Chapter Ten
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River's POV below takes place at the same time of Brooklyn's POV in the last chapter.
River
The moment the horn had sounded, signaling the start of the games, Emmelie and I raced for the center island. I didn't turn around when sounds of fighting and pain and death filled the humid air around me. I just kept running, long past when I would've been tired, thanks to the adrenaline coursing through my body like a river of fire.
I heard Emmelie scream, "duck" and instinctively fell to the ground, just as a spear whistled past me, only inches away. If I'd been standing straight up, I would've been impaled for sure.
Once I reached the forest, and relative safety, I slowed down a little. I managed to grab the pack near me and was suddenly thankful I had for when I pulled it off my back; a long arrow had punctured it, although the contents of the bag had prevented it from touching me.
I scanned my surroundings. I couldn't see anybody, but that didn't mean anything. The clang of swords clashing had died down, replaced with the sounds of the forest. It had been made to sound natural, with birds calling each other and trees rustling and, in the distance, water flowing. It was hot enough that the air seemed to glisten and lay thick across everything like a wet blanket. I was already sweating like a cow in the summer heat.
I took a moment to calm myself before I realized I needed a plan. I was pretty sure Emmelie had said to meet at the mountain, so that's where I headed. Scanning the trees around me, I noticed the thick canopy that would hide any climber. Spotting a hanging vine a little ways off, I raced over to it and quickly made my way up into the thick, leafy layer of wide leaves and hanging vines and little flowers that were undoubtedly poisonous. From there, it wasn't difficult to find the mountain in the distance, rising into the clouds, and make my way, painfully slowly, over to it. When I reached a clearing just before the ground tilted into a steep upward slope, I found a nook, hidden away, to watch for Emmelie and Carter.
At one point, my gaze had alighted upon the boy from Nine as he stumbled across the clearing only a few lengths away from the base of my tree. His breath had come in loud pants and I could see a hastily tied bandage around his left leg, the apparent injury causing him to limp awkwardly. It would have been an easy kill if I knew how to shoot and was willing to kill someone, though I wasn't. With that kind of injury, he'd be dead soon enough.
A little while later, as I was beginning to doze off thanks to the heat and my exhaustion, I heard the sounds of another tribute padding around below. I glanced down to see Emmelie and Carter enter the clearing. Although both were unwilling to talk and risk being heard, I could see them searching, probably for me. I realized this was a good strategy, not talking too loud, so I quickly made my way down the tree trunk and whispered a greeting to them at the bottom.
They nodded at me, both clearly relieved that I'd survived. I too was happy to see them, they were my only chances.
"We need to find a safe spot to camp out," Emmelie said. "I think somewhere on the mountain with a good vantage point, but not easy to spot."
"That's a good idea," I agreed. "No one's hurt, right?"
"Carter got shot in the leg and I've got a cut, not that deep though," Emmelie responded. "We stopped to bandage each other up, but…" she glanced at Carter and I understood she was worried about his wound, but just didn't want to say anything to embarrass him. "What about you?"
"I'm good," I said. "I made it to the forest without getting hurt and from there, I, uh, climbed here. Through the trees."
Emmelie looked impressed. "Nice. But we should get going."
I nodded my agreement and the three of us started up the mountain. I noticed Carter wincing while we climbed a particularly steep stretch of land. Clearly, his leg was hurting him more than he bothered to admit. Silently, I offered him my arm to lean on, which he gratefully accepted as we continued on. A few steps ahead of us, Emmelie was leading the way, seemingly unafraid. I noticed she'd found a pack too and Carter had a broadsword fastened to his back, within easy reach, though I doubted his fighting ability with such a bad limp.
After examining several possibilities as a place to camp, Emmelie decided on a small cave, hidden from above by an overhang but still providing an excellent view of the arena sprawled out in front of us. We were pretty high up, having climbed for almost half the day. Another plus of our cave was at first, it appeared to be only a shallow opening in the ground that would deter most of our competitors while in reality, there was a decent sized back room accessible by a passageway disguised by a curtain of moss. If I hadn't known it was there, I never would've thought anything of it, but I guess Emmelie had a sharper eye for these kinds of things then I did.
As night began to fall, bring incessant bugs but no breaks in the heat, Carter and I examined the contents of mine and Emmelie's bags and began to build a small camp while Emmelie went looking for plants we could eat, as well as healing herbs for Carter's wound. My throat felt like a bird's nest, all dry and cracked, but I didn't say anything. I didn't want to be labeled as the complainer.
Inside my pack were a sleeping bag, an unfortunately empty water flask, a small bottle of iodine, a hunting knife, and a coil of rope. Emmelie's contained similar contents, but instead of the iodine and hunting knife, she had a bottle of pain killer which only contained a few doses, and a roll of bandages, which she must have used to wrap Carter's leg.
For the first time, I noticed Carter's breathing had become quite labored and strained. I looked over at him and realized he'd gone white, his eyelids fluttering. Darting around him, I examined his leg, which was much worse than Emmelie had originally said. I gave him a bit of the painkiller, not wasting a single precious drop, before gently unpeeling the hastily wrapped bandages.
At the sight, I inhaled sharply. The front end of the arrow was buried deep in his leg, the end having been snapped off. Blood had soaked the white cloth wrapping and was now forming a pool on the floor of the cave.
"Is… is it bad?" Carter murmured.
Some people, like Brook, would've told him the truth, that it looked nasty and painful and wasn't going to get better any time soon, but I wasn't going to.
"It's, uh, it's fine," I assured him, reaching for some new bandages. "Just get some rest, okay? Emmelie will be back soon with some food." And water, I hoped. I did the best I could to bandage his leg, but I was seriously worried. If his leg got infected, it would never heal. And Emmelie and I couldn't afford to drag around a half-dead boy twice Emmelie's weight, no matter how much we liked Carter.
He nodded, his eyes closing, as he drifted into sleep. His breathing became more steady and I sat back on my heels. I watched him for a moment before soft footsteps outside startled me out of my daze. Emmelie entered behind me and, upon seeing Carter's still form, scampered to my side.
"Is he alive?" She asked worriedly, laying a hand on his arm where one could find one's pulse. I could see the panic and fear in her eyes. I assumed they'd known each other before they'd come to the games, they were too close not too. "Please, let him be alive."
"Yeah, he's okay," I said, but the words didn't sound too promising.
"Well, I found some cedar berries, those should help with keeping infection away, and, oh and there's a patch of wild blueberries, not too far from here, I brought back as many as I could," she went on about the stuff she'd found, all the while carefully mixing and applying a poultice of crushed leaves and berries to his leg. It looked disgusting to me, a mash of dark juices and ripped stems, but I figured she knew what she was doing more than I did, so I didn't say anything.
"I'm going to try to find a river or something for water," I announced.
"That's a good idea," Emmelie agreed, not looking up. "I didn't see anything, but I didn't want to go too far."
I departed silently. In the doorway, I turned and looked at the two of them. Emmelie had a look of worried concentration on her face, making her look much older. Her short dark red hair had escaped from its ponytail, falling in layers to her shoulder and framing her face. Suddenly, I wanted to return to her side, to push her hair behind her ear, to sit by her side, to stay with the only people I could trust in this whole arena, besides Brook.
Pushing these feelings away, I left the cave, all my senses on alert, and emerged into the twilight of my first day in the arena.
Brooklyn
After watching the faces of all my now dead competitors, I didn't feel like sleeping, so I offered to take over the watch from Shade. He nodded gratefully and I took up a position leaning against a tree a few yards from the Career's main campsite. Glory glared at me, distrust filling her eyes.
"I don't think we should trust her," she announced. Olivia, Nolan, and Shade stared at her.
"We can't trust any of us," Olivia retorted. "But Brook's not going to try anything tonight. It's too early on in the games."
Glory grunted, but Olivia's point was a good one. She settled down, slightly reluctantly, and glared at me for a moment longer before turning away from me. Olivia returned to her sleeping role and lay still, a little too still to actually be asleep. Nolan joined Olivia, who he probably (incorrectly) believed was the least dangerous of the Careers, on the ground and Shade sat down next to Glory.
I returned my gaze to the woods. One of the nice things about being a Career is that no one wanted to attack us, at least not on the first night, so I figured I was good, although the boy from Seven, Maxon, might've been crazy enough to try.
The woods were creepily still and silent, but I knew there were eyes out there, eyes watching us, me, waiting for the right moment to strike. I reached for my trident, the sleek weapon feeling natural in my hand, just like it always did. I gave it an experimental jab, happy to find even the Capitol's trident felt like an extension of my arm. It made me feel better to know I could strike down anyone who came close.
Although I felt tired, I was no longer sleepy, so I spent my watch pacing around the camp, observing the nearby woods. When I made my escape, I would need to know the best way to go, as well as how to throw any remaining Careers off my tracks. I wanted to go hunting, to look for water and supplies, but I wasn't going to abandon the Careers yet. If anyone woke up and saw that I had left, no one would trust me again.
After a couple of hours of taking in every detail around me, I settled down against a tree. The sand beneath my hands felt grainy and hard, not quite right. Imagining the sandy beaches of home, I wished I could have just one more day in District Four. To go fishing and swimming, to go sailing on my own little boat, the Horizon, with River and race along the rocky cliff and splash down into the clear water. To dive deep down and look at all the colorful fish for as long as I could before my breath ran out.
The wood behind my back was solid, the little scraps of bark digging into my back the only thing keeping me out of sleep. My eyes fluttered dangerously and I scrambled to my feet, alarmed. I'd almost fallen asleep while on guard. Inhaling a deep breath of the crisp night air, I returned to pacing, mentally berating myself. I couldn't fall asleep. That would mean certain death. Then again, so would almost everything else in this arena.
About an hour later, Olivia relieved me of my watch and I sank down into my sleeping role. I fell asleep quickly, but my dreams were full of the faces of the dead tributes, screaming in agony. My mother's face appeared a few times, begging me to save her. I reached out, tried to grab her hand, but she slipped away into the mist. Then River's face solidified, looking stern just like he did when he was scolding me for defacing a picture of President Sapphire Darke or going for a midnight sail.
I tossed and turned the whole night and was grateful when Glory shook me awake roughly, relieving me of my disturbing nightmares.
"We're going hunting today," she informed me, turning away to grab her sword. "It's time to kill some tributes."