I'm back at the Bloodbath. Sienna stands next to me; I squeeze her hand a little tighter. Ahead of me, Damien ducks under Midas' sword as he swings it at his neck. With a scream, Midas stabs down at Damien's back. Damien isn't so lucky this time: he screams as Midas' sword pierces his back. Blood flows down his body as he silently collapses to the ground; I try to scream, but nothing comes out. Midas turns to face me, a twisted smile on his face. Suddenly, he's right in front of me. He swings his blade, ready to strike, but he doesn't make it all the way down.
My body convulses as I'm awoken by one of the loudest noises I've ever heard. Next to me, a scream pierces my eardrums.
I scramble to my feet, taking in my surroundings. What I see is a scene of chaos. Damien is waving his knife around blindly; at his feet, Clay has curled himself into a ball. I hear a noise behind me, and I look back to see Sienna throwing up on the ground. It takes me a moment to realize what's happened - the sound must have returned to the Arena. Helvius finally decided to release us from last night's deafening silence.
"Damien, you're fine," I call. "Put that down."
Damien finally lowers his blade, taking a slow look around at the rest of us. He raises his eyebrows, sighing as he sits on the ground next to Clay, who's finally uncurling himself from the fetal position.
"That was freaky," Sienna says, her voice shaking as she moves closer to me. "Helvius is up to something and I don't like it."
Sienna squeezes me tightly into a hug; wordlessly, Clay and Damien join her as we all embrace. None of us need to say anything. We've all just had the worst day of our lives, but we made it through together.
"I almost ripped my hair out last night," Damien says, rubbing his eyes as we all separate. "I've never been so paranoid in my life."
"Yeah, well, that's what they want," Clay says with a yawn. "They want us to go crazy from the stress. We could be killed at any second through the whole night."
"And that creepy red lighting isn't helping," Sienna huffs. "What was up with that?"
"Clearly the prodigy is pulling out his tricks this year," Damien says, mocking the Head Gamemaker. "He probably gets joy from torturing us, I'm sure."
"Well, we all made it through," I say with a triumphant smile. "One night down and many more to come, hopefully."
"Right," Sienna says with a nod. "But not everyone made it out."
Sienna's reminder makes me shudder; I was so concerned about our survival last night and this morning that I've nearly forgotten about the bigger picture. We're still in the Hunger Games, and there are still people who weren't as fortunate as us to make it this far.
"Yeah," Clay laughs, grabbing Damien's shoulder and shaking him around playfully. "That girl from Four got her ass served to her."
"Come on, Clay," Sienna says sternly. "Don't act like this is just a game. That's what the Careers do. She's dead, we shouldn't be laughing about it."
"Obviously," Clay says, releasing Damien from his grasp. "But still good for us, right?"
"Right," Damien says, grunting as he lifts his bag from the ground. "Come on, we should look around for some food before we all starve."
I nod, taking another look at the trees around us. They seem like they should be bearing fruit, but all of the branches above me are bare. Maybe these plants will reveal a surprise later; hopefully I'll still be around to find out.
I try and take in as much of our surroundings as I can while we walk. The sunlight filters through the trees, illuminating the moss at our feet and giving the whole place a very serene atmosphere. The orchard seems to stretch on endlessly, and after about half an hour, I begin to give up hope that there is anything else in this Arena. We could be walking in circles for all I know.
Finally, after about an hour, Clay spots something ahead. "A river!" he cries, breaking into a jog. My heart leaps as I follow the boys; if we've found a river, there are bound to be edible plants nearby.
My suspicions are confirmed when we approach the bank of the river. The riverbank is lined with bushes of dark orange berries, and I grasp at one of them to get a good look.
"Edible, right?" I say, turning to Sienna. I recognize these berries from training; finally, my hard work has paid off!
"I think so," Sienna says with a shrug. "I trust you, though."
"Why don't you girls collect as many berries as you can," Clay says, taking a close look at the water. "I think Damien and I should take a look further up the river. If there's a calmer patch, we might be able to catch some fish."
"Sure," Damien says, his familiar glint back in his eye. "I've never tried it, but I will today!"
The boys smile at Sienna and me before heading upstream. I don't have any containers in my bag, but the pack has a small pouch attached that I think can hold berries, so I get to work picking as many as I can.
The riverbank is peaceful... for the first time since I entered the Arena, I feel myself actually relaxing. The river trickles down the bank behind me, and birds flutter overhead, chirping as they swoop above the trees. If I was anywhere else in a place like this, picking berries by the river with Sienna, I'd be in heaven. This isn't anywhere else, though. This is the Arena, where nothing is as it seems.
"It's crazy that so many kids died yesterday," Sienna says with a sigh next to me. "I mean, I knew it was coming, but... damn. The careers are more lethal than we thought."
An image of Amanda stabbing Jax through the stomach comes to mind, and I shudder. "All of them have weaknesses," I reassure her quietly. "We just have to find them."
"I don't know," Sienna shrugs as she pours berries from her hands into her bag. "The four of them knocked out ten tributes, Luna."
"We don't know if they killed all ten," I say, but I know that Sienna's right. If the Careers didn't kill all ten of the kids who died yesterday, they certainly killed most of them, and all four of them are still out in the Arena somewhere.
"How many are left, then? Fourteen?" Sienna says, examining a rotten berry and throwing it over her shoulder.
"I think so," I say with a shrug. I was never great with math. "Sounds about right."
"And four of them are Careers," Sienna says, shaking her head. Her brown eyes stare down at her hands.
Sienna's right - our odds don't look good, despite the fact that we've survived the first day. Clay and Damien may be celebrating, but the fact that ten tributes have died only means that there are ten fewer tributes who could face the Careers.
"Well, four of the tributes left are us four, too," I say, turning to look at the river behind us. "They might all still be here, but we're still here, too. And we may not be fighters, but that doesn't mean that we won't try our hardest to beat them."
Sienna lays back, resting her head against my leg. I put my bag to the side - we can keep picking berries later. This is more important right now.
"I'm glad we all made it," Sienna sighs, closing her eyes. "Yesterday was terrifying, and it made me realize how hard it will be to lose you all. You've been such good friends to me. Don't forget about the promise we made in training, Luna. The promise we made to be there for one another. I haven't forgotten it."
My heart leaps at Sienna's words; I hadn't forgotten our promise, but I'd assumed that she had, especially after everything went down with Colby.
"I haven't forgotten," I reassure her. "I know that nobody believes in us, not even our mentors. But we'll show them how wrong they are."
Sienna smile. "Right. We'll show them..."
We're interrupted by a screaming sound in the distance; I reach instinctively for my small knife as Sienna scrambles to her feet. Fortunately, our alarm is short-lived, as a familiar cheer, slightly louder than the first, makes its way down the riverbank.
"Damien must have caught something," Sienna says with a smile.
Sure enough, the boys return minutes later. I haven't seen Damien smile this wide since before we were Reaped, and the sight of joy on his face is almost as exciting as the fish he's holding in his hands.
"We've got dinner," he cheers, holding it out for Sienna and me to see.
"And we've got dessert," Sienna says with a laugh, holding a handful of berries for the boys to take.
As the boys settle back into our camp, I'm surprised at how peaceful I feel. It feels almost comical how stressed I was before I came in here, about Sienna abandoning us for Colby or for Damien ditching me altogether. Today, for the first time, we feel like a true family; we have a bond that nobody, not even Midas or Amanda, can break. Together, we are unstoppable... if the Careers want to count us out, they have a big shock coming.