I don't know how many nightmares I have.
How many times I watch my father die in the mines. How many times I see Prim dying of starvation, her face heavy with burdens that she shouldn't have. How many time I see Lucas being killed by a peacekeeper or my mom lying on the bed, drowning out the world around her.
Worst of all, the image of Cato killing Riley with the sword keeps replaying in my head, her blood curdling scream piercing the atmosphere.
When I finally come to my senses, I don't get up, just hoping that this was all a really bad dream. For some reason, Lucas's words from what seemed like forever but was really only about a week or two ago flash in my mind.
"We could do it, you know."
"What?"
"Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it."
But then, I'm suddenly thinking about Riley. She saved my life! At least, I think she did. I'm not sure what was real and what wasn't. For whatever reason, I believe that at least the part with Cato was real, making my stomach drop in dread.
Riley was hurt. Or worse, dead.
None of this makes sense. Why would Riley save me? Unless she was still working the whole 'Lover Girl' angle, but I don't think that's it. She would've known that Cato wouldn't have taken it very well.
Was she actually trying to protect me? If she was, then why was she with the Careers in the first place?
All of this thinking makes my head spin, so I decide to focus on the one good thing that happened because of the tracker jackers. I have a bow and arrow!
That's when I hear a twig snap. In one swift motion, despite my injuries, I turn to the sound, loading my bow and pointing the arrow at the source of the noise. I see the brown curls peeking out from behind a rock and I immediately throw the bow down, grinning at Auggie.
"You know, the Careers are not the only ones who can form alliances." I say.
For a moment, it's silent. Then Auggie slowly peeks the rest of his head out from behind the rock. "You want me for an ally?"
"Why not?" I say. "You saved me with those tracker jackers. You're smart enough to still be alive. And I can't seem to shake you away anyways."
He hesitates for a moment, then cautiously walks over to me, sitting down on the ground beside me.
"You hungry?" I ask. "I think I still have some crackers and jerky in my pack."
A small smile appears on his face and he accepts the food. We sit in silence for a while with the only sound coming from the chirping of birds and munching from Auggie. Finally, he says "I can fix your stings."
"How?" I ask.
He pauses for a moment, then digs in the pack he was carrying, pulling out a handful of leaves.
"Where'd you find those?"
"Just around." Auggie shrugs. "We all carry them when we work in the orchards. They left a lot of nests there. There are a lot here too."
"That's right. You're District 11: Agriculture." I state. "Well, fix me up."
I widen my eyes in surprise when I see Auggie pop the leaves into his mouth. He chews them for a couple seconds, then presses the wad on a couple of the stings on my hand, providing immediate relief.
Auggie continues to do this for the rest of the stings.
I notice a long burn on his arm. "I have something for that." I pull out the burn medicine, passing it over to him.
"You have good sponsors." He says, rubbing the cream into his arm.
"Have you gotten anything yet?" I ask.
He shakes his head.
"You will, though. Watch. The closer we get to the end, the more people will realize how clever you are." I say, fairly confident.
"You weren't joking about wanting me for an ally?" Auggie asks.
"No, I meant it." I say. I could practically hear Shawn banging his head on the wall, shouting more curse words at me for teaming up with Auggie. But I wanted to ally with him. He reminded me so much of Prim. And maybe it was just because of my love-struck state, but for some reason, he resembled Riley.
"Okay." Auggie smiles, holding out his hand. We shake on it. "It's a deal."
I manage to kill a bird that was just flying around. I skin it, roast it over a small fire Auggie had built, and we eat it, as well as some roots Auggie had found.
He recognizes the bird, says it's called a groosling.
"I've never had a whole leg to myself before." Auggie says. A smile is brought on my face when I see his meat-covered face. He no longer looked like a kid affected by the woes of life, more like just a regular, innocent child.
"Take the other." I say.
"Really?" He asks.
"Take whatever you want. Now that I've got a bow and arrows, I can get more. Plus I've got snares. I can show you how to set them." Even with my words, Auggie is still hesitant.
"Oh, take it." I say, passing the drumstick to him. "It will only keep a few days anyway, and we've got the whole bird."
Eventually, my words and his hunger must win as he takes a huge bite.
"I'd have thought, in District 11, you'd have a bit more to eat than us. You know, since you grow the food." I say.
"Oh no, we've not allowed to eat the crops." Auggie shakes his head.
"Do they arrest you or something?" I ask.
"They whip you and make everyone else watch." Auggie answers. "The mayor's very strict about it." He pauses for a moment, before asking "Do you get all the coal you want?"
"No." I say. "Just what we buy and whatever we track in on our boots."
"They feed us a bit extra during harvest so that people can keep going longer." Auggie says.
"Don't you have to be in school?" I ask.
"Not during harvest. Everyone works then." Auggie says.
We decide to lay out all our food and supplies to plan ahead. Auggie has gathered a massive pile of roots, nuts, greens, and berries. We divide the food equally, just in case we were separated.
He also has a water skin, homemade slingshot, a pair of socks, and a sharp rock she uses as a knife.
"I know it's not much." Auggie sighs. "But I had to get away from the Cornucopia fast."
We extinguish out fire and set out for the day, not stopping until it is night.
"Where do you sleep?" I ask. "In the trees?"
Auggie nods.
"In just your jacket?"
"I have these for my hands." Auggie holds up his socks.
"You can share my sleeping bag if you want. We'll both easily fit." I say. We were definitely the two smallest tributes out of everyone. Auggie's face lights up and he nods. We climb a tree and settle down for the night, just as the anthem plays, showing that there weren't any deaths today.
"Auggie, I only woke up today. How many nights did I miss?" I ask.
"Two." He says. "The girls from Districts 1 and 4 are dead. There's ten of us left."
So Riley wasn't dead. I bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from sighing in relief.
"Something strange happened." I say, beginning to relive the story to Auggie. "At least, I think it did. It might have been a hallucination from the tracker jacker venom."
Auggie nods, listening intently, waiting for me to continue.
I try to leave my voice as casual as possible. "You know the girl from my district? Riley?"
A grin forms on Auggie's face. "Who doesn't know her?" He says in a teasing tone. "You guys are the star-crossed lovers, Rilaya for short."
I flush, making Auggie's smile grow bigger. "It-It doesn't matter, Auggie. She was just acting."
"Oh." Auggie says. "I don't think it was an act at all. Quite obvious, actually, even before her interview. Did you not see how she was looking at you during the reaping? Or the tribute parade? Or training? Basically anytime you two were together?"
"Anyways." I say, trying to tone down my blush. "I think she saved my life back in that clearing. But she was with the Careers."
"She's not with them now." Auggie says. "I've spied on their base camp by the lake. They made it back before they collapsed from the stingers. But she's not there. Maybe she did save you and had to run."
I think back to when I last saw Riley, when Cato had bursted out from the bush. "I...I think she's hurt. By Cato." I'm hoping that I was wrong but it was pointless. I can still remember her scream, making me shudder.
"Oh." Auggie says softly, noticing my worried expression. "If she is, she's still alive, if that helps a little."
We sit in silence for a while, until Auggie says "The Careers have everything down by the lake. And they're so strong."
"We're strong too." I say. "Just in a different way."
"You are. You can shoot. What can I do?" Auggie says, his tone helpless.
"You can feed yourself. Can they?" I ask.
"They don't need to. They have all those supplies." Auggie says.
"Say they didn't. Say the supplies were gone. How long would they last? I mean, it's the Hunger Games, right?" I say, an idea starting to form.
"But Maya, they're not hungry." Auggie says.
"No, they're not." I agree. "That's the problem." For the first time since the Games started, I actually have a plan. "I think we're going to have to fix that."