24. A Storm Is Coming

       “Move it!” Dan barked, giving me a nudge away from the fire.

            “Wait, what about—?” I tried to ask, skidding to a quick halt.

            “Sutton has everything, now go!” he pushed.

            “Come on, Bridget!” Sutton yelled. I yipped as she grabbed my wrist and gave me a hard tug. I turned around and ran alongside her, trying to keep up with her quick feet.

It was evident that the medicine had healed her leg; there was no way she’d be able to run like she was now if her leg was how it was last night. From the corner of my eye, I saw the bushes were being burned quickly.

            We crashed through the ring of bushes. Sutton stopped with me still attached to her. Daniel bumped into me, making me stumble forward. We three looked around nervously. Fire was almost everywhere. We had no time to pick which direction to go. We just had to think quickly unless we wanted to be burned alive.

            We all took a left, but a huge meteor zoomed past us. Sutton and I jumped back. I accidentally elbowed Dan behind me. I looked to see that it hadn’t been a meteor that had scared us—it was a fireball. We backtracked and continued our original course: straight.

            The ground trembled beneath us, making us go off balance. The fire was trapping us, making us only go straight. Fireballs—huge and small—zoomed over our heads, some barely grazing us. There was no way a tribute could have set this off.

This was all the Gamemakers’ doing.

            The smoke filled my lungs, making me cough terribly. I felt like I was sick again, with a racking cough. There was an awful creaking noise. We looked to our left quickly to see a fiery tree come toppling our way. Sutton and I jumped, rolling along the ground. I quickly staggered to my feet and looked back.

            “Oh no…” I whispered. The tree had Dan trapped!

I panicked, rushing to him. Even though he pissed me off last night, he was still my district partner and my best friend. I wasn’t about to leave him to die. I knelt down close to the burning tree. Dan wasn’t unconscious; he was trying to shove the tree off his legs.

            I took a shot at it. I tried pushing with my hands but gave up quickly because of the wood digging into my palms. I tried pushing with my shoulder. It barely budged. Dan tried to help me, but our strength wasn’t enough.

            “Help me out here, Bri!” Dan roared.

            “What does it look like I’m doing?” I retorted, shoving against the log again.

            “Push!” Sutton shouted. She was on Daniel’s other side, helping out.

We three worked on the tree, and I felt it slowly give. We pushed harder, digging our feet into the ground. With a shout, Sutton and I managed to roll the tree off of Dan.

            Hurriedly, Sutton and I grabbed Daniel, and we scurried out of the woods. We emerged, in front of us a foreign sight. We moved out of the range of the fire. We looked over our shoulder. Well, it didn’t look like we’d want to go back there anytime soon. We all panted, looking at the sight before us.

            It was a huge mountain. We were at the base of it. We craned our necks up to look.

 It was a long hike up.

            “This is the only place we’ve got now,” I huffed, catching my breath. Dan was still between Sutton and me, an arm each over our shoulders.

            “But we can’t. Daniel—” Sutton started.

            “I can manage,” Dan said gruffly. I could see his face was contorted into an expression of pain.

            “But not for long,” I noted. “We’re going to have to half-carry him up, Sutton. He won’t be able to get up on his own.”

            “Good point,” Sutton mused.

            “You don’t have to do that,” Dan grunted. “I can tough it out.”

            “We’re not taking any chances,” I said stubbornly.

            Without a word of complaint, Sutton and I slowly pulled Daniel up the mountain. It wasn’t a smooth climb, nor was it easy. A few times, one of us almost fell back to the bottom. There were a few mini cliffs that we could pull each other up on. What we really needed was a small cave or something.

            It seemed we had climbed up the mountain for a good hour or so before we had to rest. We perched ourselves on a small cliff, pressed against the body of the mountain.

            “Here, let me look at your legs,” I told Dan. Sutton was resting on his other side, checking what supplies we still had available between the two packs. I rolled up Dan’s pant legs to see he wasn’t as bad as I thought he’d be. I bet he was hurting more than anything. “How bad is the pain?”

            “Not as bad as you’d think,” he huffed. “I think we should just rest here. I don’t think I’ll walk much for the rest of the day.”

            “But are they sprained, or broken?” I pressed. “Any burns that we don’t see?”

            “No, Bri, they’re fine—and I’ve got no burns.” He gently pushed my hands away. “If worst comes to worst, we’ll use a little bit of the medicine that we still have.” There was a brief silence between us. “Look, I want to apologize—”

            “No, I need to,” I cut him off. I touched his red cheek from last night. “I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have done it. You just—you just pissed me off.”

            “I know, and I know it was a bad idea now,” he chuckled. “I’m not mad at you for it. You had every right to be mad at me. You can still be mad at me. I’ll understand. I shouldn’t have said the things I did. It was wrong. You’re right; I had my head stuck in the wrong mode.”

            “More like it was stuck up your ass,” I snickered.

            “Hey,” he whined.

            “I’m only kidding, Dan. Relax.”

            “What are you two mumbling about over there?” Sutton whined. “I hate being out of the loop!”

            “It’s nothing,” I told her. The last thing Dan and I needed was for Sutton to realize the fight was about her last night. “We’re okay.”

            “You sure? I wondered what was with him.”

            “When did the fire happen?” I asked her. “Who found it first?”

            “I did,” Sutton sighed. “I woke Daniel up. I tried to get you up, but you were a little slow.”

            “It was the Gamemakers’ handiwork. They herded us here out of the woods.”

            “They must’ve put us near the other tributes,” Dan mused. “I mean, why else would they do it? Surely not just for fun.”

            “Eh, that’s possible too, but I’m with Bridget,” Sutton piped. “We’re not safe here.”

            “We can’t exactly go back to the wasteland below,” I mumbled, stealing a glance at the burnt woods. There was nothing now we could salvage. So much for killing squirrels for food. The fire probably incinerated them all in one shot.

Talk about extinction.

            “What do we still have with us?” I asked Sutton.

            “Pretty much everything we had the night we banded together,” she reported. “We’re going to have to keep it hidden from sight.”

            “Well, I think regardless of what we have, others will want to kill us.”

            “But we still have Sutton’s bow and arrows, and the hatchet,” Dan reminded me.

            “What about that knife?”

            “I think I left it behind.”

            “That’s good…I think,” Sutton said carefully.

            “It is. If it got burned in the fire, nobody can use it,” I said, shrugging. “We’re going to have to find some kind of cave on this mountain; we can’t be exposed like this for much longer.”

            “No lie there,” Sutton said. “And if any tributes find us, it’ll be a hell of a chase. But if they’ve got long range weapons like my bow and arrow, I’d be the only one to take them on. I have a few arrows left but not enough to waste on missed shots.”

            “Yeah, finding a cave is crucial,” Dan cut in.

            “But—I can’t believe I’m saying this—we’re going to have to stay here for the night,” I admitted.

            “You’re joking,” Dan and Sutton said together. They looked at each other. There was an awkward silence between them before they both looked at me.

            “I bet Dan can barely move much more because of his legs. We’ll move when the sun rises tomorrow, that way we can get an early start.”

            “So this means we’re sitting on this big rock for the rest of the day,” Sutton huffed. “Lovely. I thought we were going to get a move on, but I guess that’ll have to hold.”

            “Unless you want to help me carry Dan along when we travel now, I suggest you be patient,” I snapped lightly. Sutton shut up after that.

            The rest of the day was nothing but being hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. Already I missed the woods, but they were burnt to a crisp now. We couldn’t go back. I mean, we could, but what good would that do us? All we would find would be charred trees, grass, dried up ponds, and incinerated squirrels.

            When night fell, new noises came alive. We all huddled close together; Sutton with an arrow loaded in her bow, covering Daniel’s right while I crouched near his left, my trusty hatchet in my left hand, ready to strike out at anything close enough for me to take a swing at. We didn’t hear any grass crunching, babbling pond water, or rustling bushes. All we heard was the wild, bitter wind whip us around. It had a powerful punch to it, almost knocking me flat on my butt and onto Dan. There were the occasional crumbling rocks and those tumbling down the mountain, making dull thuds as they tumbled to the base.

            Dan quietly nibbled on a piece of jerky in the protection of the blanket while Sutton and I didn’t eat. We were the ones who needed to keep alert sadly. Daniel would have been on watch, but he wasn’t in top shape like Sutton and I were. That medicine we had could do wonders. If Dan didn’t look much better tomorrow, we’d give him some of the medicine.

            The anthem rang in the sky, echoing around us. It was so loud that we covered our ears. I looked up just in time to see a huge boulder tumbling our way.

            “Against the wall!” I barked. We all scrunched up against the wall of the mountain. The boulder just missed us, taking a chunk out of the cliff we had climbed over. I grabbed my heart, trying to calm it down. I moved from the rock wall a little bit to hear the boulder crashing against the mountain.

            There were no deaths once again today. The anthem played again and faded. Thank God it didn’t cause another loose rock to fall and try to take us out.

            “That was scary,” Sutton sputtered, slowly peeling herself from the wall. “Good thing you caught that, Bridget. We would have been crushed.”

            “We really need to find a cave tomorrow unless we want to die because of rogue boulders,” Dan said. His voice slightly trembled.

            “Hold on,” I said. Both of them looked at me the best they could. An idea just popped into my head. “What if it was a tribute who gave us that warning?”

What if it wasn’t because of the anthem blaring that the boulder came crashing our way, trying to squish us? What if it had been a tribute that did it purposely, thinking that the anthem playing would be the perfect time to push it down to us?

            “Bri, you heard how loud that music was,” Dan said. “It could have caused a mini quake therefore causing the rock to fall.”

            “If there was a quake, then how come we didn’t feel it?” Sutton asked. She caught on quick. “We would have felt a small tremor in the wall if there was a quake of some sort.”

            “My point exactly,” I told her. “There was no quake. It’s not because of the music. Someone’s here, and they want us gone.”

            “Great, so we’re going to end up being up all night,” Sutton sighed. “Well, Bridget, it looks like it’s you and me on watch together.”

            “No, we’re still switching off,” Dan butted in. “If you both stay up, you’ll both tire out. If you switch off, it works out better. Remember?”

            “I’ll take the first watch,” I told Sutton. “Take a load off, okay?”

            “Okay. Here, Daniel, take the food and whatnot.” Sutton handed Dan the pack of what was left. She turned her back towards us, sleeping with her bow and quiver of arrows close by. She must’ve emptied everything into one pack, because she used one as a pillow for herself.

            “Still think we should abandon her?” I taunted Dan from over my shoulder.

            “I’m reconsidering it,” he growled. I heard him tug the blanket tighter around himself. “How many tributes do you think are here besides us?”

            “I don’t know,” I sighed. “I only hope it’s just one…or better yet, none if we’re lucky.”

            “With the way our luck’s been going, it’s ready to keep plummeting.”

            “Way to be positive.”

            “You see the pattern our luck follows.”

            “Yeah, I do,” I said gravely. It was a constant up-and-down. I wished it would stay on one side for a while, preferably on the good side. “But we’ll get lucky. You’ll see.”

            “Hope it’s soon.”

            “So do I,” I whispered.

            “Bridget…”

            “Yeah?”

            “I wish we were out of the Games right now, back home in Seven,” he mumbled.

            Immediately I thought of my family. I touched my mother’s anniversary bracelet that she had given to my dad. That was the only thing I had of home with me. I had been so focused on staying alive that I had almost forgotten about my sentimental tribute token hanging on my wrist.

            “I do, too, Dan.” I turned around to look at him. “But we’re going to power through this, okay? We’ve survived this long…however many days we’ve been out here. I’m not sure how many days it’s been since the Games started, but I know that we can survive more!”

            “I just want to be back in a comfortable place,” he moaned.

            “I know. I think we all want to.” I tousled his hair.

He waved my hand away. “I’m not a kid, Bri.”

            “I know. I was just trying to cheer you up.” I giggled quietly. I was afraid if I laughed too loud I’d cause an avalanche of rocks. That’s the last thing we needed right now. “I don’t see why you’re keeping yourself up.”

            “I figured you might need some company. It’s not fun being on watch when your allies are asleep.”

            “So you do consider Sutton an ally.”

            “Sort of,” he muttered. I grinned a little bit. “Maybe I can trust her after all. I mean, if she’s been good to you, then maybe it’s enough proof to show me that she won’t turn on us.” I saw him shrug under the blanket.

            “I’m glad you finally learned to think with an open mind.”

            I heard a rock roll from above. Dan’s head and mine snapped upwards. I gripped the hatchet tightly, ready to climb if necessary to trap the tribute or scare them off. I wouldn’t actually fight them off unless I really had to.

 We waited quietly, listening sharply. I closed my eyes, as if it would help me focus on listening more.

            “I think we’re being jumpy,” Dan whispered. “Nothing’s falling on us, so it was probably just the wind.”

            “We better hope it was the wind.” I buried my face in my arms to shield the wind. I saw Sutton curl closer together, her wild dark brown hair slightly whipping around her. If only there were rocks to shield us from the wind. Of course, where we were, it was a place where rocks could try and kill us, not provide us protection from the wild winds.

            “I don’t know which is worse staying up for a watch in: here or the woods,” Dan muttered.

            “You aren’t staying up for a shift, so I don’t want to hear it,” I retorted. “You should be sleeping. We’ve all had a rough day, and you’re injured, so you need to just relax.”

            “I can’t, not even when I sleep,” he murmured. “I’m always afraid when I get woken up it’ll be another tribute waiting right there to kill me in my defenseless state.” He shuddered. That answer made me think Dan was a small kid again, whimpering about how there was a monster under his bed or in his closet.

            “I think that’s everybody’s fear out here in the Games unless they’re cocky,” I said softly. “But don’t worry, you have me protecting you, and you know I won’t let anything happen to you, Dan. Besides, you haven’t woken up seeing an enemy tribute nearby, right? Go to sleep, okay?”

            “I’ll try.” He adjusted uneasily against the hard, rock wall. He rested his head carefully against the wall. Dan sounded so innocent and young that it almost broke my heart. But I was glad he was still alive and still with me on this. If Dan hadn’t been my district partner, my only ally would be Sutton.

I kissed Dan’s temple quietly, turned back around, keeping myself up like a nocturnal animal until Sutton was to relieve me of my shift duty.