The Hunger Games of Bengui

Chapter 23

My eyes flew open on contact of the cool water.

"ARGH!" Kristen shrieked, shooting up as the water on her jacket dripped down.

"Up, up, up, we don't have much time," Mike instructed, pouring the last of the water onto Brooklyn.

"Why don't we have much time?" I groaned, wringing out the side of my shirt.

"Jeez, why'd you have to use water," Lily mumbled.

"No time for side chatter, I'm getting us all out of here." Mike rushed all around, throwing us up into the clearing as he threw us our bags.

Mike started dashing off into the trees, chopping off anything in his way. We treaded behind, only resulting in more screaming complaints.

"Hurry up!" He shrieked, pulling Kyle forward.

"What if we run into Sammie or Zoe?" He asked.

"We'll be fine."

"Fine?!" I spit. "Sammie has a fucking machete!"

"My god," Lily sighed, shaking her head as she pushed her hair back, trying to keep up.

"Ok, nope, nope," I stopped, bending down to catch my breath. We've been running nonstop for what seemed like forever through the tall trees, heading absolutely nowhere. I was starting to think Mike might've just been sending us to our doom, killing us off in a secluded place so that he'd be victor.

"Fine, we'll walk," Mike groaned. "It's still so far though."

"Where are we even going?!"

"To the beach."

"Can you at least tell us your plan?" Brooklyn slumped against a tree.

"Fine, gather round, gather round," Mike motioned, arranging us all in a circle in front of him. "So I've got these." He pulled put a brown cloth sack, tied together at the top with ribbon.

"What is that?" Kristen asked, peering into the hole as he untied it.

"I call them rock bombs."

"The heck is that?" Her sister asked. "And where did you even get this thing?"

"Ok, so rock bombs react in water pretty much," he explained. "I found this in Jo's backpack. These are commonly used to heal, you're supposed to dip them into water to get them moist and then crush them to soothe the wound."

"Wow, would've been fucking helpful with my leg," I scoffed.

"What did happen with your leg?" Lily asked, darting her eyes at me and then Brooklyn.

"Well I--"

"Hey. You. Shut up," Mike snapped. "Well anyways, I've got this whole sack of them. There's gotta be like at least a hundred of them or so in here."

"Yeah, let's throw rocks into the water and set up a fucking healing camp," Kristen rolled her eyes. "What damage can we do with rocks, for crying out out!"

"Salt reacts to this like it's nobody's business," he explained, dropping his voice. "It explodes."

"Which means...?" I cut in.

"Ugh, no matter, I'll tell you guys later we don't have much time! We're halfway across the arena and we need to get to the beach before dark."

"Why dark?" Kyle asked.

"I'd rather see what I'm doing. Now come on, let's go. Cara you better be grateful I saved these till you found us yesterday, or else I would've just gathered the group and left without you."