Grain & Blood | A Hunger Games collection

Fire

Tick tick tick. Tick tick tick. I drop from the tree and start running, as fast as I can, waiting for the trees to blow up. All I can hear is my heart pounding, blood rushing to my ears, waiting to be blown sky- high. Everything is blurry and sharp all at once, I'm dizzy, exhausted, energised.
The tick tick tick doesn't stop.
It's still echoing in my head...
It's coming from my backpack...
I put a sponsor capsule in there.
Terrified, I unzip my pack, fumbling with the zip, aware that every moment could end up costing my life. The capsule falls out of my hands, to the ground, and I start running again, as if the fall from my hands could set it off.
I trip on a fallen tree and lie sprawled on the floor. My head is clogged up with smoke and fog, and the entirety of my life is flashing before me, like pictures on a screen, pages in a book, paintings on a wall.
My father being shot when I was 6.
Getting a job when I was 7.
Robin almost dying when I was 9.
Starting training when I was 10.
Killing a man when I was 11.
My first reaping when I was 12.
Leaving District 9 through the fence for the first time when I was 13.
Volunteering for Jonen.
Training.
The Bloodbath.
Robin's death.
Nikki's death.
Being shot.
Falling off a cliff.
The feast.
Nikki dying again.
Goodbye.
Nothing happens.
Then another parachute lands next to me, bringing me back to reality. To the best of my ability, I throw it into the undergrowth, get up, and keep running. Then the first of the booms sounds, and I'm not sure if it's my cannon or an explosion. Red and orange sparks are flying through the trees, grey clouds of smoke and dust are shadowing the sky. The bombs keep exploding, the one near me goes off and I am thrown into a tree. Through the fuzzy sheet of my vision, I know that most of the forest is on fire. But my muscles won't let me move. Did the force of the explosion do something to me?
No, I can move again now, but I don't think I can run, only crawl. At a sickeningly slow pace, I inch across the ground. I'm going to burn to death. I'm going to die. This is the end...
A flame licks the bottom of my shoe, sending me scrambling across the dry earth. This will go up easily. Very easily. So very, very easily.
Another flame licks my foot, and I pull myself to my feet. This is no time to go slow. I have to run.
The dots start connecting in my head. District 4 sent me the food. District 1 sent me the supplies. They hoped I would blow up with the capsules. I don't know how much of this is true, or if Pablo even approved it, but District 4 had something to do with it because of the bread. And surely they knew the capsules would explode after about half an hour, killing me too?
A hawthorn branch sweeps across my forehead, opening a cut and sending blood dripping into my eyes. I am practically blind now. There could be anything in front of me, any mutt, any trap, any tribute, and I would be oblivious until I died.
The blood streaks out of my eyes, giving me some vision. The fire is no longer following me, I think I jumped over the stream. I'm safe. For now. For a short span of time, I'm safe.
I'm safe until the fire finds a way round.

Aight here it is. I've got a streak again yey. There should be another tomorrow. If I have time.

-Katherine