Sorry for the long wait! I had exams all last week and the week before that I had the flu! But I finished this chapter tonight! It's going to be another wait for a new chapter because I'm extremly busy this week! But no worries.. this story will be finished!
Disclaimer: Suzanne Collins. I could only dream of writing something this amazing!
When I woke up the next day, I heard shuffling coming from above me. Peering above me, I could see Katniss putting away her sleeping bag and getting ready to leave. I wanted to keep her safe and make sure Peeta didn't hurt her, so Breckin and I needed to get a move on. Poking Breckin, he woke up with a small startle, but I used my pointer finger and gave him the 'shh' sign. He understood, so I pointed up at Katniss and he understood, meaning he agreed with my plan.
"Katniss!" I called. She looked down surprised and almost fell out of the tree. "Can we tag along?" She nodded her head and we all got down from the tree.
"I'm just looking around to see what the arena is like and what types of animals are here," Katniss simply stated.
"That's perfect!" Breckin chimed in.
The three of us now, have been wondering around the arena all day trying to observe our surroundings while also hiding trying to not be spotted by any other tributes. We were nearing cliff, when a sudden smell of smoke filled my nose. Turning my head, I saw a huge forest fire erupting and heading right toward us.
"Fire! Run" I screamed as loud as I could so both Breckin and Katniss could hear me. Without a second to spare, Breckin grabbed my hand and started running with me falling slowly behind and Katniss leading the way up front.
The fire was trailing right behind us and moving quickly, surrounding us in a ring of fire. We had been running and running trying to escape the evil clutches of the fire because our lives obviously depended on it. Suddenly, Katniss stopped running and jumped to the side. Looking up to see what she was jumping from, I saw a fire ball coming right at Breckin and me. Breckin jumped to the side and because we were attached by the hand, my body unwillingly followed his, with the ball almost burning my side. I was so scared, I felt like my heart would burst out of my chest.
No stop, we kept running and running when the Gamemakers threw another fire ball at us, coming from the side and all of us ducked. Once again, barely missing my hair. Now fire was surround us, leaving a very little path to run through. We were about to take the risk and sprint through the small hole when the tree next to us collapsed. Katniss got away without a scratch, so did Breckin but the tree caught me, making me fall and let go of Breckin's hand. I had tripped and my leg was stuck underneath the tree. Just my luck. I could feel the burning sensation is it burned through each layer of my skin.
"Breckin! Katniss!" I screamed for my life. Suddenly, another fireball erupted, and I heard a girlish squeak. That was most definitely not Breckin, but Katniss. Tears began pouring out of my eyes. This might be the end of me. Burning on wood. Almost the same ending like my mom had, on a stack, in front of hundreds of people. But I can't give of that easily. I will fight, til the very end.
"B-Breckin! Please! Help me!" I screamed in fright. I refuse to lose this fight. He turned almost instantly and when his eyes fell on my body being trapped by this burning tree, they bugged out. Breckin darted over next to my half burnt body and began tugging at my arms, with all his strength, but I couldn't budge. At this point, I almost became hopeless. I tried crawling and grasping the dirt and pulling my body, but it was no use.
"Breckin.. don't leave me," I pleaded, helplessly.
"Never," I barely heard him over all the commotion. He tugged again and again, finally having my leg released. Looking down at my burnt body, I could see blood dripping down my leg where my pants used to be, but are now ashes. The fire was still building up around us as sweat began dripping from my forehead. I tried to stand up, but the second I did, I collapsed because I didn't have any balance in my right leg.
"Breck, I can't walk!" I screamed over the collapsing of another tree, but it wasn't anywhere near us. Quickly solving the problem, he picked me u and threw me on his back and began running. We caught up to Katniss and saw her waiting for us in an area not surrounded by fire.
Glancing down at my leg, I saw that it was all a bloody mess and still hurt. It felt like I was lying on a bed of nails and one at a time, each nail sunk deeper and deeper in my skin. Thinking about it more, made more tears run down my face and I was groaning quietly in pain. Glancing up I saw another fireball headed right towards us.
"Duck!" I screeched. Just as it came flying at us, Breckin jump so the side.
He lost his balance and both of us went tumbling down a huge hill. I could feel each speck of dirt and each leave rubbing against my leg, making unimaginable pain shoot through my entire body. The entire way down, my screams filled the air, when we came to an abrupt stop. Breckin got up, threw me back on his back, grabbed Katniss's hand and sprinted away, together. As a team.
Soon, we came upon a small body of water and without thinking, Katniss and Breckin sprinted into it, obviously bringing me down with them. The second my leg was doused in water, a feeling of overwhelming happiness took over me, but a few tears still slid down my face. Breckin turned to me and sorrow was in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry Colt," He said with sadness seeping from each word. He looked so upset, but there's was nothing he could've done to stop it. It wasn't his fault.
"It's okay. Nobody could stop it. Katniss, are you okay?" She seemed to also have the same satisfying face on when we entered the water, that I had, as if she was also burned.
"My thighs pretty burned. You?" She winced as she looked down at it.
"My entire bottom right leg is burned. The skin is all gone," I answered. Just as she began to reply, we heard loud footsteps and whooping and hollering.
All three of us went quiet and still in the water. We tried to slowly maneuver ourselves behind a rock, so we weren't visible to whoever was coming. Peeking my head a little from out behind the rock, I could see the blond beauty my heart was stolen by. Soon after him, the whole career pack and Peeta trailing behind, were there.
"Look! There they are! There they are!" I heard from the voice I assumed to be of Marvel's. My heart began beating so hard, I thought it would break through my rib cage. Soon all the careers and Peeta's eyes fell on us.
Katniss darted out of the water, with me and Breckin following suit behind her. I could hear the careers screaming and laughing while running for us. It's disgusting how they can laugh in front of their prey, just as they are about to kill them.
"We got you now!" I could hear Cato say. It's like he's pretending that I never existed and that the things that happened between us, even the small things, meant nothing. He was holding my heart in his fist, and squeezing it tightly, breaking it.
Following Katniss, we ran into a circle of trees. Katniss picked one, and we followed. After she had climbed around 15 feet up, Breckin helped me up a few feet, than climbed over my body, protecting and helping me. Climbing together, we eventually reached as high up as Katniss, which was probably over 75 feet up.
"You okay?" Katniss asked with concern in her tone, as I panted. Climbing a tree, only using one leg to support yourself, is harder than it seems.
"Fine, you?" I responded. She nodded her head, as the careers and Peeta caught up with us.
"That's not gonna help you up there Katniss!" Glimmer shouted, cackling. She was starting to get on my nerves, thinking she's all that and what not.
"Go man!" I heard Marvel shout. Peering down this high tree, I could see a small figured, who I assumed to be Cato, attempting to climb the tree. What's he gonna do when he gets up here? It's 3 against one. I'm almost positive he's not gonna make it. I grasped Breckin's jacket tightly, still glancing down. Breckin held both Katniss and me, close to him.
"I'm coming for yeah!" Cato shouted when he was about twenty feet up. He was still climbing as he spoke, when he grabbed a branch, not meant for a lot of weight and he fell down all twenty feet, landing with a huge thump!
Glimmer huffed and grabbed her bow and arrow that I could see Katniss had been eyeing the whole time. She prepared the bow and launched an arrow up at us, barely missing Breckin. As an instinct, I pulled him even closer to me. Cato angrily grabbed Glimmer's bow and shot another arrow up, missing us by a long shot. Now we all know archery is not his strength.
"Maybe you should throw the sword!" Katniss hollered down. I gave her a look of panic, but before I could speak, she whispered back, "I know what I'm doing," and continued.
Looking down at the small, now ant-like figures, I could see Peeta walking over to Cato and saying something to him. Cato shot him a look, but whatever Peeta said saved us because everyone dropped their weapons and a few people walked away, while the others stayed. Looking up at us, I could see remorse and sorry written all over Peeta's face, but I don't think any of us could ever trust him again. Soon Peeta followed the careers that also walked away in a different direction than the others.
Right as they left, Katniss and I looked down at our burns. Mine appeared to by much worse than Katniss's, but hers was still very bad. As I looked down, I noticed my skin was practically gone, sparking tears in my eyes. Breckin was holding me tightly, in an instant and kissed the top of my head.
"Everything will be okay, I promise. We'll get sponsors," Breckin said, attempting to reassure both Katniss and me. Nodding, I hid my face in his jacket and cried silently. I could hear Katniss wince and I looked up to see her trying to cover the burn with her sleeve so it wouldn't get infected.
Soon, it became very late, and it turns out, the careers weren't leaving us alone. They built a camp right under our tree, waiting for us to come down. Katniss and I were still in a great deal of pain, but we had to suck it up for the time being. The careers now camped out down below us, had a small fire burning, not afraid if anyone saw them, because they knew that they were more superior to the rest of us.
Carefully watching every move Cato made, I noticed him putting the tip of his sword in the fire and chuckling. If that sword were a person, I could only imagine how painful that would be, oh wait, I can imagine that. Soon, he put the small light out on the tip of his blade, by spitting on it making Glimmer laugh. You can tell she had a thing for him, infuriating me. Peeta glanced up at us, but mostly Katniss. I could tell by how intently he was watching us, more like her, that he so badly yearned for her love back.
Beep. Beep.
I could quietly here in the distance. As whatever that beeping came from got closer, I noticed that it was actually gifts from sponsors. Breckin was right, we would get sponsors, and two of them! One landed near Katniss and the other landed near me. Both of ours were a metal tub, but mine was at least three times bigger than hers. We both quickly removed the parachute attached to the tub. Attached to mine, I saw a note. The note read:
"Please be careful next time. Apply this on your burn, it will help. I love you, be safe
Finnick"
A small smile crept on my face as I remembered him. For a few hours, he escaped my mind, but this note brought him back. I love him too and I missed him so much. Opening the tub, I saw a shiny liquid sparkle in the moon light. I stuck my finger in it, to feel it cold and mushy. I knew this was something helpful, because Finnick wouldn't send me something useless. I did as the note said and began rubbing it on my leg. The first time it came in contact with the gel, it burned, but soon became very soothing. When my entire bottom of my right leg was covered in this gel, a sigh of relief escaped my lips.
"What was in yours Katniss?" I asked quietly.
"Something to treat my burn," She answered back quickly.
"Me too," I replied.
We got out our sleeping bags and covered our legs with them. Breckin and I shared one because we were right next to each other again, while Katniss was on the branch above us, just like the first night, but tonight we knew she was there. Breckin very carefully, tied the rope around our legs to secure us up there. Throwing his arm around me, I snuggled into him and fell into a deep sleep, blocking out all the sounds, except for Breckin's heart beat.
so what did you guys think? Did you like it? Yes? No? Comment and tell me what you think thus far! Thanks!