109And now, Day 4!
Day 4
13 Remain
Walter Mendez, 18, D8 Male
Each day that I survived was a win in my books. The day before, I had seen the Careers fighting the boy from 5. He had gotten some good hits in on them before ultimately, he had died. They had said that they wanted me in their pack, but I didn't completely trust them, so I decided that I would go out, alone. Being alone in the Games wasn't ideal, but I hadn't made any other allies during training, so I was stuck in the woods, completely alone.
But being alone had some perks. Over the past four days, I had figured out where everyone was hiding. The pair from 1 and 7 plus the girl from 11 were in a cave, and the younger kids were all hiding in a giant tree not too far from that. I had figured all of this out fairly quickly. The younger alliance never actually covered up their footsteps, so I was able to find them much easier.
The pair from 1 were clearly much more prepared for the Games, and they knew to cover their tracks up, and they had camouflaged the entrance to their cave extremely well. I had a feeling that the three remaining Careers wouldn't be able to find them. Now, I was close to the younger kids. I doubted they would leave their tree, so I felt fairly safe hiding in a tree.
"Terracotta!" someone yelled. "This trap caught something!"
I froze, then slowly peered below me. The boy from 12 was a tree over, pulling a dead rabbit out of a girl from 1o, Terracotta was jogging over.
"Oh finally," she said, clearly relieved. "We should get back and get this cooking. We all need to eat."
She glanced up, right at me. Her eyes narrowed, then she tapped the boy on the shoulder. "We need to go. Someone might be around here."
I breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to try and fight me with the boy around. Once they were out of sight, I jumped out of the tree and began making my way away. I felt an urge to turn around, and when I did, I saw Terracotta rushing at me, two daggers in her hand. I fumbled my throwing knives out of my bag, took aim, then threw one. It hit her in the leg, but she kept running.
I quickly released two more, one missing her and hitting a tree, the other lodging itself in her stomach. I turned around and began running once she had started falling. All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my upper back. I looked down and saw the tip of a dagger poking out.
BOOM! The cannon jerked me awake. I was laying down in a pool of my own blood, the dagger still lodged in my back. I knew that I wasn't going to last much longer. I took one last look at the forest around me, admiring how beautiful everything was. I decided that it was one of the most beautiful places that I could die. Breathing started becoming more difficult, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to prolong my death.
Anya Marshall, 17, D11 Female
There was something going on between Glint and Salix. I wasn't completely sure what it was, but after Glint was injured by the wolf, Salix had barely left his side. It was clear to me that he cared about Glint, but I was pretty sure that he didn't want to. After a long talk about what the Capitol might be doing to manipulate us, we all slept well, with all of us except for Grove taking turns keeping watch.
Now, Lyla and Grove were out hunting, leaving me with the two boys. Glint was still pretty much out, though the healing cream that we had gotten had helped to accelerate the healing. He didn't need help sitting up anymore, and he was able to get his shirt on and off whenever Salix reapplied the healing cream.
"Salix, can I talk to you for a second?" I asked abruptly. Oops. I hadn't fully thought this out, but now there was no turning back.
"What's up?" he asked once we had gotten out of the cave. I looked around to make sure that nobody was around.
"What's going on with you and Glint?" I asked. His eyes widened for a split second and he began tapping his finger on his leg.
"Nothing," he said, though it wasn't going to convince anyone. I raised my eyebrows to show that I didn't believe him. He sighed. "There really isn't anything going on between us."
"But you want there to be something," I said.
"I've known him for a week, and I have a boyfriend back home," he said defensively. "But since I'm probably not going to make it back home, yeah I do like him. Which doesn't make any sense but he's so sweet, which was completely unexpected, and obviously he's hot as hell. But I'm sure that he's straight. There's nothing that could happen. And now I'm rambling. Why am I even telling you any of this?"
I laughed. "I don't know. But if it makes you feel any better, I think he likes you."
"Really?" he asked, brightening for a second before forcing his face to return to neutral. "I have a boyfriend. It doesn't matter."
"How long have you two been dating?" I asked.
"Not very long. It happened randomly, only a few days before the reaping. We had been friends for a while before then though." he admitted. He lowered his voice and leaned in closer to me. "I've been thinking about it, and I don't know if I ever actually liked him like that. We were just really close friends, and when he told me about his feelings for me, I was super awkward and I just kinda went with it. I thought that I liked him like that, but the feeling feels a little different with Glint."
I didn't say anything back right away. I had to think about what he had just said and what I could say back. "Well for starters I think you should talk to Glint. I'm sure that you could find an excuse to talk to him alone. And if you really meant what you said about your boyfriend, he probably knows now so there's no going back from that."
"Shit," he said, kicking the snow. "I mean I meant it. But I guess I don't really want him finding out at the same time as the rest of Panem."
"Yeah it's definitely too late for that," I said, laughing. "The Capitol likes drama wayyyyy too much not to include that."
He nodded. "It's cold out. We should probably go inside. And I need to put the cream on Glint."
He smiled, then went back into the cave. I climbed up the tree in front of the entrance where I had been keeping watch when I did it during the day. There was a good spot to sit, out of sight unless the person specifically knew you were there. I wanted to give the two of them a little while alone before I went inside. Hopefully the rest of the day was as uneventful as this afternoon had been.
I saw Lyla and Grove making their way back. Lyla had figured out a way to nearly erase our tracks, making it harder for others to find us.
BOOM! I jumped out of the tree. The two girls hurried towards me.
"Why are you out here?" Lyla asked.
"I was getting hot inside," I answered. "So I came out here."
I carefully moved the camouflaging away from the entrance to the cave and crawled in. the opening wasn't huge, but we were still able to get in and out relatively quick.
When we got in, Glint and Salix were sitting against the far wall, laughing. I smiled. I didn't know what had happened, but I was happy that they could still find a little bit of happiness in the middle of a fight for our lives.
"Who do you think died?" Glint asked once we had all gotten into the cave.
"Is it bad that I'm kinda hoping it was one of the Careers?" Grove asked.
"No," Lyla said. "They're our biggest threat."
BOOM!
"Well someone's clearly on a killing spree," I said. I felt some nervousness begin to build up within me. I pushed it away, refusing to focus on it.
"The sun's setting," Salix said. "Let's go out, wait to see who got killed."
We all agreed and went back outside, huddled together to try and keep ourselves warm. A horrible wind was blowing. After waiting for a few minutes, a bell sounded. We looked at each other, confused.
"ATTENTION TRIBUTES!" came the announcer. "TOMORROW THERE WILL BE A FEAST. NEW WEAPONS, FOOD, ANYTHING YOU MIGHT NEED. IT WILL BE AT THE CORNUCOPIA, AND WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE FOR TWO HOURS. GOOD LUCK."
"So I guess this is our last night as an alliance?" Grove asked shakily. Lyla looked at her sadly.
"Yeah, I suppose it has to be," she said. "There's only 11 people left, and we're five of them."
"But we should still work together to get supplies at the feast," Glint said quickly. "I mean, we'd be stupid not to. We'll have the advantage."
We all nodded in agreement. The feast would be our last time working together. They'd split off into district pairs afterwards, and I would be left alone. But it was okay. I had already come to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be coming home.
The Capitol anthem began playing and we all turned our attention to the sky. The boy from 8 and the girl from 10 were dead. The three remaining Careers were still out there, and I knew that they were extremely deadly. But we had two of our own. And that would help us survive another day.
I hope that you enjoyed this chapter! This chapter was fun to write. I use a spinner to decide who the POVs are going to be, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to not have the entire story revolve around that one alliance. Thanks for reading, and make sure to leave a review!
Sponsor System: My sponsor system is pretty easy. All you have to do is answer a few questions, and for each one you get correct, you get ten points. I keep a tally of everyone's points on my profile page, and once the Games start, you can PM me with and item and who you want it to go to, and that tribute will get it in the next chapter! Sponsor Questions will become invalid once we hit the top 8.
Q1: Why do you think Terracotta decided to go after Walter?
Q2: What's their plan for what's going to happen to the alliance after the feast?
Current Alliances:
The First Career Pack: Vita, Maria, Kaiden
The Second Career Pack: Lyla, Glint, Grove, Salix, Anya
The Underdogs: Iulia, Arlo, Mist
Eulogies:
Terracotta: I really liked her, and I hate that she had to die. Thank you for the submission!
Walter: Sadly, I don't think I gave Walter enough POVs during these Games. I really enjoyed writing him, so thank you for the submission!
Placements:
24th: Elora Nitelle, 18, D8 Female
23rd: Jona Skinner, 16, D8 Male
22nd: Yatsuhasi Howson, 18, D11 Male
21st: Laila Violet, 16, D12 Female
20th: Milo Zirconium, 14, D3 Male
19th: Poale Hall, 15, D9 Male
18th: Ashlee Wendell, 16, D6 Female
17th: Apple Zurshia, 18, D3 Female
16th: Boris Maddox, 18, D5 Male
15th: Julius Augmentim, 18, D2 Male
14th: Fate Falcy, 15, D5 Female
13th: Terracotta Yale, 15, D10 Female
Cause of Death: Throwing knives to stomach and leg
12th: Walter Mendez, 18, D8 Male
Cause of Death: Dagger to the back