Chapter 20.

"We have to move. NOW!" urged Eamon.

He helped Blair, still nursing her injury, hobble into motion. The three of them turned their backs on the Careers far below and raced south across the mountain.

"Can't go back the way we came," panted Madeline.

"Doesn't matter, we just need to find a way down there," gestured Eamon towards the vast forests below. "So long as we do that we'll have an easier time losing them."

"Yeah, about that…" muttered Blair, as they all came to a standstill and noticed a large and problematic impediment.

It hadn't taken long to reach the edge of the mountain. However the southernmost edge was a sheer cliff face that extended as far along as they could see, with nothing close to resembling a way down. The cliff drop-off and light breeze at their backs innocently threatened to swallow them all should they step too close.

"Welp, we're screwed. Had a good run while it lasted, though."

Eamon stared off at the cliff, seemingly transfixed not by its height, but by the hopelessness it symbolized. They had not much time and little options with which to work with. His brain was simultaneously numb and running into overdrive, trying to look for something, anything that could help.

"Well we can't stay here," said Madeline defiantly. "Let's go back and work another way down."

"Can't," muttered Blair. "If they're smart, and they definitely are, almost every other way down will take us into their path."

Eamon's eyes rolled over a landing some fifteen meters directly below them. It leveled out smoothly and relatively easily into the woods, which would make it the ideal way for Blair to get down without stressing her injury. But a fifteen-meter drop is a fifteen-meter drop, no matter how –

"I've got it!" said Eamon, a plan forming so rapidly in his mind it was almost audible. "But we have to work fast. Blair, get me that big roll of rope out of your pack."

The two girls looked at him curiously, before Blair was able to extricate the long, thick rope from her bag. He took it over to a large chunk of sturdy-looking, jutting rock protruding nearby.

"Eamon, what are you…?"

"Just bear with me for the moment. What I'm gonna do is tie this end around this rock. Meanwhile, I also need you two to tie knots in the rope every two or three meters. And make it quick! Come on!"

Bewildered, Madeline and Blair set to work whilst he rushed to anchor the rope to the mountain. Sure, it would take some much-needed length out of the rope, but Eamon felt it was better to be safe than sorry. He sincerely hoped this worked, otherwise they'd be in a world of pain. Nott had always stressed the importance of being able to improvise, and now he'd see just how well he could. With his work done, and Madeline and Blair still working, Eamon emptied everyone's backpacks in search for the other items he needed. He repacked two of them with nothing but a sleeping bag apiece, whilst repacking everything except the brightly coloured carabiners into the remaining pack.

"Uhh, Eamon have you ever done this before?" asked Blair hesitantly.

"Why, would you feel more confident in me if I said I had?"

"Probably."

"…Then sure, I've done this plenty of times."

"Have you ever felt an incredible urge to slap him back in Nine, out of curiosity?" Blair asked Madeline, eliciting a nervous chuckle from her.

Once they were done, the rope had three thick, evenly spaced knots along its length. Satisfied, he tossed the end of the rope over the cliff. It fell six meters short of the landing, but it would have to do. He slung the two sleeping-bag-stuffed packs over his back, with his glaive wedged once again between them and his back. He then gave Madeline and Blair a shiny metallic carabiner each, and suddenly what he wanted them all to do became comprehensively clear.

"No, forget it," protested Madeline, "I am not climbing down that."

"I've got a busted ankle, remember? I literally can't!"

"Sure you can, in fact you might not even need to use your feet" said Eamon adamantly. "Besides, I'll be going first, you two can follow my lead. Unless I screw up. In which case… yeah, don't do that."

They looked on in concern as Eamon went over everything in his head one more time to make sure he'd gotten this right. If he didn't, he'd either die or end up injured enough to make it all but certain regardless. Despite having next to no experience with mountain climbing, the height didn't faze him, surprisingly. Part of his training had involved him climbing trees of roughly similar height and he'd quickly come to revel in the weightless wonders of the experience. Still, their hopes of outrunning the Careers rested entirely in his improvised abseiling design.

I'm sure there's way more professional ways of doing this, but if there is, I've no idea what they are. Besides, desperate times, desperate measures, he thought to himself.

Madeline hauled the remaining pack over shoulder as Eamon explained how it all should work. With time still very much of the essence, Eamon clipped the carabiner through his belt and to the rope, binding him to it. He gripped it tight, making sure it was secure, before cautiously lowering himself back first over the edge. The wind howled and felt much more violent, each one signalling imminent doom, but he made to block it out.

He was now lying perpendicular to the cliff face, only connected by the rope and his shoes, as if he hoped they'd somehow give him extra purchase. He looked up and gave Blair and Madeline a nervous nod, both of whom were clearly on edge. Suddenly his grip slipped, and he plummeted! Or at least, he would have, had the carabiner not gotten stuck on the first knot a third of the way down. His heart racing and mouth dry, he was at least relieved to know that such precautions did indeed work as he'd planned. After taking a moment to regain his composure, he gingerly unclipped the carabiner and reclipped it just below the knot.

Eamon repeated his method without incident on his way to the second knot, and at last the third. This was where things would get tricky, so he relaxed at the final knot for a bit just to plan his next move. He could now drop from this height without seriously maiming or killing himself. He pulled out the glaive from his back and let it tumble to the landing beneath him, just away from where he would be landing. He then removed the two backpacks and grasped them firmly, and with a deep breath, unhooked the carabiner for the last time.

He plunged to the ground, positioning himself in a way so that he would land comfortably on the packs padded with cushy sleeping bags. Even so, the impact knocked him around a bit, but that wouldn't stop him cheering that his hastily thought-out design had worked! Picking up his glaive, Eamon grinned up at Madeline and Blair high above him and called out for them to come down.

As Madeline still had her reservations about heights, Blair went next. Eamon guided her as best as he could from below. She held her injured leg at an odd angle so as not to put unnecessary pressure on it, and just like he'd told her, she managed just fine despite it. Heavily mountainous as it is, District Two tributes were generally better climbers than those from elsewhere, and as a result she made it down to the third knot with no slipping and in almost half the time it had taken Eamon.

She baulked at the jump after the third knot however, knowing that such a fall would risk hurting her ankle even more.

"It's alright, I've got you," said Eamon standing directly beneath her.

She held her breath and unhooked herself. Eamon caught her and absorbed most of the impact, but she still crumpled on top of him. After a moment, they both realised how incredibly close they were, with their lips no more than an inch apart. Eamon's face flooded with colour and heat as Blair looked into his eyes with a curious expression, before the urgency of the situation brought them both back to their senses and they broke apart.

Madeline was up next, and Blair and Eamon made sure to guide her through every step of the way. Her hesitation and fear meant her descent was slow, but safe. In this moment, Eamon smiled internally at their teamwork. They almost felt like a family parody, with Eamon and Blair being the pseudo-parents concerned for their young girl. As cutthroat as the Games were, the three of them would still look out for another, although Blair's words from the previous night about leaving at some point still wounded him.

Eventually Madeline made it to the final knot, and eager for it be over and done with, unhooked herself almost immediately. Eamon was almost caught unawares but was still able to catch her, although at the cost of his legs giving way beneath him.

"I am not fucking doing that again. Under any circumstances," said Madeline, wincing as she got to her feet.

Blair had evidently never expected to hear such language from her, as she started laughing uncontrollably, in turn causing both Madeline and Eamon to start laughing as well. It was a laugh like no other to Eamon, like heavenly music to his ears, especially knowing how stoic she could be at times. In truth, they were also laughing out of relief. As Eamon looked at the cliff face high above, he realised how much this mountain had thrown at them, yet still they had conquered it. And the thought of Hilda, Dennis and Landon arriving up there only to find the rope dangling over the edge made their triumph even sweeter.

After their mirth subsided, they reorganised the belongings in their packs and set off down the slope that would level out into the forests below. Eamon led with his glaive in hand, with Madeline helping Blair down should she lose her footing. Soon they re-entered the forests with the cool shade and soft soil beneath their feet a more than welcome return. They made to head west hoping to return to the cave for much-needed shelter and water.

"Still gotta keep moving," said Eamon, "I want to put as much distance between us and them as possible."

"We're gonna have to fight them eventually though," said Madeline.

"True, but if we fought them now, with Blair injured, it would pretty much come down to me against all three of them. And I mean, I'm good, but certainly not that good."

Madeline opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment something unsighted whipped through the air from behind them and embedded itself in the tree next to Blair, missing her by an inch. It was an arrow. Without knowing whom or where it came from, the three of them ducked and dived behind separate trees for cover. Blair fell on her ankle and silently cried out in agony and another arrow launched at the tree she was behind.

Eamon peered out from behind his own for a split second and an arrow flew his way as punishment, but there was no mistaking the tall, auburn-haired figure of Hilda Blythe. How?! How had she found them when they were supposed to climbing up the mountain? Oddly enough, yet still ultimately more terrifying, was that there was no sign of Landon or Dennis anywhere.

Things turned from bad to worse as it quickly became clear how smartly Hilda was handling the situation; she wasn't necessarily shooting to kill, but to keep Eamon and Blair pinned down. This led Eamon to believe that Landon and Dennis weren't far off. Once again, time was of the essence.

Despite seemingly having the upper hand, Hilda's fixation on Eamon and Blair as she moved in closer meant that Madeline's presence went virtually unnoticed. She likely had not considered Madeline worth the effort. Sure enough, Madeline had slowly begun to flank around her right side through the trees and plant growth unseen. Eamon was nervous; he didn't like the thought of putting her in a position that would expose her to the Career's strength. Still he did all he could to give her the best chance she could. He stuck his glaive out from behind the tree, feigning an attempt to come out from behind cover and as expected Hilda's arrow instantly flew towards it. Anything to draw her attention from the immobilized Blair and Madeline, whom Eamon could no longer even see.

He repeated this twice over, before Hilda grew wise to his tricks and made to move in closer. This was a big mistake. Like a wild cat, Madeline lunged at her unseen from a large bush. Before Hilda could raise her bow in surprise, Madeline's sudden tackle sent both of them tumbling into a gully behind her.

Eamon's eyes widened in shock as they fell like ragdolls, still trying to punch and kick and claw at one another. He ran to Blair to make sure she'd be okay on her own before going down after them. Hilda and Madeline fell to the bottom of the gully before he'd even started making his way down. They both had cuts and bruises but were still going at each other furiously. Madeline had somehow gotten on top of her and was amazingly hitting her with incredible vigour for someone her size and disposition.

However Hilda was still a Career and much older, and still had the raw edge in a fistfight despite not being able to get her bow out. Eamon could not get down the gully fast enough, but he just needed Madeline to hold out a few seconds more. The scene became more and more horrific as scratch marks extended the length of Madeline's arms and one half of Hilda's face was covered in a slick coating of blood. Desperate, Madeline grabbed a rock next to them and raised her arm to strike the final blow. Based on what she'd told him earlier about killing Timothy Crow, Eamon thought he knew what was about to happen next, but then everything changed. Hilda wasn't able to use her bow, but she was still able to curl her fist around one of the arrows that had fallen loose from her quiver. At that moment everything seemed to move in slow motion.

"NO!" screamed Eamon as he felt his blood turn to ice.

Madeline's rock-wielding arm descended… but not before Hilda drove the arrow into her chest.

A cannon boomed, "District 9: Madeline Skylock."

…so yeah, I did a bad thing. Aww, this was a really hard chapter for me to write as I loved Madeline a lot (not in that way ya weirdos). True, she was a bit of a 'scared-young-girl-that-needs-help' cliché but I really went out of my way to make her so much more than that. The interesting thing is, I've planned this story meticulously long before I actually started writing it and yet a lot of things get either taken out or inserted literally as I'm writing them (provided they integrate well into the story). As a result the story is constantly changing from what I originally intended and along the way there's been many possible outcomes to this Games that I've thought of with many possible Victors. In some of those outcomes Maddie was the Victor, and potentially even Eamon could have died this chapter. Basically I have a plan for this story, but it's not predictable even to me (if that makes any sense). Unfortunately my plan had to involve Maddie dying this chapter :c

24th Place: Cecilia Moreau - District 12 Female. Killed by Hilda Blythe.

23rd Place: Axel Costa - District 1 Male. Killed by Eamon Cunningham.

22nd Place: Ivanna Merchant - District 6 Female. Killed by Vesper Rhodes.

21st Place: Paige Delaney - District 8 Female. Killed by Karmichael Damocles.

20th Place: Owen Magnussen - District 8 Male. Killed by Landon Starr.

19th Place: Zoey Townsend - District 3 Female. Killed by Dennis Kessling.

18th Place: Spencer Nash - District 7 Male. Killed by Blair Lynch.

17th Place: Cooper Hastings – District 10 Male. Killed by Karmichael Damocles.

16th Place: Alys Redding – District 5 Female. Killed by Landon Starr.

15th Place: Timothy Crow – District 3 Male. Killed by Madeline Skylock.

14th Place: Harvey Goodwin – District 12 Male. Killed by Holdhorn.

13th Place: Kale Fox – District 11 Male. Killed by Eamon Cunningham.

12th Place: Nora Wormwood – District 11 Female. Killed by Blair Lynch.

11th Place: Jasmine Wilde – District 1 Female. Killed by Vesper Rhodes.

10th Place: Vesper Rhodes – District 7 Female. Killed by Landon Starr.

9th Place: Grant Overton – District 6 Male. Killed by Holdhorn.

8th Place: Madeline Skylock – District 9 Female. Killed by Hilda Blythe.