Chapter 58- Astrid Clearwater
"Get down!" I shout, pushing myself backwards along my branch with one hand while I hold my axe with the other. "Run!"
The thing in the branches above us screams again, like nothing I've ever heard before. "It's a mutt, run!" I shout again; I hear Elowyn shuffling a few feet away, and I know she's trying to get down the tree. I don't know if there are more mutts down below, but there's one right above me and that's the one I'm worried about.
I can't see where I'm supposed to go, it's too dark. All I know is that if I put my hand in the wrong place, I'm dead. I can hear the mutt above me, panting, but it hasn't moved, not yet anyway. The best thing for me to do is get out of this tree and find Elowyn, then run. I could curse Elowyn for putting us in this tree to begin with, but I don't know how much better off we would have been on the ground.
The mutt screams as I start to move myself further back along my branch, towards the trunk, and startles me just enough that my hand misses the branch altogether. I shriek as I tip over the side, barely looping one knee over the branch and catching the rough wood with one hand. I shouldn't have screamed; I should stay quiet so nobody can find me, but half of me is dangling twenty feet in the air, and the other half is right in the path of a mutt.
I grapple for the branch with my other hand, but I'm still holding the axe, and I'm not going to let it go. I'm going to let go of something at some point, whether it's the branch or the axe, and I don't want to do either. Above me, the mutt screams again, and I can hear it shuffling back and forth. I don't know where Elowyn is; right now, I don't care. No cannons; nobody's been killed. Not yet.
Instead of my other hand, I start swinging my leg up; if I can catch the branch and loop my knee around it, then I'll be steadier and I can pull myself up. Then I can figure my way out of this tree, and hopefully kill this mutt.
With another scream, it pounces, landing on my branch with unnerving precision. I miss the branch again with my leg, and my hand slips, the rough bark digging into my skin.
Beetee, if you have a way to get me out of this, you better start sending those parachutes down.
I can feel the mutt's hot breath on my face, and I lean my head back to avoid it. Of course, when I do that, my hand starts to slip further. I don't want to fall; I don't want to fall out of this tree.
The mutt screams again, and it must kick out because something sharp stabs into my cheek; I feel a curious ripping sensation, and then a steady stream of warm blood pouring down my neck and down into my shirt. I won't scream, I will not let this mutt make me scream, but the pain is sharp and immediate. Blindly, I swing my free hand, still holding the axe, and it meets something solid. The mutt screams, and hot blood sprays in my face, making me gag.
My hand is shaking on the branch; I can't hold on much longer, but I don't want to be hanging by one knee while this thing is attacking me. I swing the axe again, but I hit nothing but air; the mutt's moving out of range, leaving me covered in its and my blood.
"Astrid!" Elowyn screams from somewhere below me. "Astrid!"
I'm not going to give away my location, not even to her. The other tributes are going to be out, and so are the rest of the mutts, and we're being driven together again, just like with the wave. We're going to be driven together, and then four of us are going to die.
I won't let it be me. Not after everything that's happened. I'm not going to let myself die now.
The mutt attacks again, this time catching me in the forehead; I can feel thin rivulets of my blood trickle down my face and into my eyes, making them sting. I'm shaking too hard; I'm going to drop. Everything hurts; my legs, my hands, my face.
Beetee, send me something. Anything!
"Astrid! Where are you?" Elowyn shouts down below me; she's close, I know she's close. A few feet away from me, the mutt screams again, and this time I know exactly where it is. As my hand slips off of the branch, I strike out with my free hand, and my axe meets its mark. Another spray of blood hits me, but the mutt doesn't scream. Instead, I hear it fall at the same moment my hand finally lets go, and I topple off my branch completely.
If I die by falling out of a tree, I'll never forgive myself.
One moment I'm falling, then I hit the ground and everything turns into stars and fire. I can't see anything, just bright lights against a black background, but there has to be fire because I can feel it snaking up my right leg. I suck my breath in, trying to get back the air that I lost when I hit the ground.
Everything hurts.
"Astrid!" Elowyn's close, but my voice isn't working. The stars spin above me, then slowly fade until I'm looking at a black sky.
I fell out of a tree, and now I can't move. It's just my leg that hurts; the rest of me seems to be relatively unhurt. My pack protected my back, I think, and my head is banged up, but otherwise I'm not overly injured. Except for my leg. But I'm still holding my axe, and that has to count for something.
"Where are you?" Elowyn calls again, but quieter.
"Here," I call back, my voice starting to work again. "I'm here."
The mutts scream around us, but none of them are close enough to worry about at this very moment. Elowyn stumbles her way over to me in the dark, almost falling over me in the end. "What happened?" she whispers, feeling around until she catches my arm.
"Fell out of the tree," I mutter. "I think my leg's broken."
It better not be what I think it is; if it is broken, then I can count myself out of these Games for good. I have to win, which means I have to go on like my leg isn't broken, like there's not a red-hot poker burning my leg from the inside out.
Everyone will watch me win with a broken leg, and they'll know I'm not weak. District 3 almost always crumples, but I'll carry on, and I'll be the victor. No matter how much it hurts.
"Help me up," I tell her, gripping her arms so tight she'll have bruises later.
"Okay," she says, pulling me up to sitting. She doesn't ask me about moving; we both know I'm going to have to get up and go at some point. The mutts scream again; I think they're circling us, which isn't good either.
I don't want to die here. Not now, not like this.
"What are they anyway?" Elowyn asks, rubbing my arms while I try to get on top of the pain.
"I don't know. No idea," I get out; my leg's on fire and I feel like I might black out. Which I can't do. "They've got teeth and can kick, that's all I know." Blood runs into my mouth, and I can't tell if it's mine or the mutt's. I spit it out in any case, and wipe my face with the back of my free hand. My cheek stings, but it's the least of my worries at the moment.
A mutt screams nearby, closer than before. "We have to go, Astrid," Elowyn says, and I can hear the terror in her voice as clearly as if I were seeing her face.
"I know. Help me up," I say, gritting my teeth in anticipation.
Elowyn might not look overly strong, but she is, and she proves it by hauling me to my feet. I sway for a second; green and purple streaks cross my vision, almost bringing me down to the ground again. "You can do this," she whispers, looping my arm around her neck and wrapping her arm around me. "Let's go."
I will myself to not pass out, holding onto my axe with all the strength I have. "Okay."
Elowyn and I go as fast as we can, which isn't very fast given the fact that every hopping step I take is excruciating. Add the fact that we're tripping over branches and vines every second step, and the sinking feeling in my stomach grows deeper and deeper.
First, the odds aren't good that we're going to get out of this alive. I have to keep going, but every time I put my foot down it sends a burst of fire all the way through my nerves and up my leg. My leg still hurts from the other mutt attack, too, but this pain is different. Hot instead of acidic, but still almost unbearable.
And second, I feel like I can never kill Elowyn now, not now when she's helping me at the sacrifice of her own escape. She could have abandoned me ten times in this arena so far; when the Cornucopia went down, when the turtles came, when I was unconscious on the beach; when the wave came, and now with the mutts and my leg again.
I owe her too much, and she's going to have to die before I can repay her. Today. Soon.
"Hurry," Elowyn says, breathing hard.
"I'm trying." All around us the mutts are screaming and closing in; we're not going to be able to fight them off with two axes. I don't want my mother to see me die, not this way, and preferably not at all. I have to win, I have to win.
"Sky's getting lighter," Elowyn remarks, pulling me over a damp section on the ground.
"That's not right. The faces weren't that long ago," I get out, hopping as fast as I can alongside Elowyn. She's right, though; the sun is already starting to rise. It's not a real sun then; it's just a trick of the Gamemakers. In the escape from the mutts I forgot the most important thing; this arena is just an illusion. Nothing's real except for the tributes; even the mutts are just a Capitol creation.
They need us to play their Games, because we're the only things that are real in here.
"I guess they want to be able to see us," Elowyn says, and she's right again, which means the finale isn't far off. These next few minutes could mean the difference between life and death, for all of us.
The sun comes up faster than the real sun, and in only minutes the trees around us are lit by a soft yellow light. The mutts scream again, and even though my vision is going black, I can finally see them for what they really are.
"I hate them," Elowyn whispers, and I nod. Some Gamemaker's beloved inspiration, created only to terrify us. I hate them, I hate everything the Capitol has ever created. Especially these mutts, cats with sharp teeth and thin, hooved legs; as long as my bed at home, but quick enough to jump over logs and slip through the trees like shadows. "I hate them."
"Yes," I say, because that's everything that needs to be said. The closest mutt screams, opening its fanged mouth wide, inspiring the others around it to scream as well, until the jungle is full of the high-pitched shrieks. It's like the howling we've heard on and off since we dropped in here, but whatever made the howling never tried to kill us.
"Stop. I have to stop," I say finally. We're not outrunning the mutts; they're keeping pace with us, and my vision is almost completely black. I don't want to pass out, not here and now, and if we keep going on my leg I'm going to.
"The mutts, Astrid," Elowyn says quietly, and I shake my head.
"We're not going to outrun them. They're going at the same pace as us." Elowyn bites her lip and turns her head side to side, apparently counting the cat mutts that are lined up on either side of us, half hidden in the trees.
"So we fight them," she says finally. She's still holding her axe in one hand, like me. We're armed, but I don't know about fighting against so many mutts.
"Yeah," I reply, then pull myself up, shaking the blackness loose from my eyes. "Yes, we'll fight them." I'm not sinking down and dying for everyone to watch. I'm going to show them all.
The mutts scream, but this time it sounds like a warning scream. Then another, and another, and the mutts start to back away, hissing at us.
"What are they doing?" Elowyn asks.
"I don't know."
The knife comes out of nowhere, glinting silver in the jungle sunlight. I don't even have time to call out a warning before it buries itself in Elowyn's throat, dropping her to the ground.
Her eyes are wide as she grapples with trembling hands at the handle, before her grip loosens and her hands fall limp, one on her chest, the other on the mossy ground. Blue eyes staring, unseeing, and her red blood pouring from her neck into her long blonde hair.
Boom.
I hear the cackling laugh before I see them, before I turn away from my dead ally with my axe in my hand. They killed her. She had to die, but they killed my ally, and I'm going to kill them too.
As soon as I can make out his figure, I let the axe fly. I missed the target on my last throw in my private session, but I know I haven't missed it now. I know, just as well as I know Elowyn is dead on the ground behind me, that my axe will meet its mark.
And it does, burying itself in the ratty looking boy from 2's head.
Boom.
"You kill my ally, I kill yours!" I shout. She knows where I am; I'll kill her too. My hands are shaking, but the adrenaline running through me is letting me stand on my leg for the moment. It'll redouble in pain soon, I know it will, but for right now I'm reeling from the last minute. I killed the boy; nobody has actually died at my hand before, not directly.
I never killed Tilling, but I knew as soon as I threw that axe that I would kill the boy from 2. But they killed Elowyn, so I'll fight back whatever feelings I have about it. He's dead; one less in the arena. One step closer to me winning.
"Saves me from having to kill him," she says, stepping out from around a tree, fingering one last knife. She's been hurt too; I can tell from the blood and tears on her jacket. She smiles sweetly, tilting her head as she looks at me. "You know, I've been looking for you everywhere."
"Why?" I ask, as hostilely as I can. "Why do you want me of all the tributes in this arena?"
"I thought you would be fun to play with," she replies. If I didn't know her, I would place her tone as kind. Sweet even. But she's not; she's a murderer who wants to kill me next.
Of course, I'm in that position too. I'm not sweet though. Victors aren't sweet, they're ruthless. And they don't care about their allies when they die.
"The boy from 6 was such a loudmouth," Agrippina continues, like she has no interest in killing me whatsoever.
"I know that," I say. That's one thing we can agree upon.
"He was fun to play with in the end, though."
"Do you play with all of your victims?" I ask. She shakes her head, making her short black hair sway.
"Only the boy," she says. "And you."
"Lucky me."
I step backwards; Elowyn had an axe, I need to grab it, because mine is still in the boy's head. My heart's pounding too fast and my hands are shaking, but I can't show it. I can't show that I'm scared. Because I'm not. I'm not scared. I won't be.
Agrippina breaks away from her tree and rushes at me, her eyes hardening until I can't imagine she could ever have looked sweet. I fall backwards, fumbling for the axe, but I can't find it, I can't find it, and then she's on me, pinning me to the ground.
"Look at you, somebody's already got you, haven't they?" she asks in a low voice.
"Mutt," I spit out. Where are they? For once I wish they would come attack, take this girl off of my chest so that I can find the axe. I can't; I can't move.
Agrippina shifts, moving my leg and making me hiss in pain. "Oh, does that hurt?" she asks innocently. I can feel her lift her foot up, and then drive it into my right leg. The fire wraps around my leg, burning me from the inside out, and it's almost unbearable. I won't scream; I won't give her the satisfaction of screaming. I grit my teeth instead and stare her down. She looks almost disappointed in me.
"Let's go ahead and play, shall we?" she asks, shifting back into her sweet voice. I try to kick her, hit her, but she's got me pinned down on all sides, and I can't move my right leg anyway. Agrippina holds the knife up in front of my eyes; it looks sharper up close.
"Shall we?" she repeats, hardening her eyes again. I grit my teeth; I won't scream. Nobody will hear me scream.
The first cut slices across my forehead and down into my eyebrow, sending more blood trickling into my eyes and down into my mouth. I won't scream, even though I'm on fire all over. I need the relief of the end; I need this to be over.
Even if I die. I don't want to, I don't want to give anyone that satisfaction, but it would be better than waiting for hours while Agrippina carves my face to pieces.
"The boy was a lot more fun; he made more noises than you do," Agrippina says, and she sounds disappointed.
"I like to stay quiet," I hiss at her, spitting my blood out of my mouth at the same time and spattering it across her face.
Agrippina wipes her face with her sleeve, and only succeeds in smearing my blood across it instead. "You'll scream in the end," she says, and I know she means it. The trickles of blood run into my eyes and I have to close them; it hurts too much to keep them open, but I don't want to be blind to what Agrippina's going to do to me.
Mama, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of this.
I brace myself for the next cut, but Agrippina isn't moving. What is she doing? I hear a wheeze and a choking sound; is she choking on blood or something? The knife falls onto my chest, flat side down and harmless. If I could wipe my eyes, I could see what's going on, but I can't, I can't move at all.
Then the cannon fires and I can feel Agrippina slump off me, landing heavily on the ground beside me. Quickly, I sit up, swiping the blood away and ignoring the severe pain that's burning all through me. Agrippina's dead next to me, dark blue eyes staring, and a ring of red skin and blood around her neck. It doesn't make sense; none of this makes sense until I see the person who's killed her.
"You?"