Storm: A Hunger Games Story {Book One of the Storm Trilogy}

Seven

"She's waking up!" I heard a voice say. My eyes opened to reveal Aaron and Hazel staring at me. I rubbed my eyes and noticed the pain on my hand and neck.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We got stung by Tracker Jackers. I got stung once, you got stung twice." Aaron replied. I looked around and saw we were in a cave. It's ironic how just a few nights ago, Aaron and I were talking about the first time we got stung by a bee. Now, here we are in the Hunger Games getting attacked by Tracker Jackers.

"How long ago?"

"Five hours maybe." I tried to remember the events leading up to this. It was the second day. We were still alive.

"We need to find some sort of herb or leaf to heal the stings. Maybe some lavender." I began to get up but my body was too weak, and I fell back down.

"Lay back down, Ophelia." Aaron told me. Just then, we heard another parachute.

"I'll get it." Hazel said, grabbing her ax. She slowly made her way out of the cave and retrieved the parachute. She opened it, and inside was medicine for the stings.

"There's a note from your mentor." She handed me the slip of paper while Aaron applied the medicine to my neck.

Hope you feel better soon. - W

I slipped the note into my backpack along with the first one, and helped Aaron apply the medicine to his sting. Within seconds, our stings were gone.

"If only we had stuff like this at home." Aaron said. I agreed. Medicine is rare to have back home.

"We shouldn't stay here long. We should probably leave in an hour or so." I suggested. Hazel and Aaron agreed with me.

I sat on the cold, hard ground of the cave, taking the last day and a half in. It all feels so unreal, but real at the same time. I wondered if Wes was getting us some sponsors right now. I wondered if my family was watching.

An hour passed, and we were all feeling better thanks to the medicine we got. We gathered our things, and made our way out of the cave. It was mid-afternoon, and the sun was bright.

"I wonder if there's anyone who went to the beach." I wondered aloud.

"Doubt it. It's so open, anyone who went there would be found." Hazel replied. The woods were surprisingly quiet. The only sounds we heard were the crunching of leaves under our feet, and the chirping of birds. That's why it was so frightening when we heard screaming. We all stopped and looked at each other. The screaming was just ahead of us, and that's the direction we planned on going.

"Well, there's three of us. I doubt it's the careers. We would've heard them cheering each other on by now. Let's just go see who it is." Hazel told us. She started to walk towards the screaming, and in my head I started to question her. Maybe Hazel isn't a good ally for us. Disregarding her strange decision, we follow behind her.

We stopped behind a large tree when we saw who was fighting. It was Galen, the boy from Nine. He was fighting with the girl from Eleven.

"He could be a good ally." Aaron says from beside me.

"You're right." I say. Without missing a beat, Aaron runs over and starts to help Galen defeat the girl. I was in such shock, I didn't move. It was so unlike him that it startled me to the core. Was this the same Aaron that was crying last night because he killed someone? Now he's helping someone who is basically a stranger to kill someone else?

I stood in horror, watching the two of them finish her off. Her cannon went off, and I jumped at the sound of it. What the hell was that?

"I didn't need your help." I heard Galen say, with a slight edge to his voice. Immediately, I stepped in and stood by Aaron.