John was sat in a cold metal room. His whole body ached. They'd be back soon.
He needed to escape and get back to Sherlock; he remembered that Sherlock wanted to kill him. Why though? Sherlock was his friend. He wouldn't want to kill John.
Then the men came back.
"Extra strong dose this time" one said "We want you to forget his little stunt on St Bart's then you can't connect his 'sacrifice', that's one less good memory of him.
John had wanted to forget seeing Sherlock jump since the day it happened, so why was it that the way they said chilled him to the bone.
Another needle plunged into his arm. The pain started bubbling through his veins; John bit his bottom lip to prevent a scream of pain escaping him. A light flicked on in front of him, he lifted his eyes to it. It was a screen showing CCTV footage. It showed Sherlock on top of a building, spreading his arms then leaning forward then falling. The pain peaked the scream escaped this time. He wasn't going to forget Sherlock! The drug caused his mind to jump backwards to the time of the jump; he could see Sherlock on the top of . He heard his voice in his ear.
"Goodbye John."
Then he was falling, plummeting towards the earth.
"SHERLOCK!"
John gasped and threw himself forward. He was still in the jungle. His mind desperately tried to cling on to his dream but it was fading fast. Something about the dream was important…
His breathing remained heavy for a moment.
"Everything alright?" a voice cut through the silence, the same that was on the phone his mind whispered.
"I don't know" John admitted, instantly regretting showing weakness to the man who might want to kill him.
"You said my name" confusion was evident in Sherlock's voice.
"I did?"
"Yes"
"You were on the phone…" John muttered "I don't know it was a dream and it's gone now"
"Obviously" it sounded like Sherlock was losing interest
"You were saying goodbye to me. I want to think that you were going to kill me but it didn't sound like that, you sounded defeated?"
"It was your dream, not mine" Sherlock's tone was dry
"Yeah. Sorry. I'll try and get more sleep or something"
There was no reply. John felt like he should roll his eyes at that but why? His mind was seriously confusing him right now. He pulled his knees closer to his body. He was soon asleep again.
When John woke for a second time the rainforest was lit by sunlight and both Sherlock and Lestrade were awake. At the sound of him moving they both turned to look at him.
"Breakfast" Lestrade threw a banana at him. John nodded gratefully, the banana was hopefully not poisoned, Lestrade had given it to him so unless Lestrade and Sherlock had teamed up to kill him he was safe. Would Lestrade team up with Sherlock? He was certainly good friends with him….
John quickly threw that thought aside.
"We're heading to the city today" Lestrade told him "Sherlock thinks as it was recently constructed it might hold more answers."
"Makes sense" John agreed "I was thinking that we haven't seen any other Tributes for a while."
"I doubt that they've teamed up. They're being paid to kill us, they get more money if they're the last man standing" Sherlock said while putting his bow and arrows on his back. He appeared ready for the long day ahead of them. John quickly got to his feet, checking he had both guns before slinging his rucksack over his shoulders.
"Which way we going then?"
Sherlock remained at the front of their small group at all times. Partly because he knew the way partly because John was probably convinced he would stab his in the back if he had the opportunity to walk behind him.
Sherlock was currently thinking about John's comment about other Tributes, it had been too long since they last seen one. Maybe the idea was for John to kill Sherlock and then the Tributes would come and get Lestrade and John.
They'd had a break half an hour ago, Sherlock had drank some water as they'd found a river to refill the bottles at, he'd refused to eat though, he was busy thinking, food would only slow him down.
Something caught the corner of his eye, he glanced left, there was a wall of yellow smoke barrelling towards them. Sherlock's eyes widened.
"Run!" he yelled at the other two before sprinting right, Lestrade and John on his tail. Then he tripped the other's didn't notice and kept running. He jumped to his feet, the smoke brushed against his arm instantly burning it, the skin lit up red. Sherlock started sprinting again; the smoke caught his ankle and gave him a few burns on his back. Then he burst through the tree's there was sand everywhere again but this time the sea was only ten metres away. Sherlock placed his hands on his knees and starting gasping for breath, his burns were throbbing painfully and his arm and ankle were now speckled with tiny blisters. The smoke didn't leave the forest, it hovered at the edges.
"Are you alright?" Lestrade asked
"Fine" Sherlock gave a false smile which turned into a grimace as he touched his arm. Where the smoke had come into contact with his ankle and back it had burned through his clothes before reaching his flesh. What the hell was that stuff?
John was hovering behind Lestrade obviously debating whether to offer medical help to Sherlock or not.
"You should wash the wounds" John muttered
Sherlock turned his gaze to the turquoise water stretched out before them, he nodded in agreement and strode over the water's edge, bathing his arm turned out to be painful and drew a hiss of pain from his lips, once he removed his arm from the salty water he had to admit the relief was amazing though, his arm still itched a bit but it no longer throbbed. There were many burns on his back, he couldn't bath them easily so he jumped to his feet and walked out until the water reached his thighs then he dove beneath the surface, giving it access to all his wounds. He wasn't under for long; he stood up again giving his head a shake to dispel the water from his hair
"What the hell was that stuff?" Lestrade asked the soaked detective
"I have no idea" Sherlock admitted, using his long fingers to get his fringe out of his eyes, the water had caused it to lengthen to the point where it annoyed Sherlock.
"How do we get to the city then?" John asked
"We have to take the long way" Sherlock told him "We might find an entrance to the forest that isn't blocked by the smoke, but it seems unlikely. We should only be about an hour or so way now"
"Can you walk on your ankle?" John asked
Sherlock smirked "I've had worse" when John didn't return the smile or offer a sarcastic comment Sherlock returned to his neutral state and started to walk down the beach only just managing to not limp.
Sherlock had been right, in just over an hour they reached the city. John watched as the Detective pressed his back against the wall to try and look at the city, he drew himself back to look at John and Lestrade.
"I was right" Sherlock told them
"About what?" John raised his eyebrows
"There is a way out through the city"
"What makes you so sure?" Lestrade looked pleased
"The number of other Tributes in it"
John walked around Sherlock to look at the city, it was sat in ruins, crumbling down everywhere, nothing looked stable.
It was also crawling with other Tributes, there were about ten insight, but that was just one street.
John looked back at Sherlock "What the hell do we do now?"
