Survivor | The Hunger Games

ch.11

Tyler was right, Lana thought to herself. As much as she wanted to find something wrong about what he said she couldn't. People like Lana don't make it pass the first 15 minutes of the games, she's lucky she's gotten as far as she has. The pack decided to camp at the cornucopia as career packs usually do every year. It made the idea of sleeping there easier once the jets came to take away all the bodies of the tributes who died during the bloodbath. Peter and Derain decided to take first watch, then Iris and Lana and lastly Tyler and Penelope. Once it was nightfall the sky lit up as pictures of all the tributes who died today showed up. The girl from 5, both the kids from 7, the boy from 10, and another boy who looked like he couldn't be much older than 13 from district 12. Lana found it difficult to fall asleep and kept tossing and turning. An hour into Derain's shift he got irritated by it. "Can you stop you're moving around? I can't tell if that's someone spying on us or you moving around like you have bugs in your shorts."

"Okay, how bout I take your shift." Lana got up, grabbing her knife.

"Seriously?" Derain asked.

"Yeah, go ahead." Lana insisted. Once they switched spots Peter found this as a perfect opportunity to finally have a conversation with her.

"So, why can't you fall asleep?" Peter asked. "It's not like you killed anyone."

"Just because I haven't killed anyone means I can't have trouble sleeping?" Lana glared at him. "Good to know."

"I don't mean it like that." Peter said. "It's just--- you confuse me. How did you even score a 10?"

"I don't know, maybe you can ask the Gamemaker's yourself when you win the games." Lana sassed.

Peter chuckled. "Are you being sarcastic, or do you actually believe you won't win?"

"I don't know." Lana shrugged. "What's with you and asking questions."

"What's with you and answering ever important question with 'I don't know.'" Peter shot back. "I'm just trying to get to know my ally better."

Lana could tell there was tension behind that sentence, he didn't trust her, and she knew that. So, she decided to answer one of his questions so that he wouldn't be so suspicious of her. "In my private session with the Gamemaker's I was at the dummy combat station with my bowie knife. The setting was at medium but somehow the thing started to malfunction and all of a sudden, the dummies started moving at full speed, I mean faster than what fast mode it, but I wouldn't quit, I kept going. I knew I couldn't screw this up so every time I got knocked down, I got right back up and brought as many of them down as I could. By the end of it I had successfully fought them all off and then boom. They were impressed by my skills and quick thinking."

"Ah huh." Peter nodded, fully surprised. "And here I was starting to think you just blew one of them off." Lana put a hand over her mouth and gasped, making Peter laugh. "I'm kidding, sorry." Peter said as he tried his hardest to stop laughing.

"For someone who's as bloodthirsty as you, you sure do have a lively sense of humor." Lana noted.

"I'm not bloodthirsty. If anything, I'm like you." Peter said. "I know you purposely hit that girl hard enough to make her unconscious but not to kill her. You're not as desensitized to murder as the others, and neither am I. I think the only difference between us is that I was able to take the final step of becoming a soon to be victor which is killing and I'm one of the few that use humor as a way to cope with it all."

Lana regretted not trying to form real relationships with the people in her alliance. But at the same time, she believed it to be a good thing because just by this one conversation with Peter it looks like she would've grown to really like him and that's not a good thing when you're both being sent into an arena where one of you will have to die. "Who knew a boy with such a foul vocabulary could speak out loud such deep thoughts."

Peter grinned. "Well, I'm glad I opened up to you. I feel much better now. But we may need to do this again, how much do you charge exactly for each therapy session?" This earned another laugh from Lana.

For the next 3 hours Peter and Lana spent their shift together either in silence or making small talk. They both found it really easy to talk to each other which made their trust in one another grow. After the three hours were up, it was Iris's turn with Lana on watch. They definitely didn't talk much together. Iris spent the entire time sharpening her arrows and throwing knifes and forcing Lana to take walks around the cornucopia to make sure there was nobody lingering anywhere around or on top of the large, curved, steel walls.

This time Lana did feel herself grow tired and was glad once it was Penelope's and Tyler's turn to keep watch. Once she rested her head on her backpack, it was almost impossible to fight her tired eyes.

✫ 🗡️ ✫

"Not saying goodbye to her was completely irresponsible!" Mags signed furiously. "That girl was heartbroken when Kandi told her you wouldn't be making it."

"I know, I'm sorry." Finnick said with teary eyes. "I regret it now. I just couldn't face her before she had to be shipped off into a death ring. I promise myself every year that I won't get close to a tribute and every year I had been successful until meeting her. I don't think I could've said my last possible goodbyes with her without me mentally and emotionally spinning off the rails. And what makes all of this even worst is that I've known her for only a week! That's all it took for me to get so emotionally invested, a week."

Mags sympathized with him. She knew exactly what Finnick was feeling but knew he wouldn't be ready to hear it out loud yet, especially not from someone else. Mags knew he had to come to the realization himself. Mags grabbed the remote control to turn off the TV, but Finnick stopped her. "What if something happens to her while she's sleeping?"

"You need to get some sleep." Mags signed. "Tomorrow we'll need to get out in the capital and win Lana and Tyler over some sponsors."

Knowing Mags made a very valid point, he went to bed as she turned off the TV.