The Hunt is On

Cliffs and Waterfalls

Ember and I kept our steady pace at a sprint for as long as we could before we stopped, panting. The woods was beginning to thin out, and Ember thought we must be around a half mile from our start.
"How will we know when the males come in?" I asked. She thought for a moment, then tapped her arm where she had gotten her shot. "This fucker probably has a notification system included. Damn the people that came up with this." I nodded, it sounded right, we probably would get some sort of alert from our chips in our arms.

We kept running, but we jogged now, both of us looking for a place that we could stay for at least a little while. It needed to be secluded, but easy to access. But other people couldn't already be there, that meant it was obvious enough to be found.
"We also need to find a water source." I reminded Ember. "Water means, well, hydration, but also other animals too that we could hunt in our wolf form." Ember nodded, slowing her pace to check behind a pile of rocks that opened up. She shook her head at them and kept running.
"But we don't want to be too near the water, we will get other people there."
"Do you think we can make it the two weeks?" I asked her. She turned to me, still running by my side. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, do you think that we can go the two weeks without getting Marked?"
"It all depends if our mates are here, I think. If my mate is here, then yeah, I'll see what he's like. But if he's not, I think there's a better chance of me getting away from this thing unscathed."

We slowed to a walk then, not having any reason to run. We were far enough away from the start that we had enough of a head start on the males. We kept quiet, listening for other girls and for the sound of running water.
Knowing Ember, she would probably get hungry very quickly. And we were burning calories like wood on a fire in this Arena, and would keep doing so for the next two weeks.
Then the woods started turning into a grassy plain, and we could see for much farther away. There was a small river off to our left that we walked over to and drank from. The water was clean, absolutely clean, and I figured it was probably produced for this event.

Then we kept walking forwards, the way we came out of the woods. We kept a look out for the other boundary line in this side, neither of us were interested in getting shocked.
Ember was a few steps ahead of me in the tall grass when she stopped. I walked up next to her and asked "What?" She frowned and kept walking a few steps. "Are those...cliffs?" She asked me, pointing ahead of us. I looked forward and saw what she did.

To our right, the plains dropped off very suddenly, making the impression that there were cliffs nearby.
"I don't know." I told her. "Let's go find out."
We set out at a jog, making our way slowly towards the edge of the plains. And sure enough, as we neared them, we starting hearing wind and crashing water. We ran up to the edge, balancing precariously on the rocks, staring down. It was a straight drop down, jagged cliffs sides, then the ocean water, lapping on the rocks.

"Jeez." I muttered, and backed away. "That answers that. Let's go find shelter."

And we were off again, heading back into the woods the way we came, searching for a place to spend the night.
We had found a second water source, and were following it downstream, when our right arm vibrated. We both looked down, and saw a blinking green light in our skins where we had gotten our shot. Ember swore colorfully.
"They're in."

This made us hurry our process along, moving quicker now with a sense of urgency. But we hadn't gone far before we had heard falling water again. "I think that's a waterfall." I said slowly, stopping Ember. "Go carefully, anyone might be up there."
She nodded and walked a step ahead of me, crouching down when the water came into view. She shook her head; nobody was there.

So we ran to the water, gratefully taking handfuls of it and drinking it up. My throat had been burning for a while now, and the water was a relief. It probably wasn't the last time I was going to have that feeling in this Arena. Ember came to her feet, and started turning in a circle, examine our surroundings. I followed suit after a while.
The first thing we both noticed immediately was the waterfall, as it was spraying us both. I walked towards it, squinting against the spray of water, and noticed a small opening. "Hey Ember, come look at this!" She was at my side instantly, peering around my shoulder. She hummed thoughtfully and moved around me.