Standing on the Edge (That Goat Will Probably Eat You)

Hunter and Hunted

Lucky Forest, after hours of exhausting climbing, pokes his head out of the top of the snowdrift.

It's night. The entire mountain gleams an eerily perfect white, blanketed in snow. It takes him a moment to work out what is so odd about it; there's no clouds. A full moon, surrounded by speckled stars, lights the desolate scene. He looks at the moon with a sigh. This is the moon Phoebe sees. Is she looking at it now? Or is she looking at him looking at the moon, thinking of her?

He knows he shouldn't just lie down on the floor, but he can't help it. He's got no more energy left in his arms. Besides, with the moon he should be able to see people coming. Not just people either. That goat thing. It moved quickly but he should be able to pick it out if it finds him.

A cannon went off while he was down there, and maybe while he was tumbling down the avalanche too. So how many people are left? Seven or eight? There were a lot of deaths today.

His axe, still faithfully pressed into his hand, is still edged with blood. He did a good thing there, he knows that. And he's got further than perhaps anybody expected. He knows he can win. But it's going to be a long slow slog to the finish and he's starving hungry. Maybe he should find that goat; perhaps it's edible. There must be small creatures for it to eat somewhere.

He should have grabbed something else at the Cornucopia all those days ago. He had the time. But he didn't think; he'd seen the axe, hung around and panicked.

Well, there's nothing he can do about it now!

The anthem, the familiar fake trumpets, bursts out over the arena and a section of sky, including the moon, blacks out to make way for the pictures. He's expecting a lot of them. He doesn't know who. He never gave himself the chance to get to know people; if things went his way they would all be dead anyway. And so far for Forest, things are going his way.

First is Emerald, smiling confidently down on the arena, which makes him sit up in surprise. Another Career down. Are they becoming vulnerable? With luck falling his way, should he go after them, seek them out?

No. He's trying to stay alive now, not aim for a quick and easy death. That was for the bloodbath. Now he has the chance. Emerald looks very much alive in her picture. Now she's just an image in the sky, a memory in the mind, perhaps a name carved on a memorial somewhere. Or do District 1 only remember their winners?

Chuck's broad snarl looks so realistic that Forest almost thinks the boy with the 12 will reach out of the screen and strangle him. Then he realises what that means. Chuck is dead. The larger than life ego, the one who 'accidentally' buried an axe in the girl Forest later killed, no longer exists. Forest wonders if his axe now is the same one. Surely the Capitol are trying to save on provisions, with the ever-present threat of another rebellion. On the other hand, perhaps they don't care. Perhaps it doesn't seem as serious to them as it does back home. What happened to the Careers, anyway? Did the avalanche hit them too? Did he just happen to be in the way?

He almost expects Cinder to be the next one, but it isn't. It's Jackson, looking down at him with a sad expression. Jackson who was forced into volunteering. Forest thinks. Five cannons today. Three pictures in the sky. Who else is left? The volunteer from Five. Nobody from Six or Eight. Himself from Seven. Nobody from Nine. The pair from Ten and Eleven, and the girl from Twelve.

Not the pair from Ten. Gemini looks down at the arena with a tired, kindly smile. He dearly hopes that she felt no pain. She always seemed nice. She reminded him a little of Phoebe in that, only Phoebe is beautiful whereas Gemini is merely plain.