The Hunger Games

Chapter 24

          The sun is high in the sky by the time I reach the lake. Sweat covers my forehead and my legs can barely keep me up. There is no one here so I walk over to the lake and take off my boots and socks. I place my feet in the cool relaxing water. I fill my water bottle up and place it beside my bag when I’m done. I notice that the stack of supplies is still there, but smaller. There are still blood stains on the ground from the fight that was about a week ago or so. It’s strange how the Games go by so fast and I’m still alive. Nineteen tributes dead and five tributes are still alive. It is just a matter of the days, four of us will be dead, and one will still be alive. And I plan on being that victor.

          Things are quiet, a bit too quiet. I remove my feet from the water and put my socks and shoes back on. Something’s not right. I feel as if someone is watching me, but who would it be? I grab my things and get up. I put my knife in my pocket. I take an arrow out of my backpack and place it against my bow, ready to shoot. I look around and see nothing.

          All’s quiet except for the Mockingjays singing. I feel uneasy, that in any second, I’ll drop dead. I stand still, too scared to move. If I move, I could get killed. I’m a smart girl. I could get out of this. I wait and continue to look around. No movement…no sound…just trees, bushes and a hovercraft. A hovercraft, but a cannon hasn’t blown since this morning, and they already picked up the body. So why is there a hovercraft in the sky? I sigh. “I just don’t get certain things…” I mutter under my breath.

          Snap! Snap!

          I look in the direction from where the noise came from. I don’t see anything, so I look closer. I see something…a pair of big yellow crossed eyes. I’m now scared. No tribute left has yellow eyes. No one dose. I back up a little towards the lake. If that thing attacks me, at least I know how to swim. I’m good at it, and I’m fast at it. I learned how to swim years ago. It’s easy for me. I take deep breaths, and aim my arrow at it. I suddenly can’t seem to focus. I start to feel dizzy. I look away from the creature and close my eyes shut. When I open them again, and face towards the creature, it’s come out of its hiding spot.

          It’s a wolf muttation, or for shorter, a wolf mutt, or just a mutt. I begin to panic. It’s walking forward. There is only one, and hopefully it’ll stay that way. I’m panicking so much that all I can hear is my own heartbeat. I can still see everything, but my only focus is the mutt. I can’t move, or think, or even scream. Several tributes die this way, by being torn to bits by the mutt. It’s normally a pack of wolf mutts, but thankfully this time it’s only one. But the Gamemakers always add more once one is dead. Maybe that’s why there was a hovercraft.

          The mutt comes closer and I manage to step back. Soon my feet are in the water. The mutt gets closer and I shoot the arrow, killing the wolf mutt. It falls on the ground, dead.

          I can’t seem to move, but I manage to. I run out of the water and race towards the forest once I can move quickly.

          Damn, I hate those small panic attacks I have. Once I feel safe, I climb a tree. I sit in the tree trembling for about an hour. What was I thinking? Leaving Danny…oh I’m not safe. I never was and I never will be. I’m as good as dead now anyway. I’m as good as dead…I’m as good as dead. But why am I not dead? That is because I’m scared, scared of something that everyone is scared of. Death. I am scared to die, but I don’t fear it. It’s strange. When I’m about to die, I’m not scared. But I’m scared when I’m thinking about death. I know to run when I have to. I know how to survive. I pull myself together and sit up. I drink some water and soon climb out of the tree.

          I panic as soon as I hear barking, I climb up the tree again, to a safe distance. I’m about fifty feet up in the tree by the time the barking gets louder. About ten minutes later, I see about five wolf mutts. They stop by the tree I’m in and I begin to panic. The wolf mutts are one of the worse ways to die. They’ll pounce on you and practically eat you. They don’t have them every year, but I’ve seen them on the television attack the tributes about seven times so far. They start to growl and I think they’ve noticed me, but they haven’t. They don’t look up or start to try to climb the tree. Instead they head off again towards the lake, indicating that they haven’t noticed me, but someone else.

          Huh, maybe they’ll kill Peter and Shimmer. They’ve probably returned to the lake. Their stuff is still there.

          It gets darker by the next two hours. I’m still in the tree, and I don’t feel like moving. The anthem will be playing soon…so far only one kid has died. But the Capitols attempts to kill someone today with the mutts have failed. The other kid was probably killed by Peter or Shimmer. There are several possible attempts.

          I start to hear loud barking. Several wolf mutts howling and barking. I get scared, but calm down because the mutts aren’t by me. The barking, it’s the kind or barking they’ll bark when they’ve caught prey, and by prey, I mean a tribute. So I was wrong, probably someone else will die today. I hear a girls scream for about a minute, after that, its covered up to much more howling, growling and barking. I grip to the tree. I’m scared and devastated. I breathe heavily, telling myself to calm down, and about three minutes later, I hear the last of the girl’s screams. A cannon blasts and the barking dies down.

          I see a hovercraft a little after, and it picks up the body of the girl and the mutts, thankfully. The girl must be Shaylee. If it were Shimmer, Peter would have tried to save her, or maybe not. But judging to the striking black hair, it has to be Shaylee.

          As it gets darker, I roll out the sleeping bag and climb in it. I pull out my night vision glasses and put them on. I take them off as soon as the anthem plays. And I was right. The victim of the mutt attack was Shaylee, Shaylee Stunder, female tribute of District 1, age fourteen. Her midnight black hair and bright green eyes will be gone forever, because if the Capitol. The other death is the girl from District 9. I put the night vision glasses back on and lean in the tree, waiting for sleep to overcome me, which it probably won’t with the fact that I’m really scared. But thankfully, it does.