The Hunger Games: Johanna Mason

Chapter 7

I haven't been on here for a while, and even I was entertained when I re-read this. I still remember the plot I had in mind, so I'll give it a go. 

~

"You can't stay up there forever, little girl," one of them said tauntingly. Johanna could only see two figures below, through the leaves. Her instincts kept her alive, but she had reached the most dangerous part of the arena. She wanted to get to the watering hole, and she had succeeded. Now, the hard part was to get the axe, and any idea of coming in without being noticed was out of the question. 

Her backpack was heavy with rocks that she had gathered, with the exact intention of using them as weapons if needed. They were all jagged in their way, so that she could at least bash them on the head of an attacker if needed. 

It weighed her down in a literal sense, but she had been thankful now for her foresight, since what she did next had been both parts lucky and reckless. 

The two lurkers were relatively stable. They kept in their place, swaggering about with their large weapons, and patting each other on the back in that self-assured way that hunters do when their prey gets cornered. 

What she decided to do was making her nervous. She only had one shot at it, since they didn't know she had anything on her that could potentially hurt them. She couldn't scramble to the next tree branch, since the trees weren't close enough for her to hop to and get away. 

She decided that she would do it when they were less riled up, and more relaxed. They had to get complacent at one point. There were two, and she was pretty sure they wouldn't split up. The watering hole was close enough that they felt they would be in their home territory, and wouldn't need to alert the others. 

Instead, they decided to sit down and grab a bite to eat, still occasionally taunting her with, "Want to join us? You must be getting hungry up there with just the leaves!"

That's when she decided to do it. 

Any attempt to stand up would be slower, than them already standing and running away. She had literally that one shot to take at both of them. They were luckily seated quite close to each other. Whatever happened next was just the odds being in her favor,  because the odds of it ever happening had been so slim, that the idea was even comical. 

She had gone to the edge of what could still carry her weight, with all the stones she had onhand. At that point, she had lost all hope in getting out of the situation, so she just hovered above them and let the rocks all fall down. 

There were multiple thudding sounds in those ten seconds of her waiting for voice of outrage, but none came. When she peered down, she saw that both were unconscious, and she was surprised at their stupidity of not even bothering to look up. They probably didn't even realize what happened, even when the rocks hit their head. 

Slowly, she clambered down the tree, gaging if they would wake. 

Once she landed beside them, she took one of the rocks that she poured onto them and started bashing their heads in. 

It was cathartic in this very strange sense. All her anger suddenly poured out of her, with every swing of her aching arm, and every hit that contributed to blood starting to pour out of their broken skin. Her anger at everything that has happened and everything that she's seen suddenly was channeled through this specific action. 

It didn't seem unnatural anymore, killing these people. It just felt like what it should be. It had been her first kill here in the arena, and somehow, it was her norm. They were just like the game that she had killed to survive. They were nothing more but flesh and blood, like anything else that had been breathing. 

By the time that she was done, their faces were unrecognizeable and nearly headless. She hadn't seen anyone here as people, so she didn't feel anything even as she stared at them. She didn't know any of their names, neither did she remember any of their faces. They were just all anonymous and irrelevant to her, just like she had been to them.

Knowing that there were only two Career tributes left, she felt more confident getting her axe back. 

The watering hole was a ten-minute walk from where they had been situated. The tributes wouldn't be aware that their comrades had a bloody end, so she had a few hours to scope out the scene. 

~

They had blind spots just because there were two left. Both were awake, but she couldn't identify any specific pattern in their shift routine. The watering hole was a large expanse of water, and the cave was set up in such a way that it was the only place that was fully sheltered from the sun, since there weren't any trees nearby. It was also a weakness, since that meant that they were out in the open every time that they weren't in the cave, which meant it was easy to target them if anyone had a long-range weapon. However, staying in the cave meant that they would also be susceptible to any intruders coming in, since the view was limited. 

At any given point in time, one had to be out and one inside the cave. They had set up their items inside the cave, but kept guard outside. That was the only routine that she noticed. No one wanted to be the one on the outside keeping guard, since the cave was the safe area, where they could be alerted first before any attack. 

Johanna realized that she had to set up a decoy somewhere for one of them to check out, and she could slip into the cave and get her axe, only needing to deal with one. 

She went to the farther side of that circle, gathering things along the way that she thought might help. 

One of the things that she learned was to make a few traps, since those were the ones that she could be seated and allow her to think while just follow instructions. Among these things, she learned how to make a makeshift catapult with some branches, vines, and rocks. 

Johanna decided that she would use a timed catapult to get one of them to that part of the watering hole. She decided to make the vine a bit flawed so that it would break eventually from the effort of keeping the rock back from launching. If that didn't work, she would start a fire a hundred meters away from this spot first, just to get them at least suspicious.

She hoped her luck would stay, since at this point, she knew that the stakes were higher and desperation would be at an all-time high.

Besides that, there were four others that she had to worry about.

~

It was near dusk when she got to the side nearer the cave. She was so close that she could smell what they were cooking in the fire. Dusk was a good time to light the fire, since it was light enough that it wasn't reckless to have light, but late enough to make it reasonable to see enough smoke if it was near enough. 

The catapult should work in a few minutes, but she was relying so much of this situation based on the Careers observation ability. 

"I feel like I saw something over there," one of the Careers said, as he was looking in the direction of where the catapult would be. She was looking across. "I think I'll check it out. The other two haven't come back yet and they should have been back by now."

"There were two cannon shots earlier. You think it would be them?" the other said doubtfully. "If you think it's worth going out for, go ahead."

"Stay out here in case anyone decides an ambush."

"I'm sure it's nothing, but go ahead."

This was the only shot Johanna had. She waited when the other tribute started out, well until the silhouette got smaller and smaller. The other tribute stretched and relaxedly held a machete in her hand. Johanna started forward, eyeing the axe that started to get into view.