Mani wakes me up while it's still dark. I climb outside and he takes my place, leaving me his sword.
I go through some of the maneuvers I learned in Training, then I settle down into the sleeping bag. I listen to the crickets. When I nod off, I stand up and go through the motions with the sword again.
About two hours in, I see a small rabbit a few yards away. It looks so cute. But I'm really hungry and I know what my grandmother would do. I take out my knife and throw it at the rabbit, hitting it. As it screams, I jump up and run over. I hit it with the sword and it dies.
I look at it and shake my head. This is not me. This is not my life, killing bunnies for food.
But it is. Fuck you, Capitol.
"Cecelia?" I hear Mani.
"It's okay," I call out to him. "I killed breakfast."
I don't want to touch the rabbit, but someone has to bring it back. So I carry it back by the ears. Mani has crawled out of the sleeping hole. He makes a sad face.
"I only did it because I'm starving," I mutter.
"Do you..." He swallows. "Do you know how to skin it?"
"No," I say. Then I turn my head and vomit up some bile.
Mani briefly grasps my shoulder. "Give me your knife and I'll figure it out. Go build a fire."
I give him the knife and find my flint. Then I roll up the sleeping bag and tuck it into Mani's backpack. I find a patch of dirt. This time, I start a fire within six minutes.
I find some rocks and branches, trying to make a spit. I hack at the branches with the sword. Mani brings me the rabbit, skinned and roughly disemboweled. We're both disgusted as we fix it upon a branch and set it above the fire.
"Tell me about yourself," I say.
Mani Soo is 14 years old. He has an older brother. Their parents died of influenza, so they live with an aunt in District 3. Like me, he works in a factory after school. He does electrical work.
I tell him about my factory job and my family, as we turn the rabbit over.
"Seven kids?" He's astonished. "Is that normal in 8?"
"No," I say. "My mother came from a big family, and she wanted a lot of kids too, and my father didn't have the sense to stop her. It's not easy to feed or clothe that many."
We sit and watch the fire. We're both sleepy, and very hungry. The rabbit smells good.
"What's the floor below like?" I ask. "Anything different than this one?'
"It's wider," he says. "I think the Arena gets smaller the higher you go."
I nod.
"But no different. I didn't see anyone."
"I saw a girl two levels below. And I think the boy from 12 is around here, I saw his legs while it rained."
"I saw him too," Mani says.
"And five of the Careers are alive."
"Yeah," he says.
"What do you want to do today?" I ask. "Besides never skin a rabbit again?"
That makes him chuckle. "I think we need a place where we can both hide," he says. "Not the level below. If I saw you on it yesterday, so did others."
"Yeah. I couldn't help myself."
"You haven't been out in the woods before, have you?"
I shake my head. "District 8 is very industrial."
"Yet you can throw a knife." Mani sounds impressed.
"There are rats in our building. I didn't want them eating my siblings."
He chuckles.
We sit in some silence.
I look at the rabbit. "I think it's done enough on the outside for us to start eating."
"Yeah." Carefully, he cuts off some meat for both of us.
"Ohmmmm," I say after my first bite. "That is really good."
Slowly, we cut off pieces and eat them. The remaining pieces go into my yellow bag for later.
Mani helps me put out the fire, and then we fill our pockets with some ash, in case we want to disguise ourselves later. We grab our packs and start walking.
I let Mani lead us around the outer wall. We find a bush of glossy dark berries, which we don't recognize. There is a dead squirrel by the bush, we can see the berry juice around its mouth. We agree we should not eat the berries or the squirrel.
We keep walking. We find vines of snow peas climbing a tree, and harvest the pods. Nearby is a leafy green bush that an animal has been digging at. Mani lifts it up, and we find peanut shells in the dirt. We harvest them.
We've found food, we haven't found a hiding place for two. The only water comes from the waterfalls. We eat more rabbit meat with dried fruit, and decide to spiral towards the inner circle.
The inner area is within range when the water starts falling again. "Come on!" I say. "We'll fill our bottles."
We sprint to the inner area. Mani insists we cover our hands and faces with wet ashes. I listen to him. Then we look down.
The water is rising again. We see some of the Careers at the edge, shouting at someone. We can't hear them over the sound of he water. They seem to be calling out to someone still on the first level, who may be about to drown. I see two boys and two girls.
The girl from 4 (I think) pulls off her shirt and pants. She dives into the water.
Mani pulls me back and points up. The boy from 12 is sitting on the edge. He's watching the Careers, and he looks terrible. His skin is pale, and he looks thinner. The water is falling on him and he doesn't try to drink it.
We circle around until the boy from 12 can't see us. We stay in the shadows and carefully hold out our water bottles, close to the ground. Stealthily, we fill them.
A cannon sounds. We tiptoe to the edge and look down. The water is at the same level as level 2. The girl from 4 is still in the water, hanging onto the edge. She is crying and beating one hand on the wooden floor. I think we're down another Career.
"Lena!" One of the boys approaches the crying girl. "Grab your weapons. We're going tribute hunting!"
Mani and I look at each other, and back away from the edge.
"We need to move quietly," he hisses at me. Taking my hand, he guides me away from the edge. I try not to stomp my feet.
We move quickly, looking for a place to hide. About twenty minutes later, I see a large cluster of branches along the ceiling. I tug at Mani's hands and point to it. He nods.
When we get there, I climb up and peer into it. I give Mani a thumbs up, and then I climb down. "You go first," he whispers in my ear. "I'm going to pee and then join you."
"I have to pee too," I whisper.
"Do it away from the tree. Quickly!"
I tiptoe away about ten feet, and squat. I return to the tree, and climb up. I spread out my mat and Mani's sleeping bag. I lie down in the furthest corner, on the mat. Mani joins me in the spot. We're lying on our stomachs, next to each other, our backpacks by our heads. I can feel the warmth of his body, lying next to mine.
Slowly, I open the yellow bag so we can eat. The rabbit meat is cold now, but still good. We eat more of it, then the rest of the dried fruit.
From a distance, I can hear the Careers now. They're hooting and hollering, shouting, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" They come closer to us, I can hear their footsteps. Then they move away.
I fold my arms and lay my head on them, looking at Mani. He does the same, smiling at me.
He's cute. If we weren't in the Arena, I'd be his friend. I'm too old to be his girlfriend. I need to remember that only one of us can win. Sighing, I turn my head so I don't have to contemplate killing him.
I try to imagine my family right now. My parents and Georgette may be on their way home from the factory. If so, Kelo is making supper right now. Maybe Paisley is mending someone's clothes. We both like to sew.
Paolo might be cleaning the living room, he can't stand clutter and mess. We all encourage his fussiness. What is Kelth doing? He's too old to play with Olaf. Maybe he's outside, or in the boys' room. Olaf is probably playing with a cloth toy Mother made for him.
Tears come to my eyes and I bite my lower lip. I want to go home. If the Games ended right now and I could go home, I would never complain about our rat-infested waterstained building again.
We hear someone running and panting, they go by without stopping. Then the Careers are back, I hear multiple people. They don't stop either.
I sigh and close my eyes. I expect to hear a cannon, but only the birds are making sounds.
"We should probably just stay here for the night," Mani whispers.
"I agree."
We lay there in silence. It's comforting having him with me. I avoid thinking about how this friendship might end.
The Panem anthem starts to play and I begin rise. "Stay here." Mani says, before moving to the hole. A minute later, he lies next to me again.
"The boy from 1," he whispers.
I nod and roll onto my right side, my back to him. Sleep comes easy.