The Volunteers

Chapter 5~ The Plan

A/N

I just wanted to say in case there was any confusion about Clara that I will not be using any of the same tributes that we're in the arena of the original The Hunger Games book owned by Suzanne Collins. All the tributes in this book are owned completely by me. However, all characters outside the arena will remain as the same ones in the original book owned by Suzanne Collins. (Prim, Cinna, Haymitch, Effie, etc).
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The scream is followed by a loud thud. Gale snaps his head to the side in Clara's direction, then down to the ground. I hear a faint

"Oh my god . . ."

And I squeeze his hand hard. I tentatively look at the ground where the Careers happily prance over to their first kill outside of the Cornucopia. Clara.

The light of the moon had put a spotlight over her body, almost as if we'd laid her there knowingly. She's so clear to see in the light and Gale and I hadn't even thought of it. I didn't get out on a positive note with her to begin with, but I never wished she be dead. I wouldn't ever wish such a thing on anybody. I immediately feel worried about Gale and I's exposure, but the way all of them circle around her body to gather the supplies that fell with her -if any did- without a second glance at the tree lets me know we haven't been spotted.

The sight is gruesome. Her head is surrounded by a dark pool of blood, strands of her blond hair dyed red in it. A knife is buried deep into the side of her skull. Someone who was once so beautiful, a pretty sight to see in this awful world is going to be nothing now but a forgotten piece in the Capitol's sick game. The look in Gale's eyes when I look at him lets me know he has the same expectancy.

Neither of us are sad about the loss, not even Gale. We barely knew her. We're just both scarred deeply by the bloody image of her death. I know that if one of us survives this thing, it will haunt our nightmares endlessly.

After I'm done staring at the bloody, gruesome sight, I pitch into their conversation as I stare at them.

"I don't know. She just doesn't have anything except these knives," says a male voice and I see the slightest shrug of two broad shoulders.

"Are you kidding me?!" a different male voice yells.

"Maybe they're in the tree?" a female voice suggests. The whole group turns their attention towards her, realizing that this is an accurate possibility.

"Okay, here's the deal," says what looks like the toughest guy in the group. "You," he says, pointing at the girl who recently spoke. "Climb that tree and gather what supplies Clara had. Now that she's off our list, we're going after twelve m'kay?"

"Alone?" the girl whimpers, her shoulders slumping.

"You're a Career now, aren't you." She gulps at this and nods her head.

"Clara would've done-" the tough guy turns his head angrily to the girl next to him, pointing something sharp and silver at her throat. A knife.

"Clara, wasn't cooperative. She turned on us, so she payed the price. She would not have done it. Not for us anyway," the guy corrects. She huffs and folds her arms over her chest. Then the attention is off her when the girl who was assigned climbing the tree protests by saying.

"I don't know how to climb a tree." And that's it. The guy grabs her head in his hands and snaps her neck and she falls limply to the ground. Dead, lying right next to Clara's deceased figure. I gasp quietly in the tree, my eyes widening at the innocent girl who was probably Clara's replacement and is now dead.

"Anyone else want a turn?! Huh?!" Everyone goes pale, afraid for their own safety. "She was useless! Weak! And we can't afford anyone else like that! Got it?!" he yells agitatedly.

He spins on his heel and points with his knife at the girl who he'd silenced as she tried to talk about Clara. She flinches, her eyes trained on the pointed knife dripping with bright red blood probably from a previous kill. I shudder.

"You! Climb that tree, gather the supplies. The rest of you, follow me. We're hunting twelve tonight!"

Gale and I exchange frightened glances and I shudder. The Career tributes prance off, now shouting and screaming in laughter that Clara is gone. Their first target because she turned on the group. And next is twelve. It doesn't take a genius to know that's us. I know why too. There's just one possible reason. Gale and I got high training scores. His was a ten, mine was an eleven. They think we have a chance at winning. They feel threatened. And it's an honor, really, to have intimidated them. But it won't be when I'm being lifted into the sky by a gigantic, cold, metal claw.

I gulp and glance down at the girl who scales the tree and then places her foot on a limb.

I know this is it by the look of her strong, physically fit body. She will kill one or both of us tonight. There's no doubt about it. But she hasn't spotted us yet so we have some time. I fully expect that Gale and I are about to share quiet goodbye speeches or talk about how we can kill one another quickly before she can get to us, but Gale has another idea.

"Listen to me, listen well. Unstrap yourself from the tree. I'm gonna throw my sleeping bag down, to distract her and give us more time."

I want to ask what we're about to do. I want to know what plan he has that he thinks can get us out of our deathly situation. But I don't, I just do, laying my trust that he knows what he's doing in his hands.

I see that he's already undone from his sleeping bag and holds it in his hands in a tight ball. Without a second thought, he throws it to the ground, causing the bold Career girl to climb down from the tree to examine it and even take the time to start stuffing it neatly in her bag.

When I'm completely out of mine, he moves over to my branch, sitting next to me so that we're both hidden on the opposite side of the tree that the girl is climbing. Gale then takes my sleeping bag and shoves it carelessly into his backpack while trying to make as little noise as possible. By the time he is done, we see a slender of the side of this girl's body starting to climb the tree again and he throws the straps of his backpack over his shoulders. I do the same, ready for whatever it is I'm about to have to do.

"Whatever is Clara's isn't our's anymore m'kay?" he whispers. I nod my body shakes uncontrollably from the cold and my nervousness. I feel like I could cry, but I hold back the tears. This is no time to sit and let out my emotions.

"I figure that will take the attention off us, her gathering the supplies, that is. But as soon as she gets up here, we're gonna jump and take off that way, he says, pointing ahead of us which is west." I nod at this gulping.

Before I know it, Gale and I have our hands wrapped around the tree branch, waiting for the girl to get a little higher so we can jump twenty feet from the ground. The rest of our body dangles freely in the air and when we let go, we'll be plummeting at a fast speed towards the grass. I know there's an extremely high possibility that we're going to each get injured when we hit. But I promise myself that if I do then no matter how bad the pain, I will run anyways and deal with it later. The thought of dying now is unbearable. I don't wanna die until the end if Gale and I are final two. When I'm guaranteed at least he will be going home to feed our families. Then my thoughts are interrupted by Gale's faint whisper.

"On three, you ready?" I nod my head, swallowing hard. Although I could never be ready for this. I'd fallen twenty feet from a tree before, but not voluntarily. And something about doing it purposefully is scarier. Because you know you're about to send yourself down a far distance with the possibility of severe injury or death. But it doesn't matter because I know if I don't die this way, I'll be dying a worse way.

"One," he begins.

I inhale a deep breath.

"Two,"

I exhale it.

"Three!"

I close my eyes and let go.