Day 1. Mid-night
District eleven's Angel Hale's POV
Earlier today the weather was wonderful, perfect even if I say so myself. The heat felt like it was from home. But now, now it was freezing cold. It was so cold that it felt as if the very core of my body was threatening to be frozen if I didn't do something to warm it up. And fast. I looked over to Aerin to see that he was in the same state as I was. His coat was zipped up all the way and his arms were wrapped around his body in a feeble attempt to keep it warm, but his whole body was shivering violently like he was having a seizure, his teeth were chattering so fast it was loud, and to top it off, snot was running out of his nose like he had a cold. I wiped some of my own snot that was running out of my nose with my jacket sleeve while my teeth briefly, unwillingly, chattered on the jacket fabric making me taste whatever material it was made out of. The jackets were thin, it hardly helped us from the cold. Same with the pants. I then looked over to Sami to see how she was holding up. Sami had also zipped up her thin jacket and had her arms wrapped around her body, but she wasn't nearly as bad as Aerin and I were, she was only shivering a little. Guess district eleven had the advantage during the day and the disadvantage during the night since we came from the hottest district in Panem. But did the nights have to be so freaking cold? I mean, talk about extreme weather differences.
"I-I-I th-th-th-think w-w-we shou-oul-ould camp he-r-r-r-re." Aerin shivered as we approached a vine encrusted tree that looked thick enough for four large houses stacked up on top of one another and four houses in diameter to fit into.
"G-g-g-g-good." I said though my chattering teeth before falling to the cold, hard ground. I just wanted to curl up into something, anything, and get warm. I then saw Sami and Aerin unzip their backpacks before pulling out two medium sized dark green sleeping bags. I then remembered that the two of them managed to get a couple of sleeping bags from the cornucopia. Sami's sleeping bag was the only thing in her backpack, but I wasn't in the position to complain, that sleeping bag was one of our lifesavers. Aerin's backpack was bigger, it held a sleeping bag as well, but it also contained a flashlight, five bags of dried beef strips, a good size loaf of bread, a one liter sized plastic bottle filled with water, and a small jar of iodine. I then thought of my backpack and how it held a survival knife and five spearheads, their backpacks were infinity more useful then mine, because we couldn't use a knife if you're dead. Plus, Aerin had food and water, which you couldn't live without. I watched as Aerin and Sami unrolled their sleeping bags and placed underbrush on top of them to help it stay hidden from other tributes.
"There's only two bags and three of us." Sami told us shyly. Nice was to state the obvious Sami. Like I didn't know how to count.
"Nooooo sh-i-i-i-it," I told her through chattered sarcasm "I n-n-n-n-never n-n-n-n-noticed."
"O-o-o-one of u-u-us i-s-s-s-s-s gona-a-a-a- hav-v-v-ve to sh-sh-sh-share." Aerin shivered. Even though it didn't seem like a big deal to everyone else, I envied the idea of sharing a sleeping bag with Aerin, why not admit it, I kind of had feelings for him. And this was a perfect opportunity to not seem suspicious. I mean, this was a really good chance to get closer to him. I hadn't known him well back in the district, but we did have the same class in school. But enough with the past and focus on the present. Now is now, then was then.
"I'll sh-h-h-h-hare." I announced not wanting this opportunity to pass. I then saw Aerin put up an effort to smile even though his teeth were chattering like crazy.
"G-g-g-g-great." I then turned and watched Sami crawl into her sleeping bag and saw how much space someone like her took up in her sleeping bag. I then thought of how tight it would be inside our sleeping bag, Aerin was bigger then Sami and my breasts were huge, add Aerin and I together and we might be in for a tight squeeze tonight. But I'll worry about that later. "G-g-g-g-good ni-i-i-i-ight you t-t-t-two." Aerin announced from inside his sleeping bag. Wait what? I looked towards his sleeping bag. He's already in? Wasn't he going to wait for me?
"Coming in?" I heard Sami ask beside me. I looked over to see her holding her sleeping bag flap open looking like she was waiting for someone, someone being me. Ugh, I really wanted to be with Aerin, but I guess I'd have to share with Sami if I didn't want to freeze to death. I turned away from Aerin's sleeping bag and went over to Sami's sleeping bag and crawled into it. When my entire body was inside I felt the air feel a little warmer around me. I heard Sami zip up the sleeping bag before turning to me and saying "sleep tight." Yeah, whatever. "Don't let the bedbugs bite." Wait what!? Bedbugs!? Oh god get me out of here! Like the Hunger Games weren't bad enough already without bugs everywhere!
District nine's Arrowe Winter's POV
Man this sucked, here we were in the middle of the night searching for tributes in the middle of a dense jungle. This didn't suck because of the risk of running into tributes, or that this was a dense jungle where anything could pop out at us, or that darkness surrounded us and was only penetrated our flashlights, it sucked because I was tired. I wasn't sure if Shoney, Evaline, and Lynsa were tired, but I would have never went on this trip if Lucifer, Howl, and Griffin didn't threaten to break every bone in my body. I could abandon them now, but then I'd be taking my chances in the jungle or city, whichever one I chose, but then I'd have to fear the retribution of the careers. I didn't want that.
"You think we should head back now?" Lynsa asked in a kind of desperate voice as I slashed at another tangle of hanging vines in front of us with my new machete. If there was one thing that this place had, it was lots of obstacles that hindered out travels. Vines, logs, fallen trees, everything you could expect in a jungle.
"Sure," I gladly told her as I turned towards her "I'm getting way too tired for this shit right now." As Lynsa smiled, I looked at the thick coat she was wearing and thought about the freezing cold air around us. I had a thick coat on warm pants, and insulated gloves, just like the rest of the careers at the moment. I bet that the other tributes didn't get this kind gear at the cornucopia and were now struggling against the elements at this very moment. I mentally smiled to myself, good thing that I worked hard and got the careers attention, even though it wasn't part of my original plan, but I wasn't complaining, if anything, this was better then my original plan, I just needed some sponsors and I'd be set for the rest of the games. I suppressed a yawn before looking behind Lynsa, who was standing rather close to me for some reason, and saying "Ok you two, we're going back to camp." But there was something strange about this situation, mostly because there was nobody behind Lynsa, all there was was underbrush and trees as far as I could see. Did they somehow sneak away? I was usually very alert about my surroundings, I must be more tired then I first thought. Lynsa then turned around when she heard silence for several seconds. She then noticed that both of the district four tributes were missing.
"Shoney?" Lynsa called out "Eva?" Where had they gone? Had they betrayed us? Shoney did seem suspicious during training, talking to other tributes and claiming to be trying to find out their weaknesses. Then there was Evaline. Huh, should have expected this earlier. "Where do you think they went?" Lynsa asked looking around for the two district four tributes.
"I don't know." I told her before grabbing her arm gently before leading her back to camp "maybe they wanted to have some alone time with each other."
"You think so?" Lynsa asked like I wasn't kidding around "I didn't think that they liked each other, much less like that." I let out a little laugh before telling her
"I don't think they do, I was just kidding." Hopefully they just got lost or something and were heading back to the camp. "Their probably back at camp." I told Lynsa.
"I hope so," she told me "I don't want to be out here any longer then I really have to."
"What," I asked trying to make a joke about the current situation "you scared of the dark?" I gave a little laugh before turning to Lynsa to see her not laughing and actually looking away from me. I gave myself a silent sigh before thinking. Really Lynsa, really?
District four's Shoney Germoal's POV
I noticed that Eva was acting kind of weird when we left the career camp, she looked like she was looking for a way out of whatever she was thinking of. It was only small signs such as eyes glancing in one direction for a spit second before turning back to where they normally were, but small things can turn the tables on someone. I was lucky to even notice her signs. I didn't know what she was going to do until she did it. While traveling the jungle, she took the opportunity to leave the group while nobody was looking, or so she thought. She silently left the group without anyone noticing, nobody but me. And soon, we were away from Lynsa and Arrowe without them noticing that either one of us were gone.
My stealth was one of the things I was proud of, it helped me slip away from Lynsa and Arrowe and helped me tail Evaline without her noticing. Mom and dad said that stealth was a useless skill, they said that I needed to be stronger and more aggressive, I needed to be like the other careers, well if I were like them I wouldn't have been able to tail her now would I?
I followed Eva silently though the jungle until she decided to take a little rest. She thought that she was far enough from everyone to take a little break before continuing to wherever she was going. I then started to go around her as she breathed in and out gently while placing her hands onto her knees. As quickly and silently as I could, I walked around her in a semi-circle. I was careful not to let her know that I was near by only gently rubbing onto the underbrush, steeping on moss, and avoiding the twigs that made the most noise or that were prone to snap.
Evaline didn't notice me making my way around her, she didn't notice me when I got out of the cover of the shadows in front of her, she didn't even notice me as I walked closer to her. I stopped walking towards her when I was about ten feet away from her when she looked up. We looked at each other for several seconds before she screamed out what she was thinking the entire time, she screamed out in fright. The bad news, she screamed loudly, the good news, she covered her mouth a split second later. I just hoped that nobody heard that, or if they did they thought nothing of it.
"Having fun?" I asked her as she began to calm down from my sudden appearance in front of her. Her breathing slowed down before she looked around, probably to see if the other careers had heard her and were heading towards us at this moment. But a few moments passed with only our light breathing, the distant light snaps of twigs breaking from who knows what, and various other little noises, but no human sounds, I think.
"How'd you find me?" Eva asked me in a loud whisper, she was probably still worried that there were other careers out there ready to kill her at a moments notice.
"I followed you." I told her truthfully in a normal sounding voice, I knew that there was nobody out there besides the two of us. I wasn't followed. She looked straight at me while narrowing her eyes, she obviously didn't believe me. Aw well, her choice. "Fine, don't believe me." She then tisked while looking to her right, not wanting to look at me.
"Why are you here?" She asked while not looking at me.
"I knew you were leaving." I told her before slinging my backpack off my shoulders and throwing it to the ground before unzipping it and reaching in for a small, but good sized, grey plastic box. I pulled the grey box out of my backpack before tossing it to her. She caught the box with both hands before looking at it and studying it.
"What is this?" She asked while opening it. I didn't need to answer now, it was a first aid kit. It contained roll up bandages, burn ointment, disinfectant, fever pills along with a needle and medical thread. When I guessed she was done looking at the stuff, she looked up to me, her face unreadable when her mouth opened. "Why?" She asked like it was some sort of trap or something.
"That's the one thing that you forgot while taking food, water, iodine, wire, clothes, and that knife. Everything you need to survive the wild, except meds." While I talked, she quickly slipped the box into her large, green-blue backpack before looking back at me
"Why though?" She asked still wondering why I gave it to her "aren't you going to kill me for trying to betray the career pack?" She then pulled out her knife and pointed it at me "that's why your here aren't you, you just want to give me the meds to make me lower my guard."
"You serious?" I asked her unconcerned of what action she was thinking of doing as I pulled out my own knife and held it out in front of me ready to strike in my right hand "your going to accuse me?" I said while pointing to my chest with my left hand. Well, here goes nothing. Then without warning, I ran towards her at full speed. My knife was smaller then her's, a four inch blade verses her seven inch survival knife. I swung my knife at her throat, but she leaned her back away from my blade and avoided death. But I used my momentum to spin in a circle and slammed a powerful back fist into her face as she leaned forwards to get back to her natural stance. I wasn't a fighter, I wasn't very strong, but I could still at least kind of fight, after all, I was born and raised in a career district. But as Eva landed on the ground before quickly rolling to her back and getting to her feet in a couple short seconds, I reminded myself that she was from the same district I was from. We weren't trained like those from one or two, or even some of the other careers in our district, but we were still trained fighters.
When I completed by full circle spin, I saw Eva get to her feet before looking at me in the eyes and smiling like she had discovered a great secret and was ready to use it to her advantage.
"So I was right." She said with a half laugh before running towards me with a knife in her hand, ready to kill me. She was fast, but I was faster. Just like in the mock fights with my brother Galex, I sidestepped to the left and let the blade slice the air to my right, inches away from my face. While she was still going forward, I gave her a roundhouse kick to her back with my left leg which caused her to move farther forward then she expected. Her forced, unexpected, extra momentum forward caused her to lose her balance before she started to fall to the ground.
Her face was about to hit the ground before she swung her right arm forward and spined the right side of her body forward before doing a shoulder roll forward. But I followed her movements and got behind her as she got to her feet after finishing her roll. When she was at her full hight, I grabbed her jaws with my left hand covering the lower half of her face including her mouth while at the same time, placing the blade of my knife at her throat. But I on purposely didn't let the blade touch her skin. I then leaned up to her ear before saying
"Any last-" I then felt something hard smash into my face before I was forced to back off from her before feeling fire rip across the center of my face. Whatever she did to me, it stung like hell. I gave out a suppressed shout of pain before I touched my face where it hurt with my left hand. I felt something warm and wet on my finger tips before pulling them back and looking at them to see blood on each of the four finger tips that touched my face. I looked up, away from my fingers, towards Eva, and saw the tip of her survival knife with drips of blood on it. Eva pointed her bloody tipped knife at me before saying
"Come at me again, I dare you." I touched my nose to make sure it wasn't broken. I felt my nose for a bit before instantly deciding that it wasn't even close to being broken, it sure hurt though. I then smiled before looking back her to and saying
"Perfect." I then saw confusion in her eyes before she asked
"What? What's perfect?" She didn't know, that was the point though, if she knew what I was thinking it probably wouldn't have worked.
"That should lower suspicion." I told her before sheathing my knife, turning around and walk towards my backpack.
"Hay Shoney," Eva asked yet again approaching me. I didn't know wither to feel threatened or not, but it felt like she was pointing her knife at me as I crouched at my backpack to get some disinfectant and roll up bandages "what was perfect?" She really wanted to know from the tone of her voice. I pulled out a small bottle of disinfectant before twisting the cap off and pouring some across my face where it hurt. It felt like she had cut me from just below my right cheek bone, and diagonally up my face, just missing my nose, going between my eyes, until it had cut through my left eye brow. I don't think it was very deep, not enough to leave a permanent scar, but enough that it would hurt for a few days or so. As the disinfectant touched my wound, a sharp, stinging pain ran though the center of my face.
"My plan," I told her as I finished pouring the disinfectant on my wound and was ready to place the cap back on the bottle. I started to unwrap the rollup bandages when she said
"Plan? What plan?"
"My plan was to get wounded by you so that the other careers would think that I tried to stop you. We got into a fight, and you escaped. Easy right?"
"I guess." Eva said like she couldn't believe it. I wrapped the bandages around the center of my face twice before tying a knot at the top of my head before ripping the fabric and saving the rest of the bandages for later. I threw the remaining bandages and disinfectant into my backpack before zipping it up and slinging it over my shoulders and headed away from Evaline and back towards the career camp before they thought I was dead or something.
"Hope we don't meet again." I told her without looking back. I didn't want to meet her in case the next time we met, we'd have to fight each other for real. And if that was the case, one of us would have to die. I didn't want to kill her, but I would if I had to, I didn't want to die, that was for sure.
"Hay Shoney." I heard Evaline call out in a loud whisper
"What?" I asked while still walking and not looking at her
"Why?" Should I tell her? Sure, why not, its not like I'd see her again. Hopefully.
"Underdog." Was all I told her before disappearing into the dark.
Yeah, she was an underdog, the underdog career. When watching the games back home, I cheered more for the underdogs then I did for the others. Last year, while everyone was rooting for careers like Steel Redstone or that district seven boy Douglas Vallstar to win, I was rooting for the weak district three girl that managed to survive till the final four. You didn't need to be strong like Steel or Douglas to win, sometimes, all you needed to do was be cunning. I always wanted to do something to make the small fries win the games. Everyone in the district thought that was weird, but I didn't care. But now, I was in the games, and I could rig the games to make the underdogs have a better chance, just like I did with Evaline and the meds. But I was an underdog as well, and I was going to get home, no matter what anyone thought of me.
A/N: Holy crap it's midnight! Anyway, here's the next chapter, hope you all like.
Random question: Do you guys think that authors of novels/video games/whatever read fanfiction of their novel/game/whatever?
Another random question: Do you guys see this. Capital (fascist) District 13 (communism).