Chapter 9.
It feels as if hours have passed when we're finally halfway up the mountain, in front of the cave that Elza had spotted earlier.
"Let's explore this thing, shall we?" Zircon proposes as he enters the cave. The rest of us follow him. The inside of the cave is larger than you would expect after seeing the small entrance. It has room for the four of us and our stuff, and then there's even room left. We put down our stuff and sit down in a circle.
"Okay, what do we do next?" Zircon asks.
"This cave seems like a good base for now," says Elza. "We could stay here for a while."
"We'll need food." I add.
"Two of us should go out to hunt. Two of us should stay here to guard the place." says Magnus.
Our discussion is interrupted by a soft beeping outside our cave. Elza is the first to get up and walk to the entrance of the cave.
"Guys! You should see this!" she calls.
Outside, just in front of our cave, a parachute is landing. Attached to the parachute is a bundle of wood. Elza smiles at us as she drags it into our cave.
"Zircon, you had matches." She says.
Zircon retrieves the box of matches from his backpack as Elza arranges half of the wood in the shape of a pyramid. She puts the other half aside for later. Zircon lights a match and sets the wood on fire. When I feel the warmth that radiates from the fire, I notice how cold I've gotten. Judging by the looks on the others' faces, I am not the only one.
Maybe we should be out there, hunting the other tributes down, but the upcoming darkness and the weather circumstances are making it very hard on us. We decide to sit this evening out and try again tomorrow. Magnus opens his backpack and checks the contents. Inside, there's two pieces of rope, a sleeping bag and a few packets of dried meat. Inside mine, I find a complete box of crackers and a box of dried fruit. Elza has the smallest backpack, which only contains an empty plastic bottle and a water purifier. In Zircon's backpack are two boxes of matches, a first-aid kit and four pairs of socks.
He laughs. "What do we need socks for?" and he's about to throw them in the fire, but Elza stops him.
"You never know when they could be useful. Keep them, just in case."
"With all this food, we don't need to hunt anymore." I say.
"We do need to hunt, but not today." Magnus notices.
"Not today." Elza agrees. "It'll be dark soon anyway."
Elza was right. When I look outside about half an hour later, the sun is setting. The four of us share half of the dried fruit, half of the crackers and two packs of the dried meat. Elza, Zircon and I spend most of the evening chatting and exchanging stories about our districts. Magnus spends the majority of the evening listening and staring at the walls of the cave. Sometimes he says something, but it's never more than just a few words. Once, when Elza makes a joke, I think I see him smile, but it's gone as soon as I realized it. I wonder what happened to him that makes it so hard for him to smile.
The four of us sit around the fire for a while, but eventually we are interrupted by the familiar Capitol anthem that starts playing in the arena. We all know what that means and rush to the entrance of the cave quickly. We stare at the sky, where the Capitol emblem appears. Below the emblem are two words: The Fallen. They do this every day in the Games: giving us an overview of which tributes died that day, so we can all keep track. The audience at home will see this overview as well. The first face that appears in the sky is the boy from 5, followed by his dark-haired female district partner. That means that the tributes from 3 and 4 must still be alive as well. Next is the girl from 9, and after her is the boy from 11. The last tribute that's shown is the girl from 12, as I expected. She never stood a chance. The sky turns dark again, the music fades out and the four of us head back inside.
"So that's five gone on the first day. That's not much." Zircon says.
"That means no one has died after the blood bath." Elza concludes.
"Boring" Zircon comments.
"Well, the tributes from the other districts might be a little more reluctant to fight than you." Elza reprimands him.
"It's no use. They might as well fight." Magnus says. "We all know that only one of us is going to make it out alive anyway."
"I suggest we go get some kills tomorrow." Zircon says. "If the audience sees how well we are doing, we might get more sponsors."
"Shouldn't we get food first?" I suggest.
"I agree with Satin. We need food first. And water. Don't forget water. As soon as we've got that secured, we go hunt the other tributes down." says Elza in a tone that leaves no room for contradiction. Our goal for the next day is clear, whether we want it or not.
Eventually Elza and I are getting tired. We decide to go to sleep while Zircon and Magnus stand guard. After a few hours, we switch. The darkness of the night lingers for a long time, but when Magnus wakes up after a couple of hours, the sun is already high up in the sky. Zircon is still sleeping.
"I think it's a good time to go hunt now. Apparently the days aren't that long here."
"Where and what do you want to hunt?" I ask.
"The forest?" asks Elza.
"Maybe." Magnus adds. "Is one of you going with me, or should I wake Zircon?"
"I'll go." I say. Maybe I'll have a chance to actually talk to him. I don't know why I want that.
"Alright. Get what you need to take with you, and then we can leave right away."
I nod, then I turn to Elza. "Are you two going to be fine here?"
Elza smirks. "Don't worry. I'll just let him sleep for now. I can guard this place by myself if needed."
With that being said, I arrange the last knife inside of my jacket, and then Magnus and I leave the cave. The two of us walk side by side as we make our way down the mountain. Again, I notice how massive this arena is, compared to other games. I can't even see the cornucopia from here.
"Can you believe we've walked all this way yesterday?" I say, hoping to initiate some conversation.
Magnus's reply is nothing more than a short "hum". The usual frown is back between his eyebrows.
I decide to just ask the question that's been in my head for days, without thinking about it too much. "What happened to you, Magnus?"
"You wouldn't understand." He murmurs.
"Try me."
"No."
Silence.
"Is it wise that we left Elza and Zircon alone over there, in the cave?" I try again.
Magnus sighs. "They both know that we need each other to survive." The bitter tone in his voice drills into my ears, leaving me quiet again.
We keep walking in this silence, even though it's really starting to frustrate me. When I think it through, I'm not even sure why it frustrates me. It's not like this alliance is going anywhere. In several days, only one will be left. And I want to do all I can to make sure that that's me. So why would I waste time on Magnus? I vow to myself to not initiate conversation with him anymore.
Eventually, when I feel like more than an hour has passed, I notice the route Magnus is taking doesn't lead straight to the forest. We're heading west, where there is nothing to see but snowy plains.
"Aren't we supposed to go towards the forest?" I ask, breaking my vow.
"I don't know, are we?" Magnus replies, his voice flat.
"I thought we were going to hunt there."
"What if I told you I had a different theory?" He asks.
"What is your theory?"
"I'm not sure yet."
"I don't understand."
"Follow me to find out if I'm right."
I can't come up with a good reason not to. Even though I'm not completely sure if this is such a wise decision, I decide to trust him.
And he's right. I don't know about what exactly, but he is right. After what feels like fifteen minutes, the snowy, plain landscape changes. In the distance, there's a shadowy line in the snow that I haven't seen there before. It's as if there's a gap, for as far as I can tell. It takes us another ten minutes to reach the gap, which is not just a gap, but a ravine with a river at the bottom. It starts at our left, narrow and shallow. But it deepens and widens and stretches out to our right for as far as our eyes can see.
"I knew it." Magnus sighs.
Once again I'm amazed by the ingenuity and technologies of the Capitol. They disguised a huge ravine in the snow. You're unable to see it from a distance, but when you're up close, it's actually really large. And quiet, there is no one else in sight. If I listen closely, I can hear the soft splashing of the river water.
"Would any of the other tributes know about this?" I ask Magnus. And even though he doesn't seem to like me, and even though we're supposed to be killing each other off, this moment feels nearly magical. There's a little breeze that blows the stray hairs that escaped from my ponytail out of my face. When I look to my left to gauge Magnus's reaction, he's not there. He's already on his knees next to the precipice, about to make his way down.
"Wait." I tell him. What is he even doing?
"What?" He asks, as he jumps down.
I expect to see his face disappear, but it remains a few inches above the snowy ground. He must be standing on something.
"There are all kinds of ridges here. It's doable to go down there, but we must be careful."
I look over the edge carefully, just to see that he's right again. He's standing on one of the many snowy ridges. Though the ridge isn't wide, Magnus seems to be perfectly balanced.
"If I can do this, you should definitely be able to do it, princess." There is a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he starts climbing down, carefully placing his feet on the ridge below.
I sit down on my knees next to the precipice, just like Magnus did a moment ago. I let one leg dangle over the edge, then the other one follows. I prepare myself for the fall but it only lasts a third of a second, then my feet hit the small ridge that Magnus was just standing on. At this moment I'm grateful for the profiled soles of my shoes, because there's a thin layer of ice on the ridge that makes it somewhat slippery. Half slipping, half sliding, we climb down. During the training sessions, I scored high on agility, but I don't feel as agile now. I know I'm almost there when I hear Magnus' feet hit the snowy ground with a soft thud. Only seconds later, I jump off the last ridge and land on the same snowy ground. Magnus is already making his way to the river side, and while doing so he keeps looking left and right.
"So, which way do you think we should go?" I ask him.
"Right." He answer immediately. "There's nothing on the left."
I follow his gaze. On the left are snowy rocks from which the river water seems to emerge. On the right, the ravine seems to curve, so we can only see so far ahead. The two of us start walking in silence again.
The silence doesn't last too long: After only a few minutes, I discover footsteps in the snow. I show them to Magnus and we decide to follow them. We walk in a steady, quick pace and I have to make serious effort to keep calm because I feel like my heart is up in my throat. I'm excited and anxious at the same time. Magnus holds his mace at the ready, and I take one of the knives in my hand. Close to the river, we find a bundle of clothes. The footsteps then make a bend towards the river, and that's where we find her. The girl from 8, washing her long hair in the river water, in nothing more but her undergarments. Isn't she cold? I think she is, because her movements are timid and shaky. She doesn't notice us coming closer at first, but once she does, she tries to get on her feet in an attempt to get away. But Magnus and I are already on either side of her, so she has nowhere else to go except for the river with its icy water.
"Please…" she says, holding her hands up in a surrendering gesture. Magnus makes eye contact with me, and in that moment I know all that I need to know: No mercy. Before she has a chance to turn, Magnus swings his spiky mace at her, which hits her in the head. She falls down to the ground and appears to be unconscious. To make sure that she's dead, I stab her in the chest with my knife. Right in the heart, as I've been trained to do. She gurgles and convulses for a short moment, then her breathing stops and her body lies still. A strange expression that I cannot place clouds Magnus' face. Most of the tributes from our district are always excited to have slain another tribute, but Magnus doesn't seem to be very happy about it. Because of this, I don't feel as if I should express my excitement right now. The usual frown is back between his eyebrows, and as soon as he notices I'm watching, he turns away. He walks to the girl's dead body and rolls it into the river, where she disappears under the water's surface. Then he picks up her clothes and throws them into the water as well.
"It's probably better to have that out of the way." He says.