Wave ~ Hunger Games [1]

forty-two

+ projections +

We all sat in silence as Ridley cut off the head of a fish, using a large rock to balance it against as he swung his machete at it. We had found a very small pond that had a few smaller fish swimming in it, only enough for a few mouthfuls each, but it was a lot better than nothing. The sun was already going down, and we couldn't risk building a fire in the night, as it would make us a sitting duck for someone to find us and kill all three of us.

I had looked over the fish for 10 minutes after I caught him, making sure the gills weren't red and that I recognised them from back home before I deemed them edible. "Here" Ridley said as he passed me another body of a fish, making me hold my knife in my hand as I skinned it, scrapping off the scales to reveal the raw white flesh that would be our dinner.

"You're sure right?" Fuse asked me as he held one of the bodies in his hand, the tail still intact as he looked up at me. Ridley walked over, tossing the two fish heads back into the pond as kneeled down next to the two of us. "I've seen them at the harbours before" I said as I looked over to Ridley for some confirmation, even though he was looking at me a bit hesitantly. "Auqa catches them i'm sure" he said as he looked over at Fuse, giving him a reassuring nod as Fuse looked over at me quickly.

"You go first" Fuse said to me with a small smile as I let out a small laugh, putting my knife down on the ground as I lifted up the fish. I took a bite of the flesh, tearing it off of the bone as I chewed it slowly, the raw fish taste sticking into my mouth. "It tastes like a raw fish" I said through my mouthful of fish, holding it by the tail and passing it over to Ridley, who took it from me easily.

Fuse was still looking at me cautiously as I swallowed it, Ridely taking a bite as well as he nodded his head over to Fuse. Fuse nodded his head as he took a bite from his own piece, chewing it slowly as he screwed up his face, not used to the slimy texture of raw fish meat. "Do you only eat fish in 4?" Fuse asked as he covered his mouth, trying hard not to gag up the fish that he was trying to force down. "From the lakes, yeah" Ridley replied, nodding his head as he took another bite of the fish before passing it back to me.

"Not from the boats, that all gets shipped up here" he added as I tore off a piece with my fingers, putting it into my mouth and nodding my head in agreement, knowing that we weren't allowed to even touch the fish that came from the boats. "What's 3 like?" I asked, looking at Ridley and holding up the fish, asking if he wanted it to which he shook his head, sitting down and holding one of his knees to his chest. "It's not much" Fuse replied with a small shake of his head, looking down at the fish as he grimaced through another mouthful.

"There's lots of factories so the air quality isn't the best but I mean, everyone almost works in a factory anyway" he said with a small shrug, letting out a sigh as he held the fish away from him, chewing slowly with a funny look on his face. "This is probably the cleanest air I've ever breathed" he said, looking around quickly as both Ridley and I stared over at him. "The trees and everything" he added as I nodded my head, looking down at my fish as I pulled the backbone out, throwing it to the ground as I tore another chunk of meat off.

"What's the industry like?" I asked him quietly, wondering how the job market worked in other districts. We never get to talk to people in the other Districts, the only word we get being rumours and stories that had been passed down through generations about what life was like outside of your home District. Dad has told me that in District 7 they build small houses in large trees for kids to play in, having way too much wood and not enough uses for it.

"You start working at 16" Fuse replied, pulling me out of my small trance as I looked back over at him. "Never really stop" he added, shaking his head as I held the fish out to Ridley again, knowing that he was going to deny it and let me have it anyway. "I can't eat anymore, nausea" I said to him with a shrug as he stared at the fish briefly before taking it from me. I rubbed my fingers on the legs off my wetsuit, even though the smell was probably going to stick to my skin for the next few days now.

"Housing?" I asked Fuse, letting out a small sigh as I pushed a piece of my hair behind my ear, having taken out the small braids and using one of the bands to tie my hair back messily and away from my dirty and bloody face. "The families aren't too big so we have blocks of smaller housing" Fuse told me, putting his fingers in his mouth and pulling out a small stray bone, flicking it onto the ground as she shook his head, still not enjoying the fish. "We don't get electricity 3 days of the week, we call them the Gloom" he told me as both Ridley and I looked over at him, an innocent look on his face as I looked at Ridley quickly.

"Why not?" he asked as Fuse let out a small sigh, hunching his shoulders over a little bit as she tried to shake his hair away from his forehead. "Those are the days that all the machines are working in the factories so it takes up all the electricity in the grid for the district" he explained to us, leaving a moment of silence between us as we all stared at each other, waiting for someone else to talk.

"So you don't use the machines all the time?" I asked, always having assumed that all the tech was completely made by machines at this point. We saw on the news the amount of stuff that was being carted out of each district, and by the look of all of the products that were coming out of 3 it seemed like way too much for people to be making by hand. "Most of everything is hand made" Fuse told us with another small shrug of his shoulders, about to open his mouth to add more as he got interrupted.

The anthem started playing loudly, drowning out our conversation as it halted, all of our eyes looking up through a gap in the trees to the sky. The fallen tributes didn't normally show up until later on into the night, but I was almost positive that the game makers weren't happy with our choice of conversation. We were probably talking way too much about home for their liking, the watchers hearing way too much about what the other districts were like, which was strictly forbidden within Panem.

I stared up at the logo, holding the fish tail still in my hand as a familiar face showed up on the projection, making me furrow my eyebrows. Valour's face was shining through the clear sky, his jaw clenched much like it always was. "What?" I said under my breath as I watched the picture fade into a girl, not looking at her district as I looked down at the ground. Valour was dead.

"Someone killed him?" I asked as the anthem stopped, the chirps and the clicks of the animals filling the arena once again. "They could have easily teamed up and killed him" Fuse said quietly as I looked up at him, shrugging my shoulders quickly as I turned back to look up to the sky once again. "Maybe even in his sleep" Ridley added, Fuse making a small noise of agreement before taking another bite of his fish quickly as I continued to stare at the ground in front of me.

3 out of the 5 career pack were left.

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A/N: hello here's another filler chapter, I promise that there will be some more exciting ones coming up soon so just sit tight
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to like and comment and I will hopefully see you soon