Through a Fox's Eyes

Chapter 23

I woke up to a sunny day. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Flowers encircle me. I can’t move. Why can’t I move? Wait, isn’t that Suezette yelling?

“Why?! Why Emilia? Why did you come home like this?!”

Wait, I am home? Aren’t I… wait, am I in a casket?

The world seemed blurry, images flowed on my mind, the flowers grew terribly thorny, their smell quite over coming. I can smell blood and roses.

Faces of the ones I love look down on me, their eyes with grieve but they have plastered creepy smiles.

“You got what you deserve”

“The baby, the poor baby...”

“You killed it.”

“Such innocent child. You killed an innocent child!”

Their smiling faces haunted me, taunting words and hurtful whispers. It wasn’t my fault, but they make it look like it was.

I cried so hard, but I can’t move. No sound came from me. They still carried on, their words growing and growing, and with every person that passed, a cannon shot. I can’t do it anymore; I felt I was going to lose it. It went on for agonizing hours, until I was woken up by a cannon.

I was still in the Hunger Games, still a tribute. Still alive.

“Still alive,” I whisper to myself.

I look at the ugly pool of blood. I grimace in horror. It’s a deadly view, and tears streamed from my eyes. I gathered up leaved and dumped in it the blood. No tracks.

I run from the horror, I try to forget.

Run, find water, clean up.

I quickly found a small pond. I wash up, and as I am submerging in the water, I let the coolness cool my mind.

Positives. Let the negatives come out.

At least I know he’s safe. No one can harm him now. I won’t have to worry now. Safe and sound.

I let my clothes dry in a nearby rock. It’s quite risky to stay in the pond naked, so I hide in a bush. I’m in my underclothes now.

The sun started rising, and so did my appetite. I don’t have my pack with me, so I gathered some berries in the flock of bushes. Naked. I found some edible berries. It’s really lucky for me to find some, because my vision gets blurry most of the time.

I sit up In the bush. Naked. I rummage through my things. Naked. I got my flask and fill it with water. Naked.

After about three hours, the sun shone brightly, bright enough to dry my clothes. I reach for it in the rock, it’s still damp, but better than soaking wet. By that time I have finished my berries.

I hike downhill and I aim to go back to the Cornucopia. I trot along the beaten path. The baby floods my mind. I know he’s safe, I know that it is better than now, but still, it hurts. I’m quite thankful though, because bearing a child in this world means he’ll go into the reapings, starve, be scared, and experience labor without pay. It’s a cruel world nowadays. Panem is a ruthless country, it’s a shame many children lives here.

Atleast my child didn’t experience that.

After a couple of hours, I reach the Cornucopia. The Careers are out hunting, I suppose. Only Neo was there. He’s sitting in chair, comfortably. He has a spear. He then gets up his chair and goes to the Cornucopia.

He does this pattern, a dance, towards the Cornucopia. Well, that explains it. The mines. He struggles to balance, he almost fell. He reached for apples, two, and did the funny dance and went back to the tent. I need protein badly, and I see a pack of dried beef just up front.

I run to the clearing, and I know Neo won’t even suspect anyone to dare go to the supply pyramid. I quickly see the pattern. The mined ones have holes, but they are near each other.

Skip, jump, skip. I do the pattern, retaining each step in my head. I won’t risk it. I tiptoe through some, land on one foot. Upon the main stepping, a barrel is in the way. I leap infront of it, see a space, big enough for tiptoes. As I jumped, I landed on tiptoes, but the force kept up, and I was pulled downwards.

Is this it?  I think. Am I going to die?

I suppress a small squeal, my hands touch the earth, and I close my eyes. I don’t want to see my death. But seconds pass, I feel nothing. I slowly rise up, regain my feet, and one final leap, I’m at the safe side.

I grab the beef and some apples too, paying close attention to what I snatch. Not too much, not too little. I grab my pack and stuff the things, and I sling the pack and repeat what I did. I leap, I skip, I land on one foot. It requires such accuracy and dexterity. As I reach the hard ground, I run  as fast as I can. As I ran, I catch a glimpse of an arrow. A set of eyes that are trained unto me. Teeth grinding. Fire Girl.

I dash towards a safe place, I sense that Fire Girl has let me go. I sigh in relief. I collapse in fatigue, the stress I have experienced for the past days. How the heck will tell Marvel everything? I shrug to myself, and open my pack. I think it will be the best to keep moving, because there are only 8 of us left. My old hiding place is quite vulnerable now, because the Careers are on the go.

I eat my beef strips carefully, rationing it so I can have a decent meal later. As I walk, I heard an ear-splitting noise. I see smoke. I see rubble. I see Fire Girl duck. I see the earth move, causing me to tumble over. The mines are deactivated.

I sprint, knowing that the Careers probably heard the explosion. But my feet took me to the Cornucopia. I silently swore, knowing that this is a stupid decision, but I have a feeling that some supplies have made it through. Another explosion, it sends me flying to a tree stump.

I get up and run. The ringing in my ear continues, but it stops as I reached the Cornucopia. I climbed a tree and looked at the camp, now just a clump of rubble. The Careers stride from the woods. Cato comes first, and a string of profanities coat the air, Marvel come next, looking bewildered. Clove comes in too, and rushes to Neo. Neo throws stones at the mined area, and nothing happens. Cato rips his hair off, frustrated. Marvel and Clove rummages through the clump of rubble. Nothing. Cato unleashes his fury in the supplies, kicking and throwing  as  Neo looks scared. And Cato suddenly looks at Neo, shouting at him, and as Neo turned and ran, Cato had him in a headlock and broke his neck.

I shudder, not because of the pain my stomach, but of how easy Cato could kill a person. I wouldn’t want to suffer a death within Cato’s hands. He’s too brutal.

The kid’s limp body falls, and a cannon shoots. Marvel and Clove makes their way to Cato, calming him. Cato seems to calm down eventually, because Clove points up the sky. She’s must be telling Cato that the person who triggered the mines were dead. They evacuate the area for the hovercraft to arrive.

I slump into my tree. It’s good 40 feet up, and I can easily fit in its wide branches. I rest my head as the Capitol seal appear. The face of Neo, ever so harmless, and after 2 seconds, goes off. The kid from District ten. The one who was about to kill me. He’s now dead. I suddenly feel a rush of relief. He’s dead. He’s never coming back. Somehow, I see Cato, unsatisfied with the results. Now they know the bomber lived. They stride to the woods. I see Marvel light up a branch and walk.

I wish I could see him again tomorrow, I think. That’s my plan. Talk to Marvel

With that thought, I drift to sleep.