Peter walks out of the cave and shouts in triumph!
"Food! More food!" Peter yells.
"Shhhhh, Peter, shhh," I whisper to him.
He hands me a basket with ten large rolls and a small block of cheese.
"Mmmmm, looks good," I say, smelling the fresh rolls in the basket.
"Let's save this for later. We've already eaten so much," Peter says.
"It's gonna be hard to wait..." I say longingly.
"Ya," Peter says.
We set the basket down, but after twenty minutes, we split a roll.
Still warm. So good.
"Want some cheese?" Peter says, spreading some onto his half of the roll.
"Sure," I say, holding my roll out for him to put a glob of cheese on.
"Mmmmmm, that makes it taste so... so... so..." I can't find the word for something this delicious.
"Sweet," he finishes my sentence for me.
"Ya, sweet," I say, leaning back against the cave wall, savoring every last bite.
The bread is wonderful, but the cheese, Oh! The cheese.
"How long do I have to wait to have more?" I ask as I put the last bit of bread in my mouth.
"We don't wanna finish it, so let's just go back to sleep. No cannons went off today, no anthem tonight, it's almost dark out anyway," Peter says lying down next to me.
"Ok, but we each get a roll in the morning," I say.
His mouth widens to a smile.
I fall asleep without listening to my stomach grumbling... I could get used to this.
I wake up to the sound of Peter smashing rocks against each other.
"What're you doing?" I ask, grabbing the rocks away from him, "Someone might hear us!"
"Hey, give those back Sophie. It's fine, I was only making a knife... well, sort of," he says, grabbing his "knife" back and showing me the sharpened edge.
"Oh well, don't be so loud," I say breaking open our food.
I grab for the block of cheese and some rolls, but three of our rolls are missing.
"You ate THREE rolls last night!?" I whisper to him in an angry tone.
"What? No I didn't! Why would you think that?" he says peering into our food basket.
"I thought we had ten rolls in all, we only ate ONE last night," he says, equally puzzled.
"Hmm," I think.
"Maybe an animal got in here and took some rolls," Peter says.
"And then the animal wrapped our basket back up perfectly and left silently," I say sarcastically.
"Okay, maybe that's not as logical as I thought," Peter says, stumped.
"Must be someone out there, someone that was starving. They must've heard us last night and waited for us to go to sleep, might've killed us... Maybe they didn't have a weapon," I say.
"That must be it," Peter says, snapping his fingers.
"We'd better be careful from now on, maybe we should have alternating shifts of sleep. Next time whoever it is might try to strangle us," I say.
Peter nods.
All we have left in our dwindling food supply is six rolls, some cheese, and two apples.
I grab the apples.
"Here, let's eat on the move. I want to get away from here," I say, packing up our few belongings.
"All right," Peter says, grabbing the apple from my hand and taking a huge bite.
We move out of our cave. Nothing shows any signs of a tribute sneaking into our cave last night. No foot prints, no broken branches... They're keeping a disturbingly low profile.
As we keep walking, I see a small wooden box shaped thing on the side of a tree.
"Ah, ow! What the heck?" I feel a sharp pinch on the bottom of my foot as I jerk it backwards.
I fall backwards on to the soft moss on the woods floor.
"What happened?" Peter asks, helping me on to a broken log.
"I stepped on something. It was sharp..." I say, taking off my shoes and socks.
When I take off my socks I find a small red dot on the bottom of my foot, a little blood dripping off of it. I put my sock over it.
"Uhf, what was that!" I ask Peter as he lifts a small metal nail from the ground, examining it.
"Hmmm, it's a nail, looks like it fell off this," Peter says, motioning to the wooden box.
"What is that? Looks like some sort of birds' house..." I say, knowing there aren't any birdhouses in the arena.
"It sounds like... it's almost... can you hear that?" Peter asks, being very quiet.
"What?" I ask, wincing as I put on my sock and shoe again.
"Stingers," Peter says, his pupils dilating in fear.
"It's a stinger house! It was planted here! We gotta get out of here!" Peter says, forcing my shoe back on.
I freeze. I've heard this word twice before. Stinger. I heard it once when a stinger killed my mother. I heard it once when a stinger killed Jason's father and almost killed Maysilee. I can't move. I'm like a stone.
I'm frozen with anger.
"Sophie, come on! Come on Sophie! Sophie would you come on!" Peter yells at me and pushes me away from the box of stingers.
I start yelling as well.
"You killed my mother! You killed her! She's dead! You tried to kill my sister! Come get me! Come get me you stupid beasts! Come on, I'm ready! Come get me just like you got them," I sink to the ground crying.
"Sophie, come on, there's nothing left for you here. If we stay any longer they'll come out," Peter says in a much kinder voice.
I sob for a long time while Peter helps me through the woods.
My foot is killing me, but I don't let it distract me. I want to destroy every single one of those deadly stingers.
"Are you okay to climb?" Peter asks as we come to a large spruce tree that stands in a new part of the arena. There are pine needles and grass and big meadows everywhere.
I nod, scale the tree, and fall to sleep without further discussion.
I wake up shaking with fear. I replace it with cold anger.
Peter wakes up to me gnawing on my teeth, and says, "One time, before the Deathmatch, my mom and dad were outside in our garden, picking strawberries that my mother sold in town. I went out with them... Then Brandon came out to join me. We sat on two swings my father made us when we were little. I grabbed my brother's hand... I'm not exactly sure why, but all the sudden, I was afraid of a world without my older brother, but, of course, I dismissed that thought. I had assumed that I'd never lose Brandon, he'd always be my older brother..." Peter pauses, "but then the Deathmatch started, he got picked... and then one day he disappeared on a train. I never saw him again," he finishes.
I don't know whether this is meant to make me feel sorry for him or to feel that I should stop sobbing, to realize that everyone has felt sadness at losing someone they love. But I know this isn't the case. He's trying to make me feel better... in his own way. I hope Jason is watching this from somewhere. A cell... home... district thirteen... anywhere really. I want him to feel a pang of guilt at letting Maysilee die. I know this is an awful thing to think, but at this point, I need someone to blame other than myself.
Peter falls back to sleep with his arm around me. I don't move away.
I wake up to a late afternoon sky with Peter looking down at me.
"Why'd you let me sleep?!" I ask him, sitting up in astonishment.
"I was organizing the pack... and the food... and I may have been sleeping part of the time too," Peter admits, "What's wrong with a couple hours of peace and quiet and rest?"
"Nothing," I say, leaning against the trunk of our tree.
I stand up on the fork in the tree where we were sleeping and begin climbing higher. There's something I need to see.
I get all the way to the top, the branches up here are thin, but I'm small enough that I can come up here.
"What're you doing?" Peter asks, stopping when the branches get to small for him.
"I have a plan," I tell him.
I get to the very top of the tree and look down into the center of the arena and spot the golden horn where the games started. There're still weapons left, not the great, fantastic ones... but this is no time to be picky.
"Let's go," I say, sliding down to where Peter is sitting.
"Go where?" he asks as we pack up our gear.
"We need some weapons, we're going to the center," I say as we begin to hop through the trees in the cornucopia's direction.
"All right," Peter says, following closely behind me.
We jump for a long time, since we were so far from the cornucopia. Eventually we reach the end of the tree line.
I slide down the thin trunk of a birch tree.
Peter follows me silently, and we ready ourselves to sprint in, get some weapons, and get out.
"You ready?" I ask.
"As I'll ever be. You think there's anyone around here?" he asks.
"Only one way to find out," I say hesitantly.
"Hey, it's okay, we can do this. I'd bet everyone has their own little camp out there, not here," he reassures me.
"Let's go, 3... 2..." We sprint into the plains surrounding the golden horn.
I grab a mace, drop it since I don't know how to use one and can barely lift it, and grab five knives and put them in my belt.
Peter has a large sword and a small dagger.
We sprint away towards the woods.
We enter the woods, scale a tree, and see if anyone is going to pursue us.
"Where'd they go!" I hear a familiar voice below us.
Frank, Taylor, and Daron break through the brush and meet at the bottom of our tree.
"I see um!" yells Daron, pointing at us.
"Crap..." I whisper as Peter and I scale the tree to the top.
We get out of knife throwing distance and switch over to a larger, taller spruce tree from the top of the oak tree.
Taylor follows us until the branches are snapping under her. Then she slips on one and cuts her leg against the rough bark. She slowly slides to the ground.
"Taylor, you okay?" Frank stops his attempt at hitting us with a spear.
"I'm fine," she says, wrapping her leg in a thin bandage.
"Aight' kiddies! Come on down! Or we'll come up after you!" Daron yells.
"We're good, why don't you come up? It's rather hot down there, much cooler up here," I yell back.
"I believe I will!" Daron begins scaling the spruce tree.
We jump back to the oak tree, then over to a birch tree that is far out of his weight range.
I hear him cuss under his breath.
"Those stupid kids won't ever come down, and if we try to camp under their tree..." Daron rages to his allies.
"I know, they'll just hop away like before," Taylor finishes his sentence for him.
"Maybe we should just watch them..." Frank suggests.
Then there's a terrible wailing sound that only an animal is capable of making.
"Someone's close! Come on, we'll find these kids again. Whoever's out there killing animals for food must be hungry, armed, and afraid of the Careers!" Taylor says triumphantly, taking off in the direction of the sound.
The other two boys follow her, and Peter and I immediately hop in the opposite direction with our trees.
"Come on. Let's get out of this part of the woods... I don't like running into the Careers on a regular basis," Peter says, changing course for the other side of the arena.
"Good idea," I say and follow him.
We continue leaping from tree to tree until night fall. We're just reaching the other side of the arena as the sun sets.
"Let's eat and sleep. We can keep going in the morning," I say, arranging some moss and leaves in a high fork on the top of a birch tree.
We each eat a roll and some cheese. I even give us each a couple of apple slices.
"All right, we should sleep..." I say, finding a comfortable spot to sleep.
"Okay, I'm exhausted..." Peter says, lying down, closing his eyes, and beginning to snore.
"Oh great, he snores!" I say, not for anyone in the arena, but for the Capitol people who are watching... They must have some money... Sponsor me!
"Hagger, what am I supposed to do? The Careers trap us in trees every time we see them! They're so strong. Peter and I are a joke to them! Hagger please! Tell me how to win..." I plead into the night sky.
I'm replied to with the arrival of a silver parachute.
"What is that?" Peter asks waking to the clunking sound the parachute makes when it lands.
It's an emerald-colored bow with 24 emerald arrows attached to it with a sheath.
"I can't use a bow..." Peter admits.
"I can't either," I say, confused at Hagger's motive to send this useless weapon.
"I can," the voice comes from somewhere in the foliage. I'm certain of who its owner is though.
"Jason?" I say quietly.
"Ya, I'm here."
I finally find his eyes shining through the leaves of an oak tree right next to us.
"You've been following us? You're here? But...wait, I thought..." I swear... Freddy is gonna get it big time, first he throws Peter and I in this arena, then he goes back on his word and sends Jason in with us.
"No, I wasn't following you. I was the one the Careers heard killing that beaver," he holds up the beaver by its tail, then leaves it to dangle from his belt.
"What are you doing here...? Freddy said you were safe, that you were going home, that if I came no one else would," I say, angry at myself for believing that Freddy's word was worth more than a piece of dirt.
"What can I say? They needed a district twelve male tribute," he says sarcastically, obviously never having had faith in Freddy's word.
"But... Freddy you son of a..." Peter stops himself.
"I hope that traitor is watching right now," I say, "because when we get out of here, I'm coming for him, no matter what."
Jason shifts his weight on the branch as he begins to speak, revealing a black rose on his wrist. Nice tattoo, I think to myself.
"We're not getting out of here. You might, but not all of us," Jason says, moving over to our tree with careful placement of his feet, stumbling at the slightest movement of the branches, for these branches were much too short and small for him.
"Your leg..." I say bending down to where there was once a bullet hole, now just a scab over his skin.
"I woke up in my cell with it like that, some kind of Capitol medicine I guess," he says, obviously not forgiving Freddy in the slightest.
"I'll never kill either of you," I promise them suddenly, as if I have to know that our team has grown to the number of three.
"I could never kill either of you..." Jason admits.
"I..." Peter begins, "I don't know yet."
"Fair enough," Jason says, examining the bow.
"So this is for me?" he asks, looking through the arrows.
"If you want them..." I say, remembering that Victoria wouldn't let him use a bow at training because of Maysilee.
He looks at me, really looks.
"Of course I want them, I'm not as good as Maysilee was, but I'm all right," he says as if there's no problem, so I drop it.
After Jason and Peter fall to sleep in our tree, I whisper to the night air.
"I get it Hagger. You knew we were safe this whole time... Thank you, for the bow. We have a chance now... I hope," I begin to fall to sleep, wondering if Jason being here is a blessing or a curse.
Three cannons go off before I fall to sleep, all right about the same time.
The anthem blasts in the sky, and I watch first Kenneth from district five, then Maple from district seven, then Sammy from district nine shine in the sky. I wonder if they were victims of each other or of the Careers... Jason is sitting up beside me, watching the sky.
"So there's only seven of us left," Jason says.
"Ya, who's left other than us and the Careers?" I ask.
"Stephanie, she was Kenneth's district partner. I have a feeling she cleaned up that little fight," Jason says.
"You're probably right..." I trail off.
"Do you really trust him?" Jason says, motioning to Peter.
"I think so," I admit.
"Be careful," he says.
"I always am," I say sleepily.
We fall to sleep, knowing we'll have to come face to face with the Careers eventually.
In the morning I sit up, stretch, and wake Peter and Jason.
"Where should we go? Maybe we should try to take out the Careers," I say.
"Ya, there's no use in putting it off," Peter agrees.
We take to the ground, since being with Jason and hopping from tree to tree don't really go together.
We walk for a long time, in the direction we saw the Careers take the other day.
Eventually, we see a pillar of smoke in the distance.
Peter and I take to the trees, Jason follows us with an edge of doubt, but he's actually great at hopping from tree to tree. And he's finally becoming comfortable hopping from tree to tree when we find the fire starters on the ground, one of them sleeping.
"Come on Taylor!" Frank nudges at her to wake up.
"I'm coming," Taylor says, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
An arrow is shot right at Daron. It gets him right in the knee.
"Ah! Ow, what the..." he sits against a tree, looking around wildly for the attacker, who is concealed in a tree.
"Come on, let's get out of here," Frank yells, with his spear lifted in a defensive position.
Another arrow goes right at Daron, hits him directly in the head. He falls over.
A cannon goes off.
"I see them! Come on, let's get out of here!" Frank yells, throwing a spear in our direction. It gets lodged in a tree.
"Let's follow them. Come on, they're running scared!" Peter says, leaping into a tree in front of us. I follow him with Jason right behind me.
Frank and Taylor eventually stop, wondering if we've followed them.
"Taylor, do you see them? Taylor.. Taylor!" Frank yells. While they were running, Taylor and Frank split up. We follow Frank.
An arrow is shot at Frank, Jason misses by a few inches.
"There they are!" Frank yells, throwing a handful of knives in our direction.
One knife skids across my cheek opening a large cut. I grab a handful of moss from the tree and press it against my cheek.
"You okay?" Jason asks, clearly more interested at aiming at Frank.
"I'm fine," I say, throwing a knife in Frank's direction.
It nails him in the stomach and he falls to the ground. He pulls it out, but I got him.
A cannon goes off.
"Good shot..." Jason says quietly.
I nod, turning away from him.
A large explosion goes off in the arena. I can't see. It's too bright. The arena is imploding on itself... what? I don't even, what's going on!
The light is shining right at me. I try to close my eyes, but I can't move. I'm cemented in my position. The moss falls off my cheek.
All the sudden everything is black. I still can't move. There's a slightly nice sensation of warmth and something soft...
I wake up in a white room with walls made of soft pillowy things. I'm in a bed with a large white comforter, and I'm dressed in the jacket and pants I wore in the arena.
I'm dumbfounded. Nobody won...? It was me, Jason, Peter, and... the other two, Taylor and Stephanie.
What's going on? Am I dreaming? I must be. I pinch myself.
"Ow!" I say, pulling my fingers away from my arm.
Okay, I'm awake.
"Hello Sophie," a familiar, disgusting voice greets me. I turn my head.
I turn my head again, to the other side of my bed and find a window on the top of the room.
Freddy is looking down at me.
"You... get away from me. I'd prefer to go back to the arena than to talk to you," I say, covering my ears.
"Sophie, we can talk now, or I can bring your friends in for some... incentive to do what I say," he says, glaring at me.
I glare back.
"What do you want now? You tried to kill me in the arena. You sent Jason in when you promised you wouldn't, and you risked Peter's life in the process, yet here I am. You can't get rid of me," I say proudly.
"You're right, I can't. That's the issue, but I've found a way to get rid of you, don't worry," Freddy says, scratching his head.
"You're going to go live on an island, a far away island on some remote place... somewhere that no one can get to you, somewhere you can't tell people to rebel, somewhere you can't be the "spark"..." he finishes.
"I'll always be the spark," I say.
"You'll remain the face of the rebellion for a while, but eventually people will believe you to be dead," he says carelessly.
"Who's coming with me?" I ask, kind of happy. This is certainly better than being here, surrounded by people who want to kill me.
"Jason, your father, your little brother... Jason's mother, his siblings, anyone related to you or the rebellion, including Victoria," he says.
"Peter comes or I won't go," I say defiantly.
"All right, but I was going to let him go back home," Freddy says.
"Just like you were going to let Jason go back home?" I ask sarcastically.
"I'm glad you finally understand me," Freddy says, and stands to leave.
"Wait!" I yell.
"What is it?" he says, clearly having somewhere else to be.
"What about the girls that were left in the arena? Uhh... Taylor and Stephanie?" I ask.
"Oh," he chuckles, "All they think is that you and your friends, Jason and Peter, have been killed by the Capitol. They were allowed to continue their games," he tells me, in a matter-of-fact way.
"But... who won?" I ask. I want to know.
"I believe the girl from district two won, Taylor," he answers as if he doesn't remember the other girl. Her name was Stephanie, you moron. Freddy walks out of the room with the high up window on the wall and disappears behind a large, black curtain. Then I hear a clinking noise, probably a door closing on the other side of the curtain.
I forgot to ask about Hagger... but he's related to the rebellion, so he's obviously going to come...
I'm so conflicted, I mean, if Freddy is really going to let us go, to live on our own, left alone, then this sounds... perfect. I never exactly cared about the rebellion. I don't even really care about what happens to the rest of humanity if it means my family and everyone I care about are left alone. Finally left alone.
I fall asleep on the soft bed, far beyond caring if Freddy is lying or being truthful. I want to be free of this torture. I hate the Capitol. I hate Freddy. I hate the way I've let them step all over me the past few months. I want to get away from this. I want to see if Freddy is being honest, if he really is going to let me go off and live with everyone I love, to leave me alone.
I wake up coughing out sand and salt water. I'm sitting on a beach. I'm surrounded by the people Freddy had promised. I spot Jason and Peter near a small hut made of grasses.
We're all here. Everyone I wanted. I feel a pang of guilt at choosing for them to come when they never got any input.
Hagger, my father, Eli, Jason's family... they're all here. Everyone looks so confused...
There aren't any boats here, but there are trees. I guess we're stuck for now, but Freddy kept his word. We're free to be here. I know he can still come here, but I have a feeling that won't happen. If he wanted to do us any harm, he would've killed us all long ago.
I walk into one of the small huts made of grass and find a little book on a table in the corner.
It's my scrapbook, opened to the page of Maysilee laughing with me and Eli in the meadow filled with wild flowers. I stare at the picture a long time, remembering that day... We were collecting wild strawberries when my father came out with his old camera. I look at the stain of strawberry juice on Eli's shirt. A slight laugh exits my mouth.
Now, we're on this island to be safe from Freddy and the Capitol, so for now I'll let it go. I will try to forget about all the evils that have been thrust upon me and my family. We're finally safe.
But no, it's too late for that. Eventually I'll get back to him, I'll come and destroy the Capitol, but for now, I'm on this island to lay low. Someday the rebellion will become victorious.
The End of Part 2