The 65th Hunger Games - EDITING

Chapter forty-two

I look at the smoke rising in the air from the tree I climbed in. I drink the last few sips of water before throwing the bottle as far as I can, which triggers the vines. I stop moving, waiting for them to release me. The net is resting on my legs, carefully spread, ready to be thrown. I quickly gave up the idea of creating a trap; it was way too hard and too long to make it withoutAdenias to help me. Instead, I created two distinct paths going in two opposite directions in the hopes of them splitting up if they come together. If only one of the Careers came, they're either going to take the same direction as me or they'll take the wrong one and eventually come back after losing the track. That is, of course, if everything happens the way I want it to happen. It has already been 50 minutes or so since I lit the fire. I will soon know whether my plan worked or not.

The vines from the tree have already given up on me and stopped wrapping around my legs and chest. The only thing that could potentially trigger them is my heart that seems to want to come out of my ribcage as the minutes go on. It's taking too long and every minute that passes only confirms that something went wrong. Questions start flowing in my mind. Is it my fault? Did I do everything right? Did I make the path clear enough? They should have been here already. What if they don't show up? What if they find another tribute on their way and stop looking for me? Can they even see all the smoke from where they are? There are so many things that could go have went wrong in my plan that can't believe I ever thought this was a great idea. I feel like I took all the wrong decisions. The odds of them acting like I predicted were pretty low anyway. I should get down and find another way to get out of here.

I take a big breath and try to move a little. Instantly, the vines start again their ascension on my legs. Frustrated, I stop moving and continue to look at the ground, twenty feet down. Right under me is the path I left for them. I made sure to cut some small branches, as if I was trying to go through the dense vegetation and break some twigs too. If someone walks there, I can easily drop the net over their head, signing their death warrant.

When I hear the familiar sound of someone walking on the dried leaves, I stop breathing. Could it have worked? My heart is beating so fast it hurts. I slowly look down at the direction the sound came from and see the girl from one walking towards my position, a cruel grin on her lips. She has a sharp knife in her hands and she's clearly ready to use it. I touch my trident with the tip of my finger, as if it was going to help me feel safer. The weapon is resting between my legs, ready to be grabbed. The girl is walking slowly, observing the unknown surroundings. She carefully places one foot in front of the other, clearly unsure. She probably doesn't feel comfortable away from the safety that her peers provide. She stops right under the branch where I'm seating. She keeps looking anxiously around, as if something was going to jump out of any bush. Too bad she didn't look up.

She drops on the ground as soon as the net touches her, maybe in a last attempt to avoid the deadly trap. She screams and tries to wiggle her way out. Her attempt at breaking free only makes it worse, but she doesn't realize it and continue to fight harder. I drop my backpack on the ground and start my descent. When I reach a lower branch, half way from my goal, I decide to jump off. The vines are getting very annoying and soon the knife won't be enough to cut them off. I let my trident fall on the bed of dead leaves and grip the branch with both my hands to lower myself as much as possible. The height from which I have to jump off is greatly reduced and I have no problem landing on both of my feet. I remember Cedar telling us about people getting injured over smaller jumps and such a thing could represent the end for me.

"Colt!" she screams when I approach her, my trident in hands. "Colt! Help!"

When she realises there is no way out of here, her screams quickly turn into some sort of pleading shriek. The vines reach her neck and start tightening around it. As I raise my trident over my head, I catch a glimpse of her eyes. She's scared, just like any prey I've ever caught. She's just another victim, another prey. I can do this. I have to do this. When the trident pierces her flesh and finds its way to her heart, she lets out a small squeak. As soon as I finally hear the sound of the canon, I remove my trident from her chest in a rapid and precise motion. It was no harder than removing a fish from the tip of my preferred weapon. The worst part is that it was no harder than killing a fish either. I pick up a leaf on the ground and start removing the blood from the cold metal.

I hear a sound coming from behind me. Before I can even analyze the situation, the now clean trident has already left my hand. The boy continues to look at me while he falls to the ground. I can see that he has a hard time breathing and that he's coughing blood, but every inch of my body restrains me from walking over to him to end his suffering. I turn my back on him and start looking for the girl's token, trying to ignore the weird gurgling sound coming out of him every time he tries to breathe. I cut the vines and throw them to the side; I won't need them anymore; their job is done. In the front pocket of her pants, I find a rusty key that I throw inside of the empty water bottle where I hid all of the other tokens. For a moment, I wonder what it opens.

Finally, the sound of his canon marks the end of his life. I don't wait beforeremoving the trident from where it was lodged. It was a pretty good shot; hegot impaled on his right side, directly in the lung. The trident probablyshattered a few ribs on its way in. No wonder he had trouble breathing. He'slucky I didn't miss; his suffering could've gone on for much longer. I get downon my knees and start searching through his belongings for his token. It doesn'ttake me long to find it, the red precious stone was in his front pocket too. Ipick it up and place it with the others. Even though I found what I was lookingfor, I continue to look through his things. In his backpack, I find four bagsof dried meat along with two water bottles. I empty the first one in my mouthwithout thinking twice. Even if I'm still thirsty, I decide to keepthe second one for later and put it in my backpack. Satisfied, I leave the twobodies behind and start walking back to the Cornucopia.