Britty Claritt's Story

Britty stared off into the center of the arena, her eyes transfixed on the pile of weapons gleaming in the light.
She couldn't easily make out what they were, but she could tell one was a forked spear of some sort. Trying to imagine herself actually running around spearing people was just too much for her. A shiver attacked her spine as the reality of the situation suddenly hit her - she played images in her head as if in a dream...

I am going to have to kill people. Murder them. Take their lives before they take mine. Sons, daughters, ripped from their families. They will never breathe another breath. They will be forgotten soon after it happens.

She started breathing heavily, trying to suck in the hot swampy air. Her throat tightened - she was having a panic attack.

Britty was suddenly wrenched back to reality as a loud blast diagonally to the right beat out against the voice on the loudspeaker.
It was the tribute girl from 8, jumping from her landing before it was time to start. She was blown to bits, which sprinkled down like manna from heaven; it coated the rest of the unfortunate and doomed players in the sick game.

A timer appeared above her, counting down the minute before she could possibly be dead.

You are so screwed Britty. You don't belong here. You are dead. It's only a matter of time. Just let yourself go quietly before you make a fool of yourself. Maybe you can die with some dignity.

30 seconds left.

How did this happen? Why did it happen to me? What cruel circumstance brought me to this place where I am going to be stabbed to death or shot by another child?

10 seconds left.

Which weapon are you going to grab? You have to grab something. You have to grab something, pick something you idiot! Figure it out now! Where are you going to run?

The gong rang out and Britty just started running straight ahead.
She noticed a girl on her left and a boy on her right, and just prayed to God they wouldn't find something to stab her with before she grabbed a weapon. She saw the pack of knives first and veered towards them - but before she could make any real commitment to them, they were picked up by someone else.
She started running straight through, assuming she would grab a big weapon on the way.
As she ran, her hands slid down to her waist. Her fingertips quickly traced the line of her belt, and nimbly began to unfasten it.

What the hell am I doing?

She begged herself to think, reason, decide something; but the whole event was a huge blur that she would not even remember forty seconds from now.

Suddenly she found herself pulling her belt off and wrapping it around her hand with the buckle facing out.

Her eyes fell on the sword directly in front of her. She had almost tripped on the stupid thing! She paused only for a split second - just long enough to see the boy from District 1 running towards her with one of the throwing knives. He must have has his heart set on a sword as well, she assumed.

This is it for me. I hope my mother can go on after losing her daughter....

If Britty had had time to cry, she probably would have broken down that instant and sobbed. But there wasn't even time to feel sorry for herself. That made her extremely angry all of the sudden. Her sad, weepy eyes squinted in a scowl against the boy aiming for her.
She bent down without hesitation and lifted the sword at him.

I'm going to kill him!!

At the last second before his stab could fall into her, she sucker-punched him in the face with her belt buckle.
It happened so quickly, she didn't even realize what she had done.
She whirled around on one foot before she could even see his reaction, and continued to run towards the center pile of weapons.

As she went on, she spied the girl from district 7 - Helena. Everyone knew her name. Britty was able to catch a glimpse of her with the head of the guy from 9 in her hands, twisting it, and letting his limp body drop to the ground. She picks up two axes, and Britty realized she wanted to be as far from Helena as possible.
She ran into the center moments before another girl who scooped up the forked spear thing and ran off without stopping.
When Britty reached the center there were only a couple things left - 15 arrows, a bow, and a scythe.
She realized she still had her belt buckle on one hand and a sword in the other, but the least she could do was make it a tiny bit harder for the others. She dug at the bow and ran as fast and hard as she could to the treeline on the other side, trying to avert her eyes from the horrors around her.

Once she reached safety from the death clearing, she dropped the sword and the bow.
Neither were of any use to her at all. She quickly turned to the nearest tree, and dug a shallow hole in the reeds just big enough to conceal them both. She grabbed some reeds and tied a shoddy bow, and stuck it to the tree with mud. Now she would be able to hopefully find this again if she needed it or if she found an ally who did, but in the meantime they would just slow her down.

She began walking, or rather trudging, through the mud, farther away from the sad violence she had just fled. She sighed heavily, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it with a hand wrapped in a belt.

The fog thickened around Britty and she wondered where she was going. She knew she would only make it so far with nothing but a belt buckle, but there weren't any ropes or similar weapons available that she would be efficient with. To be honest she hadn't gotten much of a look at the weapons available at all. Her mind began to race, curious about whether she could have grabbed something small that she could at least use as a tool at some point.
In her mind, Britty retraced what she had seen on the playing field : A boy zig-zagging through who picked up a few things, Helena with axes, several girls off on the left scrambling for knives and retreating...
It hit her suddenly that if she can throw a lasso, she could probably be at least adequate throwing an ax - if there were any left.
She just hadn't noticed any specific pattern of weapons out there.
It would mean a possible death without a real weapon; but going back could mean death too.
She tried to remember what her mentor had told her about going back for weapons, but she couldn't remember. The guy didn't like her much and wasn't very helpful either way.
She pitched right and started walking again, thinking she would circle the bloody battlefield for a few minutes before turning inward again and trying to find a throwing weapon. At least if she circled close to the field, most people would already be on their way out into the woods trying to find the mine shafts.

As she trudged she began to hear a slight echo of her footsteps ahead of her. It was then that she realized Helena had run out, grabbed weapons, and headed back to a tribute still on the platform. So instead of running straight through like many did, Helena had come into the woods close to where she had started. If she had chosen to go counterclockwise at all, Britty could easily find herself face-to-face with the brute.

She froze and held her breath, trying to listen.

There was definitely someone up ahead of her, not far at all, trying to make it through the muck, just like Britty.
She was just within earshot if she held still, and she made out two girl voices among the trees.

".... scared .... again ... anyone would."

She held even more still and strained her ear to them;

"Cattail Kinnikinnick, District 6."

The red haired girl, perhaps? The faces were escaping her. She moved forward between a few more trees and spied the two standing face to face, chatting it up like old friends.

Wow. Idiots. So much for a fight to the death. They are acting like they are about to braid each other's hair.

Britty sighed. She didn't want to see anyone die, but the fact of the matter was that there would be one victor and one alone. Then again, Britty realized, it was more advantageous for a a practically unarmed girl to group up with two who had been cast the fortunate lot of their preferred weapons.
She glanced quickly at them both again from behind the safety of her tree.
The red-haired girl was unarmed, and the other had some arrows, but no bow, and a scythe. She looked ridiculous with the scythe, but if she cared enough to grab the arrows even without the bow, she was probably deadly with it.

"How well can you climb?"

Britty slid back behind the safety of the tree trunk once again.

"this tree will do"

Without revealing herself, Britty called to the two girls just beyond her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she bellowed with genuine concern. "Look around. See those thick tangles among the trees? Those are rats nests.... and judging by the fact that we are in the damn arena, I imagine they aren't your typical rodent. You climb, they climb after you. And you guys aren't armed well enough for that to end in your favor. Trust me."

If there was any one single skill Britty could apply here, it was her knowledge of fauna.

Cattail

Cattail jumped hearing another tributes voice, her heart was pounding and she looked about frantically for the one who had spoken but saw nothing, she recognised the voice after a moment of thought.
The district 10 girl

"I wouldn't do that if I were you,"
Cattail was confused by this but continued to listen knowing she might say something useful, as she listened she felt her pulse slow to a relaxed rate. As she listened she looked around for something to camouflage her hair, there must be something useful after all with bright hair like her own she was a walking target.

"See those thick tangles among the trees? Those are rats nests.... "
The instant the line was said Cattail took a closer looked more carefully at the treetops, she quickly spotted the tangles and sighed "great there goes that plan, the new question where do we sleep? We can't stay awake forever" she said placing her face in her hands "perfect, just perfect" she grumbled thinking it over, remembering previous years "in that case we can't stay here, we are to easy to find staying here, and my hair won't be helping."

Cadie Stout, District 5.

"Gosh you scared me, then again now anyone would," Cattail said, smiling. Cadie was surprised of the friendly approach, but happy none the less. "Cattail Kinnikinnick, District 6." Cadie gave her a small smile as she continued on, "hmm, and alliance...I'm in. We should get out of sight though, it's getting dark and it dangerous on the ground at night." Cadie nodded. "What are you suggesting?" she asked. They were hardly going to be able to find the mine before dark...could they. She noticed Cattail looking at the tree behind her. "How well can you climb?" she asked, grabbing onto a tall branch. "This tree will do." Cadie looked up at the tree. It was...high. "I can climb...just not very high," she admitted. The truth was that she was mildly scared of heights -- well, not scared of heights exactly, scared to falling from them. But she wasn't goingto go tell a fellow tribute that. Who knew how she was going to use it against her?

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Cadie gave a small jump and turned around, prepared to throw an arrow if she thought anyone was a threat. She recognised her as District 10, but didn't remember her name. "Look around. See those thick tangles among the trees? Those are rats nests.... and judging by the fact that we are in the damn arena, I imagine they aren't your typical rodent. You climb, they climb after you. And you guys aren't armed well enough for that to end in your favor. Trust me." Cadie looked up in the trees and could just see the 'tangles' the girl was talking about. How did she see them? District 10...livestock. She didn't see how that would help the girl know about the fauna.

"Great there goes that plan, the new question where do we sleep? We can't stay awake forever. In that case we can't stay here, we are to easy to find staying here, and my hair won't be helping." Cadie thought about it for a second. "For your hair," she said. "You could cover it in mud. Maybe not tonight, but I just remember someone with blonde hair doing that in another games. I guess we could stay awake, and look for the min shaft or-" Cadie stopped mid-sentence, suddenly aware of a faint scuffling noise. Suddenly, a massive bunch of rats ran out at them. Cadie gave a small squeal of surprise, and threw an arrow at random into the bunch. It hit a rat, and it died instantly. But there was still the rest of them.

But then Cadie noticed them running off. "Why would they-" she was interrupted yet again, this time by a hiss. Two massive snakes slithered from the direction the rats had run away from, their bodies a shining silver, and obviously razer sharp. One touch would kill. "We.Are.Dead," Cadie breathed. "Should we run, or take small, quiet steps. They might go faster if we run, but if we don't..." Cadie trailed off. They got the idea.

Britty waited as the girls babbled among themselves. She wanted to tell them that she could arm them to a better degree than they were now, but before she could speak, a large canon fired and the ground began to rumble.

What the -

It was then that she heard the chattering squeaks. If you have ever opened a barn and watched a hundred rats pour out, you would now this sound in an instant. She peered around the edge of the tree and saw the pack of giant rats running towards them, almost nimbly across the surface of the muck. They were quite well-adapted, she had to give them that.
But there was something strange about their focus.
She tried to think quickly about where to go or what to, but she waited to see what the others had up their sleeves. When the bunch came close enough, the girl from district 5 threw one of her arrows, javelin-style, into the middle of them. One fell instantly and started to sink, the arrow still poking out from its flesh. The rest kept running; but they were not in hunting mode. Britty could tell there was something else going on.

"Why would they -"

District 5 questioned. She was cut off by two giant snakes, slithering easily over the swamp. And they were in hunting mode. Britty knew that the snakes would see them first, and she would easily be able to get away if she ran now. She stuck her feet into the most solid chunk of mud she could find at the base of the tree she was hiding behind, and shifted her body weight as if preparing for a race.

"Anyone got a long stick to hit them with if needed? Then again-this is the arena...I think our chances are better with the rats; last time I checked most snakes can't climb and those who can can be knocked down fairly easily..."

That was fair logic, thought Britty.

She decided she couldn't leave them behind anyways. She refused to let the arena turn her into that person.
Carefully she rounded the side of the tree and began to approach the two. Suddenly she realized that their plan was not going to work. The girl from District 5 was not a climber. Britty had remembered seeing her in training, trying to climb the obstacles and ropes while many other tributes didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It had definitely not been her strong suit. On the other hand, Cattail and done amazingly well and probably climbed faster than anyone else Britty had noticed.

"Wait -" she said quietly as she saddled up to them, "District 5 can't climb, remember? Snakes can lift, like, half their body length up in the air - she'd be dead. Red, what if you climb and distract them, and...eh..." she was trying to speak as quickly as possible, because time was running out. But she hated admitting that she had taken the bow.
"I know where the bow is. I'll take Five to it and she can take out the snakes!"

It was a long shot. If they didn't trust her or go for her plan, she would have to run off and leave them here. Cattail might make it, but she had no real weapon. Cadie was a goner unless she started running, too. Time was ticking away, and she waited for their answer. The snakes were quickly approaching.

"District 5 can't climb, remember? Snakes can lift, like, half their body length up in the air - she'd be dead. Red, what if you climb and distract them, and...eh..."
Cadie found herself blushing, even in the current predicament, with giant snakes approaching them.
"I know where the bow is. I'll take Five to it and she can take out the snakes!"
Her head shot around to the District Ten girl. Maybe it's just a trick, she thought. Split us up and kill us. But Cadie didn't have long as it was, and it was really her only shot. Besides, she had good aim, the bow and arrow would be great for her. "Fine," she said with a slight nod. She slowly stepped towards the girl, sloshing her way through the murky swamp, and waited to run after her.

((Short Post :/ I'm not in a very creative mood, I guess....:())

Cattail

"District 5 can't climb, remember? Snakes can lift, like, half their body length up in the air - she'd be dead. Red, what if you climb and distract them, and...eh..."
Cattail had totally forgotten this and sighed, she herself could climb the trees in only a few seconds, she looked up the tree looking for any and every foothold. She looked at the snakes again feeling her muscles tense then relax again as she knew that tense muscles made a harder climb. She thought for a moment 'Fast, Sudden movements, lots of noise' remembering what snakes and any other animal would noticed.

"I know where the bow is. I'll take Five to it and she can take out the snakes!"
Cattail nodded "stay quiet and slow calm movements, I'll get their attention, all animals notice loud noises and sudden movement"she gave a sigh " and before you ask, I've done a lot of reading" She said smirking "now go, its our best chance" she said suddenly diving for a large, strong stick. She ran for a tree a small distance from Cadie, she waved the leafy end of the branch and sacked the other against the tree almost instantly getting the snakes attention. The snakes now headed for her hissed clearly eager to go for the kill, Cattail grabbed onto the tree and began climbing, she was quickly half the length of the snakes bodies high in the tree.

Britty wasted no time. The snakes were dangerously close now, and they would see the two girls trying to escape if Cattail's distraction wasn't good enough.
"Leave the scythe," she commanded.
Cattail showed some fighting skill as she waved a branch at the snakes and slamming one of them into a tree. As Cattail began to climb, Britty grabbed 5 by the arm and pulled her back the direction she had come from. Britty moved slowly at first and then quicker as she glanced back to see the snakes almost out of view, trying to get at the tasty morsel in the tree. Cattail could take care of herself, Britty thought.
As she went the mud seemed to get thicker; she was having more and more trouble navigating through it and losing her energy. She felt as though her body was slowing down and there was nothing she could do to perk it up. It suddenly occurred to her that the day was waning and they had not eaten or drank; they would have to start searching for the mines soon.
She made a slight turn to her left and started watching for the marked tree. There it was, a muddy glob stuck to the trunk.
"This is it!" She told the other girl, "This is where the bow -"
She stopped short when she saw the large, scaly creature slithering around the base of the tree, the bow of reeds and grass nearly being bumped off by its shiny back. Like the other snakes, it seemed to displace the mud and float atop it, an almost graceful display of adaptation. When Britty looked closer, she saw that the snake's movements were actually cutting into the tree, like a strong, sharp razor blade.
She looked to the girl in desperation.
"Look what it's doing to the tree.... what do we do now?"

"Aw, great," Cadie muttered sarcastically. There was the bow, just a few short metres away from her, and these stupid snakes were going to stop her from getting it. They better not break it, Cadie thought angrily, just as the District Ten girl spoke, "Look what it's doing to the tree.... what do we do now?"

Cadie gritted her teeth together, trying to think of a plan. "I guess I could try and shoot the snake or something. Then it would fall and-" Cadie kept her voice low, as not to startle the snake. And what? "I'll go over and get ithe bow..."Oh, great Cadie. Now if this actually works, the snake will probaly kill you anyway, she thought grimly.

The snake gave a small hissing noise, it's mouth sounded full of saliva. Cadie ignored it, and took out an arrow, waiting to see if Ten had a better idea.

Britty noticed that everything had suddenly gotten quite dark. This used to happen to her when she was out near the ponds looking for tadpoles, or laying among the sheep out in the fields. Darkness always seemed to fall quickly when she was out having fun.
And yet, here as well, night had snuck upon her - though it was because she was fearing for her life. They would have to spend the night here, taking turns guarding until it was light enough to see.
"It's getting dark," Britty said. "Throw your arrow or something, but hurry; cause we won't have time to get back to Red unless you can see in the dark," she concluded.

She figured, with the girl's immaculate aim, she could easily spear a snake right through its eye.
Just as she had finished speaking, the snake lifted its head and reared at them, exposing the soft flesh of its mouth, while its terrible fangs dripped venom that gleamed in the dusk.
"Now!" Britty shouted, and gently shoved the girl next to her into action.

Cattail

Cattail knocked another down, the silver of the snakes skin making them easy to see in the dimming, golden light. With a final swing she scrabbled higher into the tree, this was tiresome and the snakes would loose interest in the unreachable food, though she did have a chance if getting out alive with out putting Cadie and Brritty in danger, the tree branches were intertwined with the next creating strong, crossable bridges. As the snakes began to slighter away now seemingly uninterested, she broke off a small piece of her branch and throwing it at a tree away from her and where Cadie and Britty had run off to. The chunk thudded against a rats nest sending the rodents haywire, the snakes attention was instantly drawn to the scene and they slithered over for a snack.

"bingo" Cattail muttered as she began climbing from one tree to the next in search of the two, it couldn't be that hard to find them could it? This was the arena so of corse it could, the branches broke underneath her causing her to cry out in surprise, she narrowly made it to a solid branch as the 'bridge' landed in the churning muck below, it began to sink and then it struck her, 'quick sand' or at least the swamp alternative. She calmed herself then continued on to find the other two.

Now!
Cadie threw her arrow, and since the snakes angle had hid the eye, she had chosen to go for its mouth - possibly the only part of its body not razor sharp. As the snake fell on the floor, not yet dead and still writhing in pain, she threw another at it's head, hitting the bloodshot eye and it stopped moving.

She carefully walked over towards it and the weapons, cautiously picking up the bow and taking the arrows out of the snakes dead body. She wiped the blood off the grass and checked her weapons. Yup, 14 arrows, the only one missing was the one still stuck in the dead rats body. "Okay," she said decisively. "Our next concern should be food and water. Which either means look up here or search for the mines. And presuming they want us all together for a big bloody fight, all the food is probably below ground." She placed an arrow in her bow just in case anything 'unexpected' dropped by.

"Our next concern should be food and water. Which either means look up here or search for the mines. And presuming they want us all together for a big bloody fight, all the food is probably below ground."

Britty walked over to the tree and reached out her hand to the girl. "I'm Britty, by the way...."

The darkness had encompassed the woods around them and the tiny slivers of moonlight reflected off the snake's dead body. Birtty sighed, and began digging even deeper into the mud until her hands grazed the sword. She pulled it off and tried to wipe the muck away with her sleeve.
"I was going to suggest that we camp out until sun-up, but now I'm not so sure. I don't know how much longer I can last in this muggy swamp without at least water. And if I'm half as pale as you, we'd better be finding something to drink as soon as possible..and probably regroup..." the inflection of her words left something to be desired. She wanted so badly to trust these girls; but in the arena it is a fool's errand. She could not disguise the bitterness in her voice at using the word 'regroup' - it suggested that they could be friends, or a team.

Britty took a step back and peered off into the utterly black jungle. She wondered what would happen if they met up with Cattail and the three of them found a mine together. Would they split the supplies? Would one of them kill her in a fight for water, weapons, or food?
She shook these thoughts away and turned back, addressing her partner.
"What do you think we should do?"

Cattail

Our next concern should be food and water. Which either means look up here or search for the mines. And presuming they want us all together for a big bloody fight, all the food is probably below ground."

Cattail smiled hearing the familiar voice and began to head in that general direction. The leaves made no sound, nor did the branches as she leapt from tree to tree, she looked around as the tree's fell into the black of the night.

"I'm Britty, by the way...."

Cattail felt good hearing the voices were getting closer, 'not much further, just up ahead' she thought as her head began to throb from the lack of water "need, water" she panted as she leapt for the next tree. As she landed in the tree a foot slipped as fatigue slowly overcame her, with a violent shake of her head she listened for more voices, hopefully ones that will lead her to safety.

"I was going to suggest that we camp out until sun-up, but now I'm not so sure. I don't know how much longer I can last in this muggy swamp without at least water. And if I'm half as pale as you, we'd better be finding something to drink as soon as possible..and probably regroup..."

Cattail pushed on listening for Britty's voice, she came to stop in a final tree, now exhausted and dehydrated she slumped against the trunk of the tree 'no more, I'm done, they won't find me, i won't find them, no now I rest, now I rest' she thought dully as she sat there in the tree.

"What do you think we should do?"

Cattails eyes widened, the voices were below her 'thank you' she thought before hanging from the tree upside-down, her legs hooked around the branch "hello you two" she said with a smile "i was almost lunch" said flipping down " what happened here?" she asked putting her hands on her hips as she looked over the silver snakes body. Her grey-green eyes seemed to shine even in the dark of the night, her red hair still sewable in the darkness.

Cadie Stout, District 5

"I'm Britty, by the way...." Cadie gave her a small smile and took her outstretched hand. "Cadie," she replied. She suddenly noticed how dry her mouth was, like sandpaper, and swallowed the small amount of spit she could muster into her mouth. "I was going to suggest that we camp out until sun-up, but now I'm not so sure. I don't know how much longer I can last in this muggy swamp without at least water. And if I'm half as pale as you, we'd better be finding something to drink as soon as possible..and probably regroup..." Cadie looked over at Britty after hearing the bitterness in the word 'regroup.' If she wasn't happy about the allies, was she going to betray them?

"What do you think we should do?" Britty asked, looking over at Cadie expectantly. "I think we should continue looking for the mines," Cadie said. "I'm not badly in need of sleep yet, and we'll have to get their before everyone else. And I doubt anyone could be paler than you at the moment," she added, before looking down at her own arms. God, she looked sickly. What if it wasn't from dehydration, it was from some disease the rats carried?

Her stomach rumbled, and Cadie cursed under her breath, putting her hand to her stomach. "Hoping my stomach won't give away our position," she muttered. Food wasn't her top priority, though.She had lasted a while without food before, but never a day without water.

"Hello you two," Cadie stopped herself just in time before shooting Cattail through the head. "Don't scare us like that," Cadie said, half joking, half serious. "I was almost lunch," Cattail told them. "We knew you could handle yourself," Cadie replied quietly, about to say something else when Cattail said, " what happened here?" referring to the dead snake on the ground. Cadie shrugged. "There was a snake," she said in response. Britty could add on more if she wanted to tell her what happened. "So where are the snakes? And how did you find us?" Cadie asked in a half whisper. She coudn't be sure that no one was close-by.

Cattail was asking questions about what had happened, and once again the two girls were chattering away like best friends. The darkness enveloped them all, and Britty was fairly certain that they were covered from prying eyes - she assumed that there were none anyways; most of the tributes had probably made there way much farther from the edge of the woods in the first day than her little group.
She looked off into the darkness, squinting to see how far she could see. The little map was still there, unreadable, and she began to examine it closely for the first time since the gong sounded. It made no sense to her until she could find one of the entrances and look through the maze for herself.
She glanced back at the two girls; her friends, her allies for now.

Cadie seemed friendly enough. Cattail seemed good too.

Stop it... That doesn't matter now. Only one person leaves. That is the rule.

She brushed the sweaty bangs off of her forehead and addressed the two girls.
"We've got to keep moving. Cadie is right - we have to find the mines..." she trailed off, letting her thirst overtake her at the thought of the water waiting for them underground.
She handed Cattail the sword.
"You can probably use this better than I can," she said, extending it to her.
She started walking into the darkness, hoping that nothing would jump out and finish her while she was too weak to defend herself.
The Anthem played in the distance, and the seal showed up in the sky. They all knew what it was, and Britty looked away and kept marching. She refused to even say a word.

Cadie looked up in the sky as the Anthem sounded around the Arena. There he was, the boy from District 5. She gave a small gasp and hoped none of the other girls noticed, before looking down at her feet, following behind Britty. She hadn't known him, maybe a small conversation here and there, but he had been her onl tie to home. Well, apart from the small handmade bracelet around her wrist.

She delicately messed with the bracelet, not letting the girls see her face, for she was sure it must be red. If she had any liquid left in her bod, she was sure she would have been crying. She closed her eyes or a second, remembering where she was. You ain't gonna' get out of here if you let that get to you, she thought, looking up with clenched fists.

Cadie followed behind Britty, her absolute exhaustion and the murky swamp making her go painfully slow. Her stomach was empty, her tongue was as dry as sandpaper and her throat burning with thirst. She felt like a vampire who hadn't fed for days. She was contemplating whether or not she would be able to drink human blood, if it came down to it, when she remembered what they were looking for. "We must be close to a mine by now," she said, her voice croaky, as if it hadn't been used for a while. Even just speaking hurt, now.

Just a bottle of freaking water, for gods sake, she thought. But she knew sponsors never gave anything this early on - atleast, not usually - and it might cost alot, with only about - Cadie realized she hadn't been bothered to count the canon sounds last night, and now regreted it. She felt slightly vulnerable, not knowing how many people were out there, hunting her down. "Should we be scavenging the ground?" Or more like the swamp, she thought. The thought of digging around in the mud didn't seem pleasing, but if it was what was needed to survive, she would obviously do it.

" You shouldn't have waited for me. Who knows what awaits you here?" Rhiannon just looked at Vespia and shrugged, "I 'm not about to leave my closest ally behind." she said in a low voice. Then she saw Vespia looking off in another direction and followed her gaze to see somewhere where smoke was rising through the trees and Mason was standing there with his back to them, looking like he was ready to leap out at someone.
Rhiannon felt her throat close with fear when she realized that the moment had arrived, the moment where she'd been faced with having to hurt, fight against, likely even kill somebody. It was a moment she wanted to put off for as long as possible but now here it was, right in front of her. If she wanted to stay with the careers and have some people she could depend on in this game, she'd have to fight with them. Her face went a dozen shades paler than normal, and as Vespia spoke she turned to glance at her, a blank expression on her face, " Stay here first. I'm going to climb up that tree and see what I can find." Rhiannon nodded quietly as she watched Vespia climb up the tree, cutting herself up pretty bad in the process.
"Are you okay? You should probably come down- be careful." Rhiannon said in a slightly strained voice. But Vespia was too busy staring down at what was going on to hear her.
"What is it?" Rhiannon asked in a slightly hushed, lower than usual voice. She tried to hide how immensely terrified she was. She glanced over at Mason who was still watching the people through the trees, and she felt chills go down her spine at the thought of taking an innocent life, and for what purpose? She clenched her fists and waited for one of her allies to make a move.

Cadie turned to look at th other two girls, who both looked as exhausted as she did. "Where will these mines be?" she asked, a little louder than before, as no one had seemed to hear her before. "Like, in a tree, on the round, or what?" She was absolutely exhausted, and had a killer headache. but knew better than to ask for a rest. If they stopped, they were dead.

She held her bow and arrow in hand, and had collected the arrow from the dead rat last night, which meant she still had fifteen arrows. Her stomach rumled, and she thought of something. "Wait here," she told the girl's, and without waiting to see if they obyed, she ran off into the woods, a more quiet part than before. As soon as the girls were behind her, she took out her bow and arrow and aimed aroun, finally spotting a rat in a nest. Se wasn't sure weter or not it would be edible, but it was worth a shot. In one arrow, the rat lay dead on the floor, and she hopefully had food.

She returned back to the girls, holding up the rat. "Think it's edible?" she asked.

(Sorry if it's a bad post, I have a headache... :/)

Cadie nodded at Britty's suggestion to eating raw. "Sure. Right now, I'd eat anything." She hadn't eaten rat at all in her life - raw or otherwise, but it looked liek their only option. Though that wasn't exactly what she was concerned about, water was her first priority - of course. And her thirst was just worsened by the muddy, swampy water surrounding her. Of course, that wasn't an option. It would most likely kill her before it would save her.

"I'll watch out while you - y'know," she lowered her voice slightly. She realizd that she had been speaking a little bit too loud, and even if it didn't seem like anyone else was around, you never could tell. All the Careers had trained their whole lives, of course.

She ventured out into the trees slightly, makin sure to keep both the girls in sight at all times. She wasn't sure what she was looking for exactly - a mine? a water source? - but if she found anything, she would be grateful.

Wait - what was that, was that a mine?! A small hole, just about visible to the naked eye, lay at the bottom of the tree. She wasn't sure if she wanted to head back to the girls and tell them though - if it wasn't,she would make a fool out of herself, not just infront of the girls, but tehe whole of Panem, and that was not something she wanted to do.

She stepped closer, and turned her head to glance back at the girls. By now Cattail was out of sight, but if this was a mine... She dug at the ground that covered the hole, pushing the mud into the murky swamp. It was pretty big, but she had never seen a mine before. Then something occured to her. What if it wasn't a mine, but some sort of nest for a mutt?! She walked away fromit slowly, and headed back to the girls.

"I found something. It looks like itcould be a mine but -" she glanced back at it for a second "-I'm not sure. It could be a mut house or something." She bit her lip. "Or maybe it's nothing..." She trailed off, waiting for what the girl's responses would be.

(So, basically, I'm not sure whether or not we shoud find a mine yet or not, so I decided to open our options a bit more... :L)