Safe and Sound (The Hunger Games)

Chapter 24 - Enough

"Kaya, Crystal, wake up." I hear someone whisper. Elliot shakes the two of us awake and holds his finger to his lips. How did I fall asleep? I was supposed to stay guard with Elliot...

"I'm sorry I fell asleep, I didn't mean to-" I whisper.

"It's fine. That's not why I woke you guys. I think Brandi is watching us." He whispers as he points to the opening of the cave. "I waited until I thought she was sleeping to tell you guys this."

"So what do we do? We are literally cornered." Crystal whispers. Right, we are in the arena fighting for our lives on national television. I was so blinded from last night that I thought I could stay friends with Crystal forever. Our days of friendship are limited. Maybe that's why some tributes never ally with anyone, they couldn't face saying goodbye forever to someone you just met. It will be hard saying goodbye to Crystal, hopefully it will be me dying and not her, because within the five days of being in the arena, and the weeks preparing for the games, we became great friends. And saying goodbye to Elliot, I really hope I'm the dying one. He's been there for me always, even when we weren't dating. And what he did for Brent, volunteering to take his place, Elliot deserves to win.

"We have to leave." Elliot whispers.

"What? Are you crazy? How can we get past Brandi?" Crystal whispers.

"There's three of us and one of her. Plus she's twelve, and we are all older and bigger than her." I whisper.

"That, and she's a really heavy sleeper. Trust me, when I was with her and Toby, Toby killed a tribute that tried to kill her in her sleep, Brandi didn't even move." Elliot whispers. "She must be sleeping right now."

"Fine, we will do it. But everyone grab some weapons and a bag before we go." Crystal instructs. We all do that and tiptoe towards the opening. Elliot goes first, then me, then Crystal. We crawl under the bushes and to the jungle. I get one close look at Brandi though, she's sound asleep but she holds a small knife in her hand close to her body. Maybe she'll accidentally kill herself in her sleep, one less tribute to worry about I guess.

We all make it out to the jungle safely. "So where should we go? The beach?" Crystal says.

"Yeah, by now Toby probably has the Cornucopia for shelter and protection." I say.

Crystal takes the front while we take the back. It's almost sunrise, and the jungle seems to be waking up. That means that the gamemakers want action. How long ago was the last kill? I think last night we heard a cannon, but who it belonged to is a mystery since we were underground and couldn't see the sky. No one acknowledges the cannon, and we keep moving towards the beach.

In the distance I hear a noise. "Did anyone else just hear that?" I ask.

"The cannon? Yeah." Crystal says.

"No, not the cannon. A..." I say as I try to find the right words. What did I hear? "It was probably just me. Never mind." We continue walking when I hear the familiar noise again. "There! I hear it again! It came from over there." I say as I point to the area.

"What did you hear? A tribute?" Elliot says as his hand grips his knife tighter.

"No, I-I don't think so..." I say. "I can't put the sound into words."

"Let us know if the sound comes closer." Crystal says.

We walk closer to the beach and the noise doesn't cone back. Weird. Crystal climbs up a tree to see how close we are, and she tells us that we should be there in a few minutes. We all sigh because we are all tired of walking. I think the weather is actually getting cooler. Not winter cold, but not burning hot like when we first got in the arena.