. "I'm fine. I'm fine – we were just having a disagreement. That's all."
Thunder sounded in the sky as Sam stood back up, taking the spear from Gannet. "I'll take the lead for a while. Have to get some things behind me."
"Think you're gonna need to do more than that," Storm spoke up, pointing skyward.
Sam followed his motion up, finally realizing the danger they were in. As she and Storm had argued, the sky had grown considerably darker, lightning etching across the landscape behind them. No rain had fallen, but the clouds had slowly come together into something powerful – something bad. The Gamesmakers had had enough of the peace.
It was impossible to mistake the funnel cloud in the sky as anything but a harbinger of death.