The Hunger Games - Through the Fire and Flames - Book 1

Chapter 20

I stood froze with my crew at my sides. There were four of us and the three in the cave. If they defeated us they would know where our others were at and they would be dead within seconds.

"What do we do?" Blaze asked.

Before I could even think about what to do the tribute from 7 ran forward with his weapon of choice, two machette's. I watched as the pack of mutated mutts launched themselves forward. One by one they fell until there was only one left. The final mutt tackled 7 to the floor and they wrestled around until it bit him on the arm. With a loud shout of pain 7 quickly slit the mutts throat and rose to his feet cradling his arm.

The girl from 11 ran forward and took his arm carefully into his hands.

"He's going to need to be fixed up. I need atleast 3 things to fix his arm before he goes into shock. Those mutts were poisonus."

"Am I going to die?" The tall husky man asked.

"Not if I can treat you. I have 2 of the three plants that I need the other wont be needed for atleast 4 hours after the first two have done there thing." She turned to me and I saw the seriousness on her face. "He can't continue on and nor can I we are going to have to stay back. Its up to you to get the plant I need and the water."

I felt my heart grow heavy. This was a huge burden that was just dropped onto my shoulders. If I didn't do it I would lose a member and my team would grow immensly weaker. Two of my members were immobile so it was just me and Blaze that would be able to continue on. I considered for a moment taking 6 but he was the only other one fit enough to protect the rest and I couldn't leave them without protection.

"What does it look like?" Blaze said as he stepped forward.

"You need to look for the blue cherries. They are not like the red ones they aren't grown like normal cherries. They are found in pods on vines that wrap themselves around the trees that stand to the right of the blue strawberry bushes." How many blue fruits were in this arena? "There will be two trees by every blue strawberry bush, the one with fruit to the left are poisonus so leave them be, the ones to the right are safe."

I nodded my head and went over everything she said in my mind trying to keep up and then I waited for them to go back into the cave. Turning to Blaze I nodded my head and we started forward.

"Do you think we will make it?" Blaze asked me.

I didn't respond because at this very moment it could go both ways. After we walked quickly to check the perimeter Blaze showed me quickly what leaves to place and where. He made an few intricate designs with the leaves that made a short 3 foot trail outward and then we headed off.

"What was that?" I asked him.

"If I need to light it up it will look like its an actual spreading fire and not just a wall. The flame made from the leaves burn in place for up to 2 hours."

How does he know all this? In the end I didn't care I just wanted to find what we needed get our water and get back into the safety of the cave.

A rustle of some near bushes grabbed my attention and I moved closer. Hidden in the bushes was small mutt like the ones that attacked us. I quickly slit its throat and left it there. We walked to the edge of the forest and saw the clearing with the Cornucopia in the middle. It seemed too quiet but with my glasses I was able to see the careers moving about keeping gaurd while a few others slept. I looked to Blaze and he nodded confirming that he saw the same thing.

"So whats the plan?" He asked me.

I searched the center and began counting heads. Two stood gaurd with their weapons and two slept. There were two missing and they could be anywhere.