Author's Note: I thought I would be updating this chapter while I was in Hollywood - multiple flight changes meant I ended up flying back home from LA - but when I kept trying to update, Hollywood's airport internet security kept denying me, so here I am at home - exhausted and tired but it's only 3 o'clock in the afternoon here, so I can't go to bed yet - uploading this chapter.
Brace yourselves for this is a tearjerker... or at least it is for me when I was writing it and then when I was proof-reading it.

Chapter Twenty-One

By late afternoon I knew that we were all in serious trouble. The dizziness was worse than ever and my mouth and throat are so dry that I'm finding it hard to swallow. But I'm sure I can hear water, I'm sure of it. It's faint, but I know that what I'm hearing is the sound of water splashing against water.

I excitedly tell the others, but some – Serendipity and Jeopardy for example – who are simply too exhausted to muster any real enthusiasm.

"You hear water?" Jade growled giving my shoulders a hard shove to get my full attention.

"Yes." I say trying not to show how her shove had hurt my already sore and aching body.

"I don't." she snarls.

"It's faint, but its there." I look to Merle for support, smiling weakly when he nods his head dully.

"It's just a bit further." I say trying to encourage Sera and Jep to get back to their feet. "We'll get to the lake by night fall, I'm sure." Maybe even earlier, if we set a good pace.

"No!"

"What?" I looked around at Jade, not feeling overly surprised that she was objecting to my plan. When didn't she?

"You've had us walking all day and you expect us to keep walking in the direction where you think you can hear water in?"

"But I can hear water. And it's in that direction." I say trying to remain calm, but it was hard. I was tried and thirsty and I was just sick of Jade and her constant need to fight with me over every little thing.

"So you say. How do we know you're not leading us into some kind of trap?"

"Trap?" I say rather dumbly. "What trap? Who's trap?"

Jade scowled down at me.

"Jade." Cole says sounding exasperated and tired, "just let the girl led us to water."

"How do you even know she's even leading us in the direction of water? As I said before, she might be leading us into a trap."

"How would she even know if there are any traps set up in the direction that she is leading us? She's been with us the whole time?" Asked an exhausted Jep, a question I thought was rather brave of him to ask as Jade was now glaring knives at him, only he was too tired to actually notice that she was.

Jade waved her arms around her in agitation.

"It's this kind of thinking that is stopping us from gaining any sponsors." She screamed at Cole who simply looked back at her blankly.

"It's been six days!" She screamed, "Six days! And only one sponsor has come. ONE! And do you want to know why?" She took a threatening step towards Cole who kept standing where he was, but was watching Jade with extra care, his hand now resting upon the huge sword strapped to his hip," because we've been listening to her!"

"Her, whose been keeping us alive for these past six days!" Merle snapped out suddenly and to my horror he actually took a step towards Jade. What was he doing? Thinking?

"She," he jerked his finger back at me as he rounded on Jade, "is the only reason why we haven't died earlier for hunger and thirst! She has kept us alive because she knows how to survive. She knows stuff that we never even bothered to learn because we thought we didn't need to because we knew how to use weapons. Fat lot of good they've done us! We might be armed and know how to use these weapons, but we have no food, but we have her! She's kept us alive! Without her, we'd have starved or eaten the wrong berries and would have been dead by now. We owe her our lives. She said right from the start that we should have stayed around the lake, but we didn't listen to her and now we're paying the price for it. Don't go blaming her for your own failure in judgment."

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open slightly and I knew I wasn't the only one who was staring at him in disbelief.

"It's true," Merle continues looking back at me, "You all know it."

I feel my face burn with embarrassment until I look over his shoulder and see something that makes my heart stop.

"Mer..."

I squeeze my eyes shut because there is nothing that I can do. I can't move fast enough to even try and stop the inevitable from happening, even though I do take step forward without even thinking.

Hot and sticky liquid hits my face and something hard thumps against my chest, almost winding me before falling to my feet. I can hear Sera screaming without restraint and Jep and Cole yelling incoherently, but I still don't open my eyes.

"I feel better now." I can almost hear Jade's glee as a cannon booms out around the arena. "He was irritating me with all his talking."

Don't - don't open your eyes. Don't, don't, don't...

"What's the matter Annie?" Jade says sweetly. I can hear her moving closer to me, "Got a problem with what just happened?"

Run. Just run. Don't open your eyes, just run.

"Annie..." I hear Sera weak cry of warning and my eyes open on their own accord, self-preservation being stronger than the desire to not look upon the body of a dead friend.

I duck out of the way of Jade swinging, bloody axe, sidestepping her and watch as she staggers from the might of her swing.

She trips over his headless body and I feel my heart restrict but I can't think about him now, I can't... I have to - I have to run! Run hard and fast, away from this place. Away from them, all of them.

I bend down and snatch my pack up and swing it onto my back without breaking my sprint.

I'm almost away when something hard and heavy hits me in the shins and I collapse into a heap on the forest floor.

I twist around and see that Jade has thrown her axe and that is lying at my feet but before I can even hope to grab it, she is on me, axe magically back in her hand and she was now swing it around her head.

"I'm going to enjoy this." She informs me with an insane smile and I know she is. She going to love killing me. She'll make a show out of it, torturing me until I am screaming for death.

She cuts my cheek and grins as she watches my blood roll down my face and onto the forest floor. I squirm beneath her heavy body, throwing punches and trying to roll her off me but she's so much bigger than I am, not to mention stronger. She also really wants to kill me; she is going to use all her strength to do just that.

I don't want to die! Not like this!

I can feel hot tears rolling down my already sticky face. Sticky from both mine and Merle's blood. Merle...

She killed Merle. In cold blood, she killed him! And for what?

"I feel better now."

He was gone now, forever! Never to come back! And she says that she 'feels better now'.

I fight even harder, even though I'm hurting from the cuts that she is inflicting upon me, along with all her weight being pressed down upon my belly.

My belly... where my baby was.

She was going to kill my baby because that is what will happen when I die, my baby will die as well and...

I feel this strange burst of energy shoot through me and found the strength to move my legs up and underneath Jade, pressing me feet flat against her stomach and with the strength of spending every free moment swimming and running I kicked her off me.

She let out a startled shriek which quickly changes to a scream of pain as I kicked her again, this time in the chest, feeling an odd sense of satisfaction as I hear the break of bones. As she falls back, I kick her one last time, this time right in her face, breaking her nose and maybe her jaw too, but I don't stay around to check as I'm on my feet, straightening my pack on my back as I run.

It hurts to run, but at least my ankles weren't broken from having the wooden handle of the axe hitting them.

I slowed down to a walk and pulled out the compass, checking that I was heading in the right direction, even though a part of me thought that this was a really stupid thing, but I needed water desperately.

I hadn't thought that Jade would actually give chase which was why I stopped to check me compass.

"You're dead District Four!" I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard Jade's scream.

I looked frantically over my shoulders, in the direction that I had run from, but I couldn't see her among the trees, but that didn't mean that she wasn't nearby, even with her screaming being muffled due to my breaking her nose.

I took off at a sprint even though my whole body ached and I was terribly thirsty and I really didn't feel like I could run any further. But somehow, I was able to keep going because even if I was in bad shape, Jade was worse off, running with broken ribs.

But still, I was terrified that I wouldn't be fast enough to escape her, that she would catch up to me and my life would be over.

I don't know how far I ran for or how long, my brain wasn't thinking of any of those details only that I had to keep running, that I had to get to lake.

I can hear running feet behind me, but I don't look around, simply put even more effort into my aching legs, forcing them to run fast.

Run... just keep running. Run until you can't run anymore, run until you fall and then you must crawl...

I was so intent of running, to get to the lake that I wasn't even paying attention to my surrounding, so I didn't see the sudden drop in the forest floor and I tumbled straight over the edge of the ridge, rolling and bouncing down the slope, my body curled into a ball, arms around my head to protect it as I continued to tumble.

When I finally stop, I feel sick and dizzy, sprawl out at the bottom on the slope, but I can hear Jade screaming and yelling somewhere nearby, I don't know how close, but too close for my liking, so I force my weary, screaming body to its feet and start running again, but I am now filled with hope.

The roaring noise of the waterfall is close by, so close now. I feel myself grinning despite myself.

Right, now to get even.

I pick up a large fallen branch as I run towards the direction of lake. Its heavy and it slows me down, but I know that my fall down the slope had actually given me time as I'm sure that Jade would not take my way down meaning that she'll have to go hunting for an easier way down.

I stumble onto the sandy beach of the lake, feeling relief even though of course I'm still in danger. Great danger.

I run for the water, swinging the large, heavy branch over my head and with as much force as I can muster, I smack it against the water, causing large ripples. I run along the water line, hitting that water every couple of feet with the branch.

Please, please, please.

"DISTRICT FOUR!"

Please, please, please.

I throw the branch as far as I can into the lake, watching as it hits water with a loud splash.

Please, please, please.

Large ripples are moving from the middle of the lake, heading in the direction that I had started hitting the water, to where Jade was sprinting after me. She wasn't helping herself as she was running along the waterline, splashing through the waves as she chased after me.

Come on, come on...

"District Four you are so... "Her sentenced finished in a scream and I heard the sounding of a tree being smashed apart, but I didn't look over my shoulder to see what had happened, I just kept running along the beach towards the rocks that went out in the water. I just need to get to them and then I was certain I would be safe.

Puffing and heaving, I made it to the rocks, clambering over them, scratching my hands and knocking my knuckles against them as I did so.

When I was safely over them, I stood on tiptoe and looked back. Giant tentacles were smashing down trees closest to the waterline.

I could vaguely make out Jade running back along the beach and into the trees. I saw that she now had a slight limb to her run and felt a very vague sense of pleasure.

Then that pleasure turned to feeling sick and I threw up. Or rather, dry heaving. My arms were crossed against my aching stomach as I heaved up nothing, my stomach of course empty from not eating anything in days.

I needed food.

Drink first, a voice that sounds like Grandma's.

I staggered to a small pool of water, completely sheltered by surrounding rock, a nice hiding place as no one can see this little place unless they're looking straight down into it.

My hands were shaking badly as they cupped into the water, blood my wounds seeping into the crystal clear surface, but I ignore that, my thirst too great to pay any heed to the blood.

When I've drank my fill, I started looking to my wounds.

I barely recognised my face when I looked into the watery mirror.

My lips and the skin around them is clean from drinking the lake water, but the rest of my face is just covered in blood. My blood, his blood...

I dunk my head straight into shallow water, furiously washing the blood away. I came close to almost drowning myself with my ferocity and come back up gasping for air but at least my face was clean, even though the cuts that Jade has so delightfully given me were now open and blood was once more streaming from them. But at least it was my blood now and not... his.

With the first aid kit that I had been lunging around for the past six days, I clean and bandage myself up, taking one of the painkillers as I do so, surprised by how fast it actually works.

I had originally wished to take two, but it was a good thing that I hadn't because I think two would have sent me into a sleep that I possibly might not wake up from what with the state I was currently in. Even with just one, I feel drug induced sleepiness and I feel slow and heavy, but at least I don't hurt anymore.

I splash my face and force myself to focus. I needed food.

I crawled slowly to my feet, swaying slightly but feeling a little better than I had. Right, food...

Something thumped down upon my shoulder before falling to sandy ground.

"Ow..." I mumble rubbing my shoulder before looking down at my feet, almost scared too. The last time I had looked down at my feet after something hit me... I shake my head, shaking the horrific image from my head.

A silver parachute sat down by my feet. I hesitate before opening it slowly. The most glorious smell met my nostrils as I pulled a warm steel container into my hands.

FOOD!

I opened the container lid and sure enough food was inside it. I desperately wanted to eat it all, as all my favourite food had been packed into it, so tightly that its almost overflowing but I force myself to take my time and to not to eat it all at once.

I somehow managed to keep from eating everything in the container, leaving enough to have for breakfast tomorrow morning before I went fishing.

"Thank you." I say softly to the sky. I wasn't sure where the cameras were, but I knew at least one would see my thanks.

I started thinking about getting ready for bed when I remembered something important that I needed to do.

I took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart as I started to making my way out of my hidden sanctuary, peering in all directions over the rocks to make sure that there were no other tributes nearby.

Once I was sure I was clear, I crept as low as possible among the rocks and headed for shore, picking up twigs, sticks and leaves as I went. When I had collected as much as I was sure I needed I snuck back to my hidden rock pool.

With care, I built a tiny boat as well as a tiny stick person and by the time night was falling, I was ready let them set sail.

It's an old tradition in District Four for when a love one or a friend has died to build a sticks and leaves boat along with a stick person and to set it sailing at either dawn or dusk onto the ocean. It's meant to symbolise the freeing of their soul so that they will be able sail free on the sea forever.

I watch the warm sunset colours dance across the sky as I set the tiny boat, along with its stick captain, into the gently lapping water. There was a small opening among the rocks (though large enough for me to slip through if need be), that open out into the lake and I sat back as I watched the boat bobbed up and down in the water and out of the opening in the main part of the lake.

I close my eyes as I feel tears roll down my cheeks.

"Goodbye Merle."

I curled up in my sleeping bag, tucking myself underneath an overhanging rock, though I do stand up and watch the sky when the Capital's Anthem starts to play and Merle's face appears across the sky. More tears rolled down my cheeks as I curled back up into my sleeping bag.

When would this all be over?

Author's Note: Just you all know, I had a really hard time writing this chapter. Merle's death, originally, was a lot more gruesome and had more to it, but I think I prefer this way. I don't really like writing gruesome things and I didn't want to go too much into Merle's death, no more than I needed to and as I'm writing from Annie's POV, I just thought that she wouldn't want to think too much on it, for obvious reasons. Anyway, I wrote this chapter a lot of different ways before finally settling on the more simplistic and less visual version of Merle's death... or did you guys want me to go into detail of his death?
Only one more chapter is left for Part Two. I'll post that chapter up soon and then you might not hear from me for a little while since a) school is starting up again in a week and b) I haven't written all that much of Part Three and I want to get a few chapters written up before I start posting up its chapters. Any suggests as to what you guys might like to happen in Part Three... besides the obvious death of Jade. Don't worry I want her dead too. But annoyingly, I need her around for a bit longer, so her death won't be for a little while longer. Sorry. So if any of you have any suggestions as to somethings you might like to happen in Part Three just let me know.

Bye for now, I want to go to bed but need to stay awake for at least another three hours.