The Incoming Storm: The Tale of the 325th Hunger Games

Chapter 16

 Every hair on my body stands on end as I whip around and find Clementine, the short girl, holding her blade to Bran's neck.

"Let him go!" I say.

"Fine," she says, she pulls the blade away from his neck, before anyone can do anything, she plunges it back down. The blade goes through his back and explodes out his chest spraying us in blood.

Clementine twirls around and Bran slides from her machete, he hits the ground just at the edge of the cliff and tumbles right over the side. There is a sharp crack as he hits rocks and then a splash as he lands in the water. Clementine lunges at us but misses embedding her blade in a tree.

The other careers have heard the commission and I hear them approaching. They will be on us in moments, in a split second I do the only thing I can think of. I take a running jump and leap into the water below.

I splash into the pool just as Bran's cannon is fired off. As I emerge from the water, kicking and struggling to stay afloat, Ross and Spoola splash into the water too. I kick and push myself to the edge of the pool to the slick rocks next to the waterfall. As I haul myself up a rock the size of my head smashes into the boulder beside me and fractures, hitting my shoulder with a sharp piece. I scrambled under the overhang to protect myself.

Above I can hear the careers shouting and cheering and laughing. Rocks begin crashing down all around, and soon more things like branches and even spiders are being thrown over the edge of the cliff. Ross makes it onto the rocks next to me, Spoola is not far behind him but she is struggling to make it. To my knowledge, none of us have swum before, but I've seen it a couple of times in games.

When Spoola is close enough, Ross grabs her arm and tugs her into the overhand, just as a rock slams into the water where she just was.

Eventually, the careers stop throwing rocks, branches, and spiders at us. We sit panting looking out past the waterfall and out to the pool. Bran's body floats on the top of the water face down, a cloud of red swirling around him.

With a jolt, I see his drawstring bag still hanging on his back. Clementine must have dug her knife right into it since the bag is torn open and I can see the canned tomatoes sitting dangerously close to falling in. "I'm going to get his stuff," I say.

"What? No!" says Spoola. I take off my backpack and slide back into the cold water. I kick and paddle my arms to Bran's body. I reach into the torn bag and pull out the canned tomatoes, that's all that's left in there. I notice a few inches away through the canned chicken, bobbing in and out of the water, I grab it too and begin paddling back. Suddenly a rock slams into the water inches from my face.

I look up to see the careers standing on the edge shouting at me. "Miss your partner that much do ya?" Phlo calls, and she hurls another rock at me. I dive underwater just in time for it to slam into the surface. I struggle to get back to the surface but I do and then I swim back to the overhang. A rock hits my boot and bends my foot at a funny angle but I keep going. I reach the edge and throw the cans to Ross. Spoola helps me haul myself back onto the land and I crawl under the overhang with them.

The careers eventually stop whooping and cheering. I shove the cans into my backpack. A few minutes later a hovercraft appears in the sky and a blue beam emerges. Bran is pulled from the water by the tractor beam, his body and the torn bag drip water as he ascends into the sky. When he is high up in the sky, the beam shuts off and the hovercraft disappears.

Bran will be cleaned up, put in a pair of white pants and a white shirt, and sent back home in a simple wooden box. I liked Bran. In my head I vow to win for him, I vow to win for home.