Safe and Sound || Hunger Games

Chapter Twenty One - Plan of Action

Chapter Twenty One - Plan of Action

So, with our not very well thought out plan of action, Grayson and I started caterpillar crawling to the left of us, away from the forest. We weren't heading towards the Cornucopia just yet. We were going to wait until we were more or less out of sight. We kept crawling to the left for a while, until we had crawled for about one hundred metres. Our elbows and lower arms were starting to get sore anyway, so we decided this would be far away enough. We then got to our feet, but kept our knees bent so we were quite low down. We then started moving slowly, but surely forwards. We were going to go that two hundred metres like this. Because we were bending with our knees and hips, our backs weren't sore as we edged slowly towards our target. I had nocked an arrow into my bow and had it held down at my legs. I clutched the bowstring, ready to raise my bow and shoot if necessary.

Grayson and I moved in sync with each other, making sure not to make any sudden movements that might catch someone's attention from the corner of their eye. Grayson wasn't holding any knives, but his reflexes were fast and reaching into one of the side pockets on his backpack was almost like reaching into a quiver, so there were no worries if he needed to throw a knife. As we walked slowly, I wondered if the people of the Capitol would be on the edges of their seats, making bets as to whether we would get caught or if we were going to kill any of the Careers and if so, how many? That sort of thing. I wondered if we were going to get many sponsors throughout the course of this Games. We hadn't gotten any sponsors as a team and I had only been given one sponsor, which was my birthday cake. But I hadn't really needed sponsors so far, I supposed. Yes, Grayson and I had both been put in awful situations, but not in any sort of situation that a sponsor would help. Well, besides Grayson and his Tracker Jacker stings. But he had found a leaf that's soothed and reduced the swelling, so that didn't really count. 

We continued edging forwards until we were in line with the mouth of the Cornucopia. We were on hundred metres away from it, but there was still a chance we would get spotted. So we crawled to our right until we were right by the small river. There was a huge pile of supplies across the river from us, which hid us from the view of the Careers. Grayson and I shared a look, before we both smiled. We had made it so far. It was a little bit daunting that we could hear the Careers talking.

"I'm still glad we got rid of Glow. She died the day we sent her on her way. We weren't going to have her with us if she was almost completely traumatised by the venom. Do you think that's what killed her, because it's lethal?" The only girl from 2, the only girl left in the Careers, said as Grayson and I filled up our flasks carefully and quietly, before we each drained them and filled them up again. It felt good to taste water again after the fire.  

"No, it would have killed her instantly. She must have been found by someone and they must have finished her off. That means there's only ten of us left now." I heard Midas reply. I didn't like Midas, not one bit.

"It's a shame that Glow got stung, she was good with a sword." The District 2 girl said, "Now there's only us." She then added. "Well, us and a lot of supplies." There were only two Careers left! That seemed like a good thing. I looked across at Grayson, who seemed to read my thoughts and started to nod in agreement. We had packed our, now filled, water flasks back into our backpacks and I knew that we were both going to be going in for some supplies now. So we exchanged a look before we both stood up and made the small jump across the river. We went up to the pile of supplies, which still hid us from view. We had to be careful about our pickings. We had to take enough, but we also had to take as little as possible, so it wasn't obvious that we had been here at all. We wouldn't want to Careers to be on our tails, even if there was only two left.

I quickly grabbed a few cans of food here and there. Grayson was busying himself with grabbing bandages and different means of first aid. I then picked up another flask and filled it up, so we'd have a spare while Grayson busied himself with picking a few pieces of food from random parts of the pile. A few apples, a cylinder can of ready to eat meat, a small loaf of bread. Those sorts of things.

We passed different sized objects and food to each other, so our packs would be somewhat even in weight. We scavenged for a bit longer until we shoved everything into our packs, making them slightly heavier. Grayson and I then nodded at each other before resuming our crouched walking, but we walking around the back of the Cornucopia. We then stood up straight and ran towards the forest, away from the Cornucopia. I could practically now hear whatever supporters we had cheering as we sprinted back towards the safety of the forest. As soon as we passed back into the thickness of the trees, we both started laughing. Grayson grabbed me into a hug and spun me around slightly. Once he put me down, we both continued to laugh, out of sheer shock and triumph.

"I can't believe we actually just did that!" I said, flushed from running and still shocked. Grayson had to lean against a tree to recover from the shock. "Did that really just happen?"

"And without catching the attention of the Careers!" Grayson added, who was now fanning himself down with a huge leaf that he had picked up. "Isn't this great?" Grayson dropped the leaf and ran both his hands through his hair, causing it to be pushed back, then to drop back into his face again. We both were smiling broadly and, for the first time, I didn't see any sort of pain in Grayson's eyes.

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That night, we had a much better meal than we had ever had since entering the arena. Grayson got out the small loaf of bread and broke it into two bits. We each had our half of bread and we then had a can of meat between us and an apple each. Grayson used one of his knives to cut the apples into segments that we shared between the two of us. I was starving after all that running and I bet that Grayson was too. But once we had eaten our bread, meat and apple, we were quite full. We both settled down into the sleeping bag, which we were now quite accustomed to sharing, and decided to get some sleep. There were no deaths that day, which was surprising because I thought the fire would have definitely killed off a few people. Presumably not.

I fiddled with the ribbon which was still on my wrist. Grayson noticed this. He adjusted himself so he was propped up slightly, but he still remained on his left hand side. I looked over at him and couldn't help but prop myself up on my right hand side so that we were facing each other. Grayson reached out and squeezed my shoulder.

"You feeling okay?" He asked. I nodded slightly, not stopping my fiddling with the red ribbon on my wrist. It was the only part of home I carried with me.

"I guess I just miss home. And my sister." I muttered. Grayson removed his hand and gave me a sympathetic look.

"I know this sounds arrogant, but I know how you feel. I miss my little sisters. And my brothers. All of them. The ones that are gone and the ones that are still breathing." Grayson whispered to me. I smiled at him in a supportive way.

"I fear that I sound arrogant when I speak about my life around you, you have it off so much worse." I said, sighing. Grayson shook his head slightly. "But you do, I mean, yes my little sister died and I'm not sure how much time my father's got, but I'm not abused." Grayson's eyes flickered down slightly then they looked up at mine. The flicker of pain had returned.

"But I'm not now, not here. Here, no matter how odd it seems, I almost feel safe." He whispered, reaching out and lifting the end of my plait, twisting it between his fingers like he would one of his knives. "I feel safe with you, because I know you're not going to break me or my trust." He stroked the feather in my plait once more, before turning over onto his right hand side and curling himself up into the sleeping bag. I blinked for a bit, before edging closer to him. It was hard, because of the belts and the sleeping bag, but I managed to get to him, where I snuggled into his back slightly. I felt him relax as I buried my head roughly where his shoulder blades were.

"Likewise, Grayson Stengard."

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My chapters seem to get shorter the further I go on. Oh well, it's more about the content, right? I hope so :) Anyway, what did you think of that one? I hope it was okay enough. I'm not sure about the ending, but oh well. I guess my writing is like that - I write a couple of chapters that are relatively long and that I really like and am really proud of, then I write a chapter that I'm not too sure about. Ach, I just hope you guys don't mind :3

Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! That is it for this chapter and I hope to see you on the next one, maybe? :)

foreversmaug x

May the odds be ever in your favour ❁