The Capitol Games

Chapter 15~The Next Day

My eyes shut as tears streamed down my face. I barely knew Henry, why was I crying? Maybe it was because of Tessa's grieving state. Or the fact that I had lost my fight to Jake by stupidly pummeling him and firing blind shots. 

No. I thought. I have finally realized the cruelty of the games. Tearing about friendships, families, and so much more. This is what the Capitol Games is designed to teach us. Not to suffer, but what the rebels have gone through. This was the first death I have seen so far. Katniss Everdeen would make sure this wasn't the last.

Finally, Tessa and I left Henry's body to be picked up by the hovercrafts. The two of us trudged up the mountain, stopping occasionally to fill our water flasks with snow. 

Where were we going? What was our plan? I thought several times. We lived off the bits of food in the packs which were running scarce. We trudged through the snow and finally settled down for the night. The anthem played and the faces of 3 tributes lit up the screen filling the night sky. Henry came up first, then Simon, then the rank 12 boy. Tessa buried her face in her sleeping bag sobbing. I lay in my bag high up in the snowy tree staring at the piercingly bright star. Finally, the intensity felt blinding and I shut my eyes. I felt empty and exhausted when I dozed off to sleep, my tears drying on my cheeks.

~*~*~*~*~

I woke up the next morning hungry and eyes burning with all the tears. I shook Tessa awake gently deciding it was time for a small talk. 

"Look, Tessa. I understand how painful it is for you right now, but you have to get over it. Henry would want one of us to win the games. Moping around like this isn't going to make us the victors" I said softly patting my friend on the shoulder.

Tessa's fists were curled around the sleeping bag. "I want to kill him" she hissed.

"What?" I asked slightly perplexed, Henry was already dead, what was she talking about. 

"I want to kill Jake Anderson," Tessa said in a deadly quiet tone, she stared fiercely into my eyes. "And you're going to help me, Alice, aren't you?".

"Of course I will," I said, but it was a hesitant untruthful response. As much as I disliked Jake at the moment, I didn't want him dead. Not yet. I helped Tessa pack up our belongings and decided that we should start hunting, as our food supply was running very low. 

The two of us scampered around the lower half of the ice mountain, Tessa firing arrows, and I throwing a blade at every slight movement. Tessa managed to shoot a few snow rabbits and skimpy squirrels, but I killed the real prize. A fat snow fox leaped right in front of me in attempt to catch a snow bunny. The knife left my hand on instinct bedding itself in the foxes ribcage.

"Tessa!" I called in excitement as the two of us rushed over to the injured fox. If this was me when I was younger, my first reaction would be to find a doctor, but this was the games. I ripped out the knife and Tessa skinned the animal with her switchblade. I covered my eyes, shielding them from the blood. I may be starving, but I was no bloodthirsty monster. "How do you know how to do that?" I asked in horror. 

"Well, not all of the Capitol people are rich, some of us are farmers" Tessa responded while breaking off a couple branches and lighting it with some tint and steel from her pack. She stuck the meat on a stick and started to roast it over the fire. "Here pack the rest," Tessa said tossing me the raw bloody meat and a package. Using my pinky and thumb and pinky I picked up the bloody flesh and dropped it into the plastic wrap as fast as I could. Tessa laughed and shook her head. "You're in the arena now, blood is something you gotta get used to". 

I shrugged and packed the box of meat in my pack. The two of us sat in silence watching the meat slowly cook. A cracking sound came from the end of the forest. "Did you hear that?" I asked. Tessa barely had any time to react before a tribute jumped down from a tree charging at us with a ax.