The 70th Hunger Games: A Little Love

Chapter Twelve

I cry out, tears instantly spilling out of my eyes. I heard Percy turn around, and I felt him down by my side, trying to console me. As I cried, I felt myself feeling sicker and sicker, getting myself worked up and overheated. Annie, you can't deal with this right now.

Annie, you can't have a panic attack right now. Not right now, not right here.

With the help of Percy, I stand up. We lean against the tree, and I eat the apple I never did this morning. Starting to feel a bit better, I drink the last sips of my water from the canteen and take a shaky breath. "Alright, I'm ready to go. But let's get some water first, please?" I ask, showing Percy my empty canteen.

He nods, and we walk off to the waterfall. I practically fall down at my knees in front of it, drinking quickly and then refilling my canteen as high as I could. I take another sip of water from the lake, the deafening sounds of the waterfall filling my eardrums and ringing in my ears.

Percy and stands up, helping me up in the process. As we're standing up, he sees a rabbit dart through a bush. "Shhh" he shushes me, instructing me to stay where I am, and slowly creeping up after the rabbit with the dagger in his hand. I understand that Percy needs to eat, that he's hungry, but I can't stand to watch him hunt that poor, innocent animal. I turn away from him, hiding my head in my hands and taking deep, shaky breaths. You can do this Annie. He needs to eat. Just don't look at him, just eat crackers, keep your food down. Don't look at the bloody animal in his hands...

Percy returns, and my eyes instantly divert to the ground. I take a shaky breath, and look beyond him, to the left of the waterfall. "Why don't we move further away from the waterfall? I don't want to draw anyone near to us," I decide. Percy nods in agreement and we walk away from the waterfall, in the direction of the tall grass that we have yet to explore. And I can see what we haven't really explored it yet.

If someone else was in the grass at the same time was you, it's merely a race to who can run the fastest. Since the grass is just tall and doesn't provide any sort of way to hide or get away from another tribute, it's pretty much an open playing field. I couldn't imagine being there, trying to run away from an angry pack of careers. Nonetheless, Percy wanted to check it out. And I was nervous.

As we got further from the waterfall, I began to collect sticks and twigs for the sake of the fire Percy would need to cook the rabbit. Focusing on the fire, not the animal he would be eating, I decide to sit down near a shady section of the forrest, where a large tree looked over our heads, hopefully to cover the smoke of the fire.

I build up the fire, creating another triangle like I did back in the dinosaur-ridden land. Percy takes a match out of the pack in our backpack, striking it on the edge of the box. But before he can bring it to the pit I had created for the fire, the light went out, a product of the wind. With a downcast look on his face, he let out a huff. I could tell he was disappointed in himself, upset that he wasted a match.

"It's alright Percy. Here, bring it closer to the fire, and try again," I offer him instruction, guiding his hands closer to the fire. As I move my arm to help Percy, I take in a sharp breath, pain shooting from my shoulder down my arm. I look up to the sky, as if pleading: Finnick, where are you when I need you most?

I need you.

So Percy takes his rabbit, and toasts it over the fire. While he's doing that, I take some time to think, think about the games, about life back home, about how my family and Watter and their family must be feeling. I hope they're proud of us, for getting this far. But I hope they're preparing for the fact that I'm going to succumb to infection sooner rather than later.

Percy finishes up his food, and we stomp out the fire. Prepared for more walking and a day of exploring a new terrain, I just pray that there are no dinosaurs hiding in the tall grass.

There weren't.

We got there and walked through the grass, feeling around the ground for any sort of animal, or poisonous trap. What we found instead, was a lock of hair. What? We shush each other, and bend over the lock of hair, moving closer to it, with caution. What we found was a girl, asleep, with a knife pressed up against her chest.

Who was left?

Who was left that was a girl? This wasn't Sparkle, her hair sparkled, it wasn't blonde. This might be the girl from district eight, or the girl from district three—I think they're really the only girls left besides me, Sparkle and Desdemona. Wow, these games are definitely male dominated. Burundi must be angry. I would be too. If I wasn't so worried about my imminent death.

Percy and I back away from the girl, slowly, trying not to wake her up. We didn't want to kill her, nor did we want to be killed, nor did we want to brawl it out in this open grass field. So instead we ran for the trees, the forrest that had become sort of "home" for us in the games.

At least, as close to home as an arena filled with deadly tributes and deadly dinosaurs can get.

Percy and I hear a gutteral scream, and then a cannon go off. Looking at each other with a panicked face, we both climb up the nearest tree. He climbs up one with a large, leafy top and strong branches. I choose one with a lot of small branches, making it easier to climb and less work on my shoulder. I close my mouth and hold my breath, trying not to breathe in the anticipation that sometime soon, tributes were going to come by. I couldn't let them see me, or hear me.

After some time, I took a deep breath. They probably still wouldn't be waiting around, right? So I take a shadermellon off one of the branches of my tree, glad that I ended up in one with shadermellons. As I didn't have rope or a sleeping bag, I wrapped myself around the branches in a way that I hoped would be comfortable for the night. Just as the anthem played and displayed the death of the district five male, I felt myself falling asleep.

"Goodnight Percy," I call out, leaning into the tree and trying to suppress my shudders.

"Goodnight Annie, I'll see you tomorrow."

And after I fell asleep, I felt myself falling.

Falling out of the tree and into a lump on the ground. I cry out, feeling my body shake in pain as I hit my shoulder up on the dirt. I feel myself melting down, my nerves falling apart as my body does too. I knew that soon, I would die. I just hoped that Percy wouldn't be the one to find me, that my cannon would sound before the morning time and that a hovercraft would come pick me up. I hope this would be painless for him, for my family, that they don't have to see me as I am now, curled up on the ground and shaking with pain.

And then I feel someone pick me up and lift me over their shoulder. What? Hello? What's going on?

I try to open my eyes but they're swollen shut, one of them bloody and bruised and crusted over with blood and the other one filled with dirt from falling out of the tree.

Ow, you're hurting me...

Someone is holding me, they're holding me too tight. My ribs feel like they're collapsing in my stomach, making it harder for me to breathe. Then, I hear voices talking.

"God, what happened to her?"

"Must've gotten in a fight"

"She won't survive long, why are we helping her? Why don't we just kill her?"

"You think the capital would like us if we just killed some poor, innocent girl that they all fell in love with? No. Not while she's sick and on the edge of death."

"Guys, she's really sweet. Let's just help her as long as we can," That voice, I could tell was Sparkle's. I must be with the careers.

The last things I hear before falling back asleep was the sound of a sponsor gift. Then I feel someone give me water and force a couple of pills down my throat. The hands were hard, and strong like the ones that picked me up. It must be Gunner or Cicero. I feel someone lay me back down, putting my head on some sort of plush set up. I feel a blanket, or maybe it's a sleeping bag, go over me.

"Get better soon, Annie," I hear an angry huff, and I try to open my eyes and see who's upset with my presence. But I can't. Instead, I fall asleep, wondering what those pills will do to me, and who sent them.

Thank you for listening,
Annie