Liberosis - The Hunger Games

14

The cornucopia is long behind us as we reach the mouth of the river. The sun is high in the sky now and I watch with a chuckle as Beck drops his knives into the sand and carelessly tosses his body into the freshwater river. Viva and Elsie had watched animals drink from the river earlier in the day, we could trust that it wants going to kill us.

I hadn't caught a glimpse of Viva or Tiberius since the cornucopia, no cannons had gone off so I could only assume they were alive. Thorn and I began to fill up the water canisters and Beck and Elsie splashed around in the water. The river was surprisingly clear, much like the ocean, it was so clear I could see my feet touching the bottom as I waded into the trickling water. Holding my trident out of the chance arose to spear a fish.

I managed to get two medium-sized trout, flopping them down on a rock and later deciding to deal with them. Beck and Thorn were seated in the sand, filing through the contents of the four backpacks we had gathered. Inside mine was a sleeping bag, a water canister, a packet of dried fruit, a small torch, a packet of matches and a bottle of iodine. Inside Becks were another sleeping mattress, a packet of beef strips, a small coil of rope, a water canister, a Swiss Army knife and a box of painkillers. Becks held a third sleeping mattress, a water canister, a small loaf of bread, a roll-up tarp, a spool of fishing line and a fish hook. Elsie's held a sleeping mattress, a water canister, another coil of rope, some dried fruit, wire and a spile.

All in all, we had done pretty well, the roll-up tarp was big enough to tie up to some trees as a means to create shade and shelter from bad weather. If Thorn and I got to work we could weave some vines into some mats that could cover through the ground to put our sleeping bags on. We have everything we need to collect food, purify water and defend ourselves, all in all, I was happy with our turnout.

With his knife, Beck assists me in skinning at deboning the fish. Elsie takes Thorn out gathering to find any kind of vegetation to eat. After we finish deboning the fish, we wrap them in large flat leaves to prevent us from burning them. We briefly light a fire, but only for long enough for hot coals to remain, it's hot enough in the sun and we don't want to bring any attention to ourselves. Beck places the fish wrapped in leaves on top of the coals, turning them occasionally with the flat edge of his knife.

Elsie and Thorn return, proudly presenting a strange root vegetable that Elsie had managed to find, "You only eat the big underground part, but the flower part is good for insect bites I think, they could be useful," She explains. While Elsie's not as strong in combat, she's our best ally when it comes to food sources, knowing every plant and its property. She's already made snares and has them lying around the woods ready to trap in suspecting animals, or maybe even humans.

I can tell that Beck and Thorn are trying to make the young child's time in the arena as enjoyable as possible. We all know she deserves that much, what a curse is it for her to be so young and vulnerable and then forced into an arena where she might have to kill people. Thorn quickly turned soft when it came to the younger girl, leading her out into the ocean to play while Beck and I cook the food. "She doesn't deserve to be here," Beck utters, barely audible as we pull the fish from the dying coals. The sun slowly sinks lower into the sky as we watch Thorn slash water at the younger girl who squeals with excitement, jumping onto his back.

"Nobody deserves to be here," I whisper in response, regretting it as soon as I've said it. We shouldn't be having this conversation, not with the eyes of every living Panem member watching our every move. We are people, we aren't free to speak what we believe or free to make our own decisions, every action that we have from now on can't be our own. We belong to the games, the nineteen of us that are still alive are the property of President Snow, his puppets that he can pull the strings of any time he likes.