"Don't think on it Kai." Eva says softly. "You did what you had to."
"And it was incredible!" Adrian crowed. "God, it's 2:1 now. I need to get even." We both look at him but he just grins. "What can I say? I like the glory."
I've killed 2 people. No, 2 children. What would my dad think of me? Would he be proud or ashamed?
"Kai you're bleeding!" Eva exclaims as I sink to the ground, relieved to be back at our base. Suddenly notice warm blood trickling down my side. Adrian's at my side immediately, peeling my top back and applying pressure to the wound. I begin to feel the pain as the earlier rush fades. I wince as he pours water on it and try to look at the damage.
"Don't." Adrian advices. "It's not pretty."
"Let me see it!" I protest, but regret it immediately. A deep wound has sliced across my stomach and blood was pouring from it like a waterfall. It looks serious. I can see panic in the eyes of the other two, and know that neither of them have a clue as to what to do.
"I'll be fine." I say nonchalantly, trying not to grit my teeth in pain. They aren't fooled. "Look, Eva. You get some sleep. Adrian's got this. We'll be ok." She looks reluctant but the bags under her eyes tell a different story.
"Go to sleep Twiglet." Adrian instructs her, chucking a sleeping bag at her. I smile reassuringly and she crawls into it, falling asleep immediately. Guilt begins to tighten in my stomach because I know part of the reason she's so tired is because she was looking after me. I begin to feel faint. We need to stop the bleeding if I want to see the morning. Adrian begins to go pale as he realises his attempts at staunching the flow are in vain. Frustrated tears come to his eyes. I'm struggling to hang on to reality. I'm slipping away, and I know it, but somehow I don't mind. I take his hand.
"Hey, hey." I whisper. "Stop that Devon." He looks at me desperately, and I smile slightly. "You tried ok? You tried and that's what matters. Thank you."
"Stop that!" He says angrily. "Don't you dare give up! Don't!"
"Adrian, I'm ok." I say, my eyelids drooping. "I'm ok."
"Stay awake! Kai!" He pleads, but I'm so very tired.
"I… I'm just going to sleep for a little bit." I say through a yawn. He says my name, begging me to stay with him. I don't know why he's so upset. I'm just going to rest my eyes. I'm very tired after all.
Sleep begins to cover me like a soft blanket and I eagerly sink into its folds. I suddenly worry that I won't wake. But I'm so very comfortable…
Cold water jolts me from my slumber and I sit bolt upright. Disorientated and confused. Where am I?
"About time too!" Adrian mutters, and his face comes into view.
"What… why? How long?" I say incoherently, as everything comes back to me. Tempest. The Games. My hand goes to my side to feel my stomach, but there's no blood, just bruised and inflamed skin.
"You got a parachute, from Mags." Adrian says. "A salve. It worked pretty well." I'll say. I look down at my stomach and the wound is reduced to a raw cut, the skin around was purple and blue, but I was alive. I sit up and rub my eyes.
"How long?" I ask.
"5 days." Eva says quietly. My mouth drops open. 5 days? I suddenly notice their faces for the first time. Adrian has a black eye and several bruises on his face, and Eva. Eva had a cut across her entire her face and blood was smeared on her shirt. I shot up.
"What happened? What the hell happened?" I ask, my voice getting hysterical.
"Shh!" Adrian sharply pulls me down. "Don't over exert yourself!" I try to protest but he looks at me pointedly so I shut my mouth. "Well the medicine arrived pretty soon after you passed out, but you didn't wake up so we thought we'd lost you." There was pain in his voice and he took my hand. "I honestly thought we had. But there was no cannon."
"What's with the blood?" I ask slowly.
"There was an earthquake." Eva says. "On the other side of the river. Loads of ruins were destroyed and it filled the river in. All the tributes are on this side." That's not good. I reach out and touch her face, she smiles sadly. "We had a few run ins trying to defend the place."
"Sorry." I whisper.
"Don't be!" Adrian grins. "It's 4:1 to me now."
"How many left?" I ask. This makes them both go serious.
"It's us and the three careers." My mouth drops. "And they haven't found us yet?" Eva shakes her head.
"But they're getting close. They almost caught me yesterday." Adrian says quietly.
"The way they killed some of the other tributes." Eva shudders. "They cut one boys throat, only slightly and left him to bleed all night. They killed anyone who tried to put an end to it... They're monsters."
I ask about supplies and I'm surprised at the amount of food we've got. Adrian says our sponsors have been generous, and it's just as well because apparently there are no other sources of food out there no the rivers gone. They give me some bread from our district. The salty taste and green tinged dough makes me feel instantly better. I savour the taste and when it's gone I want more, but I don't ask because I know we need to save our food regardless of how much we've got.
"What's the plan then?" I ask when I finish the bread.
"We wait for them to kill each other off maybe?" Eva suggests. I feel my stomach drop. That would leave the three of us. No way. Adrian doesn't look too happy about it either. I wish I hadn't been out cold for so long. I may have met my end another way then. I don't want to be left with these two. I owe them my life so I can't take theirs, and that would mean breaking my promise to Seneca.
"They might find us before then." I say, almost hoping they do.
"Maybe." Adrian agrees. We're all quiet. Eva drops off first. Adrian tells me how much sleep she's lost while worrying about me and my heart goes out to her. I cover her in the sleeping bag and stroke her hair while Adrian and I discuss what went on in the last 5 days and what we should do next.
"Eva's an orphan." Adrian tells me quietly. I look at him in shock.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I snap at him. "There's no one waiting for her so we might as well kill her now?" I can't believe those words came out of his mouth. Sure he's a career, but Eva's only a 12 year old girl.
"No! No! That's not what I meant!" He says quickly, but I just raise an eyebrow. "Hear me out Kai." I lean back against the wall and look at him expectantly. "She's been telling me about herself, you know, while you were… sleeping. She lives in an orphanage." I shudder at the thought and resist the urge to bundle her in my arms and keep her safe and sound forever. The orphanages in District 4 are horrible. You avoid them; you avoid the kids who live there. If you walked past at night you could hear the crying. Our district was fortunate in that there wasn't as much extreme poverty as in the other districts, but the orphans were all undernourished and bruised from the beatings they received there. Poor, poor Eva. "She has two younger brothers. Her parents both died when one of the electricity generating factory near their home exploded, well, Eva and her brothers were at school… Lots of children became orphans that day." Well, that settled things. I would not win the hunger games. I would not try to win. In fact I would do anything I could to ensure Eva wins. And I can see from the look in Adrian's eyes that he has long since made the same choice. We look at each other for a moment. More passes between us in that one look than a hundred words could ever say. We're sending Eva home.
The sun rises far sooner than it should, and I know the gamemakers will be pushing us and the careers together in a matter of days. Then we'd be forced to face off with them.
"Not if we get them first." Adrian says to me, reading the expression on my face. I look to him and digest what he's implying. If we go to them. They'd never expect it. They think I'm dying.
"Yes." I say. If we can get to them, then Eva might stand a chance of winning, and rescuing her brothers from the only place worse than hell.
"Now?" He asks and I look to Eva. She's still sleeping. She wouldn't know where we'd gone until it was too late. She looks so peaceful. I nod at Adrian, though he's already getting his weapons ready. We gather only the necessities for our kamikaze mission. I leave two knives for Eva and all the food. As we go to leave, I lean down, kiss her forehead and brush her hair from her face. Her innocence gives me the strength I need to walk towards my death. Forgive me Seneca.
The careers are too arrogant for their own good. They haven't bothered covering any of their paths, and we're not following their footprints long before we can hear their loud, booming voices. We creep around the edge of their camp and they come into view. They're sitting round a large pile of goods. From the looks of what they're eating, they've got plenty of sponsors supporting them. Why the hell would someone spend a fortune just to send in chocolate? What good does that do? I can't help roll my eyes.
"You go round to the other side of the camp, and on my signal, you send that spear as straight and hard as you can at Arcas. They'll be distracted and I'll try to take the other two." Adrian whispers to me and I nod. I hadn't even come up with a plan if I'm being honest. "Catch ya later Tate." He says, like back in the Capitol. I try to grin.
"Sure thing Devon." I reply, and begin to make my way to the other side of the camp. I have to veer off the obvious path to avoid being seen, and the rubble left by the earthquake leads me far from my goal. I hope Adrian isn't too impatient. After about 10 minutes I begin to recognise the border of boulders surrounding their camp. I know immediately something is wrong. It's too quiet. Far too quiet. I creep up through the boulders as soundlessly as I can. My neck begins to prickle and fear makes my palms slick with sweat; my spear keeps slipping in my hands. As I approach the open centre I can make out only two figures, both standing close to one another. I squint my eyes in confusion. They both seem to be male. But there's only one male career left.
That's when two pairs of hands grab me from behind and a cold knife is pressed against my throat.