FOUL GAME | the hunger games

01- BRAVERY.

BRAVERY.

The forest is as green as it has always been, with the same sounds of chirping birds a sounf of freedom. The little lake can be heard from some feet away even thought it's a calm afternoon, and I can almost completely ignore the situation I am in. I can almost pretend that I am flying, far away, just like a bird. I've trained myself hard enough so I could make as little sound as possible while running in the forest, and the sound is so minimal I can't percibe my legs. I fly away, and I do it fast. But just as I reach the point where I am completely lost in my own reality, something hits me from behind, making me come back to life.

I turn around and to my surprise, I may not be as good as I think I am.

"Fucking hell, careful Fred!" I say when I almost can't dodge the fist punch he is directing straight into my face.

"If you wanna win, you'll need this combat. Carry-" he starts complaining to me, but I shut him up before he can finish his sentence by kicking him on his stomach, making him fall to the ground.

I take this as an advantage to run. He has a bag with him, we use it as practice. I step on his wrist and place my other feet on his throat, without pressing too much. His hand hugs my ankle with his fingers and I know I am trapped. I hit him with the bag I've just stole from him on the face, making him let go off my knee, and I run as fast as I can, stopping after less than 10 metres.

"Good job!" He claps once he stands up. "Amazing hand to hand combat. I'm proud."

I go back to him and hug him. Frederick Lancaster, district 5. Winner of the 68th hunger games. That's how the rest of Panem knows him as. But, for me, he is just Fred. My best friend. 

Our families have been friends forever. So it was just about right for us to become best friends as well. We used to be neighbours until he had to move. Move to the Victors Ville.

It's not that we always wanted to go to the hunger games. We never did. But we were scared. Really scared. And so was everyone else, but we never liked that word. We never wanted to be the ones to feel fear. We wanted to be feared. So once we turned 10, we started training for them. Just in case, you know. We started training like career tributes. And our district was the best for it. We have the ocean, we have the woods, we can train everywhere. District Five's security also helps. In a district where peacekeepers do their best to be peaceful, they never said anything when they saw us sneak through the electric fence. It was never electrified anyways, and sometimes once they knew about what we were doing, they would open the door themselves.

Even though we are practically not career tributes, this past year I've been training like one. Everything turned around for us almost a year ago, on last year's reaping.

We had as many chances as everyone our age would have. Fred was 17 at the time. He had his name six times only. I had mine four, I was fifteen at the moment. We were both as surprised as each other. But I knew Fred wasn't scared. We had trained for this moment, we had knowledge. Every year, the games were something we watched and studied.  We knew exactly what to do. And I knew Fred was ready.