PLATINUM • THE HUNGER GAMES ²

| 03. PRACTICE OF PATIENCE

BOOK TWO
CHAPTER THREE

( PRACTICE OF PATIENCE )

     I HEARD SHOUTS AND FOOTSTEPS clattering behind me trying to persuade my mind to return into the warmth of my house. It was no good for me. I continued to run and the shouts muffled into the distance.

     No more, please no more. I can't go back. I can't.

     I found myself in silence, slowing down with fatigue. My feet ached horrendously, the pain erupting up into my head and distorting my thoughts.

     It's okay to be afraid. You are strong, you can fight.

     The surroundings turned into darkness around me, not allowing me to tell my mind where I was. This ended in me slowing down, eventually reaching an unwanted halt.

    Please, leave me. I. . . I can't do this any longer.

     It was as if an analogue television had began to crackle inside my head and my thoughts were scattered in front of my eyes. I soon diverted my gaze from the floor to normal vision. The surroundings were unfamiliar but the fresh scent of pine trees was distinctive to only one part of the District. I was definitely along the border between me and District Seven. I'd ran too far for anyone to find me now.

     The sky was pitch black. Nothing unusual for the most uninhabited area of Ten, but frightening none the less.

     I crept further and deeper into the forest, not knowing what I was hoping for, but hoping I'd find a way to escape my fate. Using the trees beside me, I leant on them to walk until a painful noise irritated my ears.

     "Hello?" I said, expecting to find someone making the dreadful noise, however, there was no answer. The only answer I got was my stomach reminding me I left a nicely cooked meal back at home and that I was, in fact, clueless on how to return to it again.

     How I regretted my decision.

     As I remained shattering my bare feet along the sharp twigs and leaves on the forest floor, the noise grew intensely. It came to my realisation that the noise was most definitely a buzz; not a voice. Almost by coincidence, the next branch I swivelled around revealed a ten foot high vibrating fence, static with electricity running through its wires. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to leave the District, not if all the borders were like this.

     I backed away into the hedge behind me, watching the canopy of trees tower of the fence and carry on into the depths of District Seven. Yet the pine trees were just impossible to climb with the shortest and most fragile branches. There was no way I could climb over either, and there was no way I was going to dig down. My only hope was to turn back and face the consequences.