The Hunger Games - Rebirth - Book 2

Chapter 6

Slowly ever so slowly the days passed by and before I knew it I was standing in what was the launching area below the arena. Just like before Cinna was at my side the entire 15 minutes before they called me to launch pad. Cinna pinned my Mockingjay pin on my uniform which I noticed was made of a material that seemed to keep my body cool. I was so cooled that I felt goosebumps rising up on my arms under the uniform, I was literally shivering.

Suddenly the tube slid down to encase me and then I slowly began rising. The last thing I saw was Cinna place his hand over his heart. The moment the cylinder pushed me out of the building and into the arena I knew that I was wearing this uniform that had once chilled me for a reason.

I looked around and saw exactly what I felt, heat. The arena was lucious with plants but the sun beat down so hard that I felt like I was being lit on fire, or atleast my face. The rest of my body felt like a nice evening during the Spring.

I took a few seconds to glance around the arena until I found Katniss, she was 3 tributes to my left. I nodded my head to the tree's to our left and she nodded back acknowledging what I meant. After the minute was up the gong sounded and I launced my self forward towards the Cornucopia.

I was the first to make it to the center since I was the fastest. The others were at a gentle run and by the time they made it to the Cornucopia I had already grabbed two large back packs a bow and sheet a set of knives and even a weirdly bundled sack and was on my way to the trees. Because I was carrying so much my speed was slowed by a fraction and it took longer to get to the trees than it would have.

The moment I made it to the shelter of the trees Katniss and myself moved behind a bush for a bit more shelter and we sorted out our gear. I handed her a backpack and the knives I grabbed for her and I shoved the oddly shaped bundle into my back pack and slung both over my shoulders before we headed deeper into the greenage. First off we needed to find water, secondly we needed to find a bit of shelter.

"How do you feel about this scenery?" Katniss asked me as she was wiping sweat off her face after 10 seconds of walking.

I shook my head as I mimicked her movement. "Well look at the positive, if we don't die today I'll finally lose those 3 pounds I put on with the stew we had the other day." We both laughed.

After 2 hours of walking in silence and half a canteen left for the both of us we needed a break. We chose a tree and scaled up it and took shelter in the thickness of the branches before we pulled out half a cracker and ate it.

"What if there is no water?" Katniss asked me after she swallowed her half a cracker.

I shook my head not wanting to believe it. There had to be water in this arena or the plants wouldn't be this green. Then again as she looked around she saw the plants were more dead near the tops and more lively near the bottom.

"There has to be water." I told her "If there isn't we are screwed unless we can find some plants that hoard it and do our best to drink from them."

So far we had been in the arena for almost 4 hours and there were no deaths. That was a first, no deaths at the Cornucopia. Maybe everyone was too tired to want to fight because the heat diminished their strength. I bet they all cleared as fast as they could from Cornucopia.

After 15 minutes of rest -or atleast what I thought was fifteen minutes- we set back in search for the water that we would desperately need in order to survive the night. We walked another hour and stopped. I realized that we were just walking around with no sense where we were going. In order to find the water we needed to track it.

Very carefully I knelt to the ground and inspected the plants. Next I placed my hands to the ground and felt it was unnaturally cool. I looked up at Katniss who was keeping her ears and eyes open for any approachers and smiled.

"I think the water is underground." I told her.

Her face changed from exhaustion to shock. I was pretty sure she was thinking the same thing I was, how are we going to get under ground to get it. There had to be some type of hidden tunnel or a cave or something. The only thing that worried me was if we would find it before we dropped dead from the heat.

"So do you think the heat is the only trick for the arena or do you think they have a few other things up their sleeves." Katniss asked me as I got to my feet and we continued on.

I was unsure what to think. The heat was definately going to be a death for a few people that were not able to handle it. For those that could find a way to keep sain in the midst of it all this would be a slight obstacle to get over.

Was it me or was it getting hot in here. Over the last few minutes the sheen of sweat on my face was turning into a watery mess that cascaded down my face faster then I could wipe it away. Suddenly a familiar smell filled my nostrils and caused my eyes to widen larger then saucers. I turned quickly to see smoke rising and birds flying over head away from it.

"What's happening?" Katniss asked as she sniffed the air.

"The heat it started a fire."

Before we could move the flames began licking along the ground, up through the tops of the trees in angry waves. Turning around I grabbed Katniss' arm and we took off running with the flames on our tails.

I could feel the dehydration working on my body and tearing me down. My throat was dry and my head swam from the smoke. We made it 45 yards before Katniss tripped over a root and pulled me down with her. Turning over onto my back I watched the flames inch towards us at immense speed.

We're going to die.

Katniss and I held each others hands as we felt the heat of the flames cooking our bodies.

"It has been nice knowning you Aloe." Katniss said to me. I nodded my hands as I saw from the corner of my eyes the flames less than 10 feet from us.

This was it. Everything for the two of us was over.