Chapter 39- Dove Rosestar

The cannon jolts me awake. I haven't slept much anyway, being perched in a tree all night. I wonder who got killed. I don't think it's Cabel, but the thought sends chills up and down my body.

I have to find my brother today.

The jungle comes alive around me; birds singing and moisture dripping from the trees. I'm still holding my axe in my hand, thankfully. I need food, and I need water, that's for sure. I'm not really trusting the water from the trees. Watching previous Games throughout the years has made me wary of poison.

Kouza and Alyss are nowhere to be seen, but I don't dare go down to the ground. They could be hiding anywhere. All of the trees seem to be intertwined, making easy bridges from each tree to the next. If I'm careful, I'll never have to go down to the ground to get through the jungle.

Using a nearby vine, I make a sort of belt for myself; then, using other vines, I tie my axe and water bottle onto my makeshift belt. My hands are free to keep me alive.

I stand up, careful not to slip on the dew-covered branch. I'm a long way off the ground. Slowly, I reach out and take hold of a neighbouring branch, hanging on tight, and I pull myself across to the next tree.

This must be a long shot. I don't know where Cabel is, or even if he's in this jungle. Kouza said that he had seen him come into the jungle, but I don't know if he's stayed or not. Oh, Cabel, where are you?

Something hoots in the distance, but I don't pay it any mind for now. I see snakes slithering up passing trees, bright colored birds float overhead. Why there is a jungle on the edge of the desert is beyond me, but it's beautiful in here. Cooler than out in the sandy heat, too.

Over the next few hours, or what I figure it must be, I see nobody. Only the jungle creatures around me; a monkey once or twice, more birds, more snakes, small mammals that climb above me and stare down.

Sunlight filters down to where I am through the thick foliage; lighting up only little bits at a time. I'm deep in the jungle now, and I've seen no sign of Cabel, or of anyone to be honest. I decide to sit down for a little while on a thick branch, to figure out what to do next. I'm about as safe as I can get right now, so far away from any other tributes. To give my hands something to do, I undo my hair, comb it out, then plait it back again, tying the bottom with the parachute.

I feel almost safe up here in the canopy of the trees. Nobody can spot me from down below; the only sounds I hear are birdsong and the occasional hoot of a monkey. It's a far cry from the desert, and from District 6, too. This is a place of beauty.

Out of the corner of my eye I see something peculiar, something that doesn't quite fit in with the trees and ferns and vines. Looking more closely, I see something maybe ten feet away, on the ground. Light brown and tan against the dark green floor of the jungle. An animal? What animal has that coloring? And why do those colors seem familiar?

I'm wearing those colors.

That's a tribute.

I scramble to my feet, fumbling for the axe on my belt. Who's left? The boy from 9? Dussel from 12? Carefully, ever so carefully, I inch my way through the trees, until I'm right above the sleeping tribute.

He's lying under a tree, jacket covering his head, curled up. It's a boy, I can definitely say that. But who? Looking closer, I see the black hair, and I recognize the familiar form, the person I've seen almost every day of my life.

Cabel.

"Cabel!" I say as loud as I dare. Nothing. "Cabel!"

He stirs a little, then jerks awake, terror on his face. "Cabel!" I say, louder now.

"Dove?" he says, looking around. I could cry for how happy I am. "Where are you?"

"Up here!" I say, and he follows the sound of my voice until he finds me. He jumps to his feet and climbs up to join me in the tree, slipping once or twice. As soon as he's steady, I throw myself into his arms and burst into tears.

"I can't believe I found you," I sob.

"Where have you been?" Cabel asks, pulling away to look at me. "What happened to you? It's been two days, Dove, I thought you might be dead!"

"I got blown off course between the pyramids and the mountain, and it's taken me this long to get over here," I say.

"How did you know I would be here?"

"I heard the boy from 5, Kouza, say he saw you go into the jungle. I was just hoping that you would still be in here today."

Cabel looks thinner than the last time I saw him, and his eyes are more alarmed somehow, but he's here, my brother is alive!

"What happened to you?" I ask.

"I was going to come after you; I saw the tornado take you away from the pyramids, when the sand around me funnelled up into another tornado, lifting me off the ground and hurtling me thirty feet towards the jungle. I blacked out, but when I came to it was dusk and I booked it into the jungle. I know Kouza and Alyss have been using the front of the jungle as their base, so I came back here."

"I found you," I marvel. This is the best stroke of luck in four days.

Cabel examines me up and down, and his eyes come to rest on the axe. "What's that?" he asks.

"An axe."

"Where did you get it?"

I'm not ready for this conversation. I have to tell him, though. "From the District 7 girl. Cedar."

Cabel looks at me with questions in his eyes.

"I killed her," I say simply.

"You killed the girl from 7?"

I nod.

Cabel pauses, obviously trying to find the words. "You're here now, that's the important part," he says, but I don't think the fact that his little sister killed someone sits well with him. He's blinking too often right now, and his mouth is a grim line.

"What do we do now?" I ask, desperate to change the subject.

"We hide here until the rest of them are dead," Cabel says simply. "I know where we can find water, and then we can make a shelter for tonight. We can live here," he says.

It's a wonderful plan and idea, and I'm about to agree, when Cabel cries out in pain, grabbing at his leg. Within seconds he's convulsing, and before I can even react, he falls off the branch and hits the jungle floor below.

"Cabel!" I scream, not caring who hears me. I climb down to my brother as fast as I can, falling over a root and landing next to him. Cabel is writhing on the ground, eyes rolling back into his head so only the whites show. I'm so scared, what should I do?

"Cabel! Cabel!" I half beg, half shriek, trying to figure out what's happening. What's going on?

The pieces of the puzzle come together when the black and blue snake slithers away from my brother, away into the jungle where it disappears. Terror seeps into every muscle, every fiber of my being.

I pull up Cabel's pant leg and see teeth marks, and the world comes crashing around my feet. Cabel stops spasming, becoming horrifyingly rigid instead. I'm trembling all over, my teeth chattering together with fear and shock.

"Cabel?" I say, sobbing. I feel for his pulse, for his heartbeat, but both are faint and growing fainter.

"I just found you," I cry, holding my brother's hand. My brother, who has always protected me, who I loved above everyone else in the world, who I always trusted. Who was a rebel, a student, a friend, a brother, a son. Who I vowed to take home no matter what.

Who I promised myself would be crowned victor beside me.

But all I can do is sit by and watch him slip away, his hand growing slack in a matter of seconds. The cannon fires.

And I am truly alone.