Chapter 37: Hang Ten

The advantage of being out of my cell is that now, I can at least differentiate night from day.

At first light, I rise and begin to examine every side of the cell house roof I find myself stranded on.

Once again, the plumbing becomes the answer to my problem.

I spy a drainpipe and slowly, carefully, shimmy down it to the ground, my weapons on my back. I land on concrete, and right away run into the chain link fence. I quickly scale it, artfully avoiding the rusting barbed wire at the top by swinging my legs wide and over first, then keeping my hands on the opposite side until I have found a good foothold. Then, I retract my hands over, one at a time, and scale down.

There is nothing keeping me now from the shoreline and surrounding rocks, and - keeping my weapons out - I jog down to the water's edge. In a rare patch of grass, I spy a squirrel and quickly shoot it, attaching the morsel to my belt for later.

Suddenly, a wave crashes against the shoreline and douses me, flinging me back onto the rocks. I sit up, dazed.

I know one thing: that was too big a wave for it to be considered natural. When another big wave crashes in the exact same spot, I know for sure: it's a Gamemaker trap, to sweep tributes out to sea!

I scramble along the water's edge, keeping a good distance back while still having to dodge the ocean spray that now seems to follow me. Finally, I spy a clump of trees - probably one of the only spots of foliage on this stinking rock - and retreat into it.

I now begin to calm a little. This isolated patch of forest feels almost like the woods back home. Only the sounds of the crashing waves remind me otherwise. A few hours later, though, even these sounds fade slightly. Two cannons in rapid succession suddenly follow.

I have no idea if those two tributes were claimed by the Gamemaker waves or not, but keeping track of the deaths, I now realize we are at the Final 8. And it's only the third day!

I gather some firewood, and cook the rabbit I killed over a small fire. I do not want to alert any nearby tributes. Eating my meal after stamping out the fire, I watch the sun go down.

Two faces appear in the sky tonight: the boy from 5, and the boy from 10.

Spying a palm tree to my right, I scale the thing until I reach a branch. Removing my light arena jacket, I use its sleeves to tie myself to the branch and trunk.

I go to sleep at last, living and ready to fight another day.