One Lucky Winner

Chapter 37 ~ Peeta

Day 2
2:57 PM

I sit and stare at the snow, quickly piling on top of everything. It's been light out for a while; I'm guessing three or four hours. It's probably the afternoon.

I decide to wake Gale and Katniss up - they must've been tired because they've been sleeping for a long time. I shake Gale awake. "It's afternoon. Get up," I say, feeling awkward.

He opens his eyes. "Afternoon?" I nod. He sits up and rubs his eyes.

"Katniss, wake up, its the afternoon," I tell her.

"Why?" she snarls at me.

"What?"

She sits up, her hair wild. "Why did you wake us up this late?"

I slowly shrug.

"I have lots of stuff to do today," she growls.

"Like what?"

"Just stuff," she says. She grabs a bag and starts looking through it. She suddenly looks outside, and she looks surprised.

"It's snowing," she says as if she doesn't believe it.

"Yeah," I say.

She looks at Gale. "Do you feel okay?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I just wanted to see if the rain water had any affect on you," she says, grabbing a water bottle.

"It doesn't," he replies.

I slump against the wall of the cave, staring outside at the snow. There's about three inches on the ground. I wonder how long it's going to continue. We're lucky we found this cave.

Suddenly, Katniss gets up and crawls out of the cave.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

"The snow," I hear her say. She peaks her head back into the cave and looks at me. "Do you think we could melt and drink the snow?"

I never thought about that before. "We could," I say.

"It all makes sense now. It's the gamemakers's plan. This is where we're suppose to get water," Katniss says. She scoops up some snow in her hands and stands up. She smells the snow.

"It doesn't smell toxic," she says, dropping the snow. "Gale, get out here!" She shouts into the cave.

Gale emerges out of the cave. "Try the snow," Katniss tells him.

"So I'm the guinea pig for this too?"

"Just try it."

"What makes you think the snow is clean."

"If we were in the woods, I wouldn't. It would be walked on by wildlife. And it would be on top of dirt," Katniss says. "But we're in some kind of rock terrain. The only living things out here are us. Nothing walked in it or anything. It's clean, I'm sure of it."

She's right. I haven't seen a single bird, deer, or anything out here. I haven't even seen any plants, besides the treeline that leads into the woods.

Gale scoops up some snow and eats it. Katniss and I watch him.

"It's fine. Tastes like the rain."

"We'll wait for that. If you're fine by the time night falls, we'll know its safe. Let's drink the rain for now." Katniss says. She goes back into the cave and comes back out with her bow.