Fate Greenridge's P.O.V. (D10)
A thin ray of sunlight escapes through the jungle canopy and beams down mercilessly on my face. I raise a hand to shield my eyes from it, but it's already done its work--waking me up.
I sit up and immediately become aware of an itching sensation covering my bare arms and neck. I frown and start scratching the irritated areas of skin. I groggily look at the ground as I yawn. Something curious catches my eye. I take a closer look and gasp, quickly snatching my pack and bolting to my feet. Surrounding my feet is a large, vine-like network of three-leafed plants. I was sleeping in a whole nest of the stuff that I can only identify to be the dreaded poison ivy.
I groan and scratch my cheek until it's red with claw marks. I move on to my neck as I find a clearing to look through my pack. And this time, I make sure to check for poison ivy before sitting down. I proceed to rummage through the contents of my bag, hoping to find some sort of ointment or cloth.
My prayers are answered as I find a small, white hand-towel. I screw the lid off my water bottle and peek inside. It's still half full, so I risk spilling some onto the towel. I wring out the excess water, doing my best to get it back into the bottle. I close up the water bottle and replace it in my pack.
I sling the bag over my shoulder and start walking whilst gently dabbing the cloth to my neck and arms. It doesn't do much, but it relieves some of the itching and it produces a soothing, cooling effect.
I guess I'll have to have more attention in the future when I'm finding somewhere to settle down for the night.
I can't believe it's only day five. It feels like it's been weeks, even though not very much has happened to me...yet. I hope nothing ever does, but nobody's that lucky. I know that I'll have to kill at some point if I want to win. The question is, would I be able to bring myself to actually do it when the time comes?
I shake my head, wiping the thoughts out of my mind. I don't want to make those decisions right now. I just want to be back in District Ten with Tate, move into a new house in the Victor's Village, and have a good rest of my life. A happily ever after every tribute in this arena dreams of. It's either that, or just the fame and fortune.
I freeze in my steps and whip around when my ears pick up the sound of a stick snapping behind me. It sounded reasonably far away, so I crouch down, hoping that the person or thing didn't detect my presence. My heart drops into my stomach as I hear another snap, much closer than the last one.
My trembling fingers wrap around the cold handle of my axe, tightening as the adrenaline and anxiety builds up inside me. I want to get up and run away so badly, but I don't know if it's too late.
Suddenly, someone yanks on my shirt from behind and clamps and hand over my mouth. I scream into the hand and kick my legs at the person.
"Shh!" a voice whispers harshly and I feel the grip on my shirt tightening, "Keep quiet. There's four tributes closing in on you. They've been following you all morning. Just keep calm and follow my lead, got it?"
I relax as I listen to the words. I can't believe I didn't realize I was being tracked. I wonder if this person is just lying to gain my trust.
Just then, I catch a glimpse of a sleek, black jacket, part of the prescribed arena clothing. The person holding me forces me to the ground whispering, "Stay low."
I can hear footsteps all around us. It's like we're being circled, but each set of footsteps is a fair distance from us at the moment.
I turn to get a glimpse of my supposed 'rescuer'. My eyes widen in alarm as I find that the person is the boy from District Five. He's the one who built the trap that killed Jordin.
"Geofrey?!" I whisper in surprise, but he shushes me, not even making eye contact with me. He has his eyebrows drawn together in concentration as his eyes search for an escape.
"Why are you-"
"This way," Geofrey cuts me off and pulls me to my feet, forcing me to run alongside him. He drags me along with him until he reaches a large stump, where he instructs me to hide behind for a second. A tribute walks directly past the stump as I hold a hand over my mouth, attempting to block out my loud breathing.
After the footsteps fade off in a different direction, Geofrey hauls me back to my feet and starts running stealthily again, crouching a little. I crouch over too, just to avoid being seen.
We run for what feels like about twenty minutes before Geofrey finally lets up. This is where I put my foot down, planting my feet and wrenching my arm out of his hand. He stops a few feet ahead of me and turns around for an explanation.
I put on a serious face, "Look, I appreciate you coming in and getting me away from my death and all, but you can't expect me to stick with you now. I don't know why you helped me, and I'm thankful, but you need to know that I can't trust anyone here, even if they save my life."
Geofrey looks at the ground, "Okay, well you can't expect me to just let you go after saving you either. You owe me now."
I roll my eyes and flop my arms at my sides, "Oh yeah, because the Hunger Games is a place for favors! I'll add it to the list of the rest of my plans for this arena."
"No, it's not like that," he says, meeting my gaze again, but with more seriousness in his eyes, "I need you to help me with Jada. She's hurt real bad, and I think it's infected and I don't know what to do!"
"And what makes you think that I do?"
"Because I saw you spend a lot of your training time in the medical and survival stations. I didn't even give those stations a second thought," he chuckles a little, "I guess I'm feeling the full weight of that mistake now."
I sigh and mentally weigh my options. I can either turn tails and run, only to eventually come across more tributes that will undoubtedly kill me on the spot. Or, I can go with Geofrey, help heal his ally, and create a trust between us and join his alliance. It'll give me a better chance.
"I guess I'll tag along with you..."
I thought he'd be happy to hear that, but he keeps a solemn expression as he gives a simple nod.
"Geofrey," I decide to ask this before following him and farther, "What will you do with me after I help you?"
"Consider yourself a member of the alliance. By the way, I normally go by just Geo."
"Okay. I'm Fate, in case you didn't know."
"Right," Geo nods and signals for me to follow him farther into the jungle. I shrug and take my first step on a different, possibly better path than my previous position.
Harper Coyle's P.O.V. (D4)
I wake up to a clear blue sky, stretching for as far as the eye can see. Or, how far the arena wall reaches.
It feels like I've been sleeping for years. I feel completely refreshed and well caught up on sleep. Then I remember the virus, the fever and headaches, the blood and coughing. What happened with that? I remember being unable to breathe, so I passed out.
I look around and find a clear, glass vial resting on the sand beside me. Its lid is half-buried in sand. There's remnants of a purple liquid staining the interior of the vial.
Janice and Steve are still sleeping, but they are stirring. When they wake up I'll ask for an explanation.
Janice sits up groggily and groans as she rubs the sleep out of her eyes. Steve also gets up and goes down to the water. He looks grouchy, so I don't bother saying anything to him.
"What's with him?" I ask Janice once he's out of earshot.
"Oh, he just had a rough day yesterday. Thanks to him, you're still alive, you know. Steve risked his life to get the cure for your infection. He ran into some trouble though. Apparently, the whole island had traps set up everywhere, especially in the area where the cure was. He got hit with some acid smoke when he was retrieving the vial, and on his way back, the Gamemakers decided to mess around with the water and cooked up some massive waves. One of the waves pulled Steve under and scraped his arm up against the reef."
"Wow...didn't think I meant that much to you guys. You could've just let me die, you know-"
"Yeah, but we didn't!" Janice snaps, "Why can't you just be grateful that we saved you?"
"I am...I'm just saying that you guys don't need to go so far for my sake."
"Harper, we all feel the same about each other. Nothing would stop us from protecting one another, you know that. We've created a friendship that will be harder to break than most will think."
Something about that makes me feel warm inside and I allow a smile to creep onto my face, "You know, deep down, I knew you guys wouldn't give up on me so easily."
"Ha!" Janice shakes her head and smiles as she stands up to join Steve down by the water.
Fynn Salasi's P.O.V. (D7)
Scarlett and I sit at the edge of the cornucopia island, messing around with our weapons while Elsa and Ace talk privately inside the horn. I glance inside, wondering what or who they're talking about.
"Weird thing, you know?" a voice says from behind us. Scarlett and I turn quickly, weapons ready, but we are only faced with Kara. She leans against the horn with her elbow and laughs, "Jumpy."
"Shouldn't you be sleeping? Or I don't know...dead?!" Scarlett snaps at the painfully annoying girl.
"Pfft! I'm sure you were hoping for the latter," Kara remarks, "All of you probably were. Sucks for you, but I don't think it'll be happening any time soon. Last night, my fever went down and I feel as good as new now."
"What great news..." Scarlett mutters.
"I heard that!" Kara says.
"I'm glad you did too!" Scarlett shoots back, standing up to face Kara, "Listen, sicko, I don't know how you survived that infection, but in all honesty, and I believe I'm speaking for all of us here, we wish you didn't. Oh, and all along, we were planning on only getting the cure for Elsa anyways. But hey, turns out you didn't really need it anyways. I'm glad we didn't waste our time and energy getting the other one for you. Even if we did, you wouldn't even be grateful for it because that's who you are! You're a sick, twisted, deranged, psychotic, maniac!"
Kara holds a sickening grin the whole time Scarlett talks. It grows even bigger at the last sentence. She laughs and shakes her head, still staring at Scarlett, "How true you are! You see, Scarlett, there's a big difference between you and me. I can handle anything you throw at me, be it words, knives, or your brother! But you, you can't even handle a simple insult. You'll blow up with every chance that blows your way. It's like you're just waiting for someone to insult you so you can prove you can win a fight."
"That's not true!" Scarlett screams, "None of that is!"
Suddenly, Scarlett lurches forward and starts throwing punches at Kara. The first one hits Kara's jaw, but she recovers quickly, beaming a mocking smile that just adds fuel to Scarlett's rage-attack. Scarlett punches her face over and over again, but Kara just allows it, coming back every time with a smile. Blood starts smudging all over Kara's face from the punches. This is when I step in.
I grab Scarlett's shoulders and tear her away from Kara, who is now full out laughing at my sister. The blood on her face makes her look even crazier than she already clearly is. Scarlett continues screaming at Kara and struggling to get another punch in, but I don't allow it.
I drag her into the horn, leaving Kara outside to laugh her brains out. Ace and Elsa are watching curiously, but I just gesture to Kara and shake my head.
"She can't stay much longer," I say firmly, "It's either her, or us. Make your choice."
~~~~~
Hi all! Here's my Happy-New-Years chapter for you! So yeah, hoped you liked. Unedited again, so sorry about that. Vote if it satisfies you to do so. (I know it satisfies me at least) nothing better than a happy author. Maybe one of your favorite characters will win. ;)
Or maybe not...muahahaha.
As a fun thing, if you're up to commenting, I'd like to hear what your predictions are for the book, or what you really want to happen. You never know...if I'm in a good mood, I might make it happen.
Have a nice day!
~MK