Day 3. Mid Afternoon.
District twelve's Evanlyn "Eve" Scott's POV
It was hard work to stay hydrated in this environment, this hot, dry, humid environment that was hotter then even the summer days back home, especially if you couldn't find anything to drink. The good news was, I had found something to drink. I wish I'd have found a lake or some other kind of large body of water like I wanted to, but this was a lot better then nothing, and I was far from complaining about my liquid source right now. In the middle of a hot jungle in the middle of the afternoon, you don't complain about drinkable liquid when your white undershirt turns into a dark greyish colour due to your own sweat and your throat is stiff from being dry and begging for something to drink other then your own saliva.
I knocked down another hard, brown, round fruit thing that was hanging at the top of the tree I had climbed while being suspended in the air by hanging onto the branch of one of the giant leaves that grew at the top of the tree with my free hand. I was afraid that when I let my weight fall from the tree and let it hang solely by the leaf branch, even though it was big and thick branched, it'd break before making me fall back down to the ground below before the fall broke my legs, or maybe even kill me. But I grabbed the part that was near the trunk of the tree, and thankfully, it was strong enough to support my weight. It sagged down a bit, which scared me for a bit, but I calmed down once I realized it wasn't going to break. Thank god for being poor, when your hungry, your light. Not that I'd want to weigh a lot, being thin and light has it's advantages, like being able to climb things or sneak into places. Yeah, thank god for being thin and light, otherwise my thieving back home might not have been so successful.
I knocked down one of the fruits growing in the tree by first cutting the stem off the fruit with my knife before watching the fruit thing fall to the ground below me before hearing it slide through the underbrush before hitting the solid ground with a thud.
I'm sure glad that I learned how to climb back home in District Twelve, otherwise I don't know if I could have survived for this long. It was hard work climbing this tall, smooth bark tree, but with the help of my knife and an iron grip that was made up of determination, I managed to climb it. Thank god.
There was a time where I thought of stealing from the careers and the cornucopia, but there were three of them there. They looked like they were being kind of lazy though, heck, one of them was sleeping. One of them was climbing the cornucopia and I didn't know wither I could get past him without him seeing me, it was in the middle of the afternoon and it wouldn't have been easy to hide in that clear space. I could have camouflaged myself, but would it have been good enough? I kind of doubted it, I mean, jungle underbrush in a clear landscape? Cover myself in moss? They'd notice me in a second. Oh man, all of those items were right in front of me yet they were so far away. It was kind of frustrating to know that they were there and I would have a hard time getting them. But then again, that was like anything back home, if we wanted something, we had to work for it, and for me, stealing was hard, but it was something that I had to do to keep my family alive.
It seemed then like I had to risk one of two things to stay alive, one was to try and get around the three guards doing their job, which I think only the girl was taking kind of seriously, they must have thought that nobody would be stupid enough to try to steal from them in the middle of the day with them standing around. Or go back to the jungle and try to find something to drink. I didn't want to go into the city solely because, from what I saw, it was an abandoned city, and I probably wouldn't find something there besides other tributes and weapons. The jungle was the food place as far as I could see. Sure there were lots of buildings to hide in, but that hiding would be pretty worthless if I didn't have anything to eat or drink.
I was going to take my chances with the cornucopia, I felt that I could go slip past the girl, grab as much water and food as possible, then get out of there before anyone could see me. I worried about the girl spotting me though, during the training days, I saw her with those bows and those arrows, she was an expert with those things, a natural, and if I didn't get away in time I'd have an arrow in my head. I didn't want that. But I'd make sure boy climbing the cornucopia wouldn't spot me until it was too late, or not at all, the bandage faced boy wouldn't spot me at all, and I'd make sure to not be spotted by the District One girl. It'd just be like back home when stealing from the mayor, or the peacekeepers. If I thought of the careers as peacekeepers, I'd feel right at home. I'd prefer to do it at night, but I worried that I wouldn't make it that far, plus at night, all the careers are there, and the guards taking watch then would probably be on high alert.
I decided to take the chance, get in quietly and unseen, then get out the same way, but then that District Three giant came from the city edge of the clearing and raped the little girl from his district before scalping her and ripping her throat out with his teeth. The scary thing about it was that the District Three giant seemed to enjoy what he was doing. That made me abandon my plan for stealing from the cornucopia that day. I didn't want to get caught by any of career pack, if that's what they did to their victims, I didn't want to be one. Sure that girl tried to stop him, but the two guys stopped her from helping, and who says that anyone would try to help me out of a situation like that? If they could, or would, even do that.
I climbed down the tall, smooth tree being careful not to slip and fall, but years of climbing buildings have helped me with climbing this tree. The tree was slippery and hard to grip with it's smooth bark, but the house walls and roofs were also slippery in the winter when snow fell from the sky and the window ledges were frozen with ice. Climbing the tree right now was like that, but a little harder. Not too much harder though, it wasn't easy, but I had done harder things back home during the winter months. Not much harder things though, but frozen walls ranked higher in hardness then smooth barked trees at the moment.
I slowly climbed down the smooth trunk of the tree, painfully digging my nails into the trunk of the tree for grip, before letting go of the tree and jumping down the last two feet. Years of sneaking allowed me to easily fall silently to the ground, I had done it so many times I didn't even need to think about it, my body reacted the way I wanted it too. I guess after doing the same thing hundreds of times your body reacts on instinct. My feet landed softly on the ground a split second before my hands would and I'd end up in a crouching position.
I landed on the ground in that crouching position without even thinking. I didn't even feel my body move until I had hit the ground. It was kind of amazing what I could do.
I stood up before I walking over to the hard brown fruit stuff before crouching down beside one of them before placing my knife down beside me before using my hands to rip off the tough outer skin fibers. I didn't have to do this part, but I discovered that it made the next step easier.
After several hard, frustrating minutes, I finally got the outer skin fiber off before I picked my knife up again and stabbed one of the three black eyes on the hard surface of the fruit. I pushed my weight on the knife to get the blade into the hard surface. It was hard, but the blade started to sink into the hard surface after a few seconds of pushing.
The blade sank in before I started to twist the blade to send it in deeper faster.
It took time, but when the blade reached the hollow inside of the fruit, I knew I was almost done. I pulled the knife out of the fruit before I started to make a second hole about six inches away from the first hole. I learned the hard way that if I didn't make a second hole, the liquid inside would splash everywhere out of the first hole because of the lack of air ventilation. I wasn't going to make that mistake again, I wasn't going to waste any drinkable liquid.
I finished with the second hole before pulling my knife out again, setting it down beside me, lifting the bottom hole to my mouth, and let the clear liquid pour out of the brown fruit and into my thirty throat.
I'm sure glad that I found this fruit, I found it purely by accident, but I found it.
I was walking through the jungle looking for a water source after the violent cornucopia incident when I heard something fall beside me. I was a little startled at first because of that. I pulled out my knife to defend myself worrying that someone had found me. I turned around, to see nothing but open jungle. I wasn't going to let my guard down though, it could be someone that was skilled in the art of sneaking, like me. Or someone in camouflage. I studied my surroundings, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. I turned my back to where the noise had occurred, took four steps, then unexpectedly turned back to where the sound had occurred. Again, nothing. There was no movement anywhere, and nothing had changed. Hmmm, maybe someone wasn't following me. I looked left and right. Nothing. I looked down, and there was this big round fruit thing. Huh, that wasn't there before. Was it?
I looked at the round fruit with curiosity. I never saw anything like it before, I wondered what it was. I walked over to it and slowly, gently, placed my hands on the round surface of the new fruit thing in front of me. My fingers touched the hard, furry surface of the round fruit before I gently picked it up and examined it left, right, up and down. It really was interesting. I shook in a little bit as an experiment, and was surprised to hear liquid shaking around inside of it.
I placed the fruit down before pulling out my knife and taking a stab at it, but it was harder then it seemed. The knife didn't go down all the way, so I pushed and twisted my knife while placing my weight on it before the knife slid down into the hollow center. I pulled the knife out before raising the hard fruit up to chest level before taking in a smell of the liquid. It didn't smell bad, in fact, it gave off little odor, it didn't smell like much, but it didn't smell poisonous. I tried to think back to the training center to see if I had learned anything about this kind of thing, but I couldn't remember this round, hard fruit. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they didn't show me this, they didn't even mentioned this or anything.
I was thirsty though, it was either this drink this liquid or try to find something else. It didn't smell dangerous, but I didn't know if I could trust it or not.
I decided to try out a little bit, just a little bit, if it tasted poisonous I'd abandon the idea of drinking it. I slowly tilted the fruit so that the hole I made was pointed down towards my mouth on a bit of an angle before letting a little of the liquid, not more then a few drops, pour into my mouth.
The liquid that touch my tongue didn't taste poisonous, and it kind of tasted good as well. I let the liquid drain from the fruit and into my mouth, but it kept on slashing everywhere, but I didn't think about that right now and didn't really care, all I could think of at that moment was that I was actually drinking something, and it was great. I wasn't going to dehydrate to death.
After draining the fruit dry, I thought about breaking it open to see if there was anything edible inside. Couldn't hurt to try. I placed my knife inside the hole I made before sawing the hard fruit in half. It took a long time of sawing, but when it was finished, I saw the white insides of the round fruit. I smelled it, and it seemed to be safe to eat. I shaved some of the white stuff inside the fruit with my knife, and found that that stuff cut off like flakes. It was interesting, and when I tasted it, the taste was also interesting. It wasn't the best thing I tasted, but it most definitely wasn't the worst. Out here, food was food, and that's really all I can ask for right now.
I ate the whole thing and satisfied my stomach before wondering where it came from. I looked up and saw that in the tree above me, there were a couple of those round fruits growing in the tops of those trees. I was saved, I didn't have to steal from the career camp to survive, I just had to look up and try to find those fruits. It was a good substitute for a lake or river I had to say. I just wished that those trees weren't far in between each other.
Day 3. Late Afternoon
District Six's Rayne Page's POV
"Keep singing," I told Life as she sang to the mockingjays above us "they like your voice." It seemed to be true, the mockingjays were repeating the melody that Life was singing. They were patiently, learning the melody she was singing, Life had a good voice I'll say that much.
I patted Life on the shoulder to show her my support before slowly walking away from her. We had water, but we didn't have much food. That was a problem. We can survive without food for a while, but we'd start to get weak. And the water, we needed to find someplace with water. My inner self wanted to go to the cornucopia and steal water, food, medicine and other things from the careers, but I fought my urge. The doctor back home in District Six said that I had Kleptomania, a mental illness that makes me want to steal things. I remember when I used to steal things from people, mostly my family, and those woodland creatures from work. I knew that it was dangerous to steal things from other people, so I tried to keep it to those two things, but sometimes, I can't help but see something and think of how nice it would be to have it. I'm lucky that I haven't been caught, it was only a few times, but I stole from a few of the shops back home. It wasn't much, but it was dangerous. I worried about my family when I got away, if I got caught, they'd have to see me punished, and its hard work to live in District Six.
I shook those thoughts out of my head. When I'm victor, we won't have to work ever again. We'll have more then enough money to live comfortably. We'll live in the victor's village and live the good life. I'll give money to my friend Zee, and her family won't have to struggle with the poor life. But for now, I have to face the arena life with my ally who was busy with the mockingjays.
I didn't know if Life would approve of the plan I'm thinking of right now, but it was for our survival, so I didn't tell her, she'd understand later anyway.
My target was above our heads, so of course I'd have to climb. Climbing was no problem to me though, I had climbed almost my entire life, so I wasn't worried about that part. But the parts I was worried about was being seen, and scaring away my targets. I had to climb the wall to my left, then go around the wall beside it before jumping to a wooden ledge that held the targets. It would be easy getting there. Getting there without being seen or heard, that was going to be the tricky part. But it was either that or starve. We could go to the forest as I tried to get Life to see, but she still thought that we could live in the city part of the arena. I swear, we're going to need to move soon, they city wasn't really the best place in the arena in my opinion. But then again, no part of the arena is the best place to be, there's always danger, and there's always going to be something wrong. This place was familiar to us because we've been in these parts for the last three days, but we're going to have move soon. I'll bid my time, Life'll see that we have to go to the jungle soon. I knew she'll see. And if she doesn't see, I'll convince her.
I walked over to one of the vine crusted walls before grabbing a handful of moss and began to climb the wall. Climbing this wall wasn't much different then climbing the trees back home. My hands and feet knew exactly where to grab and where to step on, and climbing the wall was easy. Climbing was second nature to me, and I was on the top of the forty foot wall before I knew it. I looked back to my ally to see her still occupied with the mockingjays above her. So far so good.
I pulled my feet up to the top of the wall and balanced by body and held my feet still before lifting my back up and stood straight before turning to my right. Piece of cake, this wall was wide enough for my feet to stand on. It was a barely wider then my feet, but I had walked on thiner branches before, so this wasn't so bad.
I slowly walked towards my goal as to not scare them away while also balancing on the top of the wall. When the got to the end of the thin wall I was walking on, I grabbed onto the left side of the wall and felt for any moss or cracks in the wall. Sure enough, there was a creak big enough for my hand to slip into. I grabbed that before letting my body slowly fall from the wall my feet were on. My left arm supported my body as it hung in the air and my fingers gripped the concrete before my right hand found another creak big enough for my hand to hang from.
I'm sure glad that my bones are really thin. It helps with situation like this, some of those holes were small. I don't think people would like a body like mine, but I'm proud of my body, it's mine after all, and to me, this kind of body is the best for the kind for work I do. And it's helping with the situation right now.
I crawled slowly towards the edge of the wall I was climbing now towards the wooden ledge where my prey was sitting on. Like a spider going towards a fly in it's web.
My hands and feet slowly made their way to the ledge one step at a time. I didn't rush it, one wrong move and I'd fall to my death. I found the right cracks in the wall before moving. My hands felt for them. My feet felt for them. I moved with them. It wasn't like climbing trees, but it wasn't too different, it still had the same basic moves to it.
Slowly but surely, I made it to the end of the wall and was near the ledge. I bend my knees and lowered myself so that my chest was close to the ledge. I gently let go of the wall with my left hand and slowly let my hand make it's way to the ledge. My hand touched the old wood and I became excited. I made my body ready for the next few moves, those next few moves were critical, mess up on those moves and my targets would get away. I relaxed my body and listened to the noise around me. Life's music, the mockingjays repeating it back to her. My plan was still in motion, it could still be done.
I felt that my heart was beating slightly faster then normal as it thumped lightly in my chest. It was getting my body ready for the reaction it was going to do. I tensed my body before doing the first critical move. I let my right hand let go of the crack that it was holding on to while at the same time lifting my legs up to the ledge before twisting my body towards the ledge. My body landed on the wooden ledge before I rolled on it, and I was thankful for that, I was sure that I'd make it, but there was always a chance. Then without pausing, I quickly reached out to my targets and grabbed two of them my the neck, one in each hand, and twisted my wrists causing their little bodies to spin in a circular motion in my hands before their necks broke with a little snap.
The mockingjays stopped singing and began to fly away from me as two of their friends meet their end by my hands.
But two wasn't enough for me, we needed more. I quickly dropped the two dead mockingjays in my hands before reaching back and pulling out my machete and throwing it at one last mockingjay that was flying away from me. The long bladed weapon sailed though the air before catching up to the mockingjay and slicing it's body in half. I watched the machete sail though the air as it got farther and farther away from me and wondered why it wasn't coming back to me. Oh yeah, that's right, it was a machete not a kukri like I was so used to. Damn, looks like I'll have to go and find it later. Woops. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown it so hard. But, I got us some food, three mockingjays, that was food, it was edible. It just needed to be cooked over a fire.
I looked down to Life and saw her with a shocked expression on her face. Her mouth hung open while her eyes were wide like she couldn't believe what I had done. She was certainly surprised, and I kind of don't blame her, I bet she never expected me to get three mockingjays in a few short seconds. Those birds were fast, but not as fast as me. I actually feel kind of proud of myself right now, I didn't make a single mistake, I managed to get us some food, what was not to like?
I gave a happy wave to Life before saying to her "good job!"
Day 3. Early Night.
District Four's Evaline "Eva" Ellery's POV
I knew that my supplies won't last forever, I knew that they wouldn't last forever when I took them from my former allies, but I never thought that it'd disappear so fast. The food, almost all gone. The water, almost all gone. I never got a chance to use that iodine, or that wire which I thought would have came in handy if I ever found what I was looking for from the beginning.
I continued to run though the jungle, even though the sun was beginning to set and the night was getting darker, I continued to run. I didn't know what else to do, everything else I tried so far has failed. I betrayed my career allies because I'd rather be alone in this hostile environment rather then worry about being stabbed in the back by Lucifer for being the so called useless reaped career girl. Honestly, what is with him? So what if I didn't train as intensely as him, or Howl, or Griffin? I don't even like the Hunger Games, I have more important things to worry about then training my entire life to die in the arena, unlike a lot of other kids in my district. I needed to take care of my younger sister Macey, but the games took that away from me.
I briefly touched the fish shaped pin on my coat to remind me of District Four, where my friends and family were. I was going to win this, for Macey, for dad. They would have a hard time without me. Well, if dad can get out of his depression and start working properly again they could survive. I wanted that, I really wanted that now, if he could get out of that depression they could survive without me. If he could get out of his depression, I wouldn't feel so bad about being in the Games right now. They could survive on their own. But for now, they needed by help. I couldn't let them struggle by themselves. I need to get back to them.
I felt something start to build up in my eyes before I felt something hit my feet before I started to fall to the ground. I was surprised that something would be in my way, I should be paying more attention to the present in front of me then daydreaming and worrying about home. If I didn't keep focused, I'd end up dead. I learned that from Shoney's attack a couple days ago. Why he helped a traitor like me I still don't know, but I wasn't putting too much thought into it.
Using the moves I learned back home, I leaned my right shoulder forward and waited for it to land on the ground below me. When my shoulder hit the ground, I rolled my body forwards and quickly got to my feet before drawing my knife that was hanging from my belt. As I drew my weapon, I turned towards what I had tripped over, for all I knew it could have been trap set by another tribute, and they could be here right now.
I finished by turn to see a thin, pale, blond haired girl holding the right side of her ribcage with her left hand while holding a seven inch combat knife in her right hand. Oh god. Did I hit her? Did I run into her? Is this my fault? Did I present a threat to her? I couldn't tell, her face didn't show anger, or fear, or anything. Her face was blank, she showed no emotion towards me. None.
"I'm sor-" I started, but I stopped when I noticed that she had turned around and was to run away from me. I then watched her run away from me at a pretty impressive speed. I had seen how fast Lucifer and Shoney could run, and she was at about Shoney's level, which is pretty darn fast. I watched her run before she disappeared into the surrounding jungle. I store at the jungle where she had run away wondering why she had run away from me. Did I seemed like that much of a threat to her? Was I that much of a threat? I mean, I was from District Four, a career district, so non-career tributes must be scared of me. Still, it was odd, I just wanted to help her, I mean, I must have ran into her. Why did she run away from me? "-ry?" I finished to the empty space around me.
I continued to stare at the empty space until I decided that she was gone for sure. I turned around and started to walk away from the spot that I had tripped at and continued on my way to where ever.
District Twelve's Evanlyn "Eve" Scott's POV
Oh man, I thought she'd never leave. I watched the red haired girl from Four turn around before walking away from my camp. When she was out of sight, I slowly stood up from my hiding spot made of underbrush, a log, and darkness. I admit, it's not the best hiding place I could make, but it was quick and easy and within eyesight of my camp.
I looked at the backpack that that girl had on her back, it looked like it might have some useful equipment inside, but I wasn't going to risk my life to try and fight someone, let alone a career. I was smarter then that, I wasn't going to risk getting myself killed until there were only two of use left. When that time comes, I'll sneak up on them then kill them. Until then, I had to stay off everyone's line of sight.
I watched the red haired District Four girl disappear into the jungle, waited a minute, then went back to my camp sight.
I went over to my tent that was made of five pieces of tree bark. I would like to have a real tent, I mean, this tent had a lot of flaws in it. Sure it could maybe blend in easier then a real tent, maybe. But the ground was hard, and I wasn't really a fan of finding bugs crawling on my skin in the morning. But that wasn't the point right now, the point was, someone had tripped over my camp, and what makes me think that she won't come back to finish me off? It may have been an accident that she ran into my homemade tent and tripped over me, which really hurt, what was she, running?
I scanned the area looking to see if she, or anyone else, or anything else, was near here. I looked for a minute or so while also listening to the surrounding area wondering if there was anything to worry about. After all, she was running.
A minute passed before I declared it safe. I couldn't hear any footsteps and I didn't see anything near here. That's a relief, I don't want anyone or anything to find me. I bent down to pick up the pieces of bark that made up my tent when I felt pain in my right mid area. Ow. She had hit me harder then I thought. It wasn't going to be easy, but I needed to move my camp.
A/N: For my earlier rant in the last chapter, I'd like to say again, I am sorry, I was angry at the time. MyDarkTribute, I'm going to do a friends and family interview thing later on in the story.
Anyway, I'm surprised that nobody had complained about anything, (except that one person) so I'm kind of wondering if anybody has any complaints about this story. I want to hear them. Don't be shy, I want to know if something's wrong. Constructive criticism always welcome.
Happy Holidays everyone!