Chapter Twenty-Five, Fatal Decisions
If you were to find Artemis on the verge of death somewhere in the arena, how would you react?
A few days ago, the day before the tributes left for the arena, Beetee had asked Silyah that very question. It had been the only one she had not been able to answer…
Silyah felt like kicking and screaming and shouting awful things to the body floating in the water for having disturbed her mind, but the part of her that was not affected by grief was standing at a crossroad. Now, she had two choices and both of them would probably result in terrible mental consequences.
Her first option was to leave Artemis in the river to die; one less tribute to worry about. This is what Beetee wants you to do. That is how a Hunger Games winner would react.
Silyah felt sick at the idea of having watched a ruthless murder after having killed somebody with her own spears. It felt like a knife being slowly inserted between her shoulder blades. The voice of madness in her head was laughing at her for that logic. See, you deserve what is happening to you! You took someone's life away, now life takes someone from you!
"D'arvit!" she spat, infuriated by the voice haunting her. "Just watch me go!"
She sprinted to the river, the blanket on her shoulder falling on the ground. She would not let the Capitol take away the things she had fought to hold on to ever since the Reaping; her mind and Artemis Fowl.
She removed some pieces of ice from where the body was floating and grabbed the frail boy, putting his head and shoulders on the shore.
For a second, she was taken aback. The young man at her feet looked so much like the one from her dream… Except for one thing; he almost looked peaceful rather than filled with hatred. She nearly feared to touch him now, seeing his extremely pale skin covered in a frost that resembled all too much the one he had painted on his arm during training. The boy looked as if he might shatter with the slightest impact; so fragile. Silyah was afraid that by trying to save him, she might end up killing him…
"I will not let that happen," she breathed through clenched teeth.
Cautiously, she removed the body from the water. What to do next? she wondered.
She went to Artemis's neck, wanting to check for a pulse, but the nightmarish vision of her fingers around his throat prevented her to do so. Instead, she placed her ear above his chest… Though extremely faint, she found it. He was still alive even if he was far from being safe… Even if it was present, the quiet beat of his heart was slowly fading away. In fact, the boy was as close to death as he could have gotten before actually dying.
Fighting the urge to curl up in a ball and rock back and forth in panic, Silyah got back to where she had let her bed sheet fall and retrieved it from the ground. She then ran to Artemis's side and removed his coat from his frail figure before putting it in her plastic bag. In this cold, it was not exactly the best thing to be drenched in freezing water. Following the plan she had quickly developed, she tightly wrapped Artemis in the blanket. She then pulled out a larger bed sheet from her coat's back pocket and placed her companion on it. As if it were a hammock, Silyah fastened the new sheet around her shoulder just after having picked up every belonging she had brought to the riverbank. The young woman slid one of her arms under Artemis's knees, the other around his back and began to walk at a steady pace. She would have to find a safe place to spend the rest of the day before trying to nurse her District partner back to health.
As she tried to find her way in the forest, Artemis's head rested peacefully and motionlessly against Silyah's shoulder. Each time he would breath out – as faint as those breaths might have been – a light tickle brushed the girl's neck, slightly soothing her conscience. Every now and then, her eyes would meet Artemis's face, each time taking in a few details about his state. The frost in his hair had started to fade away and against her body, his skin did not feel as cold anymore, but that did not mean that he was getting better; the icy, almost see-through color of his skin and pale blue tone of his lips suggested as much anyway.
Even though she was exhausted, Silyah never felt like pausing to rest her arms. She knew that she had to get to somewhere safe and hidden from the rest of the tributes. Besides, even partly soaked in water, Artemis was not that heavy. Therefore, Silyah kept on going, her eyes still going over Artemis's face every second or so… Even with his case of hypothermia, Silyah could not help but to notice how handsome he was. For a reason she could not begin to understand, the girl found herself quite fascinated by the boy's jawbone and by how his dark locks framed his features… Damn Artemis Fowl for his distracting looks; even at the brink of death, he still managed to be so… Fashionistic. Silyah rapidly shook her head. What was up with her? She was in an arena fighting for two lives at the same time and somehow, she had managed to start daydreaming about a boy; something she had never ever done before. Quickly, she brought her attention back to Artemis's medical state, only to notice something quite alarming; the faint tickle which had been constant on her neck was now gone…
Silyah's own breathing stopped abruptly to see if she could still hear Artemis's; to make sure that he was not about to disappear.
No, no, no, no, no! She shook her head, following the fast rhythm of her heartbeat. "Don't you dare dying on me again!"
As delicately as her panic allowed it, Silyah lowered Artemis's body on the ground and unfastened the sheet from around her shoulders. She tried to feel for his pulse again, her own heartbeat doubling when she only felt the slightest and faintest pulsation under her fingers.
In contrast to Silyah's expression, Artemis's looked so peaceful in his stillness. It would almost be a shame to bring him back in this harsh reality, thought Silyah before being tossed right back into the said reality by the sudden and complete absence of pulse in the boy's chest.
It took Silyah a long time to remember the fact that she knew some basic first aid techniques; every District 3 resident knew how to reanimate someone due to the many electric shocks that could happen in a year. The girl ran through a quick mental check of her abilities and dived on Artemis even if she was expecting a cannon to go off soon. CPR, mouth-to mouth resuscitation, CPR; desperate tries to make the boy breathe again.
"Why do you torture me like that?" Silyah screamed to the sky, hoping that the Capitol would see how enraged she was. "You want me dead too? Send the Careers after me, but make that stupid cannon go off already!"
There came no cannon shot as Silyah begin to shout mindlessly. In fact, there came absolutely nothing. It had even stopped snowing. If it had not been from the dark aura hovering over them and the fact that they were in an arena battling against death, such a serene beauty would have emanated from their surroundings…
All of a sudden, an electronic tune hummed in the air. Silyah raised her eyes. Apparently, a rage tantrum could eventually lead to people giving her things. So much for being nice all of her life… She grabbed the falling silver parachute in mid air as soon as she had the occasion to do so. With shaking hands, she opened the box attached to her sponsor-sent gift and read the note inside of it.
Look in his backpack and figure something out, signed Beetee.
The District 3 girl raised an eyebrow. Along with the note was something that looked like a suction cup with a small needle at its center. Fortunately, Silyah knew what it was right away; she had seen this kind of medical equipment at the beginning of every school year, according to her teachers, it was the most important thing amongst all the materials that were available to them in case of an emergency… But, to use this, you need something else to make the electrical discharge necessary to start a heart back up… The girl rummaged through Artemis's backpack and found in it a rough-looking box which seemed to be made of copper; one of Artemis's inventions, most likely. Silyah struggled with the machine and the reanimation cup for ten seconds exactly before going right back to Artemis.
She placed the cup over the young man's heart and activated the machine. One spark flew through the copper wire.
No reaction.
She gave it another try, then another. "Why won't you get back, cowpog!" She frowned at her word choice, but quickly went back to her task.
Some parts of the girl were trying to make her give up, but she nevertheless persevered; Artemis would be alive to see at least another day.
After a fifth try, the boy's body tensed. Silyah felt a faint breath in her hair as she placed her ear over Artemis's heart. The menacing and name-calling might have worked after all… Artemis's body was still cold, but as betrayed by the light bleeding of the cut on his temple, his heart had started beating again.
Silyah removed the cup from the boy's chest and disconnected it from the strange, machine that had saved his life. She placed the device back in Artemis's backpack and observed the boy until she was absolutely sure that he would not die a second time.
"I swear that if you die again, I will kill you," laughed the nervous girl as she picked up Artemis and started to walk again.
In the Capitol, everyone was staring at their television screens with wide eyes and gaping mouths, even Caesar Flickerman.
Effie snapped her fingers at an Avox. "I need a cup of hot chocolate," then, with a thought directed to Haymitch Abernathy, she added: "And don't be light on liquor."
If she had been glued to the television during the Second Bloodbath, now, she wanted to step in it to get a better view.
Silyah had just found Artemis in the river and by the look on her face, something strange was going through her head. She was actually talking and arguing with herself.
"What is going on with her?" asked Caesar Flickerman, to intrigue the audience despite the fact that they could clearly see that the girl wanted to go save her fellow tribute.
Somehow, Silyah had found a way to carry Artemis through the woods. "Looks like she has some physical strength, after all," laughed Claudius. "Tell me Caesar, doesn't this remind you of something? The young female tribute trying to save the young man from her District…"
"Referring to the 74th Hunger Games, aren't you?"
"I sure am."
Suddenly, on the screen, Silyah stopped halfway through a step and shook her head. "Don't you dare dying on me again!"
The two commentators were now as speechless and intrigued as all of Panem.
"I think that this was the snowflake that caused the avalanche for the girl. Believe me, if I was another tribute, I would not dare to attack or harm her at the moment," said Claudius after a very long time. Silyah was now shouting angrily at the arena's sky.
"In this state, I am pretty sure that she could rip someone's head off," added Caesar with huge eyes, surprised to see such a nice and polite girl exploding in rage on live television.
Somewhere in a District 3 living room, Silyah's younger brother was watching her go and was actually really glad he had never seen her as angry at home. Fortunately, she was channeling her anger into trying to save a tribute rather than trying to exterminate one.
Suddenly, Effie sprung out of her chair, her alcoholic hot chocolate in hands. "Beetee do something!"
The mentor was already on his phone, wondering what he could and what he could not do.
At the Gamemaker's table, the discussions were heating up.
"The audience's response for these two is amazing! We have to help them," said Plutarch Heavensbee, trying to conclude the arguments of his peers.
The black-haired, brown-eyed Gamemaker frowned at him. "This is the Hunger Games! People die, even good showmen. Face it, Heavensbee," she snapped, her pixie-like voice taking a bitter tone.
The people around the table each tried to make their opinions known rather noisily until a telephone rang. Then, complete silence fell upon the room.
Plutarch took it and brought it to his ear. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath. "It's their mentor," he announced. "We have to have an answer for him."
The Gamemakers therefore proceeded to a quick vote… The majority of the room opted for letting Beetee take care of his tributes.
"Prepare a parachute," concluded Plutarch.
The dark-haired Gamemaker's frown turned to a scowl. Her eyes were almost shooting flames towards each of her co-workers.
Plutarch cleared up his throat. "Ms. Zito, my decision is final. Get back to work."
The woman was about to object because of Plutarch's rudeness, but she held back her tongue and smiled slyly. If she let the Ice Prince survive another day, she could find a more entertaining and creative way to kill him later. She would get to watch him suffer even longer and under crueller circumstances… But she would have to get rid of the girl first…