I wander around the huts for a while. But eventually I realize I'm doing circles around Peter's hut.
I peer into the hut and see Peter sitting on the ground with the chains around his hands. He has some sort of little wooden pole in his left hand that he appears to be trying to pick open the handcuffs with.
"You know Hagger's only gonna make them tighter if you do that," I say, not revealing myself. But I can guess that he knows it's me.
"You still scared of me?" he says as he continues picking at the lock.
"I was never scared of you," I say dismissively, proving it by flinging open the flap and standing inches away from him.
"Ya, okay, sure," he says, obviously remembering how I stumbled away from him the last time I saw him.
"You've never given me a reason to be afraid of you until you tried to killed Jason with that knife," I say.
I hear Hagger moving boxes around outside of the hut. He's coming in to check on Peter. I realize how bad still talking to Peter could make me look after all of this, as well as being in the same room as him.
I duck behind his towels, which are hanging against the wall.
Hagger opens Peter's hut's flap, and I hear the sound of metal clanking against the sandy dirt floor.
I peer out from behind the towels and see a small metal plate with a piece of bread that appears to have gone stale days ago along with a few apple slices.
"I'm not going to pretend you're not here, Sophie," Peter says grabbing an apple slice and popping it into his mouth.
"I never expected you to..." I say, throwing one of the towels down onto the ground and then walking out of the hut while Hagger throws me questioning looks.
I stomp down to the beach furiously.
As I near the ocean I catch a glimpse of a big gray and blue blob far out in the waves, miles from shore. It's a whale. I almost smile, then remind myself I'm mad at Peter and throw myself down on the sand.
"Stop expecting him to go back to being 'Nice Peter.' He's never going to be 'Nice Peter' again. It was an act," Hagger says, coming up behind me and sitting down on the sand.
"I don't care," I say, staring at the beautiful white belly of the whale as he rolls over with the morning sun making him look as if he's glowing.
"I...," Hagger says as if he's about to start a long, important speech.
"Hagger, don't. I know he's not 'Nice Peter.' I know he's never going to be on our side, whatever that means. I know all that. But all those chains are doing is making it worse. Are you really prepared to kill him? Because it's either kill him or let him live in that hut with those chains for the rest of his life. We have to stop being afraid of him. He's stuck here, just like the rest of us. So why can't we just take our chances and let him go? If he wants to wander off into the jungle, then let him. But he should be given the opportunity to do something other than be chained to the ground for the rest of his life," I say, standing up. I shake the sand off the back of my legs and walk back to the huts.
"He probably has more knives hidden somewhere," Hagger says.
I walk off ignoring him, trying to find some way to fix this.
I go over to my hut and find Courtney sitting with Eli, weaving pieces of long grass together to make a little man holding a grass hammer.
"This is... Carson the Construction man," she says, handing Eli the toy.
"Carbon the conmunction man!" Eli shrieks, running around the hut making Carson the construction man climb the wall.
"Close enough," Courtney shrugs, turning around, noticing me in the doorway.
"Hi," I say.
"Hey. Your dad and my mom kinda went to go fix our roof. He asked me to watch your brother. He's so sweet, I've always wished I had a younger brother or sister," she says.
"It isn't all fun and games. When he was born, the first thing I got to do for him was change his diaper. Sure, that was fun the first time, but after that..." I pretend to shiver at the memory.
Courtney laughs. Her laugh is so pretty I think to myself. Sometimes I wonder if when she was in school if she was that kid that everyone wanted to know. The one that everyone fought to partner up with for class assignments. The person that always got chosen first for sports games just because she was popular.
"Oh! Speaking of diaper changes!" I say, pinching my nose.
"Gross!" she says, waving her hand in front of her nose.
I grab Eli and change his diaper, tossing the old one in the waste basket and wrapping it in moss to dispose of in the jungle.
"You're a natural," Courtney teases.
"Lots of practice," I say laughing.
I put Eli back on the sandy ground and hand him back his "Carbon the conmunction man" toy.
"He should probably take a nap before it gets too late. Otherwise he won't sleep through the night," I say grabbing his blanket from the ground and shaking all the sand off.
"Ok, I'll go see if they need some help with the roof," she says, letting the hut flap fall back into its place as she walks away into the camp.
"Come on Eli, time to take a nappie," I say, laying the blanket out on the ground to sit on top of since the tropical heat from the island really makes it too hot to be underneath a blanket.
"Play morrree!" he says, jumping off the blanket.
"Eli. Nap. Now," I say.
He hurries back next to me on the blanket and shuts his eyes.
His head leans onto my lap, and he drifts off to sleep.
"Sweet dreams Eli," I say kissing his head.
I wake up to the sound of a fish slapping against the table in our hut.
"Sorry, I was trying to be quiet," Jason says, scooting the fish to the center of the table.
"It's fine, I didn't mean to fall asleep in the first place," I say.
Eli's hand reaches out to find me, and he realizes I've stood up. His eyes open in alarm.
"Sophieee..." he says sleepily.
"Did he have a nap?" My dad asks walking in from the fire-pit.
"Ya," I say, wrapping some towels up in a big bunch and placing them in the corner of the hut.
Jason walks out of the hut and I follow him.
"You aren't here because of fish are you?" I say following him along the beach.
"Maybe not... Hagger said-" he begins.
"I don't need a babysitter! I can take care of Peter on my own! I don't need you or Hagger's help!" I say, quickening my pace.
I notice we're near the large tree where I used to come for apples, and I grab hold of the trunk and begin to climb.
"Sophie, I never said you needed a babysitter! Hagger was worried about you! I wasn't going to- I didn't mean to act like I was in charge of you," he says following me up the tree.
He wobbles a bit when we get to the short, thin branches, but he keeps following me.
"Leave me alone," I say, expecting him to climb back down to the bottom.
"Do you really want that?" he asks.
"Yes, now leave me alone!" I say again going higher.
"Okay..." he says jumping off the tree into the water below.
Not that I care, but I notice that his head doesn't pop up for a while. Then almost a minute passes. I can't stand it anymore and jump down after him.
As soon as I surface, Jason's head comes up after me.
"You... You tricked me! You held your breath just so I would come down!" I scream at him over the sound of water rolling onto the beach.
"It appears I did," he answers with a huge grin on his face.
I glare back at him angrily.
I swim back to shore and run back to the huts, slowing to a walk once I get near enough that I'm bumping into people.
I walk right up to Hagger's hut and rip open the flap to find him napping.
"Hagger! Wake up!" I yell.
"Wha- It's time to eat some pie...I wanted the last pee-piece!" he says as he wakes up.
"Where's the key," I say.
"The key to what!" he says, rubbing his eyes.
"The key to Peter's handcuffs! Where is it!" I yell, looking through his clothes.
"Why do you want it!" he yells back, standing up.
"He's not your problem! He's mine!" I hiss.
After looking at me a long time, Hagger leaves his hut and walks over to Peter's. I follow him as he enters the hut, reaching into his pocket and unlocking the handcuffs with a key.
"There! But when he attacks you and Jason again, it ain't my fault!" he says, "And someone other than you and Jason has to be ummm... guarding him, ya, guarding him at all times," he says, still half asleep.
I'm somewhere between confused and overjoyed because Hagger has finally done what I've been asking for since he put Peter in those terrible metal claws.
"I'll watch him first... Sophie. Be a dear and tell Jason, your friend is free, will you?" he says, taking a sip of water from his bottle.
Peter looks just as confused and overjoyed as I am, but still not like he used to. There's a kind of hateful look in his eyes that he was hiding all this time that I fear will never go away.
I leave the hut, trying to decide what I'm supposed to do next.
I'm still mad at Jason. He can find out about Peter later.
I don't know what to do, and my thoughts become jumbled as I walk off into the jungle for a reason I can't quite think of. I keep walking off in different directions, trying to go back..? No, I'm not trying to go back.. I'm trying to... to... I don't know where I'm going, but as it grows darker, I keep moving forward.
All the sudden, I jolt backwards as if on cue. There's a pinching feeling on my foot, but when I rip my sock off I find nothing except the mark the nail on that stinger house left... when I was in the arena... I try to tell myself to turn around, but when I do, I'm in an unfamiliar place. Then I feel a burning sensation on my back and turn to see a volcano. When I step forward, it's no longer there.
My thoughts keep blurring in and out of reality as I see Crystal fall into a dent with lava in the bottom. I reach forward to catch her.
I watch as she mouths the words I hadn't caught the first time and realize what she had said.
"Don't trust them," I hear her voice repeating inside my head.
It feels like I listen to the words for hours, when in reality they only repeat for a few minutes as I digest what she was trying to communicate to me.
Don't trust who!?
"Don't trust who!?" I yell to the trees around me.
I crawl over to a tree trunk and run my finger along the rough bark.
Before I know it, I'm up on a branch almost twenty feet in the air.
I watch as Crystal leaps from branch to branch, leaving me behind in the jungle. I leap forward to follow her, only to find no branch below me.
I fall for just a second, but it's long enough to realize that branch was more than just twenty feet up, it was more like twenty-six.
I hit the ground with the back of my heel and fall backward onto the ground.
The plants around me rotate until I feel like I'm gonna throw up. Then I squeeze my eyes shut. My back feels crushed, my feet are tingling... I don't try to move. I squeeze my eyes shut tighter.
I wake up to the smell of burning leaves, but when I open my eyes, there's just darkness. I can't see a thing. I move my head to the side. Eventually I can see, but...it's blurry.
"Morning," a voice says. I know the person, but I still can't think clearly as I try desperately to focus on the face.
There's the sound of sparks flying around a crackling fire, but I can't see it.
My eyes go in and out of focus as I try to sit up, but I'm pushed back down by a pair of hands.
"Sophie, stay down. It's okay, just me," The voice says again.
Who's me?! I try to form words, but am only answered by silence. I'm finally able to focus on a leaf, though it's blurry.
"Who is me...?" I say, hoping that whoever is here is listening, because I question my ability to speak again.
"Sophie, just stay here." The voice fades as the person stands up and walks away into the jungle.
I fall back to sleep and wake again to the blurry face, though this time I can make out a few details... The person has a brown shirt on, or maybe it's a white shirt that's muddy...
"Who's me?" I ask again.
"It's Jason, Sophie, can you hear me?" he says.
I hear him talking, but once again I fall to sleep not knowing what's going on. I'm more confused than ever.
I see a golden horn. The cornucopia. There's a bow sitting there. It's the only weapon.
Then Maysilee walks forward, leaving me on the silver plate where I was lifted into the arena. She picks up the bow and shoots at something in the woods. Then she takes a knife that I didn't know she had and stabs herself.
I watch as she falls to the ground.
When I'm awake, I can't stop seeing scenes from what was obviously a nightmare.
I start crawling backwards, making a sound that could be considered screaming or crying. Maybe it's a little bit in the middle.
"Sophie, what's wrong? It's okay, you're fine. Sophie! Stop!" Jason grabs my shoulders and makes me stop moving backwards.
"Maysilee... Where is she...? I saw her! She killed herself for you! I trusted you... You were supposed to bring her back!" I yell, not really knowing what I'm saying until the words are out of my mouth.
His grip lessens and I stand. I run backwards, trying to figure out why, after all this time of not thinking about Maysilee, thoughts of her would come back now. "She's not here!" I tell myself. I hear Jason yelling at me as I run, but I keep going. I'm confused, I'm tired, and my legs are gonna give out any second.
I find a tree. I climb higher with every breath that comes out of me. Jason reaches the bottom of my tree and starts up after me.
"Sophie! What the... What are you doing!?" he yells, trying to get me to answer.
"I saw Maysilee," I whisper to myself, though Jason doesn't hear me.
The dream felt so... so real.
I know I didn't really see her, but I thought I did. I thought it was real. I wanted it to be real.
I keep climbing, higher and higher. The trees in the jungle have rubbery limbs that swoosh back every so often for no reason.
As I reach the top of the tree, I climb up to the canopy of leaves and branches and look down to see how close behind me Jason is.
"Sophie! Come on! Get down! What's the matter with you! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" he yells from about 10 yards below me.
I leap to a tree that's top is 4 yards below my current tree. I ascend to the ground, leaving Jason to wonder where I went while he's still up in the other, taller tree.
I wonder what I came into this jungle for. Not to climb trees, not to make Jason come after me, and not to fall out of that tree. I came because I was looking for someone who is no longer available, completely out of reach forever, someone who no matter what I do, I will never see again. My sister is gone.
I wander back in the direction I believe the beach is, letting Jason stay where he is. It was his decision to come after me. I didn't ask him to protect me.
As the sun sets, the trees disappear behind me revealing a large expanse of tan, rough, hot pieces of sand, millions of tiny pieces expanding toward the water.
As I leave the jungle behind, my eyes make out a shape, someone lying out on the sand near the ocean. Not quite lying, more like sitting.
He sits against a large rock that looks as if it's been there longer than I've been alive.
Peter turns around to the sound of me coming up behind him.
"Why don't you just kill me?" I ask him flatly.
"Because here there's no reason to," he says, "When we first got here, I thought that I would be able to escape this island if I did what the president wanted, I thought he'd let me leave, but now I know I'm stuck here with the rest of you," he replies.
"I don't trust you anymore," I tell him.
"Now there's a shock!" he says, throwing his arms in the air.
I walk back to the huts, ignoring the comments about where I've been from my father. I enter the hut I've shared with my brother and father for the past week or so and throw myself down on a cot.
I fall into a dreamless sleep.
When my eyelids flutter open, I see a figure at the other side of the hut, leaning over the table cutting something with a knife.
My senses immediately dart to the delicious smelling fish sitting on a plate next to my cot and grab it. I haven't had a thing to eat for almost a full 24 hours, and I'm starving.
The figure turns around at the noise of me sitting up, and I see his face, tired, worried, and... am I seeing things or does he look semi-annoyed?
"Hi," I say to my dad.
"Hi yourself, where did you go yesterday?" he asks, handing me half a coconut filled with water.
I drink thirstily and try to think of a reasonable excuse for disappearing.
"I um... I was-" I stumble on my own words. "Hagger let me undo the handcuffs..." I say instead.
"He what!?" my father yells, "Why?!" he yells again, openly showing his distrust of Peter.
"Peter isn't going to do anything! He's stuck here with the rest of us whether the rest of you like it or not!" I yell back, letting the plate and coconut slide off my lap and onto the sand floor of our hut. I stomp outside onto the beach.
I mutter terrible things about my father and his opinions of Peter under my breath as I scrub my shirt off in the water, removing the layer of dirt and grass that has settled on the back of it.
"Bad day?" Courtney asks, coming up behind me.
"You could say that," I say.
"Do you know where Jason is? His mother said he went out to find you," she says.
"Why would I care? I never asked him to protect me," I snap back at her angrily.
Real hurt registers on her face, but it's then replaced by anger.
"You should care because he went out to find you! He could've sat around! He cares about you... If I was lucky enough to have someone like that I would care whether they went out into the jungle to find me!" she snaps back, then walks toward the huts.
"Fine," I say to myself. "I will, I'll show her. I'll find him."
I walk to the tree line, pondering whether or not to go in or not.
"Go, you idiot!" I snap at myself.
I wander back to the tree where I fled from Jason and find nothing but the coals from the fire he built when he found me.
Where are you? I wonder how lost he could've gotten...
He's been in woods since he could crawl I remind myself, walking along a nearby river that goes up a large hill.
He would've stayed near a water source, right?
I slump to the ground in defeat. I can't track people. I can't find him. I might as well go back.
As I'm making the assumption that he must've gotten back to the huts by now and turning around, I hear footsteps coming up behind me.
I grab the trunk of a nearby tree and conceal myself in the leaves.
As they approach I realize there's more than one person among the group. It isn't Jason... Then who is it?
"Fine, we torch the camp. But you gotta give me a few days to get Sophie out," Peter says. Peter?!
"Aight', but I swear if you tell her our plan, I'll kill you boy," A man tells him, swinging a knife around in his hand.
"I'll make something up... What about the other one? Jason?" Peter replies to the men.
"We got him back at camp. Randy found him spying on us yesterday," a large man answers.
"There's a small problem with getting Sophie out before we torch the place, sir." A smaller man approaches the men.
As they lower their guns realizing that it's one of their friends, angry expressions grow on their faces.
"What problem would that be?" The large man asks the small man.
"She's gone, left earlier today. I believe sir that she came out into the jungle to find Jason," the small man says, pushing his glasses back onto his nose.
"Maybe Jason knows where she is," The large man grows a grin on his face.
"No," Peter says. "We're not torturing anyone."
"This is war. The president says we can do what we have to," the large man says indifferently.
"No, I'll take care of getting Sophie. I know where she is," Peter says, his hands shake nervously at his sides.
Peter's lying. I know him too well not to miss the nervous shake of his hands, the terrified look in his eyes.
"Fine, but if she ain't here before tomorrow morning, I'm sending in the torches whether she's outta there or not," the large man says, continuing on through the jungle with the rest of his men following.
Peter leans down onto his knee to tie his shoelace.
"I see you," he whispers to me.
"What are they talking about? What do they mean they "have" Jason. Where is he, you little-?" I stop myself and glare at him through the leaves.
"Follow me back to their camp. I'll leave the gate open for the next twenty minutes. That's your window. Jason's in the tent in the back right corner. I'll distract the guards as long as I can. Get yourselves out of there and back to the huts to warn the rest of them. Take everyone to the north shore. There's a large freighter there where these men take supplies back and forth from the mainland to the island. There are normally four guards with guns protecting the boat. I'll meet you there tomorrow at dawn. Dig a foot underneath my cot back at camp. There are seven guns underneath a green tarp. Make sure Victoria makes it back. She's the only person I know of with any experience with boats. I know how to auto pilot it if I have to, but it's risky," he says, standing up and running to catch up with the rest of his posse.
As I leap from branches and grab onto vines high up in the rubbery trees of the jungle, I ask myself whether this is a trap. Peter has every reason to be against us, but somehow I know he isn't lying. If he were lying to me, I would've known... I think.
I jump through the trees a safe distance behind the men, and they reach a tall fence with a large metal gate. Barbed wire protrudes from their tops, which are almost thirty feet in the air.
"Who are these people?" I wonder to myself.
I feel my belt and gratefully realize my pocket knife is still hanging on it. It's not much, but if worse comes to worse, I can at least defend myself.
Following Peter's instructions, I work my way inside the gate to the back right corner of the camp. I see a bright green tent with three guards in-front of it.
Just then, Peter wanders over to the tent and starts up a conversation with one of them.
Then he makes a gesture toward the front gate and says something to the other two guards that make them jump up.
Peter leads them the other away into another tent.
There's my chance. I think to myself whether this is a trap or not, but I'm already here so I might as well find out.
I cut out a small hole in the back of the tent and rip it open.
As I lean through the rip in the tent, I see Jason tied up in the corner trying to bite through the ropes.
"Sophie!" Jason says when he sees me.
"Shut up!" I hiss at him. "Come on, we gotta get out of here," I whisper to him as I cut through the ropes.
When he lifts his head out of the tent, I notice a streak of blood running from the bottom of his lip to his chin.
"What happened?" I ask as we sneak along the fence.
"Apparently my new friends don't like me," he says.
We slip out of the opened gate and sprint away from it through the trees. We keep sprinting through the underbrush until we reach the beach, and then we stop to catch our breaths.
"Why'd you come back?" he asks.
"I should never have left you out here. You were only trying to help. I'm sorry," I say, breathing heavily.
"Don't worry about it," he says. "Let's get back to the huts."
As we walk along the beach on the way back to the huts, I tell Jason about how they plan to torch the camp and how Peter isn't actually evil and that he's a spy.
"If he's a spy, then why'd he do this?" Jason asks, motioning to his lip, which has turned a brilliant shade of purple-blue.
"I don't know. Maybe he was just trying to prove that he was on their side so that they would trust him," I suggest.
"Stop covering for him!" Jason says. "That guy is bad news,"
"Either way, he warned us about those guys torching the camp. That's gotta count for something," I say.
"Fine, we'll take the freighter off this rock. But we're not taking him," Jason says.
"Yes we are. He knows how to auto-pilot it... Just in case something happens to Victoria," I tell him.
"Fine, but, if we ever get back to mainland, I'll kill him," Jason says, quickening his pace.
I guess I just won't let that happen I think to myself.
As we walk along the beach I tell Jason about the guns Peter told me are hidden underneath the green tarp beneath his cot.
"Where'd he get those from?" Jason asks.
"Probably from your new friends," I say, mimicking what Jason said earlier.
He laughs, "All right, wait a second. Stop," he says, sitting on the sand, "Let's take a break."
"Peter's not against us. I need you to believe that," I tell him.
"Why would I believe that? Give me one good reason," he replies.
"Because I'm begging you. Please. If you don't believe me... No one will," I say.
"Fine, but I sure hope you're right. If you're not, then you can kiss going home goodbye," he says standing up.
What is he referring to as home? District 12? Oh please, that's the place where we're ruled by dictators and treated like we're nothing more than dirt. I'd rather be lost like I am, than home under President Vincent's rule again.
Jason offers his hand to me and helps me up off the warm sand.
We continue along the beach for what seems like an eternity.
Then we see smoke high above the trees, and then we see the little brown huts pop up around campfires.
"Jason!" His mother yells from the front of the hut, running towards us.
She wraps her arms around his neck and doesn't let go for a long time, but when she does the first thing she does is lick her finger, then wipe the blood off his chin.
Surprisingly enough, the arms that wrap themselves around me do not belong to my father. Hagger whispers something in my ear.
"Wait until it's dark, then tell me what happened. I'll be in my hut," he says, then lets me go.
My father comes up behind him and puts his arm around me, leading me back to our hut.
At around midnight, hours after the bright sun sets and the moon comes out to greet the night, I wander over to Hagger's hut as he instructed me to earlier.
"There were big fences with barbed wire and Peter was there. He told Sophie where the boat was-" Jason is already there telling Hagger everything as I walk in silently.
"What do you think?" I ask.
"About Peter not being evil or the magical freighter that's going to rescue all of us?" Hagger says.
"All of it," I say.
"Where are the guns?" he asks.
"In Peter's hut, under his cot," I answer.
We all go over to Peter's hut and pick his bed up, revealing the sand below it. Then we dig with our hands until I feel a tarp.
I grab it with the tips of my fingers and lift it out of the sand, revealing a case with a broken lock on it.
I lift the lid and reveal to myself, Hagger, and Jason an assortment of guns and boxes of bullets.
Hagger grabs the deadliest looking gun and starts filling it with bullets, then aims the gun at the wall of the hut and shoots a blank. It makes a snapping sound that makes me want to cover my ears.
"Hagger! What are you doing! No one knows these exist yet," I say shoving things back in the case before anyone sees them.
"We're going to have to tell them eventually," he says.
"Fine, you tell them," I say.
The next few hours go by in blur. As people awake to the sound of Hagger shooting off blanks, he fills them in on our plan.