If Crane Never Made The Call

Killing A Redhead

I wake up the next morning and the events from yesterday hit me hard. I pack up my belongings, eat some berries from yesterday, and take a pill. Cato is not in sight, so he's either gone or farther than I thought. I ate most of the food so I'm gonna need to collect more.

I set out in search for food a little after 9:00 (I think). I find a nice area with blueberry looking bushes and set my jacket down. The sunlight streams through gaps in the leaves, causing me to squint. I collect the small sticky spheres and place them on the slippery material of my jacket.

I don't bother eating any, I'll need them for later. I'm on my last handful before the coat will be full. I turn around and see Foxface stealing my berries.

"Hey!" I yell wide eyed. She tosses a handful of berries in her mouth with a look sorrow on her face.

"Don't-" She starts to say but is cut short by a violent shake. She collapses on the ground in a heap and dies, right there in front of me. I stand there shocked waiting for relization to hit me. When it finally does I understand, poison, and she knew it. She sacrificed herself to save me and warn me in a way that would get the point through. But why?

I dump the berries in a creek, keeping some incase Cato or Thresh don't know what they are. I killed a redhead. Not intentionally, but I did. I sit on the edge of the creek pondering over what just happened. She reminds me so much of Lavinia, it hurts to think how alike the two are. Both are quiet (Lavinia has no choice). Both seem nice, they have red hair, and I'm thankful for them both.

The day goes by quick, too quick. It gets dark around 6:00pm so the gamemakers must be in a hurry to end the games. Theres only 4 of us left. Right in front of me the creek drains, disappearing into tiny holes in the dirt. I stand up and walk in no direction in particular.

I come across a large crater in the ground and relize that this is the place where Katniss was before the careers, and somewhat I, chased her up the tree. This used to be filled with water, and so did the small river that flowed on the other side of the rock path at the time. The gamemakers must be drawing us into somewhere, but where. The lake, its close to the cornucopia and everyone knows where it is.

I could not go to the lake and make my chances of winning more, but I'm out of water. To the lake it is.

I make my way to the lake, being very careful in the dark. I hear a twig snap a ways ahead of me and I freeze. Another breaks, followed by the patter of foot steps. Another set of feet join in and I hear panting. I hide behind a tree and watch as a knife flys by my face and hits a tree 3 feet away.

Thresh zooms past in a rush followed by Cato and his deathly sharp weapons. They don't see or notice me watching, but I am. Cato catches up to Thresh while they're still in sight and tackles him. He gets on top like Clove did with Katniss and punches him repeatedly in the face.

"This is for Clove. You touched her, tortured her, and killed her!" He says like he's practiced, which he probably has. "I loved her. I lost her. But you don't care." He continues with his fist hitting into Mr. Koring's face until he's on the brink of unconsciousness.

"Its...the...Hunger Games. Pe...people.... are.... going......to die." Thresh croaks slowly.

"Well she didn't have to!" Cato raises his blade and shoves it hard into Thresh's heart, bringing the tribute count down to 3.