Trust Me

We walked on for about two hours when I had to stop and grab some water from the canteens stashed away in Adri’s pack.

“How much longer?” I demanded after gulping down all the water remaining in the canteen.

“About four hours.” Adri murmured.

I glared at him. “What?! You’re kidding, right?”

“We’d be there by now, actually, except you took us two hours out of the way.” Adri said with a smug grin on his face.

I wanted to throw my canteen at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” I hissed.

“You seemed to be in deep thought. Plus, I wanted to see how far you’d go until you realized you were taking us in the exact opposite direction of the Cornucopia.” He said with a grin.

“Is that where you think the Careers are?” I asked.

He shrugged. “The Careers usually stick to either the Cornucopia or the main water source. They can stay near any necessities, but they also have bait to lure other tributes right into their camp. Since there’s too many little rock pools around here, it’d be too much work to go around looking for every single water source.”

There was a loud scream. “No! No, please!” A voice begged, echoing through the trees. The voice wasn’t far off.

Adri and I exchanged a quick glance before we leapt to our feet. “Change of plans. I’ve got a feeling that the Careers are in this area.” He said as we started to sprint through the trees towards the voice.

“Really? What made you think that?” I said sarcastically. “But now you have to admit that I was right. I did take us closer to the Careers than you would have if you’d taken us to the Cornucopia.”

Adri scoffed. “Yeah, right. You got lucky.” He said, shooting me a glare.

I scowled at him. “Still better than what you would have done.” I pointed out helpfully, though my voice was lost as we ran through the trees.

We came to a stop as we entered a small clearing, a trail of blood alerting us that we were in the right spot. For a few feet the blood looked like it had come down in drips, and then it seemed to switch as though the source of the blood was being dragged across the rock.

“Who’s there?” I called out.

Adri elbowed me sharply in the ribs and I winced. “Don’t just call out. You’ve effectively taken away the element of surprise, are you happy now?”

“Oh yeah, I’m ecstatic! That was exactly what I wanted to do, it’s not like I wanted to find out who’s here!” I hissed.

He rolled his eyes and drew a machete in one hand while I took a knife in each hand as we watched the trees anxiously for some sign of an attacker hiding in the foliage.

“Hello? Winnie?” A croaky voice crowed out.

I recognized the voice with a sharp pang in my stomach. “Kip!” I called out, and I quickly ran towards the direction of his voice, using the blood trails to guide me.

“Winnie, don’t! It could be a trap!” Adri pointed out. In seconds he was by my side, and he roughly pulled me back behind him. “You could have gotten yourself killed! Let’s just stay here and see if anyone else shows up.”

“If it’s a trap, then I’m the one walking into it. You said you weren’t going to sacrifice yourself for me, so don’t.” I said coldly.

Adri turned around to look at me, his expression stunned and slightly hurt for some reason.

I took a deep breath and cleared my throat. “He’s from my district, Adri. I have to see if he’s okay.” I said, my voice softer and a little less sharp.

He watched me for a few seconds more before nodding hesitantly. “Fine. But I’m going to watch your back for you.” He said.

“I wouldn’t have any other way.” I said sarcastically, earning a slight smile from him. He stepped behind me and I heard his machete slice through the air as he practiced slicing an invisible person down with it. “Do you want to wait until I’m more than just 5 inches away before you start swinging that thing at me?” I hissed.

I heard the blade stop slicing through the air. “Then move faster, 4!” He hissed back, and then the machete resumed swinging through the air.

“You’re so stubborn!” I yelled.

“You’re so slow! And you’re loud!” He yelled back, his voice even louder than mine.

“You’re loud too, you hypocrite!” I hissed, whirling around.

He was grinning at me, much to my surprise. “Just get a move on.” He said, raising his eyebrows and continuing to swing his machete around, though this time it was more to mock and annoy me.

I rolled my eyes and turned back around, following the trail of blood until I saw it stop next to Kip’s limp pale body, but that wasn’t the most terrifying part of what laid before me – if anything, that was the most comforting part.