Chapter 26: When There Was Hope Again
I wake up, ready for another day with as many challenges as the others have had.
If I'm doing my math right, today is the seventh day of the games. I hope I'm still sane enough to be able to remember the days correctly, but at this point, I don't really know. There was the bloodbath, the really hot day, the one where we went to the Cornucopia, and the day Ryder lost consciousness. Today marks three days since that happened, so I know I'm right and it is Day Seven. It scares me that I'm at the point where I have to check if my math is right. I don't think I've had any water or eaten in a long time, but I'm trying to save my resources for Ryder when he wakes up. If he wakes up.
I begin to hear some sort of high-pitched beeping. I begin to worry that I have developed a case of tinnitus. I remember my mother had it when I was younger, and it was a case of non-stop beeeping in her left ear that went on for a few months. But I'm hearing this beeping in both ears. Is it possible that it could be a tribute? Has someone created a bomb of sorts to kill Ryder and I? Have the careers found us and are looking for revenge after Ryder killed Wheta a few days ago? The pattern of the beeping is that there are two higher pitches and then a lower pitch. I've never heard the beeping of a bomb before, and my hands begin to shake thinking that it could be this.
Once a small container with a white parachute comes into site, I realize the beeping isn't just in my ears, nor is it from any sort of tribute. A sponsor has given a gift to Ryder and I! Usually, sponsor gifts are only given to popular tributes, or tributes with a really good chance of winning. I'm glad to know someone out there thinks we fall into one of the two catagories, and I'm hoping it's the latter one. I immedieately get the container out of the tree branch, rip it open, and I see two pills, which are clearly for Ryder. There is a note inside as well, which says "Good job, lovebirds. - D". The note must be from Dawn!
I know these pills are meant to help Ryder heal, but he won't be able to swallow these pills in his current state. I take one of the small knives that I have and begin cutting the pill into small pieces on top of a small piece of my shirt that I ripped off. That way, we can save every milligram of the pills. We only have three and a bit of a fourth water bottle left. It's been hard to conserve water when so much of it just drips back out of Ryder's mouth. I put the crushed up pills into the fourth water bottle, the one with very little water in it. I slowly begin the process of trying to get Ryder's medicine down.
"There, all better," I say to Ryder once he has finished getting everything down. After what felt like forever, Ryder took all the medicine, and I know that at some point he will likely get better. However, I have no information on the time frame in which this will happen. It could occur later today, tomorrow, or in another week. And, at that point, one or both of us may already have died, and the medicine will be all for nothing. I have to keep him alive until he wakes up. Now that I know he will be able to do so, I just have to be the one to get him to that point. I just have to keep hoping that I'll get to be with him again.
Even though I knew the post-medicine healing would take a while, there was still a part of me that thought he would just immediately wake up. "This reminds me of the time you got cut building one of the fences. We thought it was a shallow gash but then it kept bleeding and bleeding. We had to call the doctor and have him come inspect you and bandage you up but you couldn't walk. Dad was not happy when we had to house you for a week. Not because he doesn't like you, but because his daughter and the boy she loves were in the same house at night." I laugh, because my dad was worried we would.
"He almost had a heart attack every morning when he saw me laying beside you, brushing your hair. 'Did you sleep with him?!' His eyes would be wide. I'd tell him no, that I'd just woken up and was checking on you, but one morning when he asked I had to lie because I did. He would've had your head if I'd told him the truth." All at once, I realize we will never be intimate together again. We won't ever get the chance because at most one of us is walking out of this place alive. We won't get to have the future we have always dreamed of together. These next few days are the beginning of the end I kiss him on the lips for the first time since he's been out.
"I love you," I say to Ryder, expecting silence to follow. But instead, a cannon booms. I flinch, almost falling for the trap that it was Ryder again, but after feeling his strong pulse, it's obviously not him. There are now only ten tributes left, and that does not leave us with much time together. As terrible as it will be torn apart from one another eventually, I'm grateful that the suffering of the games will be over soon. Coming from a life of privilege, this has easily been harder than all the previous challenges in my life combined. I'm very grateful that Ryder and I are still alive.
But who was the person that died?
Hey everyone, I'm back with another chapter! I hope you enjoyed it!
Yours Truly,
CuriousClove :)