The Hunger Games (A Fanfiction)

Chapter 7

AavaA's P.O.V.

I step into the early morning sun that is peaking through the tree leaves. I stretch and start picking berries on a bush nearby. I am absolutely starving. I have been hiding in a hollowed out tree, hidden in the shadow of a great pine tree for the past two days, listening to cannons go off, scared for my life and safety, knowing that it was I who put myself in this situation.

While I had been training for the Hunger Games, practicing shooting bows, badly, practicing with short swords, less badly, and memorizing what food was okay to eat, and what's not okay, my instructor had told me time and time again to partner with a strong, capable person who knew what they were doing. Like Canyon, Leah and Naya. Leah, I couldn't fully trust, and I didn't like her because she was one, a career, and two, a bit too good at short swords. Canyon was completely out of the question. He seemed like a psycho who could kill you at any moment, without a care in the world, plus, he seemed fine on his own. But something drew me to Naya. Yeah, she was from District 11, a tough district that has dealt with a lot, and she was probably ready to kill, but I wanted to partner with her. Something told me I could trust her with my life. But guess who kept getting too nervous to talk to her, then when she had the perfect moment during the interviews, choked. Me. My instructor yelled at me the day of the Hunger Games starting. He said 'I had failed', that 'I'll die within the first few seconds because I am so not ready and so incapable that I can't even make it past the Cornucopia.' Yes, he said that to me. I was in tears, and when he saw that, he just said, "See! You're proving my point. You're not ready. You're a child and you won't be able to survive." He then stormed off without another word, leaving me alone in the starting chamber, wiping away tears as I stepped inside my tube, prepared to die. But now I'm here, still alive, but completely alone.

I pop a few berries into my mouth, then I spit them out before I chew, noticing that I almost just died eating a nightlock berry. I spit over and over again, making sure it was out. Then I stood there, in the beam of sunlight, realizing how hopeless I really was. I shook off the feeling and ran through my list of the day.

Find a source of water

Go hunting for food

Try to find Naya and hope she doesn't kill me

Even though I failed earlier to ask Naya to partner with me, I will search all over this arena, find her, and try to convince her to partner with me, while avoiding other tributes along the way. I know it's a stupid plan, but it's honestly the best one I have. I can't just stay here and starve. So I grab my backpack and my pocket knife from the backpack and I head out to go find Naya. This might take a while...

Jasper's P.O.V.

I wake up to the sun in my eyes, blinding me for a short while, then, I look down and see that I am strapped to a tree branch. I look down below me, see how far below the ground is, and I freak out. I scream and flip over off of the branch, but still attached to it. So I am hanging off the branch, strapped to it by two ropes around my legs, upside down and facing the ground. I hear a laugh, and look below me to see Sasha, my partner, wheezing and laughing on the ground. I cross my arms and furrow my brows. "Stop laughing at me." Sasha, still wheezing, holds up a finger signaling to me to give her a moment, then she slowly stops laughing, takes a deep breath and says to me, "Sorry, but that was the most hilarious thing I've seen in my life." She laughs a bit while talking. "It's not funny, I could've died." I say to her. "No you wouldn't've. Might have broken your back, neck and possibly arm, yeah, but died? Not really." I uncross my arms, leaving them hanging. "Fine. But can you help me, please?" "Yes..." She says, still giggling under her breath.

After about ten minutes of careful maneuvering, and me telling Sasha that I was going to fall about a million times, I was out of the tree and sitting on the ground while Sasha explained what we should do today. I never thought I would partner with her. During the training and preparing for the Hunger Games, I had decided to go it alone, but ever since I saw Sasha get chosen from the Reaping, I wanted to be partnered with her. The feeling only grew when I saw her in the training room. I kept telling myself to ask her, I even told Effie, but she didn't like Sasha. She said she was, "A dirty street rat who is probably gonna die early on." I just glared at her, but decided that maybe it would be best. There might be a point in time that I'll have to kill her, and it will be painful. So, I gave up hope.

But, on the first day of the Hunger Games, after I went into the Cornucopia, grabbed three different types of knives, a backpack and three packets of dried fruit, I ran into the woods to look for a spot to sleep. As I was running along, I heard a rustling noise ahead of me. I grabbed my throwing knife, ready to strike, and out of the gathering of vines and trees, there was Sasha. She had a low quality bow and a small sack of arrows slung on her shoulders. As soon as she saw me, she jumped back in fear, held her hands up in surrender. Then, she looked up, saw it was me, and said, "Jasper? JASPER! Don't kill me! I want to partner with you!" This surprised me so much, I dropped my throwing knife and it landed beside my foot. "Really?" I asked. Sasha put down her hands. "Yeah...I kept forgetting to ask you. I'm sorry." "No it's fine!" I said. "I wanted to partner with you too! It's just that Effie kept telling me not to." A look of joy spread across Sasha's face. "Let's partner then!" "Okay!" I said. We shook hands, and from then on, we became fast friends. We talked to each other, joking around, making plans and strategies, talking about other tributes and our thoughts on them. We both agreed that Canyon was absolutely insane. Now, we are partners working together, trying to survive this crazy, insane game for psychopaths and sociopaths. Let's hope we survive this.