We continue to descend, although my leg can't bear weight. Hugh and Juniper are carrying me at the moment, leaving Trucy free to throw any knives with her good hand if she needs to.
It might rain soon. We looted Aura's camp for the tent, so it won't be such a big deal. I can just watch the clouds blow across the sky... One layer coming towards us, the other drifting away. Drifting, drifting...
The stream is the only babbling around. Not much to talk about. More to think about. I wonder who's going to kill me. I mean, it would be a noble thing. But then the killer would have to be taken care of, but that would be another noble thing, and so on...
I don't know why they haven't even let me kill myself yet. Because they're my friends. That's all I can think of. They're my friends, and they trust me. That must be really nice, to trust...
Trucy's hand goes to her belt. I eye it. The closest throwing knife is pretty shined up, the handle slender and blue with a lot of wavy pieces cut out. Must contribute to the throwing... part.
"Is something wrong?" Hugh looks at her sideways.
"I'm not sure." She glances past him, then the other way. "We should be ready, though..."
He nods, slipping his bow out of its container and preparing an arrow. Juniper checks behind us, but there's nothing in sight. I turn my head forward as she does, and we take a few more steps.
Something bursts out of the rocks beneath us and lunges.
"Gack!" Hugh bites the arrow and takes aim, but Trucy is the only one to score a hit before the mutt is way too close. Something this size isn't going down from one shallow knife strike.
It's too close. It's way too close. It's going to hurt us before we can kill it...!
"NO!" I grab the sword handle at Trucy's side and wrench it out of its sheath, the scrape of metal only lasting a moment. The sword in my hands, I roar and charge the mutt, thrusting the blade straight into its chest. Blood spatters onto my hair and eye patch as I rip it back out and drive the blade into the creature's throat one, two, three—I lose track of how many times. Finally it gives a sputter and falls back, leaving me nowhere to lean. My good knee buckles, but I manage to land on it instead of my face.
"Is everyone okay?!" I don't understand why I'm breathing so quickly. "Is everyone okay?!"
"W-we're fine!" Juniper's hands fly to her mouth. "It's dead. We're okay."
Some of the blood running down my neck, I turn to look at the mutt. The skin on its face is marbled red, while the fur farther back has clearly been singed. I didn't do that, right? I feel like I know what happened... I can't remember...
"Ha-agh..." I put my hand to my chest, and it comes away with more blood than I expected. I don't know if I'm bleeding. There's sticky stuff all over my right side, but I don't know if any of it is mine. I'm in pain, but that doesn't mean anything anymore...
"It..." I can't catch my breath. "...didn't hurt anyone?"
"No, no. Polly. We're okay." Trucy comes up next to me, and I realize the sword is gone. Not in the sheath, either. I check the mutt, but nothing is embedded in it.
"What about you?" Hugh steps in front of me. "I didn't see it get a hit in, but..."
"I... can't tell..." My eye really hurts... Did it get my eye? That's fine. Good riddance...
Gasping for breath, I collapse forward onto my hands before I get a chance to really check on the others. I'm sure they're fine. They wouldn't lie to me. We're all fine. I'm fine.
"Apollo, here." Trucy slips her hands under my armpits, and someone else helps her. "We're going to the stream so you can wash off. Hopefully none of that blood is yours."
"Hnnuh." I feel myself leaning back in their arms before I pass out.
It's dark when I come to. Night, I guess. Either that or my other eye is finished working. I wouldn't be surprised. Anything can happen here.
"Ah, A-Apollo...?"
I manage a weak grunt, although I can't see the speaker. A sudden light blazes ahead of me, and I recognize it as a beam from the flashlight once my eye adjusts. Juniper sits next to me—apparently I'm lying on my back. I'm not sure if I can move. I don't think it's worth trying.
She wrings her hands. "Are you... doing okay? I mean, I know your chest wound reopened, a-and you must be in pain regardless, and..." She coughs, and coughs again. "I-I'm sorry... I don't even know what I'm trying to ask..."
" 'Sfine," I yawn. "I'm doing as well as I should be. But still alive, apparently." I roll my gaze over to her eyes without moving my head. "You know, this is never going to be over until I'm dead. I bet you could still get out if you just let me end it..."
"No!" Her response is sharp before she glances behind her and lowers her voice. "Apollo." She frowns at me, more sternly than concernedly this time. "If we can do what we've planned—end this dark age of the Hunger Games—then you are coming with us. I understand what you did to Thena, a-and..." She has to take a deep breath. "I still don't want you dead. None of us do. Given the situation, we can't say you deserve it. We know you want more than anything to protect us. So, please... Try to believe in yourself. It must be hard now, but I know you can do it. At least give yourself the chance to!" She looks down before eyeing me again. "Okay?"
I let out a long breath, feeling too weak for speech. I guess that deserves a real response, though... Even if I don't really feel one.
"I'll... see what I can do."
She watches me, definitely not getting the loud, energetic response she was hoping for, but nods. "Okay. We'll be with you all the way."
We lapse into silence for a while before I look back at her. "Huh."
She blinks. "Wh-what is it?"
"Your hair's down."
"Oh." She runs a hand down the right side of her head. "Yes, it is. Um... I-is that a good thing?"
I give her an "I don't know" sound. "It makes you look... more mature, I guess?"
"More...?" She frowns, glancing to the side. "S-so is that a good thing?"
"Just depends on how you want to look, I guess." I stare back at the stars. So strange to think they're the same ones... Just sitting there, watching... Doing nothing as a bunch of kids are forced to kill each other, or choose to kill each other...
"Ha..."
"A-Apollo?"
I shut my eyes. "It's nothing."
There's still no food here. That might be the Gamemakers' fault. Probably forcing us to keep moving, probably towards danger. We'll be okay if we just keep an eye out like we did yesterday. They can all be okay if I just keep a good watch...
I don't know if I can, but I have to. I still can't walk, and I can't do much else. But if it comes down to it, I'm sure the adrenaline will dull the pain enough to let me act. I just have to look out...
So I do. Rocks. Mud. Quite a bit of mud around here. Have I been here before? I don't know. I hope I have. Maybe I've already set off any traps. What kind of traps would they have left? There could be another set of walls like the ones that got Robin. I could shove the others out of the way easily enough, as long as they aren't stupid enough to try to save me. They're not stupid. They're... too optimistic about me, but if they let Robin die without getting crushed themselves, they would have to be able to let me die. I bet that's a painful way to go. I've already been sliced up. I can't imagine being slowly crushed to death, though. But that's okay. I'm a murderer. I deserve a death like that...
Finally, we find a small mountain goat, some distance ahead of us. I don't know if it would make the best meal, especially split four ways, but it's so, so much better than nothing. Hugh lines up the shot—I do a sweep of the area while he's occupied and find nothing—and lets an arrow fly. It plunges into the goat's stomach, drawing blood, but the thing takes off running. With an irritated hiss, Hugh gets another arrow ready and sends it into its skull. It finally stops, crumbling and sliding down the mountain a ways.
Trucy shakes her head as we turn and approach it. "How on earth can you be that good of a shot? You must have been born with a bow in hand, huh?"
Hugh smirks, tilting his chin up. "Actually, no. As a matter of fact, I shot my first arrow at the age of sixteen."
"What?!" Trucy's free hand flies to her mouth. "That's impossible! I've been a professional magician since I was eight, and I still haven't mastered it completely!"
He continues smirking, although he's sweating. "I'm afraid there's just a whole other level of progress unavailable to you mouth-breathers."
Juniper doesn't comment as we locate a place to cross the stream. The water's pretty wide here—enough for a trap to spring up in?—so they're probably going to have to throw me if they don't want to ford it. Or they could just leave me on this side. I don't know if there are any more mutts around, so I don't see any reason they wouldn't.
Just as I'm about to voice my opinion, a purple spotlight clicks on. I locate the source—something dark and metal embedded in the rocks—before I realize Hugh is in the middle of the beam. About a foot ahead of us, he freezes up, head turning towards the spotlight as blood begins to trickle from his nose. Before he can even reach up to wipe it away, red starts to leak out of his mouth, eyes, and ears and then starts to gush.
"Hugh!" Juniper nearly drops me as she reaches for him, but I bat her hand back. Trying to pour every last bit of strength into my bad leg, I shout and spring forward, tackling Hugh with all the force I can muster. We collapse into the stream before I can feel the blood that's been pulled from the wound in my side, the sticky warmth at the edges of my mouth. The world above me isn't tinged purple—although a slick of blood across my eye takes a few blinks to get rid of—so we must be out of the trap. The stream is buffeting us down, but now the others can go around the trap to get us.
My right foot catches on a rock of the bank, twisting my knee just enough to make me scream. Blood is whisked past me, fading off into yellowish tendrils some distance ahead. There's so much blood... If it weren't for the metallic taste in my mouth, I couldn't tell it from the water all around me... How much is mine? I have no way to tell. I can't even make out where it's seeping from under my bandages... My right eye is so warm, though.
How much... How much blood do I have left? Am I going to finally die here? I know I can't take much more... This has to be it...
Good... Good...! I saved Hugh, and now the others left can make it! They won't have to worry about me, they can take care of themselves, they can all get out... Yes! I-I saved them!
Water splashes over my nose, making me snort and hack before I let my eyes slip shut.