CHAPTER 10

Sudden Death

Jackson and Olive were sitting side by side, each concentrating their attention on the side they had chosen to guard while eating dinner. There hadn't been much talk since that morning, just a few survival points in their plan that they had to go over. However, it was evident there was something that still troubled her ally, since he would take an eternity to eat his dish.

"All right, spit it out. What's wrong?" Olive said, leaving the apple she was holding on her lap to turn her head. Her eyes meeting her ally's eyes. Jackson didn't reply. He just stared at her blankly. "Come on, Jackson, we might not have all day."

"Do you miss them that much? Your family, I mean," he asked, not taking his eyes off hers.

She nodded, smiling thoughtfully at him before taking a hand to her token. "Of course, I miss them. They're my family, the ones I chose to love, after all."

"Chose?" he repeated, clearly confused.

"Well, not all families are related by blood, are they? How else could friends become family if not? I was born in a household, but not until those people pampered me with love, and I gave them that same love back, did we become a family," she explained, caressing her mother's earring. "Do you not miss your family?"

"Well, I can't when there's nobody left to miss," he chuckled bitterly, leaving his dish back in the basket under the pretext that he would eat it for supper.

Olive remained still for a couple of seconds, trying to put herself in Jackson's place. He had no family, yet he was in the Hunger Games, fighting to not let the last thing he had to lose escape from his grasp, his life. It was too horrible to even imagine. "I'm so sorry, Jackson." She whispered, patting his shoulder comfortingly.

This is why I didn't want any allies. How on earth am I going to kill him once we're the last two left? I can't. I probably never could to begin with. From the very first moment we joked around, I should have known I couldn't point my knife at him. She thought, observing as Jackson went back to his seat next to her to keep his watch.

"There's nothing we can do about the past, anyway," he muttered, shifting his axe from one hand to another. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly let out a chuckle, confusing her as he added. "Actually, I pity you. Having someone you care about is good just for one thing. Getting you killed."

Olive stared at him before looking up at the blue sky, remembering her brief chat with Librae about what being a mentor meant for their families. She couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. It turned out her mother's statement had been right all along. Shaking her head, she corrected her ally. "One time, someone told me that getting killed would be quite merciful. That there are far more horrible ends than death itself. Only now do I realise they were right."

"Well, that's a sunny way of seeing it," Jackson joked, causing Olive to snicker.

"Says you," she pointed out with a laugh, continuing to joke around to make time pass by in the blink of an eye.

As nighttime approached, a cannon fired. The first one in the entire day. Eight left to kill. Two more and we'll be in the eight tributes left. There's where the hell will truly begin. Those little mutts are probably child's play compared to what they have in store for us. Olive glanced at her ally, who nodded in reply. He was thinking the same as her.

"Today, I'll guard first," Jackson announced, not leaving any room for discussion, which forced her to comply. In the cosiness of her sleeping bag, Olive could watch the stars perfectly.

Her heart hoped that, once she glanced at her side, she would see Annie, as she was always beside her, clearly more impressed at the stars than Olive would ever be. Nevertheless, her mind was always there to remind her heart that it was lucky Annie wasn't there. Her twin had never been much of a hunter, though she was good at it. To put it simply, she was more similar to a healer than a hunter. Saving life was her thing, not taking it.

Kind-hearted people never make it far. That's why it's better if Annie never sets foot in the Hunger Games. She reminded herself, forcing her eyes to close as the soft breeze helped her fall asleep.

A couple of hours later, her dreamless sleep was interrupted by a high-pitched scream too close to her location. She sat up immediately, taking her knife to encounter whoever was there. Jackson stopped her from moving any further, taking a firm hold of her wrists before she could get up and make any more noise.

"It came from the side of the cave," he whispered to her, leaving her hands free as he took his axe, moving slowly to not alert the tribute or tributes near them. Olive followed behind, ready to throw her knife at the minimum sign of movement. Luckily, or rather unluckily for the two, the moonlight provided enough illumination to see what was going on down there.

A girl, with a bandaged leg, and a bow and quiver full of arrows, was trying to get the mutts off of her, while desperately asking for help. Jackson was about to jump to her rescue when Olive stopped him in his tracks. "Are you nuts?" She questioned with a stunned expression. However, he didn't stay to hear more and stepped down to the entrance of the cave.

She shook her head, cursing her ally under her breath before following after him. With her throwing knife, she took out a scorpion mutt that was about to jump on Jackson before carrying the girl out of there. The girl couldn't look worse. She had dry blood all over, and her eyes seemed lost, as if her mind wasn't focusing properly. Who could blame her? With all the blood she had probably lost, it was a miracle she was still conscious.

"I'll take the girl to the top and get her bow. After that, I'll protect you, alright?" Olive announced her plan, not waiting for a reply as she managed to get the girl to stay still on her back while climbing the cave. When they arrived, Olive quickly took the bow and quiver and began shooting at the mutts. "Jackson, climb! I've got your back!"

Her ally did as she said, climbing the cave with just one hand as the other had to carry the axe. As soon as he was out of reach of the mutts, they seemed to calm down, going somewhere else, probably to try to find another victim.

"You dumbass, you almost got yourself killed," Olive hissed as she saw Jackson dropping to the ground beside her, completely out of breath from the intense fighting he had just got himself into.

"Well, even if death isn't the worst end one could have, I couldn't let her die like that," he said, breathing in deeply before their eyes grew wide and muttered. "The girl!"

The girl laid over her back on Jackson's sleeping bag, panting heavily as if the air couldn't reach her lungs. Olive rushed to her, checking her wounds to see if she could be treated, or if it was just a matter of time before she died. The bandage on the girl's leg wasn't that bad, and would probably conceal the wound pretty decently. However, the other cuts worried her far more. Because there was no real reason why the girl should be in such an awful state. Not for a half-cured wound and a few cuts.

"That's weird," Jackson muttered beside her.

"So, you see it, too. She shouldn't be like this. The wounds aren't that serious," she said, taking her shirt off, leaving her only with her tank top and jacket to protect her from the cold. She spilled a bit of water over and cleaned the wounds.

"What if it's due to poison? Some mutts were scorpions. What if they injected her with venom?" He reasoned, helping her ally by rolling up the girl's clothes a tad so she could reach the wounds freely.

"We have no plants to treat her, neither can we go get some. If it's due to poison, we can only stay by her side and see if she'll outlive it," she broke the news, quite harshly, although it was just what it was needed due to the situation. Her ally had to know they couldn't dream to hope. There was nothing they could do for the girl. It all depended on how strong she was to endure the venom until it disappeared from her system. "She's still half-conscious, so that's already something."

"Tell me the truth, Olive. What are the chances that she'll survive the poison?" Jackson questioned, clearly agitated.

"Very few," she answered softly, rubbing his back comfortingly before asking. "Why do you care so much about her? You even put your life in danger for hers."

"She's my district partner, Olive. She has a family to go back to, unlike me," he answered. Though he didn't mean it, his voice carried an unintentionally harsh tone. He was annoyed, more by the situation than at her. After all, she had come down to help him, even though she didn't know the girl and barely even knew him. "Having said that, I think you should worry more about yourself than me. I knew her, but you didn't. Still, you jumped to help her and me. That wasn't the smartest move I've seen you do."

"Just as I said the other day, it wasn't anything heroic. I just helped her because you needed to be saved after miserably failing at trying to save her," she muttered, glancing down at the girl, who seemed to be calmer than a few minutes ago. "You're the heroic one in this group, Jack."

"All right, I freaked out when you started calling me by my name, Liv, but giving me a nickname? Really? Just, wow," he teased, elbowing her lightly as she chuckled at his antics.

"OK, Seven, calm down before I smack you," she joked, laughing at his complaints about using his district to refer to him while going back into her sleeping bag. "You were saying how you'd keep watch, right? Then, goodnight, tree-boy."

"You're so mean, water-girl," he muttered playfully, receiving a playful nudge on his shoulder before everything went back to its usual silence. Every hour or so, he would check up on the girl, cleaning her wounds with Olive's humid shirt, which she had left next to the girl.

Jackson knew he had put Olive and himself in a stupid, dangerous position. Caring for a dying person in the Hunger Games? If it weren't for the millions of cameras that had to be around them, no one would believe it. And he didn't doubt for a second that their mentors would be freaking out at the danger they had put themselves in.

Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel closer to his ally than ever. Olive had no reason to help him save the girl. All the contrary, if she had thrown that knife at him, she would have simultaneously got rid of two tributes, and kept all the food and water to herself. Instead, she threw that knife at the mutt that almost attacked him, and took his district partner out of danger.

With a smile, he looked at his ally, who was tossing and turning around in her sleep. Probably due to one of her nightmares. "You might not be heroic, but sure are kind." He muttered, brushing her hair out of her face, which seemed to calm her, as she kept still in her position.

A smile formed on her lips while muttering a name. He couldn't hear it correctly. Though it was surely just another sibling or part of her family. Perhaps a friend, since she had said before that friends could become family to her. Whoever it was, he was jealous of them. They got the chance to meet her without having to suffer an inner crisis on whether to accept death at her hand, or hope for another tribute to kill her first.

Killing her was completely out of the question by now. It didn't matter if they were in the Hunger Games. Only a foul would think that, after everything he owed Olive, he would kill her. Perhaps if they made it to the last two, he would have a fair battle with her. Though he already knew the winner of that possible fight, and it wasn't him.

As morning arrived, the ration of food was divided again. Since Olive had now the bow, the alliance could take the risk of letting Jackson go by himself to collect water hurriedly while she protected him from any potential dangers by the girl's side.

"She hasn't moved all night. I doubt she'll be able to drink by herself," Jackson muttered after accomplishing refilling the water bottle.

"I doubt she can drink at all. If we force her to drink in her state, the water might end up in her lungs. Then, we would have saved her just to kill her ourselves in the stupidest way possible," Olive answered, sitting beside the girl as a thought popped up in her mind. "Do you think there will be medicine in the cornucopia? There might be some, right?"

"OK, you've gone nuts. It must be a heatstroke. Drink water, Liv," he said, tossing her the bottle, which she caught, but didn't drink. "Come on, you can't be serious. You want to risk your life again? For a mere possibility? Chances are, you'll meet the Careers before you even get near the Cornucopia."

Olive opened her mouth to complain. However, the voice of Claudius Templesmith was faster, announcing a feast the following day for all remaining tributes alive. "There's something every one of you needs." He said, and it was true. Everyone needed something in that arena. Water, food, medicine. Any of those.

"We're not going," Jackson declared decisively, not letting Olive even form a single thought. "We don't need the feast. We have food and water. No need to risk our lives."

"Says the one who jumped to danger just a few hours ago to save his district partner! We've done so much already, and we're not even going to try to get medicine for her?" Olive exclaimed, absolutely stunned, not only at her ally but at herself, too. Why did she care so much about the girl? She knew there was no real reason.

However, thanks to the bright sunlight, now she could take a good look at the girl's appearance. The resemblance Jackson's district partner had with Annie was so astonishing, that Olive could swear the girl was Annie's twin instead of herself.

That must be why I can't leave her. At least not yet. She thought, taking the girl's hand with hers.

"Liv, don't be stubborn. The feast is clearly a set-up. Come on, a feast on the fourth day? I bet whatever you want that, by tomorrow night, we'll already be under the eight left alive," he tried to reason, rubbing her back comfortingly as she approached her hand to the girl's mouth. "What are you doing?"

Instead of a reply, Olive completely shoved him to the side and began compressing the girl's chest, trying to reanimate her. It took her ally a few seconds to understand what was going on. However, when he understood, he tried to get her to stop instead of encouraging her, or simply standing idly for the girl to breathe again.

"Liv, stop. Liv," he breathed, resting a hand on her shoulder. She didn't bulge and continued trying to reanimate the girl. "Olive, stop it. She's gone. I doubt any amount of reanimation will bring her back with poison remaining in her body."

"But . . . but," Olive was breathless. The adrenaline mixed with fear, and the sudden exercise had left her exhausted. She got worse, way worse, the moment her hands left the girl's chest. As it was the moment the cannon sounded. "No."

"She's gone now. It's better like this, Liv. She must have been in a lot of pain," he tried to console her, hugging her slightly shivering body to provide her with a shoulder to cry on. She never did. No tears left her eyes. In fact, she wasn't shivering from fear or sadness. She was mad. Utterly furious. "We need to get out of here. It's not safe for now. Once the hovercraft gets her, everyone will figure out someone else could be here. And, maybe others not, but the three careers left might want to come to take a look."

Olive stood still, watching her lap, where the girl's hand rested. She wasn't sure when it had fallen there, but she wasn't planning to move it, not for now. The death had taken her by surprise. She wasn't expecting the girl to die so soon. It was like a message. The girl, who so much resembled her dear twin, had died so suddenly. What could prevent her real twin from dying just like that as well? Nothing. There was nothing except her own death.

No victor, no danger. Olive thought, glancing at the arms that were so carefully wrapped around her body. Jack might be too kind, but he might just make it if I help him. Yeah, if I help him, he could win and tell my family I love them . . . I never told them. Why didn't I? I'm so stupid. I knew I was going to die, but never told them how much I love them!

"Let them come, we're two against three, right? Well, with my bow, we might be able to take them down easily when they come. As long as we stay on high ground, I have the upper hand," she suggested, taking a hold of her bow before looking at Jackson with determination. "I'm staying to wait for them. What will you do? Stay or leave?"

Jackson sighed, letting go of her to pinch the bridge of his nose. "We're both going to die . . . OK, I'll stay. But we'll need to leave for a bit either way, or they won't come to get the body."

"Let's finish the water bottle and refill it, then," she muttered, rearranging everything, so they could descend the cave without a problem. With a last look at the girl, she jumped off, following her ally deeper in the cactus field to leave enough space for the hovercraft to get the body.

As Jackson proceeded to get the water, Olive stood facing the cave, bow in hand. Ready for anyone to suddenly appear to shoot them. No one appeared, not even after the hovercraft collected the body. That left them a bit more time to prepare for the following day. The feast, where everyone would come out of their hiding places to risk their lives to obtain something they truly needed.

A sudden thud next to their sleeping bags surprised them, forcing the two to turn around to meet the silver parachute that had arrived. Another basket was attached to it. However, this time, there were only three loaves of bread in it. Olive recognised one easily. It was Four's typical loaf of bread. But why would her mentors send only one? And why at that time? They still had enough food to last one more day.

"Hey, isn't that the bread from One?" Jackson muttered, taking a loaf of bread that Olive hadn't paid much attention to before. "And that one is from Two. I ate plenty of those during the training."

"A loaf from One, another from Two, and then Four? Why would they . . ." Olive stopped in her tracks, looking up at her ally, who had remained awake at night. "Jack, who died yesterday?"

"Huh? Well, the boy from Two, I think," he answered, realising the meaning of the bread. "One, Two and Four. The last careers alive . . . you think they might be near?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I think," she said, preparing her quiver on her back before taking her bow. "Get ready. We're going to have company very soon."