^Rex
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 20
POV: Rex (District 10)
Time: Day 3
Tributes Remaining: 25
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lena shakes my shoulder, awakening me.
"Rex," she softly calls as I open my eyes.
"I'm here," I say with a chuckle, and she just smiles at me.
"Almost time to go," Lena says, passing me some food for breakfast. "We shouldn't stay in the same location for too long or we'll be sitting ducks."
I just nod, digging into my breakfast. We got quite a bit of food in the Bloodbath, but I haven't been able to eat much. Who knows how long the Games will last - we're planning for a long journey ahead.
"We have enough water, right?" I ask. We packed our canteens with snow on the first day, but our supply is quickly running out.
"Yeah, here," she says, passing me a canteen. I drink the cold water, thankful to see another day. The last few days have been the hardest of my life in so many different ways. 11 tributes have died already, and I'm just glad I'm not one of them.
"Any cannons last night?" I ask Lena as she packs her supplies into her bag.
"No," she sighs. "Still, what, 25 left?"
I nod. The number seems quite high - usually, there are 24 tributes in the Games, and we still have more than that left after 3 days.
As I slip my canteen into my bag, a shiver goes down my spine. I pause, instantly on alert. I know something is wrong, but I can't tell exactly what yet.
Then I realize. The ground beneath me is shaking slightly. It takes a matter of seconds for the shaking to increase, making everything around me quiver.
Lena and I look at each other in fear. "What's that?" Lena asks, terrified.
It might just be an earthquake, but I know the Gamemakers better than that. I look around, trying to spot any danger that could be causing the ground to shake. I spot something approaching in the distance, but I can't tell what it is.
"What's that?" I shout, pointing to the approaching object. It's massive, looking like a wall. But how could a wall be moving towards us like that?
After a few seconds, it gets close enough for me to see exactly what is approaching us. It's a giant barricade of vines. The vines move rapidly as if possessed, weaving into one another to form a chaotic yet organized wall, growing extremely quickly in our direction. I grab Lena, dragging her behind me as I sprint away from the wall. It must be a muttation of some sort.
Lena trips on a root, tumbling to the ground, but I desperately pull her to her feet. We don't have much room for error, and we're forced to sprint as fast as we can toward the Cornucopia. I almost slip a few times in the snow as the wall of vines grows closer, closer, closer.
Two cannon shots fire as we burst into the Cornucopia clearing, the vines only a few feet behind us. I have to grab Lena to stop her from sliding into the pool of poison. We quickly run to the nearest pathway, running down toward the Cornucopia.
As we run, the rumbling behind us stops. I look back to see that the vines have stopped following us at the Cornucopia clearing, only filling an exact quarter of the Arena.
Everything seems so quiet and still now that the Arena's no longer shaking. My heart is thumping, not only from the long run, but also from the intense fear of almost dying. I reach next to me, grabbing Lena and pulling her into a tight hug. We don't say anything. We don't have to.
I look down our path to see that another group is ahead of us on the same path, already reaching the Cornucopia. They must have been chased here just like us. I recognize Greta and Maisy from District 9, along with their allies, but I only count four of them rather than five. I wonder what happened to their ally, but quite frankly, I don't care too much. I'm just glad I'm alive
Motioning to Lena, I turn around and head back towards the trees in a different section of the Arena. We'll have to push through the snow to make it back to warm weather.