-Part Ten – Suspicions –
"What was that?" Antonio asked Gilbert. They were both resting at the camp after everyone else had left. A painful scream seemed to come from the depths of the forest. The wall of trees and shadows made it impossible for them to see farther than a few meters.
"It had to be another tribute…I can't tell who it was though." Gilbert replied, observing the forest cautiously.
Antonio looked at him. "Should we go look?"
"I can't." Gilbert muttered, looking down. "My ankle still hurts."
Antonio sighed and stood up. "I'm going to look. If it's betrayal, then we can find out who it is." He said confidently and began walking.
"Wait!" Gilbert shouted, glaring at Antonio. "You can't leave me here with murderers around."
"The tribute could have just…fell or something. If you don't want to stay here, then you have to come with me." Antonio replied, still walking away from the camp.
"Fine." Gilbert muttered, grabbing a tree behind him for support. He walked, struggling not to limp, over to Antonio. "Let's find a murderer."
"I never said it was a murderer. Although, that does seem like something some certain tributes would do." Antonio confessed, pushing a few branches away from him while venturing into the forest.
"Yeah, I don't trust the one from District Eleven. He's creepy."
"Ivan?" Antonio asked, looking curiously at Gilbert, who nodded in reply. "There is something…unsettling about him. I trust him more than the District One tribute …Ludwig?"
"Ludwig doesn't seem like he would betray our group. I trust him." Gilbert stated, wincing as he walked due to his ankle.
"He's just too stoic. I can agree with you about Ivan though. He looks like he doesn't trust Yao. So if we find Yao out here dead, I'm going to accuse Ivan."
"You just said that it wasn't a murderer." Gilbert pointed out.
"I said it could be a killer, not that is isn't. It could be some of the animals out here, I heard they're dangerous. A wolf maybe? It seems plausible with those killer fish."
"I think Denmark just drowned and Yao cut his hand to make it seem like it wasn't his fault."
Antonio was about to reply when the loud shot of a cannon echoed through the air. The pair stopped walking. "It's too late." Antonio muttered, looking at the ground.
"Well…we can still find out who died." Gilbert suggested, not showing much emotion for the dead tribute.
Antonio nodded his agreement and began walking again.
Within a few more silent moments, the two came upon the gruesome sight. The tribute, Kiku, lay on the forest floor, his outfit dyed crimson from blood. Cloth was torn neatly on his pant leg, seeming to be a clean incision. There was a gash on his neck, fresh and glistening with blood. It was certainly a fatal wound. With the amount of blood pooling around his right shoulder, they assumed there was an injury there as well.
After being quiet for a minute, both of them observing the scene carefully, Gilbert spoke, "Is this Kiku? The District Ten tribute?"
Antonio nodded solemnly. "It must be." He kneeled down next to the body and tilted Kiku's head back carefully. The lethal cut seemed to be caused by an object similar to a knife. A pointed rock or branch could have caused this with the adequate amount of force behind it. "No animal could have done this."
"Leave the dead guy alone!" Gilbert exclaimed, glaring at Antonio. "The hovercraft will probably be here soon."
"Yeah, I wonder why it hasn't come yet." Antonio noted, searching the sky briefly for sign of the dreaded machine.
"We should get out of here. Seriously." Gilbert muttered, looking around warily. "If anyone finds us here, they'll think we killed him."
"Did you?" Arthur asked, approaching the scene. Gilbert jumped in initial shock, before glaring at the tribute.
"No. We found him here." Gilbert said strongly, defending himself and Antonio.
"How can we be sure? If you weren't standing here, the hovercraft would have came already."
"Hey! Don't accuse me of something I didn't do!" Gilbert shouted, taking a threatening step towards Arthur. Antonio stood up and looked at the two worriedly.
"There's no proof. It looks like there was a knife involved, but I don't think anyone was able to make one." Antonio said, trying to stay neutral in the argument.
"Wait," Gilbert started, narrowing his eyes at Arthur. "You're in the group that makes weapons."
"You were the first ones at this scene, how could it be me? Both of you are the obvious suspects." Arthur noted, watching Gilbert warily.
"We should just forget this. Neither Gilbert nor I killed Kiku. I'm certain it wasn't you either. I say we should blame it on an animal." Antonio suggested, aware of how the conflict could tear the alliance apart.
"Someone was killed. We can't ignore that." Arthur reasoned. "As much as I would like to avoid a fight, I don't want murderers thinking they can kill their way to the top."
"We don't even have weapons. Falsely accusing us will just lead to you getting killed." Gilbert stated boldly.
"Was that a threat?" Arthur asked, raising his eyebrows.
"The rest of the group will see that you can't be trusted. I remember what Matt said." Gilbert replied with a smirk.
"Watch what you say, Gilbert." Matthew said quietly as he came into view. He looked at the body and then at the trio surrounding it. "What's happening?"
"Arthur's trying to accuse me of murder!" Gilbert yelled, pointing at the tribute.
Arthur glared at Gilbert and said, "I simply came over here to investigate and found these two standing over Kiku's body."
Matthew kneeled down next to the body. While inspecting the wounds, his hand brushed over a bloodied rock. He grabbed it and stood up. "What's this?" The three stayed silent. "It appears Kiku was murdered; since these injuries couldn't have been caused by animal. They looked like something that could easily been caused by a knife, or in this case, a sharpened stone."
"The blood could belong to Kiku and the rock just happened to be there." Antonio suggested.
"That how did he die?" Matthew asked. His sentence was almost cut off by the roar of a hovercraft. The tributes backed away as the limp body was lifted away.
"Fantastic." Arthur muttered, a sarcastic tone saturating his voice.
"We should just head back to camp and tell everyone what happened. We can blame the murder on an animal because no one was out here at the time of the cannon blast." Antonio suggested again, looking hopefully at Matthew. "We got here a few moments after we heard the cannon. No one was here. I also believe it was possible for an animal to have done that."
Matthew looked at the group with a defeated sigh. "Fine."
AN: Thank you to everyone who has commented! :D I'm sorry I'm taking so long to update with short chapters... ^^;