Safe and Sound (The Hunger Games)

Chapter 16-Quick

I rip my knife out of the bag and throw the knife at the tribute. She collapses towards the ground immediately after it hit her heart. "Mason!" I cry. He slumps against the tree, and pulls the arrow out of his chest. Crystal and I kneel next to him.

"This is the end...for me..." He says quietly. I hold one of his hands, and Crystal holds the other. Boom! The cannon signals that the girl is dead. "Tell... Brandi... to be strong..." The cannon fires and we let go of his hands. Crystal and I back off with his pack, he would have wanted us to have it. The hovercraft appears and takes him away. That quick, just like that.

I wipe a few tears away, and hug Crystal. "Let's go find the others." She says weakly.

We go for one or two hours looking for the three of them, but no luck. Crystal sits on the cool sand, exhausted. "What do you think we should do?"

"Well," I sit down next to her. "We have food, weapons, and some kind of shelter," I point to the trees. "So, we can make it on our own for the night."

"Good idea. I'm too tired to walk anymore for the day." She sighs. "Oh, you are bleeding again."

"Ugh, and Elliot has the ointment..." I start. Then I get an idea. "Want to go for a swim?"

"Are you crazy! You have such bad head injuries, I am surprised you didn't pass out today!" She laughs.

"Back home, I remember when I was little, I was clumsy all the time. Sometimes I got little cuts or scratches, the sea water cleaned it all out. Good as new" I explain. She gets up and I follow her into the water. I dive into the water and my face stings. Then I get used to it, and enjoy the calm water.

"It's nice to just swim, not like in the beginning where we had to race here." Crystal says. "Well, it's getting dark, so maybe we should start to dry off. We will freeze at night if we don't dry off now."

We get out of the water and sit on the sand. I hand her some of my dried apples, and she shares her nuts. I start to make a net-rope for her, because she will need to keep her attached to the trunk. When we are dry enough, I lead her to a tree that we will sleep in for the night. Our branches are right next to each other so we can stay close.

"I feel bad for Brandi, she doesn't even know Mason is dead." Crystal says.

"She will know soon." I say as I point to the darkening sky. She sighs and closes her eyes. Taking that she is resting, I stay awake and watch for wandering tributes.

Within a few minutes, the Capitol symbol glows in the sky. I tap Crystal's shoulder, and she wakes immediately. We both stare at the sky, waiting for Mason's picture to appear. He is the first one to appear, which means that Brandi and Toby are still alive. Crystal sighs with relief, while I am still wondering if Elliot is one of the three dead from this afternoon after they left us. The next face to appear is the district three girl who killed Mason. "Oh my gosh, I killed a person." I whisper to Crystal. Me? A killer?

"You did it for Mason." She calms me. The next face to appear is the boy from district five. "Look, Elliot is still alive." She says. "Tomorrow we will find all three of them, don't worry."

I sigh. "That was the boy who attacked me last night." I cover my eyes and take deep breaths. When I calm down, the rest of the tributes appear. The girl from six, the boy from nine and eleven glow in the sky. Six more are dead, leaving nine alive. Toby, Crystal, Brandi, Elliot, me, and four other tributes. For another night, I am separated from Elliot.