Chapter Fourteen

"Madge! Madge!"

I open my eyes hastily and squint down at the ground, which is only a few feet below me. I didn't have the energy to climb higher last night. Fauna stares up at me, panting. Her voice is raspy and dry as she whispers, "Time to go. Come on."

I nod and untie myself from the branch. When I jump off the tree, pain shoots through my body and I yelp.

"Are you okay?" asks Fauna.

"Fine," I mumble. "Let's go."

But we are both so dehydrated and exhausted that every step we take attempts to finish us. My mouth is so dry that I can barely gulp, and the way Fauna clutches at her head every now and then shows that she is in pain, too.

We grab each other's hands and rely on the walking sticks to move forward. I see flashes of white around me, indicating rabbits, but I'm too worried to hunt now. What if I stop and I can never move again?

Two hours later, Fauna stumbles to the ground, pulling me down with her. I sit up slowly and look at my ally. Clutching her stomach, heaving breathlessly, she seems to be in even worse condition than I am.

"We have to keep moving," she whispers, even as she rests on the ground. "If we stay here, they'll find us. We'll die."

"There's no water," I argue. Weird shapes swirl in front of my eyes, so I simply close them. "Better to stay here and die in peace. I don't think we can go any forward."

Fauna shakes her head and sniffs, blinking back tears. "No, we – we have to go on! We have to!"

I open my eyes to argue, but the moment I do so, a silver parachute drops down from the sky towards us. The sight of this sponsor gift seems to give us a boost of energy. Fauna jumps up and takes out the gift hastily. A water bottle, the exact replica of the one sitting in her backpack right now.

"Did our mentors send us water?" I ask softly. Since we're allies, Haymitch will be working with the mentors from District 5.

"Only one way to know," she says. With a popping sound, Fauna uncorks the bottle and lowers it towards her mouth. But there is nothing to quench her thirst.

"It's empty," she says sadly.

"Empty," I echo. "It's my fault."

"Why?"

"I told my mentor, Haymitch, to help Peeta in the arena instead of me. That's probably why we got a stupid bottle instead of water."

"I guess I chose the wrong ally," smirks Fauna. She yanks on my hand and uses the walking stick to pull us up. "Come on, then."

"What do you mean? We have no water."

Fauna shakes her head happily. "There are two of us. So they sent us another bottle so we could have water on us at all times. Don't you get it, Madge? We must be near a water source! Why else would they send us this?!"

What she's saying seems to make sense. I'm not too sure, because my vision is still foggy and my head still heavy, but I put the new bottle in my pack, find my walking stick on the ground and follow Fauna through the forest.

As we walk, Fauna hands me a loaf of bread from her backpack. "If we eat, it'll distract us from the pain," she explains. Though the bread makes my mouth feel even drier than it was before, I break off a piece and chew and chew until the heavenly aroma of flour floods my senses.

"I miss Peeta," I tell Fauna as I continue chewing. "He is – was – a baker. His loaves tasted so much better... but this bread still reminds me of –" I cough, straining to catch my voice.

"Shhh," Fauna silences me, "it's okay. Save your voice." She coughs and wheezes, too, and after that neither of us speaks for another hour.

Now the sun is beating down upon us and even the walking sticks can't help us. Hunched over and breathless, we again collapse to the ground. This time, Fauna doesn't argue with me. "Fine," she whispers. "Death it is."

I grab the last piece of bread from my pocket and take a huge sniff. "I'll miss you," I whisper to the bread. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

As I close my eyes and wait for death, I can't help but wonder what the audience is thinking. Do they find me crazy for talking to bread, or do they understand that my words are meant for Peeta?

Peeta Mellark... I hope he wins the Games. I hope he wins the Games and doesn't hate me for being so crazy about me. I hope he's thinking of me right now. I hope he –

I inhale deeply to control my emotions, and I freeze. Wafting through the air is the scent of lilies. And where there are lilies, there is...

"Water!" I shout, only it comes out as a wheeze. Next to me, Fauna starts. "What?"

"I smell lilies, Fauna! Lilies! Come on!"

Fauna sniffs the air and stands up, too. "I smell it, too!" she exclaims excitedly. Laughing, we use our last bit of energy to jump through the bushes, stumbling through vines and pebbles until we at last fall into a small pond.

"We did it!" I say, giggling madly as I eagerly reach into my backpack for the water bottle. Fauna finds hers, and we both fill our bottles to the brim. I am about to take a sip when she stops me. "We have to purify it first." She adds a few drops of the iodine we found in the packs to each bottle and tells me to wait a half hour before drinking.

"A half hour? I might be dead by then."

"Well, if you drink dirty water, you'll be dead anyway. Let's wash up while we wait."

So I strip down to my underclothes and take my first bath in over forty-eight hours while Fauna camouflages her pack and keeps watch in the process.

The cool water feels like heaven on my body, the same way the hot shower water did during training. There's no soap, so I scrub myself with my hands and massage my scalp as much as I can.

I step out of the pond and get dressed quickly. It's a hot day, so I'll be dry in minutes. I sit down on a big rock next to Fauna. She smiles at me and shows me the neon-green backpack, which is now muddy brown. She has slathered mud and dried leaves all over the pack.

"Great job," I tell her as I attempt to detangle my hair. "You know, I would kill for some shampoo right now."

Fauna laughs. "Kill for some shampoo? Well, you might have to, since we're in the Hunger Games." She slaps me on the shoulder and says, "Ten minutes left. I might as well get washed up, too."

I smile and take in my surroundings for the next ten minutes – birds chirping, the slight breeze, the scent of lilies, the canopy of trees... if I close my eyes, I could be transported to the woods in District 12. Where there are no dangers, no restrictions. Where you can say and do whatever you want, and there's no one to look.

"Come on, Fire Girl," rasps Fauna, tapping me on the head. "Time to drink."

"Sounds like something Haymitch would say," I mumble to myself as I raise my water bottle and clink it with hers.

"To being allies," says Fauna.

"To being friends," I correct her, and take a big gulp of the water. A satisfied moan escapes my mouth as I down the whole bottle over the next three minutes. We refill our bottles, wait another half hour, and drink more.

As the sun begins to set, we pack our filled bottles away for the night and decide to sit down and relax for a few hours.

"Alright, tell me about yourself," I say, attempting to make conversation. "You already know a lot about me."

"I do," she says with a grin. "Madge Undersee, the Fire Girl, the mayor's daughter. Handy with a knife, a good person... madly in love with some blonde bread boy."

"His name's Peeta!" I exclaim. Fauna just laughs. "Alright, alright."

"There's nothing much to say about myself," she finally begins. "My full name is Fauna Flintworthy. I don't have too many friends back home, just one at school and two at work. My parents –"

"At work?" I repeat, confused. "Why are you working if you're still in school?"

"Everybody in District 5 has to work five days a week," Fauna explains, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world. "Adults must work twelve hours a day, but children only have to finish four hours. I do two in the morning and two in the evening."

"What sort of work do you do?" I ask her.

"Well, we supply energy and power to the whole of Panem. I don't do much. My parents are both power plant supervisors, so statistically speaking, we're better off than most other people in my district, although we could do with some more money every day. But I'm just a maintenance assistant. If something goes wrong, I fix it with the help of my superiors. So yes, I'm quite handy with most machines."

"Wow." I raise my eyebrows in fascination. "The only talent I have is... playing the piano."

"Music." Fauna shrugs. "Never really interested me. It seems quite useless, don't you think?"

"I disagree," I tell her. "It calms you down, brings inner peace, and sounds lovely to the senses. How is that useless?"

"Let's not get into an argument," she says with another shrug of her shoulders. "So how old are you?"

"Sixteen. You?"

"Oh, you seemed younger somehow. I'm fourteen," Fauna tells me.

"And you seemed older. You have two brothers, right? I saw a picture of them during your reaping."

She nods sadly. "Yeah. Twins. They're both younger to me by three years. Next year will be their first reaping. I probably won't even be there to console them if they –" She looks away and sniffs. "Let's talk about something else."

I look up and see that it's almost night time. "Actually, we should get going," I say.

Fauna looks at me and blinks in rapid confusion. I try to ignore the tear falling down her cheek. "Get going? Why?"

Now it's my turn to be confused. "What do you mean? We can't stay here all night long! Near a source of water... there are sure to be tons of tributes passing by through the night. No, we have to find a safe place to sleep in. Plus, we need to hunt tomorrow morning. Better to get a head start now."

Fauna disagrees. "No! I haven't heard a single cannon all day. No one's died today; the audience must be bored. The Gamemakers will think of something fun for us. It's better if we're closer to water, because who knows when we'll be able to return here next?"

We argue for a few more minutes until we reach each other halfway. We decide to find shelter five minutes away from the pond, so in case of an emergency, we'll still be able to return to the pond and find water.

Again, I climb high up on a tree and Fauna hides in a bush for the night. The anthem plays, and as Fauna said, no tributes died today. It surprises me how often she is correct. Since nobody died today, the Gamemakers will have to find some other way to bring us all together.

I snuggle inside my sleeping bag and hope for a peaceful night of sleep.

But of course, I'm not lucky enough to find peace.

"MADGE!" screams Fauna, rousing me from sleep once again. The moment I wake up, my first instinct is to untie myself from the tree and jump down. As I hastily stuff my sleeping back into the backpack, Fauna rushes towards me. "Do you smell that?" she shouts, her eyes bloodshot.

I nod. Smoke. I'm about to ask her where it's coming from when I get my answer. The tree I was sleeping in just seconds ago catches fire instantly, and as I look around, the entire forest transforms into smoke and flames.

"RUN!" shouts Fauna. Grabbing my hand, she pulls me forwards and we run towards the pond. It's five minutes away, and I think that we can make it, but the smoke engulfing our surroundings is getting thicker and heavier by the second. Fauna pulls her shirt up to cover her face and I do the same.

"Look!" I point towards the distance. Deer, rabbits and dogs swiftly run through the woods towards our pond. Fauna and I try to follow them, but they are too fast for us to catch up to. Tripping and stumbling on roots and branches that weren't there before, Fauna pulls me out of the way just as a flaming branch falls in front of our feet.

"We have to jump over it," I say. "We can't turn back now." We jump over it, our pant legs catching fire, so we pat our legs as we run through this blazing world that only the Gamemakers could have conjured.

Of course Fauna was right. Of course they had to do something to keep the Games fun. But fire? How much more sadistic can they get?

Wheezing and coughing, we find ourselves repeated jumping over burning logs and shoving our way through vines and bushes. The smoke is burning its way into my lungs now, so much that it is difficult to breathe.

"Just a bit more," says Fauna quickly. "Come on!"

And then, right in front of our eyes, is the pond. We exchange relieved glances and take off towards the pond –

Suddenly, the wall of fire ends. But instead, before we can even see them, two large fireballs blast into tree next to us. In an attempt to avoid them, Fauna starts running in a zig-zag pattern and I follow her, but one fireball sears my right arm as I run and I scream out in pain.

Fauna doesn't stop to look back but instead pulls me forward with all her strength until we are right in front of the pond. She shoves me into the water and turns back to look at the surroundings. There are a few deer and rabbits sipping water at this pond, but they take off the moment they spot us. The fireballs are still blasting the area before us, emitting a hiss before making contact with the foliage, but the forest fire seems to have quelled.

"Take off your jacket," Fauna instructs. I have to bite my lip to keep from shouting as she helps me take off my jacket. The portion that covered the right arm has been burnt off entirely, as has the sleeve of my shirt. I want to look at the burn but Fauna slaps my face away. "Don't look, okay? Let me put some water on that." She is trying to maintain a calm voice, but I can tell that the burn must be at least second-degree if she doesn't want me looking at it. She cups some pond water in her hands and splashes it on my wound. I sigh in relief, but scream again as the burning returns.

"Wash your palms," she tells me. I look at my palms and only then do I realise that they are burnt, too. Possibly from putting out the fire in our pants. I dip my palms in the water and, before Fauna can catch me, I look at the wound in my arm.

I almost throw up from the sight of my burnt flesh, searing red with painful blisters on the surface.

"I told you not to look!" exclaims Fauna angrily. She pauses to drink some water out of her bottle, and I do the same. Then she adds, in a trembling voice, "Look, I – I'm not going to lie. I'm a decent cook, and I can hide, but I'm no doctor. I can't – I can't heal this."

She flops down into the water and shakes her head. "I can't. I'm sorry. I can't."

"It's okay," I say, even though we both know it's not. A wound like this can't be healed with just water or even herbs. It needs strong medication that probably isn't even available in the districts. No, we need Capitol medicine. And that can only come from sponsors. And who would want to sponsor me, a girl who has been screaming over a burn wound when she should be thankful that she's alive?

"If we had left this area, like I wanted to, we'd be in a far worse condition," I say, trying to comfort myself, and Fauna, who seems to be in shock at her inability to do anything. I submerge my entire right arm in the water and find some more relief. "Thank God you wanted to stay close by. Otherwise..."

"I think the fire has stopped. At least in this area. The question is... did they stop it because we found water, or because there are tributes nearby? Or both?" asks Fauna.

I shake my head. "I don't know. But we can't just stay here like sitting ducks and wait for someone to find us."

The first ray of sunlight cuts through the trees as daylight sets in. "We should leave," says Fauna softly. "Can you get up?"

I nod at her. The pain in my arm is so severe that I don't want to pull it out of the water, but if I don't, we'll never be able to get out of here. With some help from her, I put on my jacket again and walk out of the pond. Before we enter the fireball zone again, Fauna waits for a few seconds as if assessing the situation, and then she shrugs. "You already got hit. They won't try to blast us again." She pulls her backpack tightly around herself and looks up at a tree. "Hey," she says, addressing me, "do you think you could climb up and look around? Maybe we could spot some tributes and go the other way."

I look at my palms, covered in small blisters, and then at my right arm. Choking out a sob, I shake my head. "I – I don't think so, Fauna..."

Fauna sighs. "So what now? Do we just continue walking and hoping that we stay clear of other tributes?"

"If only we had some medicine..." I look up at the sky and say in a soft voice, "Haymitch... I hope you're helping Peeta survive. If he's hurt, he'll need medicine. But can I get at least a little bit help here too? Please? Just this once, Haymitch. I promise."

"He won't be able to. Giving us that bottle was a grand enough gesture. I doubt we have enough sponsors to afford Capitol medicine," Fauna starts to argue, but I shush her when I see the silver parachute falling down towards me.

"Thank you," I whisper happily, as Fauna takes out the tub of medicine from the parachute. She stops to sniff it. "Medicine indeed," she says with a grin. Quickly she slathers some of it onto the burn on my arm with her fingers, and I gasp as the pain starts to subside.

"This medicine really works!" I exclaim. I stuff two fingers into the tub and massage the contents into my palms. Fauna applies it to her hands, too, and we watch in amazement as our hands turn from an angry red to a soothing pink.

"We have the best sponsors ever!" I say loudly, jumping up and down in joy. I have a sudden urge to sing, but since Fauna is here, I control myself. "Now let's climb that tree," I say to myself.

I find a tall tree than can support my weight whose branches aren't completely burnt off. Handing my backpack to Fauna, I gingerly put my foot on each branch slowly until I'm at least fifty feet high in the air. Then I look around. Behind us is the pond and dense forests. Not a tribute in sight.

In front of us, however... not more than ten minutes away is a blonde boy with a green backpack on his shoulders. He's limping, and his palms look a little bloody, but apart from that, he seems fine. Peeta!

But then I see something about half a kilometre behind him that sends a chill down my spine. I can't be too sure who, but there are two tributes, a boy and a girl, jogging down the road with weapons on their backs.

I get down the tree in a hurry, almost stumbling on my way down. But I don't care. Fauna must see the look on my face because she asks urgently, "What? Who is it?"

"Peeta's about ten minutes from here. But there are two Career tributes behind him – I don't know which ones – and judging by their speed, they'll find him soon. He doesn't know they're behind him, but he's limping, so he won't be able to run when he hears them."

Fauna hands me my backpack and says, "So which way do we run now?"

I shake my head at her. "No, no, no. You stay here and wait. I'm going to go find Peeta and bring him here. Okay? Before the Careers find him."

"Are you crazy?" She laughs hysterically and grabs me by the shoulders. "And what if the two Careers find you? They'll kill you! I'm not letting you go after that boy so you can get yourself killed!"

"Fauna!" I pull myself away from her grasp and take the medicine from her pocket. "Peeta needs this. I'm going to go find him. You'll stay here. Alright?"

"Madge, I'm not going to –"

"Please, Fauna! Stay here. Don't go anywhere. I'll find him. I'll be back. I promise!"

Before she can say anything, I stumble towards the forests ahead and I run. I stow the medicine inside my jacket pocket as I run hastily, not caring that twigs are snapping beneath my feet or that I can still smell smoke in the air. The only thought in my head is that Peeta Mellark is in danger, and I have to save him.

I run for about five minutes, and then I spot a rustling in the bushes. He must be hiding, attempting to camouflage himself. He must have heard my footsteps. Of course he did, I was louder than an elephant!

"Peeta!" I whisper quickly. "Peeta, it's me!"

The rustling stops, and Peeta steps out of the bushes, half-caked in leaves and dirt. "Madge?" he whispers back in a dry voice. "Madge!"

Even though he is muddy and dirty and somewhat bloody, I run forwards to hug the boy. He almost stumbles, and that's when I remember that he is limping. "What happened to your leg?" I ask him quickly, breaking away from the hug.

"Fireball," he answers. "But what about you? Where have you been? I've been looking for you everywhere, I –"

"Shhh!" I motion for him to lower his voice. Handing him the medicine, I say, "Take this and go left. Keep running straight ahead until you come to a pond. Fauna from District 5 – my ally – will be waiting for you there."

"But why are you –" he starts, but then stops when he hears the sound of footsteps behind us.

"Careers," I explain. "I saw them from up in a tree. Peeta, you have to run, okay? Run, and don't look back, and I'll meet you there."

The footsteps are starting to get louder as he shakes his head firmly. "I'm not leaving you anywhere. Either you come with me, or I stay here."

I want to punch him in the face; that's how frustrated I am. If we both run in the same direction, they'll find us. Peeta can't run fast enough with that leg, so he'll be the easier target.

"You go left or I'll punch you in the face, Peeta," I mumble to him angrily. "Don't forget, you're the one who taught me how."

Peeta chuckles weakly. "I've missed you, Madge."

"Run!" I exclaim, as the footsteps suddenly become hurried. They're not too far away. Possibly they've spotted us.

"But –" he starts, so I shove him towards the left and say, "Go! Just go, I'll be right behind you!"

Peeta looks at me once, his blue eyes reflecting his disapproval of my plan, and then he is half tripping, half jogging through the trees.

At that exact moment, the Careers sprint through the path and we see each other. The tributes from District 1. Glimmer and the boy.

"Finally!" shrieks Glimmer excitedly, pulling out an arrow from her quiver. The boy starts towards me when she stops him. "No, let me play with her first," Glimmer insists, her voice breathless and dry. The fire must have taken its toll on the Careers, too.

The boy frowns at her. This momentary distraction is enough for me to take the right fork and run, leading them away from Peeta and away from Fauna. I just hope there aren't any more of the Careers on the hunt right now.

I run in a zig-zag path the way Fauna did early, dodging arrows as Glimmer shoots them at me. There's no way I can outrun them, so I find a tree and start to climb.

But I'm so nervous and terrified that I slip and stumble my way up. Glimmer continues to shoot arrows at me, although her stock must be running low.

"Come on!" shouts the boy. His encouragement must be helping, because one of her arrows narrowly misses my finger and I falter. I step on a creaky branch hurriedly, and it gives way, and I tumble all the way down to the ground, landing on my right shoulder. The impact knocks the breath out of me.

"Finally," says the boy, grinning. "Let me do the honours now." Glimmer glares at him, but steps aside.

I try to sit up, but my right shoulder hurts so much that I can't put any weight on it. I must have sprained it!

"Good riddance, Girl on Fire," the boy exclaims, sprinting towards me to throw the spear.

I close my eyes, taking in one last peaceful breath. So I couldn't do anything rebellious. At least I saved Peeta. And Fauna. But for how long? The Careers will find them next. And then they'll join me, too. In death. At least my friends will be with me. At least Peeta will be with me.

That is all think as I brace myself for the hit that will kill me.