𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀 | 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬

𝟎𝟕. 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

— 𝐣𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐱 —

━━━━━━ ☽【❖】☾ ━━━━━━

We sat in a small circle, observing our dwindling resources as if stuck between a choice of what we should do. Although our alliance with what remained of district six, eight, and eleven had proved beneficial, four weeks—on top of the first one—was a long time to make these rations last. However, it was do able. Almost like the gamemakers had expected the games to go on for this long.

Over the course of these five weeks, my lessons with Harlan had improved and I was practically fluent when it came to speaking with my hands. Even Honey seemed impressed the first time we were able to have a conversation and I didn't need an interpretation.

It was easy to forget why we remained hidden away in another cave; however, the gamemakers had done their best to remind us every couple of days. The second week of the games was the only time we were granted peace. Only because half of us were injured, and the other half had caught pneumonia. Harlan's ailments were the worst as he constantly looked like he was on the verge of life and death. You have no ideas how appreciative I was when district ten received some medication that they were willing to share. And if I were truly honest with myself, allying myself with Rex might have been the best decision I could have ever made.

Harlan seemed to idolize him too, constantly asking for more lessons with his bo staff. Not because he wanted the protection, but because he genuinely enjoyed spending time with the older boy. Over the past few weeks, not only had he learned to defend himself, but he'd been taught a few tricks for show as well.

The third week is where trouble picked back up, and hadn't seemed to stop really. First, it was the bear muttation that tried to steal our established home. We managed to defend ourself, several of us were injured by the end of the fight. Second, we were forced to deal with a bat muttation infestation. I almost considered this one worse than the bear purely due to the number of hostile creatures we faced. Finally, there was the temperature, many of the nights dropped below freezing and all of our supplies had become too damp to start fire. Luckily we had that bear pelt; otherwise, I doubt any of us would have made it.

Focusing back on the supplies, what remained was a small handful of rations, Harlan's bo staff, district eight's rope which had once saved our lives, my spearheads which had been crafted into throwing knives, and my canteen and flashlight—albeit the batteries had run down somewhere at the end of the third week. We also had a single steel dagger, a sword none of us knew how to properly use, an axe that only Rex had the strength to lift, and our climbing gear which had been used to get up the mountain in the first place.

'So what's the plan?' Otto questioned, swiftly moving his fingers while his lips remained sealed—a miracle on its own as the boy never seemed to shut up.

As a group, we decided it would be best to learn the silent language to keep our plans quiet while the Capitol watched from their hidden cameras. It was though incidents where we'd been caught speaking of our plans out loud that instigated the moments where the gamemakers had tried to kill us all.

"We should gather our supplies and head for the cornucopia," Emory said out loud while his hands contradicted his words. 'Head for the border. Find weak point.'

"That's just asking to be spotted by the careers," Rex contradicted, keeping to the plan of distracting the audience with our voice while our hands were the instruments of true communication. 'What about the ceiling? If we could short out the border I think we might have a chance of escape that way.'