"Annie."
Annie turned around to face Meris after a minute just holding on to Mira's hand like it was her sanity. He had blood on his shoes and looked at Annie and Mira's body with sadness filling his eyes.
"We have to move."
And even though Annie didn't want to leave Mira in this horrible place alone, she knew it was the right thing to do. So giving Mira's hand one last squeeze, she got up, putting the earring into her pocket.
She hadn't noticed the other three bodies but Mira's: Tarin, the boy from 1 and Acacia, with her hand fallen a few meters away from her.
She looked at Mira one last time, how she looked so peaceful laying down with her eyes closed if it wasn't for the pool of blood around her body. Three seconds and she wouldn't look back.
One. The grief of Mira's family when they received her pierced body in a coffin.
Two. The earring in her pocket that would probably never make it to Mira's brother.
Three. Her body buried among other children who died so unfairly, to be forgotten one day.
I won't let her be forgotten, Annie thought. She turned around and didn't look back.
Meris had already picked up her hammer when she walked to him, her pants damp with blood. He also carried a bag on his back.
"Where do we go, now?" She asked.
"Let's just follow the stream." Meris said, taking Annie's hand to help her walk along.
He pulled her through the trees, making his way to the stream, and Annie let him. She felt too weak to think and act. When they got there, he made her sit. She took off her pants, covering her bare legs with her flannel shirt, and remembered to take the earring out of the pocket before dunking the trousers into the water of the stream, instantly leaving the water around redder.
"Leave it up to me, you have to eat," said Meris, taking the pants from Annie and scrubbing it on a rock while she took a piece of the deer's toasted breast out of the bag and ate it.
When Meris was done, he left the wet piece of clothe upon a rock, even though the sun was already setting. He leaned next to Annie against a tree, and she gave him part of the meat, and they both ate silently for a few minutes until he turned to Annie.
"Annie, I know you're very tired and done right now, and I'm really truly sorry for your friend, she looked like she was fighter…"
"She was a fighter," Annie said quickly, interrupting him.
"Yes, she was. But we have to tell each other what supplies we have."
"Only if you tell me what happened to you and the Careers since the Cornucopia," required Annie, turning her head to stare into his not-so-bright-anymore blue eyes. He sighed and nodded.
Annie told him what she had left: another piece of breast and two more thighs from the deer, one painkiller, three band-aids, half a roll of medical adhesive tape, a bottle filled with now warm water, the blanket, and the flat yellow square of plastic she still couldn't find a use for.
Meris had two packs of dehydrated fruits and a knife, only. He offered Annie the knife, but she refused. She would still keep using her hammer.
They filled the water bottle with fresh, cold one; Annie put a band-aid over the cut on her lip made by the punch, the relief instant. After finishing the breast, they decided to sleep on the top of the trees, leaving the trousers on the rock for it to dry when the sun came up again and hoping nobody would find it. While that, Annie had the flannel shirt and the blanket to cover her.
Swiftly, she climbed the thick trunk, this tree different from the ones she saw at the start of the Games, since it didn't have thorns. The branch was large enough for her to lay down and not fall, if she was careful not to thrash around at night. Meris climbed a tree next to Annie and lied down, too.
Annie put her flannel shirt under her legs to make it softer for her to put them down and covered herself with the blanket, feeling bad for not being able to cover both her and Meris, but he didn't seem cold and he had all his clothes on.
The anthem started playing and the faces showed up: The boy from 1, Acacia, Tarin and Mira. 10 tributes left.
"Tell me about your time with the Careers," asked Annie, wanting to keep her thoughts off Mira.
Meris sighed, but he started telling.
"First off, I never wanted to be with them. I didn't want to be part of a group of killers, but I joined them either way because I planned on turning against them when I had the chance, and it was when you and Mira appeared. Anyway, all the while until we meet, we basically hunted down the tributes who left trails or lit fires. They saw I didn't like doing this, though, so they constantly ignored me or Tarin punched me when I defended a tribute. I was on the edge of being killed. But finally we did this plan of bringing you two to the clearing where we'd have an advantage with the girl from 10, who we kidnapped. We sent Tarin after her when she ran to steal your pack so she wouldn't try to run away. I'm really sorry, Annie, I didn't want to go along with this plan, but they wouldn't listen to me."
Annie wanted to be mad at him for collaborating with the plan that killed Mira. She wanted to be mad at somebody. But she couldn't, it just wasn't fair. Meris never wanted for it to happen and he was helping her right now, supporting her when she felt so lost.
"Goodnight, Meris," was the only thing she said when he finished.
He nodded, "Goodnight, Annie."
The next day, both woke up to the sound of footsteps. Annie looked at Meris, who had his blue eyes also looking at her. Then they both looked down and spotted a shadow nearing them.
When it was closer, Annie recognized the tribute: It was the girl from 3. She was alone, carrying only a small black ball with 6 different colorful wires coming out of it.
She was trembling and murmuring to herself, looking down at the ball and her long fingers playing with the wires, changing their places and connections.
Annie heard Meris breath in heavily, and she quickly but silently threw her hammer at the girl. She looked up and saw the hammer spinning in her direction. She didn't try to dodge it. Instead, she opened her mouth wide open and screamed so loud Annie's ears rang and the thud of the round side of the hammer hitting her in the forehead was muffled.
She fell back but the cannon didn't sound yet, but Annie could already picture all the blood from the internal bleeding she had caused.
"Someone will find us. Quick, we have to go," said Meris.
Annie jumped down from the tree bringing the pack, the blanket and the shirt with her, and Meris did the same. She rushed to the girl, tying the shirt around her waist, and grabbed the hammer. After hesitating for a second, she picked up the small ball too.
Running along with Meris to the stream, she grabbed her trousers, drier than before but still kind of wet. She shoved them on quickly and they started running just as the cannon for the girl from 3 sounded.
Annie heard running behind her, so she dared to look over her shoulder: two tributes ran after them. The girl from five, her curly brown hair sticking on her sweaty face and her hands carrying a knife the length of Annie's forearm; and the boy from seven, carrying a blowgun and already raising it to his lips.
Annie cried out with desperation, and Meris also noticed the two tributes following them. Suddenly Annie felt a sharp pain on her nape and yelped, using her right hand to yank out of her flesh a piece of sharp glass, dirty with blood. Trembling, she threw it aside.
"Annie, the black ball!" Cried out Meris, panting in-between the words.
Looking at the small device on her hand, she spotted a small red circle.
"It's a bomb!"
She understood it instantly. Pressing the red button, she hurried throwing the ball over her shoulder, and seconds later an explosion echoed and threw her and Meris sprawling on the rocky grass, scratching her face and hurting her bones.
Grunting, she got to her knees and crawled to Meris. He was also cut and hurt, but nothing serious.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah. How did you know about the bomb?" Annie asked, taking the pack off her back and opening it, grabbing the box with the red cross.
"We saw it among weapons in the Cornucopia. Tarin recognized it as a bomb from his classes about District 3 in his home District."
Opening the box, Annie put a band-aid over Meris's biggest cut, on the temple, and one on her chin. Meris also showed Annie a big bloody cut on his leg, which Annie covered with medical adhesive tape. She also covered the hole in her nape, ending the tape.
Helping him up, Annie asked:
"Keep on walking?"
"Keep on walking," Meris agreed.
They divided a pack of dehydrated fruits while walking along the stream, the water behind the glass barriers that surrounded the Arena glinting under the sun.
Annie was lost in thoughts and memories, looking down at the pebbles on the ground when Meris called her.
"Annie."
"Yes?"
"Look."
Annie raised her head, losing her breath as her eyes captured a huge, enormous lake.