The 25th Hunger Games

Day 3

Having worked the last watch shift, I was already awake when water started pounding on my head. A minute ago it was dry, and suddenly it was raining like no tomorrow.

I shook Midnight awake and told her we'd better go. It wasn't even light yet, but this sort of rain would fill up our fish bowl of an arena twice as fast.

"Get the raft," Midnight told me as she rolled up her sleeping bag.

"In this weather? It'll fill up on the inside," I said.

"Well, we'll die if we try to climb up there soaking wet!" she pointed out in a not-so-friendly tone.

"Trying to float in a full raft would be just as bad," I shot back. "Unless you plan on draining it every minute--"

"That's exactly what we'll do, then."

With no argument to return, I finally nodded. Midnight pulled out the raft as fast as she could, but our argument had wasted so much time that the fires were out and the water was now coming from the ground and the sky. Water was up to my waist by the time it was inflated and we got inside, already soaked to the bone.

Rain is the worst, I though to myself.

Midnight seemed to be thinking just the opposite. "This rain could really be an advantage today."

"For us?"

"Sure. Most people will be holed up in their tents, waiting for it to stop. That makes them perfect targets," she explained.

"So you're suggesting," I asked slowly, "we use this rain to help us kill people?"

Midnight sighed. "We're supposed to use everything to kill people. This rain is just another tool." When I didn't reply, she continued. "Face it, if we don't kill someone soon, we're going to become expendable. The Gamemakers will find some even more convenient way to kill us off. Better use the nice rain to our advantage while we're alive."

When you put it like that, killing almost sounds manageable. "Yeah, you're right. We can wait a while and see who we find." This didn't seem very practical though. We could end up finding the Careers, or a psycho, or we could drown before we even get there.

Our raft drifted very unsteadily to a pillar, this one on the smaller side, and we climbed out. Midnight stuffed it in her bag while I pulled out the tent, so we would at least have somewhere dry to spend the day.

We huddled in the tent as water poured down all around us. We did a quick inventory check to pass the time. We were a bit short in the food department, with only half a bag of fruits and a few well done fish. We still had two blankets and the tent we sat in. Midnight managed to collect and save a fair amount of knives and one extra large sword. I only had my few knives and daggers, plus the climbing gear had some potential to hurt an enemy.

Midnight was just about to say something about the gear when we heard the familiar sound of hovercraft wings above our heads.

"Are they getting a body?" I wondered, though no cannon sounded.

"Or maybe one of us has a sponsor!" Midnight said excitedly, climbing out of the tent. I followed her, nearly crashing into her when she stopped in front of a metal box.

"'A gift from the Gamemakers'," she read the note on top. She quickly pried it open, only to pull out one plastic yellow poncho. "Seriously?"

"They're our saviors," I said sarcastically. "I'm going to go back inside before I get anymore wet." Although that hardly seemed possible. I was soaked to the bone even after sitting in the tent for an hour.