Ruins of the past

Chapter 19

It's early morning, golden light, birds are singing. So calm, you could think I'm relaxed, but that's not the case at all.
The careero island feels still way too close, even tho I'm already on the second day of walking away.
Traveling through the forest along the edgy of the water, my legs hurt.
I'm used to walking a lot, our district is pretty big and I often had to deliver things, mostly a few miles away, but this is still hard.
I'm trying to avoid clearings, water sources or to make any sounds.
I would try to hunt since I don't have much food left, but I can't be sure if there really are any other animals beside twatchers here, and even if I was, I'm terrible at hunting.
They put them all over our woods, if the others are right even all over panem itself, without the Capitol of course.

Less trees, more open area, and then, grassland.
It's pretty dangerous, I stop at the end of the forest that protects me from the storm that started a few minutes ago.
Wind is pushing against me, cold and harsh. Leafes fly through the air, I put my hood and the second jacket on.
Then, out of nowhere, hail.
Frozen solid, hurting like hell, as big as my palm.
It won't stop, pressing against a tree trunk I sit down, going into the open area, completly unprotected, is not a smart idea.
Hail. The last time I saw it feels like ages ago.
It was early winter, around lunch break, we all had to come inside, they found some games for us to play to distract the younger ones.
But back then it was small, pea sized.
I'm shivering, my legs as close to my body as possible to stay warm. No living soul would be walking now, the trees groan, even their trunks move a bit.
If it only was rain, I could at least catch it! But no, they have to use hail, of course.
Our grandma had thought me to always do this, along with some other less useful stuff.
We're not related, nobody is related to her anymore since her son died a few years ago. We just call her this, at first to make her feel less lonely and because she's one of the three people who is actually over seventy years old, but now because she feels like a part of our family.
Litte kids love her and her wild stories, they seem so peaceful and most of the times they even have something you could call a 'happy ending', just not in ghe way you would expect.
My favorite one is the one of a princess, a long long time ago, she lived in a beatiful castle, she had everything: more food than she could ever eat, more toys than she could count, and so on.
But she was lonely, held captive by her family. So, she finally decided to run away and break out of who they told her she was her whole life long. She died, but she was free.
If I died here, I wouldn't be part of their sick system, would be free too.

I wanted to run away, but I had a family. Then, when things started to change I was so lost, confused, hurt. I thought it was my fault that he wasted our money on alcohol, that mom didn't want to see me. I was about to run away, now I kinda regret not doing it, I wouldn'be here.
Things changed when I meet Res and had to care for her.
The storm finally stops, as quickly as it started, the sun is shining again, the clouds seem to glow golden.
I stand up again, strech.
I have to keep going.
The grass is short, wet, slippery. What do I need? Food. Water would be nice too. I'm mostly dry, thanks to the pinetree I was hiding under.
Another forest close to me, desert on my right side, an ocean to my left.

I climbed a tree, it has a flat place on top of it, one of those mutated things again.
It's late at night, nobody died today.
They should still be awake at home, maybe they're even watching me. I have to rest for the night.

Walking, again, thinking about where to go.
This arena seems endless, so-
Footsteps, someone is running towards me, I sprint forward, a bit to the left, the forest ends!
In front of me a beach, some palm trees, an ocean. Nowhere to hide.
A trident lands right next to me, not even an inch away.
Trident, district four. The guy is dead, so it has to be the girl.
I can't turn around to be sure, have to keep running as fast as I can.
It feels like hours, even tho I'm sure it's only a few minutes.
A scream, a pulsating pain in my upper leg, a knife.
I force myself to rip it out, warm blood drops down my left leg.
It's not much, wasn't one of the throwing knifes so it didn't have barbs on it.
I'm going to die. I'm not fast enough, breathing already becomes harder, my leg hurts too much, she has range weapons, I just have a sword and some knifes, but to throw them I would have to stop and turn around.
I can hear her wheezing behind me, then suddently, a scream of pure fear.
I blink a few times, my vision got dark and I didn't focus on where I was running anymore.

Wolfes! Matt dark grey clumps of fur, long claws, ready to rip us apart, black holes where their eyes should be.
Twice as big as me, muscular, a short tail curving upwards.
My hearth stops for a second, then I turn around, don't know where to go.
The desert? I would die, can't outrun them. Same with trying to find the forest again, the only other option being the ocean.
I sprint towards it, am closer than my enemy behind me.
A bloodcurdling scream, cyring.
"Help me!", she yells.
Jumping into the ocean, not stoping for a second, I swim as few feet. The water is cold and deep, finally I turn around.
A leg, then her. I was right, it's really Aqua.
One of the wolfes above her, it's mouth full of blood and flesh. She's being eated alive!
I can't hold it in, puke.

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So, it's not much left to post, a few chapters (maybe ten)
I started writing my new book! But it will be a while till I start posting it