Don't Play Games

10

I jump back, dust rising up around me. I hear my allies - well everyone of them except Coral - shouting.

"No. No, no, no." I whisper, pulling away rocks and tossing them behind me. "No, no!"

"Hazel, calm down." Ingrid says. "Lets just get all the rocks out of the way."

"Ingrid! It isn't that simple! That was a rock slide. There are thousands of pounds of rocks above our heads right now. More will just keep coming, it'll take days to get through this!"

"Guys, there has to be a way out. There's five of us in here and only 17 tributes left. That'd level it out to half if that was meant to kill us. There hasn't been a lot of blood lately, so the Game makers tried to get one of us and leave the rest bruised. This was they're opportunity. I didn't hear a cannon for Coral, so we'll all be fine!" Electra says.

"Just keep digging." Clora says. "Sorry I can't really help. I can use my feet, though."

"It's okay." I say. "Sorry, I just get claustrophobic."

They all nod and start to dig.

+

By the time I find a small patch of sunlight, my hands are worn raw. The sunlight is orange with the setting sun I see through the crack. Everyone grins.

"Told ya." Electra says. "Still no cannon. Lets find Coral."

We all dig a crack big enough to crawl through and squeeze through it. I see Coral immediately. She's sitting on a ledge high above us, breathing heavily.

"Coral!" I half whisper, half shout.

She looks down and her face floods with relief.

"Are you okay?" I ask her.

"I almost got crushed by a rock slide, what do you think?" She says, annoyed. "Just please help me down. Lets get out of this death trap."

Electra tosses up the rope to Coral, who wedges it into a small crack. She edges down the mountain side towards us.

"We have to find another place, and quick. It's almost night." Jason says. "Back to the trees?"

"Sure. Quickly." I say.

When Coral reaches the bottom, she yanks hard on the rope. It comes loose from its hold and tumbles down towards us.

+

"Where can we go now?" Clora asks as we descend the south side of the mountain towards the tree line.

"I don't know." I say. "We could back towards the cornucopia to see if we could steal more supplies while the careers hunt."

"No way." Jason says. "Lets go around it, then we can see who's on guard there. No doubt they have a guard, I just don't know who."

"Lets do that." Coral says.

The last slips of sun are under the horizon now. I help everyone up another one of those cedars for the night.

"I still want to know who died." I whisper. "I know that's sick, but I'm curious."

"I guess you'll find out." Coral says. Just then the anthem plays.

I crane my neck through the leaves. The face of Dea lights up the sky.

"Dea?" I say, dumbstruck. A career? On the second night?

"Dea? Really?" Ingrid says. "Isn't she a career?"

"Yea, that's why I'm confused." I say. "Why would she be killed on the second night?"

I sit, puzzling for a while. It doesn't make much sense, but at least she's gone. One less career to worry about.