Through the Eyes. (The Hunger Games fanfiction)

Chapter 9

I tear through the trees once everyone is asleep, sprinting towards the exact spot where I found Elian earlier today. To my luck, he's not there. I rest against one of the trees and try to catch my breath. I wipe the sweat from my forehead and grip the knife that's in my hand. I should have brought a water with me, but I didn't think that it would be this hard to find him.

I hear a crack in the woods beside me, and as soon as I turn an arrow whizzes past my head and impales the trunk next to my head. Out of the bushes comes the girl from 8. She tackles me and I wrestle her to the ground. I try to stab at her, but she rolls out of the way. She stands, as do I, and she swings her bow at me. I duck under it and come up, but her fist meets my eyes and I grunt, falling to the ground.

"Hey!" Someone yells. I spin and see Asher come behind the girl and kick her. She spins and fires her arrow, which lands in the tree behind him. Asher pulls out his sword and the rest of the careers join him.

The girl sees that she's out numbered, and she takes off into the woods. Asher tries to take off after her but I grab his arm and hold him back.

"Don't. It's not worth it." I say and sigh. He relaxes his body and I put my knife back in the slot.

"What are you doing out here? You could have been killed." He says strictly.

"I was peeing. Calm down." I huff.

"You're an hour walk away from the Cornucopia!" He yells. I push him away.

"If you don't want to be apart of our alliance then don't be!" Iris yells. We all look at her.

"Fine then, I'll go." I say.

"Ariston, don't." Asher says.

"No, it's okay! No one wants me here!" I snap, looking at Iris.

"You guys go, I'll stay back and talk to her." Asher says to them. They all hesitate, but then begin the hike back to the Cornucopia.

"Ariston, just calm down." He says, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"I'm calm!" I snap. He sighs.

"Where are they?" He asks me. I raise my eyebrows.

"What are you talking about?" I ask.

"You're allies, where are they?" He asks, looking around.

"I don't know, that's what I was doing out here. This is where I met them yesterday." I say. We stay quiet, looking around the area.

"Three of them are dead." I say quietly.

"What?"

"Three of them died in the Cornucopia. Iris killed the girl from 5 and the girl from 8 killed the girl and boy from eleven."

"I'm sorry, Ariston. If I would've known-"

"Ariston?" A voice calls. It's Elian.

"Elian?!" I yell out. Elian comes through the trees and I run up and hug him. I bury my face in his shoulder, engulfing his smell. Sampson stands behind him. Sampson sees Asher and screams.

"Elian! Look!" Sampson yells. Elian looks up at Asher, pushes me away and points his sword at Asher.

"Don't!" I yell and jump in front of Elian's sword. "He's with me."

Elian puts his sword down, but keeps it in his hand.

"It's okay, he knows. He's helping." I say to Elian. Elian doesn't look convinced.

"Asher, this is Sampson, the boy I'm protecting." I say. I leave out the part about Sampson needing to win, because if Asher knows, he won't be apart of this alliance and he'll disagree.

Sampson stays behind Elian.

"The others are planning to hunt you tomorrow." Asher says to Elian.

"They're main priority is District 8, but then you're next." I finish.

Elian nods. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

"I'm thinking that Ariston takes Sampson from you as of now. I'll go back to the careers, and try to lead them off you're trail. Stay north, near the barrier. Ariston, go west, and I'll take them south." Asher explains.

"No, he's not going alone when he's being hunted." I protest.

"I'll be fine." Elian says.

"No! I won't let you!"

"It's fine, Ariston," Asher says. "If they come close to him, I'll have to blow my cover and fight against them." He sighs.

"Then they'll be hunting you," I say.

"We can take care of ourselves. You focus on taking care of Sampson." Elian says. I sigh.

"If we're gone much longer the careers will come back. Go now." Asher says and runs off back towards the Cornucopia.

"Good luck." Elian says and we hug. "Stay with Ariston." He says to Sampson and runs off. That might have been the last time I saw him.

"We should go," Sampson says, hearing a crack in the woods.

"Alright, how long can you run for?" I ask him, picking up my knives and straightening my back pack.

"Winner of the cross country medal back in 7. That's our main sport." He says and I smile.

"Good, let's go." I say and we take off at a fast jog. For the next few hours, we steady run in the direction Asher told us to go in. We don't stop until Sampson nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

"Okay, okay," I say and lower him towards the ground. "we'll sleep here, then tomorrow we'll look for something to eat." I say. I was just now beginning to get bothered about how I left my stuff back at the Cornucopia. I would have loves a sleeping bag right about now. At least I have my back pack, which is mainly empty.

Sampson just nods his head and uses his jacket as a pillow. It's already starting to get cold, so I insist on him putting it on, but he doesn't answer. I look at him and see that he's already snoring. I laugh to myself and replace his jacket with my bag, then put the jacket over his shoulders. I look around and notice that this probably isn't the best place to sleep, but there's nothing to do about it now. I take about an hour to build a makeshift fort around us and it turns out looking pretty good. You can't see us unless you try really hard to. I lay down a few feet away from Sampson and stare into the sky. I hope Elian is doing okay on his own.

I turn to my side and take a deep breath, finally feeling comfortable for the first time since I've gotten here.