Day 19- The Games (Day 12)
It feels like hours and hours we lie there in silence, but I must eventually have fallen asleep, because my next conscious thought is waking up to find I'm no longer freezing, but Fern is still tightly pressed against my chest.
My thought that I didn't get an awful lot of sleep is confirmed by the fact I realise I'm still very sleepy, not at all alert. I don't even realise that I've started absentmindedly stroking Fern's hair until I stop abruptly as she stirs.
"Hey," I say, removing my arms from around her as she looks up at me. "I didn't want to wake you, but can I move now? My legs have gone to sleep."
"Oh, sorry," she says, blushing a little as she lifts herself off my torso. She seems to have been doing an awful lot of that recently I think as I stand up to stretch my legs.
After a short wander around our cramped hideaway, I turn to talk to Fern. "We're going to have to abandon this place sooner or later," I say, "I'm wondering if it might be better to do it before they force us out?"
Fern shrugs. "Maybe. I still think the Gamemakers won't be too keen to kill us at this stage, they prefer to let the tributes fight it out."
"Oh, I'm sure they could think up something entertaining enough for the audience," I reply. "But anyway, we can't leave just yet, we couldn't carry all this food easily, and there's no reason to waste it. We could either eat well today and leave tomorrow, or eat normally for the next two days and move out the day after tomorrow. How does that sound?"
"Okay I guess," says Fern weakly, still rubbing sleep from her eyes. "We'll just see how hungry we are today."
"We should go out for a bit first though," I say, "at least to fill up our water bottles."
She nods at me. "Now?"
I shrug. "Judging by the amount of light coming in," I say, gesturing to the hole in the ceiling of our burrow, "it's already late morning at the earliest. We might as well get it done."
"Okay," she says, sounding just a little more alert now as she clambers to her feet. "Let's go then."
I grab my staff and lead the way out of the tunnel, stopping to glance around for any sign of danger at the mouth, before, confident we're alone, ushering Fern forward to join me in the clearing. We head towards the river, vaguely knowing the way now, but still keeping a check on the trees we've marked.
I suddenly jolt round as Fern cries out from just behind me, raising my staff ready to attack, but quickly lowering it again as I see she's just slipped. I am forced to reconsider quickly however, she hasn't just slipped- she's slipped and hurt herself, judging by the pained expression on her pace and hand clutching her right knee.
"Are you alright?" I ask, crouching down beside her. "What happened?"
"There's a bloody hole," she hisses angrily, gesturing to her right foot. I see she is right, she didn't just slip, the ground appears to have given way as she stepped on some sort of small animal burrow.
"Can you stand?"
"Maybe," she winces, "it's wearing off a little bit." She wriggles her foot from the hole and plant her good foot, before, with my help, pushing herself to her feet. "Aargh! No, no way!" she exclaims as soon as she puts weight on her injured leg. I have to catch her to stop her falling back to the ground.
"Is it just your knee?" I ask, as she loops her arm over my shoulders to take the weight on her injured right side.
"Yeah just my knee," she snaps, "it bloody hurts!"
"Sorry," I say, "let's get back to the burrow." She nods wordlessly and I lead my limping ally back to our base.
Getting through the tight entrance tunnel is awkward for Fern, and she groans in pain a few times, before eventually sliding into the burrow where she can sit in relative safety. I roll up her trouser leg to examine the affected area. "Well, it's not dislocated," I say, "so you've probably done something to the tendons. Hopefully you've just strained them a little, because if you've torn them it's really bad."
"What do we do now then?" she asks. The pain and anger have faded from her face, now she just looks worried. Scared even.
"You'll just have to rest it for a bit, hopefully it gets a bit better," I say. "I still need to go and fill our water, so I'll bring back a branch for you to use as a crutch if you need to move."
"You can't go out on your own!" Fern exclaims, "get me a crutch now and I'll come with you."
"No, you need to rest it," I say firmly. "I managed fine on my own before we met up Fern. I'm just going to the river, it's only twenty minutes there and back, half an hour tops."
"But it's dangerous without someone to watch your back," Fern says, but her protestation is much weaker this time.
"It's the Hunger Games," I say dryly, "it's dangerous anyway, that's kind of the point." I had hoped that might raise a smile, but Fern still just looks worried and upset, so I try a little reassurance. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
"You can't possibly know that," she retorts, staring straight into my eyes, daring me to contradict. I obviously can't so instead look away. "I won't be long," I say and start to walk back to the tunnel.
"Rory!" she calls.
"Fern, I can't stay," I say harshly, spinning back to face her, "we need water, and you need to rest that leg."
"I know," she sighs. "Rory…I…just come over here a second."
I do so, squatting down next to her, "What is it?"
"I just…" she stutters, reaching out to take my hand, "just please be careful Rory."
"I will," I say. "It wouldn't be very polite to leave you all injured like this would it?" With that I start to stand to leave again, but Fern pulls me back down and before I can say 'what now?' she places her hands on my cheeks, and leans up to plant a soft kiss on my lips.
I'm too surprised to do anything other than stare at her as she pulls away, blushing and looking down. "Just go," she says, still not looking up. "But," she finally looks at me, and her eyes are filled with fear, "hurry back."
"I promise," I say, grasping her shoulder, before hurrying out.
I move as quickly as I think I can risk without being too noisy as I head towards the river. I'm also trying to keep my attention on my surroundings, constantly scanning for any sign of other tributes, muttations or lights on the trees, but it's difficult to not let it wander to Fern.
Thankfully nothing interrupts my mission, and I'm soon back at the burrow with full water bottles and a forked branch that should be about the right length for Fern to use as a crutch.
"Thank goodness!" Fern says as I re-emerge into the burrow, letting out an audible sigh of relief. She pulls me into a fierce hug after I hurry over to her, before I pull back just enough to kiss her properly.
Fern's hands are on the back of my head pulling me closer, as I deepen the kiss. For a few moments everything else is forgotten, the whole world is just the two of us, before I remember we are still in the Hunger Games.
I pull away as it hits me, but before I can say anything, I override my instinct. I'll deal with it later, for now I just want to enjoy the moment. After all, I might not get a whole lot more opportunities.
"I've been wanting to do that for a while," I say softly, my face still mere inches away from Fern's.
"And I've been waiting for you to do that for a while," she replies, smirking, before kissing me again.
"What are we doing?" I murmur as we finally pull apart again, "We can't both survive."
"Probably neither of us will," Fern replies quietly. "Wouldn't you rather be happy while you still can?"
"I…I suppose," I stutter, but can't quite keep the confusion and lack of sureness from my voice.
"Look Rory," she says firmly but softly, reaching out to rest her hand on my cheek. "I really really like you-"
"And I really care about you too," I say, "but-"
"But what?" she fixes me with a challenging look. "What can we gain from denying it? It would probably be easier if neither of us gave a damn about anything happening to the other, but it's a bit late for that isn't it?"
"Just a bit," I say ruefully, nodding.
"I don't know about you," she continues, "but it wouldn't have hurt me any less if you died yesterday or the day before than if you died today. In fact, it would have been much worse, knowing I'd never got the chance to let you know how much I cared about you."
"You're right," I say, "it won't change anything."
"So are you going to kiss me again?" she asks, smiling widely.
"Well, if you insist," I say with a smile, leaning in to give her another quick, gentle kiss.
"That it?" she pouts as I pull back.
"I'm still worried about your leg," I explain, "How is it?"
She shrugs. "It doesn't hurt, but I'm worried it might if I try and stand on it."
I nod, "Probably best if you rest it up today and see how it is tomorrow."
"Okay," she says. "Sooo, what are we going to do today?" She can't keep the grin from her face as she pretends to ponder the possibilities for a few seconds, before grabbing my jacket and pulling me into a kiss that washes away everything else.
We do nothing all day. We kiss a lot, hug a lot, talk about ourselves, stubbornly avoiding talk of The Games, and eat a couple of decent meals, before darkness starts to fall. When the anthem plays, I go and check the sky, but return to give Fern the news that no-one has died today.
A couple of hours later, just as we're thinking about getting to sleep, a ferocious roar, which sounds very close, jolts us to full alertness. I hold my finger to my lips in a shushing gesture, as it looks like Fern's about to say something.
There is quiet for a few seconds, before we hear another roar, only this time it sounds pained rather than angry. Shouting voices then joined the roaring, before the roaring is gone, replaced first by yelps of pain, then by a deep whimpering sounds, then a few seconds of silence before a cry of victory.
It's clear that a couple or more tributes have just killed a muttation, almost certainly one of the bears, and I think that means I know who it is. Sure enough, with the roaring now gone I can make out the voices and it is Jade who speaks first.
"Hey, cheer up Varro, you've finally got your third kill!"
"You know it doesn't count," came his gruff and emotionless reply.
"Whatever," she replies, sounding so normal that it freaks me out a little bit. "Pass my shuriken." And there we go, suddenly she's a terrifying fighter again, not a normal teenager.
"Get them yourself," comes the reply, which brings a smile to my face. They certainly don't sound like they're getting along and the sooner their alliance breaks the better for us. It might even lead to one of them killing the other, and although I feel awful for wanting that, it would really help our cause.
I can almost feel the glare I know Jade must be firing at Varro right now, but they don't speak again and I'm fairly confident, or at least hoping, that they've left the area.
Eventually I'm confident enough to speak to Fern, though only in a whisper. "Do you think they've gone?" I say.
She nods. "I hope so at least."
"Let's just get to sleep now then," I say. "If we don't hear them in the morning then we'll just have to check it out."
"Okay," she whispers back, before pecking me on the lips. "Goodnight," she smiles.
"Goodnight," I echo, managing to keep up the smile until her face is nestled against my chest, leaving me alone to my thoughts which try as I might I can't keep focused on Fern instead of the danger that we're going to be facing in the coming days.