The 45th Hunger Games: The Tribute of District 4 (Watty Awards 2012 completed)

Chapter 18

The ocean seemed never-ending. For about two hours, we kept up the perimeter and kept going straight. We weren’t tired yet though. My arm was still bleeding, but Slate had tied it up nicely with one of the bandages in his medicine pack. I realized that after Taffeta made that comment about me having a possible advantage because of the arena, Slate was careful to stay behind me, since I was the one leading the group.

The landscape shifted suddenly as I needed to exert more effort since the ground started sloping up. The beach stopped a little way. A cliff. I saw that it was about twenty to thirty feet above the water. I couldn’t tell from this distance. It was rocky, and the terrain was leading up to it, which explained the upward slope.

It had to be somewhere near, probably on the other side of the cliff.

The terrain sloped downwards again and we found a beach on the other side. The island finally seemed to end, with the beach curving around.

An hour of walking and I saw that there was a clear path of water coming from the forest and streamed into the river. I paced myself faster. This was it! We would finally get some water.

I was so parched, and the other Careers, seeing that I was rushing, finally saw what I saw.

We were stopped short when a cannon sounded. Thirteen tributes were dead now.

It could have been that another tribute killed them, or because of the tribute’s stupidity. Whatever it was, we were back on our guard.

When we got to the stream, it looked like a slice of heaven. The trees were tropical and the scene was beautiful. The sand was white and slowly turned into pebbles and rocks as it turned into the stream that held the fresh water. Hopefully, it was fresh water.

Before I could stop her, Chiffon buried her face into the water and started drinking. The others had more restraint and collected the water into our jugs and added a few drops of iodine. It would take about half an hour before we could drink, but it had only been a few hours. We weren’t completely dehydrated.

Chiffon laughed at us for being so cautious. None of us were really offended by this, since caution was needed in this game. We were envious of how she dunked her head underneath the water and how she drank to her delight. She kept splashing us and telling us to take a dip.

We were tempted to do it too.

To keep myself from diving into that shallow stream of water, I took off my pack and started climbing the tree. Maybe some of the coconut juice could satiate my thirst first. My eyes widened at this realization.

Stupid!

I already knew where the source of water would be! I just didn’t think of it sooner!

The sound of the cannon earlier… I heard the sound of choking and pain. I glanced behind me and saw Chiffon shaking all over. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets and white foam started coming out of her mouth.

Taffeta, Slate and Lark had crowded around her. They didn’t know what to do. They knew when a person was poisoned beyond help. They had seen it in the past Games.

All I could do was stare from my place in the shadows, waiting for the cannon that came a few seconds later.

Ten left.

“Don’t drink the water,” I said out loud. They already knew it, but I had to say it. I only hoped that they didn’t think that I was tricking them into being poisoned.

Their thirst was only magnified at the thought that we were tricked once again.

Something had to happen. One of has had to die anyway. The four of us knew that it was inevitable. There weren’t any tears shed for Chiffon, but Taffeta did take his last look for quite a while. He was the one who took her body out to sea for the hovercraft to take. We couldn’t afford the other tributes knowing our location. It would be better if they thought that there were still six Careers alive.