Fire is Raging On (A Hunger Games Fanfic) [#Wattys 2016]

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-eight

"Stop!" I say, halting our progress through the wooded part of the arena.

"What?" Secundus stops beside me. He's panting lightly from the run. "What is it? I don't see anything."

"It's not something you necessarily see," I say, wishing everyone would just be quiet so I can concentrate.

"Then, what is it? Got some weird tingly sense or something, Hunter," he says nudging my arm.

I turn to him. "Don't do that, and how do you know I hunt?" I ask, still trying to find the location of what I heard only moments before.

"I think everyone knows you hunt. Everyone knows Katniss hunts too. That much was evident when she knew how to use that bow so perfectly a few years ago," he scoffs.

Maybe it has been obvious that I know how to hunt. Maybe it has been obvious to the whole of Panem that Katniss knew how to hunt considering she did show off some of those hunting skills in the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. On top of that, Katniss and I haven't exactly kept a low profile on us hunting . . . well really ever since everyone in District Twelve knew. But ever since the rebellion ended, we've just gone about our business not bothering to even trying to cover it up. It's not like we make a big production of it either. We just go into town do whatever business we have to do with what we caught and leave again.

I shake my head, "It's not a tingly sense I get. What the fuck is a tingly sense anyway?"

Secundus gives a short quiet laugh, "Oh, you know, like you know something is near or something even though you can't see it."

I roll my eyes. Where the fuck does he get this shit? Tingly sense my ass. "I can't see it. I know it's there though. I heard something, and I haven't heard it since."

"Heard what? Oh, shit should we all be quieter so you can hear?" Secundus says.

"No, it's fine. It probably won't come again. Just stay here and I'll be back in a few seconds," I say waving him off.

"Okay, I'll be counting then," he says as I walk a little farther forward.

The vegetation is thicker and denser here. I brush leaves aside, looking at the ground. I thought I heard a thump and a small cry from an animal. I take deep inhales through my nose and try to stay quiet. Maybe it's nothing, but maybe the Careers have somehow got ahead of us and this is a trap. As I walk farther from the group, I start picking up on this burnt smell. I see something dark lying on the ground a few feet away. I bend down to inspect it. It's an animal all right, and dead too. Burned to a crisp.

The force field. It must have hit the force field. Of course, they wouldn't get rid of the force field. They got to keep us locked up in here somehow.

I pick the animal up. Well, might as well eat it. It's not like food just comes walking your way so easily here. It's about the size of a squirrel and looks just like a normal one. Maybe the Capitol didn't go all out on the mutts this year because they only had a short notice before we started. No matter, food is food.

"What is it? What did you find?" Vibius asks as I return.

"This," I say holding up my charred squirrel.

"Is that a squirrel, Gale," Madge says.

"By the looks of it," I say. "Figured we could eat it."

"Eat it?" Canutia questions with a disgusted look on her face.

"Yeah, you can eat squirrel," I say.

"Good. I'm hungry," Madge says. "You haven't brought back a squirrel in a while."