Stay with me? [Finnick Odair]

22

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Chapter twenty two: Slow moving
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It was late after noon and we were all on the move after having a short break, sharing a couple sips of water, making sure Charlotte had a rest before mocking on, we were searching for a place to set up camp for the night when we heard it. It was so loud that we all jumped, readying our weapons just in case, but it was the cannons. The ones signifying that a tribute is dead.

They don't fire them during the bloodbath because it's too hard to keep track, so they wait until it's over, I paced myself, slowing down just enough to count the cannons. One... two... three... four... I had counted nine by the time the cannons had ceased, nine dead on the first day, fifteen left to play the game. We still had to wait a few hours for them to project the faces of the dead in the sky for us to see, my guess was they were trying to pay respect to the fallen tributes, but I couldn't see it as anything but showing off the weak ones. I couldn't stop thinking about Oliver.

"I counted nine," I announced as we continued walking, reaching a clearing in the woods where a small waterfall was seen, though the water was quiet, it was a perfect hiding spot for us to see anyone trying to sneak up on us.

"That leaves fifteen," Charlotte replied, stopping right behind Rosalie as she took a look around the place, nodding approvingly, she dumped her sword and backpack on the floor.

"Let's set up here, the steam from the water will cover up smoke from a fire and its quiet enough to hear if we have unwanted guests," she explained, we didn't bother to argue, we were all so tired from walking so far that we simply agreed and began setting up. I gathered logs for a fire with Peter, trying not to stray too far from the camp, we managed to find enough dry logs for a fire and returned to the others after an hour.

Peter was rather quiet, not bothering to say much unless he actually had something important to say, which I admired about him, but I did try to make pleasant conversation as we trekked through the woods and gathered logs. He simply replied with yes or no or even no answer at all, I didn't think he was being rude, I actually thought it was nice to have a quiet one in the alliance.

We made it back, set up the fire and I lit it with my matches, focusing the flames on the dry leaves, it was soon up in one massive flame and we were all sat around it with Rosalie on sentry duty; keeping an eye out for any wanderers. It was already getting cold with the night approaching quickly, I pulled my jacket closer to my body in an attempt at preserving the heat and warming myself up, we all sat in silence just trying to absorb the warmth from the fire for a moment...

Night had just fallen completely when we heard the anthem playing rather loudly, showing the fallen tributes, we all looked to the sky and I was just silently hoping that Oliver wasn't one of those faces. We see the seal of the Capitol directly above us, floating in the night sky, projected on the large dome of a forcefield stopping us from leaving the arena.

We see the photographs flash up one by one, each tribute that had been killed in the bloodbath or killed recently— which had been nobody— were displayed in the sky for every remaining tribute to see, nine tributes were shown for a few seconds each while the recap of their deaths were shown on TVs across Panem. Not here though, that would be an unfair advantage to the other tributes, here we were simply shown their photos as a reminder that they're dead. I was actually relieved to see Oliver's face wasn't among one of the fallen, I breathed out a sigh of relief, thanking god or whoever was up there that he was still alive somewhere in that arena.

I tried to work out who is left, all of us here obviously, Oliver, and nine other tributes somewhere in the arena— the ones we really had to worry about was the careers, three of them, all thirsty for blood.

I glanced over to Rosalie, who was too busy watching the woods to see who had died, her eyes were flickering back and forth wildly and her knuckles were turning white with how hard she was holding her sword.

"Oliver's alive," I stated, earning a quick glance from the brunette, she nodded, turning her head back to the woods.

"Get some sleep, we'll go looking for him tomorrow, circle back to the cornucopia and hopefully find him," she explained, I nodded and pulled myself up off of the ground.

"I'll be able to see clearer from high up, I'll set up in that tree there and hopefully see if anyone's coming," I said rather quietly, they all agreed and allowed me to climb up the tree with my bag, a water bottle and some crackers. I set up the sleeping bag, happily burrowing into its warmth after I found a sturdy branch, it was high enough to see across the treetops but not too high that I would die if I were to fall out of the tree. As an extra precaution, I tied the rope around my waist and made sure it was tight before leaning back against the tree. I knew it would be a long night, but I had to make sure I got some rest as tomorrow would be a 'big, big, big day!' as Asher would call it.

I smiled at the thought, laughing to myself, my eyes stayed glued to the treetops as I slowly drifted off to sleep. The last thing I saw before heading off to sleep was smoke rising above the leaves, obviously showing that someone else was nearby...