The floor of the cave had left indents in the skin of the blonde's cheek. He moved slightly, trying his best to rouse himself from the sleep-induced state, hearing the familiar whispers of his two allies. His body was stiff, but it didn't burn like it did when he fell asleep yesterday. He could vaguely remember the cooling sensation of cream being smothered over his back, and when Drew slowly reached a hand to where his gash had been, he could feel the rough, bumped patches of skin from the scars he now had. They must have gotten some form of cream from the Capitol-nothing herbal could heal that quickly. That meant they had a sponsor.
Drew slowly and carefully rolled himself over, stretching out his arms and torso before completely opening his eyes. The first thing he registered was the fire not five feet away from him. It had burnt down to coals, and right to the left of it sat a chuck of partially burnt meat sitting on a rock.
"That's for you," said Satoru quietly, causing Drew to jump. He wasn't aware Satoru was in the cave. He turned, seeing the smaller teen sitting in the very back of the cavern, pressed against one of the walls. He looked so small there.
"Thank you," Drew said roughly, crawling over to get the meat.
"Is this from the-"
"Yeah," Satoru quickly answered, moving silently towards Drew. "Your back looks better…I'm guessing the cream worked."
Drew nodded his head, biting into the slightly disgusting chunk of meat when he felt two small hands press against his back. He shivered, tensing almost immediately.
"I'm not going to strangle you, don't freak out.." Satoru whispered the words; letting his hands slide further up his back to rest on his shoulders. He shuffled closer to the blonde, feeling as he slowly began to relax. Satoru tightened his arms around him until he was hugging him, pressing his forehead into Drew's shoulder blade.
Drew blinked. Being hugged wasn't something that happened on a day-to-day basis for him, and he wasn't used to it. It was unusually warm, and the fabric of Satoru's jacket stuck to his skin from the thin sheen of sweat coating his body. Drew finished chewing on the rough chunk of meat, glad to finally have some food, before he pulled Satoru's arms off of him, turning around to look at him.
"I don't hug."
"I don't care if you don't hug," he replied, looking up at him. "You've saved my life too many times to count already and that deserves a thank you."
"Then just say thank you," Drew said awkwardly, looking down at his feet.
Satoru wrapped his arms around him again, hugging him.
"Stop with the hugging, please?" Drew whispered, desperately fighting the urge to hug him back.
"Why should I?" Satoru said, acting slightly like a five year old, in Drew's opinion. "I'm scared, you're scared. If you weren't scared in these games you'd be absolutely mental. The number of people in these games is falling by the second and that means our chances of dying are growing every hour. I don't want to die feeling alone."
Drew paused, listening carefully. He couldn't stop himself from letting his arms wrap loosely around the smaller boy in front of him. "You have Mika."
"Getting any closer to her now is just going to hurt her more when…when…"
He couldn't finish his sentence, and Drew wouldn't push him. The hug was the first form of friendly physical contact he had encountered since he had left Todd at the train station back in District Nine, and the blonde had forgotten how nice it could feel to have someone holding you up.
"You've got me too, then. But it's the same situation no matter who you make friends with in this arena, Satoru. You've got to look at them and realize one or both will be dead by the time these games are over."
"So you plan on being completely alone?"
"That was the original idea."
"Look what being alone got you, Drew. You almost died before Mika found you. You've got two people watching your back now, as long as you'll watch ours."
Drew nodded, remembering what Mika had asked him to do the night before. It was weird, having to put all of his faith in two people who could easily turn around and kill him, but Drew had no other option. If he was going to die anyways, why not make it with people he didn't mind spending time with.
"I'm not going anywhere," Drew finally managed to whisper, taking a deep breath. He could feel Satoru's eyelashes on his chest when he blinked, and the blonde wondered when they had gotten so close.
"Good. So then…allies?"
"Allies."
Satoru smiled a little from his spot, only moving away when he heard Mika clear her throat, returning from her water run to the spring Satoru had found when he was there earlier. He blushed, his face a dark red as he unwrapped himself from around Drew, who was already gone within a millisecond of him letting go.
"Sorry to interrupt that sickeningly cute little moment, or whatever, but we're kind of in the middle of the Hunger Games here, not a chick flick. Grab your bags, we've got to keep moving," she said firmly, chucking her water bottle towards the two.
Drew shoved the last little bit of meat in his mouth, pulling his shirt out of his bag, ignoring the crusted stains from his blood as he slipped it back on. He put his back pack on, heading to Mika with Satoru following close behind.
Satoru instantly noticed that it was colder than it had been the last few days. He glanced upwards, seeing that the sun and the rest of the sky had been covered over by thick, heavy looking grey clouds. Rain. Rain was a good thing; it meant they could collect water no matter where they were. But, at the same time, it would push all the animals into hiding.
"We can't keep walking around out here," Drew said, looking down at the wide expanse of rock that went out for at least a mile or so in each direction. "We're easy targets this way."
"He's right," Satoru chorused in. "We should go through the boulders."
Mika looked over to the large pile of debris and rocks from where the giant rockslide had been earlier. She sighed, her arms still stiff and pained from where the mountain lion had scratched her. Most of the cream they had been gifted had gone directly to Drew, so she was left with some of the pain.
"Drew are you up to it?"
"I'm fine," he said with a quick nod, grabbing on to the sleeve of Satoru's jacket to pull him up to where Mika was. "We can't stay out here if we want to survive."
She nodded, heading back towards the mountains. When they reached the edge of the rock piles, Drew started climbing through first, dagger in his hand incase they ran into any unwanted visitors. Mika took the middle, because Satoru was completely uninjured, and was the best climber of the three.
The rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance as they made their way through the debris, shoving and digging through the piles as they went. It was dusty, making it almost impossible for the three to breathe once they were getting deeper into the mess of rock covered ground. The caves weren't too far to their left, so they all knew they could easily make it to them if someone showed up.
Before they knew it, the water bottle they filled that morning was bone dry. Mika licked her lips, hoping to get rid of the annoying chapped skin. Her arm was aching as she pulled herself up and over one of the larger boulders, watching as Drew reached back over to Satoru, offering him his hand. Satoru clutched on to it, climbing over the rock and jumping down to land right in front of Drew. They kept walking for what felt like hours, never taking a moment to breathe.
"Ouch," Satoru said through clenched teeth, reaching up to touch the sizzling spot on his shirt.
"What?" Asked Mika, quickly turning around to see what was wrong with her cousin. He removed his hand from the spot, showing the small hole that had burnt through his shirt, a red welt forming on his skin.
"What the hell is-" he began to say, when another drop fell, this time hitting Mika's forehead. She hissed, wiping at the burnt spot.
Drew raised his eyes to look up at the sky, the thunder getting louder.
"Get to the caves. Now!" He said with wide eyes as it began to rain, drops of the burning water falling on to them faster and faster with every second. They quickly dashed to the mountains, growling and yelping whenever they would get hit with a drop of the acid rain. Soon it was pouring, and the three sprinted forward, ignoring the burning feeling that was now consuming their whole bodies. Drew practically pushed Satoru into the cave, breathing heavily.
"It's acidic," he explained, watching the hazy, almost white drops of rain smash onto the rock right outside. He heard a scream, one of agonizing pain, from not that far outside and cringed, shoving the other two further back.
"Someone is out there," Satoru said, scratching at the welts covering over his arms.
"Well spotted now shut up!" Mika stage whispered, sitting half on top of him in the small cavern. Drew took a deep breath and held his finger up to his lips. Satoru let out a yelp as he saw the figure of a girl with long dark hair. Drew recognized her- her name was Casey. She must have been following them.
Her face was covered in red welts, Drew noticed, as another agonized scream of pain escaped her lips. She collapsed a few feet away from them, her eyes starring at them, turning red from the drops of rain falling into them. He felt as Satoru grabbed on to the back of his shirt, pressing his face back against him. Mika's shaky breathing was right beside his other ear as he starred at Casey, watching her shake and convulse on the ground like someone had just electrocuted her.
The rain continued to pour, sizzling against the decomposing body of District Five's female tribute. Eventually the cannon fired, and Satoru peeked up, still clinging on to Drew, as he saw Casey's red, limp body being lifted out of the arena by the hovercraft.
"That's absolutely disgusting," Mika mumbled, still stuck behind Drew who wouldn't let either of them move incase the girl was travelling with company.
"Shut up," Satoru whispered, his hand almost white from how hard he had been clinging on to Drew. He was the only one of the three who actually faced another tribute by himself. Sure, Drew had fought off Derek, but Satoru was there as well. He was completely alone when he did, and Satoru was terrified of being caught again.
After almost an hour, the rain began to stop. Drew relaxed in front of the two and Mika crawled her way out, looking around, while Satoru stayed directly where he was the whole time.
"You okay?" Drew asked, turning around to face him in the tiny space.
"Sorry, I'm fine," Satoru whispered, letting go of his shirt finally. Drew took his hand and rubbed his thumb over the other boy's knuckles.
"Try not to take out your anxiety on my shirt next time, okay?"
Satoru blushed a little and gave a quick nod, moving closer to Drew as the blonde let go, edging his way out of the cave.
"The thing is," Mika said the moment the other two joined her, "Last time it rained I was out in it for hours and I didn't melt."
Satoru cringed slightly but Drew blinked, remembering the rain only vaguely.
"Maybe it's a pattern," suggested Satoru almost silently.
"it's only rained twice," Drew added in, shaking his head, "we can't count on that. For now we have to be extra careful as to what we drink and take for cover when it threatens to rain."
"Great. Another water source we can't use. They're trying to dehydrate us, aren't they?" Mika huffed, scratching at the now pink bumps that covered over her arms. Satoru swatted at her hands, frowning and shaking his head.
"Don't scratch, Mikki. Drew what do you think we should do?"
"Oh so now he's the mighty leader, is he?"
"He's giving better suggestions then you are!"
"You're just saying that because you-"
"Enough. Both of you, shut up," Drew chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "I say we find water, fill up and sleep for as long as we can."
"good," Satoru said, countering the No that Mika said at exactly the same time.
"Why not?"
"What if it rains again? The sky is still dark, we might get caught."
"It's a chance we have to take," Satoru nodded, moving over to stand beside Drew.
She grumbled, walking in front of them as they head out again.
"She's grumpy," Drew whispered to Satoru as they walked, biting his lip.
"She hasn't slept in days. Give her a nice cave and a sip of water and she'll be out like a light."
Drew smiled a little and moved so he was walking closer to the smaller teen. His body was still stiff and itchy from the burns, but it wasn't as bad as before.
okay, the blonde thought to himself. Maybe having allies isn't as bad as I assumed. I've got two people watching my back, and I really don't mind hanging around them. Just hope they don't stab you as you sleep now that you're not hurt.
Drew looked over at Satoru who was smiling a little, blabbering on with Mika who was about ten steps ahead of them. He looked calm, and completely harmless. The blonde from District Nine couldn't help but to trust him, and if that brought him to his death then it was his own foolish mistake. He was going to stay with Mika and Satoru as long as he could, no matter what happened.