Running With The Careers- A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 8- Living In Fear

Brady and I continue running, not saying a word, until the trees hide us from all the other tributes, and we slow to a jog. For the next few hours we alternate between a steady jog and walking, putting as much distance between us and our competitors as possible.

I glance over at a struggling Brady, who is carrying the backpack and trident. "Stop," I whisper.

"What?! Is someone here?" Brady asks, frantically pulling out one of the three knives.

"No," I reply and Brady relaxes a little. "Brady, you're carrying way too much and you're running out of breath. We have no water for you either. You gotta let me carry something," I say extending my arm.

"No, I'm carrying everything. And I don't need water," he says stubbornly.

"At least let me carry my trident!"

"Fine!" Brady reaches behind him and pulls my shiny trident out of his belt, and hands it to me. "Now, lets keep going."

As we jog I notice the woods start to get deeper, the pine trees intermixing with trees I can't name. The ground slopes down at one point, but a moment later we are going up again.

We're probably on screen right now. Not continuously, but off and on. There are many deaths to show the first day, so two tributes trekking through the woods isn't very entertaining. They'll show us enough to show we're alive and moving.

It must be late afternoon by the time I hear the cannons go off, and Brady and I pause to count. One.....Two.....Three.....on and on until they reach nine. Nine of us are dead in all. 15 left to play. We'll know who died in a couple of hours. When they project the dead tributes faces into the sky for everyone out here to see.

"Brady, let's take a break," I say panting, and slump down to the ground.

"Aaliya, are you okay?" Brady asks, running over to me and kneeling down.

"I'm fine, just tired. Lets see what's in the pack, we gotta look before it's dark." Brady and I sit, our backs pressed against a pine tree trunk, and Brady hands me the pack.

As I begin to unhook the straps, I can tell it's made of strong material. I flip open the flap. What we need most right now, is water. I've kept my eyes open all day, but the only water source I've found is the lake by the cornucopia. I grab the first item, a thin green sleeping bag and hand it to Brady. Then I pull out a pack of jerky, a pack of dried fruit, sunglasses, water purifier, a small container of medicine, a thin coil of rope, and a container to fill with water.

"That's useful stuff, but I wish we got water," Brady says as he hands me back the supplies. I nod and stuff it all back into the pack. Brady swings the pack onto his shoulder, I grab the trident, and we continue walking deeper into the woods.

Shortly after twilight is closing in on us. The trees are too thin to offer much concealment, though the thin layer of pine needles hide our footprints.

"I'm hungry," I mutter just loud enough for me to hear.

"Then let's open the fruit," Brady says, reaching for the pack.

I slap his hand away, heading over to a tree. I take out a short serrated knife and saw at the bark until I have a pile of the soft inner bark in my hand. I plop half of it into my mouth, and hand the rest to Brady, who looks confused but puts it in his mouth anyway.

"It's not filling, but it's still something," I say.

In another hour, it's clear we need to find a place to camp. Night creatures are coming out. I can hear an occasional hoot of an owl, which tells me I won't be the only one trying to find food. As of larger predators I'm not sure yet, but I think my fellow tributes are more dangerous.