Tabitha had died during the night. When I begin watching that day, I see a hovercraft come and pick up her body. She isn't injured (other than her lag, which is still in the cast), so another tribute hadn't killed her. She must have died from fatigue, hunger, dehydration, cold, or all four combined. Tabitha will be going home to her sister soon, but not alive.
When the hovercraft is gone, they switch to a scene of Arboren and Velour. I am relieved to see Arboren again, because they didn't show her at all yesterday. They are in the section of forest behind the mountain, so even if it is about 100 degrees in the arena, it is shady where they are. Arboren is fiddling with a branch and some string, and I recognize that she is trying to make a slingshot.
"Hurry up," says Velour, "I'm hungry, and we ate the last rolls yesterday."
"I'm sorry, but this string is just not elastic enough," replies Arboren, oblivious to the obvious self-centeredness of Velour's comment.
Velour sighs and slumps against a tree trunk to wait.
Arboren tries out a number of pebbles in her slingshot, and most of them just plop to the ground a couple feet away, but every once in a while, one goes whizzing into the air and scares the birds out of the trees. "This will have to do," says Arboren. "Stay here, I'll try and get a bird or something." She quietly stalks off, looking for birds that aren't obscured by the foliage of pine needles.
A few minutes later, Arboren is quite far away from Velour. Then there is a shriek.
"Arboren, Arboren!" Velour calls.
Arboren starts to shush her, but she is too far away, and all the birds have flown off anyway.
"Arboren!" screams Velour. Arboren realizes that something was very wrong, and runs back to Velour.
"What is it?" she gasps, panting, as she stops in front of Velour.
"I hear something coming from that way!" she says, and points downhill. Sure enough, there is the sound of running footsteps on the dry pine needle covered ground, and whoever it is, is getting closer.
"Up the mountain!" says Velour, and she takes off uphill. Arboren quickly follows her.
Only a few seconds after they've gone, Bryant bursts into the clearing, which they had vacated. He looks around for any sign of the two allies, and then realizes that they must have run in the opposite direction as him, so he follows them up the mountain.
Soon, the pine forest gives away to the sandy mountain landscape that I recognize from Genny and Tabitha's cave. Velour and Arboren continue running uphill, but shortly the mountain gets too steep, and it is impossible to run any longer. They have to start using their hands to pull themselves up to the next rock ledge.
At one point, Arboren looks back to see that Bryant has started climbing up behind them. He holds a heavy sword in one hand, but is strong and tall enough to keep gaining on them.
The mountain is still getting increasingly steeper—it is almost a 90-degree incline. The next rock ledge is much too high for either Arboren or Velour to reach. They nervously glance down at Bryant slowly advancing on them.
"Rope," says Arboren.
"What?"
"Rope. Do you still have that long piece of rope that you found in your backpack?" Velour starts digging around for it. "I'll help you get up to the ledge, and then I'll use the rope to climb up myself."
Velour pulls a long, thick rope out of her pack. "Got it."
Arboren kneels down, and Velour uses her knee as a step up to the ledge. She scrambles up, and starts to unwind the rope to pull Arboren up. Velour braces herself so she won't be pulled off of the cliff while Arboren holds the other end of the rope in both hands and tries to walk up the solid rock face of the mountain. Finally, she makes it, but there are still many more rock ledges to climb.
After a bit, their climbing strategy gets much easier, but Bryant is gaining on them fast. He is surprisingly good at climbing, because, no doubt, he has trained for it. He will catch up with the two girls in a very short time.
Arboren is sweating even though it is definitely 40 degrees cooler on the mountain face than in the rest of the arena. It just makes it very hard to hold onto the rope. Her hands, apart from being slippery, are rubbed raw from rope burn and have been cut by a sharp piece of rock many times.
For maybe the twentieth time, Arboren kneels down to let Velour step up on her thigh. "Quickly!" she tells Velour, because Bryant is already clambering up onto the same rock ledge that they are on, just 20 meters to the left. Velour has already made it to the next ledge, and should be about to throw the end of the rope down to Arboren. "Velour, the rope!" Arboren urgently reminds her, as Bryant catches sight of them.
Velour looks down at her, and then at Bryant, now running their way.
"The rope!"
Velour slowly shakes her head, no.
"Velour!" screams Arboren. But Velour has already turned her back to her, and Bryant is a mere three meters away.
"Help!" she screams again as Bryant runs he sword directly through her chest.