31. The Final Five

"Quick, we've got to find out the direction where the other fireballs are going," I whispered.

"Why?" Shane asked.

"You haven't figured it out yet? They're trying to herd whoever is left all together so we can fight!"

"Well, we can't go back the way we came."

"We can't go straight, either," I retorted. I yelped as another fireball zoomed far ahead, crashing. This time, I could hear screaming, a girl's and a guy's.

Bane and Jenna were close.

"Yes, we can," Shane mused. "If we run past them, they'll never know. They'll be too busy running for their lives." Shane started to tug me in the direction straight ahead, but I pulled out of his grasp. "Now what?" he complained.

"Did we leave anything behind?" I asked as I searched the toppled part of the tree.

"I think so. All I've got is my bow and arrows, and you've got your knife, blowgun and darts. The packs are completely demolished."

Well, that was unfortunate. The water, the food, the medicine—it was all gone. All we had now were weapons.

As I sunk in Shane's report, he grabbed me, pulling me along into the dark woods. I kept with him and almost went past him when another fireball flew overhead. The explosion felt and looked closer this time, the screams louder. I pulled Shane to the right. Shane's right, we can pass them without them even knowing it.

We tried to avoid as many trees and branches as possible as we tried to avoid Bane and Jenna. I huffed silently, trying not to run out of energy too quick. A flash of heat erupted behind us, another fireball yet again. How many of these are they going to throw? One or two was good enough; almost five seemed like too many.

Moonlight partially lit up the ground we ran on. Insects chattered up a storm. I felt my arm be jerked behind my back as Shane suddenly got behind me, ripping me down with him. I grunted and rolled, my back hitting a tree.

There was a loud screech, a familiar cry. I crawled to find my knife and attack, yanking her off Shane. I dodged a wicked-looking knife. I shoved her back, exposing her in the moonlight.

Her scarred corner of her mouth made her look more deadly. I saw holes in her jacket, salvia dribbling from her lower lip. I noticed she had all knives in the belt, gleaming menacingly in the moonlight. She didn't have to have camouflage on to sneak around; the cover of darkness would suffice just as much for her.

"Found you at last," Jenna sneered. "You're so stupid. Weak. How did you manage to survive with him?"

I crouched, standing in front of Shane. I gave a shriek, knocking into Jenna. She slashed at my legs; I danced back, swiping at her face. She gave a roar of outrage as I saw I made a cut just above her left eyebrow. She lunged for me but stopped halfway, doubling over in pain. I saw an arrow sticking out of her side.

I backpedaled, knocking into Shane. I saw Jenna rip out the bloody arrow and chuck it back at us. Shane and I avoided it and ran.

"Come back here!" Jenna bellowed. "They're over here! I found them!"

Oh God. She was calling for backup. Bane. My heart pounded anxiously. If Bane saw, he'd come after Shane.

We heard pounding feet behind us. An arrow whizzed right between our heads. Wait...an arrow? Shane shot only one, and Jenna had thrown that back at us.

No. It can't be. There was no way Bella from 7 could have allied with Bane and Jenna. No non-Career in their right mind would team up with the pack. Then again, Bella was just as lethal as a Career and not in her right mind.

Great, the other three tributes were coming for us, ready to finish us off. Then what, fight each other for the one and only spot?

Shane and I broke apart for only about a minute until we went back together. I could hear the furious pursuit of feet behind us. I heard a snarl of fury. Shane was pulling me along once again, not bothering to shoot an arrow over his shoulder. I had a better shot of shooting a dart than he did an arrow.

The woods suddenly ended, and we were submerged into a slight fog. My feet rooted to the ground when I realized where the new alliance had herded us to. I swallowed, my body trembled in fear. There was no way I would go through there. Shane let out a shaky breath as he drank in the sight before us.

I thought a hedge maze only existed in Ross's Hunger Games. Now, it was a piece of mine as well. It wasn't a small maze either, the hedge walls spread across for miles. Shane ran for the only entrance into the maze, looking back at me. I wasn't moving at all.

"Come on," he pressed. He looked past me, bow loaded but down at the moment. "Crys, come on!"

"I-I can't," I stammered. Any other obstacle I'd be more than happy to dive into. I would not go into the maze. "I'm not going in there." I took a step back.

"Crystal." Shane jogged to me, looking anxiously behind me again. He rubbed my neck. "Listen to me; we've got no choice but to go in there."

"I don't care. I don't want to go in there."

"Everything will be okay. You have to trust me on this."

As much as I trusted Shane, I wasn't sure I could. That hedge maze looked menacing. What if there was no way out of the maze? What if we five were stuck there forever until only one tribute remained? I hyperventilated at the thought. Being trapped until the Games ended in the maze. It would be like I was thrown back in time and put into Ross's Hunger Games.

"Nowhere to run now!" Jenna roared behind us.

I jumped. I danced just a little bit closer to the maze entrance, but I was still apprehensive. Shane stood in front of me, arrow aimed and ready to be shot at the first thing he saw from any of the three chasing after us.

"Crystal, go in there, now," Shane barked. I'd never heard him so commanding before. "I'll follow you in, I promise."

I tucked my knife under my armpit, whipping out the blowgun, shoving in a dart. I saw Bella's blonde hair. I blew with all I could. She fell back, crying out in pain. I saw the dart get to her face. Where it stuck, I didn't know and definitely didn't want to know.

Shane looked at me, a tiny smile of approval on his face. I gave a sheepish grin in return.

"You bitch!" Bella roared. She screamed again.

"We've wasted enough time," Shane said. He herded me into the maze's entrance.

I saw a muscled arm of Bane's pop out before Shane lowered his bow and arrow, pushing me along. I took random twists and turns, trying to make us be deep and far away enough from the three. There was complete silence the longer we got inside the maze. Moonlight shone above us, providing us with some light.

There was a low fog at our feet. I swallowed with difficulty, tucking away my blowgun and holding my knife again. Very cautiously, I led Shane through the maze, peeking around each corner first to make sure it was safe for us to go down. The last thing I wanted to do was to land us at a dead end or run into Jenna, Bane, or Bella.

"Do you think there's an exit?" I asked, hopeful.

"Dunno. There should be one, they can't trap us here forever," Shane said lowly.

"You want to place a bet on that?" I laughed nervously.

A loud groan made us see that the hedges were blending together, closing off the path. They didn't stop either, they kept going. I ran, with Shane behind me. I picked the closest exit route from this mess and just barely made it out.

I panted as Shane took lead, arms tensed. I looked over my shoulder nervously. Nervously, I rubbed my moon charm. Bring us good luck.

A loud, piercing scream broke the eerie silence. I covered my ears. It sounded scarily familiar.

My heart skipped a beat. It was my mother. What the hell? How did she get in here?

"Mom?" I called frantically, shoving past Shane. Mom's screams made my skin crawl. What were they doing to her? Torturing her? "Mom?"

"Crystal!" Shane called, tailing after me.

How dare the Gamemakers have the audacity to bring my mother into these Games? She was anti-Hunger Games as it was. Did they know that and put her in here? I held my tongue so I wouldn't scream with her.

"Crystal, stop!"

"Mom!" I cried desperately, skidding to a halt, turning three-sixty. "Where are you?! Mom?!"

Shane grabbed me, but I hissed, trying to smack him off me. "No! Get off me! They're hurting her! Mom!"

"Shh!" Shane demanded.

"Mom!"

Shane put a hand over my mouth, muffling my cries for my mother. I bucked under his grip, trying to break free so I could keep looking for my mother. She was suffering enough, worrying everyday about me.

"Be quiet," Shane whispered in my ear, "just for a minute. I've got something to show you. No matter how many more screams you hear, don't call out."

I simmered down, letting Shane give me free rein. I promised not to scream anything, but it was difficult since my mother's cries wouldn't cease.

Shane shot up into the sky, and a bird shot back down, at my feet, an arrow in its throat. The weird thing was, the cries stopped. It was back to the eerie silence once again in this maze.

I covered my mouth in horror. I shot Shane a dirty look. He made me keep quiet so he could shoot a bird? He pushed his hair away from his gray eyes.

"Know what that is?" he asked me. "It's called a jabberjay. Back during the first rebellion, the Capitol used them to spy on the rebels. They're known for memorizing and repeating human conversations. What you heard was a warped voice that sounded a lot like your mother."

"So it wasn't real?" I sputtered quietly, looking down at the dead jabberjay.

"No. It's a trick to lure the others to us."

"How come there aren't others screaming for other people?"

"I don't know, but they must not want you or me to win these Games if they're out for you. If one happens to start screaming again, try your best to ignore it, okay?"

"I think I hear them," I heard Bane call from far away.

Shane nudged me forward. I quickly turned a few corners to make sure that Bane wouldn't find us. I took lead once again, Shane covered behind me.

I could feel the temperature suddenly drop. I could see my breath. I inhaled, exhaling mutely. Rustling hedges made me grip my knife harder. Extremely edgy, I slunk along with Shane in tow. Winds started to pick up, kicking dust and some leaves at our feet. I heard one of the girls scream from a distance. It was no jabberjay's work.

"Keep moving," Shane pressed, giving me a little push.

There had to be an exit to this hedge maze, because each turn and dead end we ran into, I thought I was leading us in circles. I began to fret, tears threatened to trickle down my face. I was so tired, frustrated, and starting to get a little bit hungry. There was no food and no water in here, and there was barely a chance of scoring a sponsor at this point in the Games.

Dust started to kick up around our eyes and get into my mouth. I coughed, covering my mouth. But I smelled smoke. It was being mixed in with the dust. Oh God, how many more things are they going to set on fire? Or were the Gamemakers trying to smoke us out of the maze? If that was their reason for dropping smoke in, a nice path to the exit would help us out greatly.

I tried not to inhale much smoke, but it was difficult. I began to get a little lightheaded; Shane had to take over, pulling me close to him. I squished myself to him, too afraid to touch the hedge walls. I didn't want to get eaten by one. After all, who knew what the Gamemakers had in here besides jabberjays, smoke, and live hedge walls that came together?

"There, I think I see the exit!" Shane crowed.

"This way!" Bane barked from behind us.

Shane took that as his cue to thrust me along. At this point I was following him, because I was too lightheaded to think for myself. I was barely running right; my feet came dangerously close to tripping me a few times. As the smoke disappeared, I saw the exit. Even though it was still dark, I could see it.

Once we emerged from the hedge maze exit, I inhaled fresh air but hacked. I realized now that the sleep I had gotten carried us into the next day, because there was a faint trace of sunrise coming. But the moon was still up for now.

Shane looked over his shoulder at the hedge exit. We didn't hear any of the trio, but they had to be close. If they figured out the way out, the chase was still on. It would continue to go on until someone was killed.

"There's no way to trap them, is there?" I asked, hopeless.

"No. We've got to keep moving."

"Then let's go!" I grabbed him and started pulling.

"Wait, Crys!" Shane yanked me back, nearly shoving me into his arrow he had loaded on his bow.

"What now?" I complained, coughing.

"Look down," he said sternly.

I inched slowly until I felt an edge. I looked down, I saw nothing but black. "What is that exactly?" I gulped, grabbing Shane.

"It's an endless trench," he said thickly. I looked across, using what moonlight I could to see how wide it was. It didn't look too bad, but I wasn't sure how far I could jump. "It was probably made a long time ago back when the earthquake happened."

"That's a long time," I mused. "What do we do?"

"We've got no choice but to jump it." He shrugged.

I laughed nervously. "Yeah, I don't think so. What if the Gamemakers stuck a muttation down in there that could fly out of the trench and scoop us up while we try to clear the jump?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Crys. It's an endless trench." He looked over his shoulder. "We've got one shot at this. We're going to have to get a running start if we're going to clear it."

Shane made me back up. He tucked his arrow in his quiver, bow over his shoulder. He grabbed my hand tight, squeezing it. We waited another five seconds before Shane charged, taking me with him. I matched his speed. My heart was flying nervously. There was only one shot for us to clear this. If we didn't make it, it'd be over for both of us.

That bad feeling in my stomach didn't go away the entire time I was airborne. I squeezed Shane's hand tight, like I was trying to push through pain or something.

Once I heard his feet hit the ground, I knew mine would.

Well, mine almost did. Shane gave me a great tug to ensure I didn't fall into the endless trench. I laughed, grabbing my moon charm. That required some good luck. Getting through the maze did as well. My choker necklace was a good luck charm after all.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" Jenna cackled.

I could see moonlight just cast on each of their faces. Jenna was pulling Bella behind her, who had a hand covering her eye. I shot her in the eye? I was hoping to slow her down. I guess a dart to the eye was a hit.

Bane was in the lead, his green eyes murderous and looking at Shane. My muscles stiffened, and I looked at what terrain we were facing. It looked like we were going to have to climb a mountain. I was going to need some luck on this one, too.

I abandoned Shane who trailed after me.

"Start climbing," I ordered, tackling the base of the mountain. I stuck the knife in my mouth—not the smartest thing to do, but it was better than throwing it away or sticking it in my pants pocket.

"Climbing won't save you!" Bane roared.

A chill went up my spine. Was that meant for just Shane, or did that include me as well? I was a traitor to the Career pack, there was no way Bane would let his feelings for me excuse me for my betrayal that I never intended to have happen.

Despite never mountain climbing, I wasn't doing horrible. I felt like I was making progress. Shane was a bit higher up than me. Pebbles dug into my palms, making me bite my lip. I hated when things got stuck in my palms.

Sunrise was coming. The sky was beginning to mix with colors of pink, orange, and a few tints of yellow. Such a beautiful sunrise for such a horrible reality show event. I didn't look down, I only looked up at the next piece of rock I was going to grab and pull myself up with.

There was a shrill scream that seemed to echo at first but fade. Someone had fallen through the hole. A cannon sounded. Since it was still nighttime, the Capitol showed who had fallen. Bella from Seven.

It was just down to four tributes now: Jenna, Bane, Shane, and I. The final four. I knew I would make it this far, but definitely not in this way. Definitely not climbing up a mountain to try and delay a fight between me, my boyfriend, and two former pack mates. This was what the Capitol and all of Panem was dying to see.

We were the finale.