A/N- Gah, I've been soooo busy lately! Being off school, I thought I would have plenty of time to write, but I've been occupied with bridesmaid shopping etc...
So, once all that was sorted, I sat down and wrote this chapter for you guys, so I hope you like it!
And no, I am not the owner of The Hunger Games x
"Psst, Zinny!" A sharp whisper wakes me, followed by a nudge in my left arm. "Wake up!"
I stifle a yawn and rub my weary eyes, sitting up against a box. I look to see Ethan, sitting half a metre away from me, zipping up his rucksack.
"What time is it?" I ask, stretching my arms out to shake off the tiredness in them.
"Time to get off this train" Ethan replies, standing up and brushing himself down.
He offers his hand to me and I take it, being lifted up from the ground in one swift pull. I also brush myself down and grab my bag, which balances on the edge of a crate.
"Right... so how exactly are we planning on getting off this train?" I ask. "They'll see us as soon as we climb off at the station"
Ethan grins at me, then says "We're not getting off at the station"
"Then where are we-" I begin, then trail off, just realising what Ethan meant.
We're jumping off.
"Yup" Ethan says, following my gaze to the window. "We'll have to climb on that box to reach it, though. Ah well, it won't be hard"
"We can't just jump out of a window and expect to live!" I exclaim.
"Sure we'll live! I've planned for us to land on some bushes and stuff; there's plenty by the track right now" He replies, guiding me over to the box that sits under the large window.
He holds his hands out to give me a leg-up and I reluctantly take it, rising straight to the top of the box. I bend my knees and haul myself on top, grabbing another box for balance. I then look out the window.
Trees and bushes are all I can see beyond the train track, stretching out long and far. I'm not too bothered about the landing now; I can see what Ethan means about the soft ground. It's just the speed at which the train is moving that worries me. If we jump out separately, we'll end up landing miles away from each other! The quicker we jump, the closer we'll be together. But even if we jump within a second after the other, we'll still be a fair distance away.
I turn back and look down at Ethan, "Ethan, there is no way we can do this. We'll land too far away from each other and we'll get lost"
"Nah, if you just stay where you land, then I'll follow the track backwards and find you, easy peasy" He says, taking hold of a box and starts to climb up to meet me.
I take his hand and drag him up, both of us now sitting on the box in front of the window. Ethan reaches out and opens the window, letting the air from outside flood inside. A gust of sharp air hits me in the face and I almost topple off the box. A whole lot of nerves hit me. I was scared to fall off the box, so what will it be like to fall off a moving train? Painful, I bet.
"No, no, no. There is no way I'm gonna jump" I tell him. "It's too dangerous"
"Oh stop being such a fuss-pot and just jump already" Ethan moans. "We don't have much time"
"But I'll break my legs! Or my neck, or spine or..." I protest.
"Not if you land on a bush. Now jump Zinny!" He insists, prodding me closer to the open window.
The cold air hits my face again, blowing my hair wildly around my head. I can barely see through the masses of red hair that wave in front of my eyes. What I can see through the gaps, is all a blur. Just one big, massive blur. And I'm expected to jump into that.
"Ethan... I can't, I can't do this" I say, my lip quivering.
"Yes you can Zinny. You can do this" He replies, his hand resting on my shoulder as some sort of comfort.
"No, I don't think I can..." I whimper, tears welling up in my eyes.
"But you can, Zinny. And I'll be right behind you" He whispers in my ear, pushing me further towards the outside. "Do it for Peeta"
Those last words give me strength to hold back my fear. He's right. I've got to do this for Peeta, because if I don't jump now, I won't get to him. I won't be free to run to him and speak to him before he goes. It's that thought which gives me the strength I need.
"Do it for Peeta" I repeat, taking hold of the window frame and swallowing hard.
I take one last look at what lies before me and begin to feel anxious once more. I keep telling myself that I need to do this. Peeta needs me to do this. So I close my eyes. Taking one deep, shaky breath, I brace myself and hurl my body out into the open space.
The air hits me like a thousand knives, piercing my skin and chilling my veins. The force is much more painful against my face than the rest of my body, as it's first to hit the cold outdoors. My eyes stay firmly shut, not only for protection against the wind, but also to block out any terrifying sight I may see. For example, if I were to see what I was about to land on, I would most probably freak out... So I keep them shut. Tightly shut.
My heart is racing as I fall through the air, adrenalin bursting within my body. At one moment I'm absolutely petrified about dying: but at the next, I'm utterly loving the feeling of freedom. The lightweight sense of just being in the open space is enough to keep me calm as my flying lesson ends and the descent begins.
The feeling of gravity pulling you down is a strange feeling. It's as if you're dreaming and it's not really you who's falling, but your mind instead. Like my body is numb, but my mind is feeling every shiver of fear.
I feel my eyelids flutter open slightly, revealing a thin slit of blurred image. I can't make out what exactly I'm about to land on, but from my best guess, I'd say it was a plant of some sort; the blurred image is mainly made of a fuzzed green. I can say that I would prefer to land on something like a patch of moss, but a plant will do.
The ground draws nearer and I hold my breath. I don't have any time to manoeuvre myself to land in a more comfortable position, so I end up landing my whole body on top of my right arm. The pain is extreme, but at least I'm not dead. I think.
Just to check I'm still alive, I pinch my skin. Fortunately, I feel the sharp squeeze and I sigh in relief. Next, I check my eyesight. Struggling with only one arm, I manage to roll over and look up to the cloudless blue sky. I can see, so I sigh in relief. After that, I test my hearing by rustling some leaves to see whether or not I can hear quiet sounds. Luckily, the soft rustling sound fills my ears and I sigh in relief. And finally, I examine my legs. Carefully, in case I've broken anything, I kick my legs up and down and they seem perfectly normal. No damage done there, so again, I sigh in relief.
Right, so I'm alive, not blind, not deaf and my legs aren't broken. Hmm, I've done pretty well for a girl who has just flung herself out of a moving train. The only question now is; where the heck is Ethan?
I contemplate getting up to search for him, but suddenly remember that he told me to stay put and wait for him. That way, we won't miss each other and get lost. Sounds easy enough, but when it comes to doing it, I'm not so good at it. I've realised that I'm not the most patient person in the world...
A while passes; what seems to be a lifetime, and I'm sitting on the floor. I'm surprised that I've lasted this long... even if I've managed to shred every leaf in a two metre radius of my current position... Oh well, they'll grow back.
Once every leaf I'm able to reach has been torn to tiny pieces, I tilt my head back and groan loudly. All this waiting around is so dull and boring and now I've run out of leaves to rip I'm really starting to feel impatient. How long does it take to stand up, brush yourself down and follow a train track for a few metres? Not long... unless you're injured.
"Shit" I murmur and sit bolt upright, listening out for any distant movement or rustle of leaves.
When I don't hear anything at all, I start to panic. Ethan would be here by now; it wouldn't take that long to find me. All he has to do is follow the train track until he reaches me and if he jumped out soon after me, then he wouldn't be that far away. Would he?
No, he wouldn't. This can only mean two things... either he's injured or dead. And I know which one I'd prefer him to be.
I keep within a few feet away from the track, yelling out every few seconds and then pausing to listen out for a response. So far, I've heard nothing.
"Ethan!" I yell out again, praying that he'll answer me. "Ethan can you hear me?"
Still with no response, I continue, running through small shrubs and leaping over logs. I occasionally trip over tree roots, crashing to the muddy ground, but I don't let anything stop me. I've got to find him and he's got to be alive.
"Ethan!" I call out again, feeling the desperation in my voice. "Please answer me!"
Once more, I hear nothing in return, just the same repeating sound of my panting breaths.
"Ethan!" I try one last time, before collapsing with exhaustion. But as I land on the soft ground, my foot knocks against something.
I move on to my knees and crawl over to the bush, reaching my arm into it to grab what's underneath. A part of me expects it to be Ethan, hiding amongst the leaves, waiting to leap out and frighten me. But he doesn't. Instead, I pull out a large rucksack and shriek. It's Ethan's rucksack.
A spark of hope lights within me and I scramble through the bush, dragging the rucksack along with me. I haven't got the strength to walk, so I stay on my hands and knees, crawling across the earth. Various plants scratch against my knees, drawing blood that prints onto nearby leaves that I crawl over. Mud coats the palms of my hands as I make my way along the ground.
"Ethan?" I croak, my throat dry from dehydration. "Ethan, are you here?"
As usual, I'm expecting the familiar sound of silence, but it don't hear it. This time, I hear something valuable. It may be faint, but it's definitely a response. And at hearing it, I stumble to my feet and head in the direction of the noise.
I don't have to walk far, as I come across the source of the noise. It's still quite faint, but a lot louder than before. From here I can match the noise to a brief murmur. A murmur of my name.
"Zinny..." The quiet groan comes again, seemingly from behind a rock, just a few metres away.
"Ethan?" I ask, cautiously walking round the side of the rock. "Is that you?"
A small gasp escapes my mouth as Ethan comes into view. He's lying on the ground; half his face covered with blood; his breathing, heavy and interrupted; and his hand clutches at his collar, his knuckles white. He looks broken.
I instantly drop to my knees beside him and tap his good shoulder lightly, "Ethan?"
His head stirs a little and his eyes flicker open to meet mine.
"Zinny, you came for me"
"Of course I came for you, silly. You had me worried sick; I thought you were dead!" I tell him, stroking his head to keep him as calm and relaxed as possible.
"Sorry" He mumbles to me, his eyes filled with worry.
"Don't be. I've found you now and everything is going to be fine" I reassure him. "Now, where are you hurt?"
"I think I was knocked unconscious at first, cuz when I woke up, my head was bleeding real bad and I felt woozy" He replies, his eyebrows knitted in a frown. "Oh, and I think I've broken my collarbone too"
"Let me assess the damage" I say.
Leaning over him slightly, I have a better view of his injuries. And, sure enough, his head is badly wounded, releasing flows of deep scarlet blood and his collar bone looks a little out of position. Ouch.
"How bad exactly is it?" Ethan asks anxiously.
"Umm... well... you've definitely damaged your head; there's a lot of blood... and I'm no expert on broken bones, but I'd say it's probably broken" I report back.
His face drops at the news, but he was probably expecting it. He should be fairly pleased; at least he's still breathing!
"It's not too bad, but we need to get you to a hospital or something" I tell him. "Think you can stand up?"
"Guess I'll have to" He replies.
I rise from the floor and hold out my left hand to him. My other arm is still sore from the fall, but that's the least of my worries now. I didn't quite tell Ethan the full truth about his injuries; I didn't want him to panic or anything. He'd surely raise his blood pressure which wouldn't be good, seeing his condition right now. So I decide to keep shut and not tell him that he's bleeding too heavily and that he might lose too much blood before we get any help...
He takes my offering hand and slowly, he gets to his feet. Every few seconds, he winces from the pain in his collar, but he keeps determined to stand on his own two feet. When he's standing, he's not very stable. He can walk a few steps, although fairly clumsily, but every couple of metres, he has a dizzy spell. Probably an after effect from passing out earlier.
After going for about ten minutes, he comes to a complete stop and leans his weight on a tree trunk.
"You lied to me, didn't you?" Ethan says, looking me directly in the eyes.
"What do you mean?" I ask him.
"When you said it wasn't bad; you were lying, weren't you?" He replies.
"I wasn't lying to you..." I say in denial.
"Maybe not lying, but you weren't telling the full truth. I'm bleeding too heavily, aren't I?" He persists.
"It's not as bad as you think..." I try.
"No Zinny, it is" He states. "We won't get to a hospital in time. I'll have lost too much blood by then"
"If we keep moving, we'll get there in time" I attempt to convince him, but he refuses to listen.
"Stop trying to make me feel better! Just accept the truth!" He exclaims.
"No. You're not going to die, Ethan. I won't let you"
"It's out of your control. There's nothing you can do to stop it"
"Maybe so, but I can help by slowing down the blood and helping you walk"
"We'll still be too late"
"We'll try"
And try I will. I can't lose him. Not now.
A/N- Okily dokily, that was chapter 6! I didn't think I could write so much about jumping out of a train... but I'm not complaining, as I get an extra chapter than I planned to have. Good thing, right?
Well if it is a good thing and you like what you've read so far... please let me know cuz I need the support people!
Thanks, FireflyLlama x