There's Nothing More Important than Family, chapter 13

I sprint towards the tent as fast as I can. The Careers go straight for the mouth of the Cornucopia. On his way there, Dane grabs the girl from twelve with his arm and breaks her neck by simply flexing his muscles. One down already.

I meet Nathan near the food. The tent pack comes with a strap, so he slings it over his back. He grabs a couple backpacks nearby and tosses me one. “Fill it with food.” He orders. Addalie appears next to me and we stuff the empty pack with crackers, fruit and meat. I see she has a spear in one of her hands. I look up and see everyone else around us. Jason and Nathan have swords and Breah has a knife. Georgie is using knives, but there’s a sword strapped to her back. Mark is wielding a mace.

The backpack is full. I jump up and put it on my shoulders; Addalie takes the other. “See anything else you want?” shouts Jason.

“I want something better than this knife!” says Breah. We run to the Cornucopia and, as the Careers are busy, there’s no one there. I don’t see what Breah grabs, but she says, “Let’s go.” And we begin the hardest part: escaping the bloodbath. Breah hands me her knife.

At least six tributes lay dead on the ground. I hope the Careers won’t notice us, but Mahogany does and he’s making his way towards us. “Run!” I yell. He throws his javelin, and to my dismay, it hits Mark in the back.

I stare at him in shock. He looks up at us, looking pale, and wheezes, “Go!” but I can’t move. I’m paralyzed.

“Zania, come on!” Nathan whispers urgently. “We have to get moving!”

It’s too late. Vella is almost on top of me. She has a bow and a quiver full of arrows, but she’s coming at me with a switchblade.

“I love it when they’re too scared move!” Vella cackles to herself, and she thrusts the blade at me.

“No!” Yells Nathan and Georgie at the exact same time. Georgie dives to push me out of the way. Vella’s knife only scrapes my skin, and I fall to the ground painfully. I see Georgie standing over me protectively, he sword ready. My head is throbbing, but I have enough sense to back up from the fight. My head collides with Nathan’s shin and we both gasp in pain. I see that Vella’s knife had cut Georgie’s arm, too.

“Taking the blow for the poor little angel?” croons Vella. “I’ll let her live a little longer, I suppose. But you won’t be there to protect her a second time. You’re dead.”

“Try me.” Growls Georgie, and then she calls Vella a name. I know that if I ever used that word at home, my mom would ground me. Georgie thrusts her sword at Vella, but Vella dodges and stabs Georgie in the side. No matter how much Georgie had trained before the Games, Vella’s training was better. She crumbles to the ground lifelessly as Vella smiles wickedly.

“It’d be so nice to finish you off now,” Vella says to me, “But I keep my word. You’d better run now, kid, because I will find you.” She looks at the others and adds, “All of you.” She turns and fires and arrow at another tribute on the other side of the small clearing. Jason picks me up, and the five of us who are left start hiking up the biggest mountain. I cry, and Jason’s hoodie is soaked on one shoulder, but I don’t think he cares.

Suddenly, a cannon blasts. And then another. That means the bloodbath is over. Each cannon blast is one tribute down. One of them is for Mark, and another is for Georgie. The cannon fires ten times total, but we won’t know who died until tonight, when they show the faces of the fallen in the sky.

My head is still pounding, and I can feel a small lump starting to form where it collided with Nathan’s leg.  The scrape on my arm stings. It looks like Vella only took off one or two layers of skin, but it’s still bleeding subtly.

Jason puts me down beside a tree. We are halfway up the mountain and I can see the Cornucopia through the trees. I can even make out the five Careers circling and collecting supplies. There is a sixth person with them, but I can’t figure out who it is. Maybe it’s Payla. She seems like the only other person in the arena strong enough to work with them. Breah, Jason and Nathan put up the tent, and Addalie unpacks all of the backpacks. I curl up into a little ball and watch the bottom of the mountain. I’m the lookout.

When they’re done putting up the tent, Breah sighs. “Not a great start to the day.” She admits.

“Did you see the boy from 7 kill his district partner?” groans Addalie. “He ended up dying, but what if he won? The girl was so sweet, his district would hate him.”

Jason smirks. “He’s already hated. Remember, he said he’s kill her at the interviews. He promised.”

“That’s sick!” exclaims Addalie.

“I agree.” Says Nathan. “But we can’t dwell on the inevitable. We should probably take inventory.”

“Okay!” says Addalie. “We need somewhere to record our supplies though, don’t we?”

Breah laughs. “Are you serious? Hello, I have an eidetic memory. I’ll remember it all!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot!” giggles Addalie.

“I didn’t.” Says Breah, and we all laugh. Breah starts counting, “One spear, two knives, two swords, six chakrams-“

“Six what’s?” I ask.

“Chakrams.” She shows me an aluminum disc, not unlike a Frisbee. “This is what I got from the Cornucopia when I went back, and I used these in my private session. You throw them, and they’re so sharp, they can slice right through someone’s neck.” She demonstrates by throwing one at a tree, and slicing it down.

“They had a couple of those at the training centre in my district.” Says Jason approvingly. “You need a strong wrist to throw them with that kind of force.”

Breah smiles. “Like I was saying. Six chakrams, three sleeping bags, one first aid kit, a wool blanket, two packs of matches and a whole lot of food.”

“Any water?” I ask.

“Oh yeah, there’s a couple Capitol bottles, and a full canteen. There’s two other bottles, but they’re empty.”

“That’s a pretty good haul.” Smiles Addalie.

I’m angry at myself. I should feel grief or guilt; Mark and Georgie are dead. I don’t feel anything at all. It might just be that I didn’t know them that long, but Georgie and I were friends. At least I thought so.

Then the answer comes to me. They’re free from this wretched arena. They’re safe. I don’t feel grief, but envy. They’re gone from the arena. Nothing can hurt them now, but I know at least one Career is hunting me down. Perhaps the others too. I’m not safe at all. I get angry at myself. I should feel some kind of remorse, shouldn’t I?

Addalie is in the tent, setting out the sleeping bags and the blanket. Breah is re-packing the tree packs evenly, in case we get separated. Nathan and Jason are off trying to find water. I should feel worried about him, but he’s capable of taking care of himself and he has Jason there. I should feel a lot of things, but I guess the arena has muted my emotions.

Breah finishes with the packs, and motions me over to where she is sitting. “Now, usually it’s a bad idea to set a fire because the Careers will find you, but they know we’re together and that we have weapons, so I think we should. It might get a little chilly tonight.”

“Wait!” exclaims Addalie from the tent. “How do they know were an alliance?”

“Aside from the fact Vella saw us leaving together? The boy from 8 told them. He’s spineless. Satin was about to murder him, when he told her everything. In exchange for the information, the Career pack has let him tag along with them.”

“Don’t blame him.” Says Jason unexpectedly, as he and Nathan are back. “Anyone would confess if Satin was threatening them with those katars of hers!”

“What are katars?” Addalie asks, and I’m glad I’m not the only person who doesn’t know.

“Well, they’re kind of like metal boxing gloves with a knife on the punching end. If you press a button inside, the knife splits into three. They’re lethal.” I shudder.

“Did you find any water?”

Nathan nods. “There’s a freshwater stream over there, a little ways.”

“Good, it’s close.” Says Breah. “We were just considering lighting a fire, but we didn’t want to do anything until you two got back.”

“Might as well.” Jason agrees. “It’s getting dark. That might hide a little bit of the smoke, but the Careers aren’t fools. I doubt they’ll come, if Carter really has told them everything.”

“Zania can light the fire.” Announces Nathan. “I think we should have one person on watch at all times.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Addalie smiles as I get started on the fire.

“So, we didn’t have much time to check before, but does anyone have any injuries? No one has any major injuries, obviously, but we should get any minor ones taken care of.” Breah explains.

Nathan seems to have the least injuries. He has a small bruise where his shin collided with my skull, but he says it doesn’t hurt, so Breah doesn’t give him any medicine. Jason has a few hallow cuts, but Addalie has a deep cut on her collarbone that Breah patches up hastily, as Addalie is looking a little paler than usual. I have a bump on the crown of my head and the skinned part of on my arm is oozing a little blood. It could be worse. Breah gives me some pain medication and puts a bandage where Vella’s knife skimmed me. She had a gash in her shoulder, so Jason helps her treat that.

By the time we’re done helping each other with bandages and gauze, its dark and we’re hungry, so we have a feast of dried fruit and beef jerky. The fire is so warm, so I sit close to it, admiring my handiwork. The Capitol anthem blares throughout the arena. Now is when they show the faces of the dead in the sky. There will be ten up there tonight.

Both tributes from 1 and 2 and the girl from 3 are alive, since the boy from 3 is shown first. Both from 5 perished, and the boy from 6 died as well. Sahra and Xavier are shown, then Georgie. Even her headshot in the stars looks fierce. Mark’s face stares down at us from above, and then the two from 12. The anthem finishes and the sky is dark once more.

I sigh. “No one can touch them now.” I whisper.

Nathan pats my shoulder. “I’ll take first watch. You four go to sleep. I’ll wake one of you up if I get to tired.”

Addalie and Breah retreat into the tent and after eating a couple dried apple slices, Jason follows them. I stay behind to clean up the extra food and wrappers.

“Leave it!” Nathan orders. “I can do it!” but I ignore him and keep tidying anyway.

“You’re the messiest person I know!” I smirk.

He laughs and looks sternly at me as I stash the packs in the tent. “Get some sleep!”

I hug him. “I will. You be careful.”

“Don’t worry. I’m much more capable than you give me credit for. We have a long day tomorrow; you really need to get some rest.”

“You sound like mom!” I complain, and I disappear through the tent door. The other three took the sleeping bags, leaving me with the thick blanket. It’s warm, so I have no problem drifting off to sleep.