Three more cannon blasts make themselves heard over the constant rumble of thousands of pounds of snow crashing in behind us. I'd like to imagine that one of those isn't for Tiana, but the odds aren't in my favour on that, or anything, really.
Cass' steady arms are the only thing keeping me from tumbling off our getaway device as we bound down the mountain, the sliding snowpack hot on our heels. I wonder if these things run out of fuel eventually, like the speedboats back in District Four. That would be the end of us.
As time ticks by I find myself trying to focus my mind on smaller details rather than face the fact that Tiana is gone. The trees that blur together as we pass by. The sky slowly changing from the light blue of midmorning to the almost black-blue of night. The stars that Cass was so focused on just hours ago twinkling in the darkness that surrounds us.
It feels like an eternity later when we finally crash through the treeline and find ourselves at the very bottom of the mountain, where we find our path blocked by a body of water circling the mountain like a moat. The sun is long gone from the fake sky above us and the water below looks dark and dangerous, more like a swamp than the bright crashing waves of home.
"It's not safe to stay down here, don't you think?" Cass questions me.
I frown. True, we're on the lowest ground we could possibly be on, and that's never a good thing in the arena. But still, I have a feeling no one will come for us tonight. "Let's camp here one night. We'll move in the morning." Cass begins to protest, but I cut him off, saying, "We can handle a bit of water, and I have a feeling that no one's going to be moving tonight, so we'll be safe here."
Cass agrees, carefully, seeming to think his next words through slowly. "I think…" he begins carefully. "I think we should head up the mountain, starting tomorrow of course. All the way to the top. I've been wondering…well, we know what's down here, but what about up there?" His words confuse me, because I can tell there's more to it than that, but I don't say anything. I know well enough there are things that you just can't say in the eye of the entire nation.
We pull our packs off the snowmobile and begin to search through, not even bothering to try and be silent. It's not like anything in a five-mile radius doesn't know we're here already anyway. I glance inside my pack and breath of small sigh of relief when I see that everything is exactly where I left it last, with the exception of the added sleeping bag, bundled messily at the top of my bag. I reach backwards and feel the shafts of the two spears and one trident strapped to my back, comforted by their presence. I reach into my pockets and pull out the two extra knives, smiling as Cass does the same. We may have lost our camp and our friend, but we are still alive and well. I count our weapons silently. I have four knives, two in my pack and two in my hands, plus the two spears and my one trident. Cass seems to have another two knives, as well as two swords. Combined, we basically have a whole armoury. I pull the keys out of the snowmobile and smile. I can't think of a thing that could stop us now.
Well, besides the fact that only one of you can live. And, if, that is the case, everyone else must also die. Jayden, Willow, Ash, Spencer…
"Shut up, me!" I growl.
"Uh, come again?" Cass' eyes hold a sort of faked innocence, and I can tell he's trying hard not to laugh.
I shake off the feeling I'm getting of possible doom and decide to enjoy this last moment of happiness, maybe the last one I'll ever get. I comically narrow my eyes at him, whilst slipping my knives back into my pockets and undoing the straps to the spears on my back so they tumble to the ground behind me. When he raises his eyebrows in question, and I pounce forward, tackling him to the ground. He laughs, shrugging his way easily out of my grip and sends us rolling down the hill, laughing hysterically. Our descent ends when splash into the water at the edge of the moat, Cass pinning my down into the muck. I struggle with all that I have, but there's no way to get out of his grip, even while he laughs his head off above me. I finally collapse, signalling my defeat, and he rolls off, smirking at my weakness. Suddenly, the anthem of the Panem starts above and the smiles are wiped from our faces. It's time for the death recap.
"There was four cannons today, right?" He asks, as we stare up at the sky, waiting.
I look back at him, confused. "Four?"
"Yeah, three while we were being chased by the avalanche. But there was one before that, right? Before all this…mess, happened."
I ignore the word "mess", referring to the avalanche and the sure death of my friend and think back to before all this happened. Shine and Gray running off after…a cannon, wasn't it? Yes, we had decided that Titus must be nearby because of it and we needed to catch him.
Well, we did catch him, didn't we? My thoughts begin to turn dark. But I wonder what happened to Shine and Gray…
"You're right." I reply to Cass, finally. "I wonder who it was."
The recap starts then, giving me no chance to prepare before Tiana's hard gaze looks into mine for the last time. Her eyes are stone cold, but somehow, there's a glimpse of a smile behind it all. Amusement. As much as I feel like I knew her, I realized then that I knew nothing of her at all. Did she have a family? Friends? Who's in life back home to put that smile into her stony eyes?
Titus faces flashes across the night sky next, probably shocking every person left in this arena half to death. They have a shot now, they must be thinking. Who's left anyway? Ten of us, maybe? I ask my question to Cass who quickly confirms my guess, eyes still on our old enemy. I wonder who's left, and who the last two cannons today were for. The answer comes to me next, sending me into my own shock, when Spencer's face shines into the night sky. Cass's arms wrap around me quickly, trying to comfort me before I do anything drastic, but it's too late. I break out of his grip, and sprint up the mountain, smashing in the trees, branches, whatever, I don't care, I can't feel it at all. I collapse into a clearing sometime later and I get the sense that someone is following me. I turn into the person's arms, directly behind me, and attack them with all I have. My mind goes into autopilot. Punch, kick, turn, roll behind, roundhouse kick, block…The block throws me off, because I then realize they are not fighting back, there's nothing to block at all. I fall forwards and the person catches me, picking me up bridal-style and beginning to carry me back the way I came. Somewhere in the back of my still sane mind, I remember not wanting to go that way…something happened there that was bad. I pummel the person's shoulder weakly, but they are strong, and I have nothing left. I can faintly hear someone crying and screaming, and I get the feeling the person might be me. My carrier suddenly begins to lower me onto the ground and I feel something warm wrap around me, but the noise in my head and in my heart hasn't stopped, and I begin to struggle again. Above it all, I hear a sigh, someone whispers "Sorry, Alexis" and then there's a SMACK! sound, resonating loud through everything. Then nothing.
THE FALLEN (CHANGES IN CAPS)
TIANA, DISTRICT TWO FEMALE, KILLED BY AVALANCHE/TITUS (D6) ON DAY FIVE
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
TITUS, DISTRICT SIX MALE, KILLED BY AVALANCHE/TIANA (D2) ON DAY FIVE
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
SPENCER, DISTRICT NINE MALE, KILLED BY TITUS (D6) ON DAY FIVE
AVERY, DISTRICT TEN FEMALE, KILLED BY AVALANCHE ON DAY FIVE
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
Camille, District Twelve Female killed by Titus (D6) on DAY TWO
Total: 14, 10 Remaining
(And those remaining are...)
Shine D1
Gray D1
Jayden D3
Cassius D4
Alexis D4
Willow D7
Ash D7
Jasmine D8
Aaron D11
Damien D12
Thank you for sticking with this slowly updated story until here! I promise again, that though the updates may be slow I will never abandon this story before the end. Just to RECAP what happened in this chapter, in case there was some confusion, Cassius and Alexis rode off on the snowmobile to get away from the avalanche that would destroy the Career Camp. They make camp at the bottom of the mountain, where they find at moat of water all the way around. They agree to camp here for one night then begin to travel all the way up the mountain starting the next morning. They find that they still, to their relief, have all their supplies and weapons (minus the tents) and play-fight for a bit before the death recap starts. Tiana, then Titus, then Spencer is shown, after which Avery will be shown but they are no longer watching because the sight of her friend's face in the sky sends Alexis into hysterics. She runs around, screaming and crying until Cass carries her back to camp and knocks her out.
And in case there was any confusion about Spencer's death, his was the cannon that the Careers heard in the last chapter which sent Shine and Gray looking out for Titus. It was, in fact, Titus that killed him, but Shine and Gray never found Titus because he ran off towards the Career Camp after his next victim, Avery.
Ten tributes are left, who will survive?
P.S. "I Must Go In, The Fog is Rising" is actually a reference to last words, as those were Emily Dickinson's last words. As for their meaning in this story, though perhaps not the way Emily Dickinson meant them, they are referencing Alexis' reaction at the end of the chapter, as the fog rising is not the literal fog of the mountain, but the fog in her mind.