Chapter 12: Doubts

Sage's POV

Iris and I huddle underneath a large foliage of leaves from multiple bushes. It's a nice place to hide where no one can see us, but it doesn't help when we have to make a fire. Iris is laid out, her face pale and a bunch of moss around her wound. It wasn't getting any better and I had a feeling it was starting to get infected. I tried to find as many herbs as I could, but there was only so much I could do.

She's tucked under my blanket that I found in Sky's supplies while I'm leaning against one of the branches of the bushes around us. There's an awkward silence hanging between us; well, maybe awkward for me, but not for her since she's trying to deal with the pain on her thigh.

But I'm worried that the Gamemakers will send something else on us after all, it's been a boring day with no deaths. They've had an avalanche and a flood, what else could they send on us to drive us together? A fire? I shiver at the thought.

"Hey," Iris finally speaks, her voice edged with the pain, "Can you hand me some water?"

"Sure," I hand her the water bottle she had been carrying. I had filled it with the water in the river and had to wait for the iodine to purify it.

She takes a couple of sips, a bit of color coming back to her face, before setting it down and saying, "So, why are you helping me? I killed your friend, and you seemed like you wanted to kill me before, so what gives?"

I'm surprised in myself when I laugh and say, "I honestly have no clue."

"There's eleven of us left after a week," Iris looks at me with those gray eyes, "if you had left me I would have surely died and you wouldn't have to think about another Tribute, and you wouldn't have to be thinking how you might have to kill me later on."

She's right; I could have avoided all of those.

"But, I'm glad," She continues, her gray eyes growing soft, "I wish we could have two tributes win, though. But if I die, I want you to win so that my family will be better off."

I look up at her, meeting her gaze, as I say, "You really care about them don't you?"

She nods solemnly, "I do. They're more than half the reason why I'm fighting so hard to stay alive, even if I have a small chance."

"This again?" I force myself to laugh, "You have a great chance."

Iris just shakes her head and looks out through the branches of our small camp. I sigh and lean back, closing my eyes. I know I have to sleep, and somehow the water in the river beside me seems to calm my mind…

"Sage! Sage!" I hear the desperate, high pitched screams of Iris.

I flash open my eyes and as I'm awake I'm brought on by a brilliant heat. Iris is lying beside me, her gray eyes wide with fear as she's trying to get to her feet. I look around, trying to figure out what's happening, but now I know. It's a fire.

I jump up and grab my stuff, shoving it in Iris' back pack before helping her to her feet. She stumbles and gasps as her wound begins to bleed again from the pressure. I know we don't have much time left, so I drag her out, ignoring her grunts of pain.

Right when we're out in the open, we see it. The walls of fire descending on top of us, driving right towards us. And even though we're by the river, we're not safe. Iris screams and I drag her by the hand as we run. She tries her best, but we're lagging and the fire's getting very close. Too close in fact.

We rush away from the river in an attempt to flee the fire. We run up the hill and I know the slope is hard on Iris who is already in severe pain by just walking. But we have to keep going. So I lead the way, trying to get away from the blistering heat and depending doom of the flames.

But then something happens. Iris screams and her grip on my hand loosens. I whip around see her on the ground, screaming in horror and pain as her jacket caught fire on her forearm. I leap forward, ripping the jacket off of her, ignoring the horrible pain that pierces my hands as I toss it to the ground and stomp on it, extinguishing the flames.

"Come on!" I yell dragging her up. I can see tears in her gray eyes from the pain she's in and I try to hide my own.

My hands burn like crazy from when I had to rip the jacket off of her, and it's even worse when she grips my hand and I haul her up. But it gets worse from there. The walls of fire seem to be inching closer to us, surrounding us. I can feel the fire catch on my leg, arms, chest, everywhere. It isn't as bad as my hands or Iris' arm, thankfully, for the fire goes out almost immediately.

I don't know how long we run and I know Iris can't go on for long. The smoke is getting horribly thick and both of us start coughing. I can feel my dinner start to rise and I have to stop before I start vomiting. My limbs are shaking and I can barely get to my feet while Iris is on the ground, only half conscious.

And when my body is racked again when I vomit another time, everything seems to stop. The fire stays where it is, not bothering to chase us anymore. But the clouds of smoke around us are still thick enough to kill us. We need to get farther away.

Iris knows this too, but when she tries to get up, she squeaks in pain and falls back to the ground. She looks even worse than before and I know I'll have to help her, even though I'm weak and feeble.

I force myself to my feet, ignoring the stabbing pains in my lungs from the smoke. I get her to her feet, but we only go fifty yards before she collapses again. I let her rest before we move on again. It takes us a long time, but finally we reach a clearing.

Iris collapses, groaning and moaning in pain while I slide down beside her. I take a bit of time, trying to restore my energy, before helping Iris over to one of the rocks. It's too open here, but I know Iris can't go any farther. She settles down and I take a quick look at her wounds.

"Ok," I say, "I'll have to undress you a bit."

"Just do it," She murmurs, her voice weak and soft.

I nod as I slide off her boots and pants. I flinch when I see her thigh. The spear tip went in deeper than I thought and was much bigger. There's a gash on her leg as long as my index finger. It's split open again from all the running, revealing an angry red. I'm thankful that there's no pus, but it's still pretty bad.

I dig into the backpack we have and find some of my previous herbs I had found. Stinging nettle was great for reducing swelling and moss was pretty good as a bandage. I crush up the nettle before forcing Iris to eat it. It works like regular medicine does by reducing swelling and I'm thankful for growing up in District 11.

Then I wrap some moss around it, hoping it'll soak up the blood and protect it. I help her get into her pants again, but I leave her shoes off. Now I turn to her arm. With her jacket gone I don't have to take anything off. I grit my teeth as I see the burn. It's a bright, inflamed red that thankfully hasn't gone down to the bone. I don't know what to do except some things I have might help soothe it. So I chew up some of the herbs and rub it on. I ignore her gasps of pain, but then she sighs a little as it cools off.

"Do you have anything else?" I ask her.

"I have some burns," She replies, her voice a little stronger, "but they're not nearly as bad."

"Show me where," I tell her.

She had one on her ribcage (I'm quite surprised by how skinny she is) and one on her hand. But they were pretty minor; I'm still worried about her arm and leg. But my wounds aren't as bad, so I apply some of the herbs to mine before setting up camp.

I know it's a pretty open area and probably not safe, but it's all we have. We'll rest for the night before moving on. I put the blanket over Iris as she settles down on the ground. She rests her head on my lap as I hold her hand. I don't know why, but I like her closeness and I'm hoping I'm comforting her a little bit.

"Why did they do this?" She whispers suddenly.

"What? The fire?" I ask.

She nods.

"Because the other two times failed," I answer, sighing before continuing, "They've been trying to get us closer so that there's more action. But with the districts choosing us, most of them choose smarter people and stronger people, which is why after one week there's still eleven of us left. The flood they tried to get us to move closer, but that only spread us out because too many people got caught in it. The avalanche did the same thing. Fire was their only option now."

"And I bet it worked," Iris murmurs.

"Probably," I say, "hopefully no more 'natural' disasters will happen."

"No," Iris shakes her head, "now that we're closer, there will be more blood spilled."

I nod, "They want to get rid of us before the fun comes and the Career turn on one another."

Iris is silent for a moment before saying, "Sage, I don't think I'm going to make it through this one. If I die…please win it for us."

"You're not going to die," I look her straight in the eye, my dark blue eyes fierce, "Don't even think that. Ok? I'm not going to let you die."

Iris just looks at me as if she wants to argue, but for once she just agrees saying, "Alright, Sage."

"Good, now go to sleep," I murmur.

She nods and soon enough, she's deep in sleep as I watch beside her, seeing her small, skinny body rise and fall slowly from breathing.