"Gale, run!" Madge shouts, pushing me forward. I keep my eyes open as I leap over logs, dodge branches. In seconds the entire world around us is filled with fire, the air filled with smoke. Moments ago we were sitting, having a conversation, and now we're running for our lives. I don't know how I do it, honestly, how I maneuver through the falling trees and burning pillars in the woods. I keep my eyes open for animals but I can't seem to find any, they must have fled earlier or haven't fled at all. I was hoping I would be able to follow their steps but that doesn't seem to be the case.
"Madge!" I call back to her. I need to know that she's behind me. If not I'm turning around.
"I'm following you," she chokes out, "so watch your step!" I nod despite the fact that she probably isn't watching my head. This is no accident; this fire was created just for this purpose. There haven't been enough deaths to satisfy the audience, and having both the girl and boy on fire in the same area is basically an invitation for this sort of trap. I force my shirt up my nose and breathe a sigh of relief; it's coated in sweat which gives me a bit of a filter from the smoke. An entire tree collapses in front of me and I freeze in my step, Madge plummets into my back. "What did I…" she looks up as the tree burns, then grabs my shirt and pulls me to the left. My footsteps follow after hers until she trips over a root, landing on her wrists. She screams in pain and I drop down next to her.
"Are you alright?" I ask, paying no mind to the fire circling around us. She forces a nod although tears are pricking at her eyes and I grab her waist, pulling her up before she can protest. I know she must still be in pain but we don't exactly have time to sit and nurse the wounds. Suddenly I start coughing, heaving until I can't breathe and I have to pause to catch my breath. I can't stop coughing; it feels like a lung's going to come up sooner or later.
"Gale!" Madge screams and her eyes widen. I turn around to see what she's staring at and jump in her direction, throwing her out of the way. A fireball sizzles in the spot we had been standing and she pants. "What are they trying to do? Kill us?"
"Yes," I force out between choking coughs, and then she stifles a laugh. The sound makes me nervous in this situation but I can't wipe the smile from my face. That is until another fireball is shot in our direction. I grab her body and pull her out of the way. A tree behind us goes up in flames and Madge's eyes widen as she continues to stumble backwards from it. She picks up her pace despite unable to carry on much longer, fatigue is evident on her face, and attempts to hop over a log. Her legs aren't long enough and she doesn't give it enough bounce. The cuff of her pants catch on fire, she rolls on the ground to extinguish it while grunting in pain. Charred skin covers her leg and parts of her pants dissolve when she touches them.
"I'm going to be sick," she murmurs, pushing the crumbling fabric away from her body. She's been inhaling too much smoke; Madge never pulled up her shirt like I did. I keep my eyes peeled as she takes a deep breath, pulling her shirt over her mouth like I have. "Let's go," my eyes widen again as another fireball fizzles behind her, a quick spark signaling it's coming right for us. Again I don't hesitate, leaping onto her and pressing our bodies flat against the ground. Her body makes hard contact with the ground and I smother on top of her. "You're heavy," she croaks out.
"Sorry," I mumble, pushing myself off and helping her up. She holds her stomach as I quickly reach into my bag, pulling out the water bottle and handing it to her. Madge turns around and dry heaves a bit, it makes me wonder if she's had anything to eat. "Drink this," I force it into her hands and keep my eyes on watch as the fire closes in on us.
"We've got to go," she chokes out again, but she sips at the drink all the same. She's sweating and her eyes are stinging with tears. She blinks a few times and croaks out my name, widening her gaze in my direction.
Before I'm able to move again the fireball catches my left shoulder, I wince and let out a hiss through my clenched teeth. I hold curse words back and make my way to her as she squeezes the water bottle on my shoulder. "Now," I mumble, unable to get my words to sound audible. "Now!" She stands up and we start running again. The water bottle finds its way back into my hands and I hear Madge on my tail. "Stay behind me!" I shout, no longer able to feel anything in my arm or my hand considering they're both covered with red welts. I run and I duck and I dive and roll until I'm on the edge of the woods. Only then do I turn back to see Madge. The problem is that she stopped following me.
Panic gnaws in my stomach and I hear a cannon ringing in my ears. My heart drops as I stumble into the wheat field, the effects of the fire finally beginning to wear off. I collapse and gaze up at the sky. It couldn't have been Madge, but what if it was? I wait a few minutes, the sizzling of the woods behind me, and take a few breaths. I just have to wait. I have to wait for the picture in the sky. If it's Madge… God, what was the last thing I said to her? She to me? I think she called me heavy. That's it? That's all I'm going to get? Her forcing me back on my feet as she sips from my water bottle, I can't remember. I can't remember.
I turn on my side and vomit my breakfast up, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand before slowly getting up and trekking toward base camp. My entire body is covered in ash, I feel like I'm submerged in smoke. I shrug my shoulder every few feet to see if I can feel but all I get is a spike of pain. I try to focus on other things, the fact that I saw Madge and that she was alive. She might still be alive. Her blonde hair knotted up and spilling down her face, the way her eyes met mine. Curiosity overwhelms me as to how she got that scar across her cheek, as to how she manages to keep herself alive. Does she hide and wait for attackers, does she attack them? Eventually I decide that isn't the thing I should be focusing on and I think back to the meat. I didn't get to check all the snares but I got a few and that should last us a bit. I'm just craving meat. I force my way back to camp and throw the bag in the center before collapsing backwards.
"Well, if it isn't a pleasure to see you too," Thresh mutters, reaching for the bag and pulling out what the snares caught.
"Did you hear a cannon?" I mumble, pulling the hand I can feel across my face. Despite not trying to think about it, I have to. She can't be dead, she was just there, just here. I was just holding her, I swear I could smell strawberries and sugar. That wasn't my imagination, that was her, she was here.
Thresh raises an eyebrow, "No?"
"I heard one," I choke out. "I think it was Madge." Thresh says nothing but starts to skin the rabbits. "Are you sure you didn't hear a cannon?"
"Yeah," he says. "No cannon." As much as I try to trust him on this I can't. There are plenty of things that could have sounded like a cannon to me, plus I was panicking and rushed. If it wasn't a cannon then I abandoned her in the woods. If it was then I let her die alone. What's better? Neither. Neither are better. I squeeze my eyes shut and peel my jacket off of me so I can get to my shoulder. "Damn, Hawthorne, what the hell happened?"
"Fire," is all I force out.
His lips curve into a smirk, "Very suiting for you." I groan and reach for the water bottle again, I don't need him going off about how I nearly ensured that trap for myself considering my opening ceremony costumes. I pour a bit of the water onto the wound and cringe, it makes my fingers tingle.
"Fireballs are shit," I groan. "Why does everything happen to me and not to you?"
"You're the boy on fire," the smirk stays plastered on his face. He went for the comment anyway. "It was only appropriate you burn." I ignore his remarks and start to dig through the backpack we have stuffed with medical supplies, looking for anything to stop the burning. I find one cream and spread it over only it doesn't work as well as it should, stinging a bit more than necessary. "Where'd you get that?" Thresh motions towards the quiver stocked with arrows and the bow that I threw down alongside the backpack.
"Madge," I say. I turn back to the arrows and a grin creeps onto my face. I forgot I had them. She gave them to me, she forced them into my hands. Madge. Her name makes me cringe, she might be dead.
"Wait, so you saw her?" he narrows his eyes and pulls the new weapon into his hands. "I thought you were just assuming the cannon was hers." I thought he didn't hear a cannon.
I flinch as the thought of her dying hits me again. "Yeah I saw her," I fiddle with the tube of medicine in my hand and scrunch my nose.
Thresh raises an eyebrow, "And you didn't kill her? She didn't kill you?"
"She saved me," I tell him. "I couldn't kill her. Not because she saved me but because she's Madge, she…" I scrunch my nose and throw the tube on the ground. "Forget it." Thresh nods once and I take the new bow and arrows into my own hands, forcing myself to think of something other than the blonde that haunts my thoughts. The Games just got a bit easier with this new advantage I deem myself to have. I could sit in a tree and just take out my opponents, I can hunt now. I twirl through the arrows, all 12 here, and pull them out to inspect each. One of them catches my eye, and then I realize a few of them are covered in some sort of dried substance. "What's that look like to you?" I ask, handing one of the arrows over to Thresh.
He takes the point carefully into his hand and studies what I'm talking about around the tip. "Looks like blood," he says. "Where'd she get these arrows?"
"I don't know," I take it back into my own hands.
"You don't think…"
"I don't know," I say again. And it doesn't matter, I remind myself. I sincerely doubt Madge killed anyone with this bow and arrow, and if she did then she did it to stay alive. If she had been good with the bow, good enough to hit someone, then I doubt she would have given them to me. There are a million things I need to be thinking but I just can't, all I can hear is her voice, her gentle voice so quiet in my ear.
She was following me, she was right behind me, and then she wasn't. I could've saved her, should've saved her. "I didn't hear a cannon," Thresh suddenly says. He must see the agony on my face as I contemplate her basically imminent death. "Considering I was sitting here the entire time I doubt there was a cannon. Okay?" I nod, maybe it's better if she dies. "We'll just have to wait for tonight." If she dies now then I won't have to deal with the pain later. I'll just have to deal with it now, force my way through the Games without the thought of a pretty blonde.
It wouldn't matter anyway. Only one of us can go home. I'll have to face it eventually, especially if I plan on hopping on that hovercraft when this is all over.
I busy myself the rest of the day by going to the lake and washing my new weapon. It's weird scraping dried blood from them, I'm sure it isn't animal blood either. By the time I make my way back to Thresh he's got both rabbits skinned and a nice fire started, roasting a bit of what I caught.
The sun slinks into the sky and I keep trying to move my shoulder. I don't know if I should let it air out or if I should wrap it in something. I literally have no idea. I knew I should've paid more attention to Mrs. Everdeen when she was healing miners on her kitchen table. Katniss would run away and cringe but I happened on a few burns once or twice while stopping by the house. I squint my eyes and try and figure out what to do when I realize Haymitch hasn't sent me jack shit since I've been here. My eyes snap all the way open and I stare at the sky, half expecting him to read my thoughts and send a silver parachute my way.
"Man this hurts," I mutter, wondering if I can get the clue that I'm in antagonizing pain and need his help. "Any sort of medical help would be great." Thresh raises his eyebrows amusedly, also looking towards the sky.
"Not gonna happen," he laughs. "Your mentor obviously dislikes you. Likes to see you in pain." I make no mention of how his mentors haven't sent him anything either.
"I'm just hoping he's passed out drunk and Effie will pester him when he wakes up," I tell him. I know it's not going to happen though.
Thresh and I feast on our small strips of fresh meat, I openly sigh as I take the first bite. The juices flow into my mouth as I wipe my lips on my sleeve. Nothing has ever tasted better. Nothing. No amount of Capitol food can compare to this meat in this moment, this sweet taste that trickles down my throat. As we fill our stomachs without wasting too much food the Capitol emblem rises in the sky.
I watch for the picture of Madge to flash by but it never does, I let out a sigh of relief. There has, yet again, been a lack of deaths. I know it must be frustrating some of the Capitol citizens, but hopefully the fire that I fought through today will be enough to keep them settled. I also can't help but think about Madge, why she was whistling, if she got to wherever she needed to go. My stomach aches as I wonder if she made an alliance with the careers after all. Maybe she just wanted to get back to her camp before anything happened to her. I remember she didn't have on a backpack, didn't have anything with her but the arrows. Maybe that was all she had and she's been living off the wilderness.
However, there's an announcement and it pulls me from my thoughts. I nearly laugh at the idea of it being a feast, we're good here for a bit longer without having to strangle other people for food. Others might not be, but we are. My assumption that turns out to be wrong. No one's being invited to a feast. "Hello tributes!" Claudius Templesmith is calling down to us. "Firstly, I would like to congratulate all who have made it this far!"
"As you should," I mutter. Quicksand. Poisonous snakes. Fire. It hasn't exactly been the trip of a lifetime.
"However, there is some exciting news I would like to share! For the first time in history, there is a rule change!" I turn to Thresh and raise my eyebrows, finding him doing the same in my direction. "If the two remaining tributes are from the same district, both shall be deemed as Victors! That's right, two tributes shall become Victor's if they are the last ones standing. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" Two. Two winners. Me. And Madge. Me and Madge.
I pause as I try to process the thought but then notice Thresh moving out of the corner of my eye. Without hesitation I reach for my bow, loading it with an arrow and aiming it at him, pulling the string back and threatening to release. When my eyes focus I realize he's holding his knife up, poised to throw. "We find them," he says. "Once we find them then we split. Deal?"
I eye his weapon, "You gonna kill me?"
"No, are you gonna kill me?"
"Not right now," I smirk. He lowers his knife first and then I lower my bow, keeping the arrow drawn just in case Thresh decides to change his mind. "Tomorrow?" I know exactly where to find Madge, and then I'll even help him find Rue.
He nods, "Tomorrow." He takes first watch, saying something about the fire wearing me out, and I let him without questioning. Maybe he'll kill me in my sleep. Maybe not. I'm too high on the idea that Madge and I will both be going home to care.
A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long! I rewrote this chapter a zillion times and was still iffy about the final outcome. Thoughts?