❛ 𝑺𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬- 𝘵𝘩𝘨

Chapter 10

The next morning, I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder. "ADA, wake up!" Squirrel screamed. "What happened?" I signed, urgently. "Nothing. Just joking!" She said, laughing. I shook my head and looked over at Mazie, who was trying to conceal a smile.

"I told her not to..."

I rolled my eyes and got up. I got a drink from the waterfall, then headed back to where my friends were. For breakfast, we ate a little bit of bread. We were running out of food quickly. I hoped for a sponsor to come soon. Then there was rustling and yelling behind us, so all three of us crouched down.

Suddenly, there was a cannon boom, and we saw the boy from district 9, grab his spear and wiped away the blood from the spear that belonged to the person who he'd just killed. Once he moved, we stood back up. "Keith. He's an 18 year old from my district. He volunteered, but not out of love and kindness like Ada, but for the honor, just like the careers. I think he has a really good chance of winning. He's really strong, and he got an extremely high score in his training." Mazie explained to us.

I nodded, and felt my mouth go dry. He did have a really good chance of winning... the rest of the morning, we hunted for food, but all we managed to get were a few berries that were deemed safe to eat by Squirrel who's been around berries like this before.

Suddenly, there was a scream that was female when we were sitting down to have a tiny lunch, and not soon after, there was a cannon noise. No one acknowledged the noise, but I'm sure everyone else heard it. In the afternoon, we decided that we'd let one another get a little big of sleep, so when I wasn't resting in the afternoon, I was redoing my hair, looking for more food, and practicing throwing the knife.

At about halfway through the afternoon, a parachute came floating down to us. My eyes widened, and met the other two girls. I reached up and grabbed it, and walked over to Squirrel and Mazie before unscrewing it.

Inside, there was fish, meat, soup, and bread. We were all smiling throughout the afternoon. However, as dusk was approaching, a boy came staggering near our campsite. Squirrel recognized him at once, because it was her district partner. She ran over to him as he collapsed.

"I...10 male..." He managed to stutter out before he became still. There was a cannon noise, and I felt something wet on my shoulder. I looked behind me, and there was tears running down Mazie's face. This just reminded me again, that we're still children. I pulled Mazie into a hug, and tears started streaming down her face.

Squirrel came back, holding a sword and a medi-kit that he must have gotten at the cornucopia. She sat down beside us in silence. Then, the fallen came on. It started with the boy from 7, which caused more tears from Mazie, the boy from 10, and then the girl from 12. Only 7 tributes left...

I laid down with Mazie as Squirrel took first watch. As I drifted to sleep, my mind was on the horrors in the arena. Would Willow have done the same thing for me, if I was reaped? Would I have to watch her die? Was she watching right now?