Chapter 11

In the morning, I wasn't so glad about the cauterization. The place where my finger had once been was throbbing, and, upon waking up and removing the bandage, I found that the skin was black and papery.

Blythe, who was currently on guard duty, saw that I was awake and examining my stub. She walked over and sat next to me. "Does it hurt?" she asked me.

"Like hell," I responded.

"Let me see," she told me. I lifted my hand, and she took it. After a few moments, she said, "The skin around the wound was burned worse than I would have liked, and the wound itself wasn't entirely closed by the heat, so there was a small window of time that infection could have crept in before it scabbed over. I suggest we find and administer some antiseptic immediately."

She got up and was about to walk over to the supplies when I spoke to her. "How do you know so much about this healing stuff?" She turned around and sat back down next to me.

"My parents owned a hospital during the rebellion. They took in any soldier that fought for our side and took care of them."

"How did you get so good at fighting then?"

"Victor taught me how to fight," was all she said.

"But why did Victor choose you as his girl prodigy?" She knew what I was talking about. Victor, her and Garth's mentor, had trained them specially, just like Bristol had trained Sheek and me.

"He broke his wrist," she said. I gave her a perplexed look, and she unwillingly went on. "When he came to the hospital to get it fixed, he found me throwing syringes at a homemade target in a backroom. I never missed, so he taught me everything he knew."

"That's a good story," I told her. "I wish I had a cool story as to why Bristol picked me. He just came into school one day, and he picked the strongest boy in the class."

Blythe laughed, and it caught on because I began to laugh too. It felt good to laugh, like all the tension in my body was flowing out. Unfortunately, our laughter woke up Cleota who had been sleeping uncomfortably close to me, and upon seeing Blythe and me sitting, laughing together, she gave Blythe a venomous glare.

I'm not sure if Blythe realized exactly why Cleota was glaring at her, but she got the message. She got up and walked to the supplies where she fished out a bottle of antiseptic. She tossed it to me, and with my left hand, I poured it over the wound.

By that time, Cleota had walked over and sat down next to me. We talked for a while until the rest of the group was up. I kept up the pretense of having a secret love for her, but it was making me sick.

Cleota was nice, but this secret love thing was very high-maintenance. I had to return the subtle winks when no one was watching. I had to tell her I loved her after every private conversation we had.

Not only this, but I was fairly sure that others were coming closer to figuring it out. Sheek gave me an inquisitive look when she woke up and saw me talking to Cleota without Blythe. Blythe wasn't approaching us to join the conversation, which surely meant that she knew something wasn't right.

Something had to give. If the four others banded together because that together Cleota and I were going to overthrow them, we would lose. I wouldn't be able to fight any two of them together. They were too strong, so this relationship was ruining my chances of success.

When we had all awoken and eaten some dried, salted meat for breakfast, the group started talking about where to hunt.

"We've taken out three of the people in the forest, which leaves how many left?" asked Garth.

"Eleven left in the arena, five that aren't us," stated Blythe matter-of-factly.

"Who are the five?" wondered Lex. He started to count on his hands: "The girl who can dodge anything, the big boy from seven, the two twelve year old girls, and one more."

Nobody seemed to know who the fifth person was. We decided that it didn't matter. "I say we start to hunt in the swamp," said Sheek. Her suggestion was seconded by Lex, Garth, and Cleota. Blythe and I were outvoted.

It was also decided that I should take the first watch of the day. I was perfectly fine with this, seeing as it meant being away from Cleota for a couple of hours. It would also give me time to see how my weapon skills would be affected without my finger.

The group packed weapons and emergency food into packs and set off within ten minutes. I accompanied them to the edge of the swamp because I was curious about this alien terrain.

The trees in the swamp were mangroves. The roots spiraled out just below the surface of the muddy water on the ground. The water wasn't very deep, so it was easy for the pack to walk through it. The only problem was that it slowed them to pace that would be lucky to make it a mile before they had to turn back and find me for lunch.

This presented a problem. They would hardly be doing anything if that was all th ground they could cover.

"We could leave an extra person behind and be back in the morning," proposed Sheek.

"Let's do that," said Lex. This kind of annoyed me. Lex had recently been trying to assert authority, ever since I had been injured. I thought he had been trying to take the position of leader.

"Fine," I said. "But who is going to stay with me?" Cleota immediately volunteered.

"No, not you Cleota," said Sheek. "It needs to be either Blythe or Garth because they are the best healers. Someone needs to be capable of helping Apollo out if his wound opens up again."

Everyone seemed to agree to this, except Cleota of course. It was decided that, because Blythe had taken watch last night, Garth would stay behind with me.

We sat around the fire, occasionally sipping from the pot of water that was constantly being refilled from rainwater in the rainforest. Little was said. My wound didn't open up again, but Garth thought that more antiseptic should be applied.

We were eating lunch when we heard something. It was a small sound. A sneeze, I recognized it as. It was faint because it had come from a ways away. We looked around and saw a boy who I recognized from District 8 on the edge of the rainforest. He had been watching us, but now we knew he was there.

He looked terrified. He got up, and began to hobble away. It was obvious that he had been injured and couldn't move very fast.

"Should we go get him?" asked Garth.

"One should stay here and guard the supplies," I reasoned. He agreed.

"Which should go?" he asked.

"We're wasting time talking," I said, getting up and grabbing my sword. I also took three knives and put them in my pocket.

"Be careful," he advised. "Don't make too much noise, Don't let him climb a tree."

I nodded, and set off running after the boy. When I reached the spot where he had been, I saw a clear trail of disturbed earth where he had dragged his bum leg. I followed the trail, and within ten minutes, I had him in sight. He looked over his shoulder, and a look of fear crossed his face.

I bridged the gap between us in only a few minutes. When it was clear that he wouldn't escape, he turned around to face me. He was slouched on his bad leg, breathing heavily. He began to whimper pathetically.

The whimpering was loud, and if anyone was near, they would hear it. I decided that I should shut him up as soon as I could. I was about to pull a throwing knife from my pocket when, suddenly, the whimper began to transform.

The whimper was no longer a whimper, it was laughter. The look of fear was no longer a look of fear, it was a smirk. The slouch was no longer a slouch, it was a strut.

I heard a thud behind me. I turned to see the boy from District 7 crouched on the ground after just jumping out of a tree. He was quickly joined by the girl from District 3 who had been out of sight on a low branch.

They all wore the same devilish grin. The boy from 7 had a sword. The girl from 3 was armed with only a knife, but I knew that evasion was her form of fighting. With my peripherals, I saw that the boy from 8 now had a club. 'Crap,' I thought.

The boy from 7 approached me first. "Hello, Apollo," he said coolly. "Let me introduce you to our group: this is Steffi," he said, pointing to the girl. "This is Levin," he said pointing to the other boy. Pointing to himself, he said, "And I'm Marko. We're very pleased to meet you."

"I can't say the same," I said mildly.

"We're going to kill you now," said Levin, trying hard not to burst out laughing. The rest of the group nodded, and Marko made the first move towards me.

He swung his sword, and I brought mine up to meet his, creating a terrific sound. He quickly whipped the sword around, aiming for my hip. I only just parried.

It was obvious that his blade was lighter and shorter than mine. I was doing my best not to let him get in close, but if I backed up too much, I'd be in range of the others.

When Levin joined into the fray, it became much more difficult. I could usually block the sword, but then the club would come flying and I would have to dodge it because I couldn't get me sword ready in time.

I was struggling to cope, and I wouldn't have lasted much longer when my best opportunity appeared. Steffi threw her knife at me, but it missed. It lodged itself in a tree on the other side of the fight. She was now unarmed.

I dodged one more blow from the club and made a run for it. As I passed her, I aimed a quick punch at Steffi, who, of course, dodged it. I ran as fast as I could, but Steffi and Levin were right on my heels. Steffi was faster, but she had no weapon, so she couldn't confront me.

When I reached the clearing with the cornucopia, Garth saw me high-tailing it out of the rainforest. I turned to face them again, and I waited for Garth to join me. But he didn't. I turned and saw him sitting by the fire nonchalantly.

"Are you going to help me?" I asked him, furious.

"Sure, I guess, if you can't handle it," he said mockingly.

When they saw that he had joined me, they retreated back into the forest. I turned to face Garth. "So you weren't going to help me?!" I screamed at him. He shook his head and raised an eyebrow.

"It was just a couple of kids. You couldn't handle it by yourself?" he asked me, the ridicule in his voice apparent.

"No!" I screamed. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Fine," he screamed back. "I will!" With that, he took a couple steps towards the rainforest.

"No," I said coolly. "You won't." And with that, I lunged forward and plunged my blade into his back. There was some resistance for a moment before I felt the blade burst forth on the other side. He fell to the ground, dead.

The cannon fired. I let the hovercraft take him, and I began to think what I would say to my group. How would I explain his death? How would I survive on my own until morning? Regardless, I had done what I had been planning to do from the moment I had met him in training: kill him.