32. The Final Four

I almost fell down the mountain a few times due to grabbing loose rocks. Thinking quickly, I thrust the rocks down the mountain in hope that they'd strike Bane and Jenna. I could hear them crash against the base of the mountain. I was disappointed when I heard no screams.

I could feel sweat coat my forehead. I gritted my teeth; my arms were aching, my legs barely hanging in there. I was breathing heavy; Shane was slow in his progress now as well. I wasn't sure how far we climbed, but it felt like we were climbing for eternity. We couldn't exactly pace ourselves when we had two enemies hunting us down.

Shane eventually crossed above me. He bobbed his head towards a small cliff. I nodded, pushing myself up farther. He held out a hand for me, waiting. I rested my head against the rock wall, feeling exhausted. You're a sitting duck. Don't you dare give up! You're so close, I yelled at myself.

Pushing myself just a little bit more, I just managed to snatch Shane's hand. Digging into his strength, he slowly heaved me up. I tried to help him as best as I could. I was almost there—

Something grabbed my ankle. I screamed, looking down. Bane. My mouth fell open, but I closed it immediately—remembering I had a knife in my mouth—and I felt reenergized, kicking at him with my free leg. He swung at my foot with his sword, sinking into flesh and almost nearly hitting bone.

This boy was definitely not in love with me, he was here to kill me.

I cried out, tears leaking from my eyes. I heard Jenna cackle. She wasn't far off from me. I fretted, kicking desperately. Bane swung again at my captive leg. I bit on the knife, the cold metal chilling my teeth. The pain was that extreme. Despite the pain, I swung my leg, swinging Bane into the rock wall.

I saw myself inch lower with Bane. I could see the muscles in Shane's arms strain as he tried to pull me up. I swung my injured leg over again, this time crushing Bane's shoulder into the rock. He let go, sliding down to where Jenna was.

Squeaking a sob, my body shook. Shane helped me over the edge of the cliff. He rested me as far away from the edge as possible. There were two gashes in my pant leg, both sprayed with blood. I looked away, whimpering. I took the knife out of my mouth, thankful to be able to close it again.

"God..." Shane whispered in horror. He knelt beside me. "You can't climb with that."

"We're trapped," I croaked. With an almost numb arm, I fumbled for my blowgun and five remaining darts. "How many arrows do you have left?"

"Three." He loaded an arrow. "Get ready."

Shane crouched beside me as we waited for Bane and Jenna to appear. If we were lucky, the cliff would break, taking them down with it. That wouldn't guarantee they'd die, though. They were both pretty tough, and I bet tumbling down a mountain wouldn't do enough damage to give Shane and me an advantage over them.

The moment we saw a sword, I blew a dart. It ricocheted off the sword, flying down the mountain. I reloaded. Shane tried an arrow, but the sword deflected it. Bane crawled across the edge. I was too paralyzed to do anything.

Bane had burns on his face—no doubt from the fireballs thrown at us not too long ago—his lower lip trickling blood. He smirked when looking at us both. Jenna joined him.

I slid up the rock wall, with a loaded blowgun and my knife. Shane was only armed with his bow and two arrows now. We were easily outgunned. I swallowed. We need some good luck here, big time, I prayed. My necklace had been good to me so far, it couldn't let me down now—not when I needed luck the most.

Jenna charged for me while Shane and Bane went at it. Jenna was being very aggressive, using her knife less than usual and just trying to pummel anything she could find. I dodged her shot to my head and slashed at her throat, trying to get her down and out. She danced back, snickering.

I saw Bane swing his sword at Shane, nearly hitting him. My eyes focused back on Jenna, who shoved me against the rock wall, trying to bash my head in. The first knock on the head rattled me. She tried to punch me, but I ducked, and her hand hit the wall. She howled, dropping her knife and grabbing her hand. I snatched her knife and rammed into her, slamming her down on the cliff. I screeched, both knives aimed for her throat.

Jenna hissed, holding my arms just above her throat, rolling me onto the ground. In a panic, I swung the knives constantly at her, hoping she wouldn't pin me down. I just barely got under her chin with the knife I stole from her. I heard another noise as Shane tried to uselessly shoot Bane with another arrow.

Jenna grabbed my neck, throwing me against the rock wall, face first. My face throbbed, but my vision was fine. I shook my head, on all fours, grip on the knives instantly back. I stood up, but Jenna had a large knife pressed into my throat. I froze, my hands twitching to get a knife in her gut at least, or somewhere—just as long as I was able to breathe knowing it wouldn't be my last breath. She smirked, eyes full of bloodlust.

"Too bad Twelve won't be able to save you," she purred. "And it'll be so much fun to overpower him once he sees that I've killed you. Bane will finally be able to kill him like he's always wanted to."

I chucked a knife at Jenna's leg. She screamed, backing off, ripping the knife out of her pants. There was a bloody gash now. She snarled.

Jenna came at me, but a loud explosion threw us all off. We were all focusing on the roaring noise coming from above. No winds were picking up, so it wasn't a hurricane.

Jenna seemed to freeze and take a step back, in horror. I looked up. I almost dropped the knife I had in my hand. My ice-blue eyes went wide. Even the boys stopped going at each other long enough to be taken aback by what Jenna and I were engrossed in.

This wasn't a mountain we were fighting on, it was a volcano. And it just erupted.

Scorching, deadly lava was quickly pouring down towards us. I hadn't noticed we were that close to the top. When Jenna gave a battle cry, I got back into defense mode. I parried her arm, throwing her off balance.

I saw Shane duck as Bane tried to decapitate him. I saw the blowgun. I had it still loaded. While Jenna was gathering her bearings, I shot Bane's hand. He yelled, losing his sword as it tumbled down the volcano. His green eyes set on me. He jumped for me, but Shane met him halfway, and they both tumbled off the cliff.

Jenna and I watched, speechless, as the boys went over the edge. Behind me, lava continued to growl, alerting me that I had to get off this cliff soon unless I wanted to melt under its deadly heat. Jenna whipped her head around.

"Good, one less to deal with," she crooned. "He never stood a chance, anyway."

Something about her taunting tone made my blood boil. Shane was by far better than Bane. When it came to motivation, they both were evenly matched. I wasn't sure who wanted to kill the other more.

My face twisted into a snarl of outrage. I charged for Jenna, but she twirled away, which made me nearly run myself off of the cliff's edge. I pulled myself back just in time to grab Jenna's arms and slowly push her back. She yipped, and I looked down to see the lava was already on the cliff. My cue to go and save Shane.

I let go of Jenna, jumping and tumbling down. Her piercing screams rang in my ears.

A cannon roared above us. It was just down to the final three: Bane, Shane, and me.

I rolled onto a smaller cliff, where Shane was dangerously close to the edge. He looked to be down for the count. Bane loomed over him, with nothing but his bare hands.

"I've waited so long for this," he cackled.

You'll have to wait just a little bit longer. With a bleeding leg, I stuck the knife in Bane's back. He roared, instantly backhanding me. I flew into the rock wall, hitting all fours. He twisted around, trying to pull the knife free. I looked up; the lava was flowing slowly down towards us.

I looked back to see Shane peeking his head up, looking very dazed and fatigued. Somehow gathering myself, I managed to get my knife back, jumping back, beckoning Bane to me. His green eyes turned to slits as he cornered me. I wanted him away from Shane for as long as possible. If he knocked Shane pretty good, he'd need quite a bit of time to recover.

Bane smirked, lunging for me. I ducked, crawling under his legs. I yelped as he grabbed one of my legs, twisting it. It was the one he had chopped at with his sword. I screamed so loud I thought I'd cause a rock slide. Bane had some serious strength.

I tried scooting back, knife still in my grip. Bane towered above me. Out of nowhere, Shane jumped in front of me, knocking himself into Bane. I grabbed my twisted ankle, hissing in pain as I watched in horror as the boys fought. Lava continued to slowly trek towards us.

Bane clearly had the advantage over Shane. He was taller and stronger than Shane by quite a bit. It was a battle between the boy who had once been—and maybe still was—obsessed with me against the boy from 12 who loved me and who was the offspring of two former victors of a past Hunger Games.

Shane kept getting knocked off balance by Bane's blows as he tried to parry them. He wasn't built like Bane was; he wasn't strong enough to hold his ground. I saw Shane had no arrows left, just the bow itself.

I fumbled for the blowgun but realized that it must've tumbled down the volcano. All I had were the darts left stuffed in my jacket. I've never played darts with a human dartboard before. I had never played darts, period.

With my other hand, I whipped out a dart, aiming for anything of Bane. I bit my tongue and launched one, throwing way too high, into the lava.

Bane's back was to me, and he tossed Shane into the wall. I screamed. Bane turned to look at me. I cringed, trying to scramble away from him, but he grabbed my neck, lifting me off the ground. The knife fell to the cliff floor. I fretted, trying to claw and mess up his hands. His skin was too tough to make him hurt.

"Don't do this," I pleaded, trying to suck in long, life-saving breaths. Bane's face was twisted into a sneer. He threw me down onto the cliff. I just barely grabbed the edge to keep myself up.

I saw Shane past Bane, this time looking still. My heart skipped a beat. He's not dead yet, I kept telling myself. He's still alive. He wouldn't be for much longer, though, if he didn't wake up soon enough to avoid the lava that was slowly closing in on us all.

I saw my knife and grabbed it. At the same time, Bane smashed my hand. Tears welled in my eyes. If Ross thought his bets were on me to win, he had to think again. Bane was really beating the hell out of me.

I looked into Bane's murderous eyes. The affection he once held for me was no longer present. His Career killer instinct had complete control over him. The boy who had been in love with me ceased to exist. There was no way he could ever be brought out again.

"You can't do this," I pleaded.

"Actually, I can," he said haughtily. "If I can't have you, why should anybody?"

My palm of my other hand began to ache from holding on. My legs dangled below me, feeling heavy. I swallowed, whimpering. I could feel Bane's foot start to lift off of my hand. No. No, no, no. He knew I wasn't going to hang on. He was going to let me tumble down the volcano to my death.

I closed my eyes, a tear trickled down my face. I had come so close to winning the Hunger Games, so close to having the final two just be me and Shane. Now, here I was, perhaps seconds away from being killed by my district partner. I didn't feel betrayed, because I never felt like I had a real alliance with him. The only true alliance I knew I had was Shane.

The way I was going, I would place third, not first.

I turned my head, waiting for my hands to slip, but instead there was a battle cry. The pressure on my hand suddenly was lifted, now painful throbbing was taking over. A brief gust of wind whipped over my head.

I shot my eyes open to not see Bane over me, ready to let me fall to my death. And I didn't see Shane unconscious near the rock wall either. I looked down over my shoulder. I paled.

"NO!" I cried. Shane had to have knocked himself and Bane off the cliff and down the volcano.

I looked at the cliff. Lava was starting to creep towards me.

I looked down again. There was only one thing for me to do: I was going to have to tumble down the volcano again.

I inhaled deeply, then let my grip slip.

My back hit the volcano first, harshly. I grunted and yipped as my body rolled down the volcano. I had to be outrunning the lava at this point, because it looked so slow when coming for us. I kept a tight grip on the knife, hoping I didn't lose it. I could feel my speed steadily slow.

I eventually stopped tumbling, but the world didn't stop spinning.

I staggered to my feet, nearly toppling over from the dizziness. I tottered away from the volcano and its murderous lava. I didn't see any trench that had claimed Bella's life earlier. The Gamemakers had to have stitched that up nicely. You would have never known that a trench had existed near the volcano.

As my vision started to get back to normal, I saw that the hedge maze had also disappeared and was replaced by a very thin forest. I headed for the nearest tree, taking only a moment to steady myself before moving on. Where had Bane and Shane gone? Had they not made it down the volcano? Had they continued wrestling each other after they reached the bottom, if they even did that?

I stumbled along, the trees started to not have doubles anymore. I limped along, wincing as the pain in my leg didn't subside. If only we still had the pack and the medicine, I could easily be healed. I was relieved to still be alive right now, wandering along aimlessly. I hoped to find Shane and not Bane.

I had no doubt Bane was still fighting Shane. After all, Bane had been obsessed with him from the moment Shane and I made only eye contact. Bane had been way overprotective about me then. Now, it was nothing more than a fight to the death, not a fight over me. Well, it could still be a fight over me as well; I just was too focused on saving my life to think of their battle that way.

"Shane?" I croaked. My voice didn't seem to carry. My injured leg begged me to stop, to rest against a tree or just sit down as long as it could rest. My mind told my body to keep going. I couldn't stop, I had to find Shane.

I flinched when a cannon sounded. My heart stopped for the smallest second. Who had died? Shane or Bane? What if they both died? There was only one cannon. One of them was dead. Was it my district partner who had fallen for me, or the boy I was in love with?

I noticed that the sun was just making its presence known. It was very early morning here in the arena. There was a low fog at my feet as I trudged along the desolate woods. My heart thudded anxiously with each moment that passed. My free hand clutched my leg while the other still barely held the knife. I breathed through my nostrils, still trying to take in normal breaths again.

Ahead, through the fog, I saw a body lying in the grass. I froze. I wasn't sure whether to run to it or move away from it. It was hard to tell if the body was breathing or not, I was pretty far away. My feeble grip on my knife tightened slightly. There was only one way I was going to find out who it was.

Slowly and limply, I hobbled closer to the body. I didn't see a bow in his hand, but that didn't mean anything. Shane could have easily lost his bow during the rumble down the volcano with Bane.

Shane saved my life again. There was no way I could ever repay him for all the times he saved me. I had never intended to look like a damsel in distress every time I got caught up in a battle.

I decided to take a safe approach and slunk past the body. I looked from the corner of my eye. He wasn't stabbed by another or severely burned, but there was a small pool of blood staining the grass. It was from his back, where I had stabbed him. I looked to see a full view of him now.

Bane hadn't survived.