The End of Innocence: The 72nd Annual Hunger Games

Trekking

We trudge through the think forest with the blistering heat coming down on us. Many times we all asked to stop, but determination drove us forward. We barely have any water left, we've rationed it out between the only two half empty water bottles. It's funny, no cannon at all sounded today. The other six Tributes besides the Careers seem to be waiting this out, hiding on their own. I wonder if they're being extra cautious because of the amount of deaths that have happened in these past few days. We seem to be the only people in these Games who are determined to survive and fight, everyone else - besides The Careers - are hiding. Cowards.

The climate changes, we figured out, every 150 meters, which makes us think how large this Arena is. We've definitely trekked a good few miles by now, and still no sign of the lake. The coolest of all climates seems to be where the Cornucopia is situated. We took an educated guess that it is around 19°C. Ion has knowledge from being outside with the electrical equipment and remembering the degrees shown so we just agreed with her. The more you venture up North from the Cornucopia  the more hotter it goes, about another 3 degrees. But it seems every climate we talk into is almost shielded in a circle barrier containing the heat, forming from The Cornucopia. Like rings.

"It's like weather rings," Ion said, and that was the first theory. Lesa guessed that The Gamemakers keep changing it deliberately for a show, but Ion's theory is more plausible. The safest and coldest rings seem to be the middle surrounding the Cornucopia. The more out you go from the middle, the more dangers that reveal themselves. When we left the first 'ring' from the middle, the dangers were bears and other odd dangerous creatures. Now we're in the second 'ring', and the dangers seem to be large wasps, abnormally large rats and birds that fly flow across the forest. None have attacked us yet, they linger but will not approach. They seem more curious than aggressive, and we trust that judgement on them because we'd rather believe that than to imagine them attacking us and going through pain again.

"Can we take a break?" Ion asks suddenly. "I need a sip of water, just to relax for a minute."

"Yeah," I agree as I stop walking. "Guys, what if other Tributes are coming up to it too?"

"Then we'll kill them." Lesa says bluntly, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.  "We seem to be enduring them alright so far."

We're in a thick forest, the leaves and branches are sheltering us from the heat, but the ground is emitting a large amount of heat almost like a radiator, which doesn't really help. A few large boulders are protruding from the dry soil, so I walk over to one.

I lie back and Immediately I regret it, it's like touching a naked flame all over my back. "Fuck!" I scream stupidly. Anyone could be nearby. "Fuck, shit, fuck!"

Lesa and Ion's gazes meet one another and begin to laugh at me. Very loudly. They're laughing that much that they hold each other up and stare and point at me, making me go red from embarrassment. Their laughs echo around. "Ha-ha silly Max got burnt!" Ion chants.

"Max got burnt! Max got burnt! Max got burnt!" Lesa giggles.

 I shake my body to try ease the stinging. "Oh fuck off." I laugh. It isn't excruciating pain. For a second I feel like a kid again. This reminds me of when every Tribute was waiting on the Private Sessions and someone said something that made us all laugh. We were children for a spilt second there, agreeing, ignoring what was actually surrounding us, just like now.

Still laughing, I take a bit of the little water we have, leaving some for the others, and lick my lips wet. "Do you want some? Or are you both still going to be five and laugh at someone who burnt their hand on a rock?"

"Even funnier that you burnt your hand on a rock !" Ion teases, setting Lesa off again. It actually isn't even that funny, we all stand and giggle to ourselves. It's just the only bit of innocence we've seen in a few days. When they calm down, they take some water and we begin walking again.