The sun spreads itself like watery damson jam across the horizon. Nothing stirs. Not even the birds from last night. The sky folds in on itself: dark blue to light blue, splashed with pinks and lilacs and bright, fiery oranges.
"Good morning, Tributes," Caesar's voice shouts, causing me to jump. "There will be a feast this afternoon at the fourth Cornocopia. Each team's needs one thing: the cure for the madness serum that will be drastically increased ove the course of today. But, there is only one cure available. So, you better get there first. Good luck, Tributes," after a pause, Jasper interrupts the silence.
"I'm going back to sleep. We're gonna need all the strength we can muster to take on the Careers," and with that, he turns on his side and drifts away. I look at Lyam who is winding a short piece of rope between his fingers.
"So, um..." I begin. "I thought we were planning to go our separate ways. Now that there's only five of us left," Lyam sighs and raises his head. His eyes pierce mine with the same gentle ferocity as on the day of the Reaping.
"Yeah, we did say that," he finally offers. "But we can't let Jasper go against the Careers on his own. It'd be a suicide mission,"
"Yeah..."
"I won't let him go alone. If you want to leave then you can; no hard feelings. But I'm not going to let him kill himself," he continues to firmly hold my gaze.
"Wed stand a better chance of we outnumber them," I whisper. "I'll stay," Lyam smiles at me.
"Yeah, we'll stand a much better chance with all three of us," the wind continues to pick up, tugging at my hair as I fold it under my hat. It nearly becomes so loud that it drowns out an earth-shaking "whoosh" similar to that from the first night.
"We should move soon," Lyam suggests.
"I'll wake Jasper in a bit," the sky grows slowly and slowly lighter as the sun glows between the trees, blinding me before I turn my back to it
"Alright," I say, untying the rope from around my waist. "I think we should go,"
"Okay, I'll wake Jasper," he does and tells him about the noise.
"I'll check it out," he offers and scrambles up the tree. He reappears a minute later. "Yeah, they've set up a beacon again. It's about north west ish, that direction," he points in, towards the forest where the blustery gale is worse that at the outskirts and snow falls feebly.
"Okay, let's go then," we pack up our kit quickly and each tuck into a pack of juicy, dried fruits.
Wind whips wildly, cutting at my face, making my eyes tear up as snow flutters and caresses the wind. The violent blizzard appears hell-bent on stopping our escape from the deep valley that we settled in. It fights as we are forced to charge from one tree to the next, following the quickly evaporating footsteps in front of us. The world shines brilliant white.
Out of the valley, we plod through the snow, the cure for Jasper the only thing keeping us from sitting down and giving up. My muscles burn and my bones ache as I bring my knees to my chest to ease the cold and effort. Jasper strides ahead, at times becoming a mere blur between the trees. Although the sun is shining, the snow continues to fall freely and the tip of my nose remains as icy as the world around me. I help myself to a packet of crackers, savoring the dryness on my tongue that saps away at the moisture.
"Jasper!" Lyam shouts. "D'you want some?" Through a mouthful of cracker. Jasper walks towards us and takes one of the crackers from my packet. He opens his bag and draws out a small canister of soup. We stand, huddled together, greedily gourging ourselves on the cold soup. The sun slowly warms my back as it cuts through the trees. But, even so, the wind is still ferociously strong and soon we are all shivering. I puff warm breaths into my cupped hands in a vain attempt to restore warmth.
"Give them here," Lyam says, taking my hands in his and gently rubbing them. "Man, your hands really are frozen," he laughs quietly.
"You're telling me," I respond sarcastically.
"Just let me go and throw up," Jasper interjects, squinting comically at us. "We really should continue to move. We don't know when the Feast will start," he turns away and starts to disappear between the trees. Lyam keeps my hands pressed tightly between his before letting them go.
"Let's go," he says.