"I don't know. It's almost as if I could hear it. Listen," she says, coming up with something really fast. She's still good and I don't think she's gone crazy yet. I try to listen but all I hear are the mixture of insects and birds.
"I don't hear anything," Peeta says what we all are thinking.
"Yes, it's like when the fence around District Twelve is on, only much, much quitter. There! Can't you hear it? It's coming from right where Peeta got shocked," she makes up. I don't know what the fence sounds like but it must not be on a lot. Four's is always on since it lets us into the ocean and the world.
"I don't hear it, either. But if you do, by all means, take the lead," I say, ending the conversation which has gone on much farther than I planned.
"That's weird. I can only hear it out of my left ear," she starts up again. Why is she starting this again? She must be having fun with doing something no one else can even though it is fake. She turns her head side to side.
"The one the doctors reconstructed?" Peeta asks. I don't know what he knows about this though.
"Yeah. Maybe they did a better job than they though. You know, sometimes I do hear funny things on that side. Things you wouldn't ordinarily think have a sound. Like insect wings. Or snow hitting the ground," she says, taking all the attention away from her. The next big craze in the Capitol will probably be fake ears. This is great!
"You," Mags says nudging me forward, so I take the lead. I pick up a branch for Mags to use as a cane which she normally uses in 4. I drop to the back to hold us up in case we get attacked from behind. Katniss throws nuts to make sure we don't hit the force field, which totally contradicts what she said before, but no one brings that up. Mags is eating them after they fall to the ground, burnt.
"Mags! Spit that out. It could be poisonous," Katniss tells her. She mumbles something that I don't even hear, her mouth full of food makes it worth. Katniss looks at me, like I know what is going on. I laugh.
"I guess we'll find out," I shrug. We just keeps going forward though. After a while of finding no water, we just stop. I see Peeta sweating and Mags limping and Katniss says what I'm thinking first.
"Let's take a break. I need to get another look from above," she says. Not exactly what I was thinking, but it will work. She scales another tree as I watch her. She comes back down after scanning the arena.
"The force field has us trapped in a circle. A dome, really. I don't know how high it goes. There's the Cornucopia, the sea, and then the jungle all around. Very exact. Very symmetrical. And not very large," Katniss maps out the arena for us. Not too good. I think they want this to be over quickly.
"Did you see any water?" I ask, the first question that comes to my mind naturally.
"Only the saltwater where we started the Games," she says. That stinks, where are we going to get water from?
"There must be some other source. Or we'll all be dead in a matter of days," Peeta says the obvious, but I don't care. I wonder what Johanna would think of that, what she's doing, what Annie is doing, what my parents are doing. Focus, Finnick. You are in an arena to win, not to pity yourself about being in here.
"Well, the foliage is thick. Maybe there are ponds or springs somewhere," Katniss suggests, but she doesn't sound like she believes it. "At any rate, there's no point in trying to find out what's over the edge of this hill, because the answer is nothing."
"There must be drinkable water between the force field and the wheel," Peeta really thinks this is going to happen. This won't happen though because we have too many people that aren't in the best condition. Fighting the Careers will get us all killed. We keep walking through but we don't make it too far. I chose the campsite ten years below the force field so we can use it as a weapon. I start to weave Mags with grass and Peeta starts frying nuts.
"Finnick, why don't you stand guard and I'll hunt for some more water," Katniss suggests. "Don't worry, I won't go too far."
"I'll go too," Peeta joins in. No.
"No, I'm going to do some hunting if I can. I won't be long," she says, implying that he better not come. Peeta would bother her, like most Careers are bothered when they train. She goes off and I pull my trident closer to me. We keep working and I teach Peeta how to weave the mats. When Katniss gets back, we have made an entire hut of grass mats, three walls, floors, roof, bowls, the whole thing. Katniss shakes her head. No water.
"No. No water. It's out there, though. He knew where it was. He'd been drinking recently when I shot him out of a tree, but I couldn't find his source. I swear, I covered every inch of ground in a thirty yard radius," Katniss says, showing us a rodent. She's pretty smart with her natural world, the forest. I felt like I was good in this arena until I got farther into it. This isn't actually looking too good. Maybe I should've left. I could be with Johanna right now or the Careers. They might take me back. Maybe I shouldn't have volunteered. Maybe I shouldn't have joined the rebellion to help Katniss. I don't see hope right now. This could be it. But, it's too late for should'ves and too early for planning my death.