Safe and Sound || Hunger Games

Chapter Twenty - The Heat is Rising

NOTE: Thank you ever so much for helping me get to Chapter Twenty! It's all because of my readers' support  that I've managed to get this far, and in three weeks at that! Thank you all ever so much and remember that I love every single one of you ♥

Chapter Twenty - The Heat is Rising

The next couple of days were quite uneventful. Nothing happened for the rest of day eight besides Grayson almost fainting when he saw Glow's face in the sky at night, we spent day nine picking edible plants and we spent day ten eating most of them. There were no deaths in that period and it was actually quite peaceful. All Grayson and I did was survive and I was quite happy just to do that. But of course, it was the Hunger Games. Nothing was supposed to be peaceful or uneventful. The spectators from the Capitol were obviously getting bored as the days passed, so come day eleven, we should have expected the worst.

I was woken by Grayson shaking me, who was also scrambling out of the sleeping bag and taking the belts off of us. I slowly sat up rubbing my eyes. It was still quite dark and I was now confused.

"Grayson, what is it?" I asked. Grayson was moving very fast. He threw his backpack on and ripped the sleeping bag off of me, leaving me in the cold. He shoved it messily into my backpack and thrusted it, along with my bow and quiver, at me.

"Hurry up, otherwise we'll both get burned alive." He said as calmly as he could. I quickly put my backpack on and my quiver on over the top. I felt confused, but because of how frantic Grayson was, I didn't want to risk anything. Grayson then jumped off of the branch and landed perfectly on the ground. That definitely meant that it was an emergency. I followed suit and jumped off of the branch. I looked behind us to see that about five hundred metres away was a forest fire. My jaw dropped and I immediately turned around and started running, Grayson right beside me. We had to get as far away from the fire as we could. Yes, it was quite far away and was most likely Capitol made, meaning it would stop eventually when the Gamemakers thought the audience would be getting bored, but that didn't mean it was any less deadly.

"Isn't this just perfect?" I spat out angrily as we sprinted, hoping we could outrun the fire. As Grayson ran, his hair whipped back, revealing some of his forehead. He also seemed to be thinking up some sort of plan.

"Our best bet is the Cornucopia. Follow me." Grayson said, speeding up and taking quite a sharp right. I overpowered slightly, so I had to skid slightly and turn abruptly.

"I am really glad I've got you back." I shouted to Grayson as I followed on his heels. The hand that I held my bow in felt slightly sticky, but I ignored it. If I slowed down, the fire would catch up on us. I looked over my shoulder quickly and saw that it was about three hundred metres behind us. It was catching up with us.

"Likewise, Harper Anselin." Grayson shouted at me from ahead. "Total pleasure, especially when it is possible that we're going to burn to death."

"No we're not!" I shouted at him, trying to stay calm, but my increasing heart rate was trying its hardest to disagree with me. "We just need to get back to the Cornucopia, that's all!" I shouted. The trees scratched and clawed at us as we ran.

"But the problem is that we have to cover the amount of land since then bloodbath and that is a long way!" Grayson shouted back. I bit my lip. There always was a catch. There was always a catch.

"Don't you know any shortcuts?" I replied as I caught up with him completely. I ran beside him. Grayson looked up slightly and muttered to himself under his breath so I couldn't hear what he was saying. He rose his right hand and moved his fingers about, as if he were typing in mid-air. "Is there?" I croaked. If not, we were most certainly doomed. Grayson muttered for a couple more seconds, his voice getting louder.