Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

Tick

She's alive and both the careers probably want me dead even more than they did. Why wait for tomorrow when you can do it today? If Rift comes looking for me while Kamalyn's still at their camp, I'm either going to kill him straight out or run towards that 'certain death' trap the Kamalyn set up. The place is logged in my brain for a scenario like this.
If only I could get one of them alone for a bit. Like how I got Kamalyn, alone and pretty defenceless. But I will wait for tomorrow, unless a perfect opportunity arises. I'm going to wait, I'm going to wait, I'm going to wait...
I pull out my water bottle and take a few sips of the warm water. Then I eat the last apple, forcing myself to take every last bite, no matter how sick it makes me feel. I need nutrition and food. I need to eat.
Sometimes I just wish I had company. Someone to be with. Someone to talk to, someone to help. If Robin hadn't died, I would still have him, and I would have no chance of going home. But now there's no way I'll see him again.
Stop thinking about stupid things!
Then what do I do?
Something productive!
Like what?
The voice in my head shuts up and I jump down from the tree and start looking for berries. I'm hungry for fresh fruit, something juicy and sweet or something poisonous. Suicide could be an option, a last resort if I need it.
I find a bush of what looks like red currants, pick one, and roll it in my fingers. Occasionally, I find a bush of them in the fields at home and have a quick snack. After a brief check that they aren't going to kill me, I pop a few in my mouth and swallow them. Not poison. A little sour, probably because they aren't ripe yet, but perfectly edible.
It's a shame that I'm having to find my own food at this stage in the games. Usually there are so many sponsors that food is accounted for by gifts. But evidently the careers are getting all the attention, or Pablo just doesn't want me to get spoilt and is being an ass by withholding gifts from me. I'm expecting that's what's happened.
Branches rustle above me and I look up. A bird has taken flight from a nest. But the shape of the creature, and the strange path of flight, both lead me to believe that it isn't real. A Capitol drone, probably. I laugh slightly, hit it out of the air with one of my knives and walk over to where it landed.
Yes, it is a Capitol drone. There's a camera and a blinking red light on the bird's stomach, telling me that it's still working and quite possibly recording me right now.
"Hey, I'd appreciate some food at the moment, I'm kind of sick of foraging and fending for myself. But if you want to suck up to the career brats, go ahead. District 9, I'm your only hope."
I pull my knife out of the bird's wing, fiddle with some of the cogs and throw it in the air. It flies off, going back to whatever fake birds do.
After about a minute the first parachute drops. I unscrew the capsule and take out a packet of dates, a luxury I don't think I've ever had before.
Not expecting to get anything else, I stuff the capsule in my bag and start eating the dates. They're so sweet and sticky, a rich food that will probably leave me feeling sick later.
The next capsule takes me by surprise, but I'm happy none the less. This one's a small loaf of bread, still warm, so I eat it quickly. It tastes of salt, slightly, reminding me a little of District 4. Why is District 4 sending me bread?
Over the next half hour I recieve a pile of sponsor gifts. A bottle of ice cold water. A flask of chicken stew. A bar of chocolate. A box of assorted berries. A set of throwing knives. A pair of gloves. A couple of protein bars. A few metres of rope.
So many supplies and parachutes that I have no idea what to do with them. Eventually I decide to shove all the gifts in my bag and hide the capsules in the berry bush. I'm not going to need them now.
I eat about half the box of berries, the rest of the dates and a small bit of chocolate. The rest of the food can be for tonight and tomorrow morning.
I'm tired and it's around 4 in the afternoon. If I stay down here there's a chance I could be found, so if I want to go to sleep I should climb somewhere first.
The birch tree becomes my bed for a while as I lie there, listening to the tick tick tick of something. What is it? Cicadas? No, it's a man- made tick. Tick tick tick. It's coming from the bush where I left the sponsor capsules. Tick tick tick.
Then the full realisation hits me with a force strong enough to knock me to the ground.
It's the tick of a bomb.

Aight sorry I was on vacation again this weekend. I went to see my grandad (fun) but unfortunately I had to go 5 hours in the car. (not fun) And so there was no time to write or upload bc the hotel had no wifi and I left my laptop at home.

-Katherine