SONG: Blackout by Muse

Iris wasn't sure how long she slept, but she woke feeling refreshed. It had gotten darker in the canyon, but not by much. Agata was sitting atop a boulder, sharpening her sword against the jagged rock.

She reached for her water bottle, taking a sip and feeling, to her dismay, that it was nearly empty. With the walk they'd taken to the canyon, they'd drunk almost half of the water they had left even though they had tried to stretch it. Iris wondered if Haylee would send her some if she got really desperate - but then, she hadn't sent any the time Iris actually had been desperate, so why should that change? Besides, considering all but one of the Careers were alive, Iris doubted that any sponsors spared her a second glance.

She wondered how the girl from Eight was faring. She was alone, definitely - Iris wondered how she had stayed hidden and alive for so long. She doubted that the girl would have gotten many sponsors, considering Iris couldn't remember a thing about her. Maybe that was her strategy - maybe she had tried to seem insignificant to the cameras so that no one thought she was a threat. Or maybe she had survived purely out of luck.

Iris hoped that the Careers killed the girl so that Iris didn't have to. She didn't want to kill anyone else. And as strange as it seemed, she felt almost a sense of kinship with the girl from Eight. She and Iris were the underdogs, the only two non-Careers left standing. Iris knew almost nothing about her, and yet she didn't want to see the girl's face in the sky.

What was wrong with her? She was supposed to be fighting for her life, and here she was, wondering about a girl she'd never met. She had to get her act together. Leaning her back against the boulder, Iris closed her eyes, and imagined the box she had put Kasia and Christopher in. And the deeper, darker place she had buried Taggerty and the boy from Seven. She put the girl from Eight somewhere in that deep, dark place, far away from the forefront of her mind.

"You're awake."

Iris opened her eyes to see Agata looking down at her from atop the boulder. "Yeah," she replied. She felt calmer, more focused. She wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, imagining boxes and hiding places inside her head, but doing so helped her get away from her emotions and rely on her instincts. So she wasn't about to complain about her newfound skill. "We need water."

"Yeah. We do."

"Do you have any ideas on how to get any?"

"Aside from teleporting into the Cornucopia?" Agata sighed. "No. I have to admit that I never thought I'd have to look for my own water. That was stupid of me."

Iris shrugged. She didn't know how to get water in the desert, either. "You can't really put yourself at fault. You had other things to focus on. I didn't really think about water either, in training. I was more worried about finding something I could fight with."

"And you chose a club," Agata said.

Iris couldn't tell whether Agata was being critical of her chosen weapon or not, so she chose to ignore her. "Club, mace, I don't really know what it is. But it feels better in my hand than a sword does."

"I thought I saw you using a flail in training," Agata sheathed her sword and jumped down from the boulder, landing easily on her feet. Like a cat, Iris thought. "You were good."

"Yeah, that was my top pick," Iris replied. "But there doesn't seem to be one in the arena. I tinkered around a bit, tried to make one, but it didn't go very well."

Agata shrugged, unsheathing her sword again. She began to twirl it around, almost absent-mindedly. "It's not the most practical weapon, anyway."

Iris was a bit disturbed at how easily Agata handled her weapon. It was as though it was an extension of her body rather than separate from her. How many years of practice had she had with that thing? "I know. I just had a knack for it."

"At least bludgeoning people to death isn't hard."

"I guess not. I haven't bludgeoned anyone to death yet."

"But you have killed, right?"

"Twice," said Iris, looking away. She didn't want to think about it. She wouldn't think about it. Talking and thinking were two different things, right? "Boy from Nine, boy from Seven."

"How did it feel?"

There was a twinge in Iris chest. Guilt? Rage? Some unholy mix of the two? She couldn't tell, but she didn't like it. "What kind of question is that?" Iris snapped. "How did it feel? I don't want to have to do it again." She could feel the boys she'd killed crawling out of the deep, dark place in her mind she'd shoved them into, and closed her eyes, desperately trying to push them back in.

"You can't have that attitude," Agata said, clueless of Iris' internal battle. "Not in here. We don't get that luxury."

"I know," said Iris. "But you've had your whole life to get used to the idea of killing people. I haven't even started to comprehend it."

"You volunteered too."

"That was different. I didn't have a choice."

Agata frowned. "Yes, you did. You could have chosen not to volunteer."

"I was stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"And is this the rock or the hard place?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet," Iris sighed.

There was an awkward pause. Agata averted her eyes and stared down at her feet. Iris looked at her, fascinated - she'd never seen the usually-confident Agata unsure before.

Agata coughed, breaking the silence. "Should we get going?"

"Yeah," Iris said. "I know we're protected from the sun more down here, but it'll still be cooler if we travel in the dark. Until we find more water, that's the best way to do it."

"I agree. Got everything?"

Iris checked the area around her for any stray belongings, and then nodded. "Yeah. You?"

"Yeah."

"Alright," Iris said. She tucked her necklace into her shirt. She must have been fiddling with it in her sleep. "Lead the way."

Agata nodded, and began to walk. Iris followed closely behind her. What a difference there was from yesterday, when Agata didn't trust Iris walking behind her. She was beginning to feel almost comfortable around her - strange, considering Agata had been the one to threaten her after the interviews. Iris wondered how it could have gone, had Agata not been attacked by the scorpion. Had she stayed with the Careers. Iris didn't doubt that the Games would be looking very different to how they were now.

It was better this way, that was for sure. Iris had one of the strongest contenders on her side. Well, maybe not on her side, but at least not actively working to kill her. That was a step up from two days ago. She wondered if Agata would be more open to talking now. Iris had never been particularly chatty before - maybe the arena had gotten to her. The days she had spent completely alone, with only the sound of her footsteps to keep her company. She felt that she owed it to that lonelier version of herself to have a conversation with Agata. "Remember the interviews?" Iris said.

"What about them?" Agata asked, slowing her step so Iris could walk beside her.

"Well, there was the whole 'me mocking the Careers' and 'you threatening me with death' situation. Have you forgotten?"

"No, I haven't forgotten," Agata said, smirking. "Why do you bring it up?"

"Well, I'm just surprised that things changed so quickly. I mean, you basically told me that you and your allies were going to save me for last, make a show out of my death. It's unnerving that now we're walking side-by-side like nothing even happened."

"A lot happened. A lot changed. I'm not going to lie to you - if the scorpion hadn't melted my face off, if my allies hadn't ditched me - there's no way we'd be working together right now. Not a chance. But that did happen. And we are working together. And I hope that's good enough for you, because it's enough for me."

"I never said it wasn't enough," Iris broke in. "I guess I just wanted to air it out a bit, instead of running through it in my head again."

Agata nodded thoughtfully. "I understand that. For the record, I'm not sorry I threatened you."

"I never expected you to be," Iris said, smiling. "In fact, I'm glad you're not."

"Oh yeah?" Agata said, raising an eyebrow. A perfectly shaped eyebrow. How were her eyebrows still perfect after a week int he arena? Iris would never understand Careers.

Iris smirked. "Yeah. I -"

"Shh!" Agata hissed, suddenly fearful. She crouched down, pulling Iris with her. "Listen."

Iris listened. At first she couldn't hear anything - and then she heard them. Laughter, the voices of people who weren't worrying about someone hearing them.

The Careers.

"Where are they?" Iris whispered. She knew that the Careers likely wouldn't hear them if they talked normally, considering that they were talking so loud their voices were echoing all through the canyon - but just the same, she didn't want to risk it. Despite their volume, Iris couldn't tell if they were in front or behind them. They just sounded close.

"In front of us," Agata said. "I think."

"Should we go back, then? Or wait until there's some more distance?"

"We can't go back. No way. We don't have the supplies for that."

"So what then?" Iris asked, her voice hushed. "We press forward? Stay quiet and hope they don't decide to turn back?"

"We're not so close that it's a risk. If we're quiet, we'll be fine. We might even be able to get closer, maybe take one or two of them out stealthily."

Iris frowned. That was a great way to get killed. "No fucking way. I'm not getting any closer than we are right now. We can't risk it."

"Well, we can't just stop and wait for them to move along. They're going to be a lot slower as a group than just the two of us. We can't go at a snail's pace, we don't have the water for that, and if we find a way to overtake them we could get to the Cornucopia before they do. If you don't want to fight, fine, but it means we have to climb."

Iris felt her eyebrows shoot upwards. "Are you insane?" she hissed. "How are we supposed to climb out of here? Do you have a jet pack I don't know about?"

"Yes, Iris, this backpack here actually converts into a jetpack. And yours and transform into a hovercraft," Agata said scornfully, rolling her eyes. "We'll climb."

"With what rope?" The more Agata said the word climb, the less Iris liked her plan.

"We don't need a rope."

"I don't know if you're forgetting that one of us here has more experience than the other. You did see me climbing down here, right? There's no way I'm going to be able to make it all the way back up."

"You don't need to make it all the way," Agata said. "Look." She pointed upwards. Iris followed her finger, and saw she was pointing to a ledge running along the side of the canyon, maybe sixteen metres up. "We just need to make it up to there."

"You're crazy," Iris muttered, feeling her stomach drop as she considered the height. "You're actually fucking insane. What if the ledge doesn't run all the way through? What if we get stuck up there? What do we do then, huh?"

"We won't get stuck up there," Agata said confidently. "Anyway, we only have to get ahead of them, remember? And then we can go the rest of the way on foot."

Iris felt sick. "That means climbing down…"

"It's going to be alright," Agata said. She put a hand on Iris' shoulder. "We've got this. It'll be easy."

Any other time, Iris would have been reassured by Agata's confidence, but not this time. Not when she was being stupid and asking Iris to climb to her death. "Agata, we don't have ropes, or harnesses, or anything! I don't know how you expect to get up there."

"We'll just take it slow. Don't think about it too much. Climb with your feet, keep yourself close to the wall, don't try to pull yourself up. You'll be fine."

Before Iris could protest any further, Agata began to climb the wall. It looked effortless, and she seemed to find hand and foot holds easily, instinctually. Seeing the ease with which Agata climbed perhaps would have made Iris feel better if she didn't have a newfound fear of heights. "Fuck," she said, under her breath.

Agata obviously wasn't going to wait for her, and there was no way Iris was letting her get away - Agata was her only chance at beating the Careers. She was going to have to climb. Swallowing down the bile rising in her throat, Iris tentatively reached upwards, finding a rock jutting out and grabbing onto it. She hauled her body upwards, her feet slipping and scrabbling against the wall, before sliding straight back down. Agata was already at least a metre up.

She seemed to sense that Iris wasn't following, and looked down. She rolled her eyes and sighed, and climbed down slowly, as if she was demonstrating to Iris how easy it was. "Alright. Wimp. Just follow me. Put your feet where I put mine."

"Agata - "

"Look, you have to, okay? There's no other way around them. This is the only way we can get past, and we have to get past them," Agata said. Her tone wasn't gentle, exactly, but it was far from harsh. "It's simple - we don't have any other choice."

Iris bit her lip. "Okay." She looked up and shuddered. The ledge looked a whole lot farther up than it had a minute ago. "If I fall, I'm going to kill you."

"I'd like to see you try," Agata scoffed. "Alright. Put your hands where I put my feet. Take it slow. Push yourself up, don't pull. And don't look down."

"Okay," Iris muttered to herself. "Take it slow… push myself up… don't look down. Got it."

Agata began inching up the wall - slowly, for Iris' benefit - and Iris tentatively followed, grasping onto the rocks as tightly as she could. She found that once her hands knew where to go, her feet followed without much difficulty. Agata looked down at her. "You're doing well."

"I thought you said not to look down," Iris said, trying to ignore the feeling of her heart hammering in her chest.

"I told you not to look down. I'm not scared."

"How are you not scared?"

"There was a rock climbing wall at the Acad- at school. I've been climbing since I learnt my ABCs." Agata talked quickly to cover up her little slip-up, but Iris doubted anyone really cared when a Career made a mistake. It was only a mistake when it was a less desirable district. Like Six.

"Aren't you scared of falling, though?" Iris asked. She resisted the urge to look down.

"No, and we shouldn't talk about falling when climbing. That's rookie stuff," Agata said, her voice light. "Just focus on the wall, Iris. Watch my feet."

"Watch your feet? I can smell them," Iris retorted.

"Yeah, you love it."

Agata laughed under her breath. "Asshole." She looked down again. "Alright, we're about halfway there. You're doing really well."

Halfway there meant they were about four metres up. That was far, far too high for Iris' liking. She could feel her breathing quickening, her heart beating faster in her chest. She tried to slow herself down a bit, but instead of taking nice, slow breaths, she found herself gasping for air. "I can't… breathe -"

"You can breathe, you're just panicking. Stop it," Agata said firmly. "We're not that high up. Everything's okay."

"I'm - trying -" Iris gasped. What was going on? She'd never not been able to breath before. Maybe she had asthma like Jordie - why did it have to show up now, when she was dangling off a rock eight metres in the air?

"Iris," Agata said. "Listen to me." Iris looked up at her. "You need to calm yourself down, or you're going to die. Do you want that?"

Iris shook her head.

"I don't want that either. So you need to slow your breathing. Take a nice deep breath in - and breathe out."

Iris did.

"Again. Breathe in for four, and out for four. Keep climbing."

She found that focusing on counting, on watching where she put her hands, helped to calm her down. She kept breathing in, and out, inching upwards as she did. Her heart still hammered in her chest, but at least she could breathe.

"Home stretch, now, Iris. Only a little bit to go."

Iris looked up, and saw that the ledge was almost in arms' reach, maybe a metre up. Agata was closer to it than she was, of course, but that meant that Iris wasn't far. Of course, it also meant that the distance she would fall was a lot bigger than it had been a minute ago.

"Oh, god," Iris said, and squeezed her eyes shut. Her chest tightened up again. All she could think about was how easy it would be to make a mistake and plunge to her death. All it would take was a loose stone, or her fingers slipping - she was suddenly hyper aware of how sweaty her hands were, how difficult it was to keep her fingers from slipping off the rock.

She was vaguely aware of Agata above her, and tried to concentrate on that, on keeping her body close to the rock. Agata made a triumphant noise, and pulled herself up onto the ledge. "Come on, Iris, you're nearly there!"

Iris brought her leg up to the rock her hand had just left, and stretched - the rock came loose. Her left leg slammed against the rock, dangled in the air. She tried to bring it back up, to find another place to put her foot - her foot met only smooth stone, no grooves or rocks jutting out. She was going to fall, she was going to fall and she was going to die and Jordie was going to see her falling and screaming and her head was going to burst open like a watermelon. "Oh god, oh god, oh god," Iris cried. "Agata! Agata!"

She hugged the wall, bringing her chest flush against it. Her right leg trembled as it tried to support her full body weight, and her fingers held onto the grooves as tightly as they could. She suddenly felt hyper-aware of the weight of the bag on her back - what if that was what ended her, what if its weight was enough to tip her off balance and send her falling to her death -

Strong hands reached down and grabbed Iris under the armpits. She opened her eyes - she hadn't even realised they'd been closed - and she reached upwards, digging her fingers into Agata's biceps. "Iris, grab onto the ledge, you're pulling me down!"

Iris could see both of them toppling downwards, and her fingertips managed to find the ledge. She held on tight - pushed herself up as hard as she could with her right leg - and with Agata's help, she managed to haul herself up onto the ledge.

She crawled away from the side as quickly as she could, bringing her knees to her chest and burying her head in her hands. "Oh my god." Her cheeks were wet.

"Are you okay?" Agata asked, her voice softer than Iris would have thought she was capable of.

Iris sniffed, and swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yeah," she said, quietly. She furiously palmed the tears on her cheeks, and breathed in a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm - I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay," Agata said.

Iris shook her head. "No, it's really not. I could have killed us both. I wasn't thinking." She wasn't sure what she was more embarrassed about - that she had nearly fallen to her death, or that she had begged for help from a Career on national television. Either way, she could feel her cheeks burning, and her body ached with shame.

"You were panicking. It's okay. I get it."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"Do you think - do you think they heard me?" Iris asked, realising that she had been yelling.

"No. I think we're okay. They're too far ahead, and too loud. We're okay," Agata repeated.

"We're okay," Iris replied, breathing out.

Shit's busy but that's okay. I haven't been writing much, but I think I'm getting through the block, sort of. Maybe not. Anyway, here's a chapter.