Hunger Games: The Second Quarter Quell - The Story of Haymitch Abernathy

Chapter 9: The Mountain

Days two and three of the Games passed by sluggishly, despite their shortened lengths, both with no deaths, and little to no action whatsoever. 

Haymitch spent both on the thicker side of the stream, which, as he discovered by leaving a couple berries and leaves out for a nearby bird, and hiding as it took them, held a lot less danger. 

The plants may have been thicker and tougher, but they weren't poisonous, which was a start. It also helped that no tributes dared venture past where the branches began to weave tighter, enclosing Haymitch in his own, safe bubble, far away from everyone else. 

He'd travelled to the stream once since the first day, collecting as much of the water he could carry in a bowl, but soon discovered that the trek back to the hedge was far too difficult when carrying a sloshing bowl of poisonous water, and he eventually had to abandon it, as a singular droplet to the hand caused a world of pain. 

But as the fourth day rolled around, Haymitch awoke with a start at dawn, immediately noticing the dark clouds that had begun to roll over the arena as he slept.

So it might rain soon, he noted, leaning back against the tree and closing his eyes, desperate for a little more rest. 

Although, just as he felt his consciousness slipping away once more, Haymitch heard a cluster of voices, loud and threatening, closer than any had been so far. 

He rose from his sleeping bag, his senses all alert, swinging his backpack back over his shoulder just in case and searching the trees around him for the source of the noise. And there it was: a group of nine or ten tributes in just a couple of yard away, recognizably Careers, even from a distance. They whooped and laughed and shouted like they hadn't a care in the world, travelling through the trees at pace. How were they coming closer so fast? It had taken Haymitch all of an hour to make it to where he stood now, and there was no way these Careers had been travelling since before dawn. 

As quietly as Haymitch could possibly tread, he crept around the trees shielding his hiding spot to gain closer view of the Careers. 

The leader of the pack, Lux Maverick, from District 1, whom Haymitch remembered as the soppy charmer from interviews, had a blowtorch in one hand, and was burning through the leaves and branches Haymitch had struggled to pass with ease. How had they gained such a material? It must've been in a pack. 

Haymitch watched in frustration as the Careers grew closer to his side of the woods. Why couldn't he have grabbed that pack? It would've been a lot more useful than his good-for-nothing sleeping bag. 

The group of tributes, all armed with deadly weapons, as he now observed, had grown close enough to Haymitch that he could hear their conversations, at this point, to which he listened intently.

'So one of us will go to the woods on the other side of the Cornucopia to look for tributes. The more we shut down now, the better,' the other District 1 male, Sterling Munrow, announced. 

Haymitch remembered Sterling's interview; he was the tribute who'd been incredibly sour the whole time, and scolded Caesar for asking too many questions.

'Okay, but who?' Lux Maverick enquired, glancing around the group, 'who wants to go over there?'

'I say we do rock-paper-scissors,' Sterling announced loudly, turning to the group. 'Who actually wants to go?'

Only the remaining District 4 boy raised his hand, and Lux sighed.

'Okay, perfect. Tempest will go. Easy,' he concluded, only to be interrupted once again by