Together Again

Chapter 9: The Games (Birch PoV)

(Quick A.N. So the next few chapters may be Birch's PoV, just letting you all know in case that does happen. But it also may not. I haven't decided yet. It also depends on where I stop for the chapter! Thank you all for reading! Also voting and commenting, it means a lot!)

I sprinted off my platform. I ran to the pile that I had been looking at. I grabbed the knives and whirled around. I kneed a boy in that area. He doubled over in pain and I duck to avoid a rogue spear.
It hits the boy in the arm and he screams. I resist the urge to drop my knives and cover my ears. "DO IT! PLEASE! JUST DO IT! YOU'RE A CAREER! DO IT! I NEVER WANTED THIS!" He screams at me.
I look away and flick my knife. BOOM! I hear the cannon and out of the corner of my eye I see something and duck. I drop my knife and grab the persons arm. I twist it and they grit their teeth in pain after letting out a stream of curses.
I punch and hit them in the jaw. They shake their head and I kick the back of their knee, they fall to the ground. After that, I kick them in the back of the neck. They're out cold. I know it. I quickly grab the backpack. I steal the smaller bag. I realize that the other thing was a sleeping bag folded up with stuff inside it.
I don't even bother counting the cannon shots anymore. I know at least one is dead. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I gulp and feel myself get tackled. I roll over and grab a knife. I push it into the persons side. They groan in pain and I push them off.
I look and see that it's the one I knocked out. It's a girl. I don't remember her district. It clicks. She's from 5. I grunt and kick her stomach. She falls onto her back. I walk over and push my foot into her stomach. She groans.
"Stop! Stop! Stop it! Make it stop! Make it stop!" She yells in-between sobs. I shudder at the thought. I hesitate. She puts her bloody hand above my hand. She guides it to her heart and pushes down. I scream and scramble back, not being able to hear a cannon.
Granted, not that I would be able to anyone. There's too much noise. Too much. Too much screaming. Too much crying. Too much begging. Too much sobbing.
"BIRCH!" I hear someone yell. I look and see Marble. I jump up and look around. I see the girl from 5 and the boy from earlier. I look a little closer and see he was the male from 5. I scream and fall to my knees. I did this. I did it. I'm a murderer.
District 5 probably hates me. I sob and start choking up. Marble runs over. He grabs my hand. He pulls me up. "We gotta go. Now! Birch! Come on! We have to go!" He yells. I don't move. He puts me on his back. He grabs some sleeping bags and small packs.
He starts jogging and I hold onto him. I sob into his back. He stops and looks around. He sets me down and sits down next to me. He rubs my back. "Shhh. Shhh. It's ok. It's ok. It's gonna be ok. We'll be ok. We'll be fine," he whispers to me.
I rub my eyes. I slowly stop sobbing and start crying silently. I look around. We're in a jungle? I look for the other careers. "Wh-where ar-are they?" I hiccup. He smiles at me. "We don't need them. We'll be fine on our own." "They'll kill us the first chance they get Marble!" I say louder than I meant to.
He shrugs. "I'll protect you. I made a promise. I'm not going to break it. I promise. Besides," he says. "We're smarter than all of them put together. Right?" I nod. "Yeah. We are. Now," I say clapping my hands together softly. "Let's look for a good camping spot. How about over there?" I say, pointing to a little clearing with big tall trees surrounding it.
He nods. "Perfect. We can put some traps on the ground. We can sleep in the trees, but make it look like we're on the ground or something. We can try to scout from the trees. They can hide us easily. Besides," he adds. "It'll be fun. And it should be relatively easy to do. Right?"
I smile and nod. "Right! Now, I'm gonna need you to help me carry all this stuff to the clearing. I'll get this stuff," I say pointing to some packs and my knives. He nods and salutes. "Aye aye Captain!" I laugh and he smiles. We carry our small amount of things. We set it all down.
I look and spot some vines. "Traps. Hmmm. Let's see. We can have a net or two, trip wire, or anything else we think of. Right?" I say, pointing to the veins. He nods. "Right." I clap my hands. "Get me some veins and keep bringing me more. We gotta get this set up. And soon," I say, trying to see the sky.
We get to work. I use different knots to hide the traps in different areas. We make the tripwires a star. In the center, the net will come down on at least a few people. Maybe more, maybe less. We high five. We start climbing. We find a hole in a tree right by some sturdy branches.
"How about here?" I check the branches and inside the hole. I shrug. "Why not? We can put our weapons and stuff on the hole and cover it up, but make sure we remember where it is. We can sleep on the branches in the sleeping bags," I say.
He nods. "Let's look at what we have first." I nod. In the end, we have 3 sleeping bags, 1 extra jacket, a few sleeves of crackers, 3 empty water bottles, 4 full water bottles, some jerky, a few pieces of bread, a lot of daggers and knives, which I'm kinda excites about, 1 axe, 2 spears, 6 extra spear heads, and last but not least, a water purifier. We also have rope, string, some wooden staff things, and
We high five. "Nice!" We say at the same time before bursting out laughing. I watch as he lays out the sleeping bags. He lays leaves down under them so you can't see them, but we can see down. He makes me sleep so he can have the first watch.
I slowly drift off to a light sleep. I look up once I hear the Panem National Anthem. I look up. I gasp. I see that the female from 3 died. I watch and see the tributes from 5. I choke back a sob.
Marble rubs my back. "You only killed one. The girl did herself. You had to. You needed your knife," he whispers, hugging me. I nod and watch. The male from 6. The male from 7. The female from 9. Both from 10. Both from 11. And last, both from 12.
I gasp. I'm horrified. I might have to kill Marble.