Chapter 11: Human

"Who do you think the Avoxes had working with them? To help us get out?"

Soaking in the warmth from the sunlit boulder he was leaning against, Lee didn't bother to open his eyes when he answered Kori. His speaking voice was still limited to a raspy whisper. "Probably people who didn't want us able to identify them. If we got captured again."

Using the under-city tunnels and, for a stretch, some sort of small underground car, the Avoxes had escorted the Victors past the first section of railway tunnel and to the portion damaged by rebels weeks earlier. Apparently, in the initial confusion after the Games, a stolen Capitol hovercraft managed to evade the Capitol's air defenses just long enough to bomb a section of tracks quite near the city. With another southwest track available, the Capitol leadership had decided to conserve resources and leave the useless stretch more or less alone.

The Avoxes had left Kori and Lee alone with a satchel filled with supplies once they were past the main extent of the damage. We will be missed soon, the others will pay, had been the typing woman's explanation. Watch for any hovercraft. Good luck.

Now, a couple days later, they were miles from the Capitol, taking a mid-afternoon rest in a meadow by the empty train track, surrounded by needled trees and full of boulders, grasses, and late summer flowers. Despite the warm sun, the intermittent breezes that passed through felt like it belonged to autumn.

No one's come hunting for us yet. I wonder if Snow had too much to deal with after the power outage to make chasing us worth anything to him. Even if that's true, I'm surprised we got this far.

Part of the reason they had was the full bottle of pills Kori had found tucked away by a knife under the packets of food in the satchel, not long after the Avoxes left. She'd been taking two pills a day, and they kept her upright and able to carry the supplies.

It's lucky that I'm still having trouble feeling pain, at least the sort that would keep me from walking. The pills were morphling. It's not worth it.

"Didn't you stop being addicted?" she'd asked when he refused the pills and told her why.

"I stopped using. There's a difference."

It's been about three days since we were left alone, and we've seen no one else. The landscape of alternating rugged mountains and grassy valleys seemed empty besides birds, rodents, and occasional bits of ruins that looked like they predated the Dark Days.

I don't mind it out here. Even in the dry season, there's still some green.

"We should keep going," Kori said. He opened his eyes as she got up from her own boulder, slung the satchel over her shoulder, and walked over to offer him a hand. "Would be nice to find another stream by nightfall," she added as she pulled him to his feet.

Over a month in a cell and she's still more muscular than I'll ever be.

She still moved more slowly that she had in the Arena. They both did.

They did find a tiny stream around sunset, and Kori went about purifying water with the iodine tablets that had been provided while Lee portioned out some of their dried meat and fruit. My hands won't stop trembling... It wasn't just hunger; he was having some trouble eating but they weren't starving yet. The burns, most ly concentrated across his forearms and shoulders, hurt some and might get infected, yet they still didn't worry him so much as the buzzing, the headaches, the twitching.

I'm no doctor, can't tell exactly how much they fucked me up. I might be about to drop dead for all I know. And if the mind fog starts up again...speaking of…

"Hey, Kori?" he said as she joined him under the sheltering branches of a gnarled evergreen tree. "I've been meaning to mention...Sometimes I...Look, if I ever stop moving or responding while staring at nothing...Sometimes my brain gets fogged up and I don't really know what's going on around me. If that happens, just...talk to me, yell at me, slap me if you have to. I don't want to walk myself off a cliff or something." Or get you killed somehow.

Kori handed him a water bottle; as he took a drink, she said, "Okay. I'll keep an eye on you."

They were midway through their small meal when she spoke again. "Is it from the Games? The fogginess, I mean. I have trouble focusing sometimes, too, ever since the Ninety-Fifth."

"The Games sure didn't help. But I don't think that caused all of it, not in my case." Lee swallowed. "I was using morphling from a young age, a lot of it. Even though I stopped after my Games...I think it broke something in my brain long before I was Reaped."

"Oh. That sucks." She scratched her head. They'd shaved her head in the Capitol; it was already growing back, spiky and black. "I'm sorry."

"Why? It was kind of my fault. Maybe my parents', too."

"I guess." She paused. "You know, I always thought Three's slums were miserable, until I saw Six."

"I don't think you're wrong there."

He thought of something else as they settled down for the night. The nights in this region were cold even with summer; fortunately, the Avoxes or whoever else they had worked with had packed a sleeping bag not unlike the ones sometimes provided for tributes in the Games. Kori and Lee had been fitting into it together, back-to-back to conserve heat, although they tried to alternate staying awake to keep watch. She'd offered to go first tonight. She's the one who's been laying down with a hand on the only weapon we have. "Kori? It's not a bad thing, but I...I've never seen you so...talkative."

Not that they'd had much energy for talking since their escape, but when they did, Kori tended to carry the conversations more than Lee.

He heard her sigh behind him. "...I think I hit rock bottom in that cell. Is there something past that?"

"Never heard of it, but maybe."

"If there is, I'm there." She took a deep, shuddering breath. "They firebombed District Three. Because of the Arena."

So that's what they did. They must have hit Twelve as well... "I'm so sorry."

"Why? It was my fault," she said, echoing his own words from earlier.

"No." If I'd set up the trap, it would've been Six instead. Someone had to take the fall. "It was Snow's."

"Yeah. Him. He talked to me once, in his office, told me about Three." Another shaky breath. "My parents are dead. They were being tracked. He had proof."

Fuck. "Kori…"

"They didn't have proof that my older brother died, or my best friend. So either they did die and Snow just wasn't sure, or they're with the rebels. Because they were rebels." She snorted. " Snow's people thought Beetee told me everything he knew about the rebellion, that's why they questioned me so much at first. He didn't tell me everything; he told Kiro."

The question slipped out without him thinking about it. "Didn't you have a younger brother, too?"

"...Did you hear about Three's big riot, right after the Ninety-Ninth?"

"No, not specifically." Only that there was unrest there.

"It got stamped out quick. It wasn't even that violent at first. But then some Peacekeepers got spooked, started shooting into the crowd. Kai was there. He'd just made it past his last Reaping."

"...I didn't know."

"No one outside of Three was supposed to. It would've been big news in the Capitol. A recent Victor's sibling getting shot in the street." Shifting in on the hard ground, she went on, the undercurrent of something between rage and pain now clear in her voice. "In the Capitol, after they stopped torturing me every day, stuck in there knowing that everyone I love is dead or far away fighting, I just...I've got nothing to lose now. I'm not afraid. I don't have to behave. If we live through this...I'm going to burn it all down." Her voice cracked.

Everyone was focused on Darien and Katniss. I think they underestimated Kori.

He waited until her breathing steadied, then said, "I haven't thanked you yet."

"For what?"

"Saving Helvius. From Shimmer."

"Oh. Right. You're welcome." She adjusted her position again. "Did Snow speak with you?"

"Yes. A...couple weeks ago?" If what the Avoxes told us about how much time has passed is correct… "He wanted to tell me how much of an irritation my lover is."

"...What?"

Lee found himself smiling slightly. "Snow showed me part of one of those videos the rebels are showing in the districts...Hal was shooting down hovercrafts with Katniss."

"Washe in on the plan?" she demanded, sounding confused.

"Not at all. But I thought he'd make a good rebel." Lee's smile faded. Hal...I hope you're staying safe...or alive, at the very least…Safe is probably too much to ask from you...

"Good for him." Kori made a noncommittal noise. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I was kind of surprised when I found out you knew as much as you did ."

"I'm not offended. I'm forgettable."

"You won by hiding, right? Like your mentors did."

"I won by being forgotten." I wasn't really hiding. Just waiting.

"Right. It's been a while since I've seen...But sponsors noticed you enough to send you food, didn't they?"

Lee had to laugh a little, even though it made him cough. "Helvius was my only sponsor."

That stunned Kori into silence for a minute. "Glitz sponsored you? Why? I mean…"

I keep forgetting that almost no one knew, until maybe recently. "He wanted to secretly undermine the Games, if only to watch his fellow One Victors get angry. I was a...somewhat random choice on his part." Although guilt also contributed to that choice. " He kept doing it, though. Every year, he'd anonymously sponsor an 'underdog'." He hesitated. "He sponsored your ally from Eight."

"Twyla? Shit, t hat spear…The more I learn about him...He talked to me on my Victory Tour."

"He mentioned."

"So the thanks for trying to help Mota...that came from you."

"It came from Axela, too." His eyes drifted shut, exhaustion finally taking over. "You're like him. And Katniss."

"...Are you asleep already? Because you're not making sense."

"You, Helvius, Katniss...you're all impossible to ignore."

Four days after that conversation and many more miles of abandoned track and rugged terrain later, they were still alone. The valleys had become drier, water sources fewer and farther between. They'd heard wolves in the distance one night.

In spite of their shrinking rations, Kori seemed to feel better every day, even when she started halving her morphling doses. She kept them moving, started conversations and kept Lee involved in them when the brain fog started creeping back. After hearing the wolves, she'd found a sturdy branch long fallen from its tree, whittled a sharp spear, and given Lee the knife to carry. "Now we're both armed."

I don't know what she's running on now, but I could swear she's getting stronger.

He was getting weaker.

Besides the bouts mental fogginess, his ears still buzzed, the headaches worsened, and the muscle spasms had been replaced with bone-deep fatigue. Things as simple as breathing started taking effort. His burns grew inflamed and far more painful. Kori kept having to help him over rougher stretches of ground as being able to balance and walk on the track rail became completely out of the question.

I'm slowing her down.

The afternoon sun, uncomfortably warm for the first time since their escape, beat down on them as Kori, in the lead, veered away from the track, following trickling stream towards the nearest section of hills. Lee followed, slowly picking his way between fragrant, pale-leaved shrubs as Kori disappeared behind a rocky outcropping. He tried calling out to her; it stuck in his throat.

Regardless, she came back around the rocks a minute later. "Found a waterfall," she said with a ghost of a smile. "And plants I actually recognize as edible. I think we should stay here even if it's a bit early to stop. Come on."

The waterfall tumbled down a rock wall into a shallow pool that fed the stream Kori had followed. The sides of the sheltered gully just downstream of the waterfall were lined with trees, shrubs, and, further up the slopes, a couple types of cactus.

Lee was dozing off after a couple mouthfuls of water and a few bites of tasteless cactus leaf when Kori gave him a shove. "Hey. It's still warm enough out to take a shower."

He squinted up at her. "Shower?"

She grimaced. "No offense, Lee, but...We're both getting dirtier by the minute, and sharing a sleeping bag is getting really rough when, um...when you kind of smell like you weren't making it to the bucket in your cell."

"I probably wasn't ." And we didn't have a chance to wash up in the tunnels... For a moment, the pain and weakness faded into the background as a feeling of revulsion swept over him. I'm disgusting. Like I was back in my Arena, shaking from withdrawals, soiling myself in the bathtub while waiting to die…

Kori dragged him to his feet before he could sink too far into that memory. "Clothes, off. Shame we don't have time to wash and dry them, too. "

Getting the base layer of grime off had to do. Lee managed to get his clothes off unaided, and followed suit when Kori stripped completely naked. Not a big deal out here, is it? Might as well get as much off as possible while we can.

He ended up washing himself sitting down in deepest part of the pool beneath the rock wall. Kori found them a couple somewhat smooth stones to use as scrubbing tools and stood under the waterfall for a few minutes before joining him. "Lucky you don't have to worry about shaving, I guess," she said.

"Oh. Yeah, they did that treatment on me again before the Quell, the one usually do to keep facial hair from growing on male tributes, since I do shave normally...It does last for quite a while, if I remember correctly." He shrugged. "By the way...sorry about your hair."

"Don't be. I sometimes wondered what I'd looked like with really short hair. Now I know. Or will when I find a damn mirror. It'll grow back." She splashed a little water at him. "They didn't shave yours."

"I almost wish they did." He felt his matted hair, which had grown a couple inches past his ears since he last cut it, and winced. "It feels awful."

"We deserve a real bath when we get out of this. Lots of baths." Kori sighed and stood. "We'd better finish up so the temperature doesn't drop on us."

That night in the sleeping bag, feeling a bit cleaner despite the filth still on their clothes, Lee forced himself to stay away long enough to say, "Kori, if we're out here much longer, if you have to...you can leave me behind...I'm slowing you down…"

Despite his best efforts, his eyes had already shut when Kori said, "Not going to happen. If it's my safety you're worried about, imagine what your boyfriend will do to me if I show up and tell him I left you."

Honestly...she has a point.

He woke up to morning sunlight peaking down between gathering clouds and Kori already out of the bag and preparing cactus for breakfast. "You didn't try to wake me to watch."

"I fell asleep again." Kori handed him a peeled cactus leaf.

"Fortunate for us the wolves didn't show up."

"I'm a light sleeper." She smirked at him. "Eat that entire cactus leaf , and then what's left of the jerky . We're not moving until you do. I had my share already."

He smiled back. "Yes, ma'am!"

The rather nice start to the morning didn't carry over long.

As the day wore on along the train track, Lee kept having to stop and rest. He started feeling feverish. Every stumble resulted in a wave of dizziness that almost led to him blacking out a few times. By the afternoon he was shaking so badly that he was unable to grasp the water bottle Kori handed him during a break and dropped it.

She snatched it up in a second. "Good thing the cap wasn't off yet." Her attempt at levity didn't manage to hide the worry in her voice.

"I can't keep going," he whispered as the slumped against the metal rail, the landscape blurring before his eyes. "Kori…"

"I'll carry you before I leave you."

"I'm a good few inches taller than you and you haven't been lifting weights recently."

"Have you seen yourself? You're a skeleton. I could manage it."

"You're still injured."

"I'll up my morphling dose again. Since you won't take them!"

He didn't miss the accusation. "Morphling wouldn't help what's going on with me. Not really."

"And you won't even try one."

Clamping his eyes shut, he snapped, "Kori, if I have one, I probably won't be able to stop myself from taking the rest of the bottle, and there's enough left to stop my heart."

"I'll stop you."

"I won't let you. That's…" A cough tore out of his chest, and it took him some time to recover. "You don't get it, Kori. I'm a different person on morphling."Someone who can't be trusted.

Instead of addressing that, she grabbed him and jerked him upright. "Then I'll settle for having you lean on my shoulder."

Any fight in him gone, he nodded, and they started off again, step by fumbling step.

Every step felt like a mountain climb. I can't make it much further...I can't...

He didn't know how far they had gone, only that it felt like hours later, when Kori yelped, "Hovercraft! " and yanked him down behind one of the smelly shrubs.

This isn't a good hiding spot...Black spots danced in front of his eyes. We can't go back…

Then Kori let out something like a whimper. "Lee...that's not a Capitol seal on the wing."

Dimly, he heard her start yelling, saw her jump up and wave her arms, watched the hovercraft descend. He glimpsed the people who emerged from it, wearing gray.

Gray, not white. Not Peacekeepers.

Helvius had been wearing a gray uniform in the propo footage.

Rebels. We made it.

He lost consciousness a few seconds later.