The 70th Hunger Games: A Little Love

Chapter Nineteen

In my mind, I think of all the food I've had before in the capital. The pasta with pink sauce. The fancy salads with delicious dressing. The broccoli and cheddar soup. The warm oats. All of the different fruits and vegetables that we didn't hear exist.

I hear my stomach growl, loud, booming across the sky like a cannon.

Wait.

That was a cannon.

Whoever was near me must be dead now. And that means whoever killed them is coming for me, and soon. I hold my stomach nervously, squeezing it in as tightly as possible to my body so that I don't make any noise. I couldn't let them find me, whoever they were.

So I sit there, silently, for an hour, or maybe more, before I decide it's okay to make a little noise. And before I left my bush, for it was safe despite the thorns stabbing into my body at any point possible, I decided it would be best to eat the apple. If whoever killed that tribute was still out there, it would help to be just the slightest bit stronger.

As I took a bite into the apple, flavored bursted in my mouth and I had to keep myself from making a noise of pleasure. It had been so long since I had eaten a nice fruit—not a sour, bitter one like lemons—that the flavor surprised me. The juice not only tasted sweet, but tasted like water from the Gods as it went down my throat, rehydrating me.

Hey listen, if I could keep finding apples like this, I wouldn't need water.

Although I tried to eat my apple slowly, savoring the taste and the flavor and the hydration, one sip of the sweet nectar was enough to make me starving, an animal rapidly eating my food, as if it would disappear if I didn't eat it fast enough. I didn't care about the brown spots, most likely bruising of some sort. I didn't care about the fact that it had been lying in the dirt. I was just so happy to be eating something that wasn't going to make my tongue hurt.

I finally left my hiding spot when the apple was done, leaving the core in the middle of the bush, instead of on the outside, so that there was no clear indicator of my path, if someone was following me. I continued on towards the tall grass, glancing at the bushes for any blackberries, or any type of berry at all. So far, my efforts were fruitless. Ha! Fruitless. Get it? Okay, anyways...

As I was walking, I noticed something off in the distance. It looked almost like a giant beehive, or like a big birds nest hanging off of the tree. What? I thought the dinosaurs were on the other side of the arena, unless I somehow got my directions mixed up, I should have been approaching the land of tall grass.

As I walked closer to the large thing—carefully, of course—I started to see what looked like a dummy inside. That's what it must've been, a dummy, some sort of ploy by the capital to hurt me, to remind me of Percy...

But then I saw the blood.

Blood dripping from the abdomen and onto the ground, tainting the ground around it red.

I got closer.

I saw hair, somewhat dirty, as if this person had been rolling around on the ground, or as if they haven't showered in days. I mean, none of us have. But the hair was somewhat blonde, I could almost see it poking out from the lapses of dirt. Okay, so it isn't Cicero. That's good, I don't want to think of him dead, no matter who he killed.

I got even closer.

And then I saw them.

Two bright blue eyes, gazing off past me. Cold lips, pale skin. A javelin of some sort through his abdomen. I let out a small shriek before I clasped my hand over my mouth, reminding myself that his killer might still be nearby.