Breathe in.
5
Breathe out.
4
Breathe in.
3
Breathe out.
2
Breathe in.
1
Breathe out.
Boom
Run.
Jessica was running as fast as she could, her legs ached, screaming for her to stop but she couldn't. Going to the cornucopia so soon was too risky so she grabbed one of the bags on the outer edge and ran for the mountains. She could hear booms here and there but had no time to think about it. She thought about slowing down but figured it was better to keep running, it was keeping her warm.
Scream. Boom.
She tried not to think about the dreaded sound of the canon firing as a bad thing, instead counting each 'boom' as one less person she would have to kill.
She found a mountain, made sure to tighten her backpack straps and headed towards it. She used her training to put half her weight on a rock before climbing up as to avoid it crumbling. Once she reached a more flat area she looked around for a cave. She knew what to look for and as she saw an opening she looked up to the sky and signed, thanks Mags, as to silently thank her mentor for teaching her how to find them.
She entered the cave, checking her surroundings before sitting down, and opened her bag to check what was inside.
A pack of knives, good.
A rope, some wires, and a net. Perfect to make a trap.
She got straight to work, starting to make a trap in front of the cave, covering the wire with snow. A few more canons went off as she worked. If anyone tried to come in the cave and get her, they'd get caught in her trap.
As she had almost finished setting up the trap, she heard snow crunching around her, then a scream. She whipped her head around to see a girl she recognised from district 8 on the floor in agony, a seisocope snake by her leg. Boom. She quickly grabbed a knife and threw it at the snake successfully chopping off it's head. Thank whatever god there is that she's got good aim, she thought.
She walked over to the girl, closed her eyes, and took her bag which had some dry food packets and a canister of water inside. She had a pair of machetes attached to her belt. It was no twin blades like she would've hope, but she was still skilled with the weapon in combat. She went back towards her cave and finished the trap.
She drank some water before sitting down against the cave wall.
The sky started to dim at an unnatural pace as the game makers ended their first day.
She heard the music start to play and crawled forwards so she could see the sky.
11 dead.
She found herself letting out a sigh of relief when she saw Dale was still alive. She decided she should get some sleep for now and find some more food and melt some water in the morning.
Before she retired for the night, she drew, in the snow, the words, 'happy birthday Ky' knowing that as of right now, it would probably be her little brothers birthday. She looked up at the sky one last time before retreating to the back wall of the cave, hidden from the entrance, to sleep.
She woke with a jolt when she heard a snap. Her trap. She grabbed a machete from her belt and hid behind a wall, peering around it to see a scrawny boy stuck in the net.
She stepped forward to get a better look.
The boy in the net turns, hands shaking, voice wavering as he spoke, "please.. please I- I'm sorry please don't hurt me. I didn't know anyone was here. Please.."
His eyes were closed in fear, he couldn't see who it was.
"Dale?"
He opens his eyes to see his tribute partner walking over.
"J- Jessica?"
"Yeah, it's me. It's okay I'm not gonna hurt you. Stay still okay?"
She carefully undoes the knots, causing the trap to fall to the ground with a thud, she walks over to Dale, whose lying on the ground, and holds his head, "hey, hey look at me. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"Can you move?" He hadn't fell from that high and his bag mostly broke his fall, "yeah, I'm good," he replies.
She tells him to go into the cave as she sets up the trap again, at least she knows it works.
Once she's done, she heads back inside, taking a seat next to Dale, "what've you got?"
He opens his pack proudly, showing her two canisters one half full, one empty, and numerous dry food packs.
"You got a weapon?"
He looks down and shakes his head. Jessica passed him a knife and one of her machetes, "I'm gonna go get some more water, be safe."
"No. I'll go, please. I want to prove I can do something."
"You sure?" She asks warily, knowing his survival skills aren't great. He always struggled to multitask, she worried he wouldn't be able to watch his own back whilst focussing on getting water.
"Yeah! I'll go get some ice and bring it back."
"Ok. Be careful."
He smiles and walks off.
She sits in the cave alone for a while before hearing a scream, "Jess! Jessica! Help!"
She grabs her weapons and runs, avoiding her trap, towards the pleads for help. She sees Dale, down a little path, stuck in a hole in the ice. He looks as if he's about to turn blue and will die from the cold soon. She rushes down towards him, getting on her hands and knees as to not break the ice and crawls over as quickly as possible. She drags him out of the ice slowly but efficiently and over to solid ground. The only sound was the noise of his teeth chattering.
She helps him to his feet and takes him back to the cave. She sets him against the wall and hurried to start up a fire to warm him up.
This is when she notices Dale's shirt is stained with crimson blood.
"Dale? Dale are you hurt? Is that your blood?"
He looks down, eyes starting to close as he realised.
"No, no Dale keep your eyes open, okay? You're okay. You're gonna be fine," she moves her hand to apply pressure to the wound.
An electronic chime was heard from outside the cave.
"I'm gonna go check that out, okay? Keep pressure on it, keep your eyes open."
He nods weakly, replacing her hand on his chest with his own.
She grabs her machete before walking out slowly, taking in her surroundings, she notices a sphere with a parachute caught in a tree above the cave. She climbs the tree grabbing the spherical object before hooking it onto her weapons belt.
She sees a shadow approaching the cave, climbing down as quickly as she can, she runs back before hearing a muffled scream. The boy turns around, throwing a spear at Jessica, she manages to move in time so it doesn't hit any viral organs, only grazing her side. She launches a knife at the persons head, killing the district 8 boy instantly.
She crouches down besides Dale who, luckily, wasn't any further injured but did look a shade or two lighter than before.
She hastily opens the sphere containing some sort of cream with a note saying, apply to wounds generously, keep it up Princess, F. Odair.
She smiled at the nickname.
She quickly lifts Dales shirt before applying most of the tub onto his wound before he pushes it towards her, motioning to her side. She applies the rest of it onto her cut which had gotten a bit deeper from bending down to Dales level.
That night, when the anthem played, it showed 3 more tributes had died. There were still 10 alive including herself and Dale. Jessica sighed, the less people that died from the Careers hands, the more that would have to die at her hands.
The next morning, Dale was sitting against the wall letting his wound heal whilst Jessica went out to get some ice and fish. She brought them back in a bag and melted the ice on a small fire in the cave as to not alert others to their location. She cooked the fish and they had one each.
They now had two full canisters of water and a full stomach of fish.
Throughout the day, more booms went off, though they didn't take much notice.
By the time the third night night came, Dale was good as new and they were watching the sky.
4 more dead today.
Only 6 left alive. Jessica, Dale, and the 4 careers.
"Jess?"
"Yeah?"
"If we do beat the careers, what happens then?"
There is a moment of silence.
"You go home," she replied simply. This little boy needed to survive, he'd barely lived yet. Besides, her brothers would be okay, they have each other.
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me, okay? Get some sleep."
And with that, he leant his head against her shoulder, and was asleep within seconds.
AN: not Jessica looking after lil' Dale <3