The 25th Hunger Games

Day 2

"Noah!"

I opened my eyes slowly as I tried to think of what girl would possibly be yelling my name like that. I went to swing my legs over my mattress when I remembered.

The Games. Midnight. Cannons in the middle of the night. Everyone trying to kill me.

I sat up fast, looking around. The fires from the pillars were out, or at least in the process of going out. I could only assume the water would come back after.

"I'm up," I declared. Midnight looked like she had been up for hours already. She was just getting around to packing her things, though.

"We'd better go. That water will be here soon. And the sun's about to come up," she explained.

I nodded. "We need to climb one of the pillars, then." I quickly threw everything into my pack and retrieved my climbing gear.

"Or we could use this raft," she suggested, retrieving the object out of her own bag. "That would run less of a risk, and we'd have a few minutes to spare."

I thought about it for a moment, remembering the treacherous climb down the pillar. Up would be even harder, and we'd have nothing to secure our hooks to. I put my gear away. "Yeah, that sounds good."

I let Midnight pick a pillar for us to stay near. The water was already seeping onto the souls of our boots by that time. She blew up the raft, one just big enough for both of us. The Gamemakers even gave us handles. How thoughtful.

The water rushed in fast. We barely had time to get ready before we were being taken off the ground. I tried my best not to fall out as Midnight managed to expertly divide her weight between the whole raft. I was surprised at how well she seemed to manuever it over to our pillar. I'd have to start figuring out Midnight's strengths and weaknesses if we were going to be a team.

The ride up was longer than expected. To pass the time as the water filled up, I asked, "Did you hear those cannons last night?"

Midnight nodded. "Sure did. Like I said last night, all the commotion seems to be coming from the west."

Meaning they could easily be here in no time. I had been stupid to think that any hours would be off limits for killing. "Maybe we should start sleeping in shifts," I suggested. "One of us can keep guard while the other sleeps."

Midnight nodded. "Yeah, that's smart."

We were back to safety shortly after that. As soon as we were close enough to a pillar, we got out and swam the rest of the way. Midnight managed to drag the raft with her and still keep her head above the water. We rested on the pillar once it was safe, gazing at the water.

The ocean stopped where it had been when we started yesterday. I found this strangely reassuring, that at least something in the arena was consistent. Still, I was waiting, alongside most of the audience, for the major plot twist that would put these games in the record books. The First Quarter Quell, the most deadly games yet.

Although unlike the audience, I wouldn't exactly mind missing that twist.

"So what's the plan?" I finally asked my ally.

She shrugged, still looking at the water. There were fish in it again. "Lay low? It'll probably be safe enough right here."

I thanked my lucky stars she didn't suggest going out to kill. Despite all my training, I was a Career for self-defense.  "Okay. Maybe we can fish or something."

So that was what we ended up doing. Catching fish didn't seem to be Midnight's strongest point. I guess it wasn't mine either, but we managed. We chatted while we fished, talking about whatever.