Day 10 of the Hunger Games

The next morning, I awoke to a bird chirping in my ear. Startled, I sat up, and shooed it away. I watched as the sun rose above the horizon on day ten in the arena. Five of us are left, that means very soon, the Careers will start to turn on each other. The thought crossed my mind again. Only five of us left. Bran being one of them. I can't kill him. There is no way in hell this is going to end well. The hatred for the Capital swelled up in me. For making me a monster.

I turned my head and I saw Bran, he was awake.

"Morning," He said, without enthusiasm.

As if he was thinking the same thing I was.

I shifted and packed my stuff up, then held out my hand to Bran.

"Give me your water bottle," I said. "I'm going to get more water,"

"Well good morning to you too," Bran replied, with a half-smile and I returned it.

Bran packed up his bag as well and retrieved his bottle, but slung it over his own shoulder rather than hand it to me.

"I'm coming with you," Bran stated.

We hiked for perhaps half an hour, staying clear of the areas in which we thoughts mutts might be, and stealthily retrieved water, keeping watch all the while. After we filled the bottles and added the iodine, we headed back, still treading carefully, but it was coming quite clear we had no idea where we are going.

"We're lost, aren't we?" I asked, but it was more of a statement.

My voice disturbed the silence like a pebble dropped into a lake.

Bran exchanged glances with me, unwilling to admit that we were lost. As in, we couldn't find the tree we marked again. Somewhere, we must have made a wrong turn. The only path that was available was the one that we were on now. We didn't really have much choice but to follow this path since the thicket was far too thick to travel though without having your clothes ripped to shreds. I doubted that it led back to camp but since we had most of our useful supplies on us, it wasn't too much of a big deal. What was worrying was the fact that we didn't knew what was waiting for us. Then again, you never knew what might happen here.

"We can't actually get lost here," Bran pointed out. "In case you've forgotten, we're in the arena. And I'm pretty sure that if the Gamemakers don't want us to return to our camp, then we're not returning to camp,"

"You're right, how I could forget," I stated, thinking about how Publius split us up.

"Come on," Bran said, and started walking and I followed him.

I zoned out as we walked. I wonder who everyone in the Capitol is betting on right now? One of the Careers, the strong, charming boy from District 9, or me the girl with the knives? I was brought out of my trance when I ran into the back of Bran when he stopped abruptly.

"Paige , climb up that tree now," Bran said suddenly.

When he said he did not look at me and only nodded at a tall tree to my right.

"What? Why?" I asked curiously.

"Do it!" Bran commanded.

Instead of fighting him, I started to walking towards the tree.

"Bran, I don't see how this is going to help us," I said confused.

Bran turned to face me, looking me straight in my eyes, "Paige . Trust me. I have a plan, okay?" Bran stated reassuringly.

I looked at him, questioningly, but nodded and I jogged to the tree, starting to climb it that's when I first them, the bird calls. I'm up on the first main branch before the bird calls are loud enough to hear fully. Just as I'm about to ask Bran what the bird call were he answered my question as if he was psychic.

"The birds are here to lead us to each other. When we got split up after the feast, I had run from one and it had led me right to Kai," Bran said, sword drawn and ready.

My pulse was already beating fast and my grip on the tree tensed when the last call sounded. Then out of the woods came someone who, much more that the bird call, made me want to flee further into the forest. Kai was strolling calmly out of the bushes. His brown hair was clean and groomed; his shirt had splashes of blood all over it. He was holding a spiked mace in his right hand and axe in his left, a spiked mace and axe that looked like the one Cavail had.

Is that Cavail's blood? Cavail is not dead because I didn't hear a cannon, that means Kai left him to die a slow painful death. And by the looks of it he made sure that Cavail had a slow death, there would be no way for Cavail to put himself out of his misery.

He stopped when he saw Bran, automatically falling back into a battle stance. A small smile was spreading across his lips. Neither of them moved, each of them waiting for the opportune time to strike. Suddenly, Kai leaped at Bran, mace raised, swinging it through the air. He was faster than Bran expected, and he had barely had time to block the blow when he's using his momentum to swing around and strike again.

He struck at Bran's chest, he blocked and step backwards, but he's already back and aiming at Bran's leg. Bran step to the side, but he was too slow and Kai catches the side of his leg. He cried out as two of the spikes crush into his flesh and barely contained my whimper as I saw Bran wounded. Kai used the force of the blow to roll over through the mud, wrenching the mace out and ending up behind Bran when he swung again.

Bran was entirely on the defensive and hurriedly launched an attack, jabbing blindly at his arm, but he catches it on the handle of his mace and Bran's blade flies up. They stopped for a second, weapons locked, and I looked down at them. There's a wild, hateful look in Kai's eyes, and I know he's enjoying trying to kill Bran.

Bran broke the hold he had on his sword and swung around, ready to win this time.

Bran swung his sword again and again, and this time I was pleased to see that Kai was on the defense; not as much as I would have liked, but Bran definitely was getting his hits in; Bran managed to nick his leg and put a gash on his arm. Bran was careful about not letting Kai hit him. One more blow off that mace and I knew Bran would be crippled.

Bran's foot hit something solid on the ground and he tripped backwards, landing heavily in the mud. Kai was on him in a flash and Bran had to use his entire strength to roll out of the way and get back on his feet. Bran glanced quickly up to the branch where I was; I stared down at him with scared eyes. Bran could not spend enough time to smile at me or comfort me, but seeing me alive up there was enough for him to up his game once again.

Bran's sword was faster than Kai's mace; he had to use more strength than he did to swing his blows, yet Bran had to use more energy to block his.

This went on; Bran dealing a few more minor wound to various parts of Kai's body he had left unguarded, but as time wore on and Bran energy began to wane, I noticed Kai looked a lot less tired than Bran. His groomed hair had a little bit floating out of place now, and he had more blood on his jacket; his this time, but apart from that he was maintain a cool, calm air.

Bran kept fighting, kept attacking, but he wasn't doing so well. I could tell his arms were aching and his leg was starting to really hurt. Then, suddenly, Kai charged forward and swung at him, Bran dodged backwards, expecting him to have aimed for his chest, but he hadn't.

Kai's mace caught his target, and I watched in shock as it connected with Bran's hand. It was flung to the side, caught in the power of the blow, and I could see the bones and flesh crushing and tearing as Bran's sword flew to the side.

They both stopped. I stared at Bran's hand, I was shocked how much it was barely recognizable as a hand. Fresh blood was running down his arm and trailing into the mud in the ground.

Bran's leg betrayed him and he collapsed as he slid to the ground. He used his good hand to clutch his chest, and then looked up at the boy standing over me. He had won. They both knew it. He had disarmed him, and what meant restarting in a training match in the outside world, meant death in the Arena. Bran wasn't doing anything, just sitting there like he had forgotten how to fight.

Why wasn't he moving?

"Bran! Bran, what are you doing? Get up!" I shouted at him.

He looked up at me with worry; I knew that I had just given my location away to Kai, but I didn't care. Why wasn't he fighting, dammit?

I caught his eye, and he just looked at me, with worry etched on his face. He said something, but I couldn't make it out, it was too quiet. Then Kai swung his mace, and I had to watch, my eyes glued open as he struck Bran around the head. There was a sickening cracking sound as it made contact, and I made a horrified choking noise. Bran collapsed to the ground, limp as a doll, and just lay there while fresh blood flowed freely from his head.

"Bran! Bran get up!" I choked out.

Tears were starting to form in my eyes. What had he been thinking? This was all wrong!

BOOM!

Bran's cannon sounded, and I closed my eyes, hoping to wake up from this horrible dream. This couldn't be real, he couldn't be dead, but as I shaking and trying to wake myself up, I realized Kai was still down there and not only that I smelled fire, but not just fire. A burning fire.

I turned around to see the trees behind in a fiery blaze and I looked to see where Kai was, but he was long gone. Just as I said that I heard a shriek. A skin crawling horror scream that is common in the Hunger Games. I heard the sound of a cannon, booming around the arena. This is it this the finale, and I'm the only girl left, a fourteen-year old girl from District 8; going against two eighteen-year olds from Career District's.

A realization dawned upon me.

I am not leaving this arena alive.