Chapter 13: Getting Away

The eternal seconds finally ended and we lay there, all our energy gone. Andrew pushed himself up groggily but then stumbled over a branch and hit the ground. I lifted my hand as if to help, but then a fogginess filled my head and I felt like throwing up. The dark shadows blurred together and the thunder crashed in my ears. I turned myself over and ran my fingers over my leg and ankle. In confusion, I frowned at the dark liquid coating my hand and looked even closer at it. Was was it? I didn't know, so instead I tried to stand and ended up clutching the trunk of a nearby tree. Why weren't my legs working?

In even more confusion, I stumbled over to another person lying on the ground for some reason and clutched their arm.

''Heyuh, youhh allarite there?,'' I slurred, digging my knees into the mud.

The person groaned in response and, somehow, I began dragging them through the forest. I didn't know why I was doing it. Every few minutes, one of us would crash to the floor of sopping wet leaves and mush and endure pain and agony in the pouring rain. Sometimes I would stop and lie down full length and swish my hand in the puddles, telling myself how much liked how it smelled. Then I would drudge to my feet and continue dragging this total stranger after me, wondering why my legs kept hurting.

At one point the fogginess and confusion grew so bad that I couldn't remember a thing later. After that, my mind slowly cleared and the dreaded spasms became less frequent. It was a few hours after midnight when the other human, who I somehow came to know to be named Andrew, began to get up and slog after me. I had to smack him a few times for following me, but then I would drag him along if he lagged. I got so frustrated with him! He was obviously much dumber and slower than me. All the time my mind was in a sense of panic and urgency to keep on walking, to keep on going.

A few hours before dawn, I had to stop. My body wouldn't step a foot farther. I made Andrew stop too, and we went to sleep next to each other, with his arm draped over my face.


The next morning, we both woke up with horribly sore limbs and pounding headaches. Andrew could only remember a handful of things from the night before after the fight with the river skags, and they were blury and confusing memories at that. I was glad that he couldn't remember all the times that I had thwacked him upside the head. I myself could remember almost everything except at the high point of the poison. It was all like a dream that I knew had made sense in the present, but not at all when I woke up.

If I hadn't gone off course, then that meant that we were east of the cornucopia. How could I say that I hadn't wandered in other directions though? I calculated by the path of the sun that yes, we had gone east, the opposite direction being west naturally, because I remember running away from the direction the sun had set. Still, how far could a drunken, wounded girl drag a boy her same weight through the forest in a downpour? We needed to get farther away.

The sky was clear now and the birds were chirping. For the first time I realized that I was finally in the woods and free! Well, free from the careers, anyway.

I knew that there would be no remains of my bonds or of the mutts we had fought. They would have all been washed away in the flood waters. Until that evening, I would be as good as dead to the careers, mainly Amber. Again, that meant that Andrew and I had to make use of the day and put a lot of distance between us and the alliance.

When we got up, both of us were pained to move and especially walk. We made our way to a nearby stream and washed what we could off our skin and clothes. Despite the fact that the day was already warm, we had both woken up shivering violently in our wet clothes and jackets that were coated with mud.

Then came the awful task of cleaning our wounds. Our lower pants were shredded and our boots were torn. Still, we had to pull them up and strip our footware. Andrew's legs looked terrible, with cuts and slashes crisscrossing everywhere in a mass of dried blood mixed with dirt. I could see why he had been so much more effected by the river skag's poison. My own wounds were practically cat scratches in comparison. We both lightly cleaned the sliced flesh as best we could, then we slowly began trekking onward.

Having to concentrate on not falling or slipping, we didn't talk much. It was understood that we would stop at sunset, find a hiding place, and get food the next day. I wasn't in the mood to talk anyway.

Thankfully, the hours were like minutes and it was hardly long at all before the sun was hovering above the horizon. Andrew and I found a flowing brook without much trouble and then scouted out a place to hide in. With our lower legs torn up, climbing tress wouldn't do (thankfully). In the growing twilight, Andrew delightedly found a massive tree stump in a scattering of rocks that had an entire hollowed out inside.

The hollow was rotted and damp, but was surprisingly free of bugs and vermin. Andrew found out why when he was clearing out the debris and discovered a snake when it erupted out from underneath him. We both screamed and scrambled back, not knowing what kind of serpent it might be in the dim light. As it slithered out to the rim of the stump, I identified it as a ringneck snake, harmless. That explained the clean stump. I pounced on the snake in haste, but it darted through my hands. I couldn't let it go, not being so starved.

Andrew lunged after the snake and caught a hold of it. He held it in one hand, pulled out his knife, and cut off its head. In District 7 we were used to snakes in the woods. They were helpful, and I didn't really care to eat them. However, we needed this, so I made a very small fire and we cooked it quickly, praying that no one was close enough to see the smoke. The snake was over two feet long.

Since it was getting darker, we ate the meat and then put out the fire and went to hide in the hollow. We were both exhausted and fell asleep almost at once after the anthem played and the sky displayed the deaths of the day. The only one was the District 10 boy. He must have died in the storm.