Dead Trees

Chapter 6

The boom of a cannon pierced my ears and I lurched upwards, almost falling from my tree. Another cannon soon followed, two more dead tributes and so close together. The careers must have found a pair, Nine and Eight were the only non-career districts that still had both members and unless two tributes from different districts had paired up, another district had been eliminated from the Fifty-Seventh Games.

I was in no condition to take on all the careers by myself, so the best use of my time today would be to gather any food I could and continue my search for water. It had to have been two hours before I found the first sign of food, a tree with what looked like oranges in it, I could count the number oranges I had eaten in my life on one hand but even I knew there was something wrong about these. They had slight bumps under the skin which made them very unpleasant to touch, I threw it away, not wanting to risk it; after all the time Maple had spent teaching me about edible plants, I was not going to die from eating the wrong fruit.

Onward from the suspicious oranges, I found some lizards that looked like huge skinks. They were easy enough to catch by throwing my axe, it was disheartening to know that I could hit a moving lizard with my axe but I couldn't hit a target dummy in the chest more than once. The lizards were big enough that I only needed one, any more would spoil before I got the chance to eat it and there was no room to carry it. The lizard was filling but it left my mouth dry and reminded me that I still had no water source, I continued my search, scanning my surroundings for something to sustain me and looked forward just in time to spot a shimmering wall, this was the end of the arena, another step and I would be electrocuted. I had spent a whole day combing this part of the arena and I hadn't even found a dirty puddle, let alone a drinkable water source. The mossy lake at the cornucopia, unfortunately seemed like my best chance at not dying of thirst. I ascended the most comfortable looking tree to spend the night, tomorrow I would head back to the center of the arena and either die or drink that disgusting water. I wondered how the other tributes were handling the water problem, I was lucky enough to have iodine to purify the water but what about those who did not have a way to purify the water? Were they expected to either thirst to death or drink that water which might kill you anyway? There had to be another source of water in the arena, it would not be entertaining for the viewers if half the tributes died of dehydration or sickness.

Before I could think further about my water conundrum the screen showing the deaths of the day came into view with the faces of the two tributes from Nine. I tried to sleep shortly after that, I wanted to wake up early the next day so I could get to the lake as soon as possible.

When I woke up on day three of the games the sun was just peeking over the horizon. I descended my tree and began my trek to the water. This walk felt a lot faster than it had been when I was moving away from the cornucopia but by the time the lake came into view, it was about midday judging by the position of the sun. The lake somehow seemed mossier than it had two days ago, as I neared it, I stopped just before I left the cover of the trees; on the side of the lake that bordered the cornucopia, some of the career tributes were sitting around, the rest of them must have been moving through the arena in search of more victims. The cornucopia seemed to have been stocked with food and weapons but I could not make out any water, I recognized the girl from District Three tending to a container with a tarp over it. It was not unheard of to see non-career district tributes teaming up with the careers but this girl didn't look like she would add much to the strength of them so why had they kept her around?

I would have to quickly fill my bottle from the opposite bank before they noticed me, I waited until the bulkier girl guarding their stockpile walked out of view and made to walk to the bank. After a few steps however, a boy emerged from the trees next to the bank I was heading to and bent down and began scooping water in his mouth. I felt shivers of disgust, he didn't even filter the water through his shirt or pick out the moss, he was going to get sick and probably end up more shriveled than before. Before this sickness even had a chance to develop a giant lizard with a long snout emerged from the water and latched onto his neck. It dragged him into the water and he began furiously splashing trying to free himself from the death grip the creature had him in. It began spinning in the water and the splashes slowly subsided, when the water had gone still a cannon rung out across the arena.

I decided death by dehydration might be preferable and retreated into the trees.

I hadn't noticed how cracked my lips had become and my stomach started growling, it had almost been a full day since I ate that lizard and I didn't think I would be able to handle another charcoaled skink before having some water. I walked for a few hours and then climbed a tree to spend the night. I tried to arrange another bed in the tree and laid down as the hovercraft went past displaying the District Six boy who I had seen get dragged into the lake. I close my eyes resigning myself to wake up as a dehydrated husk.

I was awakened by a splash on my head, another on my arm and a final one in my eye. In an instant the clear air was filled with heavy rainfall I scrambled for my water bottle and screwed open its lid as quickly as my hands would let me, while I held up my bottle to collect the rain water I opened my mouth to make sure that as little water as possible was being wasted. The game makers must have realized that no one wanted to watch a bunch of kids die of thirst, the rain only lasted a few minutes but it was so intense that my water bottle was nearly full. With the rain subsiding I tried to go back to sleep, the cold temperature did not compliment the feeling of being soaked by the rain but I took comfort in the fact that I had fought off dehydration for another day.

When I woke up on the fourth day with my water problem dealt with for the moment, I set out to find more lizards to deal with my hunger issue. Like the last lizard this one easily went down with an axe thrown into it, it was more difficult making a fire to cook as some of the wood was still slightly damp from the rainfall the night before. I tried to conserve my energy, for the day, looking for some fruit that wasn't covered in spikes or some food that wasn't lizard.

I found nothing, just more lizards, I considered how lucky I was to not be a vegetarian but then again even if I was, you can't picky about your food in the arena. As the sun was lowering to my left, I looked for another tree. As I was climbing a particularly comfortable looking tree with dense foliage at the top, I noticed a pair of red eyes glaring at me from a tree next to me, as I concentrated on them, I noticed pairs of glowing red eyes were throughout the tree. A low grumble came from one of the eyes and I decided to take Trench's advice and not trust these creatures that I could not compared to anything I had seen before. I descended the tree and walked until I was sure that the red eyes creatures were behind me. I was too tired to ascend a tree so I took my chances and slept on the rough ground.

I was awoken by another cannon shot, I heard voices and taunts coming through the trees. Had the careers found me? That's when I saw three tributes running straight at me.