Allies

The Games Day 1: Josh Gillespie

Livid. That's the only word capable of describing what I feel right now.  First, we spend forever looking for the little brat, who had the nerve to keep hiding, and when I am, understandably, angry, I am tackled to the ground and told to shut up.  And then, they have the nerve to be mad at me. Me, who pulled them together, gave them a longer lifespan, and is holding this alliance together by string! I can not believe this.  If I didn't need their help, I would have killed 3 of them by now.  But, lucky for them, I do need all of them.

That day, we mostly wander around, looking for food and water. It's hard, but luckily, Austin knows how to trap animals and identify which berries can be eaten or not.  Later, we find a small stream, and fill up our canteens as full as they will go. All the backpacks came with one, so at least we don't have to share water.  As the artificial sun sets, we sit and eat cooked rabbit around a small fire.  We are silent, all of us too consumed with eating to talk.  By the time we're done, the arena has gone dark. All of a sudden, the anthem plays, and the seal of Panem is shown across the sky.  I know what that means. There are 8 deaths today.  I killed 2 of them. Abby killed one. I don't know about the rest. Their names are under their pictures, but I don't pay attention. They no longer matter.

We are all silent for a moment, until Taylor breaks the ice.  "Well," she says, "we've officially survived one day of the Hunger Games. What are the odds of that?" She means it as a rhetorical question, but Abby responds anyways. "Based on past Games, the odds were about fifteen percent." We all look at her. Everybody else just assumes she states facts to inform those of lesser intelligence, but I grew up with her.  When she blurts out facts and statistics, she's trying to calm herself down by focusing on what's real, true, and proven. She's clearly scared, they all are.