Hunger Games Anthology

Lark: Part 4

I wake up with my stomach rumbling and my arm throbbing. The sun has risen and it's too hot with all my layers and the blanket wrapped around me. I shove the blanket and the second jacket back into the backpack while I debate whether or not I should break into my supply of crackers of bread. Logic wins out and I save the food supply for later. I can spend all of today trying to find other food.

I climb down the tree and head in a direction 90 degrees from where I came yesterday. I don't want to head back to the Cornucopia but I don't want to stray too far either. My goal today is to just find some food and stay out of everyone's way. I have never hunted before and haven't seen much wildlife in the arena anyway so I won't rely on the scarce animals as a source of food. Instead, I'm hoping to find some familiar plants.

After walking for almost an hour, I hear a scream and quickly dart behind a tree even though it's not coming from close by. There's the sound of running footsteps crunching through the snow ahead of me. As long as I stay silent they'll pass right by me. I get a brief glimpse through the trees of a smaller tribute running frantically. Then I hear a voice ring out, "You can't run forever!"

Two large Careers crash through the forest chasing after the smaller boy.

I wait until I can't hear their footsteps and taunts anymore then set off in the direction they just came. I might be able to handle one Career on my own but two is a death sentence.

As the day goes on I find myself losing energy quickly and I know I have to eat soon. I'm about to break open my small bag of food when suddenly I see a familiar tree. Excitedly, I run through the snow to the tree and as I get towards the full branches I see what I was hoping to find: nuts. I've seen these trees back in 7 and have eaten the nuts on them plenty of times. I reach up and start picking.

The rest of the day is spent picking all the nuts I can reach off the trees and drinking melted snow from my pot. There's no dry wood for a fire, and no need for it. The snow melts quickly in the sun.

As it starts to get dark I clean off my cut on my arm and change the makeshift bandage before heading off to find a new area to spend the night. After finding a suitable tree, I climb up and snack on some nuts while I wait for the seal to show up in the sky. When it does, I note that Huck isn't among the dead and immediately fall asleep.

I wake up to the sound of birds and keep my eyes closed for a minute, allowing the familiar sound transport me back to 7. Eventually, I let reality set in and climb down with all my supplies to gather some snow so I'll have water to drink soon. When my feet hit the ground I take a second to look around for the bird making the sounds that woke me. I spot it through the trees about a 100 yards away perched on a low branch about eye level with me. It's bright feathers stand out so starkly among the bleak environment.

I stand mesmerized, watching the bird continue its call until it abruptly stops. I can tell the bird senses danger but doesn't even have time to fly away before it is skewered onto the end of a long blade.

I takes my mind a moment to piece together what I'm see before it registers. Technically what the dead bird is now sliding off of is not a blade, but an antler. A long, razor sharp, deadly set of antlers attached to the body of an elegant, graceful, murderous deer. This is no regular deer. Besides the unnaturally deadly set of antlers, this deer is larger than a typical deer and has a pair of glowing red eyes set directly on me.

As soon as this last thought registers my feet are flying, driving me as far away from this creature as I can get. It immediately starts running for me, no doubt thinking of nothing but killing me just as it did that bird. I crash through the trees, more clumsy than I usually am, but it doesn't catch me. The game makers are going to draw this out, they won't want their creature - their mutt to kill me quick. The audience must be in need of a spectacle.