Soul, No Survivor

Ch. 13- Whatever

TW: Teenagers dying again, beef jerky

Screams and cannons echoed in the air, muffled only slightly by rock.
Rose pushed back against the stone walls of her little cave, trying to control her breathing. Focus on the positive. It was cooler within than outside, and she suspected that her alcove would trap some heat at night. Though she couldn't feel any breezes, she was okay.

What was she talking about? This was the hunger games. Nobody was truly okay.

Rose clutched her spear and canteen a little tighter. She'd survived the cornucopia, but that didn't really mean much. The girl knew how it usually went down for tributes of District 10. Most didn't get past the first few minutes, and those who did survive didn't often make it more than a day or two. Rose had been hopeful of her chances, truly, until the games had started and reality checked in. Would she be capable of... killing someone?

Rose shuddered despite the heat, putting down her spear and canteen. Her hands moved to her jacket pocket, where the small pack she'd snagged and stashed was located. She inspected it closer. It looked like a piece of fabric tied to make a bag. The girl pulled the fabric open, a color strikingly similar to the rocks around her.
Within the pack was a small bottle of Iodine drops, some beef jerky (aww, she missed her cattle back home), and strips of grayish-brown fabric. These, she wrapped around her hands to protect her palms and wrists. She didn't want to scratch them on rock or something, and couldn't think of what else to do with them at the moment.

Rose frowned slightly. She didn't have a dagger with her. Daggers were what she was good at. Her eyes turned to the spear. If it had a wooden shaft, she could in theory snap the top part off to make herself a dagger. But this spear was metal, and nearly as tall as her. She wasn't terribly impressive with a spear, though.

Maybe...

Rose took the thin red-brown fabric that'd held the pack together, draping it over the spear. Then, she leaned the spear diagonally across the opening of the small cave. She stuck the point into a chink in the rock face and removed her hands hopefully. To her delight, it held in place. And the cave entrance was essentially hidden.

Rose grinned broadly.
This was perfect.

She could hide here in her cave, biding her time, and maybe she'd get pretty far. She'd be safe. Rose glanced at the small package of jerky beside her, but she wasn't quite desperate enough to have any. She wanted to save it until she had nothing else to eat. And her canteen was glaringly empty. But she wasn't in immediate danger, at least.

Rose considered the landscape. It was mostly flat. There were patches of trees. What looked like a jungle? Obviously, there were rock caves. Likewise, spires of stone and... clay, maybe? It reminded her of home, weirdly.

Speaking of which, there was bound to be water somewhere. Rose thought about previous games she'd seen. She'd heard that in the earliest games there was no food or water. It seemed despicable, and she supposed it wasn't very drawn out and therefore not entertaining. The jungle. There had been a jungle, she thought. The opposite way from where she'd run. Maybe there was food and water there?

Rose frowned. No, everyone would be flocking to the jungle. Or is it really a jungle? It doesn't look like it gets massive rainfall. More of a forest, really. Maybe it was more jungle-y farther in? Regardless, not an option.

Her thoughts turned to the plants around her. She pushed aside the mesa-colored blanket on the entryway with one hand, grasping a small offshoot of one of the plants over the opening. Plants need water to live. If these plants were real...
The girl squished the offshoot gently between her thumb and forefinger, rubbing her fingertips over each other. When she pulled her hand away, those two fingers were stained with green.
Green!

The plants were real, which meant there was bound to either be some rainfall or some groundwater. Which meant that there were either edible plants to be found or animals that could be hunted, or both.

Rose breathed shakily. She smiled, for the first time that day. So she had hope. If there was a possibility of sustaining herself, maybe she could wait it out and let the other tributes fight.

And what about the other tributes? She hadn't seen either of her friends from training after the buzzer rang. She supposed that they'd be doing well, though, just because of sheer skill. She realized she had seen Clyde, but briefly. He had been in the midst of the cornucopia, battling with another boy. Did that mean he was okay? Rose found herself hoping he was.
Which was ridiculous, obviously.
They weren't even friends, really.

Rose brought her hand to her lips in thought, then realized absently that her fingertips were still slightly stained red from the pomegranate she'd carved up that morning.
She regarded the red hues.
That was probably a metaphor.

Whatever.

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A/N: Denial isn't just a river in Egypt girl
As always, critique is always welcome, as are suggestions. Feel free to comment, I love hearing others' thoughts! Sorry for not updating for a while. And sorry for the short chapter. I'm tired lol
🧿🧿🧿
Be well,
StarKat