Chapter 11 : Go It Alone
Evani woke up after a nice sleep. She noticed the sunlight starting to come into their little spring retreat. Obviously, she had slept through the night. It was then that she noticed Preston beside her, fast asleep. Part of her was angry that he had fallen asleep and no one had been on guard. However, she knew that he, too, was tired and the blanket over them both was his. There was a chill in the air so he could have been doing that to help keep her alive if it had gotten too cold last night. Evani couldn't be angry at someone who could have saved her life the night before.
"Preston." she said softly. "You need to wake up."
Preston jerked awake suddenly and noticed the light coming into the small area. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry, Evani." he apologized quickly. "I didn't mean to fall asleep last night. It just got really cold and I noticed you starting to shiver."
Evani held up her hand before shaking her head. "Don't worry about it, Preston. We're fine and that's all that matters." she said before pulling up her pant leg to check her wound and she frowned. "That looks dreadful."
"Here, let me look at it." Preston offered before moving to look at the wound. "Bugger, you broke all the stitches." he said, moving her leg a bit. "I can try to use some of your medicines to help it a bit but you don't need to be moving it. Even with all this medicine, I'm worried that it might get infected."
"That sounds bad but I can't just stay here. Someone will find us eventually." Evani pointed out to him as he started to work on cleaning the wound so that he could properly care for it. She winced a little. "Is it that bad?" she questioned him through clenched teeth.
Preston sighed as he continued to work. "It's not pretty, that's for sure." he explained, removing all the old stitches and beginning to clean the wound with some of the bottled water in his pack. "I'm just going to hope that they send you some kind of sponsor gift with a really highly effective healing cream while I do the best I can."
Evani watched Preston in slight confusion. She'd never had anyone care for her this much, aside from her family and a couple close friends. "Why?" she asked quietly, causing him to look up. "Why are you so bent on helping me and protecting me?"
Preston chuckled a moment before looking at her. "I do all this because I don't want you to die." he told her honestly before giving her a smile. "You also remind me of the good that's still around in these games. You surrendered your life to save the life of somebody else when you volunteered. That's reason enough for me to help you like I have." he admitted. "Plus, you're too pretty to die in such a violent place."
"Oh." Evani replied quietly, "I see. And thanks for the compliment." she thanked him with a slight blush on her cheeks. She watched him finish stitching up her wound and wrap it with the gauze. "So, what are we going to do now?" She asked him curiously.
Preston looked at her a moment before letting out a soft chuckle. "Well, I'm going to let it rest for now while I go find something for us to eat, I hope. You just sit tight and..." He began before seeing someone peaking over the wall and he raised his spear in defense, ready to chuck it.
The person peaking over gave a small squeak of terror before a thud was heard on the other side. Preston stood poised to still attack as he heard the shuffling of leaves and saw the person appear through the willow branches. "Merlin, sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you that badly." Emy said, apologetically. "I just came to see Evani and when I heard your voices..." she began, looking sheepish.
Evani gently grabbed Preston's jacket hem, causing him to lower his spear before looking over at Emy with a small smile. "I'm glad to see you're alright, Emy. Why'd you come looking for me?" she asked curiously, watching Preston move to lean against the rock wall with his arms folded.
Emy looked at Evani before kneeling down. "Look, I was talking to Melissa Barrister, the girl from Greece. I know that your mother is Ilyria and I know who her mother is." Emy told Evani, who looked down with a bit of an uneasy look. Emy sighed softly. "Evani, my mother is Artemis. She used to be Artemis Black but now she's Artemis Steele and she's my mother." she tried to explain.
Evani's head snapped up. "Artemis? That would mean that you and my mother..." she began to say before giving Emy a small smile. "That would make you my aunt. My mother always said that her mother had to have had more children. We just never knew who they were."
"My mother has been looking for Ilyria for the longest time but she could never track her down. She always knew, though, that she had to be out there." Emy explained with her gentle smile before looking down at Evani's leg. "Merlin, looks like you got caught early out the gate." she said with a concerned look. "Are you able to go far?"
Preston cleared his throat before shaking his head. "I'd have to carry her. It's pretty bad." he told Emy honestly. "Why?"
Emy looked at Preston before looking at Evani. "Look, we have a place down the river a ways. There's a few others there and it'd be safer for the both of you there." she explained to the pair. "Plus, there's more of us to gather food."
Evani looked over at Preston. "She does have a point. I would feel better if there were more people." she told him honestly. "You can still protect me but it wouldn't be as tough with more eyes."
"Alright." Preston agreed reluctantly. "We'll come join your group but I'll take care of Evani myself."
"That's just fine." Emy told Preston with a smile. "Come on, I'll carry the bags. We need to get moving while it's daylight so we can move camp soon."
Preston nodded, carefully picking up Evani. Soon, the trio was traveling towards the other camp site, hoping to add safety for numbers as they all were trying to stay safe and alive. It was a trip from their spring but it was a journey worth making.
Jamie and Jerika were still in their hideaway in the bushes. Jamie had been up for a while when Jerika woke up. The sun was peeking through the trees at their little hideout.
Jamie glanced over at Jerika after hearing her moving. "Good morning." he said quietly, eating an orange that he had found in his bag. "You should probably eat something."
"Okay." Jerika said as she found an orange in her bag and began to eat it before looking at Jamie. "Are you alright?" she asked curiously. Jerika knew he was pretty upset about the day before so she wanted to make sure if he was feeling better.
Jamie shrugged. "Not really. I'm still torn up about yesterday but I'll get over it eventually, I suppose." he told her honestly. "I feel bad about it but I know that there isn't anything I can do to change it. What's done is done."
Jerika nodded slightly, hearing what Jamie said. "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Jamie. It wasn't your fault. You were just scared and you fought instead of continuing to run." she told him honestly, putting her hand on his shoulder.
"I know but I can't help it, Jerika. She was like us, just trying to stay alive and do the right thing in this psychotic arena of death. I should have thought before I acted." Jamie replied before putting his hand over hers. "But thank you for being here." he said softly.
"You're welcome." Jerika replied quietly, moving to sit closer to him. "I wonder what happened to all the other tributes that didn't die." she wondered out loud.
"They're still alive out there somewhere." Jamie replied, finishing his orange. "Hopefully, they're hiding better than we are." he pointed out.
At that moment, a pair of tributes came crawling through the bush barrier and Jamie looked at them in a confused way as Jerika held her throwing knives in her hand with one ready to throw. Jamie quickly stopped Jerika's hand as he looked at the male of the pair.
"Xavier Barrister? Is that you?" Jamie asked curiously as the two tributes had frozen in fear.
The boy relaxed a little. "Jamie? Oh, thank Merlin that it's you." he replied. The boy, obviously Xavier, looked at the girl. "We're okay here. This is my cousin, Jamie Potter." he reassured her before looking at Jamie and Jerika. "This is Tessa Wesson. She's the girl from Salem Institute. Her fellow tribute, Zephyr, paired with mine, Fennel, and they joined that group of Careers that's trying to kill everyone." Xavier explained to the two.
Jamie nodded. "Pleasure to meet you, Tessa. I'm Jamie, as Xavier said, and my edgy companion is Jerika Astrid." he introduced before looking back at his cousin. "I'm glad to see you. Have you seen any of the others, like Emy or Sophia?"
"Nah, can't say I have. Honestly, I've been running since dealing with Fennel turning on me. It was a stroke of luck that I came across Tessa here." Xavier admitted. "Looks like you two have been doing quite a bit of running as well. You're nearly at the edge of the arena."
Jerika looked at Xavier, not fully trusting him yet. "Wait a minute. You expect us to just trust both of you when even your partners are part of the Careers. I don't know how much I'm buying of this, Jamie." she said to him, looking at her friend. "They could be spying for them for all we know."
Tessa looked at Xavier before looking at Jerika. "If I may..." she began quietly before sighing. "Look, Xavier saved me from getting chopped to bits by Zephyr. If he was working with Fennel, he would've killed me when he had the chance. Let us join you two. We've got no other allies."
Jamie looked at Tessa before looking at Jerika. "They're in the same boat as us. Besides, we could use some help since we're two of the youngest in this whole thing." he pointed out to Jerika before putting his hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, okay?"
"Alright, Jamie. I trust you." Jerika gave in, looking at him before looking at Tessa and Xavier. "However, we're going to need somewhere more secluded since we have extra people." she pointed out.
"I know." Jamie agreed before looking at Tessa and Xavier. "Well, we better get hiking. It's hard to tell how much daylight we'll get today and I don't want to risk a storm coming in."
"Right." Xavier replied with a nod. "We'd better get headed out."
With that, Xavier and Tessa joined Jerika and Jamie and the quartet began journeying through the lower terrain, trying to find a safe place to hide. It was different having additional companions to give more insight but it was helpful since Tessa knew more about camouflage and Xavier was skilled with survival skills. These games were starting to look up after all.
Author's Note : Whew, this chapter was interesting to write! I was pretty worried about the length but I hope you all enjoy the story. I've been a bit distracted with one of my other fanfictions but I hope everyone is enjoying it so far! Remember to review!
