Innocent Girl - A Hunger Games Fanfiction

Chapter 12: Mistakes in Here can Only Hurt You

The nineth and tenth days both pass by with no deaths. Not that I'm wishing death apon anyone... But what are the careers doing? Isn't it practically their job to make the finale happen as soon as possible? Yet, there's still eleven of us left, basically half, by the eleventh day. Maybe the careers got food poisoning or something and are slowly dying right this moment. It's a hopeful thought, but not a likely one. On the other hand, it means I've had much more time to talk to Blossom and learn more about her district. But it could stab me in the back later. Quite literally. The Hunger Games is not a place to make friends.
Blossom and I continue to head towards the mountain, not for any other reason than to have an end goal. And we don't run into any other tributes either, which is a bonus. And surprisingly, there hadn't been any more attacks from the gamemakers. Which can be a bad thing too,  because that means they're anticipating us to kill eachother soon.
But they must be getting restless. No deaths since Alek, since Day 5? And with each passing moment, we become restless too, anticipating the worst.
"I almost wish that something, anything would happen," Blossom sighs, picking up a hanful of snow and throwing it at the tree.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you," I reply, looking around as if something was going to jump out of a tree and attack.
"Please. What's the worse they can do? We're in here already; us two? Yeah, we're gonna die," snorts Blossom. I bite my lip but don't make any further comment.
Finally, the morning of the twelth daw, we have reached the mountain.
"And now, when they call the feast to bring us all back together, we have to travel all the way back," groans Blossom.
"We don't have to go. And besides, they only ever call it when it's the final eight or less. At the rate we're going, three more deaths is going to take another year."
"Or maybe they won't even call one. Maybe they're just waiting for all of us to either starve to death or freeze to death. Though I suppose those who are left won't freeze to death."
"And you say I'm depressing."
"Facts, dearest Almond, it's facts."
"No, it's pessimistic behavior," I argue. Blossom just chuckles, patting my head again. A gesture I'm becoming all-too familiar with.
We start to climb the mountain, and after we climb for the whole day, (with, maybe, a few minor detours), Blossom calls it a day.
"But where do we stop? There's no shelter, no trees, no nothing other than snow and dirt and rock." With a sigh, Blossom agrees to keep walking. We continue on for another two hours, and the sky turns dark. We stop for a bit to watch the sky as the Capitol anthem blares out throughout the arena. Just like the past six days, there's nothing up there except the Capitol seal. And we continue on, until about what must be midnight, we spot an indentation in the mountain's side. I glance at Blossom, before shouting,
"Race ya there!" I take off, running, before she even blinks.
"Hey! That's not fair!" She shouts back, as I hear the sound of her feet hitting the rocks. I'm almost at the cave, but then, I feel a pair of arms grab my shoulders and pull me back.
"Not so fast, little squirrel."
"And you said that I wasn't being fair," I grumble, trying to squirm out of Blossom's grip. She lets me go, and I turn, grinning at her.
"Looks like we've found a camp."

We agree that in this situation, having a watch roster would be better, so I offer to take first watch. Blossom looks at me oddly.
"Almond, you never get any sleep. Why is it that you're always completely awake?"
"What do you mean? We haven't had any watches," I say, playing dumb.
"I see you, like, halfway through the night. And you're still awake, just staring at the sky or some random spot in the ground or at your hands. And then I fall back asleep, because all I can see is your hands moving around something. Yet you are still perfectlly fine in the morning, like you had a full night of sleep. Why, Almond?" She pushes.
"I-" I decide to focus on the easier part of her question. Not because I don't trust her, but because... "I've been carving a little thing. I don't really know what it is, but... It's something that my father taught me and Julien, and I've been doing it for ages. 'Cause Julien wasn't great at it. He... he gets lots of his strengths from my mother." I reach into my pack, and take out two pieces of wood: one that has the design of a cedar tree on it, and the other, just a flat piece of bark, but with each tribute who died name's on it. I hand them to Blossom, as she sees the first, and her eyes become misty.
"It's why you wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, isn't it? Because you miss him," I say quietly. She looks up, meeting my eyes.
"Yeah. I just... I can't imagine how it was, and I don't even know how he died. I wasn't even there to see it. He must of been so..." I take a deep breath.
"I saw how Cedar died." I admit. She blinks, and I tell her how he was killed by Valerie. Beaten to a bloody pulp, because somehow, that girl from two managed to torture someone during the bloodbath. And how she continued to beat and stab him, long after he must of been dead. By the end of it, Blossom has tears flowing freely down her face.
"Thank you. Thank you, Almond," she whispers.
"I'm sorry." We fall into silence, a comforting one. One that's filled with all the words we want to say, but can't say. The words we don't know, and the ones we can't bring ourselves to say. Eventually, I break it.
"I'll take first watch." She just nods, and turns to go further into the cave. I turn back to look outside the cave, where it's now snowing.
"Oh, wait Almond. Here's your... carvings." Blossom hands me the piece with the names on it, but hesitates when she tries to give me the tree carving.
"Keep that one. It's for you."
"Really?" She looks so undeniably happy, that I have to smile.
"Of course." But then her face falls.
"Almond... If you make it out of here... Could you take it and give it to my siblings? Please?"
"I will. I promise." A small, sad smile crosses over her face.
"Thank you, Almond. I appreciate it. Alot. Thank you." She turns back around, heading back towards a smoother part of the wall,, I smile again, before reching into my pack and pulling out another piece of wood that I found prior to today. But this one is for me. This one will be a blossom.

Halfway through the night, Blossom insists that she take watch for the second half of the night. I begrudgingly agree, believing I still won't be able, nor need to, sleep. But I find as soon as I sit back against a wall, a wave of sleepines washes over me. And with that, I'm out like a light.

The next morning is just filled with all our daily chores. I give most of what's left of our food to Blossom, but today is the day we finally ran out of dried beef and fruit. So we leave the cave and manage to catch one psychotic bunny; mutts I'm convinced are following me. It turns out that Blossom didn't have to deal with it, rather, she had purple ladybugs which initially seemed harmless, but one stung her and left her dizzy and woozy for the next few days. How it stung her, I don't know. Blossom might have also had a few hallucinations, but she's not sure. We also decide to gather some snow and melt it to water, because the water we had from a few days ago is almost finished. So taking out the small packet of matches from Blossom's bag, and gathering some branches, we pile some snow into a container Blossom got from her only sponsor gift and light the branches to create a fire. We had to do it near the opening of the cave, otherwise the fumes from the smoke would surely be harmful. We pour the water into our two canteens once it cools down, but keep the fire for a little bit longer for its warmth. Considering how long it took us to get here, we don't think any other tribute would be around here, and if there were, most probably would run away from the smoke rather than approach it. Unless it's the careers, but, what are the chances of them being here? They're probably the loudest people on Earth; we would hear them a mile away. So Blossom and me just sat there, talking about home and our family and just anything to keep our minds off our approaching deaths that get closer and more certain with every day that passes.

But hadn't I learnt not to take risks? That it wasn't safe to assume in here? That mistakes in here can only hurt you?

But the biggest mistake is believing that we're safe, even for a moment.

Because this was the moment that we would always look back on, and say, 'That's the moment everything went wrong.'

Fallen Tributes Day 9:
(None)

Fallen Tributes Day 10:
(None)

Fallen Tributes Day 11:
(None)

Fallen Tributes Day 12:
(None)