Chapter 9

I choke in a breath even before I open my eyes. Coughing, choking, wheezing. Then I can just take in deep breaths, relishing in the warm air filling my lungs. I'm alive. I thought I was so close to death so many times in that dreadful trek, but I'm alive. I did it.

I brush the knotty hair back from my face and feel the green bow on my ponytail. I completely forgot about it. I retie my hair, even though it's still knotty. Then, I rest back down on the grass.

I look at Adrian stirring beside me. He's coughing too. I don't even know how long we've been out. Could be minutes, could be hours. Hopefully, not days.

"We made it," I breathe.

"I thought . . . I thought I was gone. I thought we both were. What happened?" Adrian asks, still looking dazed from the coughing.

"I carried—well, dragged you away from the flowers."

"While you were near suffocating from the laughing?"

"Yeah," I yawn, exhausted, and lay back down on the moss.

Adrian leans towards me and extends his hand to help me up.

"We should try to get back."

"Yeah, probably," I take his hand and stand up, brushing the leaves and sand off me.

"Where are we anyway?" I say, not recognizing this part of the island.

"How far away did you carry me?" Adrian chuckles.

"No, don't laugh. Don't ever laugh again." I say, completely serious.

"Wait, look! Is that . . ." Adrian races towards something in the woods, and I follow at a much slower pace. I am mentally and physically worn out from the previous events. Can we please, maybe, go slower?!

But then, I realize what he found. It's a silver parachute with a sponsor gift. He reaches to open it.

"No, Annie, you should."

"Okay," I shrug and unscrew the lid of the box. "What is this?" It is an odd L-shaped tube of plastic that has a metal cylinder inside. I press the metal part, and it makes a noise.

"Wait, I know what this is. May I?" I hand him the weird item. He puts the end of it in his mouth and breathes in as he presses on the metal cylinder. He does it again. "It's a breathing device. Helps you breathe by giving you air."

"Let me try." I do the same thing as he does and breathe in the sweet air from the tube. Even though it is only air, just like the water from the storm when I was severely dehydrated, it tastes like the best air I have ever had. Although, it doesn't get the lingering flavor of the flowers' poison off my tongue.

"This would have been nice when we were almost dying from the poison," I mumble. "But we appreciate it nevertheless," I add, aware of the cameras around us. I probably just offended our one chance of survival. "And anyway, I couldn't see well because I kept crying from the laughter. I couldn't notice it, which was my fault. We are abundantly grateful for the help this gift provides us currently."

"Let me show you something," Adrian interrupts my montage and begins to retrace our path back to the flowers. It's far, much farther than I thought I went.

"Don't go too close!" I say, sounding like a paranoid mother.

"Look," He points to the flowers up ahead. "We came all the way from there. You dragged me while you were struggling to breathe, from back here. That's impressive Annie."

"Thank you," I say, surprised. I genuinely appreciate the compliment, but I'm also taken aback. Not only is this probably the most he's ever said—when he's not high from flower pollen—but he's also complimenting me. But more importantly, I'm proud of myself. Even when I couldn't rely on anyone else, I still was able to protect not just myself, but also Adrian. And I stayed alive, which is probably the most important part.

I don't know how Adrian feels, but I feel like jumping on one of the soft Capitol beds and sleeping forever. But we are still in the games. We still have to be ready for anything.

Adrian prepares a fire and cooks some of our fish as soon as we get back to the cave. I work on cutting some of the fruit we've found and putting it in a leaf bowl. For being in the Hunger Games, we aren't eating half-bad.

I know what we are both really doing is thinking about what happened. As I chop the fruit, I make a list in my head of everything. The delirious laughing, the flowers, the smell of home, the suffocating, the almost dying, the sponsor's gift. I wonder if they genetically changed the flowers to be able to smell like each tribute's District. It would be smart. The scent of home worked for us.

I hear a monkey screeching at me outside. It probably wants our food. Adrian should be almost done. He doesn't exactly communicate any important details, or anything beneficial actually. The only times he speaks is when he's remarking about the games. He mentions something about the sponsors and the games as we cook, but I tune him out. He's talking to himself. And it's not like I need a reminder of where I am.

Then I hear a blood-curdling scream. I rush to Adrian, and he's fine. But that's not the monkey or any animal. I grab the machete and give Adrian a wide-eyed look. He stops grilling the fish and returns my apprehensive stare.

"What if it's the flowers? Should we hide?"

"We can't, not with the fire right here. It wouldn't help anyway. We should—"

The cannon goes off. Adrian starts running. I yell after him. Every instinct in me tells me to run, but I follow. I grab the plastic tube and then sprint towards the direction of the blue flowers. When we get close, I use my jacket to cover my nose as a precaution and try not to breathe. The air is a faintly azure with pollen. With Adrian in front of me, we both carefully inch towards the flowers to get a better view. I gasp.

There is a redheaded girl with long braided hair in a black jacket. She's lying face down on the mossy ground, one of the red fruits in one hand and a blue flower in the other. I am glad I can't see her face because it's probably grotesque. What District has the black jackets?

Then I hear movement on the other side of the patch of flowers. Another black jacket shifts on the ground, making quiet wheezing noises. The brown head shakes from side to side.

"There's someone else. Alive." I whisper, drawing Adrian's attention away from the girl.

Then the figure on the ground looks up. It's the boy from District 3. The girl must be his partner. They were best friends. He starts crawling towards me. I freeze.

"Tera . . . " He locks eyes with me. "What are you doing . . ." He laughs, then lunges at me with a long knife, and I jump back. "I'll kill you," The boy looks up again with swollen eyes and purple, puffy lips. I remember that he's only fourteen. The boy wheezes from laughter. Adrian digs his nails into my arm, but somehow I can't turn from the poor soul in front of me.

"I'll kill you!" He charges at me again and swipes the knife but falls to the ground. The knife almost grazes my leg. I snap out of it and finally run.

Adrian and I run out of there, listening to the cackling laughter dying away. The words "I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you," repeat over and over. And even after they stop and another cannon goes off, they still race through my head. I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll kill you.

When we get back to the cave, I collapse, leaning against the wall of the cave. I use the breather. No tears sting my eyes, but my hands are shaking again, and my heart races. My mouth feels oddly dry. Just calm down. I use the breather again.

"That could have been us," I say, drawing a sharp breath at the end of the statement.

"That almost was us earlier. If not for you." Adrian reaches his hand out. I give him the breathing device. Maybe this is hard for him too. Neither one of us has actually seen anyone die yet. "That was stupid of you. You should have run instead of waiting for him to attack." Adrian uses the breather, taking deep breaths.

"I know," I say regrettably.

"They were probably trying to bring the tributes from District 3 over to us. To encourage a fight."

"I know."

"We really could have died."

"I know," I say severely, matching his somber gaze. It's almost like the incident of a few hours ago didn't really hit until right now.

I slump down with my back against the cave wall, wanting another breath. Down to 9 tributes now. Adrian gets the fish he was cooking and the fruit I prepared, but neither of us has an appetite.

"Who are you, Annie?" Adrian asks, staring at nothing outside the cave. The sunset must be beautiful over the shore. But we're too far away to really see it.

"What?" I say, dumbfounded by the out-of-pocket question coming from him.

"I know about you from the parade and the interviews. And the time spent training or from other people." He looks at me with his same serious expression, but somehow it's . . . softer. "But it's all superficial information. I don't know you. I don't know the person who saved my life."

"What do you want to know?"

"About your family."

"I have two younger sisters and an older brother. My youngest sister is babied by everyone. She's six. Claire just turned twelve. It was her first year in the reaping. She handled it well though. She's pretty mature. My brother is nineteen. He's a real pain in the butt sometimes." I chuckle at the memory of his stupid goofy expression that I always get so upset by.

"What about your parents?" Adrian asks, almost sadly.

"My biological mom died when I was three. She got sick. My dad remarried when I was five to my mama who is the most caring person in my life. She's feisty though. She's not much of a talker, but you better not mess with her kids, then she'll find a whole bunch of words to say. And my dad is amazing too. They rarely ever argue. My dad can get caught up in . . . life sometimes. He feels things very deeply, kind of like me, I guess. I hope he's okay while I'm gone." I say it like it's for sure that I'm coming back home. "What about your family?"

"Oh, mine." He looks back outside the cave. "Not much to say."

"Oh, come on. There is always lots to say about family."

He sighs heavily. "My mother, father, and I all live together in the Victor's Village. My mother is pretty quiet too, especially to me and my father. And my father . . . My father isn't exactly the talking type either." He pauses. "The infamous Taran Hemmings. I guess being a previous Victor, he feels like he has a reputation to uphold." Something darkens in his expression. "It's not like all the kids at school didn't already gossip and treat our family differently."

"Your dad was hard on you?"

He sighs, seeming to be aware of the cameras that could be listening to every word. "My father had to deal with a lot from the games, even years afterward. I was so little . . . He kind of took his problems out on me sometimes." He squeezes his eyes shut, then moves his gaze to the dust on the cave ground, refusing to look me in the eyes. "A lot of times," He whispers. He sits up straighter. "Not like I had any friends at school to rely on either." He spits sarcastically.

"Too bad we didn't go to the same school," I say, slightly changing the subject. "I'm not really an outgoing person, but I can't stand other people being alone. And anyway, I can relate to outcasts in a lot of ways."

"It was fine. I didn't need someone. One thing my father did teach me is how to take care of myself."

"Might've made life easier though, you know?"

He shrugs.

There is silence for a few minutes. I can feel the world outside us gradually getting darker. I wish we had a lantern or something. It starts raining. Neither of us moves to fill the containers. The coolness from the rain feels so nice even though we are safe and covered in the cave.

"You know, I really thought I was going to die," Adrian says. I barely notice his voice cracking. His throat's probably just dry—even though it's humid.

"Yeah, I thought I was going to die too. It felt like I was dying."

"You would've never been able to see your family again." He's still not looking at me.

"No, I wouldn't have."

"Annie," He finally looks at me. "What happened when you tried to jump off? I didn't—no one thought you would do it. And you did. You tried anyway."

"In truth, I don't know. I don't know what happened. I guess it was a new rule. Maybe they couldn't put bombs under the platforms because of the water, so they just put a force field around them."

Adrian clearly doesn't think that's the case. He sighs like he is going to say something, then stops himself. Then he does it again. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here." He squeezes his eyes shut again, running his hand through his raven hair. "No, not that you were reaped. It's that I appreciate you, and I'm glad we're a team."

I scoff. "Feels like I've been dragging you down this entire time."

He raises an eyebrow. "When you were the one that had to drag me away from the poisonous flowers? I don't think so."

"Well, thank you. That's consoling, I guess."

He grins at me, and I smile back, then his smile fades.

"I don't think I can kill you. I just can't. No matter if it's a mercy kill or if it comes to us. I don't want you to die."

"And I don't want to die either," Is all I say.

Silence again. But his brutal honesty inspires me.

"You promised someone you were going to protect me?" I breathe into the humid night air.

"How—"

"You apologized that you couldn't protect me right before you passed out from the poison." I feel awkward saying it out loud. It feels like I intruded into someone's private thoughts. "Who were you talking to?"

"I think you know," Adrian says significantly, reminding me of the cameras. It's true, I do know. It annoys me that I can even guess. A part of me even wonders why he cares so much and what ulterior motive he might have, a part of me is just thankful that I have someone advocating for me. It does put my mind at ease even though at the same time it also puts it at annoyance.

It's dark outside now. We should be sleeping, but we are both propped against the cave wall, looking out into the night.

"I'm glad we are a team too, Adrian. I'm glad you waited for me when I was distraught and scared," I laugh at my pitifulness. "I felt pretty alone until you showed up."

"I guess I can't stand people being alone. I can relate to the outcasts." I can't see him in the dark, but I can only hope he feels my smile.

"Goodnight, Annie."

"Goodnight, Adrian."