One Fell Swoop { A Banana Bus / Hunger Games Story }

Chapter Thirteen - Exit Light, Enter Night

Craig was happy that his experimental traps had been a success. There was quite a lot of fauna in this arena, or maybe there were a lot of animals around because they set up camp right next to a flowing stream. Over the passing hours of the first day, he caught two rabbits, which were now on a makeshift spit roast over their small campfire. While Evan and Jon were out, he had also taught Tyler how to catch fish out of the stream, so there was also two fish to share around.

The evening made the campfire the brightest object around the four tributes, illuminating their faces as they ate the prey Craig caught. As Craig was turning the skewered and skinned rabbit over the fire, he felt a strange sensation on his shoulder. He turned his head a bit and saw a mangled, clawed paw scraping along his jacket. Craig let out a shriek as his blood went cold and he curled into a ball. What WAS that on his shoulder?

Suddenly, Tyler on his other side started cackling with wicked laughter. Craig slowly eased his arms away from over his head and eyed his companion, why was he laughing? Tyler drew his arm back around from the other side of Craig and revealed the disembodied rabbit claw. He dangled it in front of Craig's face, laughing as the smaller man's face screwed up.

"Not scared of a rabbit's paw, are you Craig? You shrieked like a banshee!" Tyler got out before collapsing into another fit of laughter, this time Evan and Jon joined in. Craig shoved him, but ended up rocking himself more than his tormentor.

"You're such an asshole, you know that?" Craig mocked. He snatched the paw from Tyler's hand and threw it back to him so it smacked him in the face. Tyler picked it up to throw it back but a loud noise echoed out over the arena. A fanfare of horns and bright lights above drew the alliance's attention to the sky. That's what it was, Craig thought as a face flashed in the sky, it was the ceremony for the fallen tributes.

Craig recognised each name and face as they flashed in the sky:

"Steven Ze - District 2"

"Cody Racing - District 8"

"Max Gassy - District 8"

"Anthony Panda - District 9"

"Anthony Chilled - District 2"

"Mark Johnson - District 7"

"Jay Blue - District 11"

The districts were all out of order, so Craig figured that the game makers are showing tributes in the order they were killed.

"Hey, wasn't Steven the one that jumped off the podium early? Do you think it was intentional?" Evan asked.

"Yeah that was him, kind of a dumb move don't you think? I don't think it was intentional though. If anything, I thought Cody was going to be the one to step off early, especially after what he was saying during his interview," Jon replied. After finishing his sentence, Jon rested his head on Evan's shoulder. Craig watched Evan's face for signs of emotion, but Evan reacted as though Jonathan's movements were perfectly normal. Evan even leaned into Jon's contact, resting his head upon his district partners. Craig eyed Tyler, not only to gauge his reaction, but to wonder what it would be like if it were those two cuddling instead.

***

Marcel wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his right hand. The four of them in the alliance: Marcel, Scotty, Smitty, and Kryoz, the latter two quickly growing accustomed to their new nicknames, had finally finished their gruelling work setting up a temporary shelter. If there was anything Marcel knew, it was that besides water, shelter was the best thing to acquire to survive in the elements. The four boys slumped in their shelter made of fallen branches and leaves, exhausted from their work with no food or drink to replenish themselves.