Chapter Text
"I can't believe it worked." Nell whispered to her self as she crawled out of the space under the cornucopia when the sun started climbing the horizon. As the only one left in the middle of the arena she started going through the stuff that was left behind. Further away it was not that good, just a little food and almost no weapons. But in the cornucopia was some good stuff left, she collected a sleeping bag, a tent, a sword, a shovel, a lot to eat including bags with powder and dried food, that just needed hot water to be a full meal, a rope and all the medicine she could get her hands on. She tried to stuff everything in two backpacks, when suddenly something crushed just a few meters away from her. Quickly she hid her haul under a big tarpaulin and crawled back into the little hole she dug last night under the cornucopia. She did not keep her head down, like the day before. A tall blond girl came out of the dark green forest, looking around suspiciously. Nell tried to recall her name, but all she could remember was her district: 4. The girl seemed to have a similar strategy as herself, as she made her way around and picked up several things from the floor. Unlike Nell she seemed to have a plan, what she needed and also stuffed the pockets in her trousers and jacket. Food went into the right pockets: fresh stuff in the jacket preserved food on her legs. On the left side the other put matches, night vision glasses, a torch and wire in the leg pockets and medicine, as well as two flick-knives and two water bottles in the jacket. Nell made a mental note to take over a similar system for her self. While trying to figure out where everything would go, she almost did not notice the other tribute coming closer and closer. Nell put her head down again and tried to keep track of the movement around her through her hearing. When the girl climbed in the cornucopia Nell held her breath, she heard rummaging above her head, but after only two minutes she seemed finished hopped out and landed quietly so close to Nell, that she could have touched her leg.
"Good luck." Even though it was just a whisper Nell flinched, but before she could respond the other ran away, she only saw a figure disappearing in the light green forest, the opposite direction of where the girl had come from. Nell crawled out her space again and sighed. Till a moment ago she would have counted this as a close call, but now she saw it had been intentional. She did not know if the other had seen her run under the cornucopia the day before, but she had watched her this morning. And she had known where she was hidden and also where her supplies were. Nell look around in disbelieve: a career had known where she was, but not only was she unharmed, but also the other had not touched her stuff.
"Good luck to you too, kind stranger." Nell muttered under her breath. Then she collected her things and followed the many tributes who had made their way into the light green forest, before her.
"Mornin'. How was your first night up a tree?"
"I don't know, I think my back hurts. Hey, did you hear the canon last night?"
"Yes, but I have no idea who it could have been. I checked on you, if you had fallen down, but you seemed all right."
"Thanks." Jesse rolled his eyes and tried to find a comfortable position sitting up. Then he took out his backpack.
"So, let's do some breakfast."
"Right, let me just -" Lucy immediately grabbed the branch above her and pulled herself up. Jesse blinked and lost sight of her within a second, only the sound of moving leaves without wind nearby gave him the sense that his alliance was still there. After a few minutes Lucy came back down.
"What was that about?"
"We have a deal. Remember? I teach ya a bit and use my skills to our advantage and you share your supplies."
"I know, but this is a deal for after breakfast." He offered her an apple and two crackers and took the same for himself. They ate in silence. After Jesse was finished he took a deep breath:
"Hey Luce, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, shoot."
"Why did you ask me for an alliance?"
"I don't know, just asked. I tend to not think before I act, also the reason why I'm here by the way."
"Okay, but you could have stayed hidden or even attacked me. You coming from above, I wouldn't have had a chance."
"First of all you're taller than me and have weapons, so I highly doubt it. Truth is I thought for a moment, but my gut told me you are the right guy. I think it's because of that moment after the parade. We were all seeing each other in person for the first time, and so many saw each other as rivals, even their own district partners. But not you, you comforted not the most feared tribute of these games, but a scared little girl. Then you walked under my tree, I needed an alliance and just kinda hoped you wouldn't kill me - if I'm honest."
"Oh, OK."
"Now your turn."
"Turn of what?"
"Why didn't ya kill me, or say no to the alliance."
"Well, now I feel really bad. Because I chose you for really selfish reasons. I mean, you didn't kill me, like everyone would suspect, I called that a win and then I just - I don't know I thought, the girl who volunteered out of noble reasons who is also the daughter of a district major, you will get some parachutes that's for sure. I guess I wanted to profit."
"Oh," all of a sudden the mood shifted, Lucy looked down for a second, visibly hurt by the words, then she threw her head back:
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I think there will be no parachutes for me. My father was not really a fan of me coming here and I'm from a poor district so…"
A tear rolled down her cheek. Jesse patted her arm.
"Doesn't matter anymore Luce. You already helped me and I want to be your alliance. I really do. My district is not that wealthy either, maybe we can get something together. Here, take this as my official offer for this alliance." He pulled out a blowgun and a couple of darts. Lucy accepted the offer with a smile.
"Thanks Jesse. Those are cool. And I can easily use them from up here."
"Your welcome."
"Do you have something left for yourself?"
"Of course, look -" He pulled out two knives. "Besides, I don't know if I have the skill to use them. So tell me what did you see up there, earlier?"
He pointed to the leaves above them.
"Not much, this tree is not the tallest, we seem to be in the middle of the forest, because I couldn't make out the cornucopia. In both of those directions", she pointed to their right and left," are mountains. Other than that I couldn't make out much, no water, no other food and no other tributes."
"Well, than let's get on the move and try to find at least one of those things." Jesse started to climb down, while Lucy remained in the tree.
"If you don't mind I'm moving up here, it's safer and this way I'm faster." And with that she jumped forward into the next tree, before her alliance partner even set a foot on the ground.
"Cait!"
The scream woke the female tribute up with a start.
"What?" She reached for the knife, that lay where her head had been seconds before, ready to fight.
"Time to wake up." Dinozzo informed her with a suddenly calm voice. Cait tried to stretch her arms and legs, while her eyes remained shut.
"I feel like hell." She grumped.
"Yeah, you don't look to good either." The male tribute responded, while he tried to comb his hair with his fingers, which earned him a very disapproving look. McGee and Bishop were woken up by the bickering. While the young tribute tried to orientate himself, Bishop was surprisingly awake.
"So, what's the plan. Where are we going?" They had covered quit some distance the evening before and were now in the middle of the mountains.
Cait took the lead again.
"I say, we head back in the forest, there we have the best chances to find shelter, water, some food and with wood we can keep us warm there."
"Well best chances for water are in the opposite direction, remember the river we found yesterday."
"Yes, Bishop as a matter of fact I do remember that. But correct me if I'm wrong, that river was frozen and we have nothing around us to make a fire. So the river is useless."
"It's not. There is still the sun, there was no water in the forest yesterday. And maybe if we follow the ice, it will lead us to more water."
"And then what? This will be frozen too and we will all die because of either freezing or dehydration." A strong wind interrupted them. In the cave they had found yesterday it had not been a problem, but out here in the open they could not even catch a breath, when the wind hit at his strongest. Dinozzo stepped in:
"Okay ladies. I think it's clear we can't stay here. So let's settle this with a good old vote."
The female tributes nodded.
"Good, so Caitlin - "
"Don't call me that."
"So Cait wants to go back to the forest and Bishop wants to go forward to follow the frozen death path. I have to admit I'm on Caits side. So you have to settle it Probie."
All three looked at Tim, who had used the time to get familiar with his bow. Now he looked between the three, he did not want to blow the alliance, while also not wanted to risk anger with his district partner.
"I don't know, I mean both plans sound good - "
"Then it's settled, one vote for frozen feet, two for forest, let's go." Cait started marching. Ellie shot Tim an angry look, but shouldered her backpack and headed the way they came the day before. The young one hurried to get his stuff and followed the tributes, while Tony stood there with an unbelieving look on his face:
"Wait, what's with breakfast. Is no one hungry? Really? Hey? Probie? At least wait for me-"
"I mean was that really necessary?"
"Yes it was G."
The two career tributes sat around a fire. They had received a first parachute with water and food this morning. After making their way through the forest on a mission to track down other tributes, they settled down for a lunch break, recapitulating the blood bath and making a plan.
"You picked me up like a kid-"
"I know and carried you to a safe place, because you didn't look out for your self."
"I did. I had everything under control and-"
Sam raised his hand.
"Shh-"
Something was moving towards them. It was only a small noise, like a crack, but after a few seconds they could make out footsteps. With his remaining hand Sam signalled Callen to get up, then he reached in his pocket and pulled out his Kukri. The noises got louder, whatever was on its way to them did not make the effort of hiding.
"Please don't hurt me."
A young man came around a tree, both hands in the air.
"I don't want to fight you, I don't have a weapon in my hand, I promise."
"What do you want?" Sam asked, still pointing his weapon on the smaller tribute.
"I want to be part of your alliance."
"Who are you?" Callen continued, Sam risked a glance over his shoulder and saw him holding a gun, pointing to the head in front of him.
"I'm Nicholas, from district 10."
"10, what makes you think you can be part of this?" Sams focus was back on the guy in front of him.
"I scored an 8-"
Sam lowered his Kukri, and felt Callen lowering his gun too, but Nicolas was not finished,
"and I already made a kill."
Both careers stopped in their movements for a moment.
"Who?" Callen asked.
"The tribute from 4, another career."
Sam looked at Callen, then he nodded slowly,
"Okay, then. Welcome to the alliance Nicolas, have a seat." He pointed towards their fireplace. "What do you bring to the table?"
The other tribute sat down and pulled his stuff out of his pockets.
"First of all, please call me Nick. Sounds cooler you know." He grinned, but the other two seemed unimpressed. "I'm good at combat, made my first kill with a spear. I don't have much in my pockets: just food for a day, matches, a hatchet and basic first-aid kit."
While Sam had gone back to eating, Callen furrowed his eyebrows.
"How did you find us?"
"I'm not a good hunter. Found you by accident. I wanted to become part of your alliance, but was just searching for water. Then I saw the smoke and came closer till I heard your voices. I went a little bit further away again and approached you loud. Didn't want to scare you guys and risk getting my head blown off."
Callen sighed, the he reached behind him:
"Here, we got some this morning. We will take turns sleeping tonight and start hunting down others after we finished eating. If you attempt to harm us, your dead, understood?"
"Of course."
A duck flew over her head. The first animal Kasie saw in these games. Where a duck was, water could not be far away. Maybe she should turn around, looking for her district partner. She thought she had lost him, but his face did not appear last night, so he had to be alive somewhere. On the other hand, she had no food, no water, nothing. The right thing would be climbing up there. Maybe she could see him from up there? Carefully she placed her hands on the rocky wall in front of her, she and Jimmy had skipped the climbing and focused more on taking care of wounds, finding food and water. She cursed her past-self and took a foot up the wall, then the other. Slowly she made her way up, while her mind started to wander, the plans she had had back home: the girl she could not say good-bye to because no one knew about their special bond, hat she wanted to do with the things she learned from Mallard, her mother and siblings waiting for her in the district,..- Suddenly tears began streaming down her face.
"Oh no. Not good." Her vision started to blur and she stopped moving. But when she looked down, the ground was too far away, at the same time the top was still out of reach. Kasie tried to wipe her face at her sleeve. Her arms started to get tired and she could not estimate how long she could continue climbing. When she tried to pull herself up a little bit again, the rock beneath her began to rumble. At first it was just a little growl, then the mountain seemed to vibrate. The vibration grew stronger, stones started raining down on her. Kasie tried to hold on with every little piece of strength she had left, but then a big lump of rock hit her right hand. She lost her grip, could not hold herself and fell into the depths.
The canon shot let the tribute from district 3 pause in his walk. His alliance partner was not bothered and just walked past him, a clear goal on his mind.
"Hey, wait for me. Ouch - not again."
"You really have to watch your steps my friend."
Eric was exhausted they had wandered around for hours now, trying to get anywhere. With every step, they took away from the cornucopia he lost more hope to find his district partner, what he would give to wander around here with her. Sure Ernie was not that bad, but he was not his Nell. It was almost as if he could hear her voice:
"Hey, finally found you."
"Hold up who are you?" Erics brain took some time to process that it was actually Nell standing in front of them and not a hallucination of his dehydrated mind. His lack of action let Ernie to point a stick at her, the female tribute took her hands up.
"I'm Nell and you must be Ernie."
Eric took a step forward and pulled her in a tight hug.
"Nell, you have no idea glad I am to see you."
"Ooh, me too Beale. Could you - it's kinda hard to breath."
"Oh, sure. I'm sorry." Eric let go of her immediately, then he turned around
"Ernie, this is the amazing Nell Jones, my district partner."
Ernie took the stick down: "Well, in that case, a pleasure to meet you Nell Jones."
"You found yourself an alliance, not bad Beale, not bad."
Erics face flushed in pride of the compliment.
"Yes, of course. And what were you up to?"
Nell laughed.
"I gathered some supplies, some of the best stuff if I might add and am now looking for people I can share them with."
Ernie asked a little bit too fast:
"That's great, you want to be part of our alliance?"
"I don't know, what's your deal?"
"Simple, we all are not that great with the attacking and fighting stuff so we want to maximise our chances by minimizing the directions we can be attacked from."
"You want to find the edge of this arena?"
Eric nodded.
"That's basically the plan. Please Nell - you would be a cool alliance partner. And I know, we don't have the high scores, but we can be useful and-"
"Relax Beale. I'm joining you."
Ernie offered her a handshake.
"In that case, welcome to the team Nell Jones."
Nell accepted the handshake and laughed.
"Thank you, Ernie. So in which direction are we heading?"
"We don't know yet." It was Erics turn again to answer the question.
"Maybe I can offer some advice?"
"Of course."
"The arena part between the light green forest and the mountains - no one went there. If we make it we will probably be unbothered."
Ernie was sceptical:
"How do you know that?"
"Well, yesterday I ran towards the cornucopia with the other career and crazy tributes, but I hid under it. No one saw me and I stayed there till the sun was at it's highest today. So I know where a lot of the others went."
"Okay, if Eric trusts you, I will too. But I think that'll be a plan for tomorrow. We need a safe place to sleep tonight, lets concentrate on finding that."
"Sure."
After wandering around for another hour, they finally found a group of trees which was close enough together to hide them. Nell had brought the big tarpaulin and after covering it with branches and moss and setting up the tent, they all finally relaxed a little and started planning their next day, until the hymn interrupted their talk.
"Do you know these tributes?" Eric asked after a boy and a girl were shown in the sky.
Nell nodded slowly:
"They are the tributes from 9. But I don't think they were together when it happened, the canon shots were apart more than half a day."
"Yeah I think so too," Ernie agreed, "to be honest I'm very tired. You guys mind if I go to sleep now? Just wake me when it's my time with looking out."
"Yeah, it's totally fine, go ahead." Nell moved closer to Eric and lowered her voice. "I'm glad I found you."
"Me too."
"Eric I'm worried."
"Why? Did you see something when you were hidden?"
Nell nodded slowly, then whispered:
"I haven't seen fire arms as weapons in the games before and this year several tributes took them."