Greater Games [A 72nd Hunger Games Fanfic]

Chapter 9

Two days pass of camping, trekking, and for the first time in these Games, having the sense of security. Nobody had died in those two days, so pretty soon the Capitol will be getting bored. So any day now, something is gonna drive us together, whether it be "natural" causes, unrealistic disasters, or muttations.

On the sixth day of the Games, we come across a pack of coyotes. "Hide," I whisper to Felix. So we are completely out of sight, surrounded by a thick cluster of tall plants, when the coyotes come. I take one down with two arrows, and the rest flee.

We climb down the tree and I pull the arrows out. Once again, after we've skinned the animal and cooked the meat, we have another pelt, only this time much smaller. We still have a lot of leftover from the mountain lion, but we throw it away, because its gone rotten.

"Sometime really soon, the Gamemakers are gonna drive us together," I say.

"I know," says Felix. "But I swear we've hiked through the whole forest and we haven't seen a tribute in sight for two days."

"Well, then," I say. "Maybe we should go to the cliffs. And anyway, there is still a whole part of the arena behind the forest. If you climb a really, really tall tree, you can see a tiny bit of it. Maybe some tributes are in there."

"Alright, we'll check the cliffs. But I don't really want to go to this other place in the arena. I don't wanna be somewhere that we don't know."

We are not close to the cliffs-edge of the forest, I can tell. Because an hour-and-a-half passes and we have only reached the waterfall by then. "Lets stop for a drink," Felix says breathily. We're both really tired.

We fil our canteens from the waterfall and sit at the edge. I finish my water in less than ten seconds, I am so thirsty. "Do you think this is the only water source?" asks Felix.

"Probably," I say. "But this leads to some rapids, then a stream, then a series of small falls, so I expect that it's really big. And there's a little pool that this one falls into."

A ruffling is heard behind us. The leaves part and out walks Kaden. He is weaponless and looks really beat up, and I assume that he got in a fight with another tribute. He stops deads in his tracks when he sees us. I look over at Felix and sees that he is seething. Another ruffle is heard and Kaden quickly disappears back into the trees.

Felix jumps to his feet and lunges forward, but I grab his arm to restrain him. "Don't," I say. "I don't want to kill him unless it's neccessary."

"I hate him," Felix says, his eyes still fixed on the trees. "He's just the way a Career should be. He's the exact example of somebody you can't help hating."

"That was before," I mutter. He hears me and looks at me hardly, but doesn't say anything.

"You know what?" I say. "Let's start on our way again. We shouldn't wait here too long, or we'll be attacked by other tributes who come looking for a drink."

We collect our belongings and start off again. In the next half-hour, we reach the spot where Lilly and Patch died, so I know we're close to the cliffs. The spot where Lilly had been killed is still coated with dried blood and I gag. I wish the Gamemakers could clean it up some way. I walk swiftly away, not wanting to set eyes on the sight again.

When we reach the cliffs, the place is completely deserted. No sign of life anywhere, not even a bird. The vacancy of it leaves me somewhat suspicous.

"Where are they?" asks Felix. "Othen than Kaden, where are the rest of the tributes?"

"Let's get out of here," I say urgently. "I don't like this. The tributes aren't in the forest and they're not in the cliffs. It's either they're in the unknown place or hiding from us."