We spent the day walking careful to cover our tracks as we went. Several times we thought that we had been spotted only to discover it was a small rodent or a mutt. We weren't bothered about the rodents and not too worried about the mutts, but you can never be too careful. Thankfully we were down wind the whole day so they paid no attention to us. After a while we decided to rest so I climbed a tree to get a better view of where we were. I could just see the cornucopia island without sticking my head out of the canopy, by the looks of it there was a camp around it. Careers standing their ground. Not too far away from them about a kilometre or so was a column of smoke rising up out of the trees and my immediate thought was 'they seriously want to get themselves killed don't they.' I turned around and followed the path of the river. In the distance, was a rock face, good to hide but not good if you get attacked. I carried on following the river path and noticed a small grove of trees laden with fruit. A good place to stock up if it's edible.
I called down to Brandi and jumped down. We quickly packed up and headed in the direction of the grove. I hadn't quite comprehended the distance and it took us the majority of the day to get there. When we did get there, there was still some light so we could see the fruit. There were all types of fruit trees, but we picked only the citrus fruits because we knew they couldn't have been poisoned. As night drew in we found a spot next to the stream that was protected enough for us not to be spotted but easy enough for us to escape if we needed to.
There's only one face in the sky tonight – Romeo. As it finishes, Brandi volunteer to watch while I sleep. As i lay down in my sleeping bag it suddenly dawns on me about the reality of the games, only one of us will live. 23 others will die, and the one who lives will wish it was them.
About an hour passed while I slept only to be awoken by an agitated Brandi.
"Cassie!"
I grab my bow and quiver of arrows. Slinging our packs over our shoulders, ready to run. I can make out the figure of a girl, running towards us, but so far I can't see what's pursuing her. We back up a little, uncertain of whether to stand and fight, or run.
It's only when the girl is only a few seconds away when we see the mutts properly. Three huge black dogs, with glowing red eyes. The girl keeps on running until she reaches us. We let her pass, and once she's behind us she just about collapses. I wonder how long those mutts have been chasing her.
I take aim and let an arrow fly. It hits the throat of the first mutt, which falls to the ground. The second goes for Brandi, who sends a knife flying between its eyes.
I finish off the last mutt with a second flying arrow in throat. I retrieve my arrows and Brandi's knife, and we turn to the girl behind us, who has passed out. She's pretty bashed up. There are scratches all down her back and along her legs, which, though they don't appear to be deep, are bleeding pretty badly. We could just leave her to die, or kill her now, but we don't. Instead, I pulled out a first aid kit, and started dabbing at the cuts. But we've got nowhere near enough to treat her. All we can do is clean and bandage the wounds, and hope the wounds don't get infected. But they're going to cause the girl a whole lot of pain.
When the girl wakes, we get her to eat a little, but she's almost too weak for that. I work out who she is - Aya, the girl from seven.
I take the next watch covering Aya with a blanket. Brandi's unsure whether to sleep but eventually does saying that we'll need our strength and now we've got a new ally we need more food and supplies.
I watch over Aya thinking about how shallow her breathing is, at least she is breathing.