One Fell Swoop { A Banana Bus / Hunger Games Story }

Chapter Fourteen - Of Monsters And Men

The blinding sun brought Jon slowly out of his sleepy reverie. It was dawn, that means he had work to do if he wanted to survive. As Jon became more conscious and aware of his surroundings, he realised he had been sleeping on something that was moving, rising and falling in a slow rhythm. He put his hands on either side of the surface and pushed himself up to find a still asleep Evan. His face was relaxed as he slept, he looked peaceful yet he still held his own brand of elegance. How did he manage to fall asleep on Evan's chest?

"Good morning," Craig's voice startled Jon from his thoughts. Jon pushed himself off of Evan and sat next to the man from District 3.

"You looked cozy, so I didn't disturb you. Did you enjoy your perv sesh just then?" Craig asked and left Jonathan reeling from the lewd words falling from his mouth.

Jon couldn't help the deep blush that covered his face as he fumbled for an explanation, "I wasn't ogling him, I was just-", he trailed off when he realised that's exactly what he was doing.

"Sure, Jon, whatever you want to believe," Craig laughed before he continued, "do you want to help set up some traps around here?"

Jon nodded in response, standing up and grabbing Craig's hand to help him to his feet. Jon briefly wondered whether he should wake Evan or Tyler so they could be alert in case anyone raided their camp, but when Jon took another look at Evan's ethereal, peaceful face, he decided to let him sleep. Who knows how today will go, it could be in last chance.

"Grab two of those knives over there, Jon. I can't sever the ropes with just my hands yet," Craig said, gesturing to their pile of belongings. Once Jon grabbed the knives, the duo set off into the untracked land.

They had only been walking for several minutes before Craig shot out a limb over Jon's torso, stopping them both in their tracks. Craig turned to face Jon and placed a finger over his mouth, telling him to be quiet. Craig then flicked his head in the direction of a tribute.

Jon almost shot back in shock, he hadn't even seen the other man there, and may have been ambushed if he wasn't careful. If Jon's memory served him right, it was Arlan from District 12. He looked as though he was trying to climb the thick tree a few metres away, key word being 'trying'.

Craig sliced a finger across his neck, pointed to Arlan, then pointed back to Jon. Craig didn't want to kill anyone if possible, so that only left Jon. He crept up behind the unsuspected victim, hand on the blade of the knife situated on his belt. Once Jon was standing right behind Arlan he drew his knife.

The sharp, metallic sound rung out in the air and Arlan whipped around to face Jon. He opened his mouth to scream for help but Jon was too quick. He sliced his throat in one clean movement and Arlan was cold on the ground in seconds. Jon replaced his knife on his belt and rejoined Craig as the cannon sounded.

***

Scotty was shocked out of his daydream by the explosive ringing of the cannon. No subsequent cannons followed, but he couldn't help it as his heart dropped at the thought of something happening to the boys in his alliance. Scotty turned on his heel and ran back to their campsite, completely abandoning his mission as the watchman.

What if someone had found their camp and was pegging them off one by one?

What if one of them turned against the other two?

No, Scotty tried to banish the thoughts from his mind, although the second one seemed to linger a bit longer. The only person that would be capable of that would be Kryoz. Scotty just thought that there was something off about him, that he was not to be trusted.

Scotty felt the weights on his chest lift once he discovered all three of his allies were crouched over the bomb supplies.

"Hey Scotty, good to see it wasn't your cannon that went off," Smitty chuckled, fiddling with the mass of wires. They had made quite a lot of progress since the last time Scotty was at the camp, they had a lo-fi bomb now and were just trying to slot together the last of the wires.