No Place Like Home

Part 19

"Come on, Dan," Phil shook Dan. "Wake up, we gotta move."
Dan grumbled and wiped his eyes, "What? Why?"
"Because last night I found out that the lightning hits that tree at bang on midnight," Phil replied. "It's already like 10am and the game-keepers are speeding up the days so that the game ends quicker. We don't have much time."

Dan nodded and stood up.
They set off walking as soon as Dan was up, "So, you're going to the Cornucopia to get the supplies," Dan said. "And I'm keeping watch of the time at the tree."

"Yeah," Phil answered. "And if it gets too late, throw your last butterfly knife at the sky and I'll see the birds fly away. I doubt I'll be 8 hours, but you can never be too careful. Oh, and get as far away from the tree as you can if the lighting hits. There's over 5,000 bolts of electricity in each strike of lightning, and it will blow you into next year if you stand too close."

Dan paused, "Then isn't our plan a little risky?"
Phil looked back at him, "Yeah, but that's the only flaw. If the rest of the plan goes accordingly, then we should be alright."

Dan nodded slowly and started walking again, "Um, dumb question and you don't have to answer,"
"Yes?" Phil asked.
"Does it hurt?" Dan asked. "Getting electrocuted?"
Phil chuckled lightly, "Like a b*tch."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They managed to get to the large tree by the middle of noon, and by that point they had a little less that 7 hours before the lightning struck.

Dan and Phil stared in awe at the massive tree, 3x the size of the others.

"Okay," Phil said and paused in front of the tree, looking at Dan. "You wait here, I should be an hour, tops. If I'm in trouble, I'll shoot an arrow into the sky and you come running. And if you're in trouble—"
"—throw a butterfly knife so that it rustles the trees and the birds fly away. That's your signal. Got it." Dan finished with a smirk.

Phil nodded and sighed, "Right, let's do it."

Dan nodded back, and hesitated before pulling Phil into a bear hug, "Be careful." Dan whispered into his ear.
Phil hugged him back and smiled, "Always am."

He pulled away and said, "And you, be careful."
Dan nodded, then Phil started to walk away.

It sounded like a perfectly good, well thought-out plan, but Dan was so scared it was going to go wrong.

But instead of worrying, Dan grabbed an axe from his belt and stood by the tree.
Waiting for the worst.