Chapter Fourteen - Remember, Remember

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Chapter Fourteen - Remember, Remember

I woke up to the sound of the cannon, signalling somebody had died. I sat bolt upright, looking about madly. The last of the mockingjays had finished singing now, leaving an odd silence in the air, giving it quite an eerie sense. I clutched my head, which was swimming slightly at how fast I had sat up. Who had died? If it was Grayson, I swore I would probably feel quite guilty. I should have asked him to be an ally before the Games started. No, Harper! You're doing this alone. You can't afford to get attached to somebody then have to lose them. You've already lost too many loved ones, you can't break yourself even more.

Shaking my head at my thoughts, I unbelted myself and put my sleeping bag back into my backpack. I kept watch out for the hovercraft, which eventually came down quite close by me. That was unnerving. I watched it dip down into the trees and rise with a mangled looking body. I wouldn't have been able to tell anyway, seeing as it was quite far away, but it still agitated me. I wanted to know who had died and how. No matter who it was, it still left ten people behind. Ten tributes left and it was only day five.

Because of the mangled body, I decided I would get a shift on and get away as quickly as I could. I now felt somewhat attached to this tree, because of the mockingjays, but I didn't want to end up like the tribute roughly one hundred and fifty metres away from me.

Once I had packed, I stuffed two more crackers down my throat, before I scrambled back down the tree and started to walk in the opposite direction. I stopped once I had walked about twenty paces and looked back to the tree. I felt a tug in my heart area and groaned at my stupidity. I then stormed back as quickly as I could and picked up a feather from the floor. It looked like a tail feather from a mockingjay, so I figured that it would do. I then got one of the blunt knives from my backpack and climbed back up the tree. I then stuck the knife through the feather into the thick bark in the spot where I had stood while the mockingjays sung, making sure it was out of sight from below. I then shook my head at how I just wasted one of the blunt knives and jumped from the branch I was standing on, landing on all fours on the forest floor.

After adjusting my quiver and backpack, I carried on walking, not looking back once this time. I kept walking, staring ahead of me. My bow remained in my left hand and I didn't nock an arrow. I just kept walking, hoping nothing was going to spring a surprise attack on me at some random moment. But of course, anything could happen. All the Gamemakers had to do was agree on something and set it upon us tributes. That was that, no one could change it.

Walking was made slightly more enjoyable by the fact some mockingjays appeared to be singing my song. Not many, but enough to make my step lighter and my hands less tense. As I moved, I kept looking about, making sure there were no Careers out to get me. I hated the feeling of being hunted down like I was some sort of animal. When I had heard the Careers that night, I instantly knew how the rabbits and squirrels I shot down on a regular basis actually felt. They could be free and live their life, but there was a constant thought hovering over them, reminding them that they didn't have much longer to go.

Just keep your bow ready, Harper and you'll be fine. So I agreed with my thoughts and nocked an arrow into the bowstring, holding it in a position that allowed me to be able to raise it a lot faster than when Midas had sprung out at me. I wasn't ready then and if I hadn't pushed him off while he was distracted, I would have most certainly died. But instead the girl from District 4 died. I had killed her. She had taken my place on the list. It should have been me. Shut up! I shook my head and kept moving, until I found a rather large pool. I then decided I would finish the contents of my bottle and refill it, just so I had fresh water.

So I emptied the flask, drinking all of its contents. I then dipped it into the small pool and filled it up. As I lifted the flask from my hands. I saw that I had managed to get dirt stuck under my nails. I figured I must have been disgusting, meaning it was probably high time for a wash.

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