The Hunger Games - Peeta Mellark (1)

}17{ - Four Notes

The impact with the hard-packed earth of the plain knocked the wind out of Livia.

Her backpack did little to soften the blow.

The ground still shook with explosions.

Livia couldn't hear them.

She couldn't hear anything at the moment, but the apples must have set off enough mines, causing debris to activate the others.

Livia managed to shield her face with her arms as shattered bits of matter, some of it burning, rained down around her.

An acrid smoke filled the air, which was not the best remedy for someone trying to regain the ability to breathe.

After about a minute, the ground stopped vibrating.

Livia rolled on her side and allow herself a moment of satisfaction at the sight of the smoldering wreckage that was recently the pyramid.

The Careers weren't likely to salvage anything out of that.

She had to get out of there.

They would be making a beeline for the place.

But once Livia was on her feet, she realized escape may not be so simple.

She was dizzy.

Not the slightly wobbly kind, but the kind that sent the trees swooping around you and caused the earth to move in waves under your feet.

Livia took a few steps and somehow wound up on her hands and knees.

She waited a few minutes to let it pass, but it didn't.

Panic began to set in.

She couldn't stay there.

Flight was essential.

But she could neither walk nor hear.

She placed a hand to her left ear, the one that was turned toward the blast, and it came away bloody.

Had she gone deaf from the explosion?

The idea frightened her.

She relied as much on her ears as her eyes as a hunter, maybe more at times.

But she couldn't let her fear show.

Absolutely, positively, Livia was live on every screen in Panem.

No blood trails, Livia told herself, and managed to pull her hood up over her head and tie the cord under her chin with uncooperative fingers.

That should help soak up the blood.

She couldn't walk, but could she crawl?

She moved forward tentatively.

Yes, if she went very slowly, she could crawl.

Most of the woods would offer insufficient cover.

Her only hope was to make it back to Rue's copse and conceal herself in greenery.