Chapter 39- Oak Peacewood
It's the middle of the night and I'm safe, back in one of those mountain caves. But this time I'm not alone. This time I have my best friend with me. Aldar found me. He helped me back to the mountain, since my knee's messed up. Luckily he had water and supplies on him so we didn't have to go farther.
Aldar's different here than at home. His eyes seem glassier somehow. I think it has something to do with killing the girl from 8 this morning. The afternoon was quiet after the explosions of cannons this morning. Five dead in a day!
Aldar stirs next to me. I volunteered to stay up and watch for enemies, but nobody's come so far. Who would come to the mountain but us? And the girl from 8, but she's dead. I feel like I'm fighting demons in my head every time I close my eyes. I want to go home, I want to go back into my familiar woods with my team. Even though they turned out to be a sucky team.
The cave begins to rumble and shake and roar. Aldar sits straight up. "What's going on? What's happening?" "I don't know!" I can't see his face but I know it's terrified, which makes me even more scared. Even though it's dark I look out the mouth of the cave, to see what's going on. I'm almost brained by a rock that carries on down the slope; I can hear it. "It's a rock slide!" I cry, backing in. "Get out! Get out now!" Aldar yells and starts pushing me out. "What? Why? We're safe here! We're safe Aldar!" "No, we're not! We'll get buried alive in here!" He pushes me out of the cavern, but he pushes me a bit too hard and I tumble down the mountainside with the rocks. It's dark and it's a nightmare.
I think Aldar is coming down after me, but it's hard to tell; everything is rolling and screaming and I'm crying, I think I'm crying. My head bashes against a sharp rock and I cry out; I'm slashed and bruised, I can't think, I can't see, I can only hear the rocks and boulders coming down around me. Finally I come down the last of the rocky crag and land in a heap on the ground. I can't move, can't do anything. Then the rumble of rocks stirs in my murky brain and I'm about to be pummeled by half the mountainside. My head is pounding, and I'm pretty sure my left ankle is broken. Hopefully not. I drag myself, painfully and slowly, towards the trees I assume are there, out of range of the rocks.
Something warm runs down my temple; I don't even bother to brush it away. My knee is worse, I can feel it. Where's Aldar? I hug a tree for dear life. I want to find Aldar but I don't dare even call his name. Who knows who is in the forest. Who knows what.
My nose is running and I go to wipe it away. Hot. Bloody nose. Excellent. Pinching my nose I lean back against the tree and wait to hear something other than falling rocks. Some smaller chunks of rubble bounce past me and land farther in the woods. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the rockslide stops. The world is quiet, absolutely silent, except for my crying, which is just making the bloody nose worse.
Then rubble begins to move and I am half hopeful, half petrified to hear what's going on. "Oak?" Aldar's voice is hoarse and damaged, but it's alive. "Aldar!" I call back. Dawn is rising and slowly my surroundings become apparent to me. Gripping the tree like a lifeline I hobble my way towards the mountain, where Aldar is alive.
He's stuck, stuck beneath a rock. His leg is, anyway. As I make my way to him I try not to make trails, but I smear my blood all over the rocks anyway. It can't be helped.
"Oh my god, Oak. Are you okay? Oh my god." I wave him off with the hand that's not currently attached to my nose. It doesn't seem to be helping anyway, since blood keeping running down my elbow. Or maybe that's from my head. I don't know. "I'll live, I hope. Let's get you out."
Together we work away the looser smaller rocks under his leg and ease his leg out. Thanks to a little hollow in the ground, his leg is okay; if the hollow hadn't been there his leg would have been crushed.
Now that I can see what's going on, thanks to the light that's quite unusually golden on the remains of the rockslide, I examine Aldar. He's a bit banged up, but not as bad as me. His face is a bit scratched, and he's limping a little where the rock landed on him. All in all he's in pretty good shape. I'm quite the opposite, it turns out.
My bloody nose stops, but I'm still covered in blood. My head wound stops too, leaving my head sticky and red. Aldar sits down to examine my knee and ankle, which are both conveniently on the same leg.
"I think your ankle is broken, Oak. And your knee is pretty banged up." "I figured." Inside I'm shriveling up; this pretty much counts me out of the Games. "You should go on, Aldar. I'll stay here. Win for both of us."
Aldar looks up in shock at me. "I'm not leaving you behind. I just found you, I'm not leaving you. Together til the end." "That stupid pledge only counts at home, when we were kids. It's different here." "Listen to me, Oak. I'm not going to abandon you here. We're going to go as long as we can, and that' going to be back to the Capitol." "Aldar only one of us can win." "And that's going to be you!" "I'm dead already, Aldar! Look at me!"
I don't notice that I'm yelling until it's too late. And a tribute edges out of the forest.