Humanity- A Hunger Games fanfic

Part 18- Fire

We bid each other goodbye and have two packs each. We'll be onto the finale soon with 5 left, and all that. I'll be all good with my strategy if whatever it is can't climb. Again, nothing happens the rest of the day, so i mostly sit on the beach, sobbing silently, although i stay alert. I can't be reckless anymore, this isn't a fun beach trip. I know that now. I go to sleep, my eyes welling up again and it really doesn't help when Mars comes up in the sky at night, destroying my plan for an early night's sleep. A plan I admittedly came up with on the spot, but a plan nevertheless.

In the packs are lots of water, food, a tent, a sleeping bag, matches, and a practical knife. This really would change the odds, at least in surviving. No good weapons, though, but I have plenty. And axes, spears, swords, and bows wouldn't fit all in one, as there's no customisation in it.

Nothing happens the whole day. How long has it been in here now? I count it up on my fingers. This is the 8th day. The longest in my entire life. 8 days doesn't sound that long, but it certainly feels like it, especially when 3 friends have died, I've killed 3 people, I've almost been killed a few times, and I'm in a game where, to win, you just have to not die. And not dying is a lot harder than it sounds when only one child can not die. I'm still a child, too, technically, anyway. It doesn't feel like it. I feel older than my Gramps in a wheelchair. He never had to kill anyone, anyway. Besides, why is this legal? Or more like, why isn't murder illegal normally? It makes no sense why it would be legal as a child in an enclosed space, but not as an adult in any space. People look at them with disgust, fear them, but congratulate the victors and look up to them? I hate early humans for leaving us in this society, we have no moral code anymore, and Panem was already messed up enough, with 13 districts, each larger than you in every way, fuelling one little city, not getting much of it back for themselves. No wonder there was a rebellion 80-something years ago. A rebellion that started the hunger games, leading me to the sucky place I am now. I don't know who to believe anymore, who to trust, who to side with. We should just almost wipe ourselves out like the human race before us so we can re adjust our morals as human beings. It would make sense. We could stop having kids so they run out of candidates, and it would cause us to die out.

This is all i think about as i finally fall asleep as the birds begin to tweet and the Mockingjays whistle tunes they picked up. I'm asleep for what I can guess is about 5 hours until the smell of smoke awakens me. I look out and a wall of fire is descending upon me.

~

I pack up at lightning speed and start running. I don't know where I'm going as i don't have time to look at the sun and my sense of direction is messed up thanks to the adrenaline. Adrenaline can be useful sometimes, but other times it's not, and I just have to pray this isn't heading towards the force field. I'm relying on my legs to carry me where i need to go and not my brain, plus it certainly doesn't help that a bag is on me, containing my entire key to survival.

I'm running and running and I won't and can't stop. If i die, it won't be burning to death, it'll be quicker. I'll make sure of it, but for now, I just need to not die. As I'm running, I realise how thirsty I am. I need water now or I might just pass out. I take the chance of slowing down to get a drink, and I run along holding a canister up to my lips, spilling water everywhere but managing to get hydrated. The water clears my mind and I can tell where I am. I should be in the center of the woods by now, maybe a little closer to the beach as i didn't go far, running towards the mountain, which means I should run diagonally to get to water quicker. This, of course, is risky as I could be wrong, but I'd prefer death by force field to death by slowly burning up in fire.

I start running at a good angle, my legs going faster than they ever had. I can feel the heat next to me, encouraging me to run faster. There's adrenaline once again running through my system, fuelling me, and I don't know when it will run out. I'm losing my breath as the fire almost tickles me, but slowing down won't help a thing, and no matter what happens I need to keep running. I can just glimpse the water, and, using my last bit of energy run towards it, tumbling onto the beach.

I see the tall grass island is also up in flames and wonder what they're going to do about the arena. In earlier games Panem would wake up and it would be like any fires never happened. Unless the fire caused a victory, of course. After laying there for a few seconds, a cannon goes off. I see the hovercraft pick up the body and I swim forwards and squint, trying to see closer. The body has nasty burn marks and flaming red hair. Evangeline. I feel a lurch in my stomach when I see her, thinking about how painful burning to death would be. How she didn't deserve it. But as much as i hate it, and hate the mindset, one down, three more until home.

I stay on the beach and in the water until the sun sets and Evangeline comes up in the sky, when I put up a tent, get as many layers as physically possible, and sleep. I know I'll need all the sleep I can get, as the next few days, we're due a finale before anyone else dies.