One Lucky Winner

Chapter 67 ~ Katniss

Day 7
1:03 PM

"Dammit," I growl, after accidentally dropping all my arrows. I pick them up and shove them back into the quiver.

It's the afternoon, and I'm dead tired. I didn't have any breakfast. All I have for food in this bag of mine is a pack of trail mix, which I'm trying to ration out. It's not working. It's almost gone. I need to find Peeta, stat. Otherwise I'm going to die of hunger after the squirrels I just caught are gone.

All I have in my bag is a dagger, a water bottle, some matches, a thing of bandages, and the trail mix. It's a pretty good loot, but I feel like the bag could've fit more in. It's like the gamemakers meant this bag to be a rip off, because it's regular sized, but it doesn't have enough supplies to fill it. At least a few more guns could've fit in here.

My head throbs. With every pinch of hurt it causes me, my anger for Tony grows. I curse myself for not saying something to Peeta when I overheard Tony talking about the plan. If I would've said something, we wouldn't be separated. All I know is that Tony is alone and Steve is dead. Steve had to have died by Peeta; there's no other way.

I set down my quiver and look ahead, bored. Damn, it's cold. It's mostly the wind. I'm guessing the wind chill is in the negatives. I have a coat, a hat, and some gloves, but that isn't enough. I'm still freezing.

Maybe I should build a fire. At least for now. I'll warm myself up a little, and then put it out. I would cook my squirrels, but I know a fire won't survive long enough to cook a squirrel in this wind. I take out my matches and put them by my squirrels.

I stand up and walk over to a large branch. I break it into smaller parts, and then I find more big branches and break them.

The thought of someone seeing the smoke from my fire flashes across my mind, but I push it out. No one will. It's too cold to not make a fire, so I don't really have a choice. I don't know how the other tributes are holding up in this weather without fires. Maybe everyone just has better winter gear than me. As long as my two enemies (Tony and Bilbo) don't see the smoke, I'll be alright. Maybe Peeta will see it and come near.

I set the sticks in a pile and strike a match. The wind takes it out right away. I try another, and once again, the wind blows it out. I start to panic. I'm wasting matches, and I might not be able to have the fire if it's too windy.

The fifth match finally stays lit. I quickly touch it to a stick, and to my surprise it actually starts on fire. Good. This will be world's shortest fire because of the wind and the surrounding snow, but at least I have it for now.

Happy, I look at my kill. Three squirrels. I'll cook one of them once the wind dies down. This fire won't last long enough to cook an entire squirrel, like I said before.

I wish I had marshmallows for roasting. And graham crackers. And chocolate. I could have myself a s'more. God, it's such a craving.

Don't think about food.

I grab my quiver and start cleaning off the arrows I used on the squirrels. They're covered in dry blood. I dunk each arrow in the snow, which leaves the snow in a pink color.

Thump. I hear something fall in the woods to my right. I gasp and look over to where I heard it. Tony is the first thing I think of. What if he's spying on me or something?

This thought kind of makes me humiliated at myself. I realize that I'm scared of him. Terrified. I'd do anything to have him dead. Every single suspicious thing I see or hear makes me think of him. I'm just so scared of him, it's insane. He's got nothing but his suit now, but I'm still terrified of him.