AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is another one of those "setup chapters" which does not have a great deal of action itself, but is building up to it. We do get to learn who died in the last chapter, however, and perhaps who did it. Also... Chel has a wicked sense of humor, which is in turn only matched by Aveline's vicious sarcasm. They make quite the pair, don't they?

CHAPTER 26: The Final Eight

Chel grunted as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Stupid tributes," she mumbled, "stop dying while I'm sleeping here, 'kay?" she lay back down, rolling over.

"Chel you lazy bastard," Ava shoved the larger girl till she was back on her back again. Chel grunted and opened her eyes again, seeing Ava in all of her filthy, muddy, bloody glory.

"Good heavens, kid… you look like something the cat dragged in."
"Really, Chel?" Ava tilted her head, her voice dripping with so much sarcasm that her mouth was practically a waterfall. "Really? I wouldn't have ever noticed. Thank you for your profound advice and information, without which I would certainly be wandering through the abyss of ignorance for the remaining few days I have left to live."

"You really are a sarcastic little shit, aren't you?" Chel laughed, pulling herself up into a sitting position, "but you've got a point. Let's get you down to some water to get you cleaned up."
"What about the water all around the mountains?" Ava pointed out.

"Hmm, what do you…?" Ava interrupted her by pointing off over the vista. Chel saw the valley, the mountains that formed a circle around it, and behind them, the river was gone, replaced by a massive lake. If it got any deeper it would flow over the mountains.

"Holy crudscones," the massive girl shook her head, "if they break those mountains, there will be no survivors. Suddenly I'm strongly aversive to you going down into the valley to wash up, even, kiddo."

"I'm not," Ava reminded her, "this is the high ground, and so as long as no one's here, that means if they flooded the arena now, they would kill all their tributes and would have no victor. Even we in District 12 know the Capitol wouldn't dare do that."

Chel nodded. "It's true what they said then," she shook her head, "you know a lot more than you let on about, kid. Let's make this quick though—the last thing we want is the careers taking our spot up here on Mt. Awesome."

Ava snorted. "Mt. Awesome?" she laughed.

"Just wanted to see you smile," Chel quipped, "now get on my back. You're a mess and you are not going to wander around that valley looking for a water source when I know exactly where to find one."
Ava tilted her head, her matted hair flopping to one side. "Do I have a choice?"

"No." Chel scooped up the smaller girl and headed down the slopes towards her water source. It was a small pond, not more than a few feet deep. It was quiet and secluded, which meant no tributes were nearby, much to Chel and Ava's relief.

"Hold your breath," Chel called out.

"Huh, whaaAAAEEEEEE!" she squealed, for she had left Chel's arms and was airborne—Chel had just thrown her, right towards the lake!

Shrieking, she hit the water, flailing maniacally before realizing that she could stand. Once on her feet, the water went to her shoulders, and she felt tons of dirt, grime, and blood wash off of her. Even fully dressed, jacket, gloves, and all, it felt rather refreshing, and the stones at the bottom were smooth and thus were gentle on her bare feet. Chel waded in after her, kneeling down so that her whole body could also be submerged a bit. She put her head under, flicking some water at Ava from her hair.

"Well, you certainly don't look like something out of a nightmare anymore." She quipped.

"You nearly just gave me one, you know," Ava retorted. She should have expected it by now, considering that Chel had proven many times that she often did things suddenly as if to test Ava's reflexes or something. Ava could not figure out the entire reason for it, but perhaps she would ask later.

She glanced over at the massive girl, who smiled back at her.

In this brief moment, Ava realized something—she had not ever really viewed Chel as an enemy, even though she knew that the larger girl would have to die if she was to go home—or conversely, she'd have to die to let Chel go home. She did not like to think about it, especially because over the last 10 days, she had not simply "allied" with this District 2 girl. Chel Colorado was Ava's friend. It was no wonder why mentors would strongly advise against making friends (or alliances on a relationship level any greater than acquaintances) in the games, and death was why.

"Hey," Chel called out, snapping Ava out of this train of thought, "I just realized—we're 67% done with this mess. There are only 8 of us left now."

"So what happens when there are only two of us left?" Ava couldn't help but ask, "what if it's me and you? Are we going to fight?"
"Nah," Chel laughed, as if she had just completely missed the point or had just purposely glazed it over, "let's worry about that later though. We've spent enough time here—back to the cornucopia plateau with us now, pronto!"
Ava crawled out of the water, putting her head under one last time as Chel did the same. "I'm going to take a nap to catch up on my beauty sleep when we get back though, alright?" Chel asked

"Alright," Ava shrugged, "you did get rudely interrupted this morning by that cannon."
"I know, right?" Chel laughed, hoisting little Ava onto her shoulders, "who kills a tribute at dawn?"

Chel hoisted Ava up onto her back and hiked back up the slopes until they were back at the cornucopia. Thankfully it was still deserted, but with their 360-degree view of the forested valley below, they could also check for signs of activity. Ava kept watch as Chel caught up on her sleep. Other than some rustling in some of the trees a ways down, there was no sign of activity, and before Ava knew it, the sun was going down and Chel was waking back up.

"Anything happen while I was out?" she asked groggily.

"Six tributes died, and they flooded the arena." Ava retorted.

"So nothing at all then," Chel sighed, "why must my life as a Hunger Games tribute be so boring?"

"Careful;" Ava warned, "you might jinx it."

"Well hey" she smiled, now fully awake again, "at least now we can finally see who the poor bastard was who kicked the bucket yesterday. I hope it wasn't Iris or '11."
"Why don't you wish it was Iris?" Ava tilted her head.
"Because I'm saving her for you," Chel answered, "she killed your brother and nearly killed you. I broke that little shit's arm, but I wanted you to administer the killing blow."

"You should have just killed her," Ava shrugged. "I don't want that coming back to haunt us."

"She'll need a few days to recover, and that's if she even gets sponsored." Chel indicated, "Otherwise that could take weeks to heal, which she won't live to see."

Soon enough, the sun was gone, except that the skies were clear tonight—apparently they were not going to flood the arena yet or anything. The anthem played, and soon the face of the dead tribute showed up in the sky.

Lazuli Cohen, District 1…

"ooooh," Chel's eyes lit up, "that means District 11 is on the move. I don't think the careers would turn on each other while you and I draw breath."

"Well, only one cannon has gone off, so that means District 11 is still alive," Ava nodded.

"You told me 6 tributes had died, girl!" Chel exclaimed.

"And if you were dumb enough to believe that, then I have some bad news for you, Chel." Ava retorted in a very casual but matter-of-fact way that made Chel laugh.

"Your sarcasm wounds me," she joked, "I like it. You're formidable because you're smart, Ava. I'm not one for flattery, but you are definitely one of the smartest tributes I've ever seen. In fact, I propose that you give us our next course of action. We saw how well my last one ended up. You were face down in a ditch and I was scrambling away for my life."

"I say we wait here," Ava grinned, "If they flood the arena, we'll be safe because they never destroy the cornucopia, and they need a victor—and if the Capitol does get bored and try to make the tributes congregate, they're going to send them to the cornucopia. So, we have the high ground, the safe ground, the supplies-ground, and we are the center of the arena. Let's wait here."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Chel approved, "now do you want to keep watch, or should we just bring the rest of the supplies in, rig up the place, and relax and wait for the others to come our way?"
"I like that latter idea better," Ava grinned, "let's do it."
They did not really rig up the place so much as they just made sure that they had vantage points and projectiles they could throw at the other tributes if they approached. Otherwise, they were content with their work and so decided to both sleep, watch duty aside.

10 days had passed, and they were both now in the final 8.