104: The Games (A Hunger Games Story)

Chapter Ten

I run through the trees for a few minutes, and the foliage gets thicker and thicker, but I can still see Clo's footsteps through the soft soil, so I know that nobody followed her. I realize that it would be safer for me and easier to follow Clo's footsteps if I was up in a tree. I climb the biggest tree I can find, and from there I can see that Clo's tracks lead into an overgrown ruin, which is really smart on her part. Now that I know where she is and that she is safe, I begin to look through our packs. Inside one is a rain jacket about Clo's size, which tells me that there will be rain coming. I also have about 5 pounds of beef jerky in both packs combined, which gives me and Clo enough food for the first 20 days, if we ration it. There are also bandages in one, which I use on my neck, a flashlight, and a full canteen of water in each. There is also a length of rope in one and a sleeping bag attached to the other. That's more than enough supplies to last us.

I am glad I charged into that cornucopia. It starts to rain, as I expected, but Clo's footsteps are starting to disappear, and I cannot remember the exact route to the ruin. As I scale down the tree, I start to hear the cannons. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine dead at the cornucopia. That isn't a record, but there could have been more. The less people die at cornucopia, the longer the games stretch on for.

As I run through the forest, I hear another cannon. Make that ten. Ten dead on the first day. Maybe this won't go on as long. Soon I find the ruin, and I pull out my flashlight. "Clo?" I say. "Clo?" I say again. "Rowan?" I hear a voice above me, and I see my little sister's face peering down at me through the ruin. "Come down here, it's dry!" I say, chuckling. My sister always picks the best hiding places. She says quietly, "I can't." I stop laughing. "Why not?" I ask. As it turns out, her leg is stuck, and that is what is holding her in the hole in the roof.

After several hours of hard work involving knives, makeshift nets, and tears we manage to get her down. Then I show her what's in the packs. "Oh my god, Rowan." She says over a pile of beef jerky for dinner, "how many people did you kill to get this?" I hold up three fingers as I chew. "Who?" she asks. I swallow the meat, and say, "The boy from six, and the girls from nine and twelve." We sit in silence and mourn those that died today. After we finish eating our dinner, I lie down and Clo sorts until we hear the anthem begin to play. We go outside in a grim silence to see who died today. Districts 1 and 2 both survived, so the first to show is the boy from three, the one who stepped off of his plate too early. Then the girl from three, and the boy from five, the boy from six, both from eight, the girl from nine, the boy from eleven, and both from twelve. The seal reappears and we go back inside.

I feel too sick to say anything, and I just whisper good night to Clo as she snuggles into the sleeping bag with me. I quickly fall asleep, forgetting to leave someone at watch.

I am awakened by the sound of a parachute softly landing at my feet. I check it, and there is a sponsor gift. It is a watch tied to a small pack. I untie the watch and put it around my arm. I laugh softly, for that is Johanna's way of telling me to pay more attention to time. Then I reach for the pack, but something very sharp must be in there because I prick my finger on something and a drop of blood drizzles down my finger. I suck on it and this time carefully untie the pack. Inside, there are four daggers, pre-sharpened and so shiny that I can see my reflection in it (which doesn't look so good). I pick up one and it fits perfectly for my small hand.

Then I hear a rustling in the bushes, and I throw one of my shiny new daggers at the sound, and a much louder cannon sounds, waking Clo up, screaming when she didn't see me next to her. Then she sees me in the bush, and she says my name. She gets up and walks over to me, and sees the District 6 girl's dead body. "Why?" she asks. I hold up her blowgun and a pack of darts. "I'm sorry," I say softly, speaking to the people of District 6 as well as to Clo. She does not seem contented with this, but she falls back to sleep. I, on the other hand, cannot sleep, because the girl's face keeps popping into my head. I spend the remaining four hours before the sun rises cleaning off my new knife and keeping watch by the fire.

When Clo wakes up again I ask her what happened to the backpack she grabbed. When she ran away. "Well, don't get mad at me but I saw a girl and she was crying and holding her bloody arm. I just gave her the bag and ran." I am trying not to explode, as I ask who it was. "The girl you just killed," she says. "Are you happy now?" she asks me, starting to cry. "Now that you have my stuff back?" Am I happy? No. Of course I'm not happy that I'm a murderer. I don't say this, however, I just put my arm around her, and comfort her. In those moments, I realize how sick this is. My little 12-year old sister is being forced to watch her big brother, who she has looked up to since she was three, murder other children. Because I am being forced to by the Capitol. This is really sick. I check my watch and it is almost 10AM, which will symbolize a full day in the arena. I expected to be dead by now, so I am happy when the little thing buzzes at the hour. Soon, me and Clo start to pack up our stuff.

I go over to the dead girl and take back my fourth dagger, so that now I have all my four daggers back. The girl's face seems so familiar from even before I saw her at the dinner. I remember her name. Tami. I whisper "I'm sorry" to the dead body and I grab Clo's now empty backpack off of the girl's dead body, clean it off, and give it back to her. She seems slightly happier after that. "I have a job for you" I say, as we're about to head off into the wilderness to find a water source. "What's that?" she asks, gripping her slingshot. "Hold the food. I can handle hunting, but you need food. That's what's important, right now. Pride shines on her face as she packs her bag.

Meanwhile, I have shed my second bag and reorganized my first, making it very, very big. When I walk outside our cave for the last time, I notice a second sponsor gift. Clo notices it too, and I let her open it, and inside is a leather satchel full of millimeter wide steel spheres- slingshot ammunition. I am eternally grateful to Johanna for sending this, because this means that Clo can protect herself. We start to walk north, towards the Cornucopia, where the Career's camp will soon be.

"Rowan, are you sure about this?" Clo whispers nervously. "Positive," I tell her, "But you can still go back, in case something goes wrong." She shakes her head. "No, Rowan. I'm coming with you," she says. I nod and try not to show my worry. We are walking into enemy territory, but I'm not scared for me, I'm scared for Clo.