Chapter 17 – Day 10 – 9 Tributes
I wake up extremely early in the morning. The sun hasn't risen yet; the sky just has this blue hue that you can barely see through. I'm not even awaken by the birds, as usual. I'm woken up from the sound of footsteps marching through the damp morning grass. It has to be about 5:00.
The footsteps are coming my way.
I look over at Delly, who's still asleep. I fear she might wake up and make noise, but I don't want to wake her up to tell her to stay quiet either. I decide to just lay flat. We're barely tucked under the curve of the rock, so I can see outside but I am most certain no one can see me. The footsteps continue closer and closer until I see two pairs of feet trudge right past my eyes. I hold my breath the whole time and let it out when they've finally gone. This encounter startles me. From the sound of their walking, you can hear tons of supplies rattling on their shoulders as the step. Obviously it's the Careers, and obviously they have a ton of stuff with them. But how? Then I realize. They must've taken the stuff from the Cornucopia, which is why it was so empty. But where could they possibly keep all of it? It's not like there's a few items at the Cornucopia, there's tons. Something doesn't add up but I can't find a solution to the flaws in what's going on, so I just keep my eyes peeled for any other tributes. Nobody passes for hours, and finally the sun rises and the birds chirp as usual. Delly wakes up and I tell her what I saw.
"Okay," she says. "If they really do have all the stuff, they have to have a place to keep it."
This is a good observation that I hadn't figured out yet.
"Well, where?"
"That's for us to find out." Delly climbs out from under the rock and stretches her arms and legs. We get our stuff together and Delly takes the lead by walking straight from where the Careers came from. You can easily see their footprints in the dirt because of how wet the ground was. Delly and I follow them for an hour and then stop for lunch. We sit with our backs on a tree and eat our food. The trees are just as thick as normal, but they seem shorter and their leaves are thinner. I can safely say this because there's just so much sunlight making it into the forest. I can see hundreds of feet ahead of me, as opposed to the other side of the arena where I couldn't see as much even though the trees had no leaves on them. We eat the leftover meat and berries from last night, and then pick up our stuff and continue following the tracks, which have dried now.
I have this constant worry that the Careers that passed us before are going to come back this way and kill us, but then after hours of them not coming, I figure out for myself it's safe.
Delly and I walk for only another hour or so before we see something in the distance that amazes me.
It's a house. In the middle of the forest. It's the size of a townhouse and it looks as if it's literally been ripped from the block of townhouses it was part of and place right here in the forest. There are steps leading up to its door and there are four windows on the front side, two on the bottom and two on the top, one more if you include the small window on the front door.
I stare at the house for a while until Delly pulls me aside.
"What?" I snap at her. I'm too interested in the house.
"What if there are other Careers in there?" I come to my senses and realize she's right. I just stare at her so she speaks again.
"Let's go see if we can find food for now and at night when they leave to find other tributes, we can sneak in and see what's inside." I nod my head at her and we walk past the house, careful to mark where we're walking so we don't lose it.
Through the day I get that stressed feeling again, as if the Careers are still watching me. Delly and I collect berries and squirrel nearby and walk around for the remainder of the day. Delly talks to me and I just nod my head, not really listening to her. I'm paranoid. There are nine of us left and Delly and I are meandering near a Career headquarters. There's no way this can be safe. I can't even fathom how Delly can be so resilient to the fear of death. It's apparent to her that these Games are no joke yet she toys with death anyway. Maybe she knows she's bound to die and decides to just do what she can? I have no idea.
I also think about Billee. It's been a while since I've thought of him, but I have this longing to find him. He hasn't died yet, so he's definitely doing well. But then again maybe he's recently injured and will die before tomorrow. Just thinking about the possible scenarios scares me. I care so much about Billee and even though I don't show it too often, I really have a heart for him. If anything were to happen to him without me there to help, I'd feel so ashamed. My mind resorts back to the day of the Bloodbath. I left him there. He was in need, getting beat up, and I left him. Selfish. Selfish. Selfish. That's my name, don't wear it out.
At the end of the day we have tons of food to last us a while. We wait in a nearby bush with a vantage point of the house. By nightfall we discover the house has lights. Then, we see the two Careers from this morning walk up to the house, unlock the front door, and walk inside. If we have any hopes of getting in, I doubt we'll be able to because the front door requires a key.
For another half hour, we sit waiting. I never have this much patience, but the anxiety is keeping me alert. Finally, Delly and I see four figures emerge from the house. One of them is holding a lantern that swings around in their hands. Once they get far enough, Delly and I approach the house.
The first thing I catch is that the porch is made of wood. Our footsteps make a thumping sound as we clobber up the steps. I yank on the doorknob but nothing happens. It's locked.
"Well now what?" I ask Delly. She looks at me and then looks up at the house. She runs down the stairs and onto the grass, only to look back up again.
"There." She points. There's a circular attic window with those weird panels on it. In front of it is part of the roof, which has a very shallow slant.
"By the looks of it this place is really old, so we'll be able to break through the wood easily."
"But how do we even get up there?" I ask her. I feel like I always limit her. There's always a question from my mouth. Why can't I just trust her?
"Well, you see…" she walks to the side of the stairs where one of the four windows is. "We have the windowsills." I look and I see what she's talking about. The windowsill of the first window can help us get to the windowsill of the window above it. That windowsill is close enough to the roof, which then takes us to the attic window. It sounds much more complicated in my head than it really is.
Delly takes the first few climbs and gets up with no difficulty. I follow behind her and find it to be a little more challenging but I make sure to be careful because I don't want to look like an idiot. Finally, we're both on the roof in front of the round window.
I take my knife out and stab at the wood. It falls apart like tissue paper, as if its been rotting for years. We both climb into the attic and find that there's no light. The two of us continuously bump into furniture, as if nothing has been moved around. Everything is just placed wherever in this attic, just like how every other attic in the world is. However, it's easy to find the door to the house because of the light streaming through the crack beneath the door. We walk down a few steps to the door, Delly opens it, taking the lead once more, and there's a short hallway and then an immediate right turn. We walk to the turn and find an open room with two adjacent walls filled with doors. Delly and I look through each of the rooms but find only beds and sheets. There are no weapons upstairs.
We take the staircase down. The steps lead down half way and then make a right. There's no way to see the downstairs from the staircase, as the staircase is lined with walls. Once downstairs, we find ourselves in yet another hallway. The downstairs is very basic. Looking left, you can see the two bottom windows at the front of the house account for two separate rooms next to the front door. Looking right, the hallway continues to a backdoor and a room at the left end. First, Delly and I make a trip to the room on the right of the front door. What we see is astonishing.
The walls of this room are lined up with weapons and supplies, all from the Cornucopia. There's hundreds of swords and bows and extra arrows, ropes and bags and food and even dynamite, all strewn across the room as if they were unimportant. Delly walks in and immediately grabs a new bow and adds some arrows to her quiver. I approach her quickly.
"No, wait, what are you doing?" I ask her, grabbing her arm so she can't take anymore. "They're gonna notice."
"Do you really think they count all of this?" she asks, gesturing the rest of the supplies in the room.
"I guess you're right." My voice softens when I realize I'm being annoying.
"Well go on. Take something for yourself."
I scan the room once more and find nothing. There's nothing I really want, anyway. I have my knife. But then I remember the throwing knives. Unless another tribute has them, I'm bound to find them here. I look around, stepping through piles of junk until I find them in the corner of the room.
Three clips of ten throwing knives each. They seem untouched and dusty, so I take all three of them. I have Delly help me attach them to my belt. Now, when I walk, all I can hear is the jingling of the throwing knives. The sound makes me feel protected, as if I have some advantage over the others finally. I'm no longer refined to one knife. I have many.
I stand tall and proud before I hear a noise that brings me back to my anxiety.
The Careers are coming back.
Not only can you hear them laughing and running around, but you can see their lanterns shining and shaking through the window.
I duck down and Delly follows suit out of instinct.
"They're coming back." I whisper to her. She points to the stairs.
I grab my bag and we both crawl out of the room and into the hall, where we take the stairs to the second floor. We go right to the hallway that leads to the attic and then we reach another problem.
"The door's locked." Delly whispers to me. I think about the situation and come up with a reply.
"It must be locked from this side." I say, staring straight ahead. No wonder the attic seemed to be untouched. They couldn't even get in there in the first place.
Delly looks at me and opens her mouth, about to say something, but then we hear the front door open with a click of the unlocking lock.
Immediately I hear a laugh that sends a pain in my chest. A girly, flirtatious laugh that I can only identify as Portia's.
"No, stop it! Please, you wouldn't do that!" she laughs, mid-conversation.
"Hey, you never know." Is the reply from Munstead. Portia laughs again. I want to snap her neck and rip out her stupid ponytail.
"Hey, Jaymes, go get us some food." Portia says a bit too loud. She's practically shouting.
"No, you know what guys, I'm tired." Jaymes says. He seems disconnected from their group even with this one sentence.
"Oh, come on, what are you? Two years old?" I hear from a fourth voice. It's presumably Teena. I don't remember her voice well enough connect it to the interviews, but since Jaymes is here it would only make sense Teena is too.
"Shut up." Jaymes says. He begins to audibly stomp up the stairs. The three other Careers downstairs boo him and then laugh hysterically. I can hear Jaymes slam his door shut when he gets upstairs.
Delly and I sit for a minute longer before Munstead suggests that they all go eat, and we hear the three tributes shuffle over to the back of the house and probably into the kitchen. Now's our chance.
"We have to go. Now." Delly says to me. Clearly she has the same idea.
We speed walk around the corner of the hallway and begin to tiptoe down the stairs. I look to the right at the bottom of the steps and can hear the other Careers laughing in the kitchen. They have no idea the two of us are even intruding in their house.
Delly and I turn left and reach for the door. Delly, on my left, twists and turns the knob, pushing and pulling the door.
"It won't budge." She whispers to me.
"It must lock from the inside too." I don't know how this could possibly work, locking from both the outside and the inside, but it does.
Before Delly can say another word to me, we are interrupted by a voice coming from the top of the stairs.
"What are you doing here?" Jaymes asks. He is genuinely confused. We stand there for a second, staring at each other, but I pull a fast one on him. I yank one of the thirty knives I have strung around my belt and I chuck it at him. With a lucky shot, the knife plants itself firmly in the middle of his forehead, and he slumps forward only to fall clumsily down the stairs. As his body hits the last few steps, I can just barely make out the sound of the canon booming outside.
Now everyone knows Delly and I are here.
Almost instantly, I hear the screeching of chair legs against the floor, and I see Portia, Munstead, and Teena appear at the opposite end of the hallway from the kitchen. We all stand in a moment of shock but then we quickly switch to action.
Munstead and Teena start to walk towards us, knives in their hands, but Portia grabs their shoulders.
"Stand in front of me." She says to them. Then, she pulls her bow off from her shoulder and lines up an arrow. Aiming between Munstead and Teena, she quickly releases the string and the arrow wisps past my face and lands with a thud in the wall next to me. I start to panic. I pull a knife off from my belt and chuck it at them. Teena jerks her head to the side and narrowly misses my knife, which also plants itself into the wall. Now, more bows are flying at Delly and me. I need to think fast. I take a short glance at the door and know what to do.
"Delly," I say, taking aim and throwing another knife. "Find something to break through the window on the door, quickly." She runs into the room on my right and stays there for a while. Portia and I consistently return arrows and knives, each missing each other by inches. Then, I score one.
It lands in Munstead's shoulder. He screams and pulls the knife out from his flesh. His shoulder immediately bleeds with no signs of stopping. He grabs it in pain and steps to the side and Portia yells at him.
"NO! Get back in front of me!" He obeys her. One second she's flirting with him, the next she's ordering him around.
I throw one more knife and then Delly comes back to me from the room, with a big flowerpot in her arms.
"Move, move, move, move, move." She tells me. I shift to my left and she swings the flowerpot at the window. The window shatters into a million pieces all around us. Portia releases another arrow and I swiftly throw another knife. I miss them, but it doesn't matter. Delly lifts my butt up as I climb through the broken window. Portia and her team keep their distance, but continue with the arrows. One just misses Delly.
Delly puts her hands in mine and begins to climb out the window. She barely has her left leg out before she screams in agony. The rest of her body falls on me, and as we collapse onto the wooden porch, I can see a long arrow sticking out of the right side of her stomach.
I hear Portia signal her group to begin advancing to us, so I get Delly together. She screams persistently and lies on the porch, but I usher her on.
"No, you're not gonna do this, we have to go now." I lift her up and look at Portia's face, which is staring at me right through the broken window. She struggles with her key to unlock the door rather than climbing through the window, so Delly and I get a head start at running. Delly groans loudly in pain and I get stern with her.
"Don't do that. Not now at least. Wait until we hide far away enough and then let it all out." She listens to me and shuts up. The arrow still sticks out of her, moving rhythmically with her body and muscles as we run. Soon enough, I begin to hear Portia and Teena screaming for us, threatening to kill us and slaughter us. I ignore their cries and practically drag Delly along with me until almost half an hour passes, and the Career's screams fade. The two of us seek refuge between some large boulders we come across.
Delly immediately cries. She cups her hands around the arrow that still sticks out of her stomach.
"Okay, let me see, let me see." I tell her. She shakily moves her hands away and I see how deep the arrow is in. I can guess about two inches just by looking at it. Portia can send a sharp arrow.
"Were gonna pull it out, okay?" I tell Delly. She shakes her head no but I shake mine yes.
"Here," I say, grabbing a branch from the ground. "Bite on this when I pull it out, on the count to three."
She looks at me with so much pain in her eyes. She's scared and truthfully I'm scared too. I'm afraid to hurt her but it's the only option. We can't just leave an arrow sticking out of her. I take a deep breath.
"Alright. Ready? One… two… THREE." I say and pull as hard as I can on 'three.'
Delly screams at the top of her lungs. I throw the arrow to the side and with my right hand I cup her mouth shut so her screams aren't audible, and with my left hand I cover her wound. I feel her warm, sticky blood pour all about my palm and I know it's serious. I start to shake and I see little bits of blood seep out from underneath my hand. I try to keep my stomach closed so I don't vomit. I'm not good with blood, so I'm already pushing my limits.
I remove my right hand from Delly's mouth and she sits there and cries. I look around for Delly's book bag with the medicines but I don't even see her bag at all.
As she gasps for air from the amount of crying she's done, I ask her a question.
"Where's your bag?"
She squeezes her eyes shut and more tears flow out. She begins to cry more.
"Still in their house." She manages to say. She must have left it. That would be okay had she not been severely injured. I almost want to blame her but I don't, because it was a spur of the moment kind of thing. I was lucky to remember my bag.
"Uh… that's okay, don't worry." I reassure her. But it's not okay. I have this doubt hovering in my mind of her survival. I want her to live so badly but an arrow punctured two inches into her stomach won't do her any justice. I remove the water I had in my book bag and pour it on her wound. She grits her teeth and takes a deep breath, trying hard to keep her voice down. Then, I pull out the blanket I had in my bag and tie it tightly around Delly. I hope that this will keep pressure on it and stop the bleeding, but I still have doubts of its success.
"We need to rest now, alright?" I tell her.
"Can you hold me?" she asks. There's something gross about holding someone with a gaping hole in his or her side, but then again she's only 12 and she's in pain.
"Of course."
As we lay down in the grass, the anthem starts blasting and the two of us jump at the same time. I've lost track of time, clearly. After the anthem, Jaymes's face is revealed. Then, nothing. The stars shine bright and the crickets chirp. Delly keeps up this constant shaking and I get afraid each time. Afraid of losing her. Afraid of losing it all.