Jabberjay [The Hunger Games]

Chapter Fifteen

  The bitter silence deepens our predicament, terror evident in the eyes of the alliance. A few steps away from me, Ivy is visibly shaking as if the arena were a barren cold wasteland. The boy from District Six has his spear gripped in his hand, slowly raised as if to warn me not to step any closer. And then the girl from his District, slowly but surely, easing her way behind the boy. I'm confident that I could take them all down right now, and I'd aim for the boy first. The girls would be easy to take down once his weapon is out of the way. Even if they were to fight back, at worst I would leave this encounter with a few scratches. The final eleven would turn into the final eight, however, all four of us would benefit from working together.

"Please don't hurt us," Ivy mummers through gritted teeth of fear.

"I don't want to and I'll explain everything, but can we talk about this somewhere else?" I say, pointing up into the trees with the hand that holds my knife.

Talking strategy in this forest of jabberjays is not a risk that I'm willing to take. If the Careers discovered that I was plotting against them with the outlying districts, the target on my back would grow even bigger. As it stands, the only way I can make any distance in these Games is with allies. I have Lark, which is good, but realistically the two of us together will not be enough to take down a trio of Ripley, Alanis, and Lux. Then adding in the complexity of Malo, someone who I'm not willing to kill but I'm sure everyone else will be. Figuring out that mess of a situation is a bridge that I will have to cross, but not right now. Step one is getting these three on my side.

Nobody is moving. It is obvious that they don't trust me, which I understand. For all they know I am with the Careers; currently stalling to buy Ripley enough time to sneak up behind them. I don't want to talk right now because of the jabberjays, but it looks like I will have to if I want to gain their trust. After staring at Ivy for a moment, it dawns on me, a way in.

"I'm working with Lark, he's my ally," I say in a hushed tone, hoping the birds will not hear me.

The look on Ivy's face softens instantly, "Is he okay?"

The concern in her voice feels authentic, but being from District Eleven she should know more than anyone that this is no place to discuss Lark's whereabouts. A second time, I point up toward the trees above before waving the group in my direction. I begin walking backward, making sure that I remain facing them as I direct us out of the forest. Ivy is the first to begin following me, and after she has taken a few steps, the other two give into her lead. Our pace is slow, but steady, eyeing each other down with every footstep. Despite the boy in Six having his spear raised, I don't overthink it, because I am ready to throw my knife if need be. I can barely see the girl from Six and almost thought she had run off for a moment, but no. Holding onto the back of the boy's shirt, she strategically trails behind him.

At the pace we're going it feels like a lifetime's journey to get away from the jabberjays, but in all actuality, it was probably twenty minutes or so. We now stand in the spacious landscape of the forest that covers a majority of the arena, safe to say whatever we please. Although they still seem a bit frantic, I can tell that their nerves have calmed down a bit. I decide to break the ice and introduce myself, "Carmen Delano, District Two."

They all look confused, probably because Careers rarely spare tributes outside of their own. Ivy, who is the only one who has spoken, greets me.

"I'm Ivy, and this is Haxel and Arcadia," she says with ease before following up her statement, "How do you know about Lark?"

"We met at the waterfall a few days ago and agreed to work together. We got split up because of the Careers and the reason I was even back in the jabberjay forest was to find him. That's when I overheard you guys talking," I explain, trying to present myself as trusting as humanly possible.