19. Change Is Coming

Once night began to fall, Jenna, Victor, and Bane set out for their night hunt. At first, Jenna was reluctant and wanted to stay, but Aubrey and I convinced her to go with Victor and Bane. She could let her anger drive her into killing whoever she ran into, whether or not it was Bella from Seven. Jenna led the charge into the woods.

Moonlight shone on the grass, somehow managing to get thin strips into the Cornucopia. Aubrey was picking at her nails while I stayed by Ben's side. Neither of us had bothered to pull the arrow out of him yet, only because we were afraid that if we did, he'd die. Jenna would probably kill one of us if we tried to lodge the arrow out of him. We'd all feel horrible if we let him die, Jenna probably would feel the worst more than anything.

"Aubrey," I whispered, "does Jenna have a thing for Ben?"

"You seriously want to talk about relationships when we've got a barely alive ally with us?" she scoffed.

"I'm serious. Jenna freaked when she saw him fall out of the tree. She was acting as if the world was coming to an end." I put a hand lightly on Ben's chest, he was still breathing. I kept it there to keep track of his faint heartbeat.

"Jenna isn't a very open person, just like we all aren't." Aubrey scratched her head, picking off a piece of dirt. I rubbed my dirt-ridden cheeks from last night. "We'll probably never know the answer to that one."

"She was hoping Ben would get help from a sponsor since he's been alive this long."

"I don't know about that. If a mentor knows their tribute is barely alive, they'll let them die. It sounds harsh, but if you're injured too badly or in a horrible state, you're left to die."

I couldn't imagine Ross abandoning me, or Bane. "If only there was medicine here with us," I sighed. "We tore apart everything and there's not even a pill to kill someone with if it's shoved down their throat."

"That's why there's nightlock instead of death pills." Aubrey laughed meekly. I looked at her, confused. "You know...the berries that can kill you within a minute?"

"Oh."

I closed my eyes. In truth, I didn't want Ben to die. He wasn't a bad kid to be around, but I couldn't fully trust him, like I couldn't trust the other members of the pack. I wanted our pack to remain six strong as long as possible. If the Careers started getting picked off one by one, I'd go solo. I wouldn't want to hang around to get killed off, whether by another tribute or something the Gamemakers threw at me.

A noise interrupted my thoughts. My eyes popped open, ears listening intently.

"Do you hear that?" I murmured.

Aubrey ventured out carefully to the exit of the Cornucopia, a mace in her right hand. I looked around, wondering where in the hell we kept maces—probably in a pile full of extras nobody wanted.

Aubrey watched something in the sky, backing away for a second. In what light I could see, a silver canister was dropping in via a small parachute. I let out a sigh of relief.

Aubrey jumped up and down, unlocking the canister, retrieving what was inside, and then dashed back in to kneel at Ben's side. It was a small circular container. Aubrey turned on a flashlight and put it on the container. Inside was something clear and pasty.

"Medicine," I breathed. "I guess his mentor does care about him. We better give it to him now."

"I don't know," Aubrey said uneasily. "Jenna would kill us if we—"

"She won't if we save him."

"Well, yeah, if we save him. We've got to get the arrow out, put on the medicine, then cover the wound. You pull it out."

"Why me?" I barked.

"You yanked an arrow out of your leg, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but that was different. That was my leg; we're talking about ripping this from his body, near his heart. Just because I pulled an arrow out of me doesn't make me qualified to do it with other people."

"I'll help you if you don't feel that comfortable." Aubrey sat the canister of medicine on her lap. Tentatively, I grabbed the arrow with both hands, Aubrey's were above mine. I looked at her, feeling my stomach churn unpleasantly. "Make it quick."

Biting my lip and closing my eyes, I yanked hard. The arrow shot out of Ben, and he seemed to have come back to us. He screamed, thrashing around, gasping for breath.

"Easy, easy," I cooed, holding him down by his arms. "It's okay, shh, relax, Ben. It's me, look at me."

Ben sobbed as he looked into my eyes; he looked like a scared little boy. Aubrey put the stuff on him. He screamed like the stuff was burning off his skin. Aubrey jumped back from his loud screams.

"Make it stop!" he pleaded. "Please."

That was a first—medicine actually hurting rather than helping.

"It's going to," I said softly, holding him still. "We're helping you, Ben. You're okay; you're going to be fine." I looked up at Aubrey, lowering my voice. "Find a cloth or something so we can tie it around him."

"Right," she muttered. She scrambled away to find something to use on him.

Ben fretted against my grip. "I want to die," he croaked. "This hurts...real bad."

"It'll go away soon," I whispered. "It'll go away. Fight it, Ben."

"I want Jenna; I want her here with me."

"She's out hunting." I could feel him struggling less under me now. He sniffled, trying to grab for his wound. I shook my head and kept his one arm pinned against the ground. "She'll be back soon, I promise. She went out with Victor and Bane."

"Here," Aubrey said, coming back. "This was the best thing I could find." It looked to be a blanket. "Just shove it under his shirt and tell him to hug his body. It should help."

"Okay." I wiggled it under Ben's shirt. He panicked, but Aubrey put his head in her lap, stroking his wild hair. He bit his lip, trying his hardest not to scream.

I bet Panem was seeing this now, how such a lethal Career was crying his heart out because he nearly lost his life. We Careers weren't as tough as everybody thought we were. We didn't have a high pain tolerance, that much was certain.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" Aubrey asked him calmly.

"Water," he murmured.

"I'll get it," I told Aubrey. She had almost gotten up, but I couldn't trust Ben being without someone watching him.

I got a small, half full water bottle, tilting it slowly so water could stream down Ben's throat. I gave him just a little bit; I didn't want him choking on water.

Eventually, though it felt like forever, Ben finally simmered down to where he fell asleep, his head still in Aubrey's lap. He seemed content when she stroked his head. What the people of Panem could take from watching us was that we Careers banded together and took care of one another...for now. I wondered how long it would last and if I would be able to detect when the pack would self-destruct.

"She can't hide forever," I heard Jenna's voice carry to the Cornucopia. I looked to hear three figures crunching towards us. No doubt they were back already because Jenna's worrying probably annoyed the boys to death. Nothing annoyed a guy more than a worrisome girl. "When I find her, I'll stab every inch of her I can get my knife into!"

It was obvious as to who she meant: Bella from District Seven.

"Easy, Jen," Bane chuckled, "you're still running on high emotions here."

"I don't care. I'll get her; I'll go alone if I have to. But if we ever find her, that bitch is mine." Jenna's voice was dangerously dark.

The three entered, Bane lingered behind. I met up with Jenna as Victor went to put things back in their proper places.

"How is he?" she asked softly. She had some quick mood changes—one minute she's talking about stabbing Bella from Seven to death with a knife, and the next she goes soft, asking about Ben's status. If these two didn't have a thing going on, there was something wrong with this picture, because there was no way two tributes from the same district cared for each other in a non-relationship kind of way.

"He'll live," I reported.

"Did medicine come?"

"Yeah, a while after you three left actually." I looked at Aubrey and Ben. "We had to pull out the arrow and put the medicine on quickly. We put a blanket against his wound in case it bleeds out anymore."

"I should have been here." Jenna pouted.

"Believe me; it was better if you weren't. If it makes you feel any better, he's been asking for you," I said matter-of-factly.

"He has?"

"Mhm. He's sleeping, though. Don't try and wake him, we just got him down."

"I won't."

As Jenna and Victor joined Aubrey in being with Ben, I figured I'd see why Bane was being the lone wolf standing away from the rest of the pack.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"We never found a trace of anybody," he growled, having his back to me. "Not even him." I really wished Bane would forget about Shane, but he never would until Shane was dead.

"Well, we don't cover much area. I mean, we probably cover the same spots each time we've gone out." I shrugged. "It's only day three, Bane. Things will change. They have to soon."

"They're already changing, even now." His tone was low. He sighed. "I wish there was body armor in our inventory, it could have shielded him from that arrow."

"The Gamemakers can't be too generous," I joked. Bane didn't chuckle or anything. I guess whenever I tried to lighten up a situation, it never worked.

"If the others can get to Ben like that, then I can't imagine how easy it'd be for them to get to you, or Jenna, or Aubrey, or Victor, or even me." He threw his sword to the ground, I flinched away. "I bet we're one of the worst Career packs in Hunger Games history."

"I doubt that. We've bonded together. That's got to count for something, right?"

"I don't know. What counts for anything anymore except how many kills you make before you die—if you die?"

"Let's focus on the fact that we're still here and fighting," I said lightly. I stood at his side. Right on cue, the Capitol seal lit up the sky and the anthem played. No deaths were reported, so the anthem played again before the seal winked out. "Tomorrow is going to be another day. The best thing for us to do is take each day at a time."

"We've got to be better than this," Bane growled. "I know we're better than this."

I left Bane to deal with his conflicts in silence.

* * *

"Hey, come on, wake up," someone whispered the next morning. I groaned, turning away. "You're going hunting today."

"I am?" I mumbled. "How about I go tomorrow instead?"

"Yeah, I don't think so. Get up, lazy."

I yawned, sitting up, rubbing my eyes. Jenna was beside me, a knife out for me. I took it from her and stood up, stretching. Bane and Victor were at the mouth of the Cornucopia, talking.

Jenna wandered over to sit with Ben for a little bit, murmuring to him. A small thing of food was next to them. Aubrey was at the food pile, chowing down. I decided to join her.

I could tell my leg was back to its old self, it didn't hurt anymore. I decided to remove the cloth from my leg. It would probably leave a little scar, but that didn't bother me. It'd be a battle scar in my eyes, because that's what it really was.

"So, who am I joining today?" I asked Aubrey. "I was nominated to go without even knowing so this morning."

"You, Jenna, Victor, and Bane are all going," she listed. She ripped into some jerky.

"But you're staying here?"

"Someone has to stay with Ben."

"How's his wound? Did anyone check this morning?"

"Yeah, it looks great, but he's still weak."

"I would have thought Jenna would stay behind with him."

"She's too focused on wanting to kill that girl from Seven," she whispered.

"I see."

"Oh, and you might want to pack things for overnight, you guys won't be back until morning."

"Who told you that?" I whimpered.

"Victor."

I went with Aubrey's suggestion and started shoving things in a backpack. The usual food and water didn't seem to hurt, a blanket or two I could shove in there as well. That was as much as I could fit in my pack. Jenna took one strapped to her back as well, carrying water and a sleeping bag inside hers.

Bane took his sword, Jenna and I had our knives and my blowgun, and Victor had himself a sword as well. Two swords, darts, a blowgun, and knives—we seemed pretty well off for close range attacks. The only long range was my blowgun and darts. I hoped Jenna managed to stuff some food down in her pack as well, because I was sure what I carried would not be enough to satisfy four people—mainly the boys. I doubted Jenna and I would eat much compared to Bane and Victor.

Since we were accustomed to going straight, Bane led us to the left this time, hopefully putting us in the right direction. We needed to make another kill, because our last had been the boy from 13 when he stupidly tried to smuggle supplies out of the Cornucopia. That seemed like such a long time ago.

That was the thing about the Hunger Games: some days passed quickly while others dragged on so long you just wanted to end the misery early, not wanting to endure another long day.

I was banking on today to be one of the quicker days.