Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

I'm alive

Is this fate? Is this how I'm going to die? No. Yes. No. Above me, a chain of ropes and pulleys swing into action, and a knife slashes the bottom of the net. I scramble out of the way, rolling through the dried up ferns and trying my very hardest to get away from the area where the rocks will drop. And when they do, I'm safe.
Relieved, I stand up, which is unfortunately the moment when the knife that cut the net flies backwards and scrapes the entire way down my left arm. It stops about a centimetre above my wrist, and then the blood starts flowing. I turn around and run, just sprinting through the woods. Where am I going? Why did I run?
I stop myself dead in. Where am I? A quick look around tells me that I am very close to the careers' camp, so close that I can hear every word they're saying.
"What do you think that crash was?" Asks Kamalyn.
"Benedict and I were setting up some traps the day before and the day he died. They were basically rope mechanisms that dropped rocks on the unfortunate victim."
"Ok. Are they 100% kill though?"
"No, you could get out of the way if you wanted,"
She pauses for a second and then continues, her voice a lot more hostile than before.
"Tell me, why did you manufacture a trap that is a waste of resources and doesn't have a 100% kill rate?"
"I- well, could you make a trap with a 100% percent kill rate?"
"Yes, yes I think I could. Come on. I'll show you,"
They walk out of their camp, carrying a crate of ropes, nets and blades. I'm going to follow them, where they're setting the trap. It could be useful to know where it is.
The trap consists of a few ropes, a snare and a pair of knives that when the trap is activated slash at the person's neck from any angle. This isn't something that I would survive.
I make a mental note to never come this way, unless I'm being perused. Then it could be a life saver instead of a life taker. Now that I've seen all, I can return to wherever I was when I found the careers. What was it? Just running. Not running anywhere, just running. Running away.
Since the careers are camped nearby, I may as well steal a first aid kit while I can. They should be finished soon, so I need to get to their supplies fast.
A few minutes later and I'm rooting through their crates, trying to find bandages or some medical supplies. I grab a bag, zip it open and discover that it's a first aid kit. It's shoved in my bag and I turn around to leave when A voice comes from behind me.
"Hello Iris,"
I spin around and stare dead into the eyes of Nikki, the District 5 female.
"What? But... but you're dead?!"
"No. You never heard my cannon, you just presumed I'd died. And you never saw my face in the sky. It was supposed to be the day the District 2 and District 4 boys died, but since I wasn't dead, you saw nothing. And ever since, I've been following you. And I thought I was dead too. But I'm not, I'm alive, and I want to be your ally again."
"Sorry. For leaving you, for taking our stuff. I should have stayed, I should have-"
"Stop thinking about the past, you're living in the present. We have to get away, the careers are coming back,"
I nod and start running in the opposite direction as the careers went in, towards the desert. Nikki follows, and we stop a few minutes later.
"So... about the alliance..." she asks.
"Well..."
"It's yes or no, no and I'll have to kill you,"
Kamalyn's cold and blood chilling voice rings out behind me.
"Not if I get to her first,"

Welp this chapter took ages to write, mainly because I screwed my hand up at about 3:25 today,  when I tripped and fell. So don't think that chapters are coming out any faster because it's vacation.

-Katherine