Hunger Games 1

Chapter 31 Trap (2)
Under the tree where the hive was abandoned, I stopped for a moment, and I must muster up the courage to complete the next task.Lulu had told me the best spot to spy on their lakeside camp, and how to approach it slowly. "Remember, now you are the hunter and they are not," I told myself.I gripped the bow tightly in my hand, and stepped forward.I came to the little bush that Lulu had told me about, and again admired her intelligence.The bushes were right on the edge of the woods, but the bushes were thick and leafy, and the pros' camp could be easily observed without being detected.Between the bushes and their camp is the clearing where the Hunger Games began.

There were four people in the camp, a boy from District [-], Cato, a girl from District [-], and a scrawny boy with a pale face who must have been a boy from District [-].He barely made any impression on me when we were training in the Capitol. I can hardly remember anything about him, the clothes he wore, his records, or even his interviews.Even now, sitting there with a plastic box in his hand, he seemed inconspicuous among his other tall, muscular companions.

But he must have his own skills, otherwise others would not let him live until now.Why did they keep him as a guard, and I was even more puzzled to see how thin he was, why did they keep him alive?

None of the four appeared to have fully recovered from the stalker bee sting.Even in this position, I can see the big bumps from the stings on them.They must not know that the thorn should be pulled out, and if they did, they would not know how to use herbs to heal the wound.Apparently, whatever medicine they found on the Horn of Zeus didn't work.

The Horn of Zeus is still in its original location, but the inside has been cleaned.Most of their supplies, whether in crates, sacks, or plastic boxes, were neatly stacked away from their camp, with other items scattered around; It's very similar to the beginning of the Hunger Games. There is a net over the items. Apart from preventing birds, this net does not seem to be of much use.

The way the whole thing was placed, the distances between it, and the skinny boys in District [-] baffled me.One thing's for sure, destroying these supplies isn't as easy as it might seem, and there's definitely something else to it, so I'd better hang around for now until I figure it out.I guessed all kinds of possibilities, maybe there is a trap under the pile of supplies, maybe there is a hidden deep pit, maybe there is a net falling from above, maybe there is a pull line, once touched, it will shoot a poisonous dart towards the person's heart.

I was thinking about what to do when I heard Cato shout, and he was pointing to the distant woods.I knew without turning my head that it was Lulu who lit the first bonfire.At first we found a lot of green, damp twigs to make sure that when the fire was lit the smoke would draw their attention.The gang of professional players immediately armed themselves.

They had a quarrel, so loud that I could hear it from here. It was probably a question of whether to let the boys from the third district follow or stay.

"He has to go, we need him in the jungle, he's done here. Nobody can touch the supplies," Cato said.

"What about the 'cute boy'?" said the boy from District One.

"I've been telling you, leave him alone. I know best where he was stabbed. It's a miracle he didn't bleed to death. Anyway, it's impossible for him to attack us in his current condition," Cato said.

So Peeta is hiding in the jungle, badly injured, but I still can't figure out why he betrayed the pros.

"Come on," said Cato.He thrust a spear into the hands of the boys from District Three, and they ran toward the fire.The last words I heard Cato say, after they ran into the jungle, were, "If I find her, I'll kill her my way, and nobody will."

Somehow I don't think he's talking about Lulu, since she didn't throw the hive at them.

For about half an hour, I stayed where I was, trying to figure out what to do with the supplies.The advantage of the bow is that it can be fired at a long distance. I can shoot flaming arrows at their supplies without any trouble, and I can get through the mesh with the accuracy of my arrows.So the supplies burn, so what?I got nothing but instead let them know a lot about me: my position here, I have an accomplice, I'm a good archer.

With no other options, I try to get as close as I can to see if I can find their secret to securing the supplies.I was just about to walk out of the woods, but a moving object caught my eye, and a person ran out of the jungle on my right.At first I thought it was Lulu, but I recognized the fox face right away—she was not one of the people I saw this morning—and she tiptoed into the clearing ahead.After confirming that she was safe, she quickly trotted towards the place where the supplies were placed, and when she was about to run to the scattered items next to the supplies, she stopped, checked the surrounding ground, and carefully placed her feet on a point , and then in a strange way, she swayed slightly and hopped on one leg to approach the supplies, sometimes with both feet on the ground.At one point, she jumped into the air, over a small obstacle, and stood there on her toes.But because she was jumping with too much forward momentum, her body threw herself forward. At this time, she quickly put her hands on the ground. I heard her scream, but nothing happened.Then she got up again, and walked on to the place where the supplies were piled up.

So I was right about the trap being laid, but it's clearly more complicated than I expected.I was also right about the girl, she was very cunning and found her way to the supplies and walked in so easily.She stuffed her knapsack full, and took a little of everything, biscuits from a crate, and apples from a sack hanging on a rope, so that no one would notice what was missing, arouse suspicion.Then she popped out of the circle again with small steps, and galloped into the jungle unharmed.

I grit my teeth in frustration.Foxface confirmed my suspicions, but what trap did they lay that required such dexterity to get through?Are there many institutions?Why did she scream when her hands hit the ground?Unless—I suddenly realized—the ground is going to explode.

"There are landmines below." I said softly, so I understood everything.Why the pros can leave camp, why Foxface hops away, and the boys from District Three whose factories make televisions and cars and explosives.But where did they find the mines?Is it in the supplies?
It's not a weapon usually offered by contest organizers, who seem more willing to see bloody fights between "tributes".I slipped out of the woods and ran to the metal disc that carried the "tribute" to the arena.The ground around the disk had already been dug and filled back with soil.60 seconds after we stood on the disc, the mine detonated.The boys in District Three must have repurposed them.I've never seen anyone do that in a previous competition, and I think even the tournament organizers were taken aback by what they did.

Well, the boys in District [-] are amazing, challenging their stereotypes, but what do I do now?Obviously, there was no way I could walk in and be unscathed.As for firing arrows with fire, it is even more ridiculous.The mine is triggered by pressure, of course, the pressure does not need to be too high.One year, when a girl was standing on the disc, she dropped a small wooden box, a souvenir of the district, and it was blown up, and people had to pick up her body fragments from the ground.

My arms are strong, maybe I can throw a few rocks in there, what would that trigger?Maybe a landmine, that would set off a chain reaction, would it?When the boys in the third district planted landmines, were they only designed to trigger a single landmine without affecting several others?This keeps the supplies safe while blowing up the invaders.Even if I detonate a mine, it will bring all the pros back.What should I do?There are also nets there, obviously to prevent this kind of attack. In fact, I need to throw in more than thirty stones at once to trigger a large-scale chain explosion to destroy everything at the same time.

I glanced into the woods to see the smoke from Lulu's second bonfire rising into the sky.By now, the pros may have figured out that this is a gauge, and the clock is ticking.

There must be a solution, and I know there will be.I look carefully at the pile of supplies, boxes, jars, an arrow is unlikely to bring them down, but maybe one of them contains cooking oil, and I can shoot it with a flaming arrow, but on second thought Think no, maybe I'll run out of twelve arrows and miss a tank of oil, because I can only shoot arrows by guesswork.I seriously wondered if I could repeat Foxface's route, get closer to the supplies and find a better way.At this time, my eyes fell on the sack containing the apples, and suddenly my eyes lit up. I could hit the rope hanging the sack with an arrow. Didn’t I practice many times in the training center?A large bag of apples may only detonate a mine if it falls whole.If only I could knock all the apples off...

I know what to do now.I move forward to within range of the bow and three arrows to complete the task.I pick the right spot, aim carefully, and shut out everything in the world.The first arrow flew out and hit the mouth of the sack and tore a large piece of it. The second arrow then tore a big hole in the sack. When I shot the third arrow, I saw an apple crumbling. , and then a third arrow knocked away the torn piece of the sack.

In a few seconds, everything seemed to have frozen, and then the apples jumped out one by one and fell to the ground, and I was also hit by the blast of the blast, and my body flew into the air.

(End of this chapter)