CHAPTER 6

"I'm staying."

"But they'll kill you!" I protest.

"Only if they find me. Which they won't do." Flint reasons. "Besides, we're only allies right? If I die, then that's one less obstacle for you right?"

I'm stunned. A career with that much empathy?

"Don't you want to win?" I ask, slightly pleadingly.

"We all do."

I can't think of anything to say. I don't know whether or not to agree.

"Were they that bad?" I ask finally. He laughs, grimly.

"Oh yes. It would shock you, the things they talked about. The weak tributes mean nothing to them. They treat them like flies. Not worth the bother until they become annoying. And then they kill. They're ruthless, and that's not me." Flint says, powerfully. I blink.

"Well. Then we'd better find a place to camp out." I say finally. Flint smiles and nods. We start to trek through the forest, keeping quiet. After about a mile of walking, we arrive in a new section of the arena. I'm not comfortable here. I want to go back to my lake.
It's a meadow. Wildflowers everywhere, trees in a perfect circle around the outside. It's beautiful, yes, but I feel uneasy. It's too exposed. At least we know the careers are at the cornucopia. We're safe until they find out that Flint isn't there. As we walk forwards into the meadow, we hear the BOOM of a cannon somewhere in the distance. Six of us left.

"Oh my… Regan look!" Flash points up to the sky. I'm expecting to see the hovercraft, but none appears near us. Instead, a dainty little silver pot held in a silver parachute floats down to us. What is it? We're not in need of anything. I shoot Flash a look as I twist the top off the pot. There's a note inside.

"Watch out. They sting." I read. Inside the pot, there is medicine. I take an experimental sniff. And then almost drop the pot.

"What? What is it?" Flash asks, not nearly concerned enough. I recognise the smell. We have bucket loads of this medicine at home and I know what it's for. More importantly, I know running is the only thing that will save us now.

"We have to go. Now!" I yell. And we bolt into the forest again, just as I begin to hear the sounds of thousands upon thousands of oncoming tracker jackers.

So the Gamemakers want the Games to finish quickly?

Perhaps the next days the Games will be less intense, or maybe they expected the Games would last longer than the following days because of the Careers... everybody must be wondering what'll happen if the last survivors are Aquette, Squirrel and Neptune.

We're running as fast as we can from the oncoming storm, but some of the tracker jackers have already reached us. I feel a sharp searing pain in my neck, then on my cheek and then on my left leg. It burns and I cry out in pain. Flash touches his shoulder, and starts moaning, but he can run, whereas I can't. They've paralysed me.

As he realizes I can't move he does something unexpected. He waits.

"Go on, run!" I order him "You'll die if you don't!"

He's surrounded by pink butterflies that he oddly isn't bothering to bat away. There are insects crawling all over him! Why isn't he moving! Then I feel Flint's arms surrounding me. He picks me up and starts running, running and running. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the sky, tied to the ground… a beautiful crystal blue sky.

It's night when I wake up. The giants I had seen in my hallucinogenic state were trees, the butterflies were seemingly imaginary and the blue sky strapped to the ground was the lake. As soon as Flint reached the lake side he lay me down at the edges of the lapping waters. I'm confused, so I close my eyes for what at first feels like a few seconds, but when I open them again, it's sunrise. I look over at a rock and see my clothes are laid out on it, drying. Instinctively I look down at my body, but I'm still in my underclothes. Not naked. In my underclothes in front of the entirety of Panem… but not naked. I breathe a short sigh of relief and look over at Flint. The sight of him takes me by surprised, and I feel like I should look away. He's in his underclothes too. Instead of looking way though, I tilt my head in admiring interest. I catch myself before I say something stupid and look away.

I trust him more than ever. He saved me, and he would apparently rather die than leave me. He was a hero... my hero. He smiles at me as he sees I woke up.

"Hi," he greets. "You ok?"

"Yes, sure. I just..." I pause, wondering if I should just say it. "I can't believe a Career saved me and wanted me to stay alive that badly." Ok, I know I was a little bit rude but it was the truth. He was from District 1, and he was interested in a girl with little chances of winning. No, scrap little chances of winning; make it no chances of winning.

"Hey!" he says laughing. "Well, bit was the right thing to do. I covered your stings with the medicine my sponsor sent us, by the way. It seems they like our alliance." He remarks, looking out over the lake, smiling a little.

"Good. And thanks… Thanks for saving me, Flint." Thanking him was the least thing I could do. He saved my life and got us medicine: I'd be dead without him.

"It's an alliance. We help each other out. Thant's how it works, right?" He asks me, grinning. I want to point out that he's just described friendship, but I just nod.

"I don't know... People like you, and it's impossible not to do that." I blurt, before I have the sense to stop myself. As I look at him, he blushes a little bit but honestly? That only made him look much hotter. God, I need to stop thinking like this. There's one winner, and if it's going to be me, I've got to shut up and start thinking properly. He suddenly looks up and grins at me. He reaches behind the rock he's sat on and pulls out a spear. There's two Bloffinches stabbed on it.

"Look, I fished some Bloffinches, using the spear, are you hungry?" He asks me, proudly.

I start laughing. He didn't know how to fish Bloffinches. I wish I could have seen him trying to catch one with the spear.

"What is so funny?" he asks.

"Nothing." I reply, shrugging away my amusement. "Before eating let's get dressed. I'm freezing."

Of course that wasn't true. I just felt uncomfortable in only my underclothes. We get dressed and start eating. A little while later we hear Panem's anthem and see my district partner's face on the sky. Sooner or later he was going to die. The tracker jackers may have killed him. He must have been hidden for days. If the tracker jackers chanced upon him, he was easy prey. I can;t say we were friends, or that we even knew each other, but he was from District 7 too, and that makes me wonder if i should feel more remorse than I do.

I look over at Flint, realising that I haven't asked him what I've been wondering since we formed this alliance. It was time to know the answer.

"Flint… Can I ask you something? I've kind of been wondering about it since I heard you talking with the other Careers?"

"Sure, what did you hear?" He asks, as I sit next to him beside the fire.

"I heard you wanted me as an ally… My question is why?" I watch him slightly warily as he looks straight into my eyes.

"Because… Regan Willoughby… I am completely and utterly-"

A parachute lands between us, interrupting our moment. I never heard the rest of that sentence, but I could guess where it was going.

"In love with a Career. Well done." Said a little note stamped onto the metal box. Silvialla was funny, but that wasn't irony, I guess. Without him I would be dead.

In the box there was more medicine, which was great; we really needed it.

"And there was you saying you weren't going to get any parachutes." Flint grins. I just smile at him, wondering about that sentence that he never got to finish.

THANKS FOR READING! :D Please review/follow/favourite! :D It means a lot to me 3 Also, I'd love it if you could check out the other fanfic I'm writing, and it basically includes a character from the main fandoms, to that would be nice :)

Lucy xxx