The Capitol Games

Chapter 9: Decisions

After thinking, I decide to trust Dart. After all, he did save me, and he hasn't tried to kill me yet. Maybe we can be allies, at least until I can make my get away.
I sigh and sit down, my burnt shoulder facing him. I watch as he dips his hand in the salve, and shut my eyes tight as his hand nears my burn. I bite my lip, holding in cries of pain, as he gently tries to rub it in. A tear escapes my eye without my permission and rolls down my cheek, landing on the cool floor. The smell of iron, though faint, reaches my nose, and I realize I was still biting my lip. I quickly let go and wipe away the few drops of blood.
"Thanks." I manage to say between the waves of pain that were being sent from my shoulder.
"Don't worry about it. Now, we should go out and try to find some type of food, I'm starving." Dart replied, standing and rubbing his hands on his pants.
"Oh, well, I'm not sure how much I have, but I have some food in my pack." I reply, taking out a small package of crackers, three strips of dried beef, and a small wedge of hard cheese.
We eat in silence, too busy focusing on our meager meal to make conversation. I dust my hands off and stand up, wincing at the pain in my arm. The salve seemed to have a numbing agent in it along with some strong medication, since the pain was still there but fading.
"Well, I suppose since the food won't last long, we should go and see what we can find. You haven't seen any other tributes around here, have you? I don't want to run into any of them." I ask, peeking back out at the dry wasteland, hoping some type of animal would come around.
"No, I haven't seen anyone around here except you. It's been pretty quiet around here, not even an animal has shown up." Dart replied, standing and grabbing his trident.
Nodding, I take out the ice pick from my bag and unstrap the knife, walking to stand beside him, gazing into the desert. I reach out an arm and yank it back quickly, taking a step back from the edge of the rock shelter.
"That sun will fry us. It's not as hot as the cornucopia, but if we stay out there for too long, we'll turn out just as burnt." I say, opening up my pack and taking out the dead girl's clothes. I take my knife and tear the clothes into strips.
"Here, wrap these around any exposed skin, it will help protect our skin from the sun. As for eye holes... We might be able to cut slits in the cloth and see through like that." I say, setting my weapons down and wrapping half of he strips around my face and arms.
"Thanks. How did you get these?" Dart says, taking his half and wrapping them around himself.
"Dead girl. And, you know, you're not the bad boy people said you were. You're actually kind of nice. Kind of. Don't think I'm getting all sappy on you." I reply, grabbing up my weapons and reaching my hand out into the sun, testing the effectiveness of the cloth. Though the cloth filtered out most of the sun's heat, I can still feel a small amount of heat seeping through.
"These cloths will last for a little while, but some sun does get through, so we can't stay out long. A couple hours at most." I say, turning back to him. I look back at the desert, taking a step into the wasteland.