If Crane Never Made The Call

Your Girlfriend Made Me

I awake to the boom of a cannon and a rattling scream. My eyes shoot open as the ear peircing sound of sheer terror rips through the arena. It looks to be around noon and the sun is shining bright above my head. I observe my wound and find it worse then yesterday. Yellow pus is oozing out of the gash, my mismatch bandage is caked with blood, and the skin surrounding it all has turned a sickly green colour.

"Maybe Cato was right." I whisper to myself. "It is bye bye Peeta." I'm no doctor but I'm pretty sure when a cut turns green, it's getting infected. I begin to clean it up and push the pus out. When I'm finished it looks a bit better but feels so terrible. The chip of bone that popped off yesterday flings out of the thin line that stretches across my thigh, adding to the pain.

I take a small knife and crawl over to the river's edge, being careful not to move my leg too much. With the knife I stab at incoming fish but only catch one. I skin what I think is salmon and lay it on the steaming hot rocks to cook. I can't move or stand up so I have no choice but to stay here. Stay here till someone kills me, I think inside my head.

"Stop thinking like that! Your in it to save Katniss." I mutter under my breath not loud enough for the cameras to hear me. The cameras! I may have sponsers! But I told Haymitch to give them all to Katniss. Maybe if I was in a lot of pain...no even sober Haymitch wouldn't fall for it.

I lay down on the rocks and look up at the puffy white clouds drifting across the sea blue sky. So majestic, so peaceful, so harmless, yet they float in a deadly place. As I stay on the river bank watching the clouds go by and think about how I'm going to get Katniss out of here. How can I fight my way through all of the other tributes and leave Katniss no one to kill but me?

After a few hours of watching the clouds my salmon is cooked. I only eat a bit of the meat because surprisingly I'm not that hungry. Once I clean up my little camp it starts to get dark so I settle in for the night. The anthem plays without warning and the male tribute from district 10, I think his name was Timmer, has his face shown in the sky.

I carefully curl up in the thin blanket, with my axe in hand, and fall asleep.

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The morning is cold, foggy, and wet. A thin layer of mist has settled everywhere and fog spreads as far as I can see. I look down at my leg and see the green has disappeared. Just as I'm about to celebrate Pain shoots through my thigh and I see it. Blood poisoning. The green has been replaced by a red line that starts at the lower end of my cut and stops at my kneecap. Well that happened quickly.

Little shots of pain happen every once and a while, mainly when I make sudden movments. The red darkens throughout the course of the day and I know I won't make much longer. Blood poisoning is serious back in twelve, at least 50 people die each year because of it and since we're such a small district thats a lot.

I catch more fish but don't eat any. The fog disappeared a while ago so I can't hide under it. What other protection do I have? My axe and fish knife? Who's left? Cato, Clove, Marvel, Katniss, Rue, Thresh, the red haired girl from 5, and the boy from 3? I sit there for the rest of the day thinking about how I can protect myself against all of them.

The Capital crest illuminates the sky and I see 2 glazed over eyes, red hair, and a pointed face like a foxes peak out of the bushes. My first instinct is to reach for my axe so I follow that. Her eyes widen and I get in throwing position. Before I can get my aim right she spins around and darts in the other direction. Shes not much of a fighter. I'm glad. Im asleep in a matter of minutes, still fidgety from my encounter with... Foxface will be her name.

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The silent chiming of a parachute causes my eyes to flutter open. I see a small grey floating can with a silver cloth on top fall from the sky and land right next to me. Haymitch I don't care whats inside, we had a deal. I open the can and find a small plastic syringe containing murky blue liquid. Sitting atop the needle is a small note containing few words.

Lavinia. Katniss wouldn't have made him do this so it must have been her. But how? Wouldnt she get caught? Or does she bring the gifts to Haymitch? I slip the card in my pocket and remove the syringe. I slide the needle into my thigh and inject the cold liquid. It sends a tingle up my spine and I shiver.

I eat some fish and relize how empty my stomach is. The day goes by quickly and the blood poisoning fades slightly leaving a now pink line. I collect some berries off a bush about ten feet behind me and crawl around my camp.

There hasn't been any action in a few days so the game makers will be getting restless. The sky starts to turn orange, my favorite colour, and I watch the sunset. I get the same feeling I got when I was staring at the clouds yesterday.

The pretty colours of the sunset are consumed by darkness quickly. Another day done.