The Mockingjay's Melody

Chapter 8: Rowan Turner

Portia leads me down a series of hallways until they open a door and arrive at a hovercraft take off pad. She leads me by my forearm up the ramp into the hovercraft. She sits me down in a seat and whispers in my ear, "Stay alive. Don't alliance with anyone." Without another word, she stood, and walked down the ramp back towards the Capitol Justice Building. "Give me your arm." A voice in front of me dragged my attention back. She took my arm and pain shot through it as they injected a tracker. After she moved away, I rolled my sleeve back down. The hovercraft landed shortly after they departed, and guards began leading the tributes to their change rooms. Portia met me there and they embraced, I was trembling so hard I thought I might fall. She pulled away and I let go, staring into her brown eyes with fear. in her eyes, she was barely holding back tears. I could feel her sympathy as strong as if it were alive inside me. " 30 seconds." Said an automated voice. I could feel her tremble and I felt a headache coming on. I took slow steps towards the glass tube. "10 seconds." Said the voice. I stepped inside and the glass door behind me slid shut. I whipped around with terror. Portia nodded sympathetically as the platforms started to rise.

The games had begun.

The first thing I did was look around at my surroundings. I was in the same arena that Jasmine got blown up in. The evergreen forest was on my right. I looked to the tributes flanking me. One was the muscular boy from district 2, and one was the frail 12-year-old girl from district 11. I could outrun them, or not? Trying to think quickly, That's when the gong rang. OH SHOOT! I thought. I'd missed the cue. It was too late to run to the forest now without ending up in the bloodbath. I sprinted towards the Cornucopia. I looked around frantically and watched as the 12-year-old girl from district 11 snatched a yellow pack with surprising speed, turned on her heels as she rounded the Cornucopia, and was beheaded as the muscular boy from district 1 slit her throat with a sickle. I turned around and tried not to hurl. I was caught by surprise as a young boy dropped dead at my feet with a dagger in his back. The boy's pursuer was now hot on my heels. Frantic desperation for survival gripped me. I snatched the dead-boy's pack off of him and used it as a shield. I heard a knife whizz past my ear as I ran for the trees. Impact hit me full-force on my back as my attacker leapt onto the bag, throwing himself on top of me. We both tumbled down a valley and landed on a flat piece of terrain beside a cliff. The district-4 boy shrieked with a battle cry and lashed out at me, slicing right below my rib cage. Blood gushed from the wound and my legs buckled beneath me. I collapsed, then sprung up and threw the district-4 boy off the cliff. Screaming was followed by a cannon. I puked over the edge of the cliff after the fight, white dotting my vision. I stumbled into the forest, running as if the world was about to end.

After a while of running, I found a cave. It was damp and musty, but not dark. The actual cave was a good size. Plus, I needed somewhere to rest after my fight with the district-4 boy. I opened my pack and, to my relief, there were bandages. I wrapped my entire torso, holding in my rib cage. I sighed in relief. I looked through the rest of the pack. A water canteen, although it was empty, some rope, a dagger, (Which was implanted in the pack after the fight), some crackers and dried berries, some nuts, and some extra socks. I looked through every pocket and the only other thing I found was names....the names of the dead. The dead from district 12. My friends, my family....

I sobbed to myself for a moment.

I started building after my short nap. I got up, had a short meal of dried berries and crackers, and got to work. I took long vines and covered the mouth of the cave, grasping them with extreme pain as my ribs screamed in protest. After I had finished that, I was already sweating. Already sweating....and it was barely afternoon! I made a fish hook out of a broken piece of the dagger. I grabbed my make-shift fishing pole and that night, I had cooked salmon from the river that I had found, with a side of nuts and berries. I also steamed some algae from inside the same river. That night, faces were portrayed in the sky. Girl from district 7......Boy from district 5.....girl from district 12.... I counted them all individually. By the time the Capitol symbol was back with the ending music, I had counted 14. 14 dead on the first day...... 10 of them left. And I hadn't seen the pretty girl from district 4 up there, so she must still be alive. I put my hands behind my head and laid down. There was a small opening in the roof and I watched as the stars filled the cave, and as I fell asleep, the only thing I was thinking about was Autumn SilverSnow, the girl from district 4's, face imprinted in the stars.

I got up the next morning and heard an all-too-familiar scream. I ran without noticing the fire burning in my left side. All I cared about was getting to her, Autumn, as she was attacked by whatever was pursuing her. I got there in time to see a large creature, bigger than a bear almost, leap out of the bushes at an in-shock Autumn. It had long, humanoid fingers, and a bare, arched back. It looked at me, its eyes blazing. It shrieked at me and scratched Autumn's leg as it turned. She yelped with pain as blood oozed from the subtle, yet deep gash. I roared with fury and charged the large creature. I stabbed it over and over, impaling it with the jagged edge of my hunting blade. It whimpered then turned and fled. Autumn lay sprawled on the ground, blood seeping from an injury in her head. There had been no canon which means she must still be alive. I had hope flaring inside my chest as I stared at the pale tribute. I picked Autumn up in my arms and carried her back to my cave. I laid her in my bed then grabbed the bandages and wrapped her head. I grasped the leaf, which I had placed under a crack in the ceiling to collect the rainwater, in my hands, cupping it as I tipped it towards her, the tip of the leaf at her mouth. The water trickled off the leaf, onto her cherry lips, and ran down the side of her face. I knew I had to hunt. I didn't have enough food for the both of us, but I was hesitant to leave her defenseless. I left my knife at her bed side and left to hunt.

It was a couple hours until I got back. I was entering the cave with my two rabbits and a thrush, (Which is a type of bird), when I saw that Autumn was cowered against the far wall, knife in hand. She looked so small and scared. She looked like a little girl again. I cautiously entered the cave, setting down my catches on a leaf, and approached Autumn slowly. She scrambled against the rocks and I put my hands in front of me, trying to stop her from injuring herself further. She took it as hostility and tried to slash at me with the knife, in which I dodged easily. I whipped around, grasped her wrist, and gently took the knife away from her. I then picked up a struggling Autumn and set her on the bed. She shook with fear, and probably hunger, as she rocked herself back and forth. I took the rabbits and cleaned them, then chopping them into small bits for the rabbit stew I was making. I set the pieces aside and chopped up the thrush as well, removing any tiny bones. I left the thrush as a whole body and threw the rabbit bits into a pot of boiling water and dried roots. Autumn continued to rock back and forth. I mashed some berries into a sauce to drizzle over the bird. After everything was finished, I stepped back to admire my work. I'd done well. Now there was a bird with delicious berry sauce, and a stew with chopped up rabbit and roots. I picked up the meal and the two plates I'd fashioned out of stone, and turned around to share the meal with Autumn. I set a plate down in front of her and one in front of myself, then I divided the food up evenly between me and Autumn. Tomorrow, I had to go gathering and hunting. She scarfed the food down as if she hadn't eaten in DAYS. That's when I noticed how thin she looked. Every rib beneath her skin was prominent, her hair matted and tangled. Once she was finished eating, I gave her a bit of privacy as she bathed in a cleft in the rock filled with water. It was the best we had at the moment.

I made her a bed out of long blades of grass and leaves, dragging long vines across the forest floor to fasten them into a blanket. I laid her gently on the grass mat after she had exited the cleft and pulled the vines over her.

As her eyes closed, the only thing I could see was fear of the nightmares that would wake her.