Chapter Fourteen
It's the fourth day. I was the last to be woken up, and it was by Mason. We need to leave today. Either today or tomorrow. Anything later will be too late. One of us will be dead. There are only seven people left in the arena. Only two of them aren't in this alliance. The odds are against us. We need to leave.
It's easy to tell Ceaser's getting bored. If Ceaser is getting bored then the Capitol is getting bored, and that is never a good thing. We've been sitting all day, checking our supplies, knotting my net, playing with fire. It's been hot all day long. Hotter than normal. Whatever the gamemakers are playing at I don't like it.
"Capri!" It's Rory. I turn to him quickly. He sounds scared. When I spot him, he's stomping out the fire. His feet aren't putting it out. It seems like the more he steps on it, the faster it spreads. Valarie begins pouring her water on it, but that seems to be agitating the fire even more.
Mason's hand finds mine. "Got the backpack?" Mason gives me a nod, but his eyes are clouded with confusion. "Run." If I was stronger, I would put him on my back. We would be faster that way, but I'm counting on Rory, Ceaser, and Valarie not to recognize our absence long enough to get a far enough head start.
The fire seems not to be spreading at a rapid pace, so I let go of Mason's hand and shout at him, "Just keep following me." I want to put as much distance between those three and the pair of us as possible. As much as I have to watch after Mason, I must watch after myself first.
Suddenly Mason's voice finds my ears, "Capri! Capri! Where are you?"
"Mason! Follow my voice!" I'm spinning in circles. The fire that was absent moments ago is now surrounding me. "Mason, you have to stay calm! What's around you?" I have my trident and my net. Mason has the backpack. If we get separated, he's the one that will survive.
"Fire!" he becomes silent for a moment then speaks again, "I'm surrounded by fire."
I try and think about it, but I can't. This fire doesn't make any sense. "Alright, Mason, whatever you do, don't try and put it out. It won't work. It'll only make it worse." I don't know what I mean by worse, but that's what seemed to be happening when Ceaser, Rory, and Valarie tried to put it out. The fire is suffocating.
"Capri! It's gone!" No, it's not. "The fire! It's gone!" The silence is pregnant. "Capri! Where'd you go?" I'm scared for the first time in the arena. Mason says the fire is gone, but it's still here. It's still suffocating me.
"Go find shelter, Mason! I'll find you, I promise, but you have to leave and find shelter." Somehow I know he's not leaving, "Go, Mason! Now!" The fire burns my lungs. The oxygen in the air is thinning, and it becomes harder to find air to breathe. The sight of the fire hurts my eyes, and the sound of it burns my ears. I pull my head to my knees and jam my wrists into my ears. Even then it doesn't stop.
When my head begins to grow hazy from the lack of oxygen, the fire fades. I begin clutching the ground and gasp for the fresh, pure oxygen. It hurts to clutch the ground not because the ground it hot or charred, but because my hands have been burned by the fire. My lungs are still burning from the smoke I inhaled, and it hurts to pick up my trident.
I lay on the grass until I feel like I can breathe fairly easily. When I stand, it still hurts to breathe, it still hurts to carry my trident, it still hurts to keep my net over my shoulder, but I walk forward anyway. I could be walking backwards, but I don't know the difference. I use the net to tie the trident to my waist since it hurts to carry it. It only works for short periods of time, but those short periods of time allow my hands to rest and to heal.
It grows dark. I come across a fairly well hidden area with a large tree trunk for me to lean against. I don't think. I just drift to sleep with my mother's lullaby in my ear.
I wake with a start. Mason. I slept through the anthem, so I'm not sure that anyone died yesterday. There must still be seven of us alive. It's the fifth day of the Games, so I'm sure the Capitol will try to drag out our deaths a little more now, make them more extravagant.
That's my only hope of finding him. I can't remember if there were any freshwater ponds that we found. Most of them were saltwater, but there might have been one that was fresh. The smoke is still lingering between my ears.
My hands are better now, and I can carry my trident for longer periods of time. It hurts to walk because I'm dehydrated. It hurts to walk because I'm hungry. It hurts to walk because my feet were burned from the fire, but I keep walking because I don't know what else to do. I'm scared that I won't make it without Mason.
It already seems to be getting dark, which is strange, but I must have slept longer than I thought. I find a good tree and rest against it. I begin knotting my net again until the anthem begins. Only one person died today: Valarie. She used to be my ally. I wish I cared about how she died, and if it was painful, and if it was by someone outside the alliance or if it was Rory or Ceaser. I wish I cared, but I only care about getting out of this arena.
I think about home as I rest my head against the trunk of the tree and close my eyes. I think about the smell of the seawater in the crisp morning air. I think of how Paige and I walked to school together every morning, just us. There was one boy in our class that has liked Paige for as long as I can remember. I tried to get them to date multiple times, but she's always refused. He was a great guy, Mac, and his family owned a bakery just down the road from where she lived. He's gorgeous with his blue eyes and his dark hair and his tanned skin and his freckled face.
Henry floats to my mind as well. His hair is the perfect mixture of blonde and light brown, and his eyes are the most beautiful shade of green with flecks of blue at the outside like seaweed floating in the ocean. I imagine sitting on the beach with him when I get home. His big, tanned arms are around me and the pair of us talking about anything other than my time in the Capitol and in these Games.
"Capri!" I want to open my eyes to see who is shouting at me, but my will is not strong enough to overcome my body's desire for rest. "Capri! Where are you?" My eyes shut, and I feel hands on my shoulders.
A/N: Once again, I hope you all are enjoying this story. Thank you to everyone who commented, favorite, and followed since the last update.
This is week tqo of the Saturday update, so let's see how far we can go. I'm currently writing Chapter Twenty, so get excited because we might be kind of almost done!
If you don't like something about my story, I would love to know what it is. Please leave a review about what you do and don't like about what I'm writing so that I can get better. Also, if you have any ideas about at what point I should end this story and start the sequel, that would be welcome. Or if I should just continue updating on this story. Thank you and have a splendid day!