Chapter 4: Run.
I find myself franticly climbing back up the tree, must be my natural instincts, I have been out too long, and I have attracted some sort of mutt or creature, it was a good idea I brought my bow and arrows, if Peeta didn't remind me, I'd have a bit of a problem, being treed by mutts, unable to get out, I take an arrow from my quiver and load it into my bow, I have to be ready to strike, otherwise if I am late, It could be costly, I hear multiple footsteps, there must be more than just one, a whole pack more like it, brilliant, what If I don't have enough arrows? There is only one way to find out, I sit on the branch high up in the tree, that's when the first mutt jumps out of the bush and instantly eyeing me in the tree, I look down at the creature, dark fur with menacing black eyes, nose poised to my direction, claws, as sharp as blades, This isn't like the mutts in the games, but they do look like mutations the Capitol must of released them after the war, and not thinking of killing them, I'm surprised they didn't kill there animals, knowing they could be deadly to human beings, no wonder the electric fence is still up in District 12. Or at least the remains of it are, the mutt calls over it's other acquaintances, then another five or six emerge out to the bush, looking at me, I release my arrow, sending it through one of the mutt's eyes, instantly meaning death, once they understand that I have killed their leader, all of them try to climb the tree, I thought I didn't have to worry, but these animals can climb scarily well, I load my bow again, one of them has made it to the branch below me, I haven't payed attention to it, It leaps at me as I am loading my bow, it's claws sink into my knee, that's when I release the arrow and it goes through the mutts neck, I can hear the whimper escape the creature before it falls down with a loud thud on the ground, the more I kill, the more angry the mutts get. My knee is pouring with blood, but I have no time to tend to it, I must kill the other mutts, the pain in my knee is overwhelming, I load my bow again and kill another one, there must be at least two left, one is still on the ground growling whilst the two others make their way up the tree, I take out the one on the ground with an arrow through they eye, then I turn to find the mutts are drawing nearer, I shoot the closest one through the neck, there is one left. As soon as I turn around the animal has pounced at me, I have no time to load by bow, the mutt pushes me off the branch and I fall to the ground with a thud, my vision is hazy now, ground shock like this is horrible, the mutt is making its way to a lower branch I manage to load my bow and take a shot at it, but the arrow lands its place in the mutts backside, making it yelp, but it is defiantly not enough to kill it, It pounces from the branch in my direction, I jump to the side, the mutt barely misses me, it pounces on me again and pins me to the ground, I feel the animals teeth sink into my shoulder making me yelp in pain. I notice the arrow is still lodged in the animal's backside, I kick the mutt in the stomach, making it flinch, then I go for the arrow I twist it and yank it out, then attempt to puncture the arrow in the mutts neck, I am successful, the animal keels over to the left side, I make myself stand to retrieve my bow that I had let go of when the mutt pushed me out of the tree, my knee and my shoulder still oozing with blood, I know I need to hurry back to District 12, and get to Theria as soon as I can, I take my arrows out of the dead mutts, not bothering to clean them, this is not the time to anyways, I literally stuff them in my sheath and begin running as fast as I can back to the district.
I make it back to the district, but blood is spilling from my shoulder and knee fast, and people start to take notice at my appearance, I look over to the direction on the clinic. I'm beginning to feel lightheaded, I'm still running, not caring about the trail of blood that i'm leaving behind me. I should really pick up my pace, but my vision is getting hazy from the blood loss, someone notices the actual, blood pouring out of me, and they run over and try to keep me upright, I can make out the person saying something
"Hey, what happened?" my vision gets slightly more blurry, I don't know who this person is, but whoever it is, I owe a lot to, I can just make out that we have made it to the clinic, I look around and bunches of people are staring at us both, as soon as I turn back around, I can feel myself slowly drifting off, I've lost a lot of blood, my eyes close, the person is still helping me into the clinic, from what I can hear from the muffled sounds, I'm guessing it is Theria trying to talk to me, all I give out is a moan, then I drift off.
My eyes flutter open, barely. To a bright white room, my first instinct is to look at my shoulder, but its patched up, then I look further down my arm, there is a liquid getting pumped into my arm, I try and move my leg, that was a bad idea, I bite my lip, then the door opens, there is a man standing there with a white coat on, I guess he's a doctor, but why is he in District 12? I can't bring myself to say anything,
"She's awake." The man says,
"What?" a voice says,
"See, I told you she'd wake up sooner or later." Another voice says,
The man steps out of the doorway and in shoots Peeta, with Theria not far behind him,
"Thank god, you're okay." I can see the worry in his eyes, I can't blame him, If he was in my position I would be in a wreck, just like in the Quell, when Finnick tried o save him but I wasn't convinced he was, all I can do is take his hand, I don't have the energy to speak, I still don't really know my surroundings that well, I'm guessing we are in District 12, I start to drift off again, my hand still clutches Peeta's, it's either the drugs, or my exhaustion.
I wake up again, to what feels like I was asleep for 5 minutes, was more like 5 hours. The room is dark; I guess it's nighttime. I try to go back to sleep. But my conscious is telling me to stay awake, where am I? Am I in District 12? I look to my left side, Peeta has fallen asleep on the chair beside the hospital bed, he must of stayed here the whole time I was asleep, I give him a slight shake, It's not to powerful I suspect I'm still slightly drowsy by the pain killers, he wakes up and he says,
"Did you have a good sleep?"
"Hardly," I pause, "Where are we…?"
"We are in District 4," He says bluntly,
"What? How?"
"Well, Theria didn't have the equipment to stop your wound from getting worse, we had to take you here to get fully treated,"
"I was out for the whole train ride?"
"Yes, so you've been asleep for two days,"
My eyes widen a little, two days? Realization kicks in,
The only word that manages to slip out of my mouth is "okay" I don't know what to say, should I be angry with myself? I would of thought I'd have been in worse positions surely. He strokes my hair and I close my eyes, and try and get some sleep.
A doctor awakes me the next day; Peeta isn't in the room so I suspect they had to take him out to another room,
"There is someone here to see you," the doctor says, as he moves out of the doorway,
"Mom?"
"Hi, Katniss. I just got news that you came in yesterday, what have you been doing?" my mother says, with a slight disappointed look on her face,
"Well, I was in the woods, do I have to explain further?"
"No, I probably know what you did already," she cracks a faint smile, that's the first time in ages I have seen her smile, the doctor speaks up,
"Now, you'll be here for another couple days yet, we need to examine your shoulder further, as your knee should heal up fine soon, what ever had attacked you has ruptured your shoulder bone, we need to make sure that its fixed up."
What makes me think there is a huge but in this.
"But there may be some permanent damage to your shoulder, we don't know yet, that's why we must keep you in for another couple of days,"
Great. Just what I want, being stuck in a white room for 78 hours, unable to walk or even move a muscle, I sigh. "Thanks,"
Then I realize that I haven't eaten for two days. It will be kind of awkward to come out of the blue and say "I'm hungry," but I say it anyways, my mother gives a small chuckle, and the doctor says,
"Oh, sure. We'll get some food to you right away." Then he exits the room with haste. Not long after, Theria comes through the door with a tray,
"Hi Katniss, how are you doing?" she asks me, then gives me the tray
"All right, although I'm trapped in this place," I sigh. I hate hospitals. They remind me of the Capitol. It's just the way they look with their pristine white rooms, It reminds me too much of when I was rescued from the Quell. Or after the first games when they whisked me away to a small room strapped in what seemed like a hospital bed,
"At least its only two days,"
"Only? Seems like two years in my case."
Theria laughs at that. Then I examine the tray, nothing special, just some sort of broth. Since I hadn't eaten in a few days, I eat it without any problem.
"While you eat that, I'll go get your guest."
I choke on my food, and then swallow. "Guest?"
"Yes, I'll go get him now," she says as she exits the door.
Him? Who's him?