Don't Play Games

14

I open my eyes. I hear a few twigs snap and a thud as something lands on the ground. Then footsteps running away.

"Hazel, where's Electra?" Ingrid asks, which brings me fully into consciousness.

"She was probably the one who I heard running away." I say, searching for the bags I hid in the upper branches earlier. "...aannd she has all of our stuff."

"What?!" Ingrid says, shooting up beside me. She pushes back leaves and searches.

"The only things she didn't take was the stuff we had on." I say, gesturing to the packs we always sleep with and our supply belts.

Ingrid does a growl-like sound, which seems to be a cross between a sigh and a growl.

"Well, it's just the two of us then." I say.

"Yeah-"

Ingrid is cut off by a scream in the distance, then, after a pause, a cannon.

"Do you think that was..." Ingrid trails off.

"Yes." I sigh. "The Careers might have been out hunting for the night."

"So there's now 9 of us then." She frowns. "2 of us. 4 Careers. And 3 others."

"Odds are against us." I sigh. "Right. The anthem might start soon."

Sure enough, the anthem begins. I look up and see Electra's face, then Clora's. The lights fade once again.

I hear Ingrid sigh and sit back down. "Fabulous."

"Well," I say. "We'll get through it somehow."

"Hazel," Ingrid sighs heavily. "Don't say that! Only one of us is getting out of here."

I frown. "Well, then we'll wait and see."

Ingrid huffs. "I'm on watch."

"Alright." I say, making sure not to frustrate her, even though she could probably kill me in my sleep if she wanted to.

+

Ingrid wakes me up the next morning, telling me to wake up. I groan, opening my eyes.

"Anything interesting?" I ask.

"The Careers walked past but didn't see us. No cannons or other tributes besides the Careers." She reports.

I nod. "Well, we better get going. How long ago were the Careers here?" I ask.

"About 10 minutes after you fell asleep."

I nod again. "Alright, so they should be long gone by now. Are we gonna keep walking around the cornucopia or...?"

"We don't really have anything else to do." Ingrid sighs.

"We could stay in this tree." I say. "Although the Gamemakers wouldn't approve."

Ingrid nods and sighs. "Lets go."

We climb slowly down the tree. Hopefully someone else is having an interesting day so no one will have to die to keep the Capitol happy.

We keep walking around the edge of the clearing, keeping the cornucopia just in our view.

+

All day, we walk in circles with no sense of purpose. That's all that's really left to do, anyway. There isn't anything we need to do.

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we hear a cannon off in the distance. But the rest of the day is uneventful.

When the sun begins to set, we climb up a tree about 3 trees into the forest from the clearing.

"Well, that was uneventful." Ingrid says as she straps herself around the trunk of the tree.

"Thanks Captain Obvious." I say, spinning one of my throwing knives around my fingers as I prepare for first watch.

Halfway through the night, Ingrid takes the shift.

As I'm about to fall asleep, I remember:

I'm in the top 8.

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Sorry it's so short :/ I had writer's block.

:(

-Zane