The Tributes of Twelve | Newt x Reader

16 | The Thief

For the second morning in a row, I wake up to see the sun shining in my face. Although, unlike yesterday, I have to try as hard as possible to be silent, otherwise I'm dead. Peeking over at the campsite less than one hundred metres away, I see that the tributes of District Seven are also waking up. Last night, Alby kept watch the entire night, and as he shakes Harriet awake, I can see that he looks exhausted, though Harriet looks almost well-rested.

"You stick, you should have woken me up," she grumbles, and Alby hesitates.

"I'm fine, ain't I?" he says and gestures towards his tired body, which doesn't prove much of a point. I wonder why he didn't wake her - does he not trust her enough to watch over him as he sleeps? He does have a fair point. With both a dagger and a bow and arrow, I wouldn't trust her much either. Yawning, Alby takes a sip of water.

"We're going to have to hunt soon," Harriet says, stretching her arms above her head. Alby grunts in agreement and gestures to the half-empty pack of dried fruits and nuts.

"We're already half finished the Capitol food," Alby agrees. "But we need to get as far away from the Cornucopia as possible."

"Remind me why again?" Harriet asks sarcastically.

"Careers," Alby answers.

"We could just stay in this area of the forest," Harriet objects. "There's the hidden waterfall only a couple hundred metres away, and plenty of prey." So they get their water from a waterfall.

"We can set up camp not too far away from the waterfall," Alby replies, and Harriet shrugs.

"Fine," she replies, "as long as we start hunting soon." Alby nods his head and it only takes them about two seconds to pack up their makeshift 'tent'. He shoves the blanket and food into the backpack and they both collect their bottles and weapons. Easing closer to them around the tree trunk, they begin to walk away in the opposite direction to me. Slowly, I begin to walk towards them, ducking behind different trees and bushes, making my footfalls light so they won't be heard by the two other tributes.

After following them lightly for only a few minutes, they reach a sort of cliff-face with a large crevice that looks like a small cave in the base. Suddenly, Alby and Harriet stop.

"Where should we camp?" Alby asks.

"Over here," Harriet says, gesturing to the crevice in the rock. Alby gives a small smirk.

"Perfect." The two of them bend over to duck into the crevice and I hear the sound I want to hear the most right now.

The sound of running water. It seems to be coming from inside the cave, and I soon realise how ingenious Alby and Harriet are. The waterfall is hidden inside the cave, which means that it is highly unlikely that someone will find their camp or the waterfall. I wonder how they found it - I would have missed it if I just walked past.

I wait behind a tree until I see Harriet and Alby exit their cave, weapons drawn, and walk away until they're far out of my view. Then, I dash into their cave. Fumbling around with their supplies, I grab their backpack, which has all their supplies inside it. They've left one container of water inside - I guess they assumed they would be back fast enough that they didn't want to carry two. Besides, the drink bottle is heavy and must weigh too much to carry anywhere easily - but this doesn't exactly bother me too much; all I'm focused on is the pristine liquid. I take the backpack and place it over the first one already on my back and, at last, take a cool, refreshing drink from the waterfall. I run it all over my face, my hair, my lips, and stand there for what must be at least five minutes, collecting as much water as I can in my mouth and using it to entirely quench my thirst. I take the full drink bottle but know that I must preserve it as long as possible. If I camp out around here, chances are that Alby and Harriet will find me and then kill me for taking all their supplies. Then again, there's the fresh waterfall (with water that doesn't even need to be purified) close by, and I'll die without a good water source. So I make my decision to take their supplies, which I'm not too proud of, but I'll need it if I want to survive for much longer, and make a camp in the forest only five minutes away so I can keep an eye on Alby, Harriet and their water source.