The Hunger Games: Never Safe From Danger

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Leighla’s POV

After breakfast, there is a final last-minute training session. Zech rushes around, frantically trying to learn as much as he can. I just collapse beside the archery station with Frinn, crying and hugging him while he tries to console me. I can tell he feels just as scared as I am, though.

“Leighla, listen to me. You’re going to live through this.”

“You’re just saying that, Frinn!” I almost yell, in hysterics. “I can tell! I can tell when people are lying!”

“I’m not lying. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“We hardly know each other! How can I trust that you’re telling the truth?”

He grabs my wrist. “Hey. Calm down. Listen to me. You have two people who will be doing all they can to help you. And you’re so talented, anyway-”

“Stop lying to make me feel better!”

“Leighla, I told you…I’m not…”

We are interrupted by the arrival of one of the other tributes-the boy from Three. I remember him from the interviews- he is Harles, and his district partner is Alerra. She runs up behind him and grabs his hand.

“H-hello?” Frinn says, bewildered. I’m confused, too- why are these older, stronger kids approaching us?

“Hello there,” Harles says with a warm smile. He sits down beside us, and Alerra follows suit. “We wanted to tell you something…you both seem trustworthy…”

Frinn and I exchange a glance. These people do not know us, but have deemed us trustworthy.

“Do you remember the Three reapings?” Alerra asks us.

I pause for a second before it hits me all at once. “Yes! You both volunteered…but you looked so scared…why did you?”

Harles smiles. “We have a plan.”

“What is it?” Frinn asks, wearily.

“Well…us in Three aren’t too keen on the career districts,” Alerra says.

“And this year, the career pack kind of looks unbeatably strong…” Harles adds.

“Right. So we decided enough was enough. We volunteered to save the other kids.”

“I…don’t understand…” I say.

Alerra smiles at me. “We’re going to attack the careers in the bloodbath, y’know? Try to kill off one or two? Make it easier on everyone else.”

I just stare at her.

“Are you out of your minds?” Frinn exclaims in utter disbelief.

Harles laughs. “Maybe. But something’s got to be done. And it’s better us than you. You two are too young.”

“Are-aren’t you…scared?” I ask, incredulous.

“Petrified,” Alerra says, but she’s still smiling.

“Well…”

“We don’t want you to do anything. Just…just get away from the Cornucopia as quickly as you can, okay? You don’t want to get caught up in what’s going to happen,” Harles advises us. With that, the two stand up and run off to the knot tying section, and hug each other. I realise they must be really close, and they must both know that at least one of them will die. But they know it will help others, and for them, doing good seems to be a huge priority.

“I…cannot comprehend that,” Frinn says. I nod.

“The computer kids from Three…attacking careers…” I sigh. “They don’t have a chance.”

“Brave, though.”

“Or insane!” I say. 

Frinn laughs. “Also a possibility. Either way, I like them.”

“Me too…”

“Frinn?” I whisper as a thought hits me.

“Yes?”

“What are we doing in the arena?”

“Huh?”

“What’s our strategy?”

“Hmm…not sure...maybe…” He does not finish his sentence.

“Maybe we should ask Zech?” I suggest, hoping my big brother will have something in mind which does not involve sacrificing Frinn to the Sun God on live national TV (something I know he would not be opposed to doing.)

“Nah. Nah, I got it. Run. Get away. Grab a backpack or something if you can without risking your life, but don’t go out of your way to get anything. Okay?”

I nod. “Will you do the same?”

He exhales. “Kind of, Leighla. Except I may have more of a priority of getting us supplies.”

I decide that this is a terrible idea. “What if you die?” I ask.

“Nobody will care anyway…”

“I will! And your family!”

“Four people, Leighla.”

“You don’t get it…” I tell him. He hugs me again. 

“I do. I get what you’re saying, honestly,” he insists.

“Try to stay alive. Please,” I beg him, even though I know he probably already will and my pleas will change nothing.

“Of course,” he tells me. “Of course…”

I’m still not convinced of this strategy. It’s risky and I could lose things I really value.

“You’re a reckless fool,” I say, trying to sound convincingly angry but mostly just sounding pathetic. He bursts out laughing.

“Your phrasing is so perfect!” he tells me. Even I laugh, in the state I’m in. Frinn has this talent for cheering me up. It makes me sad that he’s lived in a different district all these years. I look at him and smile through tears. He’s got one hand on his amazingly floppy hair, running through it, fluffing it up.

“What?” he says, still chuckling.

“You’re so brilliant.”

“I thought I was a reckless fool?” He raises his eyebrows at me and cocks his head to the right, really playing up his confusion.

“Well, maybe...but you’re a brilliant reckless fool,” I decide, and he laughs again, but it’s not a funny laugh. It’s a happy laugh. I happy laugh back, and then we’re both caught in an endless circle of happy laughs.