Not Just A Game

Chapter 41

We sit under that Willow tree for a while. Just Harley, Dustin and I. It's peaceful, just sounds of the wind as it gently blows strands of blonde hair across my face. I listen to the crunches as we chew up our limited supply of food.

I ponder over the fact that I'm weapon less in an arena full of people trying to kill me. Harley has a bow, Dustin has a little knife at least.

"Hey Dustin, can I see your knife?" I ask, getting an idea.

I search the ground around me for a nice, straight solid stick.

I finally settle on a foot-long branch with no weird things pointing out.

Dustin retrieves his knife from his backpack and hands it to me handle first.

"Thanks." I mumble, getting right to work.

I flick the blade across the tip of the branch, trying to shape and sharpen it to a point. It takes me a good eight minutes to get to a point that's sharp to the touch. It's not much, but it's gotta be worth something if I'm attacked. It can work as a close range knife.

I hand Dustin back his knife, and he nods at my little creation.

"Good thinking." he complements.

He turns to put his knife in his backpack, an unzips the zipper.

I chide in, "I would keep that out if I were you. If you're being attacked, I'm pretty sure they won't give you a few minutes to look through your bag."

"You're right. Thanks." he replies, sticking the knife in the waistband of his pants.

The three of us sit in silence before Harley speaks up, bringing up a topic we've been casting aside since we found each other.

"So, what's the plan?" She asks suddenly.

Dustin looks up from where his eyes were cast down at his toes in front of him.

He looks at me, and allows me to speak first.

"I think we need to find food. The supplies in the backpacks aren't going to last forever." I suggest.

It's perfect where we are, there's water, the weather's fine, and it's pretty secluded, but if we stay, we're bound to run out of food eventually. There doesn't seem to be any animals in the entire creek area.

Another problem is that this may be one of the only fresh water sources in the arena. There's none that I could find in the forest, and a large part of the arena is ocean water, in the cave and on the beach.

In the North, the careers have taken over the volcano region, so I wouldn't risk going near it. It's too dangerous to be exploring aimlessly with the careers inbound.

The career pack is big, six members total, all with different strengths. My bet is that if we survive until the end of the week, Bliss from District One will be dead. She's the only one from her District. Her alliance isn't going to care about keeping her alive.

There's three from District Two; Talon, Indi, and Raudo. They're probably our biggest threat. They're strong and insanely talented at combat. They're aggressive and will show no mercy. With the exception of Talon and Blair. They seemed completely emotionless at first glance. They talk like they're dead, never smile, never frown. I only saw one but of true feelings when I poised the throwing knife in my hand before the same blade went straight through the eyes of what should've been my death. Pure terror.

I was supposed to die in that arena, but Talon and Blair spared my life. They didn't fight back, and that's a debt I'll never be able to repay. Blair willingly accepted her death, and I'm the one who took advantage of it. I killed her, and it still haunts me every night when I go to sleep, and every time I open my eyes, all I can remember is how scared I am.

I'm scared that I'll never make it out of this arena alive. I'm scared that I'll never be able to do the things I always thought I would.

An I'm absolutely terrified that I'll have to keep living life like this, if I do win. For years upon years i'll watch children go to the reapings, and two of them will never make it back. I'll never be free from this.

My little dose of freedom that I had was taken away the moment my name was drawn from the big glass bowl on the stage.

And maybe even before then.
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I submerge my hand and canteen into the slow current of the creek. Water rushes in to fill the empty spaces. Bubbles float out of the large plastic container and I pull the canteen out.

I stand up and screw the cap back on before slinging the canteen across my body.

I let out a long sigh of exhaustion. I barely slept a wink last night. But who could blame me?

After eating and drinking more of the refreshing water, I had a little more energy in me, but my feet were still dragging.

One more cannon went off today, totaling only two for the entire day. Something exciting must be happening somewhere else in the arena. There's no way the Gamemakers would let us off this easy.

I watch Dustin fill up his canteen to the brim. Harley gulps down water like she'll never drink again. She then splashes it on her face and neck to keep her cool.

She still needs a canteen. She can drink out of ours for now, and we've filled the empty cans from the dried fruit with water, but it won't last long.

The two of them meet me back by the tree after filling every container in our possession with fresh water.

"So if there's nothing in the forest or the creek," Harley starts, "And we don't want to head to the North by the careers, then should we try the hills or the ocean?"

I weigh the options. The hills probably had fresh water waiting for us when we arrive. I saw birds swinging overhead, and they have to get the water from somewhere. But there are probably several tributes wandering the hills because of necessary supplies there.

If we head to the ocean, there's no fresh water and it's on the opposite side of the arena. Our water would be long gone. We'd have to make a pit stop in the hills for it, or chance crossing the arena, another days trip, to get back here. But there are bound to be fish in the ocean not many tributes because if the lack if water.

Dustin speaks up before I can, "The hills are the only place with potentially both water and food. I say we try it."

"I agree." I say simply.

I pull out my compass from early in the day and get going.

I lead the way out of the creek and up the incline that leads out.

But just as I reach the top of the slope, I see a flash of a colored sleeve along the tree line. Then two more. And pretty soon I'm facing none other than District 11 itself.

Elphias faces me with an unreadable expression, while Wolf and Decklin stand right behind him.
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Author's Note//
Kind of a cliffhanger... but.... I don't care.
Please vote and comment (what do you think is gonna go down between District 11&12? We've reached 1.66K reads, so please keep reading to get this to 1.7K.
Next update should be soon.
Haha... I already know what's gonna happen...
And ....
Author Confession #1,2,&3
• I always knew Griffin was going to die
•I still don't know exactly how I want to end this book
•But I already know there will be NO sequel when it ends.

Xoxo, IronAbbs