the 97th Hunger Games

Chapter 13

We were awakened to the sound of cannons. I counted 10 but I might have missed a few. “I counted ten.”

                “There were twelve. You missed the first two.” Rani said. “The anthem played two hours ago. All the tributes from ten are dead, two from four, the one from six, and two from five.”

                “I wonder who the ones killed just now were.” Isis thought out loud.

                I shrugged. “We’ll find out tomorrow. For now, let’s sleep till dawn. Carlisle, Logan. It’s your turn to take watch.”

                They nodded and took their positions.

                We had this thing planned out. Rani and Flora took the first watch since it’s a bit lighter, Logan and Carlisle took the second watch wearing the glasses. Finally, Isis and I since we’re used to waking up and being alert before dawn.

                I sat there for a minute, thinking about the dead tributes. I hope Raymond and Lyle are still alive. They seemed to disappear after the Cornucopia scene.

                I sighed and slid underneath my part of the sleeping bag. I looked at the ceiling for about ten minutes. Just staring. Then I closed my eyes, and the blackness took over.

                I woke up with a jolt. My eyes snapped open, and I saw the cave ceiling. I noticed that it had small stalactites coming from it. Cool. I sighed and realized the back of my neck was wet. Must’ve been hot while sleeping. I reached back and rubbed my neck. I immediately noticed I wasn’t wet from sweat. It wasn’t sticky. I jumped up, which kind of failed because when I was on my feet, I was ankle deep in cold, wet, water.

                “Everyone up!” I shouted.

                Rani shot up, her hand on her spear. She looked at the water and her eyes grew really wide.

“Flora! Get up!” she shouted, shaking her sister.

                Flora opened her eyes and squealed when she saw the water. She climbed onto the back of her older sister. I understood. Flora can’t swim. Not one bit. Being in a swamp terrain doesn’t help at all.

                Isis rolled up the sleeping bag. “All ready? They really must’ve liked what went down yesterday. They want more.”

                I whirled around to Carlisle and Logan. “Why didn’t you wake us up?!”

                Logan flinched. “Sorry, we fell asleep.”

                “You fell asleep on watch?!”

                “Sorry. We didn’t get much sleep the night before.”

                I shook my head. “No more excuses. We have to get out of here.”

                We packed out things and headed out. As I predicted, the water had come from the swamp. The Gamemakers flooded the swamp, wanting to get us somewhere. Where? Not the cornucopia. No, it would be flooded around there.

                “The trees! Climb!” I called. As soon as we started climbing, I heard twigs cracking and cheering.

                I grimaced, still clinging to the tree.

                “Hey! Look at what we caught! Squirrels!” I heard a girl cheer. It was Tabitha from district 1.

                “Yeah! Look at that!” the district one boy, Cliff, said. “Eleven and all of Twelve!”

                I heard them laugh. Two laughs stood out. They were deep, throaty laughs. I whipped my head around to look at the group. Just as I thought. The laughs belonged to Raymond and Lyle.

                “Traitors!” I said. I spat in their direction. I aimed too well. I hit Raymond, the bigger and stronger of the two, in the eye.

                He wiped it away and his eyes flashed with rage. “That’s it!” he ran right at us.

                “Climb!” Isis shrieked.

                We climbed as fast as we could. I was so caught up in trying to get away that I almost missed the scream. That would’ve been bad if I did.

                I snapped my head towards Flora. I had underestimated Raymond. He could climb as fast as he could run. And that was pretty fast. Raymond had reached small Flora.

                “FLORA!” Rani screamed. “Flora climb!” she struggled to pull out her spear from where it was strapped to her back. “Climb!”

                Flora tried to but her attempts were in vain. Raymond grabbed her foot but she kicked him in the face with her other foot.

                “Agh!” Raymond mad the mistake of letting go with his other hand and he fell, taking helpless Flora with him.

                I looked down, tracing their fall. They were going to land in the water, which was as tall as Lyle’s waist. He was taller than the others. I’ve seen Flora and Lyle stand next to each other. Her head barely reached his rib cage.

                “Oh no!” I gasped.

                Raymond must’ve hit his head on a rock or something because when his body floated to the surface, he had a gash on his forehead and the blood spilled over into the water. When Flora’s body same up, she was pale and her eyes were wide open. She drowned trying to come up for air.

                We heard two cannons go off, signaling their death.

                “FLORA!” we all screamed in unison.

                The careers swam towards the bodies and removed their packs. They didn’t care if one of their own had died.

                Rani growled and threw her spear at them. It hit Cliff in the back, driving all the way through until it was jutting out of his stomach.

                Shasta pulled out the spear and looked at Rani smirking. “Thanks sweetie. This’ll be useful in terms of your death.” She laughed.

                A third canon.

                I heard Isis stretch the bow string back.

                “Wanna be a smart alec with us? Go ahead.” She let go and it hit Shasta’s head.

                Shasta dropped down to the water. The district two boy picked up the spear, and glared at us. “Just you wait Twelve! You’re next!”

                “Why don’t you tell us, ladies, how you got the twelve in training? We would all like to know.” Tabitha said.

                The cannon went off.

                “Let’s go.” All of the careers and Lyle left.

                I pressed my three middle fingers to my lips and silently saluted Flora. All of did. Then we climbed higher. I lay down on a large, sturdy branch. The sun had just started peaking over the trees. This was going to be a long day. I silently started crying.

Hope you all liked this! Fan, vote, comment!