Well here is the chapter I've been dreading writing for weeks.
Happy fricking Hunger Games.
That darn smoke. No matter how far we got away from it the danger of what it meant was always present.
When Wren woke me up for early morning watch it was too dark to see it. Now however, with the sun lighting the edges of our little jungle bubble, I could see the thick white plumes that spoke of a fire not far from our camp. The Careers knew we would stick to the hills as we had been and it was only a matter of time before they started to look in the trees instead of the forest floor.
While Hock, Bay, and Wren slept safely in the hammocks, I watched the sunrise. Today was cloudy like it had been during the Bloodbath and it gave me a sense of foreboding I couldn't shake. When the rest of my alliance woke they would see the smoke and would look for a way to escape it. They would look for someone to lead them away from the smoke. Away from what it stood for. I wasn't sure I was ready to do that.
So far I was only good at getting myself into incredibly stupid situations because I wasn't thinking my actions through clearly. What if my allies wanted me to take the role of leader and I lead them straight into the gaping jaws of Death? What if they didn't pick me and someone else got us killed?
No, I would lead them even though the thought scared me senseless. I was Titania Fellcrest. I did not give up on my friends. I did not throw in the towel when life kicked me, I kicked life back. And I would not let my family see me get brutally murdered.
So I began to lay out a plan. To escape the notice of this year's Careers you had to climb a tree and hide high in the branches. But none of my alliance could run along branches or jump in between trees like some kind of woodland squirrel and only half of us could possibly outrun our enemies on the jungle floor.
But we had the element of surprise up in the trees. The Career boy from Three didn't find us until I made the monumentally boneheaded move of sitting in a meadow with my eyes closed. So they must not be looking up in the branches in their search for us. That made me feel a little better knowing that they weren't looking in the right places while I slept. It still didn't make me feel better about what lay ahead.
Waking Hock, Wren, and Bay up from their peaceful rests I could barely breathe from excitement and fear. If we left our camp right at that moment and headed for the cliffs we had a good shot of the Careers temporarily losing our trail. We might get a day's head start if my plan worked out the way it was supposed to. It might be enough time for us to scale the Cliffs if my thinking was correct. Hopefully my alliance could escape without any losses. And that hope gave me the courage to lead despite fear.
As soon as he saw the smoke Hock wanted to pack up and move to another hill just like we did the day before. He was so blind to the only real solution to our predicament that I almost wanted to kill him myself. There was only one way to throw off the Careers at this point and it wasn't to follow the same routine we had been observing for nearly a week. To do that would make us sitting ducks. The answer was to do something unexpected and albeit slightly rash.
"We go to the Cliffs now, or we don't survive." I growled angrily at Hock; he just didn't see what I saw and it was getting on my nerves. Even though we were conversing in low tones the conversation felt abnormally loud with Death standing practically on our doorstep.
"We go ta the Cliffs, and maybe we sa'vive the journey in b'tween, to reach wha' exac'ly?" Hock snapped back with maliciousness I had not yet seen before, "Thar is no guarantee we wuld be safer a' the Cliffs!"
"This is the Hunger Games!" I wanted to scream and beat him to a bleeding pulp, but I kept my raging anger in check, "There are no guarantees!"
Bay put a hand on Hock's shoulder, "Can't believe I'm saying this, but Titania is right."
"No she ain't!"
"Hock," Wren piped up in a stern motherly tone, "E'ther ya come with us ur ya get left behin'."
The look he shot me then was one I'm sure would kill if looks could do such things.
"Fine." Hands thrown into the air in submission, Hock began to gather his things, "Fine, fine, fine. Get us awl killed."
"You know I can't." I grumbled back as I packed up the things I was supposed to carry.
Tension seeped from Hock's body bit by bit. My words worked a magical transformation as he realized I was even more bound than him to the people in our alliance. I had to save Bay because that is what friends do. Wren I had to save because I owed Hock and that is how he told me to pay him back. Both of them would receive every ounce of protection I could give them as long as there was life in my body; because Fellcrest's keep our word. To the death.
Slipping from our tree with as little noise as possible I led my allies into the multi-day journey to the Cliffs. Almost as a last thought before we left Base, Hock asked me what would happen if we ran out of food. With my best calm charming smile I assured him that I had that covered. Thankfully instead of prying into every little detail as he had been usually, Hock let it drop. Either he didn't want to know or Hock already had a pretty good idea as to how I had our food needs taken care of. All of those days setting snares with my former best friend and Jack Everdeen were going to pay off.
The foliage seemed to come alive all around us as we plunged deeper into the Jungle. Insects flitted annoyingly through the air, making sure to smack one of my allies in the face every couple of minutes. Strange tropical birds sang happily in the top branches of the leafy green jungle trees and didn't quiet as we passed them; something that made me nervous.
"Why aren't they quieting?" I murmured out loud to myself.
"What do you mean?" Wren asked.
"The birds." I replied uneasily, "Usually birds don't sing when they think danger is near. Humans have been hunting birds for thousands of years so we are ingrained deep into their instincts as dangerous."
"So these birds don't have that instinct?" Bay piped up.
I almost stopped as it hit me, "They're mutts."
"Generated fresh in a lab— no instincts but to kill." Hock agreed with his eyes warily on the sky.
As if what Hock said was the secret code, the birds stopped singing their happy song. In response all signs of insect life disappeared.
Pulling out my knives I gave the first order of my life, "Run."
They mostly did. Hock and Bay sprinted like they had Death nipping at their heels and the ground was trying to fall out from beneath their feet. It wasn't the same for me. While Bay pushed himself as fast as possible I ran at a mildly comfortable pace by his side to keep an eye on him. Wren wasn't quite sprinting, but she was definitely close to her top speed as we all scrambled along the muddy jungle trail. She too was trying to keep an eye on her District Partner.
A tugging sensation yanked on the back of my jacket and I tried to see whatever was doing it while continuing my pace down the trail.
The thin jacket cloth was gripped in a steely blue beak. Stark white feathers gleamed almost metallically in the cloudy sunlight. Two angry gold eyes glared up at me as eight razor sharp talons sliced into my now exposed lower back. Safe to say I screamed like a girl. Each step was agony and I knew that the bird had damaged a muscle in my back.
Using my longer knife I speared the bird in its breast. With its dying breath the evil creature clamped down on my wrist with the wickedly sharp beak. Blood spurted from the wound instantaneously. Wren looked over at me and saw that I was limping.
"Titania's hurt!"
"Keep going!" I tried to give them my best attempt at snarling and serious leader, but my voice broke from the searing pain that burned in my wounds.
Wren slowed down to help me and in one slow motion moment she tripped. Without so much as the bat of an eye, the whole flock of the white demons swarmed down on Wren. Soon the muttations' white metallic sheened feathers were dripping with stark crimson. A canon went off. There were no screams.
Despite the canon blast I turned back and began to kill any bird within reach. That canon could have been someone else. It just had to be someone else. Each time I struck one muttation down they would bite or scratch me in final retaliation. Then they would die with a hair-raising squawk. To my dismay another of the demon birds would take their fallen comrade's place. Next to me Hock desperately began to hack his way into the hoard of blood-crazy fowl. Bay tried to help but one of the mutts bit deep into his calf. There was no doubt in my mind that the muscle was destroyed.
"Bay get back before you get yourself killed!" I screeched at him.
Screw the fact that for a week we had pretended to hate each other, I wasn't going to let Bay attempt to help and die in the process. Shocked, Bay stood frozen for a moment.
A white blur streaked for his throat and I cut it down midflight, "Go!"
Bay must have complied because soon there was only Hock's presence next to me. Mutt after mutt fell dead to the jungle floor at our hands. Their bright red blood tainted the already muddy ground. It was becoming increasingly difficult to stand. After what felt like an eternity the remains of the white and red feathered flock took wing. My arms shook heavily as I took in the scene before me.
Littering the jungle floor were piles of dead birds. Even in death the fierce savages looked hungry for blood. Their glazed golden eyes glaring up at the world. In the midst of their carcasses laid the only girl who had made me wish for a sister.
Wren— or the mutilated past recognition corpse that was supposed to be her— laid still in the stark red mud. The only thing that let me know my eyes weren't playing tricks, that this wasn't some other tribute and Wren would come out of the jungle foliage without a scratch, was the auburn hair. Only District Ten had auburn hair like that. And there was only one person from District Ten who could be the pale blood smattered body in the dirt before me.
"No." Hock moaned and dropped to his knees.
Everything inside me went numb. This wasn't supposed to happen. Wren was dead and I had failed. Again.
"Not Wren…" Hock sobbed covering his face in shame, "I wanted ta make sure ya made it ta the end. Ta make sure you went 'ome and married Leo and 'ad a long and 'appy life."
Looking down at myself I realized that the blood in the mud wasn't just the muttations' and Wren's. It was mine and Hock's too. My arms would never completely heal from their wide gaping wounds— the price for trying to protect someone till the end.
"Ya only slowed down ta 'elp Titania… why do ya 'ave ta die because of yur soft 'eart…" Hock continued to cry, the salt in his tears no doubt stinging the wounds on his face. For the rest of our lives neither of us would ever forgive ourselves for this moment.
I wanted to say something but there were honestly no words.
"Ya slowed down ta 'elp Titania." Hock whispered.
There was something about the recognition in his voice that made me back away slowly with knives at the ready.
Staggering to his feet, Hock poised his hatchet to strike, "I told ya ta protect 'er."
"I tried." My voice didn't come out small or shaken as I was expecting. It was strong and even.
"I told ya ta keep 'er safe!" Hock screamed with blind rage.
"I tried." I repeated my emotionless plea.
"Tryin wasn' good 'nough!"
Bay was suddenly by my side with the spear Wren must have dropped during our rush through the jungle. The guy might not be all that great with a hatchet, but boy did Bay know his way around a spear. In training it had made me nervous, thinking about how he could easily turn on me with that thing. Now I was plainly glad. Between Bay's skills and mine there was no way Hock would survive a fight with us should he pick one.
"Take your pack and go." Bay growled; each syllable came out like the far off yet deadly roar of a waterfall and rumbled from deep in his chest, "I see your face again Hock, and I'll do more than break it."
Hock had thought about killing us one too many times for our taste.
"Alliance over." I added in a surly tone.
Injured and furious, Hock backed up into the dense jungle foliage and disappeared without a word.
Gently prying the pack off of what used to be Wren's shoulders after a few minutes, I felt like I should be in terrible emotional pain instead of the blank numbness that filled me inside. Bay took the pack from me. Then he ripped a strip from his dark teal shirt and tied it around my wrist which bled profusely at this point.
"You look pale." Bay commented in a matter-of-fact tone that was betrayed only by the worry in his eyes.
A soft ringing noise like a bell caught our attention. Floating through the branches of the now silent jungle was a silver parachute. The strange thing landed not far from where Bay and I stood dumbfounded. Only one thing could be meant by a silver parachute. We had Sponsors.
Bay cursed them under his breath and I couldn't agree more. We fought against all hope in a gory battle to save a friend, betrayed one of our allies, and saved each other in what I'm sure the Capitol felt was a romantic gesture. Bay and I had given Panem the perfect show.
Got the package just in time, right?
Don't you just hate President Snow right now?