Camille Garza POV
I groaned and opened my eyes, huddled up and shivering in my sleeping bag. I let my head hang with a sigh, my nose pressing into the cold, moist dirt, before I shuffled and rose to a sitting position. I sniffed and wiped my face with my hands before shuffling in my sleeping bag closer to the campfire, which had been burnt out and was now nothing but ash and a little bit of smoke. The cold bit at my cheeks as I reached over for my pack, and I pulled out a lighter. My fingers shook from the cold as I leaned forward, lighting the logs on fire once more. As soon as I got a steady fire going I sighed in content, holding my hands out in front of me for warmth. It was risky, but I'd take my chances with Valentina and her gang rather than hypothermia.
"Hey,"
I glanced over at the sleeping bag beside me as Chris poked his head out, his hair ruffled and hanging over his eyes. I pressed my lips together and inclined my head towards the fire.
"I was cold."
He nodded, grunting as he moved to a sitting position. As he warmed his hands near the crackling flames, he glanced over at Doug and Rudy, who had been grudgingly forced to share a sleeping bag.
"We should get more food, we aren't exactly stocked up on it," he murmured.
"We still have the squirrel, we didn't quite finish it off,"
Chris shrugged and sighed, then squinted at the flames.
"Should we really have flames going right now? The arena will warm up anyway, plus it gives off our location."
Slowly, ever so slowly, I turned my head towards Chris, my eyes narrowed.
"Cut off our only source of warmth?"
"Uhm..." Chris sounded uncertain now, "Yes?"
"I am colder than a freaking glacier right now, Chris. Make any move to put out the fire and I will fucking murder you, I swear to god."
Chris laughed nervously, running a hand through his hair. "You're an oddball, Camille."
"I try."
Chris furrowed his brows and looked up at the sky. "Looks like the sun's rising."
He rose to his feet, kicking off the sleeping bag that was entangled around his feet, than he moved into the forest.
"Chris?" I called softly, struggling to my feet. I stood and jogged after him, and after a minute I found him at the treeline, staring at the horizon with a look of awe.
"C'mon, lets go back," I coaxed.
"No, wait," Chris said softly, "It's actually really pretty."
It was. The sun was a soft yellow, casting long shadows across the grass and the occasional tree. The sky that wasn't yellow from the sun was a soft baby blue, and in the distance were more trees that the sun was rising over. It had a very picturesque and peaceful appearance.
"Can we stay here a minute?"
I sat down in the grass, my fingers sweeping across the long blades and my face filled with wonder as sunlight shone down on us and the grasslands.
"Sure."
Eric Newton POV
I grabbed onto a piece of the cliff, my hands burning from getting repeatedly scraped, and hauled myself up onto the next ledge. I glanced down at Caitlin, who was a few metres below me, and climbed up to the next ledge. I looked upwards - the top of the cliff, and continued to climb.
The remainder of the rabbits Caitlin caught yesterday was wrapped up in a small, shitty piece of plastic, which I had strapped to my belt. It was rather unsafe, and a few times had nearly fallen off entirely. Other than Caitlin's knife, it was all we had. My hands reached the top of the cliff and I pulled myself up onto the grass, breathing a deep sigh of relief. I opened up what was left of the rabbit and began to eat, wincing at the odd taste. I was so used to the Capitol's crazy, rich meals, that other food seemed so bland and plain I wanted to throw up. Nevertheless, I ate it anyway.
"Good, I'm starving," I heard Caitlin grumble. I looked over at her as she hauled herself onto the cliff and walked over to where I was sitting, her eyes locked on the rabbit. She picked up a large piece and took a bite, then sunk to her knees and sat down.
"GET OUT! GET OUT!"
I leapt with a startled cry, my head snapping around to behind me. Beth was standing there, screaming and screaming and screaming.
And charging straight for us.
"Shit," I mumbled, quickly gathering up the food, "Caitlin, we gotta move,"
"GET BACK HERE!"
Caitlin leapt to her feet and grabbed her knife, then we ran. Beth's screams sounded behind us, almost taunting. She wouldn't kill us, right? She was messed up in the head, but she wasn't a killer.
Right?
Suddenly, Caitlin screamed beside me as she plummeted to the floor. Her knife hand twisted awkwardly on the ground, attempting to catch her fall, and Caitlin screamed as she landed on the knife. She struggled to her knees, pulling out the knife with a scream of pain, and that was when Beth attacked.
"CAITLIN!" I shouted. Beth grabbed Caitlin by the shoulders and flipped her onto her back, then grabbed her neck and began to throttle the girl. I picked up the knife Caitlin had discarded and staggered forward, swinging it downwards towards Beth. Beth shrieked as it tore through her sleeve, making blood seep through the thin fabric, then she tightened her grip on Caitlin's throat with one hand and punched at me with the other. Her fist crashed into my nose and I cried out in pain, staggering backwards.
Beth's hands were still locked around Caitlin's throat, her eyes wild and crazed as whatever memories from her past were flitting through her head. Caitlin screamed and writhed, punching Beth repeatedly in an attempt to unseat her. The punches didn't seem to have an effect on her, and she continued to strangle Caitlin. I ran forward once again and grabbed Beth around the torso, attempting to pull her off of Caitlin, but Beth simply jerked backwards and elbowed me in the chest, sending me flying backwards and landing painfully on the dirt.
Caitlin coughed and wheezed, and her attempts to punch Beth were faltering and failing. Finally, she went still.
BOOM!
No.
"GET OFF HER!" I screamed. I ran forward and pushed Beth off of Caitlin, water blurring my vision. I held onto Caitlin's knife with shaking hands and advanced towards Beth, rage flooding my senses. Beth snarled something unintelligible and then ran off into the trees, screaming something about her sister. I crawled over to Caitlin, and stared at her body. She was well and truly gone, Beth had suffocated her.
"I'm sorry!" I wailed. Tears sprung to my eyes and fell onto Caitlin's corpse as I sobbed over it, my fists curled into balls. "I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry, I should have stopped Beth."
Of course, Caitlin didn't answer, and this just made me more upset. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, staring down at Caitlin's purple face and the red marks around her neck like a hangman's noose.
"This is my fault."
Tatiana Whiteman POV
Phillip pulled the groosling from the spit, stamping out the flames of the fire in order to try and reduce the smoke. I glanced up at him from under my eyebrows, a nagging voice in the back of my head sneering that maybe we shouldn't have started a fire, maybe the smoke would draw the Career-like pack to us. I rolled my eyes internally and told my inner voice to be quiet.
"We're back," Daphne and Amaya walked into the small clearing. Daphne held a small, brown fabric bag along with a small case in her other hand, whilst Amaya had a small duck-like creature and several carrots in her grip.
"We managed to find a carrot patch, further along there were some blueberries," Daphne piped up, raising the fabric bag to show where she had put the blueberries, "Amaya caught that bird, I don't know what it is though."
"What's in that case?" Phillip asked gruffly. Daphne smiled softly.
"Well at the cornucopia I got belts and syringes, but no poisons or medicines. People in the Capitol fixed that right up for me."
"That's great," I smiled, "We were just done cooking the groosling, we can eat it and maybe some of the carrots or blueberries."
Amaya and Daphne nodded almost in sync and sat on the other side of the now gently smoldering firepit. Amaya began to gut and skin the bird, whilst Daphne began to look through the medicines and poisons, examining the labels with caution and ordering them in some way. Phillip pulled his pack off of his shoulders and pulled out a knife, then began to cut into the groosling meat. My eyes fell upon it hungrily, and my stomach growled loudly in response. I was so hungry. So hungry.
Phillip caught my gaze and an amused smile formed on his face. "You hungry?"
"So blimming hungry," I mumbled back in response. Phillip chuckled.
"Blimming?"
"Yes. Blimming." I replied back, almost monotonously. Phillip ducked his head with a smile, continuing to cut at the groosling. He pulled off the wings and handed one each to Amaya and Daphne, then he pulled off the legs and passed me one, quickly chowing into the other one. I bit into the groosling, relishing in the taste. We'd had barely anything to eat since arriving in the arena, even though it was a little burnt it tasted delicious to my starved self. As Phillip continued to hand out small portions of the groosling, Daphne picked up the carrots and blueberries from the floor and began to divide them between us four, and eventually we all had equal amounts of food. As we finished off about half of the groosling we stuffed the rest into our packs, knowing we would need it later on.
"We should move, the fire might give our location away," I said. The rest of the group murmured their assent, and we began to move through the trees. Amaya and Daphne walked ahead, and Phillip and I trailed behind by a few metres.
"You think Amaya's alright?"
I frowned, turning my head towards Phillip, "Why do you ask?"
"Well, for one, she's acting more sullen than usual," Phillip whispered, trying to avoid either Daphne or Amaya from noticing our conversation, "Also in her sleep last night she kept screaming about Will. I think she might have seen his death."
"Did you see his death?" I asked quietly. Phillip remained silent for a few moments.
"I saw his body," he whispered, "It was... horrendous," he seemed to shudder at the memory, "Someone had smashed his skull. If Amaya actually witnessed him get his brains bashed out... well, I'd be messed up too."
"Yea," I muttered back. Silence trekked on for a few moments as we walked behind Daphne and Amaya. We were no longer the alliance that had formed on the train ride, terrified yet having a steady thread of sanity supported by one another. Now one of us had been knocked off, it seemed to throw the group into chaos.
"Will you kill?"
Phillip furrowed his brow, "Pardon?"
"Will you kill? You know, will you kill another tribute?"
Phillip let out a deep sigh, and then shrugged. "I really don't know, Tat. I don't want to, but I'll probably have to at some point."
I nodded, then looked down at my shoes as we trekked through the forest. "Same. The thought of committing murder makes me feel sick, but if I want to win, realistically, than chances are I will have to kill. It sucks but it's just... you know."
"Yeah," Phillip mumbled under his breath, "C'mon, let's catch up to the others."
Renee Wolfe POV
Misty and I trekked across the sand, walking further along the shoreline with the water sloshing gently mere metres from our feet. When we had fled the bloodbath yesterday and gone to the part of the arena that dipped down, we'd found tall grasses, almost to my shoulders, and behind it a vast beach. That was where we were walking now, heading for the forest on the other side of the arena. The silence between us was deafening.
"How long till we get to the forest?" Misty mumbled.
"I don't know, shut up," I snapped back. Misty shook her head and glanced up at me with a disappointed look on her face.
"Is this about Max?"
"YES, this is about Max!" I snapped, refusing to turn and face my twin, "He's dead."
And it's your fault, I wanted to scream at her.
"Renee, you gotta toughen up. Yes Max died, and yes it really really really sucks, but we can't mope around forever. Especially not while we're being hunted." Misty said tiredly.
"I'll mope as much as I fucking want," I snapped angrily, "Don't tell me not to grieve."
Misty stopped on the sand, then looked to me. "Why are you snapping at me like this?"
I trembled and shut my eyes. I so desperately wanted to scream at her, to tell her that she had no place to tell me how I should grieve the loss of my friend, but I held my tongue and simply shook my head, walking forward.
"Okay, Renee, stop," Misty said. I continued to walk, very well aware that Misty had stopped in her tracks. I knew she would come after me. Right on cue, Misty growled something and jogged forward and across the sand.
"Renee, stop it! Don't ignore me!"
I continued to walk.
"Would you stop, Renee?" Misty snapped, "Just listen to me."
No response.
"Oh my fucking god, this is RIDICULOUS!" Misty shouted suddenly. She grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me to look at her. "Renee, just talk to me!"
"It's your fault," I snarled, before I knew what I was saying. Misty blinked, staring at me in shock.
"Excuse me?"
"YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM!" I snapped with a scream, "YOU JUST WATCHED HIM DIE, YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED VALENTINA!"
"HOW?" Misty screamed back. At this point neither of us noticed nor cared that we were probably attracting attention from everyone in our general vicinity. We were so caught up in our argument that we didn't see the three figures sneaking along behind us.
"YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING OTHER THAN JUST STANDING THERE LIKE A SITTING DUCK!" I shrieked.
"Renee, you have no fucking-" Misty never got further than that. A loud 'thwack' sounded, like a watermelon breaking, and then Misty fell to the ground, blood pricking up from the side of her head. Before I had time to scream, something heavy smacked into my temple. I screamed and screamed and screamed, but nothing came out of my mouth. I couldn't move. Then, blackness slipped over my vision.