I'm very sorry for the long wait! I'm in college now so I'm slightly stressed haha
And in case you haven't heard yet, The Hunger Games is getting a prequel! It takes place 64 years before Katniss's story and will be released on May 19, 2020
Anyway, enjoy this safe chapter :)
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"Calypso is looking for Leo," Rick said aloud to the employees. The president had stopped micromanaging him in favour of other duties. "Is that entertaining or just sad?"
The man pointed at a screen. "Well, the viewers think both. Lots of sad comments, but they're still watching as expected."
Rick nodded distractedly, then pointed at a different screen, one that showed the general location of each tribute on a large map. "Hey, they're pretty close." He signalled to an employee in the corner. "Drive these two together, will you?"
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Travis examined the blowgun in his hands and the small quiver that came with it.
The two Careers were still chasing each other and fighting it out. The third one had fled, and Travis turned out Piper's pockets but didn't find anything else.
He hid all the weapons he didn't want in a bush, and tossed Clarisse's empty backpack far off to the side as he walked away. Whether it was she or Bryce that won the fight, the one who returned would think it was Percy who had taken the supplies.
Travis gulped down some water and smiled grimly to himself. He was well off and could easily survive for a week without having to force himself to stay hungry or thirsty so as not to run out of supplies.
And with his new confidence and the weight of Leo off his shoulders, Connor felt closer than ever. He couldn't wait to see his family again.
Travis wasn't done with the forest yet, but he'd have to take a quick stop at the meadows first.
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This was her moment. Clarisse's spear moved like an extension of her arm. She knew how to control every piece of it, and it flashed as she swung it against Bryce's knife.
As always, he was overconfident and tried to block it. The force knocked him back and made him have to shake his arm to get the feeling back.
It would be an easy kill, she thought. Her spear sliced across his chest next time, but it didn't cut deep enough. He laughed, "Not bad!"
"Why are you so confident?!" she snapped.
He grinned, pond scum green eyes shining through his matted brown hair. "It's how I cope, silly."
She was suddenly thrown off-balance. Another earthquake had begun at the worst possible time.
Bryce was cackling. "I knew it!" he screamed. "The Gamemakers would never let me die! I am far too entertaining!"
"You little —" She started to throw her spear, but stopped herself when she realized the unpredictable shaking would almost guarantee a miss.
Bryce retreated, tripping and stumbling as he went. Clarisse stabbed the ground and let him go. Clearly, the Gamemakers didn't make the odds in her favour.
Her father would be disappointed.
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Nico stared at the morning sky through the dead leaves of the shelter. He and Will had fixed it after the earthquake shook half of it down and woke them up.
Will shifted beside him. "Nico, who did you say died in the last few days?"
"The girls from 5 and 6," he answered automatically. Before Will came he had barely anything to think about except who had died. It should be alarming, honestly, how he was so used to people dying.
"Right. We need to get to the desert," Will said. "There's water there — a ton of it. Plenty of fish to eat, too."
"Is it safe?" Nico asked, turning to look at him. "I always hear rain there, but I thought it was acid like it is here."
Will blinked. "Wait, it rains acid here?"
"Yeah," Nico shrugged helplessly. "It destroys everything. At this point, it's worse than fire."
"Oh, well anyway, the desert is relatively safe. The worst thing is quicksand and jellyfish in the river, but if you know how to deal with them then you'll be fine. And you can see any enemies from a mile away."
"It can't be that great," Nico said skeptically. "Can it? Wouldn't all the four sections be equal somehow? Otherwise, everyone would just stick to the forest."
"Sounds like they're wiping it out with acid rain," Will pointed out.
"That's true," he admitted. "Luckily I never went far enough into the forest to get caught by rain. The only reason I survived this long was because of sponsors and more luck than I've ever had before the Games."
"Nothing attacked you?"
"I saw a few mutts, but I just kept still and they didn't come any closer. I stayed put for most of the Games."
"Do you want to win?" Will asked suddenly.
The question took him by surprise. It was odd to ask someone whether they wanted to survive, but he understood. "My parents are both dead and I just lost my sister," he said, then catching his mistake, amended, "months ago. She starved after giving me all her food. So I have nothing back home. I don't care about winning."
"I'm sorry," Will said, but although his tone was sincere, there was something strange in his face as he said it. The blond met his eyes, and Nico realized that he knew he was lying about Bianca.
Nico looked away. No one had been able to read him like this in a while. "And what about you?" he asked.
"I've got parents," he said, sounding almost guilty. "I would...really like to go back to them. You know, if you win, you can help the people in your district. Let them stay at your house, give them food..."
"Yeah," Nico said quietly. "That's their trick, you know."
Will paused, and he glanced around as if to look for cameras. "The Capitol's?"
"Yeah. They get us to go with the Games because of that small chance that we could survive and bring home money and food. So we don't realize that, hey, isn't it a lot better if the Capitol just helped us out and the Games didn't exist?"
"You've been doing a lot of thinking, haven't you?" He'd tried to say it with a laugh, but he sounded sad.
"Yeah. There wasn't much else to do before you came." Nico sat up a little and actually looked Will in the eye this time. "Since you're so sure, let's go to the desert when it starts getting dark again. The land of sunshine and death sure can't be that bad."
Will gave him a glowing smile. "That's the spirit."
Then they saw a shadow descending from above them. Nico nearly had a heart attack, but then realized it was a parachute.
He scrambled out and caught it, ignoring the chill wind. Inside was a warm camouflaged sleeping bag. He ducked back inside and showed it to Will.
"There's only one," Will noted, helping him spread it out in the cramped space.
"We'll fit easily," Nico said, opening it up and sliding in.
"I know. I'm just... you're okay with that?"
"Yeah," Nico said, ignoring the nervous feeling in his stomach. "We can't afford to have you get hypothermia too, you know."
Will joined him in the sleeping bag. It warmed up, but not fast enough. Nico was on his back, but he could tell the other boy was facing him. Will whispered, "Are you still cold?"
"A little," he admitted, not sure what Will could do anyway. The rising sun had made it warmer than the night had been, but his hypothermia refused to go away.
Moments went by, and then he heard: "What's the warmest place you've ever been in?"
Nico faced him. "What."
"I'm serious," he said, drawing his brows together.
"Okay." Nico shut his eyes and thought. It was hard, but eventually he came up with something. "I think when we have enough coal for the fireplace. And we wrap ourselves with blankets and huddle together in front of it, drinking warm water."
Will didn't ask for specifics, like who he meant by 'we' or how often there was no fire. "Okay," he said, "just think about that feeling and nothing else."
So he did, bringing his mind back to the smoldering fire, dusty wool blankets, and the security of having someone next to him.
And miraculously it got warmer, and Nico felt better than he had all week. He hadn't meant to go to sleep, but his mental exhaustion caught up with him. And soon he went under and met his dreams.
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Annabeth concluded that the forest would be destroyed. The acid rain was the biggest clue. It lasted for the same duration every time, and if she'd guessed correctly, the next rainfall would drive everyone out.
It rained in the desert too, and she had thought it was also acid until she saw the Careers camping so close to it, and she figured the water was safe.
Still, it meant tributes would rush to the desert instead. The meadows weren't likely to have people, and as the games got tense, other tributes always became the biggest threat.
A break was long overdue, but she had yet to find a good place to rest. The sun had gone up ages ago and she didn't want to be caught out here, even if she was pretty close to the meadows by now.
Early in the morning a cannon had fired, but she wouldn't know who it was for until nightfall.
In the meantime, she made a mental list of the tributes she definitely had to avoid: Clarisse, Bryce, Piper, and Luke.
And if Luke was right about Travis, then him too, but she figured she could outwit him. Calypso was a risky person to associate with. Will and Nico she thought would be fine if she met them.
Percy was tricky.
On one hand, he was a Career who had volunteered for the Games. He'd teamed with them and protected the Cornucopia, standing by while they killed other people. The way he held his sword was with a surety that only came from rigorous training and skill.
But on the other, every time she'd seen him had told her that he didn't mean much harm. He hadn't looked happy throughout training, eating, or the reaping. Wanting to buy a house for his mom... that stuck in her mind.
She hoped it hadn't been a ploy for sympathy, because surely people didn't get bloodthirsty over wanting a house for someone.
Annabeth kept her pace the same as she trudged through the forest, hand on her dagger. As long as she didn't speak or do anything out of the ordinary, the Gamemakers wouldn't pay attention to her.
However, that came with risks too. Being too boring meant they could easily kill her off, so occasionally she had to spice things up.
That was why she'd made that grand statement about a "brilliant plan". The problem was that she didn't actually have one yet.
Yes, so far she had three different plans for escaping the Arena, but she needed a showy and dramatic decoy plan to keep the Gamemakers distracted from her true intention. But if she was lucky, there'd be a Feast and she wouldn't need one.
At last the meadows were in sight. They were more like fields, a vast land of tall grass spanning the area. Flowers grew in abundance, and the vegetation frequently shifted due to wind and what must be animals.
Avoiding fallen trees and clusters of holes in the floor made it hard to go directly there, and she was forced to weave around constantly. It got to the point where she began wondering if she was being led somewhere.
It was at a clearing when she froze, having seen someone climb over a log twenty yards away.
The tall figure was instantly recognizable. Tousled black hair, and a gleaming sword at his side.
It was Percy, and he'd spotted her too.
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