The Ultimate Sacrifice (The 107th Hunger Games) [Fan Fiction]

26. So Many Questions

26. So Many Questions

Eventually, I decided it was time for me to get a proper bath even though there was no soap or shampoo available. There was no way I'd get a sponsor just for that. I wasn't even sure sponsors could send shampoo or soap to tributes.

I slipped out from the cave and down the little path, carrying the blanket with me. I would have to use this as my towel for now since I doubt sponsors could send towels either. I kicked off my shoes and socks, slipping off my jacket, leaving me in my long-sleeved shirt, with one sleeve sliced open. I wrapped myself in the blanket as tightly as I could while I stripped down to nothing with difficulty. I kept all of my clothes in a pile.

Slowly, I maneuvered my entire body out of the blanket and into the water. I went under, surfacing. I felt like a new person already, having water cleanse my body. I felt like I was in a large bathtub. It was shallow for me; I'd say four feet deep. It'd be hard to drown people in.

Maybe that would be a way to kill Shane instead of getting my hands bloody. Drowning didn't require draining a victim of blood.

I waddled around the pool, making sure the lake was safe. I didn't want flesh-eating fish to come gnawing on my legs or electric eels to shock me to death. The gauze on my arm had to be waterproof, because they didn't seem to loosen or break and detach from my arm.

I was dowsed when I went under the waterfall. It was a personal showerhead in a way, only I couldn't adjust the temperature.

Just being able to relax felt foreign to me. I was alone. No Shane, no Bane or Jenna, no tracker jackers or wild animals to hunt me down, no other unknown tributes. I threw my head back, letting the sun kiss it. Maybe if I was lucky I could get a bit darker, I was almost neon white in the sun.

I wondered how all of Panem was seeing this. Were they seeing this as a battle waiting to happen between me and Shane? They'd be right, of course. So far, I somehow managed to not kill him between all of the encounters I had with him.

If I couldn't kill Shane, I knew someone who would: Bane. But I couldn't count out Jenna. She would have a shot at him because Shane was part of the murder of Ben and Aubrey at the Cornucopia. That was a very wild time for everyone, that night leading into that day. That was the day that we Careers realized it wouldn't be down to us as the final six.

Starting to get tired of moving around in the lake, I slipped into the blanket, carrying my clothes with me into the cave. I rubbed myself down and prayed no cameras were locked onto me. I didn't want Panem to see me, a sixteen-year-old girl, naked in a cave. I was trying my hardest to not reveal major skin by keeping the blanket close around me.

It was a little warmer than I realized, so I left the jacket off, but put on everything else. My hair soaked the back of my shirt and I considered ripping off my left sleeve. It was torn anyway. What difference would it make? Demi would probably get a little pissed that I picked apart her shirt she had out for me, but what could she do about it?

Since I wasn't sure when Shane would get back, I poked around the cave, finding where it ended and what supplies he had on him besides the bow and arrows. Besides my blanket, the water bottle (which was refilled, so I had no doubt Shane did that himself), and the empty pack, I didn't see much. I saw no canisters of medicine anywhere, or any other good weaponry. I was sure he had more stuff from sponsors; he just used them all in setting traps. I wondered if he had flint or anything at making fire, it would surely get cool in here at night. Sometimes a blanket wasn't enough to keep a warm body temperature.