CHAPTER 38 NATO
I look over at Raven as Lucya sobs next to us. His grey eyes are full of concern and small tears are forming at the corners. I take a deep breath. Although my heart pangs for Olive, I know I have to keep a strong resolve, especially when Lucya, the toughest one of us all, is in such a state. I have to pull the three of us through this because it'll be happening more and more often for the next several weeks. Not wanting to interrupt on Lucya's grief, I sit down against the wall and close my eyes. I wonder what got her so attached to the boy; she'd only known him for a couple of days. Of course, I would be just as horrified if, for say, Raven were killed, but Lucya is a different person than I am. Love doesn't exactly seem to be in her nature. I open my eyes to look at her, pitifully sobbing on the ground. The Games have obviously changed her. They'll change each and every one of us.
Lucya lifts her head from its rest on her knees; her face is covered be a mass of unruly black hair. I prepare a sympathetic, bracing smile as she parts her hair. The smile freezes on my face as she looks up at me. Her eyes are nothing like I expected. They're teary and red, yes, but there's more than the pain and sorrow that was evident from her sobs. Her eyes are charged with cold electricity, radiating pure anger. Taking heavy intakes of breath, she wipes the tears from her face and sweeps her hair behind her ears. She stands up and I realize she's shaking with what I can only imagine is uncontrolled anger. I notice that her knuckles are white from gripping the hilt of her sword. She looks positively dangerous, standing over the two of us, looking ready to draw her sword at any moment.
"Who did it?" Her voice is quiet, soft even, but it pierces through me like a dozen polished daggers. It's the cold voice of a Career, of a hunter preparing to take down its prey.
"I don't know," I don't turn my sight away from her blazing eyes. "There weren't any voices besides Olive's."
"We're going to find them," she says, picking up the backpack. She's slowly becoming less cold.
"What?" Raven whimpers, looking absolutely frightened.
"We're going to find them," Lucya pulls her sword out of its sheath and glazes over it with her sight, "And kill them." With a strong thrust, she stabs the sword into the smooth, white wall to her left. It stays in the wall, slightly bobbing. The walls had always looked rather impenetrable to me. The precision and strength it must have taken to slice into it must have been incredible.
"It won't bring him back," I say, slowly standing up. "Vengeance won't solve anything."
"Vengeance," Lucya hisses, "is all I know." Pulling the sword from its place in the wall and slinging the pack onto her back, she turns round to where the sound had come from. "Let's go." The direction is opposite of where I've been leading us these whole couple of days, but I figure that now isn't the best time to cross her. Raven looks at me, nervous and confused. I nod.
"Come on Raven," I say as he takes my hand and I pull him up from where he was sitting on the floor. We follow Lucya and I decide that, today, I'll let her lead. She knows, more or less, what she's doing. I've come to realize that anger and cruelty clear her mind and allow her to think straight and to do things independently. She weaves through the maze for the next hour or so. I can tell from her slightly hesitant movements and shrouded face that she doesn't know here she's going; she's lost. The lightning has completely faded from her eyes and has been replaced by fear. But she won't give up; she won't admit that she can't do this on her own.
"Lucya," I say softly. She stops walking. "I think the lights will be going off soon, maybe we should just find a wider tunnel and set up camp." I know it shouldn't be at least two more hours until night sets in, but relief washes across her face.
"Okay. Good idea." She sends me a smile, thanking me for saving her own pride.
"So where do we—"Raven trails off as an arrow imbeds itself an inch away from his head. I push him behind me and turn to where the arrow came from. Indigo is standing some distance down the passage, drawing another.
"You two go first. I'll tell you what to do," I tell Raven and Lucya as we back away from Indigo. "I know how we can lose her." They nod slowly and continue to back down the passage as Indigo approaches us. An arrow whizzes past my ear. "Turn around. Go faster," I whisper. "But don't go too far as that I can't see you." Lucya takes Raven by the hand and they jog down the tunnel. Indigo is getting closer and closer, so I start to walk faster. Of course, it would be easier if I weren't walking backwards. She notches an arrow and raises her bow; I easily dodge the arrow by dusking down.
"Come on, Indigo!" I yell. "Ten years of training and that's all you've got?" Her face gets red and she fires another arrow in my direction. This time, her aim is so bad that I don't even have to dodge it. Good. She's proven to me that anger affects her reasoning. I continue to walk backwards. I can sense the other two a couple of meters behind me. "Why are you here alone anyway? Shouldn't you be with your Career buddies?" I taunt.
She reaches behind her back to grab yet another valuable arrow. "The walls changed. I got cut off."
"Oh, and you couldn't figure out how to make your way through the maze all alone, could you?" I fake a smirk. She's twitching with anger by now, and her arrow sails harmlessly next to my hip. "You know, if they wanted to find you, they probably could." My witty insults are running out, but I look behind her back and, to my satisfaction, I can see that so are her arrows. "That one kid, Pyro, he looked pretty clever. If you were beneficial to the team at all, he would've been able to find you."
She gives an angry shriek and lets loose another arrow, which I deflect with the point of my sword. I count the remaining ones in the sheath slung over her shoulders; she only has three left. Now is the time to finish off my plan. I turn around, running. I can see Lucya and Raven far ahead in the tunnel.
"Wait!" I yell, and they stop in their tracks. Eventually, I catch up to them. I feel the swish of an arrow near my head and then see it plant itself in the wall next to Raven. I push past them to the front of the group and run off. They follow me. I turn left into another passage. It goes on in front of us, but I duck into a small, side room that leads off it. The three of us enter the room and I signal Lucya and Raven to stay quiet. I can hear Indigo running through the maze. She passes the doorway to our little room. Just as expected, she doesn't stop to look into it. It's time you started noticing details, Indigo, I think.
I leave the room, making sure Lucya and Raven are behind me. "Hey, Indigo." She stops in her tracks and turns around.
"How...?" she seems confused and cornered, even though the passage stretches out behind her back. She gets over the shock quickly and raises her bow. I slowly walk closer to her, drawing my spear to look menacing. Raven and Lucya must've taken the hint, because I hear the sound of weapons being drawn behind me. Indigo backs away from us to get a better aim and probably just to get away from us.
"You only have two arrows left, Indigo," I say, trying to sound murderous. Indigo shoots the arrow and it misses all three of us.
I hear Lucya's voice from my right. "Make that one." The coldness in her tone is utterly convincing and I wonder if it's real. She might think there's a chance that Indigo killed Olive. The three of us keep on walking down the passage, and I feel like we're in an alley, a gang cornering some helpless victim. I'm not being fair to myself, Indigo's the one who wouldn't mind killing us. All I want to do is to get her to use up all her arrows and flee.
Indigo backs up further down the hallway and I feel there's something different in the air. I look around as Indigo slowly reaches behind her back. Everything happens so slowly. She pulls the last arrow out of its sheath as I take in where we've found ourselves. The slits in the walls flanking Indigo. The dried blood on the floor behind her. The short, cut-off scream before Ray's death. The thin, drawn line just behind Indigo's right foot. And now I can hear it, too, the soft, mechanical humming...
"Indigo, don't!" I yell out, but it's too late. She notches the arrow and steps back to take her aim. Her foot crosses the thin line on the floor. The razor-sharp blades spiral out of the walls.