I apply the cream Lyme sends to me on my wound. I am able to work normally in a few minutes.
I cross the muddy swamp to reach my allies. A parachute lands in front of Pearl. She opens to find some similar cream inside, and when she applies it onto her leg she sighs in relief. Some tissues form on her legs magically and she is able to stand up and move, trembling. I hold her when we walk.
Tyrus and Cleon camps next to the Cornucopia.
"Two gone in a night." Cleon says, amusement in his voice.
"Don't you feel sorry for Goldia?" Pearl hisses angrily.
"No. Do you feel sorry when you rip a tribute's throat open? No, you don't. You are amused." Cleon replies. Pearl looks at him furiously.
"Shut up, dude." Tyrus says.
"I keep watch." I say. "With Pearl?" She nods. When Cleon and Tyrus are inside the tent, she curls into a little ball, at the other side of the tent. Her dark hair dances in moonlight, her head resting lifelessly on her knees, looking at the moon. We sit in silence and wait fordawning.
The morning light beams joyfully into the arena for the very first time.
"Tyrus and I will hunt." Cleon says, after greeting us good morning. "You two can stay. Pearl isn't going far with her legs like that."
Then they are gone. Pearl and I wait silently for them to return.
A cannon fires in the late afternoon. "Who do you think that is?" Pearl asks.
"Maybe district 3?"
"Yeah. Who else can it be?"
But we were wrong. When the anthem play later at night time, I cannot see district 3 on the sky.
Instead, I see Tyrus.
Tyrus! What is happening?
Tyrus is dead. DEAD.
He was talking, he was living, he was sitting next to me… and now he was gone. Forever.
I wonder what brought him down. If Cleon and Tyrus fight, Cleon should also be dead if Tyrus died.
"Maybe district 3 caught him in some electric traps." Pearl says. "I am sorry."
"It's fine." I say, looking at Tyrus' photo one last time before it disappears.
"Do you think we should separate now?" Pearl says the next morning when Cleon doesn't return. "I mean, there are only 4 of us left. And we have to kill each other later."
"I think so. Good luck." I manage a smile and turn away swiftly. But Pearl suddenly calls my name.
"Enobaria, if I can't win, I want you to." For the first time, she pronounces my name correctly. And she is smiling, beaming, like Seger before he died.
"Thank you." I reply quickly, smiling politely and turn. Then we walk in opposite directions.
Hours later I am in front of the caves. I hear something howling inside.
Then I hear a branch breaking.
Something is moving towards me.
A few seconds later a silvery figure appears, but I can't recognize it. Is it some kind of mutt?
Then she raises her head. Her long messy black hair flies in the air, and I gasp again.
It is the girl from district 3.
"Hey, district 3." I say, looking at the girl. She is in no good condition. "Briony, is it? Did you kill my partner?"
I look at her face. It is full of dirt, mud, but I can still see her high cheekbones. The Asian girl has long haired tied in double back ponytails. Her large brown eyes stare at me wearily, as if I am some specimen in the laboratory. She wraps herself in a silver blanket.
"No, I didn't. I knew nothing but wires. I showed them wires, but there are no wires in this arena. I could do nothing." She manages to laugh hollowly.
I grip my knife harder. "Then who?"
"I was on the trees. District 1 was arguing with him. Then they fought."
"Tyrus was brought down by Cleon?" I say, suspicion in my voice.
"District 1 made him walked in front of him, then stabbed at his back with a toxic spear." She gasps. "Then he collapsed. He injured 1 with his sword, cutting his stomach. District 1 removed the sword from his stomach and stabbed his neck. That was it."
When she finishes her speech she notices my knife.
"Go ahead." She says. Then she releases her blanket.
Her clothes are torn. Flesh is hanging on her skeleton. I can see her ribs, her growling stomach, part of her intestine and her hinge bones.
I step backwards, unsure what she means. No one wants to die. And no one has ever begged me to kill him or her.
"4 Careers getting 10. The Gamemakers want a Career to win." She laughs and collapses, her black hair meeting the coal colored ground. "Not me. When spiders start crawling on me, I know I can't leave this place alive."
She notices me sitting next to her unmoved.
"Trust me, I am a biomedical engineer. The body parts I make are for people in better condition than I am now." She whispers to me.
"Do it fast, please. I am dead anyway."
Her ribs are moving up and down, a pink colored thing bumping in her ribs.
I move towards her to check her condition. When we are only a few inches apart, she suddenly grabs my hand. Her hands are bloody, and I flinch in terror, trying to free she is determined.
"I don't think you mind being credited for this."
Then she yanks my knife and pulls it into her own heart. The pink thing stopped moving.
She is dead. She is gone.
The cannon makes me jump up in terror. I look at my hands. Bloody. Full of her blood.
She ends her life. I have to admit that she is brave, ultimately brave.
Something from her shocks me. I always enjoy watching people die, especially if they die in pain. But not her. Not anymore.
She isn't afraid of dying. Unlike the others. And…
I look at her, paralyzed and stunned.
The hovercraft is hovering on top of me, but my legs seem heavy like stone. I just stand there, staring at her awkward body, until her blood dries.
Then I run away, terrified, from her - and from both sanity and insanity.