Surviving the Same War

Chapter 26

I ran until my legs felt like jelly. The arena seemed to go on for miles, but I quickly glanced around for a place to rest. A small cave formed inside of a rock nearby. It wasn't big enough to set up permanent shelter, but it was good for now. The bag nearly fell off of my back when I sat down, and I formed a small pile of the extra things I managed to grab. A knife, band aids, and some sort of green hair gel. What was I supposed to do with this? I sigh, and reach for my backpack. Bread, berries, container, and scissors.
A rustling came from the trees and I grabbed the knife. Was I prepared to kill whoever came to me? I had to. That was it.
Misty came bursting through the bushes, breathing heavily. She was ready to kill me, but luckily she registered my face. Good thing too, I didn't want to be gone on the first day.
"It's just you." She looked relieved. "I can't believe you got rid of four people with your stupid stunt at the beginning. You know they aren't going to let that pass."
"I know. I didn't mean to but they didn't let me take the rose. That was the last thing Yulie gave to me."
Things were silent for a while. I knew she knew that I knew Yulie had given her the pin, and I'm guessing she feels a bit guilty. Before I mention anything, the canons go off.
"One, two, three..." I hear misty counting under her breath. "Eleven, twelve..." Her eyes grew wide. Already over half the contestants are gone. What even happened? "Sixteen. Sixteen are dead. That leaves eight of us. Let's team up, take out the other six, and then we'll separate. A battle against nature. Deal?" She reached out her hand to shake mine and I agreed.
Only six more people before one of us gets to go home. One of us... only one. Which one though?
Two days past, and three canons sounded. At night, Misty and I did our best to solve who is still up and running in the game. It's the girl from 7, both from 2, the boy from 9, and us. Misty took out a girl earlier, and as far as I know the girl didn't stand a chance.
Misty is fast, smart, and unstoppable. There's no way she could die in these games.
Maybe I should get rid of her now.
What am I saying! We're allies!
She's probably already making plans to stab you in the back.
She wouldn't.
But she will. The games change people.
No they don't. She's too strong for that.
She gets close to you when you are sleeping, and she wants to cuddle up next to you when you two are talking. There's only one thing that explains it. She likes me.
No. She wants to kill you.
She wants to kill me. She wants to kill me. She can't kill me if she's dead. She has to die.
"Asher? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just thinking about how we have to find the others, and soon."
"Oh that's easy. Look what I found." She pulls out berries and a rock. Slowly, she smashed the berries against the rock and pours it into a leaf.
"Watch this." She whistles and a bird flies down and lands in front of her. She pours the drink on the leaf into the birds beak and it drops dead.
"But I don't understand this next part. Watch." She takes a handful of the same berries and plops them into her mouth. She chews them and nothing happens. "If you eat them directly, nothing happens. I think the coating is like some sort of antidote. We set up a trap with the juice, and nobody stands in our way." She grins and takes one of the containers to fill with the juice.
Note to self, don't eat anything she gives you. It's all poisonous.
Turns out, we only needed to poison one person. Both the others died one their own, but we don't know how. Everything came down to us. One of us was going to go back, just one. It wasn't going to be Misty.
She isn't making it back.
"This is it then. We've got to go. I'll really miss you Asher." And for a second I believed her. I believed that i was in love with her, that she was in love with me. I believed that everything was okay. I believed we were both going to make it out of here. I believed in something, and my believing was the first thing I did wrong in those games. She used a knife and aimed for my chest. I moved and blocked her from stabbing my heart twice. The knife impaled my side, but I didn't pay attention. Everything was blurred, and the next thing I knew Misty was under me and crying.
"I need to see my brother! I need to see my family again! Here! Take it and let me go!" She handed my the pin, and I took it with one hand, the other was pushing the blade in her brain.
The cannon sounded and it was over. I smelled like blood, I had a pin, and I won the games.
They picked me up from the arena. Who "they" were, I didn't know. But I know I was going to back home. I was going to see Yulie again and we were going to live in a huge house and my mother was going to be so happy. But still, I didn't want to leave the arena.
That was fun. Wasn't it? That wasn't hard. They should have been harder. It would have been better.
I didn't disagree. They should have been more fun. I should have been able to take my rose, maybe there was a way it could be used as a weapon.
It would have been so much better.
I will make it better.
I got home and went to Yulie. She strapped on to me like a leech, and I told her everything. Everything that happened in the games, then I told her about my plan.
"The games are going to be much more exciting next year Yulie. I'm going to make sure of it. You see Yulie, this time next year, I'll be in charge." That was the last I saw of her.
They ran, her and my mother, with the pin and the left our district. I don't know where they went, but they left.
We'll find them soon.
First, let's get in charge.
Next thing I know, I'm standing in front of the Capital, announcing how I'm the new president. "I am Coriolanus Snow. Let the 16th annual Hunger Games begin!"
No one knows that I, Asher Prior, a boy from the districts, became the president of the Capitol, because they're all distracted by my games.