The 64th Annual Hunger Games

Chapter Six

I wake up to the loud sound of a cannon being fired. It takes me a second to realize what's going on. The fighting at the cornucopia is over. I try to keep track, but I think I miscounted. It's almost sundown, so I'll see who died when they show the pictures of the deceased in the sky while the Capitol anthem plays. I think I slept for about two hours. I check my stuff to see if anything is missing, and everything is accounted for. I decide to keep traveling away from the cornucopia because I know that since the careers are done in the center they're about to go on a rampage, and they're not too happy with me right now.

I pack everything in to the backpack and the sling I got with the spears. I keep the knife that was in my pack in my right hand and travel in the same direction I was going earlier. After walking through the sand for a bit I catch the smell of freshwater ahead. I separate the tall reeds so I can step through and the sight of a medium sized lake relieves me. I immediately drink the rest of the bottle of water that I have, then fill up both bottles. I sit down and stare at the water, waiting for the sun to set. Something about this place makes me think of home, but at the same time I don't feel comfortable here. I start to walk around the lake when I hear the reeds move behind me. I throw the knife to my left hand and grab a spear with my right. I see a female tribute with a sword exit the reeds in the same spot that I did. She sees me and starts to run around the lake. My instinct is telling me to run away. I have enough distance on her so that she can't catch me. I start to run the perimeter of the water and she follows suit.

When I have about a quarter mile on her she does something I sure didn't expect. She jumps in to the water and starts to swim incredibly fast towards the direction I'm walking. It's very strange for a tribute that's not from district four to know how to swim at all, and she was really skilled too! When she gets near the middle something causes me to stop and fall to the ground. I look at the water ripple on to the shore faster than usual. Despite the shaking she continues to swim towards me, sword in hand. Suddenly I hear her scream and briefly see a large tail and a splash behind her. She's pulled under with incredible force and after a couple seconds a cannon fires.

It takes me a second to take in the situation. I gather myself and decide to only come back here for water. I whatch the sunset behind the snowy mountain that towers in the distance. That part of the arena seems drastically different to where I am now, and is directly across from the lake. Before long the anthem starts to play and I whatch the clear sky for the pictures of the dead. No one from district one or two dead, which means that the four strongest tributes here are probably spoiled with the supplies in the arena, and dying to kill me. Both tributes from district three, Key, both tributes from district five, the male from district six, the female from district eight, who I see is the girl who swam after me, both from nine, and both from twelve. Eleven dead in less than twelve hours. I'm happy to see that Ceffa is alive, but at the same time I hate myself for killing Key. I felt like I could actually trust her. I'm promising myself right now that I will only kill if my life is in danger, or if it seems necessary.

I go back to sleep in a similar fashion as I did earlier, but I have no intention of waking up with the sun. Five hours of solid slumber later, I'm out and about with at least two more good hours of darkness. I start to travel through the trees, spear in hand, looking for any sign of a tribute. I travel for about an hour until I notice I serious drop in temperature and landscape. The place I'm in now has leaves on the ground that crunch beneath your feet and bare trees that provide very little protection. I continue through the strange forest until I hear the heavy breathing of a sleeping tribute. I follow the noise of an unsuspecting tribute until I find a small camp where Ceffa is sleeping against a tree. She dosn't wake up so I take the opportunity to look through her stuff. She managed to get a survival knife and a loaf of bread even though she avoided the cornucopia.

Now if this were absolutely anyone else right now I would make off with their stuff and run before they see me. Ceffa is different, though. For some reason I kind of want her to win more than I want myself to. I'm certaintly not going to make an alliance that will inevitably end in death, but I want to help her. I leave one of my full bottles of water next to her knife and draw a fishhook in the dirt so she knows it was me.

I keep moving because I want to get away from this area before sunrise. I can see the pine trees ahead and I feel it get colder. Before I can enter the next area a small chime catches my attention and I see the silver box floating down towards me on a parachute. I open it up and read the small card that Mags wrote when she sent it down. "Perfect." it says and under the paper is the silver fishhook I couldn't bring in with me.

I pin it to my shirt, just as Mags did, and I keep moving with a smile. I assume that this means that Mags likes the way I'm playing and that I'm on the right track. I step in to the snowy area and I put my shoes back on my feet, even if they do leave tracks. I see that the best place to go from here is probably up the mountain. It takes until sunrise, and uses most of my energy, but I climb pretty high up and have a good view of the entire arena with this light. I look to where I found the lake and see that it hardly has any trees at all. I look back and the orange leaves and dead trees far to my right, and then when I see see the cherry blossom trees and bright flowers to the left I understand the arena. It's separated in to four quadrants, each of which is based off of a season. I'm proud of myself for figuring this out so early in the game, but the feeling disappears when I here a firmilliar voice call out, "He's up on that cliff!"