PREDATOR | THE HUNGER GAMES

LET THE REAL GAMES BEGIN

"Fuck this shit."

Lara woke up early that morning to commence her plan. She had high hopes to have the cannons ringing early in the night.

The sun was mid-rise as she pulled the rope out of her bag. She climbed to a higher branch where it was easier to strip the trunk to reach its sap. After that, she meticulously coated all of her rope in pine sap.

It was sticky and disgusting. It smelled horrible; probably because it combined with the smell of rotting bark and sweat. Either way, she was over it and wanted to dunk herself in the lake.

She glanced over her shoulder to check on the careers. The boy from District 2 was on watch. He circled their base with an axe.

Lara huffed and readjusted her position. She had plenty of rope to set her plan in motion, but it took forever to coat. She figured she had enough to connect the bombs and bring them together by her spot on top of the hill. She was lucky she grabbed this bag and not another, otherwise she'd be without a plan.

After another ten minutes, Lara took her rope and gathered it all back into one of her packs. She gulped down the last of the water she'd collected from last night and placed some medicine on her wounds from her recent tumble.

"After today, you'll have all the supplies you'll need," she murmured. She secured her batons onto herself and tucked everything else back into her other pack, stashing it against the tree. She left it hidden in the trees as she descended the branches, leaving with only her rope, weapons, and matches.

Once her feet hit the ground, she went trekking deeper into the forest. The careers were looking for a hunt, so she figured she'd give them a place to look.

Once she was a decent ways away from the center of the arena, she began to gather firewood. Logs, sticks, fallen branches, and pretty much anything flammable were tossed into a big pile.

She panted and placed her hands on her hips once the pile was large enough; it rose a foot shorter than her. She topped it off with dry grass nearby.

She dug through her pack for her matches and struck one alight. She tossed it into the pile and watched it catch fire. Once the kindling got going, she quickly turned to run away.

"If a fire was what you wanted, a fire you'll get," she smirked.

She ran back to her base tree but stayed on the ground. She spied on her enemies from behind the cluster of bushes on the tree line.

All the careers were awake now, just starting to gather themselves. The girl from District 1 was the first to notice the puffs of white smoke.

"Look!" she shrieked, pointing her pale, still manicured finger towards it.

The rest of them snapped into action. Grins donned their faces as they hurriedly grabbed their weapons and went running. Lara waited with baited breath as all four of them disappeared into the brush only fifty yards away from her. They had no clue their trickster was so close by.

"No time to waste," she huffed, "Let's get to work."

After double checking for any remaining enemies, she sprinted out into the open field. It felt weird being exposed; she didn't like it at all.

The bomb closest to her was coated in mud. She hurriedly pulled the rope out of her pack and wiped off the dirt, smudging the mud all over her hands and arms. She lined the inside edge of the bomb with the rope, ensuring it would stick.

Continuing on, she picked herself up and ran to the pedestal beside it. The line of rope ran together as she connected the two. As she suspected, the material blended perfectly into the grass.