Chapter 42- Silver Bellcreek

I stumble through the woods, wracked with sobs. I still have my supplies, thank goodness, but I don't have all of my teeth; Buck kicked out two of the front ones and now my mouth is bleeding along with my nose, which I'm pretty sure is broken. I'm a mess, but I'm just focusing on getting away, getting away from Buck with his power and his spears. He's going to be hunting me now; I'm one of the most vulnerable people in this arena. Or am I? He didn't kill me. I killed the boy from 9, but Buck didn't kill me. I'm not out of this yet. Now I need to find Violet, wherever she is.

As soon as I get a reasonable distance away from the grass sea I sit down and assess my wounds. I prepare for the worst. It's not as bad as it might be, though. My nose is finally stopping, and my mouth isn't stinging as badly already. Both pluses. I hate that my teeth are gone, though. It makes me so ugly. My throat is stinging and dry; I need to find water. I'm all out.

So I get up and start wandering again. Other than my face I'm in pretty good shape, except I'm shaking from the adrenaline leaving my system. Just keep walking. I try not to think about the boy, his face… I have to move on. There's no time for stopping here. Buck could be following me even now. I mourn the loss of a perfectly good knife; I wish Buck didn't have it now. There's not much I can do about that. That knife saved my life.

I get distracted by the thought of my partner. Where do I find Violet? She's still my ally, and really, I want to find her because I like her. Our friendship will not end well here in the arena, but I can enjoy her company while it lasts. I just hope I don't have to kill her in the end. I don't know if I could.

I stumble through some overgrowth and come to a pond by chance. Water! Thank goodness. I sit by the little pond and fill the water bottle I took from the Cornucopia. I wonder what Glow and Curia are up to today. No doubt they're furious that I broke the alliance and left.

My head whips around at the first zap. What is it? Where is it? My fingers fly to the little diamond necklace that Kensa, my stylist, gave me. I had forgotten about it, but now my fingers run over the little diamond on its chain. Something to hold onto to make me brave.

Zap zap.

What on earth is it? I start looking around on the ground, running my hands through the grass. "Ouch!" I snatch my hand back; whatever is in the grass is like static. And now my hand won't respond, won't do anything. My fingers refuse to move. Panicking I scramble backwards, back towards the water.

Now I see them, little beetles or something like that, shooting off little shocks of electricity in the grass. Water is not the place to be around electricity, I know that much. I clamber up on a large rock nearby and watch the forest floor swarm with the electric beetles.

Ugh, I think I might be sick. I hate bugs with a passion. My hand makes no effort to come back to life, it's just dead on the end of my arm. And if that wasn't scary enough, the beetles are starting to climb up the rock to where I am.

Zap. One touches my foot and even through my boot my foot goes dead. And the numbness is spreading, now I can't move my arm at all, my leg is paralyzed. I fall backwards off the rock and start climbing away as best I can, almost hopping while dragging my dead leg behind me.

I'm scared, I'm so scared. The lightning bugs seem to follow me in swarms, and they're too quick to be natural. What natural bug shoots electricity? None, not like that. They've been manufactured by the Gamemakers to kill me, to make me lose the Games.

I scramble like a one legged dog away from the bugs that catch up with me with ease. I have to use one arm and one leg to keep going and it's too awkward to go fast. I try, I try, I try. And it's still not enough. The numbness seems to spread even more; all of a sudden my other leg won't work and I crash to the ground. Can't move, can't move. I pull myself a little ways with my good arm, then give up. It's too much. The bugs back off for now, go the other way. Leave me to die. My legs, my arms, everything is going dead and numb. Paralyzing me.

I'm under the cover of a bush, I don't know if I'm spottable. I had no choice in the matter, it's just where I fell. It doesn't matter anyways. Now my head and neck are frozen into position, my eyes locked on a tree three yards away. Black spots bore into my eyes, spinning round and round. My eyelids shut on their own accord and I am trapped in darkness.

I try to thrash, try to scream, try to move anything, but my voice is trapped inside and nothing of me moves. Panic, panic, panic. Calm down Silver, calm down. If Curia and Glow find me now, if any other tribute finds me now, I'm dead. Maybe I'm dead already. Maybe these bugs have killed me even now. Paralyzing my organs, shutting down my system… is my breathing fast because I'm panicking or because I can't breathe properly? Calm down calm down, can't calm down, can't do anything.

Calm down Silver.

My thoughts become more sluggish, then I hardly think at all. Calm, I think. Calm. Such nice word. So calm. Calm.

And I am plunged into a world where there are no thoughts. There is only darkness.