AUTHOR'S NOTE: So I am aware that lately I have had a string of cliffhangers to serve as the endings of my chapters. Well... the good news is that Ava is obviously still alive (hence the lack of another cannon), but the bad news is, is that there's a death at the end of this chapter, which in turn means, another cliffhanger. Happy reading!

CHAPTER 25: Finding Aveline

Moments after the images in the sky faded, Chel was faced with a dilemma. On one hand, she did not want to lose this advantageous position to the other careers, but at the same time, if Aveline was still alive, she was most likely badly injured and would need help.

On the other hand, she surely had not been the only one to see Violet's face in the sky, and thus the other careers would also realize that Ava was still alive. It was this conclusion that caused Chel to arm herself to the teeth and grab her (now fuller) bag of supplies and take off south in hopes of finding Ava. It was not like she could call out for the smaller girl, because surely Ava did not want to give away her position either while the careers were lurking about—if she was even conscious. Still, Chel had leftover medicine, a first-aid kit from the cornucopia supplies, and a flashlight among numerous other supplies. She had grabbed a fairly large backpack after all, and as a career tribute, she was familiar with easy and practical ways to carry numerous weapons without being overburdened.

Luckily, it seemed that she was not destined to run into the careers, but she did happen to cross paths with the District 11 pair again. Naturally, they prepared to defend themselves as Chel came smashing through the trees loaded with weapons. It was only when Chel raised her hands as if to surrender that they realized she was not here to kill them at the moment.

"You two saw the faces in the sky, right?" she asked them; some tributes did not pay attention to them for one reason or another, after all.

"We did;" Ginger nodded, "We were wondering who those kills belonged to."
"So you two didn't kill Violet then?" Chel tilted her head, now slightly confused.

"Nope; we figured you or the careers did…" Florence shook his head.

"The careers would have bragged…" Chel mused, "My axe?" The random axe that she had thrown behind her—had Violet really been that close? Alice, Zaffre, and Chaco had been right behind Chel the whole time, and the fact that Samuel, Lazuli, and Iris had not mentioned an actual kill, but rather just an assumption that they had killed Ava meant they certainly hadn't killed her. It was odd, although miles away in the Capitol, it was revealed that Chel's axe had in fact killed that girl from District 5, as Violet Crossley collapsed from blood loss.

"Weird…" she finished her own sentence, "Anyways, I best get going. I need to find Ava before those careers do."

Florence and Ginger looked at each other and then shrugged. "Alright; take care."

After that odd encounter, the District 11 pair went to sleep, figuring they were safe for the night. Chel on the other hand, continued searching for Ava. She had trouble here, because she lacked the tracking skills that the little District 12 girl had had, and her hands were tied as far as trying to locate the girl in almost any other way apart from running into her. The rain that was starting to come down did not make things any easier. She tried thinking if any of the careers had mentioned anything about where they had supposedly killed Ava. Only Iris' words stood out to her.

"Stupid ravine…"

Apparently there had been a ravine involved in Ava's "death". It was not much to go off of, but it was something, and so Chel began her search in the dark in the rain. It was far too dark for her to recognize any features in this kind of (lack of) light, and so she had to slowly explore the growth with just her flashlight. After a bit of wandering, she came across an unusual sight—a stray axe with blood on the blade, and a trail of blood leading away from it. This must have been where Violet had died. The trail of blood ended only a few feet away in a fairly large smear, which she could only assume was where Violet's body had been prior to the Capitol hovercrafts picking it up.

Chel continued her journey westward, knowing that she had fled east when she had lost Ava. She hoped that she could find this ravine and where it began.

Sure enough, she found a place where the ground started sloping down, while forming two 'walls' around her. She slowly descended into the deep, narrow ravine, and now was willing to speak.

"Ava…" she seemed worried about what she would see. Was Ava mutilated beyond recognition and only somehow still clinging to life? Were whatever wild animals that lurked in this arena slowly picking her apart? She had heard horror stories of such things happening to tributes, and she was not sure she was ready for it if that's how she ended up finding sweet little Ava. The Capitol was playing along with this mystery, knowing that it was keeping Panem on the edge of its seat. Thus, no footage of Ava had been broadcasted ever since her fall into the ravine.

Incidentally, this was exactly where Chel found her. There, lying on her stomach in the mud, was Ava, her face to the left, almost in a sprawled position.

"AVELINE!" she cried out, instantly jumping to the injured girl's side, prying her out of the muck. She pulled a rather cold and muddy Ava into her lap, and checked for a pulse. Obviously she was still alive if the Capitol had not fired another cannon, and sure enough, Ava's little heart was still beating. She pulled the smaller girl close, hoping to share some of her own body heat with her. The night was not cold, but it was a little chilly, and it seemed that Ava's body had gotten colder from going unconscious earlier.

Chel nearly squealed when Ava started stirring, and she shifted the girl's face so that she would see Chel's face as one of the first things when she woke up.

"mm…" she groaned, "Wes… is that you?"

Chel gently ran her fingers across Ava's jawline, smiling at the girl, and more than anything looking greatly relieved that her friend was still alive, despite this being the Hunger Games.

Slowly, Ava's eyes came back into focus as she adjusted to the dim moonlight and saw Chel's dark-skinned face looking down anxiously at her. Slowly, a recollection of everything that had happened began flowing back to her. Her name had been called for the Reaping, she had ridden a train, gotten dressed in an exotic outfit and paraded in front of the Capitol, she had trained to become a killer, and was now really and truly in this arena, and her brother was dead. It still felt almost like a horrible dream, really. It took her a moment to actually grasp that this was all very real.

"Chel…?" she moaned again, "Hey… who's left?"

"I killed Violet and Alice," she answered, "so that means there are 7 others besides you and me. We've got Lazuli, Zaffre, Chaco, Samuel, Iris, Florence, and Ginger. Let's get you out of here though and we can talk later. You need some rest, and not at the bottom of a muddy ravine."

Ava groaned in pain again, being helpless to resist as Chel lifted the smaller girl onto her own back and began hiking out of the ravine with her. Gradually, she felt the larger girl stomp up a slope until they were at the top of some kind of hill.

"Tomorrow we'll get you cleaned up and stuff…" she nodded, "if you're thirsty or anything, let me know. We've got plenty of water here, even if you don't count the rain." Ava had only been unconscious a few hours, but water was crucial to maintain one's health in the Hunger Games.

A couple of drinks later, and the smaller girl seemed satisfied enough that she just curled up like a dog on the ground and fell asleep. Just as she had done many times before, Chel kept watch for a while, and in turn would be asleep much later in the day.

This was exactly what happened, and soon the morning woke up Ava, where she felt a bit more revitalized. She had amazingly not broken any bones, although she had some incredible bruises on her arm, and some of her hair and face were matted and caked with blood. Chel was snoring away nearby, and as Ava looked around, she realized that they were on the cornucopia plateau. More than that, however, was that she realized that if she walked to the edge of this plateau, she could see almost the entire arena. Glancing out in the distance, she noticed that the "river" had since become a massive donut-shaped lake that was now surrounding the remainder of the arena like a dam. It was only day 10 though, and assuming Chel had not been lying, the Capitol had just gotten two more deaths, so it was unlikely that they would be bored. She wondered if they actually planned on flooding the arena though—that worried her, for as Chel certainly knew, Ava could not swim.

She knew better than to try and wake up Chel, but a shortly after she had even thought this, the girl had bolted awake, and Ava knew exactly why.

Another cannon had just gone off.