21. The Countdown

I kept running as fast as my wobbly legs would carry me. I clutched at the knife wound, trying to lessen the bleeding. I had to find Daniel, I had to. I didn’t want to die, not now. There were less than half the tributes left in the arena! Our odds were increasing with each tribute killed. He and I could make it out alive!

Well, he could now; I wasn’t so sure about myself.

 I ran into the thick, foggy jungle. I had almost confused the fog as smoke, as if a fire was burning somewhere nearby. I tried to wave it away from me so I could clear my path. I couldn’t really cover my tracks because he’d catch up to me eventually.

I tripped on something, falling stomach first onto the jungle floor. I scrambled to my feet and ran again, but I didn’t get very far. Something forced me back: a rope—no, a vine—wrapped around my neck. It was a strong one too, because it didn’t break like I had expected it to. My fingers grasped the tough vine, trying to rip it. I couldn’t slip my head out of it. Whoever was holding it behind me gave me little wiggle room.

“I thought you might run through here,” the voice cooed. Well, it wasn’t him, but I didn’t want to run into her either. I didn’t have to turn around and face her to know it was her. Kaya. How could she be here alive? She had to be a ghost—or I was imagining this. Either theory seemed possible.

I let out a strangled scream, but it didn’t travel very far. Kaya cackled, tightening the grip on the vine even more. My breaths were becoming rapid sputters.

“You found her,” he purred. Kaya whipped me around.

Emerging between two tall, thick trees was Noah. His hazel eyes showed mischief, the knife he held in his hand gleamed with the desire to slice me. It was already dripping my blood onto the grass it hovered above, but its damage wasn’t done just yet.

“Of course,” Kaya sang. I wriggled uneasily. “Don’t struggle; it’ll only make it more painful for you.”

“Such a pity you didn’t kill me when you had the chance, isn’t it?” Noah grabbed my chin. I yanked it away.

“Can I kill her? Please?” Kaya begged.

“No, let me. I’ve got the proper weapon for dealing damage.” He towered over me. His lips were at my ear. “I’m going to make you suffer like we had when we lost each other.”

I let out a shout of pain as Noah dug the knife into my gut for a second time. His lips twisted into a malicious sneer. I didn’t bother once to grab at the new wound, my fingers were still trying to break the vine that prevented me from running.

Noah repeated his assault with the knife. Again and again he struck. At one point I thought he had shoved the knife right into one end of me and it protruded from the other. Kaya giggled shrilly as I was being dealt with, she just loved watching her boyfriend stab me to death.

I caved in after the fifth strike, my knees buckled. They crashed to the ground; Kaya went right down with me. I felt lightheaded. Whether it was from the blood loss or being suffocated, I couldn’t tell. There was so much being thrown on me that I just wanted it to end!

“Please,” I croaked. Noah knelt down to look at my tear-stained face. “End it.”

“What’s the fun in that?” Kaya crooned. I feebly wiggled in her grasp. “It’d defeat the whole purpose of torturing you.”

“You both are sick…and cruel,” I panted. I kept trying to inhale deep breaths, but all the air I got wasn’t enough to keep me breathing normally. This was torture. I hung my head, which wasn’t any more comfortable than before, but what did it matter at this point? I was going to be dead soon.

I really hoped Jade, Johanna, Harper, Alden, my prep team, my dad, Troy, and the Kinsley family weren’t watching this. If my mother was watching me from heaven, I didn’t want her to. I wanted them all to turn away; I didn’t want them to feel helpless, knowing that as much as they wanted to rush to my aid, they couldn’t.

“That’s how it felt when you broke us apart,” Noah hissed. “You stabbed me in the heart by taking away the only girl I ever loved.” His eyes met Kaya’s past my head. “Kaya, loosen up but still hold her. I want to get a clean shot at her neck.”

I couldn’t believe I was saying it, but thank God. I knew it sounded wrong to want to die at this point, but I was in extreme agony. It’s hard to live through such a thing without wishing to just end it all.

Kaya tossed the vine to the ground but grabbed my ponytail hard, forcing me to keep my head up. She grabbed both my wrists with one hand and held them behind my back. I took shallow breaths, my vision was going blurry.

“Now you see what I went through,” Noah snorted. He pushed a stray piece of hair away from my eye. “This is how it felt when I saw you kill her.”I felt the cold metal blade of the knife rest on my throat. I took one last swallow.

This was really it. There was no hope for me to go back to District 7. Daniel still had a chance. I’d never see him again, or Troy, or Dad, or Ewan, or the Kinsley family. I’d never get to meet Troy’s girlfriend, Ria. The only person I’d ever see again would be my mother, because I knew I’d go up into heaven.

I shut my eyes, letting one last tear leak from one of them.

***

My eyes pried themselves open with a lot of effort; my heart was pounding in my ribs. That was a spooky dream, being killed by the two people whose love lives I ruined all because of killing one of them. I knew I was still breathing and still in the Games, because Daniel was dozing right next to me. I shifted a centimeter, and Dan’s arm hugged my waist tighter. Huh? I peeked under the blanket. When had that happened? I wasn’t about to figure that out, I had other things to worry about. Like my dying state.

I blinked the goop away from my eyes. It wasn’t a nice, sunny, cloud-free day in the arena. There were some clouds, but none threatened rain. It was nice to not see the sun for once. I breathed through my nostrils.

I looked at the pond in front of me. I was really thirsty now, my mouth felt dry. But I felt too tired—or too weak, one of the two—to get my butt up and pull out the canteen from the pack Dan and I still had. We were having some luck, scoring this place off a dead tribute. Of course, where there’s good luck, there’s bad, and I got the bad luck. Stupid poisonous knife.

I kept half awake against Daniel until he decided to wake. I wasn’t sure if he stayed up all night or not looking out for danger. I really hoped he hadn’t, because he needed the rest. He had just killed a tribute and helped me back here to camp from a distance for hours. He was doing a lot to protect me.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it was enough for Dan to get a nice nap. He woke, sitting up all the way. I looked up at him with tired eyes.

“Morning, sleepy head,” I murmured.

“Morning. How’re you feeling?” he asked immediately. I felt his fingers tickle the side of my waist.

“Okay…I guess. Did you stay up all night?”

“Nope, I went to sleep about an hour or so after you. No shifts.”

“Good, you needed the rest.”

“It wasn’t easy to get it, though.”

“Oh God, why do I get the feeling this involves me?” I whimpered, pressing my forehead into his shoulder.

“Because it does. You had a bad dream at one point.”

“It must’ve been recently, because I woke up from it about an hour ago. I didn’t talk in my sleep, did I?”

“No, you twisted around a lot, whimpered too. I was waiting for the screaming and the talking, but I didn’t hear anything out of you.”

“You didn’t wake me?”

“Nah, you had a bad dream before. You’ve handled them okay, so I felt there was no need to make you grouchy.” A small smile crept on his lips then faded quickly. “Let’s see how bad the hole is today.”

We both readjusted so Dan could look at my wound easily. I lifted up my shirt tentatively. I looked down to see. There was a small area around the wound stained red—that was from the blood that leaked from it. It looked okay, but it stung like hell. I waved my hand over it, trying to bring air on top of it to lessen the stinging.

“We really need medicine for that,” Dan sighed.

“I think we’ve established that,” I growled. I threw my head up in agitation. The sky and trees started spinning. “Whoa.” I grabbed my forehead.

“Let’s not do anything too fast,” Dan said softly. He shrugged out of the blanket and stood up, stretching. I didn’t want to risk toppling over with my dizziness, so I stayed on the ground.

“So…what’s the plan?” I asked him.

“Stay here,” he said simply. “I mean, we’ve got the water, and we have weapons to kill animals for food.”

“Yeah, but let’s not use the knife,” I suggested. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want poisoned meat.”

I shut my eyes, shaking my head. Dan looked to be splitting in two. What the hell? I rubbed my eyes. He looked normal again. A cold sensation swept over me, my teeth started clacking together. I hugged myself.

“Bri, what’s wrong?” Dan knelt down beside me.

“I-I’m really c-cold,” I stuttered. I clutched the blanket tighter around me.

“It has to be the poison.” He felt my forehead with his hand. His eyebrows knitted together. That didn’t give him enough of an answer, because he pressed his cheek to my forehead. It was probably scorching. “Yup, you’re running a fever.” He sighed.

“Great.” I released a violent shudder. “I’m just waiting for the hallucinations to start.”

“I don’t know if you’ll get to see any. We don’t know how fast it’s running through your system.” He smoothed stray strands of my hair back against my head, away from my eyes. “We’re not moving today. We’re staying here.”

“What?” I croaked. “No. We can’t!”

“I thought you were okay with staying? Bridget, you’re ill.” Dan’s voice was gentle. “I don’t want to make you worse by moving. I’ll stay here. If anything comes across our path, I’ll kill it.”

“Then take this.” I pulled the hatchet from the blanket. “Strike the squirrel first before he gets you. You don’t want to get bit like I did.” Consciously, I rubbed my nose and looked at my hand; they looked to be healing already. If only the poisoned wound would heal…

The day was pretty bland, which really bothered me. I was pretty much confined to where I slept. Daniel handed me the water canteen, and I drank while trying not to get the canteen itself contaminated with my diseased germs. I didn’t want Dan to pick up the poison from me and die from it; it was bad enough I was suffering from that fate.

No food came by, which was a shame, because Dan looked ready with the hatchet in hand; ready to murder a rabid animal for food. I watched him pitifully as he flinched at every noise from a tree branch groan to me sneezing. He was so flighty it was almost pathetic.

No cannons went off during the day. I really didn’t like being down in the dumps with a poison-induced fever. It was no fun being sick. I wanted to move around to at least relieve myself of cramps from sitting for so long, but Dan wouldn’t have it. Where could I really go if I was feeling so bad? It wasn’t like I could wander far away from him.

*     *     *

My stomach continued to complain at me, and the fever continued to torture me into the evening hours. Dan kept putting water on my face to try and cool me down. It worked but very briefly. He looked so helpless it wasn’t even funny. He was doing everything possible to keep me safe and alive. The safe part he was excelling at, the keeping me alive part…not so much.

When the anthem played earlier and announced no deaths in the sky, I wanted to turn in. I felt tired battling a fever and a poisoned wound. Daniel settled in next to me like always. I buried myself against him as much as I could.

“I need to be cured,” I moaned into his chest.

“I know, Bri,” he whispered, smoothing my back out. “I bet Johanna’s trying everything she can to get you the medicine you need.”

“Wait…” I realized. I looked at Dan. “She can’t get me it if she doesn’t know what type of poison it is!”

“Damn it,” he cursed. “I can’t believe I forgot that when I was the one who realized that first.”

I pressed my head back into his chest. “Let’s try to look on the lighter side of things. How many tributes are left? I haven’t really thought about how good our—your chances are.”

“Bridget, your chances are as good as mine.”

“Until I die,” I mumbled.

“Let’s see.” Dan decided to ignore my pessimistic remark. “Well, there are both of Districts Two and Four; Eric; I think District Three’s girl is still alive; and so is District Eleven’s. Then there’s you and me…and I think that’s it.”

“So that’s…” I recounted the remaining tributes. “Nine. There are only nine of us left.” It’ll soon be eight, I thought grimly. I didn’t say it out loud, because I didn’t want Daniel trying to keep me optimistic.

“And we’re on day what now?” he asked me.

“I don’t know. I gave up days ago. They all seem to blend into one long day that I don’t care anymore,” I snorted. “All I care about is living, winning, and saying goodbye to this arena.”

“I think you’re getting cranky. You should sleep.”

“Dan, I’ve been sleeping all day!” I complained. “I haven’t moved much since you wouldn’t let me.”

 “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said defensively. “Sleeping will help you.”

“No, it won’t. I’ll drop right back into another nightmare, knowing me. Since this poison is making me ill, my nightmares could be a lot worse than they normally are.” I shuddered.

“I’ll try and keep them away for you, then.” He gave a small smile. Good luck with that, I thought bitterly.

I closed my eyes like usual, but my ears were still alert. The pond was babbling a little bit, and I could hear Dan’s breathing and mine. Other than that, the woods were pretty silent. I was just waiting for one of three things: medicine parachuting down to save my life courtesy of Johanna, the Career pack to come kill Dan and me, or for the poison to claim my life.

The Career pack: Kristi (District 4’s girl), her district partner, Eric, Meeka, and Sutton. They were the strong five. So they had to track down Daniel, me, Jillian (District 3’s girl), and District 11’s girl (sadly, I forgot her name). Great, the poison was affecting my memory now. What else was it going to do to me?

I tried to keep all thoughts Hunger Games away from my dreams. Instead, I tried to think of District 7: of the trees; of the cabin; of Dad and Troy and how we were all close again even though Mom wasn’t with us; of the peaceful atmosphere of 7; of Daniel and Ewan and our times together from when we were young…

Images flashed in my head, keeping me entertained while I power napped. I knew I wouldn’t get a full night’s sleep, not with the poison. I saw my mother and me, when I was little. I was helping her cook. I remember I loved doing that with her. I never cooked once she passed, because I felt lost without her when making food.

Then there was Troy picking on me as any older brother would. He never did it to be mean, though, because that’s how he was. Another image flashed in my head: Daniel, Ewan, and me. We always played tag in the woods. Sometimes we’d run through while lumberjacks were chopping down trees. We were always careful to move out of the way of a toppling tree before it could crash to the ground. We were always obedient kids, never disobeying any adult figure.

All these weren’t dreams, I realized. They were all memories I could remember vividly. I loved them, because all of them were happy moments in my life. Those times in life had to be kept forever. I never wanted to forget any of those times, because I’d feel like I was losing a piece of the little girl I used to be—or the teenage girl I still was. I might as well grasp onto whatever happy moments in my life I could still remember, because I certainly wasn’t making great ones being in the Hunger Games.

“Wake up,” a voice pleaded. It sounded distant. Huh…none of the images I saw ever bothered to reach out to me before.

My memories suddenly disappeared; I saw nothing but darkness now. Who turned off my memory? I felt something nudging my body.

“Wake up,” the voice repeated, more desperate this time. Daniel, I remembered. I opened my eyes to panic. All I saw was darkness; I had to be still dreaming.

Wait, no I’m not. I felt the blanket covering my head. Dan must’ve seen me shivering and covered me completely. It had to be from the fever, unless the night air was bitter. I wouldn’t be able to tell since I was running a high temperature.

I poked my head out from the blanket, looking at Dan.

“What?” I groaned. “Is everything okay?” I rubbed my eyes.

Dan said nothing; he just stared ahead of him. His body was rigid, like he was seeing a ghost or something. I gave him a confused look before looking myself. My eyes widened.

My attention was directed to the sharp point of an arrow that was aimed right at us.