The Hunger Games - Through the Fire and Flames - Book 1

Chapter 13

The ride seemed to go by fairly quickly and before I knew it I was being dressed by my team of stylists for the arena. My hair was braided in a simple plait down my back and I had on a dark suit that Cinna mentioned my mother wore during her time. Apparently he reconstructed it during his free time. After I was finished Cinna waved away the rest of his crew and sat down with me to wait. During this time he pinned my mothers mockingjay pin on my suit.

"I did the same thing for your mother during her first reaping." He told me.

My mother and Cinna had an odd relationship and I was curious as how Cinna saw her. I asked him and he willingly spilled all.

"I always saw your mother like the daughter I never had. I was protective of her from the moment I met her." he told me. "The day you walked into my remake room I felt like a grandfather." He didn't say much after that but I felt a warm fuzziness flow through me and hugged him. Slowly he returned the hug.

"So you never had kids?" I asked him after a few moments.

"I do now, one girl her name is Katniss she lives with her mother in District 1 while I am here for work."

"That's wonderful how old is she?"

"She turned thirteen today." I frowned almost immeadiately. "I'm greatful for the girl named Essence. She volunteered and spared my daughters life, it was my daughters name who originally came from the reaping." His voice was strained.

Cinna quickly composed himself and rose to his feet before moving to the tube. I guess it was time. He gestured towards and circular silver plate on the ground and I moved to stand on it. Quickly the tube lowered around me and I could have sworn I saw a tear trickle from Cinna's eyes. I rose my hand and placed it on the clear tube that encased me and smiled feebly as Cinna rose his to match mine. Suddenly I began rising and surfaced in the area.

I took a quick look around and saw we were surrounded by greenery, there was giant trees all around us. I held up my hand and gave the signal only my crew knew meant head to the north. They all nodded and we waited. Slowly the time trickled by and then the final ten seconds were being spoken by a robotic sounding voice.

One of the tributes from district 11 accidentally lost her balance and stepped off her plate resulting in being blown to pieces. I forced myself to focus and then I heard the final number. I launched myself from my plate and ran forward to the cornucopia that held the means to my survival. I made it there and grabbed the first bag my hand came to. Beside it was a bundle of weapons that I hosited over my shoulder and quickly ran towards the north.

I made it to the lining of the trees and took post waiting for my crew. Atleast 4 blasts were heard before my team made it to my side. I was missing two of my crew meaning two rivals were dead.

"Colt and Naomi are gone they got into a brawl with two others and took each other out." My brother told me.

He can talk, he is by my side, he seems rational enough to survive, thats good. I smiled at his presence and then turned quickly to launch a spear at a male who I recognized from District 5. He fell instantly to the ground at my feet. A blast was heard that I half ignored when I saw a small knife in his lifeless hand that had blood on it. Then I felt the sharp burn in my side and realized I had been grazed. It wasn't too bad but it would need to be kept clean if I didn't want to get sick. I grabbed a handful of moss from a tree to my left and cut a long strip from the extra fabric of my shirt and wrapped it up.

"We need to get deeper into the forest if we are to be safe. There are atleast 7 more we need to get rid of and they all have excellent skills." Essence said. She kept her eyes on her brother as she spoke. He nodded.

We headed deeper into the forest at a light paced run. I had appointed Tyne to the front as the lead because she knew how to find water and water meant survival. Our camp would be set up near the banks. Within fourty five minutes we came to a rest before a river. Everyone began setting their things down before Tyne stopped us. She pointed towards the ground which we noticed had been soaked from the point of the entrance of the forest. I knew immediately that this place flooded alot.

Tyne looked at the rocks and the small ledges before she seemed to relax her focused composer. "Here, we will make camp here its safe." She said as she let her things fall to the ground on a small mouth of a cliff that stood about 13 feet.

We all took the same path climbing up rocks and skimming along before we settled beside her.

"How do you know its safe?" Raider questioned.

"One its dry, two there is no greenery or any hint of weeds, three there are no signs of flooding. The rocks below showed water signs. The water doesn't get this high. It floods about five feet but this is the only part of the cliff that gave protection from being easily seen and kept us from drowning." she finished.

Several of the others began questioning her before I called silence. I was suprised at how well they listened to a twelve year old girl. I thought it was because of who my parents were but then I remembered I, the twelve year old scored the highest from the entire group who were all composed of girls and boys between the ages of 14 and 18.

"Don't question Tyne she knows this stuff." I said before I set my things down and took a seat.

My brother took a seat on my right and Phoenix on my left. After a few minutes of silence and catching up with our thoughts we decided to see what we were able to gather from the cornucopia. Several things of beef jerky, bread rolls, water and dried fruit. That should get us by for atleast a few days if we rationed correctly. Our weapons consisted of 10 spears, 8 knives, a couple objects that could be used as a bludgeon and 5 machettes and 7 pairs of awkward glassed. Great no bow. Phoenix pulled from his shoulder what I thought we had been lacking. A pristine bow of a black wood and two sheeths full of arrows. Why two?

"There were two bows and I didn't want to bring both so I just grabbed the second sheeth of arrows and ran off. Now the other bow is useless." Phoenix said probably reading my confused expression.

I hugged him and thanked him for grabbing the bow for me. We all voted to skip dinner that night because we had all ate a large breakfast and a equally sized lunch so we were good for atleast another day or so. Several hours later night began to fall and it grew very cold. There were only five sleeping bags so we unzipped them and then zipped them together to make a giant blanket that the 11 survivors of our group huddled under. I was nestled between Phoenix who pulled me close to his side to share his body heat and my brother who was the same on my other side. I don't know about anyone else but I was warm, maybe too warm.

When it was dark enough we moved towards the edge of the cave as we knew it was only a matter of time before the Anthem was played and those that died were shown. Just as predicted a minute later it began. I watched as those that died flashed through the sky. The face of the girl that was blown to pieces from District 11, the male and female from District 9, Naomi from District 8, Colt from 6 and the male from 5 who had stabbed me before I killed him. I frowned at the thought of Naomi's family back at her District. Her husband and child would never see her again. After it was over we moved back towards the back of the cave and fell silent.

Essence and her twin agreed to take first nights gaurd while the rest of us slept and though I was not trusting I couldn't help but give in to the exhaustion that resulted from me not getting proper sleep the night before. I willingly let myself doze off and slept peacefully which surprised me the next morning because of where I was.

"So what are we going to do? Just wait for people to come along and start picking them off or are we going to go and do some human hunting?" Mitchelle asked.

That was a good question. We were unable to be seen from below so they wouldn't be able to find us but then again a bunch of us in a small cave on a cliff reeked of disater. We needed to eventually leave the cave every few hours for mental purposes Alisa spoke. I agreed so after a long talk we decided on sending people out in small groups for some air and to bath or practice with their weapons. Those that stayed would be the look out.

After we had ate a bit of food we decided on our groups. The first group consisted of myself, River, Phoenix, Raider, Tyne and Mitchelle. The rest; Alisa, Layla, Rayda, Ethan and Essence, were group two. We took the first trip out to stretch our legs and look for anything edible.

After we got a twelve feet of distance from the cliff Raider spoke up. "Were you guys awake last night?" He spoke as he bent over and began making gestures towards this plant. It seemed like he was trying to make it seem like he was asking about a plant or something. Each of us shook our heads and then he walked another three feet and stopped before another plant and did the same. "I heard Essence and Ethan talking about splitting up and killing you and your brother off. They were saying you were a liability they couldn't risk."

"Liability?" I asked as I watched him pluck the plant from the ground. Must have been for show because I knew that plant was just a weed and nothing about it was edible unless you wanted to be sick from both ends.

We walked on and he stopped at a tree and seemed to be examining the bark and picking at it. "Can you guys look any less suspicious, atleast pretend to be looking at something but do it casually." We all listened and began scoping within hearing distance of Raider. He began picking off some of the bark which was good for tree bark tea and stuffed it into his bag before tossing aside the weed. "Those two are going to try and turn the rest of the crew against us and if they are successful they will slaughter us in their sleep. I say we take things into our own hands." He said as he moved to a bush that held blue strawberries and began picking the ones that grew from a leaf that had orange spots. After Tyne gave him a weird look he explained. "The blue strawberries growing off the stems with plain green leaves are poisonus." Tyne nodded her head before she helped him pick. "What we need to do is make a escape and seperate ourselves. Apart from them we are better at survival, atleast until the end."

I nodded my head as I began picking mint leaves from another place five feet from him. "And how do you expect to hide from the infamous tracker from District 1?" I asked him.

Tyne spoke up this time as she brought over a few plants I recogized as Cherry apple plums, a genetically mutated fruit. "The second cave."

Second cave, what second cave and how did she know about it I asked. Tyne confessed that while she was trying to find the perfect spot up on the cliff she came across a hidden second cave that was only noticeable up close. From any other angle but a close up one it looked like a small crack in the rock. It was low and it also got a bit of water when it flooded because it was low down. From Tyne's quick and obscure observation the cave was well hidden and functionable. She also mentioned that the entrance of the hidden cave got alot of wind which would be good if we ever need to light a fire. The wind would whisk away the smoke before it was seen.

After picking two bags full of edible plants, fruits and vegetables and killing off 5 squirrels, 6 raccons and a small deer -which we skinned and cut up into small pieces for easy carrying- we headed back to our cave.

Tonight if all went well we would escape and find safety in a hidden cave. I was right to bring Tyne along because she may have been the difference between our chances of survival.