They managed to safely navigate their way back to the ladder, and surprisingly didn't fall off of it and break their limbs. The pair of them both vomited in some shrubbery when they got up there, the lack of transportation in the districts not preparing them for the high speeds of that 'elevator'.
Despite the fact that the remnants of their lunch was deposited in a nearby bush, Hebe and Gaia decided to set up camp in the clearing. They wanted to be as close as possible to the tunnel, meaning they would have an easy escape should anyone find them there.
They spent the afternoon trying to recover from their nausea, drinking copious amounts of water in the process. By evening their supplies were dwindling. Hebe regretted eating so much of Gaia's stuff, having thought that it was limitless. Compared to the rations she had spent the last week and a half on, it did seem limitless.
A fire was out of the question at this point, so they sat in their sleeping bags, huddling together in the cold. The pair of them waited in earnest for the sound of the anthem; they had concluded it was impossible to hear the cannon in the tunnels.
At last it came, blasting through the arena at even higher volumes than usual. However, tonight no faces were projected into the sky. There were still 7 tributes left.
The two girls continued to spy on Anise and Ash in the days that followed. Each time they watched them, it felt as though they learnt something new. At first this seemed to be a good thing, but the more they witnessed, the worse she felt about her chances of winning. Although Gaia didn't seem to share the same sentiment, constantly plotting on ways they could eliminate them.
It was unusual for there to still be strong allies at this stage of the proceedings as tributes were normally so paranoid that they couldn't even consider trusting another person. It was certainly unprecedented for there to be two teams of strong tributes. Whilst they didn't have the natural connection of being district partners, Hebe knew that Gaia and herself had an unusually strong bond. It was one that was undoubtedly forged by a hatred of the careers and now the Capitol.
It was easy to trust someone when you shared not only common goals, but common enemies. Yet at the end of the day, only one tribute would come out alive, and that was too close for comfort for Hebe.
She was constantly on edge, snapping her head at every sound, twitching at every small imaginary flash in the treeline. While she missed her family and her home, more than anything she missed the feeling of complete and undeniable safety. She missed the feeling of being able to turn her back on someone without wondering whether she would get stabbed or strangled.
It was beginning to wear her down, she couldn't sleep as well as before, she couldn't eat as much as before. The arena now felt like her home, like she had a special connection to each tree she passed as she stalked through the undergrowth. She had begun to forget the face of her mother, her exact features were no longer clear as day, but misty. Like she was looking at her memories through foggy glass.
She lay in her sleeping back each night straining to remember the way her home smelled, the sounds of her mother jostling about in the kitchen early in the morning, the taste of her hastily eaten breakfast before school. But all she could smell now was blood and dirt. It was all she could taste too, the metallic tinge coating her mouth at every minute of the day. And it wasn't the gentle jingles of cutlery that rang in her ears, but the screams of those she had watched die in the arena.
Hebe rewatched their last moments in her head every night, unable to prevent her mind from conjuring those images. They were clearer than her own vision, each and every detail carefully mapped out, down to the exact colour of the flowers, down to the position of the sun in the sky.
She felt as if she was on the verge of breaking, like a lost rabbit wandering through a complex warren. They navigated those warrens in real life everyday, discovering new secrets and entrances.
After the 3rd full day of their spying, a full week since the games began, Hebe and Gaia began to return to their had taken to labelling the paths to the different hatches. The pair of them had discovered 4 so far, their camp was situated on the other side of hatch 1.
That day they left their post early to take a detour and use tunnel number 3, marked by the carved number on one of the trees outside of the path. They hadn't properly explored it yet, when they first discovered it the two had been 'on the run' from Anise and Ash; they thought they had at last been spotted. They had scarpered, sprinting as fast as their legs would carry them to the outskirts of the arena.
Gaia, as usual, had been the one to spot the entrance. She was always more observant than Hebe. They ran into the tunnel and sprinted the entire length along it, not sparing a glance at the doors and compartments that lined the walls.
So today they left their typical posts early, wanting to finally have a look at what was going on in the tunnel. Well, primarily it was Gaia who wanted to look, Hebe just indulged her insatiable curiosity.
The pair weaved their way through the trees, Hebe leading the way to the entrance. While Gaia may have been incredibly smart and strategic, her memory was atrocious. Luckily, memory was one of Hebe's best assets, and there was nothing she was better at than navigation.
They chatted as they went, discussing details of what they noticed about their targets.
"I just still can't get past how miserable they are. Yeah, I know they're in a fight to the death, but we've all been there!" Gaia whined, sick of their attitudes even though she had never even had the misfortune to speak to them.
Hebe cackled, endlessly amused at the expense of Anise and Ash, who she had recently discovered were twins. And while rather unfortunate, it definitely made a lot of sense based on how similarly they acted.
"I know right! Today Ash killed a whole squirrel for them to eat and she didn't even crack a smile! Just that same stone faced thing. I would kill for that squirrel, if she didn't want it she could've just thrown it into the bushes and we would've enjoyed it thoroughly."
They then reached the pathway, Hebe swerving to high-five the carving on the tree as she passed. Gaia laughed at her childishness; it was easy to forget who was the older of the two. At times like these it was even easier to forget where they were entirely. When the pair of them walked together, chatting and laughing, the arena seemed to fade away. They became just two friends on a stroll together rather than allies in a death match.
After so many times of wandering through the tunnels, the glinting silver hatch was obvious even under the leafy disguise they had made for it. It was now so casual that they didn't even pause as they opened it and climbed down, they just kept discussing their strategies.
"I honestly think that if we ambushed them we could totally beat them. Knowing those two they probably wouldn't even be bothered to defend themselves!" Gaia remarked.
"What, like, a surprise attack?"
"Yeah! We could be like those spies in those storybooks!"
Hebe halted her descent, looking down at her ally incredulously. Gaia tore her eyes away from the rungs of the ladder and looked up, confused by the girl's expression.
"What?"
"I have honestly never read a book like that." She said bluntly, raising her eyebrows at the girl.
"What do you mean!? They were everywhere when I was a kid!"
"Hmph. Clearly I'm too old then." Hebe stuck her nose in the air, trying to emulate the sense of superiority that Verity had. Before she put an axe in her skull.
"Clearly. Old lady." Gaia muttered, resuming her climb downwards as Hebe shouted in protest at the insult.
They sped down the ladder, Hebe shouting profanities and threats at the younger girl. Eventually they reached the bottom and she smacked Gaia on the arm, storming off into the tunnel. Her ally sniggered and followed, quickening her pace to catch up with her.
She tried to make conversation with the older girl but she was ignored, a hand stuck in her face. Gaia gaped at Hebe, mock offended by her immaturity. They then devolved into more squabbling.
Hebe thought of those in the Capitol watching them, and imagined how much they must love the sibling dynamic that the two had. It seemed to have become Hebe's trademark and it undoubtedly played to the personality she had shown in the interviews.
She wondered how Finnick felt about her choice of allies. She often thought of what his opinions would be on her strategies. She hoped he was proud, or at least approving of her actions so far.
Everyday her chances of winning the games seemed to become better and better, yet Hebe had this constant feeling of dread all about her. She continually imagined falling at the final hurdle, being the last tribute cut down, narrowly missing her chance to escape. It would be typical of her. She had always been unlucky. Hebe just prayed that if she couldn't leave then it would be Gaia who did. She had been unsuccessful in her mission to protect Luca, and she was fairly certain she would lay down her life to make sure the same didn't happen again.
They continued through the tunnels, and it seemed as though the light was strengthening as they moved forwards, gradually getting brighter. She remembered noticing the same thing the first time they came down here, and she knew that soon they would reach the doors, as well as what looked like another elevator.
Low and behold she was right, the hard metal doors coming into sight. Gaia surged forward to inspect them, dropping her backpack and running her fingers along hinges and panels in hopes of discovering some kind of clue as to what lay inside. She turned back around to Hebe, shaking her head. She hadn't managed to glean anything from the outside.
The only way to find out what was inside was to open them.
Hebe was reluctant to do so. It appeared to be that the doors were like a game of russian roulette, and there was no way to tell what was inside. As she had discovered the first time some of them were traps, (like the bugs) some were empty, (like the room she had found Lilac in), and some had supplies.
The last tunnel they had explored, tunnel #2, they had found two doors. The first was a trap, arrows shooting out from the opposite wall when they opened the door. They had only just managed to survive that, ducking just in time to avoid being skewered. The other room had some meagre supplies. This consisted of two bottles of water and a spool of rope.
These supplies were why Hebe was so reluctant to open the doors, concerned that some rope wasn't worth dying over. But the idealist in Gaia just couldn't let the idea go, and as much as Hebe hated it, she couldn't leave her ally alone to deal with the consequences.
So here she was, shaking, axe raised, breath already coming in steady pants. Gaia was the same, nervously reaching out to push open the door, turning back to Hebe for reassurance. The older girl nodded, and that was enough for Gaia. She shoved into the door with her whole body weight. The both flinched at the loud bang, waving their hands to clear the dust she had kicked up.
Inside was all they had ever dreamed of. Sharp weapons of all descriptions, bags of apples, boxes of crackers. First aid kits, matches, canteens of water. Their every need for the rest of the games could be fulfilled. And then they noticed the catch.
Curled around their prize were two dogs. Enormous dogs. From how large they were it would've made more sense if they were horses. Their matted black fur covered strong muscular limbs. Massive pointed fangs hung from their upper lip; similarly deadly claws adorned their splayed paws. They were undoubtedly mutts; dogs just weren't that menacing in nature.
Luckily for Hebe and Gaia, they slept soundly, pink tongues lolling from their gaping mouths. Hebe felt her breath catch in her throat in terror, her mind torn apart by the dilemma.
Getting those supplies would almost certainly guarantee a spot in the top 4 of the games. Managing to obtain so much at such a late stage - especially when most would be starved and dehydrated - was practically unheard of.
But could they really take the risk of being mauled? These mutts looked deadly, and if they were anything like those bugs, their fangs and claws were laced with poison.
Gaia seemed similarly afflicted, her furrowed brow indicating deep thought. The two of them didn't dare even move. They let out each laboured breath as slowly and quietly as they could, praying that they wouldn't be ambushed with a sudden need to sneeze or cough.
They carefully met each other's eyes (almost as if the mere movement of their heads would wake the mighty beasts).
'What the fuck are we going to do?' Hebe mouthed, opening her mouth slowly enough to ensure that her ally understood her.
Gaia just shrugged lamely in response, clearly still formulating some kind of plan in her head. Then she snapped her gaze back up, clear determination shining in her eyes.
'What's the plan?' Hebe asked.
She shook her head and raised two fingers to point at Hebe, then at her own eyes.
'Watch me.'
Gaia then began to tiptoe forward towards the dogs. Her feet barely made a sound on the concrete as she moved. Eventually she reached her destination, only a short distance from where the mutts lay.
At this point, Hebe expected her ally to have some brilliant scheme to retrieve the supplies safely. Instead, the girl just reached over, and plucked a golden spear from its position on one of the stands. She lifted it up and over the sleeping animal's head, holding it out toward the older girl in triumph.
She was equal parts shocked and proud at the girl's brazen actions.
'Catch?' Gaia mouthed, miming throwing the spear to her.
Hebe nodded firmly, spreading her stance so she was more stable on her feet. She watched Gaia intently as she prepared to throw, focused on catching the handle perfectly so she didn't drop it and wake the dogs.
At that moment something caught her attention. Directly next to Gaia's ankle, the dog's head raised slightly, its eyelid flickering open to reveal a bright white sclera with a blood red iris. The pupil inside was a dark black. It was like the stone of a peach or a plum, the harsh onyx set against the vibrant colour.
Hebe was so focused on its eyes that she hadn't even noticed the way it had locked onto Gaia's leg, only coming back to the moment as she watched it open its jaw wide and lunge for her calf.
The world seemed to sink into slow-motion as they all moved in sync.
Gaia pushed her arm forward through the air, sending the spear flying in Hebe's direction. She was totally unaware of the mutt that was about to bite her, her face contorting in confusion at her allies expression.
Meanwhile Hebe began to rush forward, dropping the hand that was intended to catch the spear to her side as she moved to stop the dog in any way she could. Her mouth opened to shout a warning at the younger girl, just as the mutt sank its fangs into her flesh.
A sharp scream pierced the silence, like a pin popping a balloon. It was followed by the clattering of the spear on the ground. Then the world returned to its regular speed. Hebe quickly reaching her ally's side.
The dog that had bitten her began howling loudly and as the other animal rose from its slumber it joined in with Gaia's screaming. Hebe helped the girl up and began shouting at her to move, struggling to be heard above the racket being made by the mutts. She grabbed the spear on her way out, frantically waving it in the faces of the animals.
Together they stumbled out of the room, Hebe grabbing their backpacks and slinging them onto her shoulder with her free hand. She slammed the door shut right on the mutt's faces, stunning them for a moment. But she was well aware that it wouldn't hold them for more than a few seconds.
"You're gonna have to run!" She shouted, Gaia giving her a small nod.
They took off down the tunnels back the way they came, intending to climb up the ladder to safety. Gaia stumbled as quickly as she could, lagging behind slightly.
Hebe turned and watched as the dogs burst through the door, turning their heads and noticing them both running away. They began to give chase, paws pounding against the hard concrete.
She began to shout encouragement to Gaia as she ran, turning back constantly as she went. Each time she did the dogs got closer and closer, until they were right at their heels, yapping and barking, frothing at the mouth at the sight of fresh meat.
Then they reached the ladder and Hebe helped her ally up onto it, watching as she scrambled up the first few rungs. Each time she had to put her weight on the weeping wound she let out a sharp yelp, the dogs becoming more and more excited each time. They were still only a short distance away, bounding down the corridor at unimaginable speeds.
Hebe began climbing backwards onto the ladder, carefully stepping up two or three rungs so that she was slightly elevated off the ground. She turned her head upwards to watch Gaia, and noticed she was a significant distance up. Then she returned her gaze towards the dogs, climbing slightly higher up.
They were now yapping directly beneath her, whipped into a frenzy by the prospect of human flesh. She jabbed her spear at them, digging the point of her weapon into one of those freakishly white eyeballs and ripping it out of its socket.
It was then that the mutts began to do something strange. They raised their paws up, and began to haul themselves onto the ladder by only their upper body, hind legs flailing wildly under them.
They were climbing.
"Oh fuck." Hebe spun her body around and began climbing faster than she ever had in her life.
"Gaia! They're climbing up, you gotta hurry!"
The younger girl screamed again. It seemed to be the only response she was able to give anymore, the only action that could permeate the pain of her injury.
The two of them continued to rush upwards, screaming and crying. All the while the mutts howled behind them, hot on their heels. The hatch soon came into view and they sped up, the prospect of freedom the only thought on their minds.
Gaia pushed the hatch open and fell out onto the ground, Hebe directly behind her. She knew they were too close to shut them in the tunnels, and there was a good chance they could break through the hatch anyway. So Hebe did the only thing she could think of.
She grabbed her ally and slung her over her shoulder, sprinting into the thick treeline and ducking down into one of the bushes. She clamped her hand over Gaia's mouth to muffle any screams, waiting with baited breath for the dogs to burst from the hatch. They didn't have to wait long.
They soon emerged, fangs showing in a violent grin. They prowled around the clearing, sniffing loudly. Then they stopped in the centre, and turned to the exit. Hebe prayed that they left. She wasn't ready to die today.
And they did, turning away from her entirely and bounding away, barking and howling as they went. The pair of tributes remained stock still, not breathing or moving for several minutes.
Eventually Hebe released her hold over Gaia's face, the girl letting out small whimpers as she was carried back to the edge of the clearing. She winced loudly as she was set down on the floor, Hebe brushing a lock of hair behind her ear.
Then she turned to the wound. Rummaging through their combined backpacks she managed to find a knife, the rest of her salve and some bandages to tend to the bite with.
She cut through the silver fabric, shuddering as she saw the bite. It was weeping and red, blood flowing from the two large puncture wounds in her calf.
"Is it bad?" Gaia whispered, shaking softly, tears leaking from her eyes.
Hebe reached up and wiped them away, her heart breaking for the girl.
"You'll survive."
She grabbed the jar and gathered some of the cream on her fingers, smothering it all over the wound. She left a small amount at the bottom in case she needed anymore at a later date. Then it was time to bandage, and she slowly wrapped the gauze around her injury, carefully lifting her leg up to do so.
"Does it hurt anywhere else?" Hebe asked softly. Gaia shook her head.
She then retrieved one final item from her backpack, the last apple she had. She sliced it in two with the knife, cutting out the core and separating it into several smaller sections. Hebe brought them to the girl's lips and helped her to chew on them, handing her the canteen to drink from as well.
Then she set up their beds, carefully rolling out her sleeping bag next to one of the bushes. She helped the girl walk over to it, laying her down under the waterproof fabric.
"Will I make it?"
"What did I tell you a minute ago? You'll be fine. Just go to sleep."