A Crafted Kind of Games: A Hunger Games Fanfic

Chapter Twenty

When I wake up to sunshine, I know I've slept too long.

"Morning." Tiffany smiles.

"You should've woken me." I mumble.

"Nah, I was fine. You were dead asleep, anyway."

I grin a little. "You should be ashamed of that pun."

She covers her mouth with her hand. "Oh, crap."

I laugh a little, and swing my legs over the tree branch.

"Anybody pass through last night?" I ask, swinging my legs.

"That one girl from Nine, Rose or something, passed underneath the tree. But she didn't know we were here, and I didn't think I was ready to attack."

"Alright, that's fair. Unless you know how to make a sword out of pine needles and snow, we don't have a weapon. Except for the knife." I say.

"Yeah. I think today's goal is to get food, and avoid being killed." She says, and I nod in agreement.

"Don't forget about looking for Adam." I point out, and she nods. "Yeah, I know."

"I wonder how he feels about..." I start, but I don't dare say Preston's name.

She looks away. "I don't know, but I'm going to have to let go."

"Me too." I mumble.

We stay silent for a while, but I break the silence. "We'd better get going."

"Yeah." Tiffany says, and jumps out of the tree. I jump too, but the landing sends a shooting pain up my leg. I check it, but nothing seems wrong.

"What's our best chance of finding animals?" Tiffany asks.

"Well, most forest animals will be hiding from the snow, as far as I know." I answer. "So our chances are pretty slim."

"So, search for berries or something?" She asks.

"Bingo." I say, and we both start walking through the snow covered woods. I cringe every time our steps make a noise, because I don't know where any tributes are.

After about an hour, I'm ready to give up and see if the tree bark is edible, because there were plenty of trees with edible bark back home.

I scrape off the outer bark of a tree with the knife, and then cut off part of the softer stuff.

Tiffany stares at me. 'What are you doing?"

"Sometimes tree bark is edible." I answer, and she gives me a look that says "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"How do you tell if it's edible?" She asks.

"I don't really know." I say sheepishly. "All of the trees in Ten were edible. I sometimes had to grab some from the tree behind our house."

"So, how are we supposed to figure out if it's edible?" She questions. (A/N: I FEEL LIKE IM WRITING TOO MUCH ABOUT EDIBLE TREE BARK WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME)

"Well-" I'm cut off by a loud snap of twig underfoot.

I drop the bark, but my feet stay planted on the ground.

Until the girl from Nine bursts through the trees, running straight for us.

I immediately grasp my knife, ready to fight, but she goes right past us.

She wasn't running to us, she was running from something else.

And then I see the tornado coming through the arena.

"Run?" Tiffany asks, her voice shaking.

"Run." I say, and we take off after the girl from Nine.

The slippery snow makes it difficult to run fast, and we often slip and faceplant onto the ground.

I guess the Gamemakers don't want to kill us just yet, though, because every time one of us falls, we somehow have enough time for the other one to turn back, help the one who fell up, and take of running again.

"I think we're going to make it!" I yell back to Tiffany. I know, I know. Stupid to yell in such a small arena with thirteen players still in it. But right now, I really don't care about the other tributes. I'm more concerned about the giant tornado barreling down on us.

But as soon as I say the words, I know I've jinxed it.

The tornado was just to get us moving at first, but now the audience gets to see some real fun.

The tornado has been passing through the forest, but not a single twig has been picked up so far.

But now?

Branches with the same height and width as me are flying at us, some bigger.

A new fear shoots through me. Being hit by one of those would at least result in a broken bone, if not more broken bones or death.

And those are things that neither of us can afford.

Tiffany is a few feet away from me, but I know we've got to stick together to make sure that neither one of us gets left behind.

I grab her hand so we both know where the other one is, and keep running. A cannon booms.

A branch goes whizzing just inches past my head, and another one would've nailed Tiffany right in the shoulder if she didn't have the sense to dodge.

I can see the clearing where the Cornucopia sits, and a rush of excitement runs through me.

Even though there are most definitely tributes there, those we have a slight chance of beating. A tornado is not the type of enemy you can fight with a knife.

But once again, my hopes of getting away from the tornado uninjured are shattered.

An earsplitting scream comes directly from my left, and Tiffany falls, pulling me down with her.

I get back up, expecting to have to frantically dodge a branch coming right at my head, but the tornado has disappeared.

I feel like celebrating, but then I look at Tiffany and my heart drops into my stomach.

A branch must have hit her ankle, because it's bent at a way that isn't humanly possible.

I fight the impulse to gag. "Oh my god." Is all I can say.

"Does it look bad? Because it hurts really, really bad." Tiffany says.

How do I respond to a question like that?

"Well, if you don't count being bent in a way that's completely impossible to achieve normally, it looks fine." I answer.

Her face falls.

"How am I going to live in the Games with a broken ankle? I can't run! And if I can run, I'm dead!" Her voice is panicky.

"It's okay." I say. "We'll figure out something."

"Like what?"

"Like finding somewhere safe to stay while your ankle heals."

She nods and puts on a brave face. "I'm not going to hold us back from survival, I promise."

Even if we both live through all of the other tributes, one of us still has to die, but she sounds confident enough that I don't bring it up.

"Can you walk on the other foot?" I ask. "Because I can help you if you can. I'm not strong enough to pick you up, though."

"I think so." She answers.

I grab her hand and pull her up so she's standing on the foot she didn't hurt.

"Yeah, I think I've got it." She says.

"Lets go find somewhere safe." I say, and then I we start walking/supporting to find a place to stay.