Safe and Sound

NOTE: Thank you ever so much for helping me get to Chapter Twenty! It's all because of my readers' support that I've managed to get this far, and in three weeks at that! Thank you all ever so much and remember that I love every single one of you ♥

Chapter Twenty - The Heat is Rising

The next couple of days were quite uneventful. Nothing happened for the rest of day eight besides Grayson almost fainting when he saw Glow's face in the sky at night, we spent day nine picking edible plants and we spent day ten eating most of them. There were no deaths in that period and it was actually quite peaceful. All Grayson and I did was survive and I was quite happy just to do that. But of course, it was the Hunger Games. Nothing was supposed to be peaceful or uneventful. The spectators from the Capitol were obviously getting bored as the days passed, so come day eleven, we should have expected the worst.

I was woken by Grayson shaking me, who was also scrambling out of the sleeping bag and taking the belts off of us. I slowly sat up rubbing my eyes. It was still quite dark and I was now confused.

"Grayson, what is it?" I asked. Grayson was moving very fast. He threw his backpack on and ripped the sleeping bag off of me, leaving me in the cold. He shoved it messily into my backpack and thrusted it, along with my bow and quiver, at me.

"Hurry up, otherwise we'll both get burned alive." He said as calmly as he could. I quickly put my backpack on and my quiver on over the top. I felt confused, but because of how frantic Grayson was, I didn't want to risk anything. Grayson then jumped off of the branch and landed perfectly on the ground. That definitely meant that it was an emergency. I followed suit and jumped off of the branch. I looked behind us to see that about five hundred metres away was a forest fire. My jaw dropped and I immediately turned around and started running, Grayson right beside me. We had to get as far away from the fire as we could. Yes, it was quite far away and was most likely Capitol made, meaning it would stop eventually when the Gamemakers though the audience would be getting bored, but that didn't mean it was any less deadly.

"Isn't this just perfect?" I spat out angrily as we sprinted, hoping we could outrun the fire. As Grayson ran, his hair whipped back, revealing some of his forehead. He also seemed to be thinking up some sort of plan.

"Our best bet is the Cornucopia. Follow me." Grayson said, speeding up and taking quite a sharp right. I overpowered slightly, so I had to skid slightly and turn abruptly.

"I am really glad I've got you back." I shouted to Grayson as I followed on his heels. The hand that I held my bow in felt slightly sticky, but I ignored it. If I slowed down, the fire would catch up on us. I looked over my shoulder luckily and saw that it was about three hundred metres behind us. It was catching up with us.

"Likewise, Harper Anselin." Grayson shouted at me from ahead. "Total pleasure, especially when it is possible that we're going to burn to death."

"No we're not!" I shouted at him, trying to stay calm, but my increasing heart rate was trying its hardest to disagree with me. "We just need to get back to the Cornucopia, that's all!" I shouted. The trees scratched and clawed at us as we ran.

"But the problem is that we have to cover the amount of land since then bloodbath and that is a long way!" Grayson shouted back. I bit my lip. There always was a catch. There was always a catch.

"Don't you know any shortcuts?" I replied as I caught up with him completely. I ran beside him. Grayson looked up slightly and muttered to himself under his breath so I couldn't hear what he was saying. He rose his right hand and moved his fingers about, as if he were typing in mid-air. "Is there?" I croaked. If not, we were most certainly doomed. Grayson muttered for a couple more seconds, his voice getting louder.

"...and if you turn right at the oak and sprint for one hundred metres...yes! I've got it! This way!" Grayson turned another sharp corner round quite a thick tree. I thanked all of the stars that I had Grayson with me. He had obviously pictured the arena that he had walked on so far and had been moving it about in his mind, trying to figure out a fast way to the Cornucopia.

"How long will it take us if we take your shortcut?" I asked Grayson, who was now speeding up, overtaking me. I sped up so I could remain right behind him. That also meant that if the flames caught up with us, I would be the first to feel it.

"Do you think you can hold on for roughly forty-five minutes at this pace?" Grayson called back at me. I could have groaned, forty-five minutes was a long time to be running at this pace, but I nodded to myself, gritting my teeth.

"If fear keeps motivating me, then yes. I shall be fine."

* * *

But it wasn't fine and I certainly wasn't feeling very fine. It was very tiring and extremely difficult to keep the same pace the whole time without stopping. If we stopped, even for a second, we would be losing precious time and we would undoubtedly be caught up by the flame. I began to feel the heat radiating off of it already and it was only roughly one hundred and fifty metres behind us. It was very hot. If I was to so much as to just touch one of the flames, my finger would probably turn to ash. And that would have been rather inconvenient. That would mean I wouldn't be able to use bow and arrow very well ever again and I was pretty sure I needed all of my fingers.

"Grayson, it is seriously gaining on us." I shouted over to him. My forehead was covered with sheens of sweat and I had already unzipped my coat and halfway unzipped the under fleece. We hadn't slowed down once and it was obvious that we were both very tired. But the fear of being cooked kept us going. Being burned alive wasn't a particularly nice thing to imagine having happened to you, so we wanted to avoid it as best we could.

"We're nearly there. We're nearly there. I don't think we have much longer left. We must be nearly there. I bet the flames will go out as soon as we reach our destination. We can then fill up our flasks in that river by the Cornucopia, take some of the supplies and then go back into the forest before we get caught or something like that." Grayson said, trying his best to sound positive. It really wasn't working altogether that well.

"But all the trees are going to burn down, aren't they?" I asked Grayson. He shook his head.

"No. The fire won't burn the trees, but it will burn us. I don't advise it, but you can take a look behind you. All the trees seem to be there, completely unharmed." Grayson answered. I took his advice and didn't look behind me. I believed him, though, about the trees.

We continued to run, but the fire seemed determined to catch up with us. It was closing in on us now, creeping slowly up behind us. The heat got more intense as my lips cracked, my tongue dried out and my forehead covered with more sweat. It felt worse than when Midas had almost killed me, when the mutt had almost killed me and when Grayson had almost killed me. It was uncomfortable and my throat was very sore. I would have given anything to have had some water, but I couldn't afford to fuss about with my backpack.

The fire was only a few metres behind us now and it was more than awful. I could feel the heat coming off of it, and I was choking on the air now. But we were nearly at the edge of the forest, I could see it. We just had to run up the small hill and dive out through the bushes and we would have made it. It was the one hundred metre sprint Grayson was taking about. This was the vital part. If we didn't make it up the valley, we would be roasted. Literally. Grayson looked round at me and reached out and grabbed my arm, gripping it tightly.

"Last bit and then we will be safe." He said, I nodded. With that, we both pushed ourselves and sprinted up the hill, trying our best to go as fast as we could up it as possible. We were nearly there. Nearly there. Nearly there. I felt the temperature rocket upwards as the fire closed in on us, speeding up, chasing after us...but we were so close now...

We both dived through the bushes as the flames were about to get at us. We both landed heavily on the other side and, sure enough, the flames went out immediately. The forest looked like it had done before. Grayson and I just stayed where we were, sprawled on the grass, breathing heavily and gulping in the clean air. We were quite far away from the Cornucopia, roughly two hundred metres. The golden horn glinted in the sunlight.

"Are there any Careers over there?" Grayson asked. I sat up slightly, propping myself up on my elbows. I squinted over at the Cornucopia, where the supplies still remained practically untouched.

"I can't tell. I don't think so. But yet again, I could be wrong." I answered.

"You couldn't give me a straight answer, could you?" Grayson propped himself up onto his elbows, squinted, then straight away flattened himself down onto the floor again. I copied him. "The Careers are there. They are in the mouth of the horn, but not facing us I don't think. We can make it to the supply pile if we are quiet and very careful."

"So, we're going to steal from the Careers?" I asked him. Grayson looked round at me and raised his eyebrows, as if the answer was obvious.

"Of course, we're going to steal from the Careers. They don't need all of that stuff surely." Grayson then moved his head and looked at the Cornucopia. "I don't think they've noticed us, otherwise they'd be chasing after us by now. So, I guess were going to have to think of a plan of action. A good, efficient plan of action that will undoubtedly work and result in us staying alive and not getting caught, because that guy from District One is nasty. Especially with a long blade. I saw him during training, he really tore up those targets." And you didn't? I thought to myself. I was very tempted to remind him of this, but it didn't seem appropriate.

"Midas. He's called Midas." I then said before I could stop myself, remembering his name. Grayson looked at me and gave me a questioning look. "He told me so when he threatened to kill me, because he said he knew mine. I think it made us even or something...but not. He was the one sitting on me ready to murder me. Okay, I'll stop talking. Continue."

"Yes, so plan of action. How about, we just go with it and see what happens?" Grayson asked. "We can even hope we work together like a team when we...you know, killed that girl from One."

"Seems good enough to me."