The Hunger Games: Wroetostar, Merome, Pooflan & Minizerk

⫷Chapter 20⫸

Vikk's P.O.V.

The evening of the 5th night showed the face of the boy from District 3 on the holographic screen in the sky. Harry and I were both surprised to see him, he had been confident and had well proved that he was capable of fighting and defending himself, but that didn't stop him from being killed. That night we had a discussion, talking about him and his ally.

"What about the boy from 4, they were allies weren't they?" Harry asked, swinging his legs over the tree branch.

"Yeah, but anything could have happen. We don't know who killed him but... as much as I suspect it was the careers, I can't prove it. They could have been separated or he could be injured." I shrugged. "But all I know is we're 12 down. Half way."

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The sixth day was quiet and Harry and I spent it learning the area around the trees we spent our nights in- where the streams ran, where the rabbit burrows were, where the berry bushes grew. Where our best escape routes were if other tributes came into our range.

Harry almost constantly had his bow drawn, an arrow notched in case some prey, or a tribute, ran by. He was pretty good with it, accurate and able to shoot a rabbit dead on from more than a hundred metres away even if he wasn't really trying. It was impressive and even out of the corner of my eyes I found myself watching him when he practised.

"Hey Vikk!" Harry called in a hushed whisper from a couple of metres away, grinning. "Come look at this!"

We were both crouched on the banks of the river and I moved closer to him to see where he was pointing. Across the river, splashing in the shallows, was a pair of ducks accompanied by almost a dozen ducklings and I smiled to myself- it was peaceful, cute, some of the only quiet moments I knew I would ever get during the games.

Harry and I sat on the riverbank and watched the ducks swim for several hours, paying no attention to our surroundings even though I probably should have been. Tributes could have snuck up behind us, killed us while we weren't looking- but they didn't. We saw and heard no one.

The sun was setting by the time we stood up again, legs stiff from sitting down for so long, the ducks having disappeared upstream. Everything was silent other than gentle gusts of wind rushing through the trees and stirring the leaves and although I knew I was in the games, I likely wasn't going to make it out alive, I felt peaceful. Everything was quiet. Harry was beside me, bow still in hand.

I felt alright.

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"Vikk, I've gotta go and fill up the bottles, I'll be back in a sec." Both of us were seated up the tree and it was just before the anthem, which was maybe half an hour away. So far there had been no deaths today, on day 6, but that could still change if the gamemakers worked something out.

"I'm coming with you." I said strongly, already swinging my legs over the branch. Harry gave me a look but I just shook my head, telling him I was going with him- nothing he could say otherwise would convince me.

"Alright, fine." He sighed, slipping from the branches. "But stick with me."

"I know."

We were silent as we trekked the few minutes to the stream, Harry with his bow still drawn while I leaned down to fill the bottles.

And then he let an arrow fly.

I looked up just in time to see it notch in a tree as a girl- the small, lithe girl no bigger than Harry and I- from district 10, stumbled to a stop. Her arm was firmly in a sling, stained red with dried blood and she was holding no weapon, all she had was a backpack on her back.

We all froze, staring at each other across the bank. She was injured and neither Harry or I wanted to fight her, but I didn't know if she knew that. Harry and I shared a look, my hands were shaking too because I was so scared and across the river the girl stumbled, falling backwards.

"Let's go!" Harry hissed, grabbing my arm.

Her eyes followed us as we fled, chest heaving in panic. She was clearly gravely injured and in no position to fight us, and neither Harry or I wanted to fight so we ran- even though I knew the gamemakers would try and push us into a conflict on another day.

Harry and I ran. We ran as fast as we could, scrambling back to the tree we had just left from, climbing up into the branches as fast as I could with my stomach still injured. It was healing now but it still impeded a lot of my movement, climbing trees included.

"That... I don't even know what that was." Harry gasped, leaning heavily up against the trunk. "I'm just glad she wasn't in any place to fight. I don't want to kill."

I nodded, too stunned to speak because my body was in shock. That was, in reality, our first real encounter with another tribute other than at the beginning of the games but I didn't really count that, and it was scary. I was just glad I had Harry at my side.

"Are you going to be able to sleep?" Harry asked quietly, noticing my blank look to the forest floor below. I shook my head.

"No." My entire body shook now, both with cold and shock. "I just... how many of us are there left?"

"No idea. Half? Maybe less. I haven't really been keeping track." He sighed, closing his eyes. "Enough that it's beginning to get scary. How long will the games go on? There were only 6 killed in the bloodbath and about one a day since, will it last for another couple of weeks? They're going to force us together somehow, make us fight."

"Don't... don't mention it please. I don't want to kill anyone, I don't want to think about it."

I ran my fingers along the tiny gold hoop earring in my ear, the one my mother had given me before the games, right after I had been reaped. I hadn't paid much attention to it over the games, what with everything that was going on, but it reminded me of home- of the field of grain and crops stretching for miles, of the smell of farmland.

I really didn't believe I would make it home, but at least I remembered where my true home was.