Hebe trekked through the swamp with the careers all the way back down the hill she had scaled yesterday. She passed the small pond with the clear water, not saying anything to the careers about its existence. Partly out of respect to her fallen district partner, not wanting to tarnish his discovery by placing it in the hands of the careers. Partly because she was willing to take any small advantage she could possibly get over them. Hebe then remembered her backpack with all their supplies, still sitting in the clearing where she had left it.
The careers had been surprisingly smart with the way they had handled her, constantly having someone walk in front and behind her, not letting her go to retrieve her supplies. They had forced her to take the heaviest backpack from Icarus, Verity making it clear that while she was here she would be a servant. She was clearly used to such treatment in her mansion back in 1. Hebe wouldn't let that stop her though, she was already formulating several plots to take down the careers. At this point, she was willing to risk her own life just to get revenge for her partner, each new plan getting more wild and dangerous.
Suddenly they all stopped walking, Icarus walking over to a tree and flopping down, just in front of it, resting his head on the bark. Verity and Gaia followed suit. Hebe just stood and stared, recognising the gnarls of that tree as the one she had slept against only two nights prior. She was standing in the same clearing she and her allies had spent their first night in. What a sick joke.
"So 4, are you gonna make yourself useful and build us a fire, or would you rather spend all your time gawking at the shrubbery," Verity spat, her tone venomous.
"What don't know how to make one? Got servants to do that for you I bet." Hebe shot back, feeling no reason to be civil with the girl when she was planning to kill her.
"Yeah I do actually, and right now I'm having to make do with you. So hurry up, I'm hungry." Hebe didn't reply, not wanting to dignify her with a response and make her any more smug than she already was.
She walked around the clearing, using her axe to chop off branches to use for firewood, yet again reminiscing about the night before with her allies, sat around a fire eating roasted bird, smoke rising from their fire into the sky, the smell burning in her nostrils. She thought with a shudder that that must have been what alerted the careers to their location, they had obviously been closer than they thought.
Hebe blinked and saw Niamh's head, eyes staring at her, twitching one last time even though her head was detached from her body. She brushed it off and continued collecting firewood, arranging the pieces in the middle of the clearing and using the dead leaves as kindling once again.
"Oi, 1, gimme some matches?" She called out, Verity huffing and leaning over to the hefty backpack Hebe had dropped on the floor, grabbing a small box of matches out of it. She gave a feeble throw and the box landed only a few feet away from her, Hebe grumbling as she walked over to retrieve her prize.
She struck a match, watching the bright flame sway in the soft breeze. She began thinking about how easy it would be to start a forest fire, just one stray spark and the whole place would be set ablaze. She imagined how Verity's face would look as it was licked by orange flames, her hair alight and skin melting from the heat.
Hebe's face broke into a wide grin at the thought, dropping the match into the pile of wood, watching as it caught fire, smiling like a mad woman. She had to stop herself from letting out a witchy cackle, schooling her features into a neutral expression as she picked up her axe and walked back to the group.
Settling down beside a bush, she reached into her backpack (she thought it appropriate to dub it hers since she had been the one carrying it all day) and found a box of the same dry crackers she had been living on since she got here.
Nibbling on one of the crackers she began studying the careers. Icarus seemed to be a sort of leader, although not a natural one. Hebe figured it had been Augustus before he got stabbed. She felt a small rush of sick delight at the memory, then a wave of disgust at her own vile thoughts. Verity was the sort to latch onto any kind of authority figure, fawning over Icarus like he was some sort of god. Quite what he'd done to deserve such praise, Hebe could not understand. Verity also hated Gaia, probably because she saw her as dead weight, an obstacle to her glorious win.
Gaia was a mystery to Hebe, a wildcard of sorts. She was still with the careers meaning they had some reason not to kill her. The most likely reason was Icarus, he probably felt some kind of inclination to protect her, or at least not throw her to the wolves. But it appeared that Gaia herself did not want to be there, she was always quiet and withdrawn, an innate sense of sadness radiating from her all the time. Maybe that was just the nature of a teenager destined to die, or maybe she felt guilt for the atrocities she had been an accomplice to. Either way, she was an unknown, and her presence in the group made Hebe nervous.
She was snapped out of her musings at a familiar sight. The careers were eating a bird, using arrows as a spit. Hebe felt nauseated as she realised they were Luca's arrows, Luca's bird. He must have found another. They took it from him.
Hebe forced herself to contain the anger that bubbled under the surface, digging her nails into the palms of her hands, a distraction to the churning pit of emotions inside of her.
They soon finished their meal, tossing the arrows to the side of them, sighing in content at the feeling of having eaten real food, Verity making sure to stare directly at Hebe as she did so. She ignored her taunts, too tired from all of the walking and emotional turmoil to care.
"Verity you're on watch tonight. Make sure 4 doesn't try and escape." Icarus instructed her, shooting a glare in Hebe's direction. She ignored him just as she had done Verity, curling up in the leaves, tucking her limbs into herself, axe still tightly in hand.
She found she couldn't sleep, rolling around in the fallen vegetation. She knew she was waiting for the anthem, waiting to see the face of her district partner.
Then it began, the loud music blasting through the marshland piercing her eardrums. She gasped slightly, watching as the Capitol seal disappeared and Augustus' face took its place, sneering at her from the sky. She felt no grief, only pride in Niamh for managing to get rid of him so soon. Then his picture dissolved, replaced by her district partner.
He looked happier there than she had seen him since the reaping, eyes twinkling a wide smile on his face dimpling his cheeks, curly brown hair a mop on his head. Hebe couldn't help but smile sadly back at him, fighting back her tears that threatened to blur the last image she was going to get of the boy she called her brother.
Then he was gone, gone forever, and Hebe felt bile rise in her throat as she reminded herself of that fact. Instead it was Niamh's face that now rested in the sky, beautiful as she always had been. But Hebe couldn't see the face that was projected onto the stars, only the one that haunted her nightmares. All she could see was the twitching eye, the blank stare, the slightly grey complexion and her neck spouting blood. She blinked and it was still there, burned into her retina's forever. She fell asleep to the sight of her ally's decapitated head, safe in the knowledge it would never leave her.
That night, Hebe dreamt of many things.
It started in her home. She watched her mother. She was sitting in her usual chair, eyes glued to the projector. Then she started crying.
Screaming and wailing just like she used to after her husband had died, leaving her with only her daughter. She would wake up from nightmares screaming. She would start screaming in the middle of making lunch. She would start screaming on the way to the shops. Hebe reached out to hold her mother, shush her, soothe her. But she couldn't, her hands hit some kind of glass keeping her from her. Then Hebe started screaming too, pounding her hands on the invisible barrier that caged her in.
Then her mother was gone, replaced by a view of the square in District 4.
Hebe watched from the stage as Ambrosia read out the name for the female tribute. She expected to see herself volunteer, but instead it was Annie that shouted those dreaded words. Hebe started crying and yelling, voice hoarse from too much usage. But Annie still didn't hear her. She tried to stop her from going through with it, stop her from volunteering, stop her from signing her life away. But she couldn't. All she could do was sob and watch her sister kill herself.
Soon enough Annie was changing and instead she was looking at Luca, watching the red ring of blood bloom around the hole in his chest. She rushed forward to stop the bleeding, but she stopped just short of reaching him, crashing into the barrier. She scrambled back to her feet, sickening crunches ringing in her ears. Hebe looked down at the floor.
Niamh's eyes stared back at her, skull crushed open from the pressure of Hebe's feet on her head. The entire floor was made of decapitated heads, crunching under her shoes as she tried to make it to Luca. Then a spear flew through his neck, piercing it just like the bird she had eaten. She screamed in horror.
She shot up from her spot on the floor, dripping sweat. Verity was several feet away, rolling her eyes as if suffering nightmares in the games was a horrific show of weakness. Hebe steeled herself, resisting the urge to throw her axe right between the girl's eyes.
She walked over to 'her' backpack and began rifling through it, looking at what supplies were available to her. It was a similar selection to the one she herself had taken from the cornucopia all of 4 days ago, with the addition of a roll of bandages. Hebe chose to eat another cracker offering one to Verity. Might as well pretend to be civil.
"Thanks." She said, still short with her, but she had at least accepted it.
"Where are we going today?" Hebe asked, trying to pry as much information as possible out of the girl while she was still obliging.
"Dunno. Maybe we'll go to the cornucopia for more supplies. Icarus also wants to hunt down those two from 7. Thinks they're some big threat or something." Verity explained. Clearly she did not share the same view. Arrogant bitch.
"Cool." Hebe replied, nodding at her. Verity didn't seem surprised by her acceptance, 4 was still a career district, known for their bloodlust.
They finished the rest of their crackers in silence, waiting for the other two to wake up. Soon Icarus was standing up, back covered in leaves, reaching over to tap his district partner. Then they were all grabbing their bags and making their way through the marsh, towards the cornucopia.
The flies seemed even more densely populated than normal, Hebe feared had she stopped moving she would've been entirely covered by them, almost camouflaged. The ground also squelched less, the air even more humid than the previous two days. Hebe thought back to the small brook full of clear water, fearing that it would soon dry up if the weather stayed like this. Maybe that's what the gamemakers were aiming towards, getting the bodycount up through dehydration.
She was concerned about the lack of entertainment value so far, what with the uncharacteristically low number of deaths at the bloodbath and the overall lack of action on the second day, the people in the Capitol would be itching for fresh blood. And currently, her tenuous alliance was the most interesting thing going on, meaning that likely any threats would be inflicted upon them.
Hebe grew increasingly more nervous the closer they got to the cornucopia. What if there was some terrible danger waiting for them there? Mutts crawling through the mulch or flying through the trees. Reactivated mines, or even worse, other tributes. She wasn't in the mood for some battle with district 12 nobodies, that would just be meaningless slaughter. Or it could be the two from 7. What if they killed the careers? Then Hebe wouldn't get her revenge, she'd lose her main incentive for continuing.
Her fears were unsubstantiated, as when the blinding silver of the cornucopia came into view, there was nothing lying in wait for them. No mines exploded as their feet sank into the mud, no fierce animals pierced her with sharp teeth or razor claws. Just the bright metal of the horn, the jumble of supplies and weapons.
Hebe walked straight to the weapons, replacing her dull axe with a new one, a shark-like smile spreading across her face at the sight of the clean shining edge. She noted the lack of any other axes, figuring that the pair from 7 must have taken the larger ones for themselves.
She then grabbed a second backpack, taking any useful supplies from it and putting it in her larger one. Hebe then returned to her 'allies', watching closely as Verity twirled a spear in her hands. She wasn't quite as good as she thought she was. Hebe had worked with tridents for years after all, and she could see her weak points, her stance that wasn't quite strong enough, her hands that gripped in just the wrong position. She hid a satisfied smirk, trying her best to look subtly intimidated.
"Scared, 4?" She asked, falling for it. Hebe resisted the strong urge to laugh in her face, pleased with how easy it was to fool her.
"No." She replied, turning away from the younger girl.
"We should sleep here tonight. No one's going to come here anyway, they'd be too scared." Verity suggested, looking pleased with herself for coming up with such a brilliant idea.
"No, it's too exposed. The jungle's where it's safer, we need to make sure we have our backs protected, otherwise we're toast." Gaia cut in, in a way that was almost authoritative. Hebe tried to curb her surprised expression at the girl's intelligence. Careers weren't exactly known for it.
"I agree." Hebe added, Verity shooting her a glare.
"Since when did you get a say in this huh?"
"Since you decided to make me your ally."
Icarus then decided it was time to weigh in before Verity ran the girl through with her spear.
"Gaia is right, the cornucopia is too obvious. We'll explore the other side of the arena instead and camp there."
With that it seemed the conversation was over, the boy stalking off. Verity was hot on his heels, heading out of the cornucopia and into the undergrowth. Gaia stayed back slightly, clearly waiting for Hebe to go ahead, fiddling with some of the dagger on her belt. Hebe raised her head incredulously at the girl, but nonetheless followed the two.
Gaia certainly was a strange one. She didn't seem to be quite as timid as Hebe had expected, her bold outburst at the cornucopia out of character for her. She was definitely intelligent, Hebe vaguely remembered seeing her play some kind of game that involved memorising plants at the tribute centre, but she was most certainly not faking her low training score. Hebe had seen her hold the knives at the cornucopia. She held them like an amateur, not like someone who had been trained in an academy for the last 4 years of her life. Then there was her lack of physical strength, it was no wonder she scored so low on the individual assessment. But how? Had she not attended the academy? Was there even such a thing in 2?
Hebe knew how much the games were woven into the fabric of district 4. They had the 3rd most victors of any district, same with volunteers. Everyone considered being reaped a great honour, a life achievement. And those who survived, those who came home? They were heralded as heroes, worshipped as gods. She could only imagine how ingrained it was in 2. They were well-known to be the fiercest of Capitol loyalists, and they won more years than any other district. So how could one girl be so clueless about killing, when she was born to do it?
Something rustled behind Hebe and she whipped around sharply, holding her axe up in the air. Gaia appeared to have heard it too, turning her own head in the direction of the sound.
There, in the middle of the path, was a pheasant. Or at least what Hebe believed to be a pheasant. Bright feathers covering a plump body, plumage of all different colours, red around the eyes, emerald green on the head, purple at the breast and tawny down to its feet. A large pointed black feather tail sticking out behind it.
Gaia chose to make a move, throwing her knife into the chest of the bird. But it did not react. No blood leaked from the wound. It just stood there staring right at the girl, beady black eyes boring into her very soul. Then it let out a wild squawk, flapping its wings frantically. Gaia screamed, falling backwards into the trunk of a tree.
Hebe moved without thinking, throwing her axe at the pheasant's neck. It sailed through the air and decapitated the bird, its head falling on the ground next to it. Verity and Icarus had sprinted over to them, enraged.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Icarus spat, walking up to Hebe so they were almost nose to nose. She did not flinch.
"Killing a pheasant." She hoped to god it was actually a pheasant and she wasn't about to be humiliated. It wouldn't exactly inspire confidence in the careers. Thankfully he didn't pick up on it, more busy being angry at her.
"Why?"
"It scared us. I threw a knife at it and it didn't bleed. Then I nearly fell over and Hebe killed it." Gaia cut in, defending the girl from 4 who was currently still being stared down by her district partner.
Icarus huffed and moved away, Hebe walking over to the tree her axe currently rested in yanking it out of the bark. They then all gathered round to acknowledge the strange bird.
"It must be a muttation." Verity declared, proud of her diagnosis.
"You said it didn't bleed?" Icarus questioned, directing his gaze toward Gaia. She nodded furiously, eager for him to believe her.
"Weird. Why was it here?" he mused, continuing to stare at the pheasant's carcass.
"I wouldn't eat it if I were you, probably dangerous." Hebe cut in, busy wiping the blood of her axe with a leaf.
"Wasn't planning on it." Verity replied through gritted teeth, still glaring at the girl from 4. She kicked the bird into the undergrowth and started walking again, Icarus joining her. Hebe and Gaia yet again brought up the rear, Hebe offering the younger girl a gentle smile which she tentatively returned.
"Thanks for defending me back there," She remarked, keeping her voice down so Verity didn't feel the need to snap at her again.
"No problem. Thanks for killing the bird."
Hebe noticed her slight shiver at the mention of the bird, and recalled her reaction when the pheasant had appeared. She decided to make conversation, to see if she could glean any useful information from the youngest member of the career pack.
"Don't like birds, huh?"
"No, not really. Not at all. When I was a kid a bird shit on her head at school. Never really got over it." Gaia laughed softly at the memory, however her face was twisted in bitterness.
Hebe had learned that when you're sent off to die in the hunger games, home tends to be a touchy subject.
"You don't have to deal with the gulls," She responded, remembering the hulking beasts that terrorised her as a child.
"Gulls?"
"Massive white birds with black feathers on their stomach and orange beaks. 4 is crawling with them, especially at the docks. My school is right next to the docks and after lunch the school grounds are flooded with them scavenging for food."
"Seriously?" The girl looked at her like she thought she was lying. Hebe laughed.
"Seriously! They have these massive teeth as well, and my mum used to tell me stories about little girls who got carried off by them when they were naughty."
"Ok, now you're just flat out lying. Massive teeth, on a bird? No way. What are they, muttations?"
"Who knows, maybe?" Hebe grinned at the girl, raising her eyebrows animatedly. Gaia snorted, still not fully believing her about the gulls.
They kept walking in comfortable silence. It seemed to be all Hebe did. Walk. Stop and listen to Verity complain, watch her and Icarus squabble about what direction to take. Keep walking. Stop and drink some water. Worry about the dwindling supply of water. Plan how to kill the careers. Think about Luca. Think about that hole in his chest, Niamh's wide dead eyes, her rolling head. Keep walking.
Eventually night was beginning to fall, and Icarus finally chose a place he deemed fit for a campsite, a small area of dry ground amongst the towering trees, deep in the thick of the wilderness.
Hebe struggled to remember this place wasn't a real forest. They were in the Capitol, enclosed in some arena, surrounded by a forcefield and a hundred peacekeepers. They were being watched on monitors, people in white outfits controlling what fate was to befall them, led by some ridiculously dressed man of the Capitol. They engineered all of this, the trees, the earth, the sky. Every inch of it was planned to the last detail, down to the muggy heat and blistering sun. It was all a game, a precise game, and Hebe was a player. A puppet that danced to the whims of the Capitol.
So she ate her crackers, plotting her devilishly entertaining revenge as her teeth sunk deep into the apple, chomping on the skin. She was a willing participant, and Hebe realised that she did indeed care to entertain the ridiculous Capitol people. She was more than happy to do so, to dance for her puppet masters.
She revelled in the Capitol anthem that night, filled with a strange pride in her district. Tonight her eyes were glued open not from a balm of salty tears, her mind not occupied with the mind-numbing fear of the games. Instead what shot through her veins was excitement, adrenaline fogging her mind.
Maybe the games had finally cracked her.