The 23 Cannons Trilogy

Life and Death

Night fell. As did the temperature. For the tributes walking around the arena, they began to notice that the snow was starting to become harder to walk through: it was freezing solid. Kylee and Markus were two of these tributes. Their current location was in the western section of the forest, albeit further south than the others in the same area. All but one of the tributes in the forest would never encounter them. Kylee and Markus did not know this.

Kylee dragged her scythe through the snow, leaving a trail. Absently she thought how it kind of looked like snake tracks. Not that there were any snakes in the arena. And if there were, there was no way they would be active in this weather. This knowledge had been dragged up from the deepest portions of her memory, from happier times. Kylee was not aware of this aspect, and didn't think much of suddenly remembering a fact like that. In fact, her thought process had already moved on from this. She was now thinking of the reason why they were even in this forest: to hunt down, and kill any tributes they would find. However, for Kylee, there was one tribute in particular she thought about: Dixie Semming. The girl that had escaped. This was particularly problematic, as to Kylee, Dixie's survival was a sign of her failure. So long as Dixie was living, it would be a reminder that Kylee hadn't been one hundred percent effective in taking out every last Career. Dixie had to die soon, and Kylee had to be the one responsible for it.

The moon was high in the sky, and as it had been doing so for the past few nights, a strange silvery glow was cast over the arena. It was a poor source of light, though, Kylee realised. She continued onwards. The snow was harder to walk through. She then decided to continue to walk in Markus' tracks.

"Harker," Markus suddenly said, turning around. Kylee noticed that his breath was visible, as was her own.

"What is it?" Kylee asked. A slight breeze was blowing her hair around. The air was bitingly cold.

"This may sound pretty lame," he replied. "But it's getting pretty damn cold, and if we don't want to freeze to death, we might as well try and find some shelter."

"Are you suggesting we head back to the Cornucopia?" Kylee said. Markus shook his head.

"No," he said. "That'd be too far away. I'm thinking of just finding some shelter in this forest."

"Good luck with that," Kylee muttered.

"Well," Markus said. "Think about it, Harker: this is a huge forest, and is clearly the place most tributes will flock to. It would just be dumb to not have some form of natural shelter somewhere."

"You have a point," Kylee said. "But it'd better be something better than just crawling under a bush or something."

"It should probably be a step up from that," Markus said. "Since there's no way anyone would want too many tributes to perish by freezing to death." It was at this exact moment that Kylee began to regret not thinking to pack a tent. 

"Okay then," Kylee said. "But if you don't find me somewhere decent to rest I swear to god this alliance will be through."

"Fine by me," Markus said. "In that case I'd just kill you, and return to the Cornucopia, claiming everything there." Kylee kept quiet. She was not going to be so stupid as to challenge Markus. Not out here, anyway, and not with so many tributes still alive.

"Whatever," she said. "Let's just head out and look for some shelter."

The two tributes then proceeded to continue through the woods, only this time, they were looking out for shelter instead of other tributes to take out. Even if they were looking for other victims, they would not find any, for every tribute in the forest was safely further north than them. The occasional sound of a bird calling out would reach Kylee's ears, and after a while, it soon became a regular occurrence; every twenty minutes or so a light chirp would sound out. She did not know this bird that was calling out was actually a Capitol camera following them. The citizens of their home districts watched their every move with anticipation. Kylee had no idea of the scale of it though: she had become a celebrity in this arena.