Into the Woods- A Tale of the Hunger Games Story

Chapter 12-The first days....

The sound of a cannon startles me awake, and I look around to make sure Watts is ok. He's sitting up wide-eyed, looking at me. We must have both fallen asleep in the quiet. The sun light is lower but not gone, so it's been a couple of hours.

"I guess we needed that nap. Are you hungry?" I ask.

He nods, "and thirsty." 

"Ok, let's go find that stream, give me the bow and take one of these, so you have some protection," I say and hand him a hatchet.

I look down the main road, and I don't see anyone in the street, but that doesn't mean anything. I turn to Watts, "leave the backpack here for now. It's too bright. And try to stay low." He gives me a funny look, and I realize he is less than five feet tall, and he isn't the problem. "Ok, I need to stay low. Let's go." 

We take the bottles and the pills and head out in the direction of the water. Looking around, I can see the arena has the standard force field over us, and it seems close. It must be a smaller arena than usual, probably because the town was small when it was real. I have the bow and arrow loaded and two hatchets in my belt loops. If we're attacked, we won't be taken down easily. This is the only bow I saw in the cornucopia, and I don't remember many tributes learning spears, but who knows they didn't see me use the hatchets.

"I'll cover you; go fill them up. And be quiet," I whisper to him.

Being smaller, he can get through the brush easier than I would, so that's helpful. He fills them up and heads back.

"Ok, so we need to put....one of these in each one. And then wait 30 minutes," I say. He's about to open his mouth when the anthem BLARES out across the arena, and a giant screen lights up in the sky. Every night, they'll play the anthem and the pictures of whatever tributes have fallen today. It's the only way we know what's happening in the arena.

The first one is Calen from District 1, Then Acord, the boy from District 4, and the boy from District 5 who I hit in the neck as Rachel and I escaped. Rachel follows him and the boy from 8; the last two are both tributes from District 12.

"8 in the first day," I turn to him, "one-third of the way to being the victor, I guess."

He shrugs, "I won't win, so it doesn't matter to me. No one my age has won before."

I knell down like I would talking to Colton, "no one your age has won YET. If it can't be me, then I want it to be you. And I'd hope you'd feel the same about me."

He smiles, "why are you so nice to me?"

I mess up his hair, "you remind me of my baby brother; he's your age. I'd want someone to do the same thing for him. Let's go back. That house is a good place to sleep for the night."

He nods in agreement, and we head back to the house. I see someone walking off in the distance, but they're heading away from us, so I don't worry about telling Watts. We crawl back in, and I pull out the sleeping bag. "We should trade off keeping watch. Do you want to go first or second?" He just shrugs. "I'll go first, buddy. You get some sleep. I'll wake you up when it's your turn." I toss him some dried fruit and add, "Eat up. Maybe we can go hunting tomorrow."

After about 30 minutes, he speaks up with a sleepy voice, "Thanks for being my friend, Oliver."

I smile and mess up his hair again, "you can call me Ollie. Get some sleep." He rolls over, and after a few minutes, I hear his breathing change, and he is asleep.

I need to find a good position for the window. It's really the only way we have to worry about people attacking, seeing as the back gate is locked up from the inside. Worrying it will make too much noise, I pick up a chair and set it to the side of the window. I have a good view of the street and the side streets.