19. Keep Your Allies Close and Your Enemies Closer

       "How can you think for one minute that you could just attack us like that and hope to gain anything?" I snarled at him, leaning my face over Noah's. My blue eyes masked my surprise and showed the irritation he was causing me.

            "Hey, I need to hunt for food too, you know. It's not just you and your boyfriend over there," he retorted. I pressed the blade of the hatchet close to his throat. It was mere centimeters from resting on the skin of his neck. Oh, I wanted to kill him so bad! The only thing that kept me from doing so was my good nature of not wanting to kill anybody in the Games.

            "Watch your mouth."

            "Why haven't you killed me yet? I should be dead by now. You're hesitating."

            "I don't kill people; I'm not like all the other cold-blooded killers that are still alive." My voice was softer, but it still dripped malice.

            "Then stop trying to sound tough if you aren't one of them. Let me up, too, while you're at it."

            "I don't think so." I readjusted myself on him.

            "Look, I can help you both."

            "Ha, help us? You call knocking out Daniel helping us? It's every tribute for themselves."

            "You need me more than you realize," he mumbled. "I can give you food, and I know where water is."

            "We won't take it" For all I knew, he could be lying about it all.

            "I'm trying to offer you help to take down Kaya's brother as well." I saw him wince at the mention of her name. I was surprised he was even using her name. He had just lost his girlfriend. If I had lost someone, I wouldn't be able to bring their name up for a while. "I know you want him dead as much as I do."

            "We'd prefer to stay away from the Career pack, thank you very much," I snorted. "There are five of them and two of us. We plan to stay out of their way so they can kill each other."

            "But I know you want to kill him," he purred. My frown pulled down even more. "Don't lie, Bridget. I can help you do it."

Just lie and say that you do. It might get on his good side. There was still one hitch: how could I trust Noah?

            "How can I trust you?" The blade just barely breached his skin.

            "If you let me up, I won't attack you while you tend to your boyfriend."

            "He's not my boyfriend," I barked. I let him up, but I kept the hatchet out in front of me protectively. "Move, and I will track you down, and I will kill you."

            "I'd like to see you try," Noah chuckled. I rolled my eyes and trotted hastily to Daniel. I bent over him, turning him over on his back.

            "Dan, wake up," I whimpered, slapping his cheeks gently. I heard him utter a soft moan. I let out a breath of relief. His eyes fluttered open and met mine.

            "What happened?" he asked. He put a hand to the back of his head. "I think I hit the ground, hard."

            "I wouldn't know. I didn't see it."

            "Your nose." He gently rubbed right under my nose. "You're bleeding...again."

            "It's nothing we haven't seen before, Dan," I said stubbornly. "I didn't suffer a concussion, don't worry about me. Nosebleeds are rare."

            "You sure like trying to get your nose broken, Bri. Where is he?" Dan sat up. I supported his back. "What happened after I got knocked out?"

            "I got him trapped," I said proudly.

            "Did you kill him?"                                                                                      

            "Well...not exactly." I looked past Daniel to Noah, who was on his feet now. Surprisingly, he didn't abandon us and run like I thought he would have. It would have been smart, running away. After all, Noah wasn't armed. I was.

 Dan looked over his shoulder, and I felt him get tense. He looked back at me; an accusing look was in his eyes. "What?"

            "Why is he still alive?" Dan's voice became a low growl.

            "He's given us an offer that I think is too good to be true," I sighed.

            "I don't get why you don't believe me," Noah sang.

            "It's a game," Dan hissed. I pulled him to his feet. His gaze didn't stray from Noah. "You can't trust anybody you don't know."

            "That's not true," Noah said. He advanced a step, Dan looked ready to retreat. "Ease up there, killer, I'm not going to hurt you. I told Bridget I wouldn't."

            "Uh huh," Dan said skeptically.

            "No, that's true," I whispered to him.

            "People you trust can turn on you as well," Noah murmured. His eyes went to me. "For all you know, she could be plotting the perfect moment to chop your head off."

            "Shut up," Dan bellowed. He tried to charge for Noah, but I pulled him back by his arm. He looked at me. "Bridget, we can't trust him. No matter what he's offering, we can't ally with him!"

            "Dan, he might know where water is!" I whimpered. "Wouldn't you just love to be clean for once? We could restock the canteen, too."

            "But Kaya was his girlfriend." Dan's voice was low and at my ear. "He could be just as deadly as she was. He could be hiding it from us."

            "It'll be your only chance at finding anything around here in the arena," Noah called. Dan looked about ready to rip Noah's head off his shoulders.

            "Daniel, please," I begged him. His sea blue-gray eyes met mine. I pouted.

It didn't take long to convince Dan. He sighed.

            "Okay, fine," he huffed. He looked to Noah, who looked pretty satisfied. "Lead the way." I followed Daniel, but he stopped right in front of Noah. "But if you're leading us into a trap, or if you do anything to us, I'll take the hatchet and chop you into bits. Got it?"

            "And that's why Bridget will be carrying the hatchet, right?" Noah's eyes fell upon me. I nodded. "Good. Now that we've got this settled, try to keep up, will you? If you're left behind, too bad—I'm not stopping for stragglers." Noah started on his way.

            Dan clenched his jaw and sulked behind Noah. I fell in step beside him. I could see the hate in his eyes; he wanted to go after Noah. I bet he was just itching for another round of fighting since he got knocked out last time and I had to restrain Noah. I felt bad for Dan since he got hurt like that.

*      *      *

            Luckily, the terrain Noah made us cover wasn't anything too severe. I kept beside Dan every step of the way. Noah kept stealing glances over his shoulder a few times to see if we were keeping up. If he didn't stop doing that, I would get annoyed and maybe throw the hatchet at his back.

            As Noah led us deep into a different area of the woods, I knew this temporary alliance wasn't going to last long. Noah seemed to want to be with us, but I knew he didn't. He wanted to kill his dead girlfriend's brother. Kaya...

I wondered if Noah knew the truth behind how she died. I mean, how was it by chance that he just happened to find Dan and me hunting in the woods? The arena was probably huge, so there were a lot of places for tributes to hide away in, preventing them from coming into contact with each other.

            Whenever we would get stocked up on food and water, Dan and I were going to abandon Noah. Let Eric find him, I didn't want to kill him. I wanted to stay out of Eric's way, only because I killed his little sister. I didn't want to murder anybody; I only claimed I felt that way just to get on Noah's side. That's using deception, I thought. I was acting like Johanna, but if I was to be exactly like her, I was going to have to be convincing in my act. So far it seemed like it was working.

            Noah had kept his word. The water source was perfect: a decent sized pond. I almost squealed with joy, but kept my voice down. Hello water! Noah stopped, Dan and I followed suit.

            "I managed to snatch this pretty view," he boasted. Daniel rolled his eyes.

            "You didn't kill anybody for it?" I teased.

            "Nope, you would have heard a cannon go off if I had." He descended down to the pond.

Dan and I exchanged cautious looks and followed Noah. He didn't have much other than the pond and a few small piles of meat. My stomach growled at the spot. Food.

            I went straight for the pond. I dipped my fingers into it. The water felt cool and soothing.

            "You can go ahead and wash," Noah told me.

            "I'm not going in there naked," I snapped. I didn't want to strip in front of Noah or Daniel. And for all I knew, there could be cameras watching. I didn't want all of Panem to see me naked.

            "I never said that." Noah held up his hands as if surrendering. "You better get yourself clean too, Daniel."

            Dan didn't answer Noah back.

I handed my pack over to Dan before jumping into the pond. I let out a moan of content. Oh, how I missed water! I used the cool source to scrub the dried blood under and around my nose. It felt good over my bitten knuckle. I hated that squirrel, but I was probably never going to see him again, so I lost the grudge quickly. I finally cleaned the chunks of tribute off my body and clothes. Sure, I came out with soaking clothes, but I felt refreshed.

            While Daniel took his time in the pond, I hung around Noah at a safe distance. My eyes kept wandering over to the small pile of meat. I was so tempted to take some, but I didn't want Noah to strangle me to death if I did.

            "You can take some, you know," Noah said. I diverted my attention to him. He was brushing off his pants.

            "Hmm?" I said dazedly.

            "You can take some of the meat."

            "Are you serious?"

            "Yeah."

            "Oh...wait; it's not poisoned, is it?"

            Noah chuckled. "Yeah, because I'd totally poison the meat I plan to eat later on," he said sarcastically. "I know you're skeptical, but you have to have a little faith in me. After all, I led you to this place to clean up."

            He did make a point there.

A minute later, Dan sauntered out of the pond with the water canteen. He had to have refilled it. He looked a lot better with the dirt off him. He shook his wet head.

            "Noah's giving us some food too," I told him as he knelt beside me.

            "No poison?" Dan asked me.

            "No poison. If he's eating it, I think it's safe to say the meat is good." I grabbed two handfuls of meat. It felt gooey and disgusting in my hands, so I quickly passed Dan's handful to him. I eyed the meat in my hand. I took a sliver and examined it. It was probably squirrel meat.

            "Well?" Dan asked. I looked at him. "Is it safe to eat?"

            "Very funny," I snorted. "It doesn't look appetizing." If it wasn't for the fact I had to eat it, I would have tossed the meat away because of how slimy it felt on my fingers.

            "It's either you eat it or starve," Noah snickered. He put a few small chunks into his mouth. I could hear the juices squish in his mouth. I made a face. "Your choice."

            I'd rather not starve. That's what I had been doing for a while—or something close to it anyway. Eyeing the unappetizing meat, I popped it into my mouth. It actually tasted like ham, a food I happened to love. Hmm, if only it was ham. I wasn't going to ask what meat it was, because I knew it'd ruin my appetite.

*      *      *

            The evening hours began to fall. The woods had been silent for a while. It was obvious nobody died today because no cannon blasts were heard. Ah well, there was always tomorrow. Noah extended the invitation for Dan and I to stay since it was getting dark.

            "We have no safe place to sleep in? Like a hollow tree or a cave?" I whimpered.

Noah chuckled. "Nope. Sleep on the ground or against a tree. Or sleep up in a tree if you're so scared of wild animals coming to drag you away during the night." I clutched Dan closer. Noah sniggered, Dan shot him a look. "Aw come on, I was only trying to be funny."

            It was obvious Dan didn't think Noah was humorous.

            "I think we should take shifts," Dan piped.

            "Shifts?" Noah snorted. "Why?"

            "Do we need to think of situations for that too?" I complained. "It's getting dark. If the Careers are hunting for us, we have to be on the lookout. Shifts are a good idea."

            "Fine, then I call the first shift," Noah said.

            "Oh, I don't think so," Dan cut Noah off. "I'll take the first shift."

            "I'm ending this argument early, I'll take first watch," I snapped. Both boys shut up and looked at me. "Dan can take the next one."

            "When's yours start?" Noah asked me.

            "When the anthem sounds off. You two can shut up and sleep while I stay up. No questions about it. It's final."

            Daniel grabbed the blanket from the pack as he put the canteen back in there. He wrapped us both in it and handed me the hatchet from under the blanket. I shot him a quizzical look but soon understood why I wielded the weapon. It was in case others threatened to kill us—or knowing Dan, if Noah happened to try anything in the middle of the night.

            The Capitol's seal lit up the night sky like always. No deaths were reported, so the anthem played quickly. I looked up at the sky; it was black, no stars, and no moon. I watched Noah slowly drift off to sleep against a tree opposite Dan and me. Dan looked like he was trying to stay awake.

            "Sleep," I whispered. "I have the first shift."

            "I know," he mumbled. "We can't stay here."

            "I know. We'll lose the deadweight soon, I promise." I kept my voice low and in his ear. If Noah was feigning sleep, I wanted to keep my voice down so he couldn't listen in on me.

            "How?"

            "I don't know yet. Even if we have to leave this place, just as long as we lose him. I'm skeptical of him, too, but I'm taking advantage of this chance while I can. You should, too, and stop showing that you're obviously suspicious!"

            "Geez, Johanna," he snickered. "Chill, I know what I'm doing."

            "Oh stop it." I smacked him under the blanket. He grinned. "Go to sleep, I can handle myself. I've got a hatchet."

            "Alright, I trust you." Daniel settled down to rest his head on my shoulder. I leaned my head against his; his dark hair tickled my cheek. I felt wide awake and a little better now that I had food in my system.

            While my shift continued to drag slowly into the late hours of the night, I couldn't believe our luck. We happened to find the one person I didn't want to run into, and in the end he allied with us, giving us water and food. That was the real luck.

Kaya's words echoed in my head. Any minute now he'll be awake and follow the trail I've given him. He'll come help me dispose of you. It didn't seem like Noah had found her trail, because he would have killed me on the spot when he attacked Dan. He was keeping his emotions pretty locked up inside of him about her. He had to be grieving, unless he didn't truly love her. Maybe it was fake all along between them, that one of them didn't really love the other. Most likely, the victim would be Noah, the victimizer obviously Kaya. If that was the case, she deserved to die more than anything.

But wait, she didn't like it when Eric threatened to kill Noah if he tried to sneak around to see her, I reminded myself. Then again, it could have all been an act. Maybe deception was a talent of Kaya's. She knew how to break a boy's heart if that was the case.

I wasn't aware of what time it was, but soon I decided enough was enough for me. I nudged Daniel awake. He grumbled something about not disturbing him, but I prodded him awake.

"Hey," I said, "you've got to take over. I can't hold on much longer. Take the hatchet." I handed it to him under the blanket.

"We're not giving Noah a shift, are we?" he asked.

"Nope," I confirmed. "I may trust him a little bit, but not enough to give him a watch. I don't want him to kill us in our sleep."

"Smart girl," Dan crooned.

"I've got my moments."

"Sleep. You look like you need it."

Boy did I ever.

I snuggled close to Dan and hugged his arm, nestling my head against it. His body heat under the blanket felt amazing. Even though it wasn't cold out in the woods, the warmth from him was welcome. 

**picture of Noah on the right**