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Chapter Ten
The next three days are spent walking, collecting rain water and sleeping. We encounter only two more tributes during this time and by now our reflexes and fighting abilities have vastly improved from the Training Center. In addition to these two deaths, five other tributes are killed over the course of the three days. We certainly have done well for a couple of tributes from 12. The only problem is, the less of us left in the arena, the more likely it is that one of us will have to kill the other.
Maysilee continues to ask me why we're heading this way but all I say is that I want us to be as far away from the mountain as possible in case it erupts, again. However, this only lasts so long and the fourth day she just stops until I give her my real reason.
"Because it has to end somewhere, right?" I say, "The arena can't go on forever."
"What do you expect to find?" She asks, exasperated.
"I don't know. But maybe there's something we can use," he says.
"Haymitch, I think we have to accept that-"
"Please," I interrupt. She sighs and nods before continuing to walk along the woods with me.
It isn't long before we reach the hedges cut in to a maze and, this time, I refuse to let them beat me.
"We could use that blow torch you found," Maysilee suggests and a huge smile comes across my face. I always knew she was clever!
I get out the blow torch and aim it at the hedge, being careful to stay away from the flames and not walking through the newly created clearing until the flames have died down.
I can see the edge of a cliff and I run towards it, stopping just before it ends so that I can look down on to the jagged rocks below. This must be the end, no one would be able to jump down there and survive. We've found it, we've actually found it.
"That's all there is, Haymitch, let's go back," Maysilee says from behind me.
"No, I'm staying here," I reply. I think of Clo and our conversation on the roof. I've found this for her as much as for me.
"All right, there's only five of us left. May as well say goodbye now, anyway. I don't want it to come down to you and me." She's finally said what we've both been thinking for days.
"Okay," is all I can say. I don't want a big, emotional goodbye for all of the Capitol to see. Maysilee and I could have been friends in another world but they've destroyed that, I'm not allowing them to fake sympathy over our separation. I can hear her walk away and part of me wants to run after her but I know it has to be better this way. I know I couldn't kill her.
I start to walk along the edge of the cliff, staring at the rocks below. There must be a way that I can use this to my advantage but how? There must be something, I think, as I shuffle along and kick a pebble off the cliff.
I decide to sit down and think about my next move. I'm on my own again and, although working with Maysilee saved my life on many occasions, it has to end this way for both of our sakes.
Suddenly, something is flying up over the edge and lands next to me on the ground. I stare at it for a moment before I realise that it's the same pebble I knocked over the edge seconds ago. I grab a larger rock and drop it below the edge and, sure enough, it flies back up and I catch it in the exact same position from which I threw it. I can't help but start laughing, it's a force field! Just like Clo said! I can definitely use this!
Before I can revel even further in my triumph I hear a chilling scream that overwhelms me with dread. I've heard her scream as she wrestles a tribute or throws a dart in their back but never because she's been in pain. Something has happened to Maysilee and I can't just stand here while she undergoes whatever cruel torture it is that is currently taking place.
I run towards her screams with my knife held out, ready to attack whoever it is that is hurting her. It goes against everything that the Games stands for but I run to her, anyway.
"Maysilee!" I bellow.
"Hay…Haymitch," I hear her choke, following her cries. When I reach her she is lying on the ground with blood pouring out of her neck. A candy pink bird with a long beak pulls away from her and flies off in to the trees, joining a flock that are circling above us.
I run to her side and kneel down, holding her hand. I can feel tears building up and all I want to do is scream but I can't let her last seconds in this world be filled with anger. She's dying a horrific death and I'm not going to make it worse.
"Win," she whispers to me as she closes her eyes and her life fades away. Her cannon sounds seconds later and now everyone in the arena knows that another tribute has died.
I look down at her blood soaked body and all I can think about is Pertha, the twin who is now an only child and her friend, Clara, who will be sat home in 12 grieving over Maysilee. I can guarantee that I'm on every television in Panem right now and it's making me feel sick. I want to grieve for Maysilee, she was my friend, after all, but not in front of the entire nation. I kiss her forehead and then take what remains from her bag, I know she would prefer me to have her supplies than the other tributes. After all, I actually have a chance of winning now and that benefits her family, too. I walk away, back in to the woods and I can hear the hovercraft descending to retrieve her body.
I could just go back to the cliff edge and stay there until someone comes to find me but there's only four of us left now and I can't avoid the inevitable fights for much longer. I've killed more times than I have ever wanted to but that was only because I felt confident in the alliance I had with Maysilee, it's going to be a lot different when it's just me against another tribute, despite feeling more confident about my skills.
Not that 'skills' is the right word, killing a child should never be a skill.
I try not to think about Maysilee as I walk on, I need to win now and once I'm out of here I can grieve for her in private and, maybe, with her family. I don't know them but now we're going to be connected forever because of this awful situation.
Another cannon sounds an hour later, which means that there are only three of us left. I'm more aware of my movements and the scenery around me now as the Gamemakers are going to want us all to meet up pretty soon to give the Capitol their bloody finale.
I sit down to eat the rest of the dried fruit in my bag and drink the rest of the water that Maysilee and I collected, I have a feeling that this will all be over in a matter of hours so there's no point saving anything. I'm going to need my strength.
Another cannon fires. This is it. I'm in the final two. I could win. I will win. I'm going to win for mother, for Layle, for Tilly, for Clo, for Dinium and for Maysilee.
I gather up my things, gripping my knife and begin to walk towards the edge of the arena, continually checking my back. I have no idea who the other finalist is nor where they are but I'm sure they'll find me soon enough.
I continue like this for half an hour until I hear loud footsteps behind. I turn around to see the girl from District 1 wielding an axe with a sadistic smile across her face.
Of course it would be her. It had to be.
"Hello, Haymitch," she says.
"Hello…one," I say because I have no idea of her name and neither do I want to know. Killing a nameless person is easier than killing someone with a name, even if it is a Career.
She smirks, "It's Opal. I think you should know the name of your killer, it's only polite."
I do not get a chance to reply because she's now running at me with her axe. I move to the side in just enough time to avoid a fatal blow, instead gaining a large gash to my left arm. I swing around and messily plunge my knife in to her eye; the pain from my arm is so severe that I'm not sure where I'm aiming.
Rather than becoming distressed by her bleeding eye, Opal swings her axe in to my stomach, causing me to scream out like a dying animal and my hand instantly lets go of my knife. I can't stay here, I'll die if I stay here. I have no weapon and nothing to hand that could kill her.
I start to run, clutching my stomach. For once, I have a plan. Possibly a foolish plan but it's all I have.
She's running after me, screaming taunts as she does so but I can tell that she's struggling to keep up. Eventually, I reach the edge of the cliff and fall to the ground as her axe flies over my head.
I lie on the floor and wait for the inevitable. Opal looks at me with a mixture of disdain and confusion, I know she's wondering what to do now that we're both without weapons and in various stages of dying. Maybe she thinks she can outlast me but I know she can't.
The axe flies back over the edge and just as the realisation of what is about to happen registers on her face, the axe lands in her head and a cannon sounds as she falls to the ground.
A hovercraft quickly descends to collect her body and then a fanfare of trumpets boosm across the arena.
Claudius Templesmith's voice bursts in to life and says, "Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the winner of the fiftieth Hunger Games, Haymitch Abernathy! The tribute of District Twelve!"