The Hunger Games- Prim's Story

Chapter 12

"Thank you," I say quietly, touching one of my braids. I take a look at her now. After a night of sleeping on the floor, her hair still looks perfect. Golden blonde and smooth. And her facial features are pretty too, with her lips turned up in a smile. "I'm going to go now. I have to find someone. Thank you for the rabbit." I start to walk away, hoping to make a quick getaway without dying or getting seriously injured.

"Come on. You can go find them later." She insists, grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards the rest of the Careers. My breathing quickens as I see the others. They're just waking up and the dark-haired girl that almost killed me is glaring at the District 1 boy. 

"You were supposed to keep watch, idiot." She says. 

"Hey, it's not my fault. And don't call me that, or I'll kill you in your sleep." He grumbles. 

"Cut it out you two. Especially you, Marvel." Cato spits. 

Glimmer and I reach the others and when we approach, they all look at me, with a hunger in their eyes. Glimmer points to each in turn, telling me their names, "Marvel, my district, one. Cato and Clove, District Two. Marina, four."

I smile weakly and all I want to do is escape. Runaway, climb a tree, die. The higher districts never team up with the Careers, the Capitol lapdogs. I try to gently move my wrist out of Glimmer's grip, but Clove gives me a hard look that reminds me not to cross any of them. 

"Come, we'll split some supplies with you." Glimmer drags me to where they have their supplies and she takes my backpack. I start to protest but another look from Clove shuts me up. Glimmer takes everything out of my bag. She folds up my blanket and puts it back in. She fills my water bottle up with water, pours something in it, probably to purify it, and then turns to the boys. "Will you two help me?" She snaps and they groan but put some meat into a small tupperware and shoves it in the bag. 

I feel like an outsider, which I am. Clove's back is against a tree and she looks like she wants to kill me. "Give her a knife," Cato tells her.

She looks daggers at him and snaps, "Why would I do that? I didn't have any say in Twelve joining us. None of us did." 

Cato sighs heavily and rolls his eyes, "Just do it. It doesn't even have to be a good one."

Clove sighs and throws me a knife. I bet she wishes it'd stab me in the hand. I take it and smile at her gratefully, but she doesn't return the smile. Not that I'd expected her to. Glimmer hands me back my backpack and smiles. It doesn't look like the smile she gave me back when we were eating the rabbit. It seems a little more sinister, but I shrug it off. I don't completely trust her, but they'll work for the time being. I dig out my water bottle and take a small sip. My throat is dry from dehydration but the water burns and so I put it back.

We start walking, Marvel up in front with his spear, Cato and Clove in the back with his sword, her knives in her jacket, and Glimmer and I in the middle. Having the knife in my hand is a strange sensation. I feel powerful- like I really could be feared by someone. But I also feel disgusted with myself, I'm holding an object, a weapon, capable of ending someone's life. We keep walking, resting every few hours. The others talk with insults, but I can't tell if it's friendly banter or real words meant to hurt. I stay quiet and try to sort through my muddled thoughts. 

After about four hours of walking, we stop at a small pond and refill our bottles. Mine is still fairly full, but I still fill my water bottle and Marvel hands me the small vial that Glimmer poured into the water. "Purify it." He nods and I pour a tiny drop into my water. The others pass around another vial and then stuff both into Marvel's bag. 

We continue walking into the late afternoon and I hear bits of their conversations. I hear excerpts of family life back at home in their districts-Glimmer must have been popular by the way she speaks of her friends and the boys back at home, Clove and Cato must have been firm friends back in District Two, most of their memories star the other. Marina, the quiet girl from District Four that everyone seems to overlook quietly talks about warm days on the beaches of District Four, swimming, sunbathing, and surfing, which she describes as standing up on a board and riding on the waves as it crashes onto the beach. Marvel has a girlfriend back home and she's all he ever talks about, raving about her beautiful hair, her beautiful eyes, her beautiful smile. It breaks my heart to hear about their lives back at home while knowing only one person can get back to all those memories. 

Eventually, they start talking about where we're walking to. We're heading to the lake, to store our supplies. They say that they know a way to rig up the bombs again. My stomach begins to cramp up but we've been walking a long time, it's not a big deal. I take some deep breaths when we sit down for a rest. We're all exhausted and there's not much conversation. I take another sip of water and it burns my dehydrated throat. 

But our exhaustion doesn't stop the screams of terror when we see the huge wall of flames descending on us.