Eleven. Already.
Enjoy.
.
"Alder, get over here!" Willow screams. I realize that I forgot to mention Alder's death.
"He's dead!" I say as I hand Bailey one of my knives. Willow stares at me in disbelief.
"What? Why the hell didn't you tell me? I just saved your life!"
"I'm sorry! I forgot!"
"Shut up!" Gloss yells. Brutus tries to ward of Finnick, but ends up with a trident in his chest. Boom. Both of my mentors are dead.
"Oh, is Brutus dead now? Just checking!" Willow snaps. She throws an axe at the woman from Three. I shove her towards the ocean.
"You were the one giving me the anesthesia!" I scream. She pushes back, slamming me on the ground at Cashmere's feet.
"I gave you that anesthesia after you came back! You had plenty of time to tell me!" Willow snarls. Gloss pushes me against the cornucopia while Willow and Cashmere start battling Finnick Odair.
"You're going to protect your allies, not kill them, do I make myself clear?" he growls. I nod and wriggle free of his grasp. Johanna is swiping at the Drunk. Blight pushes his way in front of her to get in a swing, but the Drunk knocks him to the ground. Loverboy sinks a knife into Johanna's back just as she's about to go in for the death blow. She screams in frustration and knocks him into the water. The Drunk reaches over to pull the knife out. He drives it straight into Blight's heart. Willow makes a strange choking sound and twitches. Two District 7 tributes dead within about two hours. I want to rewind everything, but it seems as if the world's gone into fast forward. Can I go back and get Alder? Can I go back and get Blight? No. I know that I can't, but I still hope that no one else will die.
Blight's cannon goes off.
"Damn it!" Willow whispers. She pulls out an axe and throws it at Finnick Odair. His arm is only scraped. While he's distracted, Cashmere jumps on his back and sends him flailing into the water. Firebomb is already running away, two little girls in tow. The Drunk and Loverboy join her, along with Finnick. They run off to the twelve o'clock section.
"We lost Enobaria, Brutus, and Blight." Bailey reports. "Come on, we'll be safer in the jungle." I stick a few axes and knives in my belt and start trotting off miserably. Gloss and I end up walking together.
"Gloss? Can you promise me something?" I ask. He laughs coldly.
"Sure, sweetie. Go ahead."
"I need you to keep Marvel, Cato, Willow, and Glimmer safe. I mean, we're coming down to the last few people and-" before I can finish my though, the anthem blares though the arena. Enobaria's picture is the first to show, followed by Brutus's. The boy and the woman from Three are next. Everyone from Five has now died as well. Alder and Blight's pictures go up after the morphling from Six. Willow kicks me in the shin as the faces of Bailey's partner, the male mentor from Nine, and Thresh are shown.
And then there's silence. We're all tired. We're all injured. Even Johanna is choking on her words.
"Head count, Willow."
"Four from One. Two from Two. One from Three. One from Four. Two from Seven. One from Nine. Two from Eleven. Four from Twelve. Seventeen left. Nine are in our alliance and seven are with Katniss. One's unaccounted for. Chaff." Willow says.
"This is how it went last time. The rogue from Eleven, the star-crossed-psychos from Twelve, and me." Cato spits viciously. Glimmer stands on her toes and whispers something in his ear.
"How did so many people die? I never heard their cannons." I say.
"Some died while you were in the jabberjay section. Others died in the morning, when most of us were still asleep. You were probably too zoned to he-" Marvel starts. Johanna nudges him in the ribs. Footsteps start pattering through the jungle. We hunch behind a cluster of bushes.
"-midnight. We'll wrap this wire around the tree. Katniss, Haymitch, you two will run the wire down to the sand. Make sure that the whole thing is in the water. Move over a few sections and wait in the jungle. After the storm, come meet us here. Finnick, and Peeta will be my guards. Rue and Primrose will stay up in the tree until there's approximately fifteen minutes left until midnight. We'll then go over to the eleven o'clock section. Is everyone clear?"
"Yeah, but why can't Peeta and I go down to the water?"
"You two are much more vulnerable together. Now, take the wire."
"Fine. See you at midnight, Peeta. Love you, Prim and Rue. Come on, Haymitch."
As the footsteps fade, we huddle together.
"Gloss and I can take the two going down to the water. Johanna and Marvel will lure Loverboy and the se- I mean Finnick- out into the woods. Clove and Willow will attack whoever's near the tree. Cato and Bailey will be their guards." Cashmere plans. We murmur our assent. Glimmer coughs.
"Oh, put her up in a tree." Willow snorts. Cato lifts the blonde up into a palm. Before he and Cashmere leave, I grab Gloss's arm.
"Keep Marvel, Willow, Cato, and Glimmer safe. I'm not going to be the first one to attack. There's seventeen left, and tonight is the finale." I whisper. He nods.
"Okay. I will."
"Swear to it."
"I swear. You keep safe now, too, okay kid?"
"Yeah." I rub my forehead. Seventeen out of forty-eight are still alive. Thirty-one are dead. By morning, I have a sickening feeling that the thirty-one will turn into forty-seven. Willow and I press against a thick tree. Marvel hands me something as he passes.
"Stay safe, okay?" he pecks me on the lips and moves on.
"You two are disgusting." Willow notes.
"Thanks. I appreciate it."
"Okay, let's go." Johanna says. She and Marvel start screaming every single profane word or phrase they know. Finnick and Loverboy are after them in seconds. Willow guides me into a clearing where the man from Three is guarding some wire. I fend off his weak attempts at fighting me and stab him in the heart. Cato and Bailey stand at the edge of the clearing.
"Cut that wire down." Willow suggests as the man's cannon goes off with a loud thud.
Wait.
The lightning is powerful enough to send a strong electric current through the wire. In theory, that much electricity could fuel District 3 for a few hours. It could kill. It could shut down some sort of electric thing.
Is the force field electric? Where is it? Since we're a fair distance away from the cornucopia, it should be close. And there's one smart person still left…
"Hey, I need the genius over here." I call. Cato comes running over.
"Yeah? What is it?" he asks. I punch him in the shoulder.
"Not you, idiot! Bailey!"
"Yeah?" Bailey shoves Cato out of the way. I hand her a knife.
"The force field. Where is it?"
"Oh, it should be just past this tree. My district partner died from hitting it. He was the stupidest person ever. Let me check." She says, and gathers a few stones. I watch her circling around the tree, tossing the stones towards her right. One of the rocks ricochets and whizzes over her head.
"Right here!" Bailey calls. I race over to where she's standing. Screams start echoing through the arena. Boom. Firebomb, the Drunk, Cashmere, Gloss, Johanna, Marvel, Chaff, Finnick, Loverboy. One of them is dead. I pray that it's Firebomb. Over my head, the tree rustles.
"Rue, stop moving! They'll hear us!"
"Sorry! Didn't mean to."
Cato peers up at two little girls. They freeze and stare right back. I know that I'm done killing people, so I offer a hand up into the tree.
"You two should get out of here. Go find safety, whatever." I say as they jump out of the tree. Firebomb's sister glares at me. It's a little scary how much she looks like Renee. I hand each of them a knife.
"Clove, why don't we just kill them?" Cato growls.
"I don't feel like killing anyone right now. What are you waiting for? Get out of here before I change my mind!" I shout. The girls run out of the clearing.
Another cannon fires. Fifteen left.
"Peeta! No!"
So now Loverboy is dead? Cato starts grinning madly.
"Clove. Look up." Willow shouts. I look at the sky. A swirl of clouds is starting to crackle. Tick tock. Twelve o'clock.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Bailey says. She walks with Cato and Willow away from the tree. Three cannons go off simultaneously. Boom! Boom! Boom! Twelve left.
"Clove. Get away from the tree." Cato yells. I hack off the wire and attach it to a knife. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.
As soon as the first blast of lightning comes spiraling down to the tree, I drive the knife into the force field.
My world explodes.
Real or not real? I am dying. The sky flickers and starts to crumble. Fiery chunks of shrapnel fly over me. The trees and the ground start flaming. The scream of a little girl can be heard, but there's no way that her cannon can be heard over the roars of the explosions. Does the cannon go off? I stare blankly at the roof of the arena as a tiny blue dot appears. The dot grows into a hole. A hovercraft descends through the hole and sends down a claw to wrap around my body.
I know that I am dead. I know that my actions in the arena will result in utter chaos. What is happening at home? Has the capitol sent their peacekeepers to kill my mother? Will they kill Renee? Sweet little Renee, who braided daisies. Sweet little Renee, who would paint the hilts of my knives.
No. I cannot help them. They will die because of my defiance.
I'm being loaded into the hovercraft as I start to lose consciousness. Real or not real? The face that I see is Plutarch Heavensbee's. Real. He starts injecting different liquids into my arm. Maybe I am alive, after all.
No, I am dead, I think as the world fades into never-ending night.
.
I smell finale chapter.
New release dates!
Chapter 12 of Quell: 1/25/14
Chapter 1 of the sequel: 1/25/14
