Chapter 26
Casey grabbed for one of the woolen coats, her arms were freezing, goosebumps were raised, and she really wanted that coat. She had never been a fan of wool, it made her skin itch and cause her to break out in hives. But if the choice was between freezing to death or breaking out in hives, she would take the hives any old day.
There were only three coats, and five of them. The stupid Gamemakers had known that at least one of them was going to die, they only put three out on purpose. And there were only two blankets.
"Fight it out or talk it out?" Autumn asked as she grabbed for a coat.
"Well three coats and two blankets equal five, and there are five of us," Nat counted, she was always so level headed. Casey hated that sometimes. Nat was always cool, calm collected, she hardly ever freaked out, she was able to think things through and handle them with ease. And so it was decided. Autumn and Skylar got the blankets, while Nat and her crew got the coats.
They ate the food to their hearts content, but there was still tons left that they evenly divvied up. Only the weapons were still left on the table, they all needed and wanted weapons for themselves, but didn't want anyone else to have one. So they did the only fair thing, the weapons were divided evenly, they wished each other luck and went their separate ways, getting stopped at the ice that was still blocking their way.
"Seriously, they want another death, they're getting greedy," Nat turned to see that Autumn and Skylar had come to the same conclusion. To get the force field down someone had to die, to get the ice block down, someone had to die.
"What if the five of us just sat here and no one died?" Casey asked, she couldn't kill any of the tributes that were left. Two of them were her allies, and the other two had done nothing wrong to her.
"We'd all freeze to death," Nat helpfully pointed out, "or starve to death, whichever came first."
"The egg," Colt said as he rubbed his hand over the ice and quickly removed it. "Cold," he informed them.
"What are you talking about Colt, what egg?" Nat said in exasperation.
"The egg came first."
"No, the chicken came first you dolt," Nat informed him.
"According to our textbooks at school, the dinosaurs came first, and they laid eggs, so therefore, the egg came before the chicken."
"By that reasoning, you're still wrong, the dinosaur came first," Nat pointed out as they walked around the wall, looking for a weak spot or a doorway or a stairwell, or something.
"But the question was, which came first, the chicken or the egg."
Casey was used to their senseless arguing by now, they did it all the time, sometimes it was funny, and sometimes it was annoying, but it always made her miss the arguments that she used to have with her brother. There was always something strangely comfortable about arguing with siblings.
"No, the question was starve to death or freeze to death actually," Colten pointed out. Casey could see that Nat was getting frustrated with her brother and would probably strangle him if Casey didn't intervene.
"You're the one who changed the question dolt face."
"Didn't mom and dad ever teach you that it's not nice to call others names?"
"Uh, guys," Casey butted in before Nat's hands could get around Colt's neck. "I think we better turn around."
The three of them whirled around to the Cornucopia, Autumn and Skylar were both glaring at the them.
"We're the biggest threat now," Nat whispered, Casey gulped. Nat was always right. Autumn and Skylar were heading over to them. The two of them could fight each other, but then whoever was left would have to kill off the alliance to survive. Autumn and Skylar had joined forces to get rid of the alliance of three. Two against three was better than one against three.
Casey thought that it was a good plan. But it sucked because she was part of the alliance.
"One of us is going to die," Casey realized, her head was spinning at the realization sunk in. She didn't want it to be her, she didn't want it to be Colt. She turned to Nat. Colt jumped between them.
"No, we are not fighting each other," he told them both sternly. "Let's get rid of Autumn and Skylar and then take it from there."
They were all equipped with weapons now, Autumn had a working ax that wasn't extra heavy, they had knives and spears and blades galore. Thanks to the feast their bellies were full and satisfied, their bodies were warm and their hands were filled with weapons.
It would be a fairly even fight. None of them were at a disadvantage. They were all evenly matched. The five left had somehow managed to survive against all odds.
It was like the blood bath all over again. But instead of twenty four of them, there were only five of them.
Nat was struggling with Autumn while Casey and Skylar were locked together. Colt was going back and forth between the fights, helping whoever needed it the most.
Casey was too busy fighting with Skylar to pay attention to what was going on with Nat and Autumn. Colt was helping his sister at the moment and Casey was busy trying to take Skylar down.
But a week in the arena had taught them all hard life lessons. By now they all knew how to fight, they knew how to deal with tricky opponents. They hadn't survived by looking pretty.
Casey tried to trip Skylar to bring her down to the ground. It was always easiest to kill when the enemy was immobilized. But Skylar kept sidestepping Casey's foot.
It was almost as if they were dancing. Casey made a move, Skylar turned and twisted. Their hands were everywhere, so were their feet. Casey had two left feet, she danced like the typical white girl, not so well.
Once her mother had signed her up for ballet, the instructor actually made Casey quit because she was that horrible. Casey avoided school dances because she didn't want to look like a fool. Dancing wasn't for her.
"You're good," Casey said as she lunged again, and missed again.
"Why thank you," Skylar responded taking the compliment to heart. It was her turn to attack, but she also missed. "You're quite good as well."
Casey spun as Skylar's knife tried to lodge itself in her heart.
"It's unfortunate that you have to die," Casey replied as she spun her knife towards Skylar.
"I'm sorry to dash your hopes and dreams, but I'm not dying anytime soon," Skylar replied as she lunged one last time, she made her target. Casey's face lit up in shock as she crumpled down to the ground gasping for air.
"CASEY!" Colt yelled as he abandoned Nat and ran to his fallen girlfriend. Skylar was already racing to the other end, she wanted to get a head start before Colt pursued her.
"Well that's quite a twist," Autumn observed as the fight between her and Nat came to an unspoken timeout. The two girls watched as Colt threw himself down on the ground next to Casey.
Their goodbye was so heartbreaking. Autumn was glad that she was not the one who had fatally wounded Casey. Colt would be out for blood, Skylar's blood. The vicious circle really was never ending.
Casey wasn't dead yet, but she would be soon, she was bleeding out, her warm blood melting the snow.
Casey griped Colt's hand, "you have to win now, you deserve it so much," she sputtered, blood flew out of her mouth, spattering his face, he was in too much mental pain to notice.
"No, Casey, you can't leave me, please," he sobbed. Nat was taken back a few years where she watched her father sobbing over the death of his beloved wife, a few weeks before that they had heard Tori's heartbreaking cries as her twin sister Tisha died. There had been so many deaths in Nat's life, she was tired of watching the people that she cared about die.
"Make sure he wins," Casey tried to keep her voice steady as she spoke to Nat. Nat could only nod at the dying girl, it satisfied Casey enough, she turned back to Colt.
"Love you," Casey managed to say before she gave in to the pain and joined her brother in death. Nat couldn't watch her brother break down like that. It was painful to watch. He really had loved that girl, as much as a pain in the ass as she was. For some reason, Colt had loved that pain in the ass.
The cannon that went off for her seemed loud and obnoxious. The ice block was taken down. Skylar sprinted off towards the mountains, no one followed her.
Colten closed Casey's eyes for the last time before getting up and heading over to his sister.
Nat didn't say anything, she didn't need to. She turned to resume her fight with Autumn, but the District seven girl had left. It was probably for the best, they would get her later, no one was in the mood for another brutal fight.
They were exhausted, Nat put her arm around her brother. He fell into her embrace and cried his eyes out. She had never seen him so defeated.
"Colt," Nat began, but she didn't know what to say from there. There really was nothing that she could say to make it all better. They weren't kids anymore, Nat used to be able to buy him a toy to make him forget about the fight he had just had with Shyla. She couldn't do that anymore. He would never forget this moment, as hard as he would try, he would never be able to get the images of Casey's last moments out of his head.
"Let's just get out of here Nat, please," Colt pleaded with his sister. Together the siblings left Casey's crumpled body and they headed up the mountains to find shelter. The sun was rising, bringing about a new day.