Day 4. Early morning.
District Nine's Arrowe Winter's POV
I woke up to the raising sun that shone brightly over my tent, just like I've been doing for the past three mornings in the arena and the last eighteen years of my life back home. Back home, the sun was our alarm clock as well, we woke up at mid sunrise everyday and went to either work or school depending on how old you were. It was daily routine for me to wake up with the sun everyday, it was the best during winter when the sun didn't rise as early as the rest of the seasons. I liked the winter because that's when you got to sleep in the most, no sunrise no waking up unless you wanted to. Plus, my last name was Winter, so it only added to the effect of me liking the winter, it was our family name.
I opened my eyes and stretched my body out as my internal clock registered the time outside by the warmth and brightness of the sun, it was like a sixth sense to my body, and right now, my body told me that it was time to wake up. Strange thing was, I didn't feel tired or anything when I woke up. Even during the summer season when the sun rises the earliest I didn't feel tired. I still wanted to sleep, but my body knew that it was time to get up, so that's what I did.
When I finished stretching, I unzipped my sleeping bag before throwing the top of the sleeping bag off my body and grabbed my brown hiking boots before slipping them onto my feet, tied them up, then exited the tent to face the day. I did everything that I would have done back home; wake up, stretch, then go have some breakfast with my family who were also just waking up at the same time as I was. Things were different here though, instead of waking up in my room and seeing the ceiling, I saw the light green fabric of a tent, and instead of seeing the insides of my house when I walked out of the tent, I saw a dense jungle that could hold any kind of danger that you could think of. Instead of meeting my family, I meet my allies, the careers. Instead of everyone just waking up with me, the careers were already wide awake and working hard. Shoney had told me that each one of the careers woke up before sunrise to begin morning training and exercises everyday.
Shoney. When his picture showed up in the sky last night, three of the big four told me that Shoney wasn't much of a career and said that we were better off without him. I don't know if they really thought that this year's District Four tributes weren't that career like, or if they just didn't like District Four to begin with. Maybe it was the former, Eva was reaped, and that doesn't go well with the volunteers from what I saw. And maybe Shoney didn't do everything that was expected of a career. I don't know, I'm not from a career district. I'm going to miss Shoney though, it's not going to be the same without him, the big four were serious tributes and Shoney was the exception to the group of careers when Eva left. Well, except for Tharizdun and I since we weren't careers.
Turning around the corner of my tent, I saw Griffin, Lucifer, Howl and Lynsa training in their various ways, every morning I'd see them do push ups, sit ups, archery, knife throwing, hand to hand combat and more, they used the mornings to train, only breaking to eat or drink something from one of the many food crates around the cornucopia. They did that every morning from what I've seen, wake up before me and train until it was time to go out and hunt the other tributes.
I looked at my allies and saw how they were working their asses off with their training, no wonder they get eights, nines and tens for training scores. Most people back in the district wouldn't watch the games this early unless something interesting was happening here in the arena, it was their days off, they were taking it easy. If they could see what I'm seeing now, they would say that the careers had earned their names as careers. Griffin and Lucifer, Howl and Lynsa, even Shoney and Eva put lots of effort into their training. Hell, even if the others didn't think highly of her, I thought that it took a lot of discipline for Eva to get up before sunrise and train, I've never woken up before sunrise in my life, so Eva, wither the others acknowledged it or not, was a career. Reaped or not, she was a career to me. I'm just surprised that Lynsa could wake up and train before sunrise, she seemed anxious at when it was dark.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the only tribute out of place, Tharizdun. Tharizdun wasn't doing anything, all he was doing was staring into the jungle. I didn't know what he was thinking, but after seeing him do what he did to his own district partner, I had a pretty good idea on what he might be thinking. Had he been out here all night? He had to sleep sometime, he wasn't immune to basic human needs, no matter how many times he said he was a god or whatever.
I decided to ignore Tharizdun and decided to go over to the food crates and have some breakfast. That's what I normally did in the morning, and its what I've done while in the arena, why stop now?
"Hey Arrowe!" I heard someone shout at me. I turned towards the voice to see that it was Lucifer that had shouted at me. What did he want? All I was doing was getting breakfast. "Get over here!" He shouted while doing get over here gestures.
"Why?" I shouted towards him. He never called me over during the career morning practice, why was he doing it now?
"Train with us!" I heard Lynsa shout. I turned my head towards her to see her holding a bow with an arrow already notched and ready to be shot at whatever her target was. I saw her pull the arrow back before she released it and let the arrow shot towards its target. Before I knew it, the arrow Lynsa had shot had hit the center of a pillow case that was pinned up on the side of the cornucopia with a knife.
"Nice shot." I told her thinking of her deadly accuracy. I feel sorry for the poor tribute on the other end of that arrow. I then saw a flash of steel fly in the same direction Lynsa's arrow had flown to before hearing the sound of wood splitting before hearing the sudden sound of a thunk of steel on steel. I then saw that a throwing knife had sliced through the arrow and pierced itself into the cornucopia.
I looked to the only knife thrower in the group to see the little twelve year old girl wearing that arrogant smirk of hers. Ok, you're talented, you don't need to show off every chance you get.
"Nice shot to you too." I told Howl thinking of her combination of accuracy and poisoned weapons, if you didn't die by her accuracy you'd die by her poisons if you didn't get cured fast.
"So Arrowe," I heard Lucifer shouted to get my attention. It worked, I turned my attention away from the two girls and turned towards him. "What do you want to train on?" Hmm, I don't really know, there were things that I wanted to improve on, but which one to start with.
"I'd like to work on spears." I told him thinking of how bad I was with spears. I was also bad with arrows, which was kind ironic because of my name, but I'm more of a close range fighter then a long ranger fighter, so spears it was.
"None of us are really good with spears," Lucifer told me truthfully "but, let's see what we can do for you." Well, any help'll do, and I'm positive that you've trained with them more then I have.
"Thanks," I told him anticipating the lesson he was willing to give me "lets give it a try."
*One hour later*
Was this how careers normally trained? God it was intense, they really don't play around with it, they take it very seriously. I haven't been training very long, only for about an hour or so, and I'm already feeling the effects of their training. My arms and shoulders were sore from the intense workout that they just went through. Lucifer had shown me basic thrusts, blocks and parries and I felt myself getting better with each lesson he gave me. My arms and shoulders weren't the only parts of my body hurting though, Lucifer and I had done some weapon sparing, and even though he claimed that he wasn't skilled in spears, he was still better then I was. Let me say that during our sparing matches, he doesn't hold back his strength on the strikes he delivers. My stomach, chest, sides, thighs, and face all hurt from the blunt strikes of the headless spear he hit me with. I'm glad that the spear head was removed, otherwise I'd have died several times in the last hour. The careers were tough and skilled, no wonder they win the games most of the time.
"Not bad," Lucifer told me as he relaxed his arms and let his grip on the spear get loose. "Your improving."
"Am I?" I asked wondering if that was true, I haven't even landed a single strike on him.
"Sure, when you first started you couldn't even hold a spear properly." The first thing he had told me was that I was holding the spear wrong, I didn't even know that there was a right way to hold one, but after he showed me how to grip and position my hand properly, my attacks were a little faster. It felt weird holding the spear the way he told me to, but who was I to say that he was wrong?
"I still think that it feels wrong." I told my instructor thinking of how it felt wrong.
"That's cause your mind is set on holding it the way you want too." He explained to me. "Lets say that I've been holding this spear like you have for years," he said as he changed his hand grip on the spear's body. "For me, since I've held it different for most of my life, this position feels strange, so I know how you feel. But with the way your holding it," Lucifer then did a series of thrusts that, while still looking fast, looked different from the way that he had previously spear thrust before. "See how I needed to put some moving effort into thrusting the spear?"
"I do now." I told him only just realizing it now that I saw and heard him say about it. I then saw Lucifer do a simple overhead block with the spear and saw that he had to turn his body way more then he normally did to get the same block.
"See how much more effort that it?" He asked. I nodded telling him that I saw it. "Now with this kind of hand grip." He said before changing the position of his hands before doing a series of thrusts with what looked like little effort before doing an overhead block without moving his body too much. "See the difference?" He asked.
"I see it," I told him "my old style takes more effort and more movements to make the same move."
"Correct." Lucifer told me before lowering his spear. "Now that you've learned some basic stuff on something that you couldn't use before, you want to work on some stuff that your good at but you want to improve on before we go out looking for other tributes? Some sword training with these wooden swords that Griffin made for training?"
"Some machete training would be nice." I told him. I learned how to use spears from him, maybe I could learn some things about using machetes from him. We grew wheat back home and a machete was one of the district's tools of choice. That's where I picked up my knife and machete skills, if you could even call it skills. I knew how to use them, but could I use them good enough against someone that could also use their weapons as well as the careers? Like District Seven with their axes or that Rayne Page with whatever her weapon of choice was. Maybe, I'm not sure.
"Machete training it is." Lucifer stated before I felt something light and wet hit me on the top of my head. What the? What was that? I looked up towards the sky to feel another wet thing hit my face. Then suddenly, without any warning what so ever, it started to rain. Now I knew that this wasn't natural rain, natural rain come gradually, and even at its fastest it doesn't come down as sudden as this downpour. This was a gamemaker trick for sure.
"Whoo!" I heard Lucifer holler out happily. "Yeah! It's about time!" What was he so happy about? It's just rain. Haven't you ever seen rain before? I looked over to him to see what he was so excited about when I saw him pull his t-shirt off before throwing it on to a nearby crate. I then saw his hands reach down towards his pants before I looked away, horrified at what I was going to see next if I didn't look away.
"Jesus Christ dude!" I shouted, shocked at what he was doing "don't you have any shame?" He was taking his clothes off in front of everyone! Even in front of the girls, and they weren't too far away either.
"What?" Lucifer shouted innocently "what's wrong with you? I'm just taking a shower."
"He doesn't want to look at your ugly body!" I heard Howl shout out "that's what!"
"Come on dude!" I shouted wondering if Lucifer had any shame what so ever. Normal people don't just strip off their clothes when it rains. "What's wrong with you? Stripping off your clothes in front of everyone, especially the girls." Especially them, most guys wouldn't want to be stared at when their naked.
"Oh their fine with it, back home, the boys and girls all shower in one room." What!? They do that in the career districts? I turned to Lynsa.
"Is that true Lynsa?" I asked her wondering if Lucifer was joking or not. I sure hoped that it was a joke.
"No it's not," Lynsa answered with some uncomfort in her voice "we don't do that at home."
"Guess it's a District Two thing." Lucifer told us as I heard him throw something away, most likely his pants. How could he act so calmly around here while being naked was beyond me, but he was probably used to it if what he said was really true.
"Guess I'll be having a rain shower as well." I heard Howl say as she started to grab the bottom of her shirt.
"Shouldn't the boys and girls be divided while showering?" I heard myself suddenly say. That would be the logical thing to do, I mean, the guys and the girls had separate things back home, and it was considered a crime to go into a girl's place back home.
"I think that would be a good idea." Lynsa quickly agreed. I think she was just as uncomfortable with the idea of mixed genders showering together as I was.
"Whatever you want," Lucifer announced. He didn't seem to care wither we were divided or not. "Guys take this side of the cornucopia, you girls can go on the other side if you want." Go there I thought, if I want to have a shower I at least won't expose myself to the opposite gender.
"We'll go, thanks." Lynsa said before I saw the two girls go around the horn before eventually going out of sight.
"So, you joining us Arrowe?" I heard Lucifer ask me when the girls were out of sight.
"I don't think so." I told him turning around to face him and was careful not to look at the lower area of his body. I now saw that Griffin had joined him in taking a shower, his clothes were in the process of being taken off. I didn't like thinking about showing my stuff to other guys, and looking at their upper areas now, I could see that they were all muscular. I was strong, but they looked more built then I was, both Griffin and Lucifer had muscular bodies and six pack abs with bruises that came from their days of recent training. I wasn't in the same shape they were in.
"Oh come on!" Lucifer shouted, wanting me to join the party "we're not going to judge you on the size of your stuff. We're not even going to look if that's what your afraid off."
I laughed a little inside my head. I was part of the career pack, they did things that I wouldn't do back home. You know what, I didn't need to be afraid of what they were doing, they were doing it too, and right in front of me at that. You know, what the heck, I'll join them.
I then peeled off my wet clothes and ran over to join them.
District One's Lynsa Fylar's POV
"Do the guys and girls really shower together in District Two?" I asked Howl curiously as we were peeling our wet clothes off while hearing the guys on the other side hollering with laughter. Well, at least two of the guys, Griffin being himself, wasn't saying anything at all.
"Oh yeah," she told me not feeling the least bit embarrassed about it. I know that if I were in the showering room as the guys I'd feel very uncomfortable. It'd be like they were invading my privacy or something among those lines. I'd feel violated. "But only with kids our own age, its not like they put all the older kids in with the younger kids." That only made me feel the tiniest bit better, at least she wouldn't have to expose herself to old people. "Why, you don't have mixed showers in District One?"
"Of course not!" I almost shrieked. Just the thought of it. "You get severely punished if your caught peeking in the opposite gender's change room!"
"What a modest district." Howl commented. Well, you don't expect kids to just go into a single shower room and shower in front of whoever enters the room, especially if it's one of the opposite genders. "Are you ashamed of your body?" She asked.
"Of course not." I told her. I had a good body, I'm not scared up like some other people in the district, I'm not fat and not too thin, and a lot of people used to say that I was good looking. I was short, but the only people that didn't like it were my parents. All and all, I thought I was pretty good. That was my opinion though.
"Good thing you aren't, because if those cameras are still broadcasting live, all of Panem can see you naked right now." Howl told with with laughter in her voice. Oh god! I forgot all about the cameras!
As I grabbed my clothes again and started to place them back on, I heard Howl start shouting out
"Hey! Capital! Districts! You like what you see right now? Oh yeah! You like it don't you!" What the? What was she thinking? Wasn't she embarrassed about exposing herself to the world?
"What are you doing?" I shouted to her.
"Oh relax," she told me with unnatural calmness "the Capital stops the broadcast when something like this happens." Yeah, that's true now that I think about it.
"But what about the Capital?" I asked her. She stopped and thought for a bit before she started showing again.
"Hey Capital! You like what you see? I bet you do! Who wouldn't like this? A blonde with good sized boobs and a flat chested child both naked!" I don't know why, but I think she was enjoying this. "Oh yeah! Check us out!" Howl then started to do sexy poses as she continued to shout out towards the sky. "I bet you Capital men are yanking your cocks right now seeing us like this! A not so busty blonde and a child is here for your entertainment you pedos! Well, Lynsa's legal, so she's alright!"
I then heard laughter burst out from the other side of the cornucopia. The boys on the other end were laughing at what Howl was shouting. They laughed as if it was the funniest thing that they ever heard.
"Hey Capital ladies!" I heard Lucifer shout from the other side of the cornucopia. "You like what you see here?" Suddenly, I heard Howl start to laugh along with the boys. How they could laugh at a time like this, I had no idea.
District Four's Evaline "Eva" Ellery's POV
Ahh! This water feels so good! The refreshing water that covered my entire body like a blanket felt so nice. I couldn't hear or feel a thing around me, I could only hear and feel the calm rush of my body moving through the water. I continued to swim around the lake with ease as the sun was continuing to rise. The water was still warm and that made it ideal for swimming in the cold mornings before the sun would start to rise. I knew that the lake was going to get cold later on in the day though, but that's a good thing, because it's going to start heating up in the arena, and a cold swim will help keep my body from overheating too much. This lake would be used for more then just swimming and cooling down in though. Earlier today, I saw some small fishes swimming around in this lake, and even though they weren't very big, they seemed to be no bigger then either one of my biceps in both length and width, they would still provide me with food. I just needed to make a fishing rod out of something. I had wire, I'd just need to make a hook and find a suitable stick for the rod as well as some bait, if I could find any, and I'd be set for means of food and water. This couldn't be any better, I couldn't be happier inside the arena.
I love swimming, it reminded me of my mother, and even though she drowned in the river outside my house, I still love swimming to remind myself of her. Swimming in this lake wasn't the same as swimming in the river outside our house, but it was still swimming, and I loved it.
I did one last lap of the lake before climbing ashore and letting the sun dry my body and undergarments. I started to wring out my hair before checking on the light throb that came from my right index finger. When I fell down that hill, I clawed at the ground and tried to stop myself from rolling down, and lost my right index fingernail because of that. I scraped my other fingers and tore some bits of my other fingernails off as well, but my right index finger was the worst of them. It was a small price to pay though, if I hadn't fallen down that hill, I probably wouldn't have found that lake.
I'm really glad that Shoney gave me the first aid kit, I still can't believe that I forgot about it when I was leaving the career pack. If Shoney hadn't given me that first aid kit, my finger would probably be in worse shape then it is now. Infected, still bleeding, not healing. Shoney in my opinion should have been the safe one instead of me, he had the other careers with him while I was alone in the arena. It was funny in a way, that the protected one dies instead of the unprotected one.
I thought of him and what he had done to me, taking a slash to the face in addition to doing something the other careers wouldn't have liked, just to help me escape from them. When I return home, I should give his family something to show my thanks.
I looked over to my finger to see how the bandage was holding up, and it was still stuck on like nothing had ever happened to it, it was nice and waterproof. Thank god for that. And what about that girl that I tripped over? I wonder if I hurt her more then I hurt myself? She seemed to be in alright shape when she ran away from me, but how much did it hurt her? Hope she's alright, even if she is my enemy.
I finished wringing out my hair as best I could before deciding to use some of this lake water to my advantage, not that it wasn't already to my advantage, but I'd use it to my advantage even more. I needed some purified water, and even though this water looked perfectly fine with it's crystal like clearness, I knew that it wasn't pure enough to drink. Well, that's what the iodine is for, to purify the water so that it can be drinkable. I walked over to my tent that I managed to pitch up last night and grabbed a couple of black and silver, two litter sized thermoses from my backpack before also grabbing the jar of iodine. I couldn't believe how fast I had drank up that amount of water. I mean, the weather was hot and everything, but I didn't expect it to be such a drain on me. I should ration the water better, just in case something happens and I can't return to the lake for several days. Who knows what'll happen here.
I picked up my thermos handles with one hand and the iodine jar with the other when I felt something hit the top of my head. Was that a rain drop? I sure hoped it was, I didn't want to look up and see some giant mutt over me drooling saliva on me. I was almost too scared to look up thanks to that thought, but I looked up anyway and saw a clear sky, until I saw thousands of rain drops suddenly appear our of nowhere and start falling towards me. Thank god it wasn't a mutt drooling over me, I felt relieved knowing that I wasn't in any danger.
This was obviously a gamemaker trick, real rain doesn't suddenly appear that fast out of the blue.
Ah man, and after I had just dried myself off too. Well, I could still dry myself off in the tent before putting on some dry clothes. But before that, I'll open the thermos lids and let the rain water fill them up. Save some iodine for later.
I shouldn't complain about the rain though, back in District Four, rain was a common thing, and I was used to it. If it rained when you had to walk to school you didn't complain, you enjoyed it, even if you arrived at school soaking wet. Hell, people back home enjoyed it when it rained, especially in the summer when you went out fishing. I remember one time, not long before mom had died, the four of us, father, mother, Macey and I had gone out to fish. It was a Friday, but our parents allowed us to take the day off from school so that we could spend some time with them. I didn't mind, I could catch up on school when Flora drops the homework at my house. School could wait for one day, I was going to have fun with my family.
Before the sun even rose up, we were preparing for our trip. Fishing rods, spears, a net and trident, knives, fresh water, food, and a giant cooler that seemed to take up nearly half the space of the boat.
After we got all the stuff into our boat and we were ready to take off, we rowed our boat to the general fishing area of District Four, along with the rest of the merchant fishers, and set off just before sunrise. Looking back now, the sunrises back home were the best ones that anyone could ever encounter. Not even the sunrises in the Capital could compete with it. When you see the golden white clouds mixed in with orange and red combined the sun's yellow rays hitting the ocean's blue water, you'd think you went into another world. That was our mornings, and that one thing alone, was what made me think that District Four was the best district to ever live in. I still think it is, because even the Capital with all their fancy technology, couldn't replicate it with their fake scenery collection. No matter how realistic it looked.
We fished all day under the hot sun, getting excited when we caught something, anything, then be disappointed when we caught kelp or awake encrusted rock, and getting excited when we caught some fish. We were catching little to medium sized fishes that we placed in the cooler to sell when we got back home after we sliced them into strips, or maybe we'll sell them whole, whatever the customer wanted. I just didn't like that nearly ninety percent of our catch would have to go to the Capital, they just had to have everything. We worked for our catches, and yet, we had to give the vast majority of it to those thatprobably didn't even know how to even tie a lure onto a fishing rod.
It was hot, tiring work at times. But when the rain came down, everyone enjoyed it. It was refreshing, it made you fit for fishing again, it made you not want to give up, it made you cooled you down. Sometimes, you could even hear the cheers the other people gave when started to rain. When your fishing under the hot sun for hours, you learn to appreciate the little things nature gives you.
No, I wasn't going to complain about the rain, this rain, was just what I needed.
District Five's Alexander Natas's POV
Easy. Easy. Easy. Ahhhh! Son of a bitch that stings! The disinfectant ran over my wounds as it's chemicals burned the germs that were on my wound as I raised the small bottle up and sealed it shut with the lid. Fucking Aerin, why'd he have to slash me in the back? I had to use up half a bottle of disinfectant to get that area. It was hard to reach, that was the reason I had to waste so much of it.
I was mad. Mad at myself and towards those District Eleven tributes. That girl should have just given him up, it would have been so much easier for all three of us. I should have kept that knife as well, it would have been a better weapon to use against Aerin then a belt. I grabbed some roll up bandages before wrapping them around my back where Aerin had cut me. That was the only spot that needed to be covered with the bandages, my other wounds only felt painful, they didn't need medical attention like this cut did. I wrapped the bandages around the wound before tying them tight and tearing off the extra length with my teeth.
My face still hurt, but it would pass after today or maybe tomorrow. Hopefully it'll go away soon so that I didn't have to live with it for much longer.
I placed the bandages back on the table before turning around to see the dark red mess of dried blood where I had cut that orange haired girl to death. I felt myself smile from just remembering that. I wonder what their reactions where when they found the body, I would have liked to see it. Arein's time would come, and so would that Angel's. Next time, no fooling around, next time, I'll be serious, no more taking my time with interrogation, I'll cut her face apart in a span of thirty seconds if she doesn't give me what I want the first time I ask. If she wanted her face cut open because she wanted to be a protector, so be it. She still wouldn't be getting a quick death though.
In the middle of my thought, I started to suddenly hear a constant racket of noise falling on top of the roof of my hut. What was that? I didn't even have time to think about it it had appeared so suddenly. It seemed to come from everywhere above me.
Shit. If it was another tribute running across my roof I wasn't in a very good position to attack, I was still weaponless. I decided to grab the wooden chair that sat behind one of the tables that held my supplies. It wasn't the best weapon in the arena, but it'd make a good bludgeoning weapon if I manage to swing it right and hit the enemy on the first try. Right now, the chair is a better weapon then my homemade spear and that sharp rock that I have.
I started to wonder if it really was someone running across my roof though, I mean, it did sound like it was coming from everywhere at once. Unless every tribute in the arena was coming after me or an army of mutts were on the roof, I didn't know what that sound was.
I walked over to the door while holding the chair up high with my left hand before reaching for the door knob with my free hand. I grabbed the door knob, twisted it, then opened the door to see rain falling down outside my hut. I saw the rain falling down everywhere, but there were thicker pieces of water dropping from the edges of my hut and the edges of the jungle vegetation.
Huh, to think I was scared of nothing. I felt stupid, I got excited over nothing. To think that an army was running on the top of my roof. I laughed a little before putting down the chair and grabbing a few empty glass bottles that were lying on top of the table beside me before placing them outside so that they'd fill up with some drinkable water.
District Seven's Bo Heatherfield's POV
Did I make the right choice with that girl Life? Giving her a hatchet in exchange for the food I was trying to steal until I got caught with them? She had appeared right in front of me just as I was planning on exiting the building that her food was in. And when she saw me, she didn't even hesitate to try and kill me. I raised my hatchet and swung it at her head to scare her. I missed of course, I wasn't going to kill her, I only hit her dagger, which then dropped out of her hand. She must have not seen it that way, because she attacked me with her fists. I was ready though, as soon as she had thrust her fists at me I grabbed her face with my hands. I hoped that she wouldn't get to me, I was only holding her back so that she wouldn't attack me too badly.
I held onto her just fine until she punched my elbows and caused them to release her. If I didn't do something she'd overwhelm me, so I quickly swung my hatchet at her throat. Luckily, I was faster then her and my weapon stopped just short of her throat as she was ready to attack me.
She looked scared, I could see it in her eyes, those eyes full of fear of me killing her. I wasn't going to kill her, couldn't she see that? Then in those eyes, I saw recognition flood inside them as she continued to look at me.
"You." She said to me. She recognized me. "What are you doing here?" She asked.
I didn't know what to do at the time, now that I had gotten caught, which wasn't part of the plan to begin with, I reached into my pocket to show her the food that I had taken. I was hungry, so hungry, my backpack contained no food, and the only things to eat in that church are spiders, if I manage to find them, and they aren't very big either. My small backpack contained a single water bottle and three hatchets, but no food, that's why I came here, I smelt the food and decided to wait till you and your partner were asleep. But that District Four career showed up, and your ally started to chase him. After that, you ran after them. That's when I made my move, that's when I went in to steal your food. But I had been over cautious, I moved too slowly and too stealthily for the moment, I just couldn't help it, I was used to doing it that way. And when I did get in your building, I wondered if there was more food in there then just the ones in front of me, if there was some hidden food in those backpacks or in some other location for safe keeping. I looked around for more food after grabbing the cooked mockingjays, only to find nothing else, only plastic water bottles with some water that I didn't need.
I held them out to return them to you. Why I did that I still don't know, I could have just ran out with the birds and not looked back, but instead, I was holding them out to you, I was returning what was yours.
It doesn't really matter what I should have done at that moment anyway, she told me to keep them. I didn't believe it at first, but she told me to keep them, she seemed to insist it. She told me that she had more food with her. Did she really have more food? Or was she just feeling sorry for me? I didn't know then and I still don't know now, either way she was giving them to me, and I was grateful for that, I really wanted this food.
I could have just ran after that, but instead, I gave her one of my hatchets. A trade, a hatchet for some food. Did I make the right choice in giving it to her? I don't know, I could have done things differently, why didn't I? She didn't ask for a hatchet. She didn't demand the food back. I could have ran from her. I could have given her nothing. Why did I give her something? I don't know what I was thinking. This was all too confusing.
I walked outside to the back of the church trying not to think of last night, but failed, I kept thinking about her. Why? Why couldn't I just forget about it? It wasn't important, I just gave her a hatchet and she gave me food. She was being nice to me, and I was being nice to her in exchange, that's all it was, an exchange of items.
As I was thinking about last night I suddenly felt pain in my right knee. I grunted in slight pain as I came back to reality and saw that I had ran into the stone well that I had found on the first day I was in the arena. This well was invaluable, it was a source of fresh underground water that was drinkable, good thing for that because I didn't have anything to purify it with. If that curly haired girl from District Eight knew about this well, would she have left the church? I don't think so, why would someone abandon a fresh water source like this?
The well was surrounded by a two foot high stone structure that circled the outside of the well, and on top of that stone structure was a good sized wooden bucket with a rope attached to the metal handle. Good thing that this well has a bucket and rope, the water was nearly ten feet below ground, if I tried to get it without the bucket and rope I could forget about getting out, there would be no way to climb out or anything, the walls down there were too smooth and had nothing to grab onto for grip.
I pushed the bucket down into the well before hearing a splash occur a couple seconds later when a downpour suddenly started. As soon as it started falling, I knew what it was. Gamemaker made, real rain does not do that, even in the forests back home with trees covering the sky above us, rain does not suddenly appear all at once, it wasn't natural.
I was a little stressed about the rain right now, I didn't need rain I had a well full of drinkable water, what I needed was food. I drank a lot of water to help calm my stomach down from my lack of food for the past few days, but water can only substitute solid food for so long. My stomach hurt from not having anything solid in it.
I felt water running down my face and I raised my right hand to wipe the water off from around my eyes. When I looked at the water on my hand, I saw that it had little hints of brown within the clear liquid. Hmm, maybe the rain can do something to clean my body, and while it's at it, fill the well. Heck, maybe it'll get animals to crawl inside a building so that I could find it. Hmm, maybe this rain wouldn't be so bad after all.
District Eight's December Juliet "Ember" Varen's POV
The rain came down suddenly, unexpectedly, and wonderfully. This rain was just what I needed, I needed water, and I was getting some. I reached into my backpack and excitedly pulled out my water bottle and twisted the cap off so that the empty plastic bottle would fill up with rain water. Rain, it was always wonderful when it rained back in District Eight. It didn't rain very much in District Eight for some reason, I learned that it was because of where we were located, was that true? Was it because we were placed where we were placed? Or was it something else?
Did it rain a lot in other districts? Did it rain less? I don't know, I haven't been to other districts? Father would know, he's been in District Three for the past seven years, he'd know if it rained a lot there.
I cupped my hands to catch some of the rain water in my palms before letting them fill up with water. When my hands were full of water, I started to drink from my palms. The water was good, it was really good, better them some of the water we got back home. Fresh rain water was a treat back in District Eight, with the factories and pollution, pure clean water was hard to find. Why wouldn't the Capital give us something to clean the water? We were a district full of factories that made clothes and only clothes, the food we got was either given to us by the Capital, which wasn't much, the food given to us if we applied for tesserae, which would last for a month if we were careful, and those we illegally grew at home. Since we were rich, we could buy extra food and not be hungry like the majority of the district. Even those who grew their own food were limited to what they could eat, they didn't grow much, they couldn't grow much even if they wanted to.
When it rained, it didn't matter if you were on the richer side of town, or on the poorer outskirts of the district, everyone ran out of their homes or wherever they were with pots, pans, and whatever else could hold water in a hurry. Yes, clean water was hard to come by, so to me, this rain wasn't something to be taken lightly. I continued to cup my hands together while drinking hand full after handful of water while loving every moment of it.
District Ten's Life Lee's POV
Rayne was still passed out, not that I could blame her, I could still feel the pain that Shoney had given me, and even then it was nothing compared to what Rayne had gotten. While I had bruises and pains over several areas of my body, Rayne had bigger bruises that were more black and swollen then mine while also having more of them. Her bleeding nose had just recently healed but the shape of her nose seemed to be off a little. There were cuts on her face, legs, chest and back as well as deeply torn skin on the right side of her right leg which I cut off because I knew that it was never going to heal properly, even with the needle and thread that I had, before wrapping it with some roll up bandages and tying it tight around her wound. Her cuts and scraps weren't too bad, so I decided to not use some of the bandages on those wounds.
Feeling the rough pain I'm feeling right now, I'm glad that Rayne's sleep instead of feeling pain. I'd hate to be Rayne when she wakes up, taking a major beating like that, she shouldn't have ran off alone. But what was Shoney doing out there by himself? Shouldn't there have been other careers with him? Right now, I'm just thanking god that we didn't have to go against the other careers as well as Shoney, Shoney was hard enough without career backup.
I looked at the arms that Rayne had chopped off the young career and wondered what made Rayne even come up with that idea. Sure we needed food, but I don't think that most people would have even thought of cannibalism that easily. Rayne didn't even hesitate to cut his arms off when I gave her her machete back, I dragged her to Shoney, and she cut off his arms, simple as that. It made me wonder what was going through that mind of her. It kind of scared me.
I continued to look at Shoney's severed arms as I lowered my ax, not wanting to cut apart what was once attached to a human boy. Back home, I cut apart animal parts, they were already dead, and Shoney was already dead as well, but I couldn't stand the thought of cutting him apart into bite sized pieces. Back home, I could cut apart and debone a whole chicken in thirty seconds or less with an ax, and yet, I couldn't even get the strength to cut even one finger off this boy's arm.
Feeling useless, I threw Bo's gift at a wall before hearing the ax slam on the hard concrete wall before hearing the dull thud of the weapon crashing to the ground. I wanted to help Rayne, she needed real help now, and all I did was bandage her ankle up, I only did something that she could have done on her own. Why am I useless in this alliance? Rayne got the better backpack with the water bottles, the starter food, the better weapon, the mockingjays which got traded for a hand held ax, and she scared off the late night intruder. Did I do anything like that? No. No I didn't. I didn't do anything for this alliance expect make her bird hunting a little easier and covering a wound that she could have fixed on her own, even if she didn't have my first aid kit she seemed to be smart enough to be able to find something out on her own. I wanted to do something for her other then be a burden. A tag along.
You saved her though didn't you Life? From Shoney? Sure, I did, twice for about five seconds each, after that, I was the one that needed saving. I wanted to do more.
I stood up, walked around the arms, and walked towards the door that now had a fist sized hole in it thanks to Rayne last night. Maybe I could fix that, this was our shelter after all, don't want the other tributes sneaking up on us like Shoney almost did. And Bo, if he was an enemy we'd be dead. But he wasn't an enemy, he didn't kill me even when he had the perfect opportunity. He spared me. I'm very grateful for him sparing me and giving me that ax. And when he smiled, that was the first time I had seen him do that, and while it felt good that I helped him, I still felt bad about Rayne and how I needed to help her now.
I opened the door and stepped outside only to feel my entire body getting wet. For a second, I was shocked at what was happening, but then I realized what was happening. Oh my god! It's raining! It's raining!
I turned around and shouted happily to Rayne.
"Rayne! It's raining!" She didn't respond of course, but now I knew of a way to help her. I ran over to our backpacks and grabbed out all seven of the plastic water bottles, almost empty or completely empty I grabbed them all, and ran outside to fill them with rain water. I set them on the ground and the rain started to slowly fill them up. Now we'll soon have something to drink again. We wouldn't dehydrate to death now. I felt happy that I managed to do something that could save our lives. Right now, I was a valuable ally and not just some tag along girl.
As the rain ran down my body, I thought of another thing that I could help Rayne with. She was dirty with blood and dirt, and we haven't cleaned ourselves for days. I think I'll clean her wounds better now that we had water to spare.
District Eleven's Angel Hale's POV
This was wonderful, I mean, how many times has this happened to me before? None, until now. I didn't like that I was attacked last night, but it was worth it, because now, I'm laying down right beside Aerin with my head on his lap. I was so close to him, and I felt really good right now besides the stinging pain in my forehead where that white haired bastard carved the word bitch into my flesh. I hope he dies, I hope he dies a slow and painful death, he deserves that much.
Aerin was going to go after him, but I didn't want him to go out there, I didn't want to be left alone, not after what had happened. It was dangerous in the arena, something might have happened to either of us. I begged him to stay, and he did, like the good natured guy he is.
And here we are now, in the middle of the jungle together. Last night, he told me to get some sleep after he cleaned the blood off me and warped my forehead with a combination of moss and vines. They weren't bandages, but I couldn't be picky right now.
I still can't believe that I got to fall asleep on his lap, I mean really. I looked up to see that Aerin's eyes were closed and he that his breathing was a little heavy, but he was asleep. He must have fallen asleep while watching over me, what a great guy he is, he seems to always think of others before himself. He's still upset over Sami's death, he still blames himself on it, is that why he's trying so hard with me right now? Either way, I liked it.
Looking at Aerin right now, he didn't look like the kind of kid that he was last night, right now, he looked at ease, at peace maybe even. Everyone looks at peace when their asleep, I learned that from my sisters, Aerin's not any different from them. I'm glad that he's relaxing right now, he's beating himself up over everything he could have done for Sami to keep her alive. There was nothing you could do Aerin, you tried your best, and I'm sorry that you feel that way about Sami, but you couldn't help it, I miss her too, but some things can't be helped.
I heard Aerin start to say things in his sleep that I couldn't understand. What were you dreaming of? I can't understand what your saying, but I hope that what your dreaming about is good. You need something good to happen to you Aerin, too many things have happened to you recently, and your blaming yourself too much.
I looked at Aerin's face and thought of how good he looked. I never really noticed him back home, but I wish I had noticed him and gotten to know him, he'd have been someone that I'd have liked. Actually, I do like him, I really do like him, there was no hiding it from myself, I liked everything about him. Seeing him like this, seeing him so, open, I couldn't help myself. I lifted my head up and lifted by back up so that my head was level with his head before slowly getting closer to him. I really wanted this, and I was going to do it. It kind of felt wrong to kiss someone while they were sleeping, but I couldn't help it. I wanted to do this.
I saw that I was mere inches away from kissing him when a sudden downpour of rain suddenly crashed down on us and Aerin's eyes snapped open so suddenly that it made me react in fear. I feel back just as I heard Aerin shout in what sounded like fear before I saw a flash of steel fly across where my neck had been.
I watched in fear as Aerin sliced the air above me three more times before he calmed down enough to see that he was slicing nothing but air. Oh god, I could have been there, I could have died.
"I'm sorry." I heard Aerin say to me with shock in his voice "I didn't mean to start attacking like that." Of course you didn't, you fully meant to attack whatever was in front of you, which was me. What were you thinking? Actually, what were you not thinking? "I had that, nightmare again," Aerin explained as his breathing slowed down and he seemed to be getting calmer "I'm sorry, but I thought that their blood had splashed onto my body."
"My blood almost splashed onto your body." I told him, trying not to be angry at him, it wasn't his fault that his nightmares scared him that much, and these situations, they seemed to have the best timings. First with the cannon, then with the rain, what was next? I just hoped that I wasn't in his path next time, like I was the first time.
"Sorry." Aerin said sounding guilty, which made it hard for me to feel too mad at him.
"It's ok," I told him "it's not your fault." It's those nightmares fault. Damn nightmares, damn rain, ruin the occasion. "The good news is, it's raining." I happily told him, even though the rain almost killed me and ruined the kiss that was almost there.
Aerin seemed shocked to hear that, I couldn't see how he could miss it though, the rain was falling on him from the moment he woke up.
"Oh my god," he said excitedly "it is raining!" Aerin then started to laugh and smile as he started to take in what was happening around him. "It's raining!" Aerin shouted happily. Aerin right now, after learning that it was raining, was like a happy child, but then again, it seemed that everyone except me got excited when they saw the rain. The workers would shout and cheer in happiness when rain started to fall. The tree climbers would start hollering as soon as they felt the first drops of rain and everyone could be all excited about those little drops of liquid falling from the sky. And when the rain arrived at ground level, everyone would act like it was a celebration. Everyone seemed to take a couple minutes off work to enjoy the rain. Well, everyone but the peacekeepers, they were soulless humans who only got pleasure from the pain of others, but even they allowed the people of District Eleven to play around for a couple minutes in the rain.
Maybe the reason everyone changed in District Eleven when the rain falls is because it hardly ever happens. Hell, we're lucky if we get rain five times in a single year.
Looking at Aerin get excited over this little thing, it kind of made me not mad at him anymore, he looked so happy right now, I wanted him to be like this all the time. I'd like to be the one to make him happy in the future.
District Twelve's Evanlyn "Eve" Scott's POV
What was that? Something wet was hitting me, what was it? My eyes shoot open and I looked around to see what was happening. Was I being attacked? What was happening? I couldn't see see what was happening. I continued to feel something wet drip onto my arms and legs and while it didn't scare me, I wasn't exactly being calm about it. What was hitting me? It was slightly warm and wet.
I moved my body and hoped that whatever was dripping on me would go away. But it didn't. I pushed the piece of bark that was behind my head so that I could get out of here. The sun flooded my vision and I had to cover my eyes to avoid the sun from burning my eyes. When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that the ground was covered in a thin layer of water. That's when I realized, that it was raining.
A second later, I heard the sounds of the rain drops hitting the top of my shelter and the environment around me. I felt ridiculous, I got nervous over a little rain, how stupid.
My shelter wasn't exactly the most weatherproof thing ever created, but it was still a shelter that did it's job rather well. So what if it had a few leaks for the rain, it's still better then no shelter at all, though I would still like a real tent that didn't make me have to sleep on the hard ground which was now turning a little wet. I just hoped that the ground under my shelter didn't get too wet because of this rain. If I isolated as much of the ground my shelter was on, I could hopefully minimize the amount of wetness the ground would have.
I crawled out of my shelter while clutching my backpack and dragged it out along with my body. I didn't take the backpack out the entire way though, I kept it under the roof of my shelter and out of the leaky areas so that my items, mainly my spare socks, could stay dry, and removed the hard brown fruit sections that I had cut in halves. I'm glad that I saved them, these fruits were giving me lifesavers left and right, food, water, now they were bowls that I could use them as. I grabbed the shell halves and placed them placed them right side up under the rain.
It didn't take long for them to start filling up with rain water. When one of them was half full I grabbed the shell before lifting it up to my mouth and started drinking the water out of the bowl shaped shell.
Sweet nectar of the earth this stuff that was going down my throat was good.
District Three's Zap "Tharizdun" Philistone's POV
Let the others have their fun in the rain, let them play around and shout to the sky, I was going to go hunting. I hoped that I could find some prime game in the jungle today. A girl, a girl would be good. I needed a girl, I wanted a girl. I'd add her to my legacy while also having some fun with her.
A/N: I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in such a long time, but life got in the way and I've been doing things that require my absolute attention.
Anyway, about this chapter, about half way during Alex's POV, I started feeling kind of funny about the chapter, so, I'm sorry if their not as good as you'd like them to be, but, here it is. I blame writer's block.
Oh Angel, nightmares plus rain plus kisses do not mix.
And I just feel like saying this: I've got plans, I've got plans for everyone in this story.
Chapters 2,3 and 18 have been updated. I don't know if the're better or not, but they've been updated.