The 76th Hunger Games

Chapter 15

     Before I'm even fully awake I shield my eyes from the sun. I groan and sit up. Clove and Mason are beneath the tree, eating or setting up camp or something. I untie my rope from my waist and shove it in my bag. I roll up my sleeping bag and tuck it in there as well. I jump down from the tree and startled Mason and Clove. Mason is sharpening his spear and Clove is chewing on a dried apricot. I stretch a bit and smile. "Morning." I say, beaming at my allies. My stomach grumbles and I chuckle. "Looks like we should go foraging for some food. I'd hate to waste my trail mix." I say, sliding my knife back into my belt and strapping my crossbow to my arm. I sling my quiver over my shoulder. Clove stands and smiles. "Yeah, I'm starving too. Mason, stay and guard camp. Spear anything that comes near." She instructs. Mason shrugs and keeps sharpening his spear. Me and Clove set out into the forest to look for food.

     A long time passes but no familiar plants come into sight. I sigh and put my hands on my hips. "We'll never find enough food for the three of us if we don't keep going." Clove says. I sigh and we keep going. After five minutes or so, I see a small field of small green plants. I kneel in the soft brown soil and dig up the roots. I can't identify them now, but I know that they're edible. "Come help me dig up these roots!" I cry. Clove rushes over and digs some up. Within a few minutes, our arms are full of the roots. We walk back to camp to see Mason sitting in the door, whistling a bird call boredly. He hops down when we come into view and I pour the roots on the rocks surrounding the pond. I put my bag down on the ground when I see it: Rustling. A tree. I look closer and see Zanna and Ren hopping out of it. There's someone else...Rose? What's she doing with them? No time to think about that, though. "Guys! They're on the move! Let's go!" I hiss. We sprint towards them and stop when we notice they've stupidly trapped themselves against a cliff face. I catch my breath and aim my crossbow at Zanna. She aims her knives at Clove and Clove laughs. "You're so bad with throwing knives, I bet you couldn't even hit me if I was standing still." She says.

"Very true." I say. Zanna glares at me. I glare at her. This goes on for a while until Rose says, "What do you want from us, tell us before we attack!" I smirk.

"We're not after you, Rose. We're after them." I say. Just to drive the point home, I shoot Ren in the arm and he stifles a scream. Zanna slides her knives into her belt, draws her bow and notches an arrow in it. She fires and it whistles harmlessly past my head. I shake my head, smirking. "You are a TERRIBLE shot, you know that?" I taunt.

"If you promise not to kill us later in the games, we'll let you live." Clove says. Zanna, Ren and Rose are silent, glaring daggers at us. Clove raises an eyebrow. "Not a good choice." She says, tsk-ing.

"FINE!" Zanna yells, "FINE! just stay the heck out of our way! And what the heck is wrong with you people?! All the stuff I supposedly did, YOU DID TOO!" She shouts.

"I never shot you for no reason! And you didn't SUPPOSEDLY do that, you did do that!" Clove shouts. She calms herself a bit and nods at Mason. Quick as lightning, he grabs Ren in a headlock. Clove smirks. "And if you don't admit it and agree not to kill us, pretty boy gets it." She says, gesturing to Ren. A cannon fires and I nearly faint from the shock. That startled me. Rose suddenly looks a bit panicked. It might have been her District partner, I guess. I guess it could have been Brian, too. Zanna sighs in defeat and looks at Ren. He flips Mason over and the tables are turned: Ren is ready to break Mason's neck. Rose scoots away and disappears into the bushes. I let her go, we're preoccupied at the moment. Clove jumps Zanna and they go down wrestling. Mason is trying to get away from Ren, and it seems to be working, but just in case I leap up and kick Ren in the nose. He stumbles back and Mason breaks free. Clove leaps up, holding three knives, a bow, and a quiver of arrows. Ren stands up with a bloody nose. They look defeated, but in a flash she grabs Clove, pins her to a tree with her arms behind her back, and holds a syringe to her neck.

"Don't even try," Zanna hisses, "You move at all, you take too deep a breath, This syringe will be in your neck. And I won't even have to move. That's how close it is. So are you guys going to leave or stay and die?" While I'm distracted, Ren tackles me and I go down. He stands over me with a syringe of his own. He stabs downwards, right where my heart would be, but at last minute I roll and the syringe pushes down into the grass, which burns up as it leaks into the soil. Poison. I kick Ren's legs out from underneath him and stand. Just at that moment, Clove kicks Zanna in the stomach and falls over, her syringe flies from her hand and into the pond. Clove tackles Zanna and she sits on top of her, her knees pinning down her shoulders, just like at the feast in the 74th Games. "Agree with us or die!" Clove snarls.

"No!" Zanna hisses. I pin Ren to the ground and hold my crossbow to his head. Fortunately, he's not that strong and I'm quite tall, so my weight is enough to keep him down. A bush rustles and my head whips to the location of the noise. Brian emerges from the bush, spattered with blood and holding a bloodied knife. Dear God, the cannon that fired? That was him?? He sits on a stump nonchalantly. "Hey." He says, "How are you?" I frown. I open my mouth to tell him off, but before I can, An arrow buries itself in his chest and his cannon fires right away. My mouth drops open and I turn my head slowly. Zanna has somehow escaped Clove's grip, retrieved her bow, and shot an arrow. Ren pushes me aside, grabs his weapons and supplies, and the pair from District 4 disappears into the forest. I run over to Brian and see his pale face, his eyes still open. "Wake up."I whisper, even though I know he won't. A mockingjay trills and a hovercraft appears above me. I walk away from his lifeless body and sigh. "Should we go after them?" Clove asks.

I swallow the lump in my throat and nod. "Yes."