Chapter Twenty-One - And We All Fall Down
It takes all my focus not to fall asleep on my shift, but I make it to sunrise and can finally wake up everyone else. We all eat breakfast quietly, a mix of different canned fruits we found in the Cornucopia. As I eat, I wonder what my friends are doing now. Did they get any food in their backpacks? Water? Weapons? I hope they're okay.
Yeah, the pessimistic side of me says. speaking of that…
I sigh. As much as they are truly my friends, we can't all get out of here. Actually, none of us might get out of here. One, at best. As I look around my camp, I realize that I might have to kill some of the people standing in front of me to help my friends. If I want to get home, they all have to die.
I look over at the one friend I have here. Cassius. There has to be a way to get us both out of here, with as many of my friends as I can at the same time. There has to.
I look up the mountain side, wondering if, like my problems, it ever ends. It sure doesn't seem to. I look as far as I can, but a misty fog thickens around the mountain about 5 kilometres up. I wonder what's up there, and what horrors the rest of this mountain holds.
Suddenly, a piercing scream cuts through the silence. The Careers jump to their feet, readying their weapons. When the sound is followed by silence, we all look at each other, confused. What just happened? I'm about to settle back down in front of my tent when I hear the scream again, and a girl's terrified yells cut across the clearing.
"Please, no! Why? I'm your district partner!"
I raise my eyebrows to the others. "District partner?" I ask.
Tiana nods. "Which districts are left? Besides One and Four, obviously."
Cassius begins counting them off on his fingertips. "Not many. There's Twelve…"
"Seven." Shine put in with an evil glint in her eye I didn't like.
"And Six." Gray finished to a silent. "It must be Six."
There's a long pause, followed by another scream from the girl we've now decided to be Kya of Six. It's coming from our right, by maybe a kilometre.
"If Titus is that close, I'm going to go get him." Tiana swallows, then pulls two knives from the holsters on her belt.
Shine gives me a half smile, half smirk and says, "Alexis, why don't you go with her? You're our resident killer, after all."
I tense. I know Shine's winding me up on purpose, but she's doing it well. I take a breath, and get my anger in check.
"Sure. Let's go." I say, avoiding Shine's stare. I grab a trident and strap an extra spear to my back, as well as taking my two knives in my belt and, of course, I still have the snowmobile keys. I should keep them with me, but that's not for now.
Tiana and I run as quietly as can. Kya must have climbed a tree or something to keep out of Titus' reach because her screaming continues. I don't know why she keeps doing that, it's the only reason we're going to be able to find them though.
A thought occurs to me, and I nearly stop running. If Kya knows how close they are to the Careers' camp, maybe she's screaming on purpose, getting us to come and take down Titus while she makes a run for it. If so, it's a smart, though desperate plan.
I can hear that we're very close to the screams when we burst into a small clearing. Kya is clinging to the branch of a pine about fifteen feet up. Maybe she's too scared to go further, for fear of falling into what was below her. Titus, with his sword pointing straight up. If he could jump any higher, she'd by gone by now. Titus hasn't seen us yet, but Kya has. Her eyes bug out wide in terror at the appearance of more, much stronger enemies and she goes silent in fear.
I'm not sure what the plan was supposed to be exactly, but with one look at Tiana I know that this is a kill she wants. Not that I'm going to argue with that, of course. I already have three more of those than I ever wanted. I suddenly remember that Titus was the one who killed Demetri at the bloodbath. Tiana must have known him well before the Games. By the look in her eyes and the silent tears coming down her face, I'm guessing I'm right about that.
Tiana begins to creep towards Titus, whose yelling angry gibberish at Kya, whose holding on for dear life in her tree. She's actually circled past him, making Titus closer to me than Tiana is, which is not something I appreciate. Tiana pulls a knife from her belt as silently as she can, but it makes a scratching sound on the way out of her holster. Titus whips around, sword flying through the air and Tiana makes a wild roll backwards to get out of the way.
Titus is about to advance of her, when I hear a loud crack resonate through the ground. We all look up, confused, and a small tremor passes through my body. As Titus turns back towards my ally, several things happen at once. The ground gives a louder snapping sound and a jagged line appears in the ground, separating me and Kya from Titus and Tiana. A moment's silence passes through the forest, then the crack in the ground widens and Kya's tree drops sideways, sending her tumbling towards the widening crack in the ground. I don't even have a moment to yell to Tiana before the snow in front of me begins to fall away and we all begin to slide towards the new chasm in the ground at an alarming rate.
I scramble backwards like a crab, then flip back up onto my feet. Kya's tree is now acting as a bridge along a several foot wide chasm. It's not too big yet, maybe five feet, but its still growing. Kya's screams cut through the noise of the very ground beneath falling away as she hangs onto desperately to her branch with one hand, dangling above the middle of the chasm. I can't see what lies at the bottom, but I'm sure it's certain death. I hear a roar of anger on the other side of the gap, and I'm glad to see the one good thing that has come out of this; Titus has been pinned underneath the tree, acting almost as an anchor for Kya, as she begins to delicately swing her way across the chasm towards my side. Understandably, she's decided going against one Career is better than one Career and the guy that just tried to kill you and nearly succeeded, but she's having some trouble finding good branches to get her across, so I'm guessing I have some time. Titus begins to struggle his way out of the tree branches, but Tiana throws a knife into the tree and another roar of pain comes from the bush. The ground has levelled out again, and on the other side, Tiana jumps up and runs to the edge, putting as much distance between her and Titus as possible. We both observe the chasm carefully, in case the Gamemakers aren't done just yet. The ground no longer sliding, but the chasm isn't done widening, it's slowly inching backwards, now putting about six feet between me and Tiana. It's only a matter of time before she'll have no chance of jumping the gap.
"Jump." I tell her softly.
"What?!" the look in her eyes tells me just how crazy she thinks I am right now.
"Camp is on this side, Titus is on that one. Take your pick." I counter, raising my eyebrows.
She looks around, taking in her surroundings, then says, "Get out of the way, quick."
I move to the side as she backs up, then takes a running jump at the chasm. And in that same moment, the ground beneath us jerks apart, too quickly, jumping back about three feet and leaving Tiana falling into the darkness.
As if in slow motion, I meet her eyes and see the sudden terror that has replaced her usually calm personality. Her jump falls just short and she slams into the side of the chasm, letting out a cry of pain. Somehow, during the chaos, she manages to grab hold of a ledge about four feet down. Not that far down, but way out of arm's reach.
"Alexis!" she cries.
I quickly take in my surroundings, for anything that might be of some use, and my eyes latch onto a nice, long tree branch hanging from Kya's tree, which is now balanced precariously on either side of the chasm. I feel awful for leaving Kya to fend for herself, but I don't really have a choice now. I run to the tree and begin hacking the branch off with one of the knives from my belt, and nice, strong, longer one, with a serrated part close to the hilt. The branch comes off just as the tree finally gives way and falls into the darkness, silent except for the screams of the girl from Six.
I run back to Tiana as the girl's cannon sounds through the arena, telling us she's gone for good. Titus escaped his leafy prison when the tree fell down, but miraculously decided to run off into the forested area, probably to find his sword. I hurry up, worried he might come back and take us both out while I'm helping Tiana.
I thrust my branch down at her and lean into the chasm as far as I dare. Once I feel the weigh of the branch significantly increase, I slide backwards, carefully pulling the branch up slowly until I finally see her hands scramble back onto land that is not threatening to kill her. Well, land that is not threatening to kill at this instant. Her left shoulder is bloody and a bit bruised, probably from hitting the chasm wall so hard, but otherwise she looks okay, if not a bit shaken up.
"Your shoulder okay?"
She nods gruffly, turning away from me. "Fine. Thanks." I guess her needing help is a bit of a sore point on the Career's pride, but I won't dwell on that now. I can't, actually, but a new problem faces us at that instant. Yells, coming from the direction of camp. I'm sure it's Shine and Gray that are yelling, but I'm not worried about them. One look to Tiana, and I begin to sprint back to camp with only one thought in my mind, saving Cassius.
RECAP:
THE FALLEN
Demetri, District Two Male, killed by Titus (D6) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Pascale, District Three Female, killed by Gray (D1) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Jane, District Five Female, killed by Alexis (D4) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Darryn, District Five Male, killed by Cara (D11) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Kya, District Six Female, killed by Gamemakers' chasm on DAY TWO
Nico, District Eight Male, killed by Shine (D1) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Heather, District Nine Female, killed by Shine (D1) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Blake, District Ten Male, killed by Alexis (D4) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Cara, District Eleven Female, killed by Alexis (D4) in the Bloodbath on DAY ONE
Total: 8 - BB, 1 on Day Two (so far), 15 Remaining
(And those remaining are...)
Shine D1
Gray D1
Tiana D2
Jayden D3
Cassius D4
Alexis D4
Titus D6
Willow D7
Ash D7
Jasmine D8
Spencer D9
Avery D10
Aaron D11
Damien D12
Camille D12