The Boy With The Bread

Chapter 16

Katniss POV

My hunter senses instantaneously kick in. There are five huge tributes, all wielding long, lethal looking weapons. Katanas, I think they were called. The strongest tributes must have banded together to form their own gang. All five of them are huge, muscular and tall. Only one of them is a girl, who is over six feet tall and holds an axe.

"Fancy meeting you here, girl on fire." The girl sneers.

"Oh, hey!" I wave at them nonchalantly, although I am freaking out inside. "Fancy meeting you guys too! Glad to see you made it at least through the first day! I wasn't sure, seeing how incompetent you guys are." I guarantee this will get at least a small laugh from the Capitol citizens.

A boy growls at me ferociously, like a wild animal. "Stop it Gart." The girl warns Gart, the growling boy. Gart grunts something unintelligible back to her. The girl rolls her eyes.

"Well, if you guys are gonna waste time, I am just gonna call for some help, okay? CATO!! GALE!! CLOVE!!" I scream as loudly as I can. I leave my humor aside and nock my bow swiftly, shooting at first the girl, then Gart. A tall boy throws a spear at me and I have the sense to dodge it, but it sticks in my arm. I yank it out and see Gale, Cato and Clove, out of the corner of my eye running wildly to me. Cato hurls a spear at the boy who hurt me, and a cannon goes off. The other boy gets a knife or two in his brain before he can slice Clove's leg. The last brutal boy scampers off, but only after one of my arrows flies into his arm and Clove's knife hits him squarely in the back.

Gale grabs me. " What in the world were you thinking?! Going off by yourself like that?!" He yells, his face turning red in anger.

"I- I just wanted water- and uh-" I stutter, trying to staunch the blood from flowing through my arm. The spear ripped off a hunk of my flesh and I desperately try to hold back together. Gale grunts in reply and the four of us walk back to camp.

"Are you alright?" I ask Clove. Her leg is bleeding heavily, but not as much as my arm. Clove waves it off coolly and Cato patches her leg up. Cato then tends to my arm as Gale watches resentfully. My arm is bandaged up tightly but the flow is so heavy red liquid leaks down my elbow and it is all I ccan do to not squeal in disgust. I go hunting, this time with Clove as my guard. I manage to get a squirrel and some fish at the lake.

To get the squirrel, Clove and I had wandered way off into the woods. At least we have our weapons. On the way back, I shoot another rabbit. About thirty minutes later, Clove and I are still in the woods, and everything looks the same. We should be at camp by now.

"Uh, Clove, do you think we are lost?" I ask.

"Umm...." Is all she says uncertainly. "Weell...." We hike up a hill that seems familiar to us, but hiking up it just got us further into the woods. "Katniss, why don't you climb a tree to see where we are at?" I scale the closest tree, although rather slowly because of my arm. When I am at least eighty feet or so in the air, I peek my head out through the thick branches. I have hopeful thoughts, but they diminish and disappear when I only see more treetops.

"It is just trees!" I yell to Clove.

Hours later, Clove and I are sstill lost, and thank god we haven't heard any cannon yet. I hope Cato and Gale think we are okay. The sun is setting and Clove and I don't have any sleeping bags, just the two backpacks we both hastily slung over our shoulders.

"We better set up a sleeping plave for tonight. Then we can find Cato and Gale in the morning." Clove suggests.

"Okay. I think, maybe, is it okay if we sleep in a tree? We would be a lot safer up there." Clove looks a bit nervous but agrees hesitantly. I help Clove climb up, and we are only maybe twenty five yards high. With the ropes we have in our packs, we strap ourselves in the thick branches, wrapping the heavy duty rope around ourselves. We have a dinner of raw fish and water, then settle to sleep. I realize now how important it is to have the heat reflecting sleeping bags, because as the night grows darker the temperature drops. I am guessing it is about thirty degrees right now, and before it was around eighty! Somehow, we fall asleep.

In the morning, I check Clove's leg wound and my arm. We get right off to searching for camp, but truly we are just getting more and more lost. All the trees resemble eachother. Gratefully, we stumbled upon a stream where we refilled our water supply. I accidentally found a cave by tripping and landing on what I thought was a rock. the green leaves that covered the entrance of the cave fell open and I landed in a cave.

Clove and I took shelter in the cave that is low and narrow, but goes deep into the hill. I do not know how deep, but I don't dare venture further than ten feet. We set up a fire in the afternoon and cook our meat.

"I wonder if we will ever make it back." Clove says wistfully. I glance at her, and she is busily chomping away on a rabbit leg. I nod in agreement, then shine my weak flashlight into the cave.

I tell Clove to wait here as I sneak further and further into the cave. Good thing it is only one way passage. When I think I have finally reached the end, because the ceiling stoops lower and the sides are closing in, I stop. Then I shine my flashlight in front of me and find a pair of glowing yellow eyes.