Chapter Five - Scream

"Now there's nothing to do but tear my voice apart

Nothing to do,

and scream at the drunken moon" - Bulletproof Love, Pierce The Veil

I open my eyes and groan in pain. I am still lying on the ground where I fell. I decide to test out my limbs. My right arm is perfectly fine, but my left arm, the one I landed on, is throbbing and I can't move it very well. Shit, I think it's broken. Both of my legs are slightly sore but they seem to be fine.

I try standing up and amazingly I can stand up straight. I look up into the tree and see that both of our backpacks are up there, wedged in some branches. Well, mine now.. I feel a pang in my heart when I think of Alisa. The Games must have overridden her brain and she went slightly mad.

I think back to what happened before I blacked out. Dominic saved me. Why did he do that? I brush it out of my mind and go back to the current moment. I have to get those backpacks and weapons to ensure my survival and safety. And I have a broken arm. Great.

I place my good arm on a low branch and haul myself up onto it. I am still surprisingly strong after over a week in the arena. Now that I am on the first branch, I stand up and grab one above me with my good arm again. I use my arm and legs to slowly and painstakingly make my way up the tall tree.

When I am nearly at the backpacks my foot slips off one of the slender branches and I instinctively throw up both my arms and grab onto the branch above me. My other foot slips and I am hanging precariously above the ground. I roar out in pain from my broken arm. I want to let go but if I do I will probably fall. I desperately try to find a foothold in the branches below me but they are too small to stand on.

I feel tears flooding my eyes and frustration going through me. I only have one option. I bend my arms and lift myself up, screaming from how much it makes my arm hurt. I am high enough to swing my leg over the branch. I can finally let go of it with my bad arm. I swing my other leg up and stand up again. I take a deep breath and try to ignore the agony that my arm is going through.

I go up one more branch and am finally able to grab the backpacks. I sit on the branch that we were on when Alisa pushed me and start sorting them out. I am unable to have more than one. I grab the bag with the sleeping bags in and take one out and stuff it into the other backpack. It just about fits.

Now, the axes. How will I be able to carry two? I suddenly have an idea. I wrap a vine tightly around the backpack and slip one of the axes into it. It is quite obvious but better than nothing. I use my good arm to carry the other one. I see Alisa's bow and arrows. I have no use for them so I leave them up in the tree, along with the other backpack. I move around some of the leaves and vines so that they are hidden in the tree.

If somebody saw them from below then they would have a huge advantage. I slowly climb down, being more careful of my footing this time, and eventually my feet reach the muddy ground. If it were clean, I would kiss it. Now I have to work out how many people are left. I could have being lying on the floor for a days or just minutes. There could be only one person left.

I wish there were some way of telling how but the only way is to ask somebody. And I'm sure as hell going to go up to some random person in a fight of life and death and casually ask them how many people are still alive. I shout, "How many people are left? Can anybody tell me?" That was a pretty dumb move.

Fortunately nobody seems to have heard me, or dare to attack me anyway. I need to think through this logically. Before I blacked out, there were 7 people left. Wait, no, there were 5 people left because Alisa and Catrin both died. There could only be 5 people left.. or less. I feel the fear and anticipation flood through me. I am so close to winning this. I could win it right now.

A cannon suddenly goes off and I jump again. I swear they will give me a heart attack some time soon. So there could only be 4 left, only 3 people to die, then I could win, and go home, see my family and friends, be happy again. I start walking cautiously through the woods. I'm starving.

After only a few minutes the sky starts darkening. Already? I need to set up camp, perhaps my last time sleeping in this arena. I need to get up a tree now though, because it is going to take me a damn long time. I scream into the sky and shout all kinds of profanities at the moon. I just want to get out of this place. I calm myself down and lie down in a tree.

Once I am settled in I make sure I am fully fastened to the tree and get ready to sleep. Just as I am about to doze off, the anthem plays through the arena and the pictures of the dead tribute flash through the sky. The boy from 10. I have no idea how many people are left still. It could be a few more, or it could be just me.

I hear a faint scream in the distance. Seriously? I am tired and I need sleep. A cannon goes off and I quickly get out of my sleeping bag. I don't even bother putting it in the bag, I'm pretty sure I won't need it again. I hurriedly clamber down the tree onto the ground. I slip on the night vision goggles and start running through the trees.

I keep my footsteps as silent as possible. After about half an hour of running I stop for a break. I doubt somebody would be chasing me for that long. I still keep my ears active and alert in case I hear any rustling or noises nearby. Why did I even run? I guess it was just the fear that if somebody caught me in the tree, they would kill me. Now that I am so close to Victory I am not letting anybody get away with that.

I hear rustling suddenly. Lots of rustling. I can see a shape coming towards me from the distance. And another. And another. What are they? I should be running, but I am frozen. A huge creatures jumps at me and I start running. I glance behind me and they look like a cross between an alligator, a snake and a lizard. They are massive and absurdly fast.

The Gamemakers must be bored. Or maybe it's the end, and there are only two tributes left. But who else is left? They always unveil huge creatures like this to try and give it a climatic ending with action, gore and fighting. They must be trying to get me and the other tribute to the middle, the Cornucopia.

I have no idea how long I have been running for. I dropped off my backpack ages ago and my only weapon is my axe. The Mutts are all making awful screeching noises and won't stop chasing me. Sweat is pouring off my face and my lungs are burning. That's when I see it, the Cornucopia! With the last of my energy, I sprint towards it and without hesitation jump up onto the warm metal. I pant and slowly catch my breath. Where's the other tribute?

I see a figure running out of the woods being chased by similar mutts. There are only a few chasing him so I guess he killed off most of his. The ones chasing me see him and run towards him, as he is easier prey. I can't make out his face from this distance, but I vaguely seem to recognise him.

I lie on the Cornucopia, shivering violently while the other Tribute slowly kills all of the Mutts. When there are only a few left he looks up and sees me, his eyes narrowing. I see that he is holding a spear and quickly and swiftly sticking it into the Mutts hearts. When they are all dead, I jump off the Cornucopia. I don't know if I should run or not. I am so confused at what is happening.

He walks slowly over towards me. "Hello," I say with a puzzled tone. That's when I recognise him. "You? But I thought you were dead!" I shout out at him. "I thought you were dead!" He shouts back at me. He's the person who killed Lester, the person who I fatally wounded. How did he survive? His chest has a bandage around it, seeping out nearly black blood. Eurghh.

Why aren't we fighting? "Shouldn't we start fighting?" He asks, as if reading my mind. "I don't know, I'm not really in the mood for it," I reply. "Me too," he admits. "This is confusing.." I say and he laughs. I join in with him. "I bet everybody watching too are as well," he tells me. He lifts up his spear half-heartedly and throws it gently across at me. It lands halfway between us. I throw my axe across at him and it falls in the same place.

"I don't really feel like killing any more people," I sigh. "Yeah, I agree," he replies. We go to each other and shake hands. "Let's go our separate ways and see who dies first," he suggests. "Seems like a good idea. Bye umm... What's your name?" I reply. "Oh, I'm called Michael, and your Rae, right?" he says. "Yeah. Goodbye Michael," I say before grabbing my axe walking off. "Bye Rae," he calls out after me.

I don't even know what is happening. The Capitol must be furious. They didn't get the huge battle to the death. They got an almost friendly conversation. They are going to have to try really hard to get a good final death. They will probably send more mutts. I hear a growl behind me. There are two huge bears. "Really?" I yell up into the sky.

I thunk my axe into the skull of the smaller bear then circle the bigger one. It stands on its hind legs and roars at me. I carefully go over to the smaller bear and retrieve my axe. The bear slashes as my broken arm and I shout out in pain. I feel the blood dripping down my arm and hear it dropping onto the ground. I glance at it and it is gushing out the red liquid. The bear lunges at me again and bites at my leg. I screech at it and swing the axe down into its neck. It drops to the ground.

I shakily look down at my leg and arm. At this point I am going to die of blood loss. How anti-climatic. I feel tears welling in my eyes. I am so close to living but I spoiled it by being too nice and not killing Michael. I should have lobbed my axe at him when I had the chance.

I drop down on the floor and start crying. I see a snake slithering towards me and for a second I think about letting it bite me but I quickly thud the axe down into its body, easily chopping it in half. A cannon booms in the distance. Michael is dead. I've won. Have I won? I don't even know. A voice thunders across the sky. "I give you Rae Larsan, winner of the 68th Hunger Games!" He sounds almost bored. I laugh hoarsely to the sky. Ha. That must have been the worst ending ever.

A hovercraft comes down with a ladder coming out of a hatch. I grab onto it and it freezes me in place, and lifts me up into the hovercraft. A Capitol attendant is the first person to greet me. "How did he die?" I rasp. She blushes and looks very embarrassed. "He tripped up on a tree root... and... uhh... was killed by a bear," she admits.

Wow. I laugh even louder. Not because he died, but because of the way he died. "What a great ending," I sigh. She gives me a slightly pissed off look then goes out of the room. I wince in pain. I forgot about my arm and leg because of my Victory. My Victory. I've won. I can go home! I start crying from happiness. A Doctor comes in with a needle. I hold out my arm, I don't even try to resist. I'm going home! The needle jabs into my flesh and I feel the cool liquid seep through my veins before I black out.

I wake up in a Hospital bed. My body is no longer aching. I decide to test out my broken arm. It isn't even broken anymore. The cut which the bear gave me has gone and when I check my leg I see that the bite is also gone. I have no idea how long I have been out for but the Doctors must have spent a lot of time fixing me up for the interviews. Oh shit. The interviews.

I sit up and look around. I am in some sort of room. It is empty apart from my bed and Hospital equipment. A doorway in the wall suddenly slides open and an avox silently walks in. He puts a tray on the table next to me then leaves. I look across at the clean metal tray and see that it has a small bowl of some sort of porridge and a clear glass of water. It's not much but I eat it quickly and happily, glad to have some food going through my system. I expect I've been drip fed for a while. I suddenly feel coldness seeping through my veins and black out.

This process goes on for another few days. Waking up, eating a small portion of food, then being knocked out again. One day I wake up and I see that there is the arena outfit on the end of my bed. I gasp when I see it, bringing back bad memories. Then I remember I have to wear it to greet my team.

I put it on cautiously, almost as if expecting it to hurt me. The door suddenly slides open and I see Finnick, Anja and Tigress down a hallway waiting for me. To see real people that I know, the reality finally hits me. I'm out of the arena. I'm alive. It's not a dream. Anja squeals when she sees me and clicks over in her heels. She embraces me and whispers, "Well done Rae," with a grin. She lets go of me and looks me over. "Your arm and leg are completely healed! The Doctors here are amazing, once I had a..." she starts rattling off about surgeries and I zone out.

I glance at Finnick and he gazes at me with a faint smile. Tigress is silent and looks faintly irritated. I expect that she is still pissed off with the Capitol for kicking her out of the hunger games stylists' team. I go over to Finnick and hug him tightly as well, uncaring that cameras are focused on me. I go to Tigress and say, "Thank you for everything," and for the first time in a long time, her face lights up and she looks happy. "We need to get you ready for the closing ceremony," Tigress states. Oh yeah, now I have to do a load of shit for the Capitol before I can go home. Home seems like a different planet to me now.

I follow her to the prep room where my team is waiting. They all look elated and start chatting endlessly away to me about my Victory. I reply to them every now and then with a few syllables and they seem happy with that. I realise that they don't even talk about the games, the gruesome deaths; it's all about themselves and how they reacted, where they were, what they were doing at certain points. I generally ignore them until I am finally ready to go to Tigress.

Tigress greets me again with a slight smile. She hands me my dress. It is aqua blue, long and simple. She pins my hair up in a complicated bun and I look in the mirror. I look young but not in a girly way. I look vibrant, free, full of life but still mature. The dress compliments whatever curves I have left. Fortunately she seems to understand the way I am feeling, and doesn't question the tears falling down my face and the way I jump at every tiny sound.

She squeezes me gently when she finishes my last bits of makeup and wipes my tears away with her hand. Tigress shows me to the stage and I carefully breathe out, relaxing my body before I have to go and watch a recap of the Games. I wonder how they will portray me?

I go on and Caesar Flickerman smiles warmly at me in an attempt to make me feel safer. I sit down on a small armchair as the show starts. It shows me standing on the plate then running to the Cornucopia. I wince at every murder I commit and feel my stomach churning. I feel anger rising inside me when they change the argument between the Careers making it look like I abandoned them. I want to complain and shout at Caesar but I let my face rest in a neutral position, giving away none of the emotions swirling around inside me.

I keep watching as it progresses, using a lot of footage from the times when I was almost dead from blood loss. Watching it back makes fills me with blood-curdling fear from the sheer amount of times I could have died. I manage to watch it to the end and when it finishes I sit in complete silence, unable to say anything. I vaguely hear Caesar talking in the distance and someone shaking my arm but I don't respond to anyone. Eventually I feel myself being picked up by someone and put in a different chair.

I slowly refocus into the world and check to see who is with me. I am in my room alone. The door opens and I jump, putting my body in a battle position. Finnick walks in slowly and I relax. My mind is still in the arena. He looks at me and I rush into him without pausing. He wraps his arms around me as I start crying, my body uncontrollably shaking with trauma. He doesn't need to say anything, he has been through this himself.

He keeps hugging me until I stop shaking and sobbing. He lets go of me gently and looks into my eyes. "You ok?" He asks. "If by ok, you mean horribly scarred for life and terrified of going to sleep then I'm ok," I whisper. He smiles and laughs softly, "Then I'm ok as well." He gives me another quick hug then goes out, sighing as he walks away.

I'm running through a dark cave, and that's when I see a knife cut through me. The dead and broken bodies of my victims go closer and closer to me, whispering my name louder and louder, and then they slowly rip me to pieces, while I'm still alive and screaming. I feel their cold breath on my face and see their hollowed out eyes as they reach into my chest and pull out my still beating –

My own scream wakes me up. The bed is wet with my sweat as I thrash around, still half caught up in my nightmare. "Don't take me! Please I'm sorry!" I screech into my dark room. Someone rushes in and says, "Rae! Rae! Look at me! Are you ok!" I stop twisting around when I see a familiar face. Finnick. "No I'm not ok, not even the ok I talked about earlier," I whimper as I try to forget my horror dream.

I take a few slow shaky breaths and unwrap my duvet from around me, which has turned into a tight cocoon during my sleep. He hugs me again and asks quietly, "Do you want me to stay?" I nod my head and he lies down next to me, an arm around me for comfort. There were no more nightmares that night.

End of Chapter Five woop woop! Sorry this was so late loads of shit been going on but I promise I will have the next chapter uploaded soon I have a lot of spare time on my hands. Hope you enjoyed, sorry if there were any errors point them out to me and I will edit them out at a later date. Peace.