The Hunger Games: Never Safe From Danger

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Three

Nath's POV

Now, let's just get something straight here- I am from the lumber district. Never have I ever had to go out and hunt. I mean, the way we did things back there was we bought our food from the marketplace with the money we earned, and sometimes bought from the black market if we felt like a treat.

Now, though, I think it's safe to say the circumstances are possibly just a tad different, considering the fact that I'm in an arena and pretty much any other kid here (or any large animal, might I add) could potentially kill me on sight with no repercussions, yeah, I'd say it would be a bit hard to start our own little food trade in here.

Besides the hostility, nobody has any money, the economy would be awful.

Andbutso yeah. That's why I've been forced to go out hunting with Clio while Remy watches the cave. She could have easily done it alone. In fact, I'm probably more a hindrance to her than anything, but when I said I'd stay with Remy and help him out, they gave each other this look and before I knew it I was being whisked out of the door.

"It'll be good practice!" they said.

"You'll have fun!" they said.

Well, first off, this is about as fun as that one time I had scurvy, and as for the whole practice thing, what am I practicing for, exactly? The only situation in which I would no longer have Clio to hunt for me and still need to hunt myself would be if she died, and I don't really like the idea of practicing for her death.

Still, it's not like I can say that out loud.

The (quite frankly ridiculous) method of hunting we're using is taking turns throwing a knife at stuff. She's very nearly hit a few rabbits, whereas I've murdered about eleven million trees. I guess even when I'm trying to hit other stuff...well, let's face it that wood will forever be my destiny.

The tracker's brilliant, because as long as I keep it in my hand or my pocket we can go pretty much wherever we want without the fear of getting lost, so that's a huge advantage over everyone else. And we can keep an eye on Remy's little dot, so if someone strangles him with a vine we can avenge him very easily.

Clio throws the knife at a few of those weird hissy bird mutts, which is actually kind of a bad idea because next thing we know we are running away from said weird hissy bird mutts at full speed. They're actually quite vicious, as I can now see, and we've probably been underestimating them for quite a while now. I wonder what they do. Is their bite poisonous? Do their pathetic little chicken feet turn into metal blocks with scythes for claws? Do they turn into balls of cosmic energy and shoot laser beams?

"Why are you smiling?" she asks from beside me. "You seriously think this is the time to smile?"

"Eh, I just thought of something funny," I mumble through my ragged breath.

"We could die. Shut the hell up."

I shut the hell up and run alongside her until we are positive the bird is no longer following us, and it's not going to fly out of a tree right over our heads with its little bird friends and gouge out our eyes via excessive pecking.

You know, oddly enough, I think the Hunger Games has somehow managed to make me into a more pessimistic person. Funny how that works out.

So yeah, we're probably safe here and she drops to the floor to rest beneath a tree but she's still totally alert and surveying our surroundings with knife in hand but I run for slightly too long and trip over a tree root and when I fall, I hit my head really hard on the tree trunk.

"Nath..." This time she's not even concerned. She's exasperated, and I guess she sort of has the right. "God, are you bleeding, you big goofball?"

I realise that yes, yes I am bleeding, when I open my eyes only to have them flooded with red and I am so about to panic when I get my priorities straight and panic about something different because I don't feel the tracker in my pocket anymore. "Clio, the tracker, I-"

"It fell out of your pocket, idiot, it's fine. Seriously, you're bleeding really hard, are you all right?"

I stand up and touch the cut on my head with a certain degree of care. It stings like hell and my fingers recoil immediately. "Nothing that going back would make better."

She raises an eyebrow. "Touché," she mutters, and I notice she is sitting with the tracker on her lap. I watch as she scans the screen intently, perhaps even intensely. She visibly relaxes after a second and looks up. "Remy's okay," she comments, throwing the tracker back to me. I scramble in the air to catch it and my heart probably skips a beat. Thankfully, I manage to grab the corner between my thumb and forefinger.

She blinks. "Sorry, that was silly."

I don't comment.

We walk a little further until we're somewhere without trees (and, unfortunately, without water, which makes me remember how damn thirsty I am). It's pretty obvious there are no treasants here. As we walk on, a blip on the edge of the tracker's radar shows up. A green dot. Green dots aren't numbered, so I can't tell who, but I turn to my ally and say, "Dead body at 12 o'clock," way too casually.

She eyes me with disgust. "Death's not something to be taken lightly, especially in our predicament."

"I...sorry."

"We should run ahead and check who it is."

I nod, because her ideas are usually the best, and we sprint the way over to where the dot is, and sure enough, from a short distance away I can see a corpse, and a tiny stream behind, although it feels sort of bittersweet now. The body is a little one, clearly just a kid, and now I'm angry again. Stupid Games with its murder of children. I can't identify them, but I can see that there's a huge wound in their stomach as if a small bomb went off.

And then I get closer and my heart drops and my blood runs cold and every other ridiculous stereotypical physical reaction is going on in me at once because oh my God, that kid is unmistakeably Ree Sandrift.

Next thing I know, I'm on the floor.

"Nath?!"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

"Nath, are you okay?" She doesn't even call me an idiot, so I know she's worried, but I can't even compose myself.

"That's...m-my district partner," I choke out, and then I'm breathing really fast and my vision's blurry and oh my God oh my God oh my God what the hell no no no no no-

The next thing I know, I'm back in the cave with two concerned faces looking down at me.

"Nath," Clio says steadily.

"She was only twelve," I whisper. "Twelve. Twelve years old."

"Nath." This time, it's Remy's voice.

And now I'm not scared. I am angry.

"Her name was Ree," I hiss. "She had a family, she had friends, she did well in school. I know because she was my brother's friend. She had a future!" I am yelling. It isn't a good idea, but I stand up and swing my head around, hoping to see a camera. "Or at least, as much as a future a District citizen can have, you child-killing pricks!"

"Shush," Clio says, her voice low and serious.

I ignore her just this once. "And now, back home, she's got family and friends crying. Have any of you ever lost a kid?! HAVE YOU?" I pause and breathe heavily for a moment. "YOU DIDN'T NEED TO KILL HER! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SICK FREAKS EVEN GETTING OUT OF THIS?!"

I feel a hard hit on the back of my head. "You just put yourself on the Gamemakers' hit list," Clio snarls. "And probably me and Remy, too!"

I stare at her a second, and then I fall to the floor, my head in my hands. "Kill me, then," I whisper. "Kill me now. They won't need to go to the trouble, they won't try to hurt you, and you'll PROVE ME RIGHT!"

I hear the sound of a child's sobs and look up. Remy is crying and clinging to Clio's side. She has tears streaming down her face too. She pats Remy's head and carefully slips away from his grip to come closer to me.

"Listen here, you absolute idiot. You are free to throw away your life by all means, if that's what floats your boat. But you are not dragging that boy down with you, and you definitely aren't dragging me! Now, there's no way in hell I am killing you. God only knows you deserve it, but a promise is a promise and we are stuck together for better or for worse, to the death!" She grabs my collar and yanks me up by it. "And I strongly advise, Mr Eyer, that you start pulling your damn weight!"