Of Victors and Tributes

Chapter 17: Return to the Cornucopia

We get moving early the next morning, polishing off a raccoon that was crawling around the caves and got snatched up by Axel's snares. All of us are still hungry, unfortunately, but we've become low on greens and everyone is eyeing them apprehensively.

"Let's eat them," Meadow decides, and starts dividing them up. "After we take out the Careers' food, we'll gather more. We should probably move our camp too, we don't want to stay in one place for too long."

"Why move camp?" Axel asks, taking a pile of roots and stems and flowers. I take my own pile, shoving the tart flowers in my mouth.

"What if they see one of us run back here and figure out where the camp is? They'll know it was us the moment we knock their stuff into the fire and they notice it's gone," Fairlie says, agreeing with Meadow. The girls get along swimmingly, much to my pleasure, but I worry about the plan Meadow and I have tentatively made. After the Careers's food is gone, we decided to split off from the other two, if we're all still alive. Is she going to be willing to leave Fairlie? Will Fairlie track us down and want to come back? Or even worse, will Axel find us, too?

The thoughts press against my mind, adding to the anxiety of our daring plan. Four of us against five of them, albeit split up, but still, the fear sticks. My heart pounds, blood pumping, and we've only just started packing up our bags. We only have three bags, but we take what was ours to begin with, meaning Meadow and I have two bags compared to Axel and Fairlie's one. This makes me feel better about Meadow and I leaving, especially when Meadow points out that Axel is in possession of the knife that stabbed my back, and is technically ours. He hands it over without question, but his eyes flicker. He holds the not-knife, not-sword blade.

Each of us has a weapon. Fairlie her darts, Axel his blade, me my sword, and Meadow her dagger. I wish that Meadow would take my sword so she wouldn't have to get so close to an opponent to fight, but she insists I'm better with the sword. Here is the plan that we have formulated to destroy the Careers' things:

Axel will be sent off a few miles, into the woods, and set a fire with greenwood to make as much smoke as possible, luring in either a pair or all of the Careers. Fairlie will go the opposite direction, but go to the space where trees are beginning to sprout but the grasslands are still running the place. After a few minutes allowing the Careers to be near her but closer to Axel, she decides that she'll scream, like she's been attacked or something, and hopefully half the Career pack will split off to head towards her. They should reach Fairlie and Axel at the same time, but by then me and Meadow will have bypassed them and gone to whoever is left guarding the supplies. Hopefully only one– most likely only one since whenever we climb a tree to check only one of them is left to guard– will be there and Meadow and I can kill them. Then we'll push their stuff into the fire and escape.

We figure, since it seems the Careers haven't had a kill lately, they'll be itching to get involved in whatever Axel and Fairlie are doing. The plan is still extremely dangerous though, and could end horribly, but we have to take that chance. If we don't get rid of their stuff, the Careers will dominate and none of us will have a chance at being victors.

"We'll meet here afterwards," I say, "and then we'll move camp for the night. Sound good?"

"What if something goes wrong? What if one of us gets hurt or caught?" Fairlie asks. I consider this, but come up with nothing.

"Sing to the mockingjays," Meadow suggests. She sings a chord from the song she sang the other night, and the songbirds pick it up. "Just sing it if something goes wrong. Loudly."

"What, and every mockingjay in the arena will pick it up?" Axel says.

"Oh, sorry, did you have an idea?" I ask him pointedly. He does not respond, but crosses his arms moodily. We practice singing the line.