Crash Landing: Chapter 14

Hey, guys. I know I haven't updated in over a month, and I am extremely sorry for that. However, I do have several excuses. The main one being that I've been away. My family and I were in Turkey for just over two weeks and got back this Saturday. The second reason is simply that I've been avoicing this chapter. We all know what's going to happen and I just couldn't bring myself to write it. I got about halfway before having to stop. The rest of it was written today and yesterday, but I've finally finished and here it is.

HeyJude95, I knicked some of one of your comments because it fit in really well. And double-oh-nothing, I don't know if you're still reading this. But remember I promised to incorporate your idea into the story? Well I finally have.

So... Enough putting it off. Here's the chapter.

I wake to the rain splashing down on my face and seeping into my hair. Squinting, I open my eyes cautiously before the pain registers in my head and I close them again. Breathing steadily, I push past the pain and try to remember what happened.

Thresh.

Monster boy.

A fist flying towards my head.

'Dammit!' I swear, my eyes flying open and instantly getting a face full of rain. I reach up to wipe the water away and struggle to sit up. That's when I realise that I'm in Thresh's sleeping bag. And he isn't.

'Dammit!' I force myself out of the bag and stand up, only to stagger and clutch my head as a shot of pain rushes through it. That guy's got a mean punch. It takes a heck of a lot of force to knock one of us human-avians out and Thresh managed it no problem and gave me a pounding headache to wake up to.

Thresh.

Is he dead? Still fighting? How long have I been out? I grit my teeth at his stubbornness. I should've realised he would try something like this; find a way to lose me so he could engage Monster boy alone. Shoving the sleeping bag away from me, I scan the surrounding area for tracks or any indication as to which way he went. But the rain has washed away any footprints and the wind has blown the stalks in so many directions, it's impossible to tell which is the track he carved through them.

Then I hear the cry. It's faint after the echo of thunder, but loud enough for me to be able to hear the agony in it and clear enough to make my blood run cold with recognition. Thresh is still alive. But for how much longer? Can I still save him?

Damn the cameras. Damn the Capitol and damn secrecy, my friend's in trouble.

Taking a running start, I leap into the air and snap out my wings, pushing down hard, then pulling them up to gain altitude. Flying in a storm like this is dangerous, especially since the storm is artificial and no doubt all aspects, including the lightning, are being controlled. It's hard to see through the torrential rain, but I can see enough that if I stay at this height, I'll be able to make out the dark shape of a human on the ground.

Flying in circles, spiralling outwards from where I started, I let my eyes sweep over the terrain. I don't dare call out for him, less Monster boy also hears and decides to end the fight quickly. All the time, my ears are pricked for the dreaded sound of a cannon.

I lose track of time, focusing everything into finding Thresh as quickly as possible. Every second feels like a minute, every minute is an hour so I truthfully have no idea how long I have been flying for before I finally spot two dark figures shaded against the rain.

Without stopping to consider anything, I turn in a sharp arch and fly straight for the figures. One is on the ground; Thresh, and the other looms above.

Monster boy.

I don't even try to slow down before I slam into Thresh's attacker and send us both tumbling to the ground. He's caught completely off guard and I easily wrench the knife in his hand away from him.

'Wha… What the hell?' he splutters, struggling blindly against me.

'Leave. Him. Alone!' I snarl, punching him with every word. Monster Boy finally pulls himself together and kicks out, forcing me to roll off him to avoid it. He scrambles to his feet, but I shove him back and he stumbles again. Once he's regained himself, he turns to attack again, then stops as his eyes freeze on my wings, still unfolded behind me.

'Mutt!' The word flashes me back to when I first met Thresh and he accused me of the same thing.

'Not mutt,' I reply, my voice as cold as ice. 'Worse.' Drawing myself up to my full height, I'm about an inch taller than him and with my wings spread out to their full fifteen-foot span; I'm clearly a terrifying sight illuminated ominously in the lightning because fear enters his wild eyes.

'Who… What are you?' he stammers, taking a step back.

'I'm the Angel of Death.' Cheesy and unoriginal, but I've got to get him away from Thresh. 'And if you don't get out of here right now, I swear to every fibre in my being, I will kill you!'

Monster boy backs away another two steps and for a moment, I think he's going to run. But then he suddenly darts forward and around me and the next second, Thresh cries out. I whip around in time to see the attack and duck as Monster boy swings a sword, slimed with dark blood, at my head.

I blur into motion, my anger fuelling my movements. Slipping around Monster boy, I grab him around his waist and heave him over my shoulder so he lands in the mud behind me. Then I reach down and grab his sword, flinging it away as hard as I can into the stalks. Monster boy scrambles back, now weaponless, his eyes wide with fear and madness. I take a threatening step towards him, hard fist raised and ready. He wrenches himself to his feet and shoots off into the grass like a bullet from a gun.

He won't be back in a hurry.

The immediate threat gone, I turn back to Thresh… And my blood freezes.

Despite the torrential rain, blood seeps out of more laceration than I can count all over his body. His arm and leg are bleeding badly and there's an unsteady rise and fall to his chest that accompanies his ragged breathing. I begin to feel sick when I see the two knives, embedded in his hands, pinning them to the ground below. His stomach has practically been torn open, a large wound that can only have been cause by a sword. Monster boy must've twisted the weapon when he pulled it out, leaving this gaping injury. From what I can see, no vital organs have been hit, but it's a deep wound.

The kind the kills slowly.

I drop down onto my knees beside my friend and his eyes flicker over to me after a moment.

'Hey,' he says weakly, his voice sounding scratched. I shake my head.

'You noble, selflessly idiotic boy,' I scold him. 'I told you not to fight him. Look what's happened now.' He manages a half smile.

'Had to try,' he gets out. 'Fires have better chance now.'

'But you don't.'

'No.' We fall silent. We both know what's going to happen even without saying it. I'm never one to sugar coat things and now is no exception. There's no way Thresh is going to make it. I don't have anything to heal him with and even if I did, his injuries are just too severe to be treated successfully.

He's going to die.

I look down at him, then my gaze flickers to the two knives, still pinning his hands down.

'Let's get those things out,' I say quietly, moving around to his head. I reach for the knife in his left hand but glance to him before I touch it. He meets my gaze and nods, closing his eyes tightly and clenching his jaw. Holding his wrist down with one hand, I grip the hilt of the knife with my other and pull it out quickly. Thresh flinches, a muffled cry filtering through the air. Without hesitating, I repeat my actions with the knife in his right hand, this time earning a full cry. I throw the bloodied knives away deep into the stems, having no wish to see or use the things.

'Thank you,' Thresh whispers. I turn back to him and sit down next to him. After a moment, I extend one of my wings and tilt it so it's above his head and torso, shielding him from the worst of the rain. He blinks and shakes his head slightly, getting rid of most of the water. But there's still some near his eyes. Whether it's rain or tears, I can't tell.

'The Capitol will've seen you,' he says, looking up at me.

'I don't care.'

'You shouldn't have come'

'Monster boy would've killed you.' Thresh looks away and I grit my teeth. Monster boy has killed him. It's just going to take longer than if I hadn't intervened.

'You've got to get out,' he finally says, still not looking at me.

'I'm not leaving you.'

'I'm not sticking around much longer.' I hold back a shudder at his blunt words. At last, he turns back to look at me. His strange dark and amber eyes blinking hazily from the blood loss.

'Guess you're gonna be the last person I see.'

'Poor you,' I say, half heartedly trying to add a bit of humour. He smiles.

'Could be worse.'

'Could be Monster boy.'

'At least you're a friend.' I don't reply for a moment. We both knew we were friends, but this is the first time either of us have said it in so many words.

'Fang, talk to me.' There's an undertone of pleading in his voice.

'What do you want me to say?'

'What's flying like?' This catches me off guard. No one's ever asked me that before because almost all the people I talk to know themselves. Normally, I'd feel self conscious, talking about this sort of thing. But I owe him.

'It's… It's hard to describe really. When you're up there and there's no one else around you, you have the whole sky to yourself. There's nothing but the wind on your skin and the strength of your wings. It's when I fell less human, but it's also when I feel strongest. Even after everything I've been through, I wouldn't chose having a normal life if it meant losing my ability to fly.'

'Rue always said she wanted to fly,' Thresh murmurs, his eyes half closed. 'Said that when she died, she'd come back as a Mockingjay so she could sing and fly and be free.'

'I'm not much of a singer.' This gets a small, quiet laugh and his eyes open a bit more. 'You want Max for that.'

'Your girlfriend and the flock leader?'

'That's the one.'

'What's she like?'

'Stubborn. She's tough, fierce and she never backs down or lets anyone tell her what to do. But she can also be calm although that doesn't happen often.' I pause and look up at the sky for a moment, wondering how Max and the flock are coping. Then I look back down at Thresh who is clearly weaker than he was before.

'What about you? Got a girlfriend?'

'No.'

'Who's going to miss you?'

'My grandmother and my older sister, Hazel.'

'Parents?' A pause.

'Six years.' That's all the answer I need.

'Tell me about your sister.' Thresh smiles slightly, his eyes lighting up.

'She's a lot like your Max. Strong, determined, but still kind. She looked after me when we were younger. I used to be scared of the dark and she helped me get over it, always looking out for me and Grandmother. Grandmother tries so hard. She refuses to accept that she can't work anymore so we have to make sure that she's not pushing herself too much.'

'They sound like good people.'

'They are.'

A few minutes later, a quiet hum fills the air. I look down at Thresh who's staring up at the sky, and after a long moment, I recognise the tune. It's the one he sang the night Rue was killed.

After a time, the song ends and silence falls again, broken only by the rain, occasional thunder and Thresh's ragged breathing. He blinks a few times and shakes his head as if to clear it. The blood loss is getting worse. I'm no expert on the matter, but I can tell he doesn't have long left.

'I like storms,' he says quietly after several minutes of nothing. 'They're strong, powerful. Nature, something even the Capitol can't control.' It's becoming an effort for him to speak. I could point out that this is a Gamemaker storm; strictly speaking it's unnatural. But I don't.

'Sometimes we fly in storms,' I tell him. 'You have to be careful. But as long as you aren't trying to get anywhere, you just spread your wings and let the wind take you where it will.'

Silence again. This time for longer.

'Do you… Believe in the afterlife?' Thresh asks, his eyes, previously closed, now open and flicker up to mine.

'I don't know,' I admit after thinking about it for a moment. 'But if there is, I have no doubt that you'll get there. You're a good person, Thresh. Anyone with a tenth of a brain can see that. A good friend.' There. I said it.

'Thanks… Fang,' he struggles to get out. He's fading fast now, his eyes flickering closed, then being forced open again. The hand near me gropes at the ground as if searching for something. After a moment, I put my hand gently on top of it, trying not to feel the hole where Cato's knife was. It isn't often I act this way, but Thresh is my friend and he doesn't have much longer in this world.

'Get back… Your flock… Max…'

'I will. I promise.' He smiles up at me and I smile back.

Then his eyes lock onto something behind me and they widen, a light appearing in them. He reaches out with his free hand and, to my amazement, his torso lifts up as he stretches towards something I can't see.

'Rue!' he calls out. The single word is full of hope, wonder and joy.

But then he slumps back down as if someone's cut his string and I catch him on instinct before he hits the ground, holding him carefully. His muscles all relax, his head lolls to face me and I watch as the life light in his dark, golden brown eyes slowly fades to nothing.

Thunder rumbles across the sky. But under the deep tone, there's another sound.

The sound of a canon.

It's done.

...

...

Yeah, I'm crying. Dammit.

Just to warn you, I'm away now until Wednesday so any questions or review responses will have to wait 'till then. I need that long to recover anyway. But this story is far from over. More will come, that I can promise you.

Fly on through the night, my friends.

~EndlessMidnightSky~