A few hours after eating about half of the food we were given, Dan tells me he is feeling much better, and that he is able to catch fish if I want him to.
I wave it off, saying, "We have enough food for the next few days if we ration it right. Chicken for today, and then after that we can start to ration the fruits and rolls." Even with us having eaten half of the food, we are still left with three rolls, two handfuls of strawberries, one banana, about four handfuls of chicken, and about a cup of blueberries.
Feeling that my face is very sore and my voice is raspy, I ask Dan, "How do I look?"
He answers, "Your face has a few cuts, and you have bruises on your forehead and the sides of your face. The only thing that looks pretty bad is your throat - I can literally see where the other girl's fingers were."
"Well, either way," I say, "We should probably go out and find another place to camp out. The others probably saw the hovercraft taking away the girl's body, so it won't be long before they find the cave."
"Where do you suggest we go? I was thinking maybe we could hide in the Cornucopia..." Dan shrugs.
"I don't want to risk it. You never know if the moths would come back or not - or worse - another tribute," I say, shaking my head. "Maybe we could go to the edge of the arena...well, if there is one."
I had never seen a tribute find the end of an arena before. It was something that people stayed away from, for fear that there might be traps around the edge. However, seeing how the Gamemakers plant their traps, they wouldn't have much space to make one, anyway. Dan and I leave the cave, making sure not to leave anything behind.
After walking for maybe an hour to the North, Dan spots something up in a tree.
"It's a parachute," Dan says, "Maybe there's something in it."
"That's gotta be at least forty feet above ground. You can't be going up there like that," I say.
"I feel fine, Charlotte. Besides, you can't climb," he counters.
"You almost died like three days ago!" I exclaim.
"You almost died yesterday," Dan whispers. "I'm gonna go check."
To my dismay, Dan scales the tree to get to the parachute. The pod doesn't look like it's been opened, probably because it landed so high in the tree. Dan grabs the pod and drops it down to me. I catch it, and then Dan comes back down the tree.
"Go ahead, open it," he says. I push the button to release it, and I look at the contents of the bag.
One taser gun.
"These things can only be used once," I say, "If we use it, it needs to count." Dan nods in agreement.
"Here, I'll put it in your bag for you," Dan tells me, securing the taser in my backpack pocket.
Just after that, an announcement begins.
"Attention, tributes, attention," the voice booms, "There will be a special feast tonight at midnight at the Cornucopia. Now, as you may know, every single one of you has a tracker in your arm. Something that you did not know is that while you are in this arena, your tracker also doubles as a death device. The feast tonight will provide only three 'shields' against this death device. For the sake of no spoilers in the Games, we will not tell you what the death devices are, nor how the 'shields' stop them. Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!"
My heart drops.
"I'm gonna go and get you the antidote. You are the only one who deserves to make it out alive," Dan says immediately.
I kiss him, and I whisper, "No. We're going to find out a way to get out of here."
"How?" Dan asks.
"I'll think of something," I explain, "but for now, we're going to stick to the original plan. Get to the edge - everyone will be going toward the Cornucopia anyway. We might as well put as much distance between them and us as possible."
"Okay," Dan whispers, running his hand through my hair. I grab his hand and close my eyes, relishing in this moment, for it might be the last nice moment of my life.
We continue on our planned path, deciding to hold each other's hands as we go. To be honest, if we do make it to the edge, we might just end up throwing ourselves off of it.
My mind takes me back to the day my mom found out she was pregnant with my brother. Without a formal doctor to go to, she had an apothecary from the wealthier part of the district perform a test on her. Being very young, I was taken along with her. She would always tap her feet whenever she was nervous. As I had sat in her lap while she waited on her results, the calm vibration of her knee mixed with her running her hand through my hair made me feel happy.
When my mom got the results, I remember her immediately gathering me in her arms and then running to the mines, waiting patiently for my dad to get back from the pits. She had set me down and took my hand, telling me, "We have some very happy news to share with daddy, Charlotte! You're going to be a big sister!" I smiled at that, I knew I did, even if it never fully dawned on me what that truly meant.
As the miners began to get off their shifts, my mom spotted my dad. We both ran up to him, my mom giving him a big kiss, all the while getting coal dust all over her face. My dad had asked what all the fuss was about.
"I'm gonna be a big sister!" I had blurted out.
Fast forward nine months, and my mom was as swollen as can be. She often sat in an old rocking chair we kept at the house, trying to rest her all-too-sore feet. If only she had known, I thought, that the baby would never live, and that she would go along with him.
I relate this back to now, feeling as though there is a certain resemblance to the two situations. As of now, the tributes know that they are pregnant with a tracker that will kill them if they do not kill the tracker first. We had all previously thought we might have a chance. We had all previously thought that maybe, just maybe, these Games were actually pretty fair. Now, we know that tonight, all but three of us are destined to die.
Just as Dan and I are about to give up on walking, thinking that there is no edge at all, we see it. It is clear as day - clear energy panels that line the edge of the arena, much like a fence. Picking up a stick, Dan throws it at the energy panels. The stick not only bounces back, but it bounces back partially burned, having been electrocuted by the panels.
"Well, we found the edge. Now what?" I ask of Dan.
"Hold on, I'm thinking," he says, sitting down on the grass. I follow suit, and I rub his hand with my thumb as we sit. The sun has begun to set.
"If we die tonight, I just wanted you to know how much I care about you," I whisper. Dan turns to face me.
"I care about you, too," he whispers back with a soft smile.
I lay down, and Dan does the same, holding me in his arms as he does so. We sit like this until the sun sets completely, and midnight begins to creep up on us.
