Chapter 29

NARRATOR | Kylie McCook, District 10

TIME | Day 3

TRIBUTES REMAINING | 15

The last few notes of the Panem anthem echo through the Arena, their somber tone lingering in the air. Two tributes died yesterday: Otto from District 1 and Karla from District 8. Two more gone, and Minna and I are still here.

"That was Corbin's friend, right?" Minna says, nestling closer to me as we settle down for the night. "Are you worried about him?"

"Corbin will be fine," I sigh, but I'm not quite sure. If someone killed Otto yesterday, it could've been Judah, and that means that Corbin is in big trouble. He can take care of himself, sure, but Judah's a trained killer, and I worry that Corbin is out there somewhere, wounded and minutes away from dying.

"He's strong," Minna whispers. "He'll outlast us, I'm sure."

I don't want to think about that, but Minna's right. I may have the survival skills to keep us alive for a while, but those won't do us any good if the stronger tributes find us. If that happens, we're done for.

Luckily, I don't think that will happen for a little while. We've managed to reach the edge of the Arena - or as far as we can go with these cliffs in the way - in the first two days, and I doubt any of the other tributes will trek all the way out here, especially since the tracking beam of the sapphire is on the other side of the Arena.

I take first watch, waking Minna up as the moon passes over the clifftops. As the sun rises to start our third day, she shakes me awake and we scavenge for food.

Luckily, Minna had the foresight to fill our canteens at the lake at the center of the Arena before we started our journey. There doesn't seem to be another water source around, probably to force us to return to the center of the Arena and risk being killed by the other tributes. Still, we have a few more days until we'll need to do that if we're smart with how we use our water.

"Look, Kylie!" Minna cries, and I watch her use her knife to dig a root vegetable from the ground from beneath a bush.

"This is good to eat, right?" Minna asks, holding her find up proudly, and I take a close look.

"I think so," I say, "but you tell me. You're the one who read all those manuals in Training."

"Right," Minna laughs. "Yeah, this looks edible. We'll just have to rub it on the grass to try to get all the dirt off."

By the time we're done looking around the area, we've collected a whole pile of vegetables just like the one Minna found; surprisingly, Minna finds almost as many as I do. She's a fast learner; I only taught her how to do all of this survival stuff a week ago, but she's already a natural.

"It's like you've been living in the wild your whole life," I say, shaking my head at my ally. "Who knew!"

"I couldn't have done it without you," Minna says with a smile, helping me load our food into my bag. "If you weren't here, I'd be long dead by now, really."

At the reminder of death, Minna's face falls. I can tell that she's thinking about her District partner, Devin - they weren't close, but now that he's dead I think that Minna feels one step more vulnerable. Even out here at the edge of the Arena, the threat of the other tributes makes it impossible to relax.

"Come on," I say, trying to cheer her up. "I saw a field of flowers down that way. Let's see if we can find any good ones."

Minna and I spend the afternoon weaving flowers into each other's hair. I know that we're in the Hunger Games - I can't help but check our surroundings for the other tributes every few seconds - but it still feels like we're in a world of our own. Even though I have more survival experience than Minna does, being around her makes me feel safe. As I sit in this meadow, braiding my friend's hair, it hardly feels like we're in the Hunger Games.

We've become a good team, Minna and I. Living in District Ten my whole life has prepared me to live in the wild like this, but Minna is learning all of my methods quickly. Coming from District Three, Minna is more educated than most of the other tributes, and that strength has made up for her lack of experience. She spent most of Training reading the books and manuals that the Gamemakers offered us, so she's able to recognize most of the Capitol-made plants in the Arena.

The sun sets over the horizon, leaving Minna and me in the meadow as shadows fall over the Arena. The Panem anthem returns; for the first time since the Games began, there are no fallen tributes.

"Three days," Minna sighs, leaning back against me as she looks up at the stars. "When I was Reaped, I thought there was no way I would make it this far..."

"I did," I admit, leaning back as well. "I'm determined and I know how to stay alive, and that's all we need, really. I still feel the same way. It'll be hard, but I think we can do it."

Minna smiles up at me. "We will," she says. "We've come this far, right?"

I'm suddenly overcome with emotion - we really have made it this far, and I'm so proud of both of us - but I can't express what I feel in words. I grab ahold of my friend, squeezing her in a tight embrace that I hope tells her all of this. In this field of flowers, it's just Minna and me, and nothing else in the world seems to matter.

A/N - Just a little check-in with our girls since we haven't heard from them in a while :)

Also the Google doc I use to plan out this story mysteriously vanished today - it wasn't in my trash, there was no record of it and my computer history said I hadn't used it since over a week ago! Thankfully I was able to open it on the phone app and copy it into a new doc, but this story was seriously in limbo for a minute so I'm grateful to still have everything. Maybe this story is haunted...

See you in the next one!

~S