Midnight Azalea-A Story of the 34th Hunger Games

Chapter 18-Out of the Woods

Morning begins with a bang. Pisces, the boy from 4, has been a great help with me and Aris. He crafted his own spear to spear fish, and he is adapt to wilderness.

"We have jungles back home," he says, roasting a few fish over our fire. "I would explore them for days, and at the end paint my experience." He runs his hands through the soft dirt. It has become moist which is a sign we have to get moving.

I gaze at the fish. "Where'd you get them?"

His accent is almost indecipherable. "The river, also I found this." He pulls out a lily, gives it to me. I'm not sure what to do with it, smell it? Back home we didn't have lilies. We had every flower but lilies. We had stargazers and daisies, all the flowers imaginable, but lilies weren't a genus you normally came by. I take in the fresh aroma, a perfect mix of river water and the General florescent smell. "We have those too."

The day begins when Aris sends Pisces off to the river to clean off, and maybe bring back a little bit of moss to clean cuts. She takes a seat next to me as I've bolted myself up in a tree. "What's it like in eleven?" she asks me.

I turn to her. Her brown hair smells like rust and chemicals, like the Capitol auditorium. The tree sways a little. "Fields, trees. We each get our own tree in the orchard. You start working at the age of ten." I take a deep breath, the memories of eleven whizzing in my head. "The peacekeepers are very strict, they don't let us eat the food we pick. During Harvest, though, they give us more food so we can keep going, but in my village Harvest doesn't really seem to come."

Aris looks among the trees. "Are the trees like this there?" She points her index finger to the sprawling black hybrid oaks.

"No," I tell her, imagining the smooth bark of the apple trees and the white birch trees that's leaves spiraled when a gale passed through. Father...Lenora, everybody is coming back to me, but will I return to my family? "But I know these are genetically engineered trees. They're called black hybrid oaks, and they are born to decay and grow poisonous ivy on them. But the ivy should be sparkling, and this isn't. So this is a little strange. Alas, normal isn't the norm here, strange is."

Pisces returns with logs and a silver parachute. Aris and I jump down to view the contents of the parachute, and inside is a little capsule. I pull it out, and once the rope is detached the capsule breaks and unfolds into a giant rubbery sheet. "It's a raft," I say.

Pisces looks in awe. "What for? I mean, wouldn't we need climbing gear?"

I look up at the rigid rocks that crack and crumble over the mountain. Then I see the river. "Hold on a sec." I grab the raft and run down to the river and look over the rocks. "There has to be something up the mountain we'd need to support us in the water."

Aris comes back with a long rope with a silver claw at the end. "Here's our harness." She attaches the claw to the raft. "See?" She detaches it and then opens the hole that lets in air, and releases the air inside of it. Now we can stuff the raft in a case we construct from ivy, with help from Pisces, and we grip onto the rope, each of us walking it over to the waterfall. The rocky edge that partitions one side of the waterfalls walls to the other is as rigid as what it appears to be higher up the mountain.

Pisces points to one of the rocks that jut out of the wall, and asks one of us if we have proficient skills at aiming and throwing. I denounce this as a crazy idea but I see Pisces knows what he's doing. Aris ends up throwing the claw into the crevice made between the jutted rock and the wall and Pisces says since I'm the lightest I should go first, and Aris should go last since she's slightly bigger than Pisces. I jump up the wall, clinging to the rope, as well as strategically placing my feet on the jutting rocks. Once I reach the jutted rock I notice it's close enough to the top of the water fall. The hardest part is not slipping my hands or feet on the top because the river has reached high tide, except this once flooded forest is just damp due to the absence of afternoon tide. Pisces comes next and I see his strategy as I have to help him up once he reaches the claw. The jutted rock starts to crackle and this is when we decide to exchange that spot for a crevice up here. We stick the claw in the crevice and Aris begins to climb. She does fine, as she makes an analogy it's like climbing a tree of rocks. I agree, and since she is heaviest both Pisces and I have to help anchor the claw of the rope Aris grips onto for dear life.

She makes it up in time for the anthem to play. It shows

The Fallen

Belle, District 1

"Not many are dead huh?" says Aris, making her way over the rocky shoreline. She feels the moss. "Wet, flooding is imminent. Let's set up camp."

Suddenly a fire bloomed in the distance. Smoke rose up and the flickering embers even drifted over at my feet. "Let's get out of here," I whisper, tiptoeing away.

"We should at least see who it is," Pisces tells us, Aris agreeing. They step over and I swear their eyes become two times the size. They run back too me and say we need to leave.

"It's the boy from district 9," says Aris, panting. "He's armed heavily. He uses a sword."

The next morning we all wake up in a waking forest. Sunlight seeps through the thin canopy of leaves above, and the ground is sloshy and wet. I notice this isn't the same forest as below in the grove. Yet, my allies are gone. I get up and brush off the ivy that made up my blanket last night. I discover my well hidden bow that Pisces must've made and look up, my eyes adjusting to the morning light. The trees sparkle with morning dew, and it seems the whole arena mimicks a damp version of what's it like in 11. But where are my allies? They couldn't of just run off. Sure enough, propped up in the tree next to me lies Aris. Pisces is sleeping Amongst the leaves high up a tree.

Then I see something, way off in the distance is the boy from 9, and 5, both big and strong, the one from 9 almost like Maximus. They're in a fight, but look like allies.

Eavesdropping isn't something I personally do, but I listen in for my and Aris life. "Cmon Grant, it's not that big of a deal," says the boy from 5.

"Yeah, but they aren't done," Grant says back. He pulls out his sword and puts it up to 5's throat. "You're smarter than this. Do it for Aria, kill him."

On the ground lies the boy from 1, Luxor, Aris told me. He's badly cut in his side and can't stand to defend himself with his trident. "He's with Maximus too," Grant tells 5. "Do it Jasper."

Jasper pulls out a knife and stabs Luxor in his stomach, which makes a scream rise and echo through the woods. The birds that peck around the trees even fly from their trees.

That reminds me of my birdy reputation and what my strategy is. Jasper seems a little down after Luxor's cannon fires. Grant is proud and clapping.

It just shows how heartless he is.

Then from out of the pocket of deep woods appears Natiel. Natiel! I almost jump out of my hiding place but he comes just in time for the jabberjays.