The 65th Hunger Games - EDITING

Chapter twenty-three

"We should go back; it must be around six and we're an hour or so away."

"But we haven't caught anything or seen anything for that matter." says Adenias, looking up at the trees where birds are chirping.

He's right. We can hear them flying from one branch to another and chase each other around, but we can't see them. We know they're there, but we can't catch them; they stay out of reach. I wonder if they stay up in the trees to try and catch the little bit of heat coming from the hidden sun. I take a look at the clouds, trying to determine where the sun is in the sky, only to realize that Adenias couldn't have been righter when he said that he didn't think the sun was ever going to show up. There is no sun. What I thought to be a dull plain sky covered with clouds is simply a void that's only light is artificially provided. This is much worse than I thought.

"You saw it too, didn't you?" he asks in a dejected tone. "If I knew that I would never feel the sun on my skin ever again, you bet that I would have made the most of the little time I had to enjoy it."

"Why did you let everyone believe it was just clouds if you knew about it?"

"Hope, I guess."

I turn my head to look at him. His face is still pointing towards the sky as he continues to stare into the emptiness. He's right; I got to give him that. Knowing that I might never see the sun again sucked out something in me. It made me realize that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that the Capitol cannot take away from me, not even the sun.

"Do you think the others realized it too?"

"If they have, they kept it for themselves and if they haven't, they're going to figure it out pretty soon. Let's just let them enjoy the thought that the sun is hiding behind the clouds a little longer before they find out that a memory is all they have left of it." he says, thoughtful.

He looks briefly at the sky for one last time before pulling himself back together and starting to walk towards where we left our allies.

After forty minutes of doing small talk as we walk, I feel like he's finally starting to open up and be more comfortable around me, something that I never thought was possible. He doesn't answer angrily at every question I ask or look at me exasperatedly every time I open my mouth to speak anymore and I consider this a small victory. Of course, I'm not trying to become his friend, but if I'm going to put my life into his hand, I need him to feel like he can do the same, at least for a little while. I still feel pretty bad about what I said earlier and I think that now would be the right time to say sorry. I stop, immediately imitated by him. He looks at me, confused as to why I ceased walking.

"I'd like to apologize to you. I didn't mean what I said when we were fighting, you know. You're part of the team and you're just as important as everyone else. We need you."

He doesn't answer, but I can see in his eyes that he's grateful and that he's sorry too. Then, all of a sudden, his expression changes to a scared and alert one. When the second cannon go off, we both start running. It doesn't take long before our surroundings become familiar again. We pass the tree where Cedar's District partner died as a hovercraft flies over our head. We follow it, trying to go as fast as we can but when we arrive, we know it's too late. Our things are not there anymore and judging by the fruits that are still on the ground, they left in a hurry.

"They went that way!"

I don't question him; we don't have time for that. We continue to run until Adenias can't follow their trail anymore. Out of anger, he punches the tree in front of him, cutting his hand on the rough bark.

"We should leave, the killer might still be sticking around." he says, holding his injured hand.

"There were only two shots, one of them might still be alive." I whisper in protest.

"And what if someone turned against the others and kill them while we were away? That's a possibility!" he replies angrily. "Then the only thing we would find is a killer."

"Adenias? Finnick?"

We turn around, trying to locate the provenance of the voice we both recognized.

"Viviana?"

"Over here!"

I finally see her head peeking out of the ground five meters away. She emerges out of the hole, soon followed by Cedar and then Anthos. He looks a lot better than earlier, but the run has drained all of his energy.

"We thought someone killed you! When the hovercraft stopped so close to us, we started running, afraid we'd be next. How did you find us?" asks Cedar.

"You left a trail so we followed it." replies Adenias.

It was the first words he said to him since their fights and everyone seems surprised at the sound of his voice.

"How big is it down there?" he asks, trying to break the awkwardly growing silence.

"Not big enough for all of us. It would've made a great spot to spend the night otherwise." answers Viviana, frustrated.

"Speaking of that, let's go back to where we were to take the berries and then find a place to stay before it's too dark." says Anthos.

We all agree and less than thirty minutes later, our bags are filled with the berries, fruits and flowers that they gathered while we were trying to hunt. We walk a mile further before stopping and settling down. We could have continued to walk just to be safe, but it's clear that Anthos needed a break. Against a rock, we put down some leaves and remove the tree roots coming out of the ground. We try to make it as comfortable as possible. It is going to be a very long night. 

*** Do you guys want to know the title of the second book or do you want to wait until I publish the first chapter once I've posted all parts of The 65th Hunger Games? ***