Day Seven:
Jessie Harte (D2 F 14)
I awake to Alexandrite tapping on my forehead. "Jessie," she says. "You awake?"
"Yeah," I mumble as I sit up.
"Good," Alexandrite says. "Mason and I are going hunting since it's your turn to keep watch."
"Okay," I say. "When are you leaving?"
"Now," she says. I suddenly notice the bag and sheath of arrows slung over her back and the bow in her hand.
"Alexandrite! You ready?" Mason interrupts. Looking behind her, I see Mason leaning against the cornucopia, spear in his hand.
"Yeah!" Alexandrite shouts back. "Give me thirty seconds!" She drops her voice and looks at me again. "We'll talk about when you-know-who's death will be tonight," she says, jerking her thumb at where Mason is standing.
"Okay," I say. "Have fun."
She rolls her eyes at me as Mason shouts, "Alexandrite!" again.
"Coming!" Alexandrite shouts, nearly skipping over to him. I watch as the two of them gather up their stuff and then walk over to the bridge to East Island. They begin their hike across, leaving me by myself.
I find myself a pack of beef jerky and sit down to eat it. As I stare out into the misty arena, munching on my food, something dawns on me. If Alexandrite and I are going to be killing Mason during one of the next few days, I need to be prepared. Since we agreed to leave Cornucopia Island as soon as he's dead, I need to have some supplies ready. Once I'm done with my beef jerky, I stand up and walk back to our supplies.
Almost all of our supplies are stacked in the mouth of the cornucopia. I grab an empty bag, and start leafing through all of the filled bags. I look for food first. I stuff two packs of dried fruit, two packs of beef jerky, three packs of crackers, one can of soup, one can of creamed corn, and a package of trail mix into my bag. For water, I find two empty canteens and eight or nine bottles of water. I pour the water from the water bottles into the canteens, and then toss the empty bottles over the edge of the island. I place the canteens into my bag, and then grab another empty bag.
I fill my second bag with supplies. I find a pack of matches, a sleeping bag, a blanket, a bottle of iodine, a first aid kit, some rope, an extra jacket, and a flashlight and place them all in my bag. I add a dozen throwing knives, and then zip both bags up. I walk into the cornucopia, and place the bags way back in the tip. No one comes back here, so the bags should be safe. I walk back out of the cornucopia, and look over at East Island. Alexandrite and Mason have disappeared, which means that they've reached the rainforest and have started hunting. Hopefully, they'll find a tribute or two today. Even though we've only been out here for about a week, I can't wait for the Games to end. I really want to get out of here.
Peyton Stanley (D6 M 12)
As soon as I wake up, I wish I hadn't. My stomach stings with piercing pain, and the rest of my body just aches. I open up our bag and grab our one of our bottles of water. After taking a short swig, I look for the remainder of our food. My shaky hand pulls out one last little slab of meat. This is all we have- our last barrier between us and starvation. As much as I want to devour the whole thing right now, I know I have to ask Swirl first. We have to make this decision together.
"Hey, Swirl?" I say, shouting up to her. She's sitting on the branch above me, staring out towards the sun her feet dangling under her.
"Yes?" she says, still staring into the distance.
"Well, we've got this one last slab of meat left. Do you think we should eat it?"
She shrugs. "What do you think?"
"I think we should eat it," I say. "We're going to need all the energy we can get today."
"Yeah," she says. "We've gotten unlucky the past few days. Chances are, well find something today. Plus, that meat's going to go bad soon anyways."
I split the meat into two equally-sized portions and hand one up to Swirl. I look at my own piece, clenched in my mud-caked hands. This could be the last food I ever eat in my life. If we don't hunt anything down today, it will be.
I try to savour the taste of the meat as I eat it. As the last little bit slides down my throat, a sinking feeling fills my stomach. Our safety net is gone. We've got no food, and have virtually no chance of receiving some from sponsors. It doesn't even matter that there's six other competitors out there, trying to kill us. I could care less about them. They don't even exist. It's just me, Swirl, and the wilderness.
"You ready to go?" Swirl asks.
"Yeah," I reply. "The sooner we get going, the better." I climb down from the tree, Swirl on my tail. My body screams in protest, but I know that the hard part hasn't even begun get. I help Swirl down, and then set off into the forest, a knife held loosely in my hand.
Mapelle Green (D7 F 14)
Thump! My feet land on the dry ground. If something's surprised me about the arena this year it's that it hasn't rained at all. Normally, it rains every day in rainforests. Oddly, though, the leaves are still beaded with water droplets. It's probably something the Gamemakers did. Maybe they made the leaves able to produce water by themselves so that they could slowly dehydrate us. The last time I visited the stream, it was at the same level it normally is at, but even so, it wouldn't be too hard to dry it up. The stream is very small.
I pick up my bag from the ground. (I threw it down from the tree before I jumped down myself.) I sling the bag over my back and set off into the woods. I've been a little short on food lately. For the past three days, I've survived on the meat I had stuffed in my pockets from when my allies were still alive and some berries I've managed to find and pick. I'm itching for some new meat, though. I'm not particularly good with weapons, but I am kind of quick. Hopefully, I'll be able to quickly sneak up on some sort of animal and throw a knife at it when I'm only a few feet away. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll be surviving on berries for a while.
The next hour of my hike goes by uneventfully. I see no edible animals, no edible berries, and no tributes. Now that I think of it, it's been a few days since I've even seen another tribute. I'm not complaining. Six of the other seven remaining tributes are either older than me or stronger than me- or both. The only one who I think I could overpower is little Peyton Stanley from District Six. Although, I would never hurt Peyton. He's been through too much- first Kat, and now this. That little guy's had it tough. I hope his family is alright.
I suddenly notice that the sky has been peeking through the trees more and more as I continue to walk on. I seem to be coming to some sort of clearing. Second after second, my vision fills with more blue. At last, I step past the final row of trees, and look down as my foot reaches over the edge of a never-ending cliff.
Immediately, I leap backwards, away from the cliff, my insides ice-cold. How could I be so dumb? I wasn't walking towards a clearing- I was walking towards the outside of the island! If I had just leaned an inch or two forward over that cliff, I would have fallen over the edge. It takes me a few minutes to calm myself. Finally, though, my heartbeat slows down significantly, and curiosity gets the better of me. Hanging on extremely tight to a sturdy-looking tree, I take a peek over the cliff into the rest of the arena.
I quickly notice that something's different. I can see the small land mass, the one with the cornucopia on it, out in the distance, but I can't seem to find the other one. There were definitely three land masses, in the shape of a triangle, on day one. The cornucopia one stood at the head of the triangle, while the two identical ones formed the remaining two points. I went to the one on the right. However, as I look out into the distance, I see there's clearly only one other island besides the one I'm on. If I had to guess, I'd say the Gamemakers blasted away the third island. As to why they did it, I don't know. The Gamemakers work in mysterious ways.
Once I've gotten an eyeful, I turn away from the cliff and begin to hike back into the heart of the forest. I shouldn't be risking my life by standing at the edge of the cliff for too long. I've gotten all the way to the final eight. I can't let my family down by dying because of a careless mistake like that. There's too much at stake.
Mason Riley (D2 M 18)
"We've been in here for a week- one whole week," I say, stepping over a fallen branch.
"So?" Alexandrite says, following after me.
"I don't know," I say. "It's just that... I've been training my whole life for this, and here I am. The past eighteen years of my life have been leading up to this, and now that I'm here, I don't even feel like I've been here this long. I just kind of want to kill some tributes and get it over with, you know?"
"Sure," Alexandrite says, not sounding very enthusiastic. In the past day or two, I've seen a slight change in Alexandrite. She seems more grounded and serious about the Games. I don't know how or why, but I think she's finally realized that she's engaged in a fight to the death. Going out hunting, I kind of expected her to talk my ear off, but she hasn't done that. We've had a few short conversations, but nothing long-lasting. Thanks to that and the apparent lack of tributes, the first half of our day has been kind of boring.
We hike on for another half hour until we reach a small stream. "I think it's about noon," Alexandrite says, staring at it, "and this looks like a good place to stop. Want to have lunch?"
"Sure," I say, slipping my backpack off my back. I pull out a pack of dried beef strips and sit down on a rock on the edge of the stream. Alexandrite soon joins me on a neighboring rock with some dried fruit, and we begin our meal in silence.
As we eat, I entertain myself by watching little minnows wiggle through the water. They've got such an easy life. All they have to do is lay limp, and the rushing water pushes them down the stream. As I watch them slowly swim out of sight, I notice something odd, way out in the distance. Squinting and concentrating hard, I'm just able to make it out. There's something on the edge of the stream- or someone. I'm too far away to tell.
I nudge Alexandrite and point out the figure to her. "What do you think that is?" I ask.
Alexandrite looks up and stares out into the distance. She suddenly gasps. "Do you think it's a tribute?"
"I don't know," I say. "It could be. But it could also be a mutt or a trap. You want to go check it out?"
"Yeah, sure," she says. "Let's get a little closer, determine what it is, and then make a decision from there."
"Sounds good," I say. We pack up our food, grab our weapons, and slowly walk towards the figure. As we get closer and closer, it becomes clearer and clearer, until finally, I realize what it is.
"It's a tribute!" Alexandrite shrieks in a loud whisper before I can open my mouth.
"Shhh," I say. "You don't want him or her to hear us, do you?"
"Sorry," she says, dropping her voice. "So, are we going to sneak up on him or something?"
"I don't think we should just kill him or her like that," I say. "We're two fully-trained careers. It's unfair and cowardly to just let a death happen that simply. We need to give the tribute a chance to run. After all, it'll be more fun for us that way."
"I suppose so," Alexandrite says. "I don't mind chasing him or her down."
"Excellent," I say. "Let's do this."
Eridan Keating (D5 M 16)
These stupid fish don't seem to want to bite! I've been sitting here for the past three hours, staring at my rod and hoping the fish like the taste of earthworm. Unfortunately, it seems they don't. My stomach gives another rumbling lurch, and I realize that my pile of worms doesn't look very unappetizing at the moment. If the fish don't want to eat the worms, maybe I should.
All of a sudden, a loud noise pierces my eardrums. It sounds like... someone shouting! My head swivels around so fast that it hurts. My eyes lock on two shapes, hurtling towards me faster than one of the Capitol's trains. It's the careers! This can't be happening! It's the second time in two days that I've seen them. The only difference is that today, they have spotted me as well.
I throw down my rod and sprint in the opposite direction. "Get him, Mason!" I hear a girl's voice shriek. I risk a quick glance behind my back. The giant boy from District Two, a fiery look in his eyes, is tearing after me. The girl from District One seems to have given up. She's trailing behind the boy at a much slower pace. I turn my head back around and pick up my pace. I can tell that the boy is gaining on me. His short breaths are getting closer and closer.
Without warning, my back screams with a sharp pain. I fall to the ground, landing on my face. I reach my hand behind me, and it closes on something that's sticky with blood. With a jolt I realize that it's a spear. The boy has impaled me it. I try to yank it out, but I'm to weak. I let my limp hand fall to the ground.
I feel another burst of sharp pain in my back. Looking up, I see the boy from District Two, holding his now-bloody spear in his hand. He flips me onto my back, and throws the spear into me again. This time, it's my chest that screams. I'm dying, I realize. It's over. It's all over. I feel myself slipping away. It doesn't even hurt when the boy pulls his spear out of me. "I love you, Orisha," I whisper with my final breath. Then, I slip into darkness.
Harvest Anson (D9 F 18)
"Boom."
Seventeen down, six to go, I can't help thinking. I wonder who just died. It was probably either the boy from District Six or the girl from District Ten. Those two should have died a while ago, primarily because of how young they are. I'm hoping they die soon, just so I don't have to kill them. I've always had a weak spot when it comes to younger kids. I don't mind killing careers since they kind of deserve it, but kids are a whole different story. They don't deserve to die so young.
Taking a glance outside of my cave, I see that I've still got a few hours of daylight left. I could go out and look for some food and water, if I wanted to. Although, I don't think I will. I've got enough food and water in here to last me a few more days. I shouldn't risk anything before I have to. Plus, that cannon just went off a few minutes ago. I'm assuming that a career killed someone, but I can't be sure. For all I know, there could be a gigantic, deadly mutt lurking around. Even through boredom has been becoming ever more present, I know I need to stay in here for the rest of today.
As I sit down on top of a blanket to rest, I find my mind wandering. I begin to wonder how my family's doing. I hope they're not too upset that I volunteered. I don't think they'll hate me for it. My family's always been pretty supportive of what I do. I hope Caritta is fairing well without her big sis. We've always been close. The twins have each other, so they shouldn't be too distraught if (or most likely when) I die. I run my hands through my caramel-colored hair. I need to stop worrying so much. After all, my family's probably even more worried about me. I need to clear my mind. I decide to do this by taking a nap. I lay my head down on one of my scrunched-up blankets. Within minutes, my exhaustion takes control, and I sleep.
Swirl Winters (D10 F 13)
I almost cry with joy when I spot the clump of firey red berries on the spiky bush. "Yes!" I say, holding up the first food Peyton and I have managed to collect in days. "These are emllik berries! We can eat these!" I scan the prickly bush. "This is enough to last us at least two more days!" I say excitedly.
Peyton lets out a sigh of relief. "I don't think I've felt this happy since before I was reaped." He reaches over the bush, plucks off a berry, and raises it to his mouth. Only then do I notice the tiny black tendrils on the bottom of the berry.
"Stop!" I screech. "Don't eat that berry!" Peyton drops the emllik berry, which lands on the ground with a nearly silent thud.
"What's wrong?" he asks, his face paper-white.
"These aren't emllik berries," I say. I hold one of the berries up for Peyton to see. "Notice those little tendrils on the bottom? Emllik berries don't have those. I don't know what kind of berries these are, but we can't take the risk."
At these words, Peyton drops to the ground. He sits there, staring into the forest, not saying anything. He doesn't cry, but his face holds an expression of sadness. "You okay?" I ask him.
He shrugs. "I guess I've just never been hungry before," he says. "Now I know what it feels like to be starving, and the feeling's awful."
"Yeah," I agree. I guess this might be a little harder on him than it is on me. I know what's it's like to starve. Back in District Ten, there were times when I was much more hungry than this. I kept going, though. I never gave up on survival. That's what we need to do know. "We can do this, Peyton," I say. "It's not over yet. Yes, the past few days have been pretty rough, but that doesn't matter. What matters is where we go from here, and what we do now."
Peyton looks at me with sad eyes. "I don't think I can do this much longer."
"Yes you can," I say. "If you don't want to win for yourself, do it for your family. Do it for Kat."
Peyton stares into my eyes for a few seconds. At last, he says, "Fine. I'll keep going." He smiles, and although it isn't a real smile, I appreciate it just the same. "Do you hear that?" he says suddenly.
I close my eyes and hear the familiar tinkling sound. I look up, and sure enough, there's a silver parachute floating down to us. My mouth waters when I think of all the great things that could be in that parachute. I'm so hungry, I don't even care what type of food it is. The parachute lands in my outstretched hands. I dig into the basket as Peyton chirps, "What's in it? What's in it?"
I pull out the contents of the basket and my face falls. Six tiny rolls sit on the small tray. They're smaller than the size of my fist. This won't even last us a day. Peyton and I look at each other for a few seconds, too upset to speak. When I look away, I notice something sitting in the parachute basket. "It's a note," I say pulling it out.
Dear Peyton and Swirl,
We're sorry that we can't afford to send more food, but times are tough right now. Prices have gone up, and it took us over a day to get enough money for these rolls and this note. We're working as hard as we can to get you more sponsors. We still believe in you, and we hope you still believe in us.
~MW & LS
"Our mentors," Peyton says, pointing to the initials on the bottom of the page. "At least they still believe in us," he says.
"Yeah," I say. I'm thankful that they sent us the food, but I can't help but wish that we had more. Peyton and I each eat a roll, but it doesn't even come close to filling the endless holes in our stomachs. Once we're done, we head back towards the stream. It's going to get dark soon, and we need to rest.
Alexandrite Dazzle (D1 F 17)
My foot crunches onto Cornucopia Island's dry grass. Jessie peeks her head out from behind our pile of bags. She walks over to Mason and I. "Who died?" she asks.
"The boy from Five," Mason says. "I chased him down with my spear."
"Oh," Jessie says, looking slightly disappointed. I don't blame her. I was hoping Mason would take out the girl from District Nine too. The faster he does that, the faster Jessie and I can kill him.
I grab a can of soup and sit against the side of the golden cornucopia. As I eat, I stare out at the sun, setting into the misty distance. Now that West Island is gone, the arena looks oddly unbalanced. Instead of setting between East and West Islands, the sun now sets out in the middle of nowhere, to the left of East Island. The sun dips lower and lower until it finally disappears into the mist.
The Panem Anthem begins, revealing only the face of the boy from District Five. Once it's over, I look over at Jessie. "You want to take first watch?" I ask her.
"Sure," she says. "Good night guys."
"Good night," Mason and I say in unison. We walk over to our sleeping bags and lay down. I watch Mason close his eyes and start to fall asleep. Unlike him, though, my eyes remain wide open.
I wait about thirty minutes, until I'm sure that Mason is asleep. Then, I slip out of my sleeping bag and walk over to Jessie. "I figured that this is why you volunteered me for first watch," she says as I approach.
"Yeah," I say. "We need to talk. I've decided that we need to wait a few more days until we kill Mason."
"Why?"
"The girl from District Nine is still out there. She's already killed two of our allies. She could have just gotten lucky, but we can't rely on that idea. We need to prepare for the worst. For all we know, she could be a psychotic killing machine."
"So we're going to let Mason take her out?"
"Yes," I say. "Hopefully. However, I'm assuming she'll be the last non-career left in the Games."
"So how are we going to do this?" Jessie asks.
"Don't worry," I assure her. "I've got it all planned out. We're going to keep Mason around until one of two things happen: either the death of the girl from District Nine or the announcement of a feast. The first one's a given; if Mason and the girl are both dead, one of us will definitely be the victor. The second option is kind of a last resort. The feast is normally announced somewhere in between the final six and the final four. If we make it that far, it's time for Mason to go. The careers often split up around the time of the feast, and we can't risk having him turned against us. Plus, we don't know what's going to be at that feast. If it's something good, there's no way we could let Mason have all of it."
"And if that happens, the two of us split up after the feast?"
"Yes," I say. "Once that feast ends, any sort of alliance we have is gone."
"Okay," says Jessie. "Just one more question- if and when we decide to kill Mason, how are we going to do it?"
"I've actually been thinking about that a lot," I say. "I haven't worked out everything yet, but I'm thinking we should outsmart him in some way. If we just kill him in his sleep or poison his food, that'll only make us look bad. Anyone can slip some poison into someone's drink or slit their throat in the middle of the night. Besides, that's boring. We need to show people what we're capable of. We need to make Mason trust us."
"I agree," Jessie says. "My mom always used to say, 'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.' We need to lead Mason to believe he's our friend so that we can come in for the kill."
"Exactly," I say. Little does Jessie know, though, that Mason isn't the only enemy that I'm keeping close.
The Fallen (1):
Eridan Keating (D5 M 16)
Killed by Mason. After being chased down, a spear was thrown into his back and chest.
Remaining Tributes (7):
D1:
Alexandrite Dazzle (D1 F 17)
{Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived}
D2:
Jessie Harte (D2 F 14)
{ImSoCutee00}
Mason Riley (D2 M 18)
{Jms2}
D6:
Peyton Stanley (D6 M 12)
{Jms2}
D7:
Mapelle Green (D7 F 14)
{Annabeth-TheTributeThatLived}
D9:
Harvest Anson (D9 F 18)
{Semi-Dedicated Wierdo}
D10:
Swirl Winters (D10 F 13)
{feistyflame}
Kills:
Glint: Misty, Cobalt, Tadalynn, Lukas
Mason: Ryland, Peter, Nylah, Eridan
Jessie: Jarvis, Aria, Cherry
Alexandrite: Jennette, Rory
Sheldon: Marina, Osborn
Harvest: Sheldon, Glint
Alliances:
Alexandrite/Jessie/Mason
Peyton/Swirl
Mapelle
Harvest
Sorry for the super late update. :-( Unfortunately, my writing time is decreasing more and more as the weeks go on. Thankfully, though, next weekend is Easter Weekend, so I'll have some free time then.
So Eridan... he's begun to hang from the end of the poll, and it was finally time to cut him loose. He was a sweet guy, but he just didn't have it in him to win it. :-(
I've closed the final eight poll, but I'll open a new one after either one or two more deaths. Next chapter will be up as soon as it's written.
Thanks for reading! :-)