Let the Games begin

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

I opened my eyes and yawned. It had been about a week since Mitch and I met, and we still were together. At first, it was a little bit awkward, he was still calling me sweetheart and I first didn't want him as an ally. But now, I was happy to be with him. I was still not used to be called sweetheart, but I could tolerate it. We also talked a lot about our old life : I learnt he was the oldest child in his family : he had two baby sisters who were twins and both of his parents were working in the mines all day long. I after told him about Jake and what happened in District 2 during the dark days. We cried, laughed, and as ironic as it was, we even had fun! But the most important thing about that, was that we protected each other. I cared about him. He cared about me. I wanted him to go home. He wanted me to go home.

He was my friend.

I looked around me and noticed I was alone with my bags. Wait, alone? Where was Mitch? I got up and searched for him.

"Mitch! Where are you?" I whispered. No answers. I ran and explored around to find where we were, but didn't find anyone. Did he run away? Did he get tired of me and decided to go by his own while I was sleeping? I walked back to where I slept earlier. I still tried to be as quiet as I could, because any other tributes still alive could be there, ready to jump and kill me. I took a last look around me and turned around, to be facing the direction where my shelter and things were. My bags. I sprinted and saw him. His back was facing me and had short black hair.

"Get off my things!" I screamed, running into him, my little knife in my hand. He turned and I noticed he was not older than fifteen year old.

"It's not your things. It can be anybody's." He spitted back. I already disliked him.

"I'll let you ten seconds to get out of here, if you don't, i'll kill you." I promised.

"You kidding me?" He laughed, walking toward me. "You think that with your little knife, you will be able to kill me? Well, go ahead."

"I don't want to kill you. God, i'm letting you the chance to run away, why don't you take the chance like others would?" I whined. He started to get a little bit annoying, and I just wanted it to end. In fact, I needed Mitch to end it. He would probably have an idea to stop all of this.

"Because i'm not a scared little girl like you. I know how to kill, and I sure will if you don't let me take your bags." He said.

"I'm not sure of that." I heard, in the background. I searched for the person who said that and got eyes to eyes with Mitch. I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Mitch!" I cried out, running toward him. He opened his arms and I hugged him. "I searched for you everywhere. I was scared you would've abandonned me." I admitted.

"No, I would never abandon you sweetheart. I was just searching for food." He responded.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your cute little moment, lovers, but we're not finished." The guy stated.

"God, go find other tributes to annoy. And by the way, you pratically have the bags in your hands, if you really wanted them, why didn't you just run ten minutes ago?" I asked, not caring about any other things than being in the arms of Mitch.

"Good idea. Goodbye." He said, before running away. Even if a part of wanted to let him go, my survival needs took over. I quickly took my little knife that was in my pocket and threw it at the other tribute, the way Carrie showed me at the training center. It hit him right in the back and he felt. A cannon went off, signaling his death. Mitch took my hand and we ran to take back our bags.

"Wow, I didn't know you could do that. He was far away from us. Who did teach you that?" Mitch asked, verifying if everything were in the bags. I bit my lips and sighed.

"Carrie." I whispered. He froze and turned to face me.

"I- I didn't know, i'm sorry." He muttered.

"No, i'm sorry. It was also your friend. It must be very hard for you too." I said. He didn't answer. He just continued to check our packages.

"We're lucky, nothing's been eaten." He stated, clearly changing the subject. I ignored and smiled.

"That's great." I cheered up. "So, did you find any food earlier?"

"No. That's weird. Have you noticed that there were no animals?" He asked. I thought and approved. It was true, all I saw was snow and ice. We were in a winter wonderland. But there was surely something. They couldn't let us here without nothing to comestible, right?

Yes, they could.

"I don't know what to do. We still have some things to eat, but we'll get through it soon. It has already been a couple of days that we're eating only small portion, and there's not much left." He announced.

"True." I nodded. "I guess we're on a diet now." I joked. He muttered something but I couldn't catch it. "What?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing." He answered. I was about to ask more, but finally let it go when I saw a big black coat in the back. Another tribute.

"Should we kill him or her?" He asked.

"Totally. As you said, we can't live much with our food." We walked toward the tribute, but I stopped when we were closer. I knew him. It was Collins.

"God, he's not dead!" I spitted, clearly annoyed.

"I guess not." Mitch stated. Collins looked healed and he was walking with a long spear in his hand, ready to fight whoever would meet him.

"How did he heal so fast?" I whispered.

"Sponsors." Mitch immediatly answered. "He surely has a lot of them, and when they saw that he was dying, they sent him a few things." I looked back to him and saw something I didn't see earlier : a bag full of fishes.

"How didn't I think of that earlier!" I said, still keeping it quiet. "Our shelter was close of a river and there surely are fishes." I stated. Mitch smiled at me and passed his hand through my hair.

"Did I tell you how much you were intelligent sweetheart?" He teased. I laughed and we both got up, walking quietly away, as far as we could get from him. We heard another cannon, and I smiled, even if it wasn't Collins who was dead. I smiled because there were now five tributes left.

Maybe, I could get Mitch home.