22. Questionable Actions

I could just see the back of him. If I could just grab his hood and pull him back, I could shove my knife through his ribs.

He broke through a barricade of shrubs; I jumped through them in hot pursuit. I wasn't going to lose him; I wasn't going to waste all this energy in running only to come to a cold trail.

Once I saw I was close enough, I pounced. I knocked him to the ground, plowing his face into the earth. I yanked his hair, he snarled in outrage. A sharp pain entered my side. I cried out, holding it.

I flew through the air as he knocked me off him. I went rolling onto the ground, my side bleeding. I tried to get to my feet, but he kicked me down onto my back. He sat down beside me, an evil, amused look in his gray eyes. He crashed his leg down on my arm, trapping it.

And here I thought Shane would never have such a side. He didn't seem capable of being evil.

"So pathetic," he cooed. "And here I thought you were the hunter, and I the prey?"

"Bane!" I cried. "Jenna! Help!"

Victor's name caught in my throat. I felt a cold metal against my throat, just barely above it. I breathed carefully, my heart raced anxiously. This was not how it was supposed to end. I wasn't supposed to die by his hand, nor anyone else's. I was supposed to be the victor!

"I wouldn't shout again for help if I were you," he said maliciously. He snickered. "Oh, this is just perfect." He bent down, lips at my ear. "It doesn't do well to hesitate when killing someone. It makes me happy, seeing you in such a scared state. Now you know how it feels for the rest of us when you Careers come after us."

"I didn't hesitate to kill you!" I said venomously. "You stabbed me."

"And you just gave up, you never fought back. Where's the Career killer instinct, Crystal, hmm?"

I couldn't give him an answer to that.

"I'll do something you couldn't." He tried to touch my face, but I shied away from him. He was just making it worse on me, toying with me.

So this is what it felt like, to be the prey, to be tortured as you waited for the final blow to end your life...

***

"Wake up," a voice said desperately.

I shot awake, pressing myself against the tree. I felt my side. No blood, no wound. I looked around. No Shane, just Victor and Jenna—who were both asleep—and Bane, who was up. I noticed it was daylight, and it was extremely warm.

"Bane?" I breathed. "Did you wake me up?"

"I had to," he said. "You were having a nightmare, I could see it."

"It wasn't anything bad," I lied.

"Are you sure?"

"It wasn't real, so I'm fine."

"If you say so...You seem on edge, Crystal."

"We're in the Hunger Games, Bane. I have every right to be on edge," I snapped. I put my arms around my stomach. "I'm hungry, too."

"I'm sure we all are. We'll hunt today, in pairs."

"You thought of this by yourself?" I looked at him.

"Do you think I wouldn't?" he retorted.

"I don't know, I still think you've got an obsession with the boy from Twelve. I thought he'd be the only thing you could think about." Truthfully, Shane kept popping into my head ever since yesterday's encounter.

"I'll feel better when he's dead by my hand, or when I see his carcass."

"Geez."

"You don't seem to be in the killer mode like we all are, Crystal. I don't get it."

"I have a lot more going on than you do."

"Oh. Is it that time of the month?"

"Bane!" I barked at him. He jumped. "No, it's not! I can't believe you just asked that!" I stood up, brushing myself off. Bane just made me hate him a little bit more.

"I heard someone shout," Jenna mumbled, sitting up. "What's going on?"

"Someone is getting a little nosy," I snarled, marching away from Bane. "Get up, Victor."

"I'm mostly awake," he growled, his eyes closed. His wavy, blank bangs fell over his eyes. "Did I hear something about hunting for food?"

"Yup," Bane confirmed. "Since we can't pick at a food pile anymore, we've got to hunt for ourselves."

"Great," Jen groaned. "If I have to, I'll resort to going organic. We need to focus on getting fresh water, too. There's barely a drop left for any of us in these water bottles."

"There has to be springs somewhere," Victor thought out loud. "If there isn't, we'll get some from a sponsor or two."

"Do you think they can send us down a shower?" I said, wrinkling my nose. "It's been nearly a week and none of us has actually gotten clean."

"Women and their hygiene," Victor snickered. "You're in the wild, Crystal. The last thing I'd worry about is how you smell. I'd think the worse you smell, the more others will stay away from you. They'd think you're a skunk."

"Are you trying to flatter me or piss me off?" I put my hands on my hips.

"Neither, I'm just saying."

"Can you shut up so we can go hunt already?" Jenna butted in. She was beating out the blanket. One was still in the pack that I had on my back. "We might end up killing each other if we don't kill something. I haven't seen any wildlife, so we may have to go organic after all."

"I'd rather chew off my nails before I'd go organic," I said, looking at my nails. The polish was chipping on all nails but not majorly. I knew it would all flake off and my nails would be normal once again. They were the only thing other than my choker than reminded me of the luxury I endured for nearly two weeks when in the Capitol.

That seemed so long ago.

Jenna and I were paired up. I wanted to see how she was, anyway. We knew all four of us would meet up together soon, so there was no need to use a signal if someone was hurt or missing.

"I don't know about you, but I'll be happy if we kill anything today," Jen mumbled under her breath. "I get the feeling today will be one of those long days."

"I'm sure it will be," I sighed. "How are you, anyway?"

"Physically, in top shape."

"Emotionally?" My question hung in the air between us.

"Very unstable. I just keep thinking about Ben, what he went through...and Aubrey, too. How they both died." Her tone was clipped. "We aren't as immortal as we seem."

"I figured that out yesterday," I confessed, swinging my knife around. Grass crunched under our feet. "But I know there's one thing we're not. Cowards."

"You got that right, I don't run away from a lot of things, but when it comes to injuries within the pack...well, that's the only thing I've really been afraid of—besides losing Ben."

"Were you two dating?" Jenna stopped and shot me a look. I backed up a step. "I just thought because of the way you were around him, how you freaked out when he got shot..."

"No, we weren't together." Her voice sounded constricted. We started walking again. "But...his mother and little sister visited me in the Justice Building right after the reaping. Weird, right? Our families didn't really talk, but they visited anyway. They wanted me to make sure he was safe. You should have seen his little sister; I almost broke down when she asked me if I was going to keep him safe." She choked out a laugh. "As determined as I may be to win, Crystal, I put that behind Ben's safety. I didn't want to disappoint his family."

"So his dad...?"

"Fishing accident," she said bluntly. "He was the only man left in his family." She sucked in a breath. "I've just felt so...furious with myself, and these Games. I wanted to make sure he went through until the very end. I'm sort of glad though, in a way. I don't have to be the one to kill him, someone already did the job." Her voice turned very bitter.

"Would you ever, if it was down to you two? Would you kill him?"

"I—I don't know what would happen if it came down to just the two of us," she said quietly.

We passed a berry bush; I backtracked and pointed it out to Jenna.

"Hold on, now," she said carefully. "This could be nightlock."

"How can you tell for sure? They look like regular berries to me." I shrugged.

"Why don't you try some? You'll be able to tell if it's nightlock or not, because it's either you live or die eating them."

"Yeah, I'd rather not," I said uneasily. "I'd rather feed it to an animal before I try it. Do you think we should take a few just in case?"

"Hmm, that's not a bad idea." Jenna plucked a few and stuffed them in her pocket. "Just hope they don't get squished."

We continued to make our trek through the woods.

* * *

Our hunt was very unsuccessful, which put both of us in a bad mood. No cannons had gone off either, which added to our moods. All we managed to gather were the berries and a few foreign nuts we didn't know what they were. We figured the boys might know and took them anyway.

While trying to find the boys, Jenna found some mint leaves for just us to chew on. I didn't like the idea of eating a leaf, but my stomach wouldn't shut up. I was still parched, too. We hadn't found water, nor had it rained.

The sun was just about gone when we found Bane and Victor. Like us, they had no luck in terms of killing animals. We at least scored food, which counted for something. It was either we collected nuts and berries, or we starved on top of suffering a dry throat.

Victor identified the nuts we found as safe, so we took our time eating those. They had a bit of juices in them, but it wasn't the same as downing water.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. There was no light from the moon, so we were in darkness. We heard no beeping of a parachute delivering a sponsor, so we were on our own in trying to find something to use for a fire. It was hard to find enough tree limbs and leaves to make a pile and start a small flame, let alone keep it going. I bet we're getting nothing because Ross is pissed at me for letting Shane go. I felt like I was responsible for our bad luck today somehow.

"Is this really a smart place to be?" I asked warily as another clap of thunder roared closer to us. We were at our thick tree. "I mean, under a tree? Lightning strikes trees. If it strikes, we're all probably screwed."

"Unless you want to go looking for a stronger shelter in the dark with only your eyes as night vision, be my guest," Jen snapped. "Victor, don't eat those!" I heard her wrestling with him. "They could be nightlock!"

"Then we'll know in a minute," he said cockily.

Great, he ate the berries.

"I feel violated. You don't pickpocket so obviously like that! If you tried that on another tribute, you'd be fighting them right now. You're lucky we're allies, because if anybody tried that on me, they'd have a knife in their heart."

"Sorry, but I remember you mentioning berries."

"So you felt the need to dig through her pockets?" Bane snorted.

"Hey, if you're starving, you'd do anything to eat." Victor's voice went dark.

"So you do something that could possibly end up with you being dead?" Jenna snorted.

A loud boom rattled us. I wasn't sure whether it was thunder or a cannon.

"Looks like we know what they were after all, Jenna," I said shakily. I bet it was the cannon. Well, Victor was stupid in taking the berries. Didn't he understand that you didn't eat what you didn't know?

"The dumbass," Jenna spat. "I told him not to take them, and what did he do? If you don't know what it is, why eat it?"

"Excuse me, but I am still alive," Victor retorted. I gasped, my heart returning to its normal pace. "It was only thunder. They're normal berries, so wherever you found them, they're safe to eat."

"I still can't believe you did that," Jenna snarled. "If there's lightning, I hope you get struck by it."

"Ouch, harsh."

"Knock it off," I moaned, slumping against the tree trunk. "One of you go make yourself useful and take the first shift, will you?"

"In this weather?" Victor mocked me. "I thought you didn't want to hang around a tree since lightning is bound to strike us?"

"There's a bunch of trees around us, our odds seem fair," I snorted.

"Why are we taking shifts, anyway?" Bane asked. I heard his sword clatter on the ground. "Nobody's tried to attack us. I think we can all sleep without a shift tonight. Besides, if a storm is coming, nobody will want to be out in it. It's best if we play it safe like they do and endure the weather from a safe place"

"But it's not a safe place, according to Crystal," Victor snickered.

"Shut up," I hissed. Victor chuckled.

We all nestled close together, using both blankets. I was stuck in one with Bane, and I was squished between him and Jenna. There was very little wiggle room.

When the thunder roared again, closer, I didn't panic.

"We'll be fine," Bane murmured to me. I couldn't shrink away from his touch in the blanket, so I was just going to have to live with it. "You said the odds are fair for us. We'll live to see another day."

The Capitol seal peeked through the darkness, the anthem rang around the arena. No deaths were reported today, although we almost had a scare with Victor and the berries. Maybe Victor did know what the berries were after all. In terms of finding possibly edible food here in the arena, he would be the one who would know what was safe to eat and what wasn't.

Despite the threat of a storm coming, somehow the rumbling lulled me to sleep.