On to chapter twenty six already, wow! Again, sorry for the waiting time, I've been really ill recently. Thanks to Elysian Dawn for your review, it made me feel a little better about my updating rate...
Oh! And thank you for 1500 views. I live in a tiny, rural place in England, and that's more than the population of my entire village! Which is scary, but awesome at the same time...
Anyway, here's chapter twenty six. Enjoy!
Chapter Twenty Six - Into The Depths
We agreed the night before that we would still wake up early so that if Hunter's leg was healed enough, we could set off. That's what I'm hoping for, however unlikely the chances are. Although the odds are always against me, I can still hope for that to change.
So, as soon as the sun rises, I am wide awake, making sure all of our supplies are still here, they are, thankfully. I don't know what we would do if they were gone, but the most likely thing would be starve to death, which is a cheery thought, or be killed by the people who had taken them.
Well, I'm in a good mood today, aren't I?
Ryan is, well was guarding, but I think he has fallen asleep. I don't blame him, it was a long , stressful day yesterday. Another day I want to forget, but I know I will remember for however long I live.
I draw in the sand with my toes, basking in the sunlight as I give Hunter a few more minutes of sleep, I'm sure she'll appreciate it, and anyway, I'm getting a chance to enjoy the warmth of the sun for once, normally, it is just annoying, but the rays of sunlight that hit my face seem to calm me today.
Ryan begins to wake up, and when he finally wanders over to me, I decide that it's time to wake Hunter up. If her leg has healed enough, we need to get going.
She moans a little and turns over. I debate with myself for a few seconds as to whether I should let her sleep for a few more minutes, before deciding.
I shake her shoulder again.
"Hunter, c'mon, you need to get up." I sigh.
"Okay..." she yawns, rolling back over and sitting up, throwing off of her.
She doesn't look like she's in pain, that's a good sign, right?
"How are you feeling about setting off today?" I ask, trying not to seem pushy as I put her blanket into one of the bags.
"Good. I'll have to look at my leg though." she smiles confidently.
"Thats great. Let me see it too though." I smile in return, getting up and brushing my tangled hair out of my face as I search for Ryan. He's knee deep in the water, clutching his spear, fishing. Good, about time he learned to feed himself. Well, he survived by himself for those few days, so I suppose he had learned enough from watching me.
Hunter begins to look over her wound.
I am absolutely astounded. It's practically just a scar now, a thin pink line, the skin around it is tight. It looks so much better now, it might sting a little in the water but not that much, not enough to affect her anyway.
Hunter seems amazed too, just staring.
"Did you keep the rest of that stuff? It could probably come in handy." she laughs, sheer fascination on her face, her eyes wide as she studies her leg, where there was once a gaping wound.
"Ryan, get over here!" I yell as loud as I dare. Thankfully, I get his attention first time, and he runs over to us.
"Look at this!" I laugh gleefully, gesturing to Hunter's leg.
"That's awesome." he says, swinging his bag over his shoulder. "Guess we should be setting off now, huh?" he asks.
Hunter nods, and gets up, tying her wispy hair back with the hairband she took out as soon as the games started. Good idea, I do the same with mine, about ime it stopped bothering me, I hate the way it hangs in my face, obscuring my vision at every opportunity.
I make sure we have packed everything up, before taking off my heavy boots, leaving me in bare feet. I love the feel of sand inbetween my toes.
"Lets go then, second time lucky." I laugh as I start to wade into the water. Again, the water gets deep quickly. Every time, it seems to surprise me, I don't really know why.
I look back to make sure nothing is wrong, and wait for Hunter and Ryan to catch up with me, I guess I'm just a little too enthusiastic about getting to swim again. I can understand why Hunter is cautious though, she doesn't seem to have much luck with water.
Eventually I can no longer touch the sea floor, and yet again, I feel at home. I almost feel like I'm part of the water when I swim, it's an amazing experience, especially in the sea.
"I'm going to swim slightly underwater so that nobody can see us, try and do the same. The backpacks are relitavley camoflauged anyway, so it doesn't matter that they'll stay on the surface." I say.
They both nod, and I push myself just slightly under the water, opening my eyes slowly and admiring the depths.
The salt water used to sting my eyes, but that was years ago. Sure, my eyes hurt a little when I get out of the water, but I don't feel anything painful when I open my eyes underwater.
It's beautiful under the reflective surface of the water, everything has a tint of beautiful turquoise, everything is so serene and peaceful...
We travel pretty slowly, but for me, I wouldn't mind mind if I was back in Four, there, I had pretty much all the time in the world to relax in the ocean, but now, I know my time is limited. We have to get to shore by sunset, and right now, we are surrounded by sheer cliffs, not a beach in sight except for the one we have left behind. Ryan has to be right about the one he is directing us to, otherwise it will be our cannons that are firing next.
Speaking of cannons, I wonder how many people are gone... Not many people have died over the past few days, if any at all.
I guess we were meant to be "The bad guys" that went around killing everyone, and didn't. Grace and her team took that place though, so the Capitol audiences won't be unsatisfied. That's a good thing, hopefully the gamemakers won't interfere as much.
Oh well, swimming for a day better than spending half of a day in those horrible caves, even just thinking about them makes me shiver. Even though I've never been in them, I can imagine them in such detail, right down to the putrid smell.
I try to distract myself from that thought, I worry myself too much sometimes, and in the most awkward situations too. Here I am, trying to survive in the Hunger Games, and my mind is reeling off worst case scenarios to me, one after the other, the horrible images lingering in my head.
I sigh and shake my head.
Every now and then, I will come up for air and eat a small snack, check the position of the sun, then go back under the water.
I've swam for whole days before back at home, but by the time it is midday here, I am exhausted. I can't even imagine how Hunter feels right now.
I would encourage her and Ryan, but my sides ache and I'm out of breath, I feel like if I tried to speak, I probably couldn't.
As the hours go by, the sky begins to darken, but I know it's too early for the sun to set yet. Are the gamemakers trying to mess with our plan? How typical of them.
But no, the sun isn't setting. I push my head above the water and realise that the sun is being obscured by multiple, dark, ominous clouds.
Crap.
I turn to the others, who are close behind me. When they realise I have stopped, they push their heads out of the water, managing to stay afloat as the water licks at their chins.
"Look..." I pant, gesturing upwards to the sky. "I knew this was coming. I should have through this through." I continue, beyond annoyed at myself that I could have anticipated this and yet I didn't spare it a single though before setting off.
I almost forgot about the Capitol and their little games.
"A storm, great." sighs Ryan.
"It might not be. Maybe it's just cloudy today." says Hunter optimistically. "We must be closer to the other beach now, we have to get going, we can't go back."
"You're right." I say, popping a berry into my mouth, leaving a sweet taste on my dry lips. I savour it, sighing contentedly, before focusing again. "We have to get going."
And so, we begin swimming again, watching the sky carefully.
I don't notice at first, but the waves are getting bigger, bit by bit. When I look above the water, I can feel the wind on the back of my head, stronger and stronger each time I check.
Needless to say, we start to swim faster. A lot faster.
I try not to waste energy, but I have gone into survival mode, and adrenaline is rushing around my body, I can hear my heart beating in my ears.
For me, storms have always been a bad omen. A very, very bad omen, so it is understandable when I say I freak out.
Knowing this, Ryan swims in front of me, guiding us through the rough seas.
The beautiful blue colour isn't so beautiful anymore, the sea has turned a freaky ash grey colour. It is no longer serene either. The once calm waves are now raging towers of water, threatening to engulf us every time we try to look above the water. The sea itself is really murky, making it hard to see even just a meter in front of me.
It's raining now too, hard, creating many ripples on the surface of the water before they are disrupted again by thr huge waves.
This is one big storm.
I try to stay below the surface as much as possible, but I'm only human, I need to breathe. I can hold my breath for a pretty long time, but I'm not willing to push my luck.
There are no fish to be seen, it's surreal swimming here, it's like a watery wasteland.
The gamemakers have surely done this, it's too much of a coincidence that as soon as we set off, boom! Storm.
I begin to see flashes of light and loud rumbling noises, thunder and lightening. Not the best time to be in the water, is it?
I'm such an idiot, how could I think that it could be this easy?!
I come up for air again, gasping, trying to keep myself above water for long enough. As soon as I have got my breath back, a huge wave hits me, and I am forced underwater, surrounded by a thick wall of bubbles. I push my way through them, making sure Ryan is still in front of me and Hunter is still beside me. They are, good.
Ryan turns back to us, a look of urgency on his face. I follow him as he swims to the surface.
"Look over there!" he shouts over the roar of the waves, pointing in front of us.
A smile spreads across Hunter's face, and I see what Ryan is pointing to. Our destination, our beach. We made it, well, almost.
We begin to swim as fast as we can towards the distant shores edged with green trees, trying not to be put off by the huge waves trying to push us down.
Eventually, I discover that I can touch the sea floor with my feet, and I begin to run, unsing my arms to propell me through the water.
I collapse on the wet sand, soaked though. Ryan and Hunter join me, shivering from the temperature drop. The rain is freezing, just like the sea.
"We need to go into the jungle." whispers Hunter, obviously exhausted.
"Not now Hunter. We need to rest." I barely manage to speak.
There are cliffs on either side of the beach, so we crawl over to the sheltered one, and I guess we must have fallen asleep, not even bothering to unpack our blankets, using body heat instead.
None of us mind.
I fall asleep to the sound of the rain and roaring waves, and I remeber a quote from my song book, in one of the first pages.
Life's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about dancing in the rain.
I gather courage from this, and I promise myself something I have promised myself many, many times.
Tomorrow, whether it is stormy or not, we are setting off, we will find my sister, as simple as that.
So, that was chapter twenty six, yes, I know it was a little short, but I'm ill, as I said, and sleep is the best medication right now.
I'm already working on chapter twenty seven, so no worries.
Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews too, I got a little trinket box for christmas, and I'm writing all your reviews down, good or bad, and putting them in. Cause I'm sentimental like that.
Okay, I'll try and finish chapter twenty seven as soon as possible!
BethanyDee x