Stargazer • The Hunger Games

TEN

CHAPTER TEN
❝Together: Part One❞

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Rain slid through the leaves of the willow tree and landed onto the makeshift bed they had made for the night. It was uncommon for rain to fall in the arena so the first thing I thought of when waking up was that the rain was some sort of poison.

"Eric wake up, we have to move!" I hissed at Eric. He was sleeping beside me, his arms wrapped tightly around my body. I tried to wriggle free but it was no use, he was dead to the world and super strong. I sighed and jabbed his ribs with my elbow. The rain was getting heavier, we had to move.

"What's wrong Alice?" Eric mumbled, burying his face deeper into the pillow of moss.

"Rain! That's what. We have to move." I slid myself free from his arms since he was somewhat conscious and had less of a grip. I scrambled off the tree and landed with a soft thump on the damp ground. By now the rain had become torrential.

"Hey watch it Alice!" Eric's blonde head looked over the side of the tree, a smirk plastered on his face. "It's just water, nothing bad, nothing that could kill us." He jumped down from the fork in the tree more gracefully than I did. He then looked up at the sky, watching as water droplets fell from the leaves above us.

"If it's normal rain then why did they use it?" I looked up at him confused. I was still sitting on the ground on the spot where I fell. My orange hair was plastered to my face which made seeing difficult.

"Well for one it gives water to those who are not near the river and two, it can damage weapons and supplies that are not meant for water. Too bad for those tributes I guess." Eric held out his hand to me and I grabbed it, using it to get me off the soaking ground.

"We should get our supplies out of the rain to keep the dry and all." I looked up at what was on the tree. All but the rope and fire starting kit seemed waterproof. We quickly packed up camp, leaving nothing behind. In my hand I tightly held onto the knife while Eric did the same with the trident. The whole procedure took under five minutes and when we were standing there, ready to flee the sky stopped raining and instead, ice between the sizes of a fish eye and a human eye started falling from the sky instead.

"Why is ice falling from the sky?" Eric asked worriedly as a small hailstone landed on his head. He rubbed the impact spot tenderly.

"Hail!" I yelped. "It's basically frozen rain. Hail can really hurt, if not kill someone if they are hit with a big enough stone." My heart started to race as the hailstones become more numerous and slightly larger, "We need to get to shelter!"

"Where do you suggest Alice? There is nothing but trees and water around he-." Eric was cut off when a lychee sized hail stone hit him on the skull, making him stop, bark in pain.

"This way!" I answered after spinning in a circle. I sprinted in the direction of the thick trees, hoping that the dense covering would deter most of the hail. As I ran I felt sharp stings as hail stones pelted my body. Eric was close behind me, trusting me in knowing where to go. I myself had no idea if running towards the evergreen forest would help us or if by going in there we would be faced with a new danger. When we reached the start of the forest the hailstones stopped attacking me. The sound of hail hitting the pine trees could still be heard but the dense coverage stopped a majority of the stones from hitting the ground.

"Stop." Eric huffed. He definitely was not a runner. Right now he was gasping for breath just like a fish does when it is taken out of water. Land was not Eric's thing. It wasn't mine either but I was just a bit better at running than he was. "Look... over there." Eric pointed behind me. I instinctively tensed myself, ready for a fight but no. Instead of another tribute, Eric was pointing at a hole in the ground. Well it wasn't a hole. More of a rocky entrance that lead most likely to an underground cave.