Unto the Labyrinth is back! Thank you to everyone for waiting. Next chapter is partially pre-written, so expect it fairly soon!
A special thank you to Individuality26 for your kind review! I'm glad you're enjoying this!
That night, Maze and Camilee slept cuddled together in the shelter.
The temperature of the arena, as per usual, plummeted at night, so Maze and Camilee slept snuggled up together, the blanket wrapped around them.
Maze appreciated the sensation of someone snuggling up next to her. Their shared warmth helped fight the cold and Maze enjoyed the sensation of another human being pressing against her, arms around her. But man, Camilee stank. She had not bathed during her entire time in the arena, and it was obvious.
Maze tried to ignore her foul stench. But so close to Camilee, it was overpowering. It also masked the scraps of Willow and Sorb's scents that still clung to the blanket, which saddened Maze. The ghosts of their scents had comforted her the past two nights. She could almost pretend they were still there. Still alive.
When morning came, Maze wracked her brain to try and find the right words to ask Camilee to bathe without sounding rude. But thankfully, Camilee brought it up herself.
"Ugh. I smell awful." She sniffed her arm before rearing back, nose wrinkling in disgust. "I wish there was somewhere I could clean myself off."
Maze, nibbling on blue huckleberries, looked up. "Oh, there is somewhere."
She told Camilee of the waterfall where she, Willow, and Sorb had bathed only a few days prior. Camilee brightened instantly.
After the two finished their berry breakfast, the two set off for the waterfall. The day was cooler than when Maze last went to the waterfall, but still warm, and a heavy blanket of clouds gathered in the sky above them as they trekked to the river and waterfall.
Maze's right middle finger, the one that had been burned, ached and throbbed. When she had changed the bandage the night before, it had looked even more red and angry, and she even saw a pearl of yellow pus. Maze figured it was infected. She elected to ignore it and not tell Camilee about it.
Camilee didn't need to worry about her. Maze figured it would take a few days at least for the infection to kill her. Camilee didn't need to know yet that Maze would die.
Once they reached the waterfall, Maze instructed Camilee on how she, Willow, and Sorb washed their clothes with the river rocks. The two stripped down to their undergarments and washed their clothes. Maze's weren't as dirty as Camilee's, but she washed them again anyways. Maze also used the time to fill their water bottle.
The pressure of the rushing water against Maze's middle finger stung her infected wound. Maze winced, looking away so Camilee wouldn't see it. Thankfully, Camilee didn't appear to notice, too focused on scrubbing her clothes with a rock.
The girls set their clothes on the boulders to dry, and Maze waded into the pool under the waterfall. The water was cooler than it was a few days before — or perhaps it was the cooler air temperature that made the water's temperature more jarring than it did previously. Maze shivered as she entered the water, goosebumps immediately popping up on her arms.
"The pool's shallow enough to stand," she told Camilee, who stood at the water's edge and stared at Maze with the same expression Maze imagined she had stared at Willow and Sorb with a few days ago. "You don't need to know how to swim."
Camilee stared for a few more seconds, sizing up the pool and waterfall, before slowly nodding and entering the water.
She shuddered as she waded in further. "Damn, this water's cold."
Maze managed a chuckle. "Yeah. It was nicer a few days ago."
"On that one hot day?" Camilee asked. "Yeah, I'll bet. I sweated my butt off that day."
She waded further in. Maze directed her to the waterfall itself, and the two washed themselves. Above them, the clouds had grown darker and even heavier.
Maze felt sufficiently washed and floated away from the waterfall, waiting for Camilee to finish up.
A pinprick of pain exploded on Maze's cheek. The pain went away as soon as it had appeared, and Maze thought nothing more of it. Perhaps a bug bit her.
But then it happened again. This time, on her shoulder. And then again, on her arm. Maze looked over, expecting to see some sort of insect. Instead, she saw a red mark with a tiny droplet of water over it.
A hypothesis formed in her mind. She touched the droplet with her index finger. As soon as her fingertip made contact, the same pain radiated onto it, and Maze yanked her finger off and into the water.
"Camilee?" She asked, worry creeping into her voice. "I think we need to go back to the shelter. Now."
"Why?" Camilee asked, brow furrowing. "What's wrong?"
As she spoke, she flinched, her hand flying to her face. "Ow! What was that?"
"It's the rain," Maze replied. Across the pool, she could see circular ripples forming. "I think it's acid rain."
As if on cue, like the Gamemakers had heard her, the rain quickened. Multiple pinpricks of pain exploded across Maze's body.
"Shit."
The two girls rushed out of the water and to their clothes, still sitting on the boulders. Now that their limbs were out of the water, the rain scratched at their exposed legs and feet.
As Maze yanked her socks back on — not an easy task with both her feet and socks being soaking wet — the rain intensified even more. Burning spread across her body, and she yelped.
"Shit!" Camilee cursed again.
Maze didn't bother with her other sock. She quickly pulled her pants back on, not bothering to button the fly and put her jacket on, fingers scrambling against the slick fabric as she pulled the hood up and closed the jacket around her. Once that was done, she jammed her feet into her boots and grabbed her other sock, shirt, and water bottle. Beside her, Camilee did the same, and once all their clothes were on, the girls fled the waterfall.
The rain got even stronger. All of Maze's exposed skin stung as she and Camilee ran alongside the riverbank and up the hill back to their shelter.
Maze and Camilee flew through the woods, their loose boot laces slapping around. The rain stung Maze's hands, leaving a raw feeling. The pain spurred her on, and she kept her concentration on running, being careful not to trip on her loose laces or on any undergrowth.
The rain intensified into a downpour just as the shelter came into sight. Maze and Camilee practically slid into the shelter, Camilee yanking the door shut behind them. The girls scooted into the center of the shelter — furthest from the sides, where drops of the acid rain flicked in through the cracks — and breathed sighs of relief.
Maze examined her injuries. The rain hadn't done much damage, thankfully, but all of her exposed skin was red and raw. The most damage was done to her fingers and hands, which were the most red and raw. A few skin layers had been burned away by the rain. Between this and the burn already on her middle finger, Maze's whole right hand stung and throbbed. She dropped the water bottle onto the ground, wincing.
The two girls put their clothing on properly, which was difficult to do without standing up. A few droplets of acid rolled off Maze's jacket and pants and onto her skin, causing her to hiss in pain.
"Shit." The tip of Camilee's nose was red from the rain. She looked despondently at the sock in her hand. "I think I left a sock down at the waterfall."
"It's okay, I have spares," Maze responded, gesturing to the green backpack where she kept the spare pair she used to wear on her hands. Camilee rummaged through the pack and withdrew a sock, nodding a thanks to Maze.
For a few hours, Maze and Camilee sat in silence in the shelter. The rain came down in sheets and sheets with no signs of stopping. Luckily, the clay that Willow and Maze had put on the roof held up and not a single drop of acid leaked in.
Somewhere in the rain, a cannon fired. A second cannon fired maybe thirty minutes later.
Camilee spoke up after the second cannon. "Eight left. We're in the final eight."
The final eight. The Capitol would be going out to the districts and interviewing the final eight tributes' family and friends. Maze wondered who they'd manage to scrounge up in District 3 to interview for her. Whoever they managed to interview probably wouldn't have anything nice to say about her.
However, Maze had family in District 12.
"They'll interview our moms," Maze commented.
Camilee nodded. "I wonder what they'll say about this."
A terrible thought came to Maze's mind. "Do you think they'll be punished on camera? For running away to Twelve? Or make them confess to their crimes on camera or something?"
"I don't know," Camilee replied, voice soft against the rushing of the rain. "I hope not. They've never done it before."
"That doesn't mean they can't start now," Maze remarked.
Camilee nodded again and the two went silent once more.
A minute later, the silence was broken by the distant hum of a hovercraft's engine above the din of the rain. Maze recognized the sound from when Willow and Sorb had died. Whoever had died didn't die far from the camp. Maybe in the pokeweed meadow or by the waterfall or somewhere equidistant.
The two deaths must have satisfied the Capitol viewers, because the rain cleared up shortly after that. It was only after the clouds had lightened up that Maze and Camilee dared to crawl out of the shelter.
Strangely enough, the rain seemed to have no effect on anything in the environment around them. Drops of the acid rain coalesced on the leaves of plants and rolled off them with no damage to the leaves themselves. Even the metal pot, which Maze and Camilee had left out, was in pristine condition. Maze knew from chemistry class that acid corroded metal. The acid rain must not have been acid, but something else entirely, specially engineered to harm human flesh. Whatever it was, she was glad it was gone.
She and Camilee went out to check the snares Maze had set with Sorb a few days prior, hunger gnawing at their bellies. Or rather, Camilee's belly. Maze was starting to feel the effects of her infection. Any hunger pains she had were replaced with a sense of queasiness, and her body burned and ached the way it did when she had a fever. She was sick. There was no question about it. The burns from the rain didn't help one bit.
She trekked through the woods alongside Camilee, leaning heavily on her spear. Her legs trembled with the effort to keep upright. She wanted nothing more than to turn back and crawl back into the shelter and sleep, but she didn't want Camilee to worry. Camilee didn't deserve to worry. But she knew eventually that there'd come a point where she couldn't hide her pain anymore. Maze was only so strong.
That point came sooner than later. Camilee must have noticed the fevered flush on Maze's face or her huffing and puffing as she walked, because she stopped in her tracks. "Are you okay, Maze?"
Shit.
"I'm feeling a little sick, actually," Maze said.
It was true. She was feeling a little sick. Camilee didn't need to know just how sick she would get or why she was feeling sick.
Unfortunately for her, Camilee was intuitive. Her gaze dropped down to Maze's right hand, curled to her chest in pain, and her eyes narrowed. "Can I see your burn?"
Shit.
Maze stuck her right hand out in defeat. Camilee grabbed it, the raw skin from the rain stinging as Camilee unwrapped the bandages around her middle finger. She gasped at what she saw.
The burn looked even worse. The pus had increased, and the edges were red and angry. Red streaked from the wound itself, heading up her knuckle. The very sight coerced a wave of nausea to rise in Maze's stomach.
"This is bad," Camilee said, winding the bandages back around Maze's finger. There was an emotion Maze couldn't read in her voice. "No wonder you don't feel good. Let's go back to camp."
Maze nodded a silent agreement, and the two headed back to camp, Camilee wrapping her arm around Maze and guiding her through the woods the way she did the previous day in the labyrinth. Maze leaned on her, her feet feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds. The end of her spear dragged through the dirt.
As soon as they returned to camp, Camilee went into the shelter and arranged the blanket for Maze, dragging an empty pack for her to use as a pillow. "Here. Lay down."
She eyed one of the backpacks Willow and Sorb had gotten leaning up against the back wall. "We don't have any med kits, do we?"
"No," Maze croaked, laying down where Camilee had indicated. "Just bandages."
"Shit," Camilee mumbled. She was awfully fond of that word. Swearing must have run in the family. The thought brought a faint smile to Maze's lips.
Camilee withdrew the bandages from the other backpack. The roll was starting to look thin and worn. It wouldn't be long before it ran out of bandages completely. The bandages themselves didn't look sterile, either. The edges of the roll were frayed, and a few dirt patches dotted the bandages. It was no mystery how Maze's burn got infected.
Maze held out her hand again, and Camilee changed her bandages, throwing the dirty ones to the side and wrapping Maze's burn with clean ones. Maze winced as the fabric brushed against her wound, causing Camilee to profusely apologize.
Once Maze's bandages were changed, Camilee smoothed the blanket around her. "Get some rest, okay?"
"I'm sorry." Maze's words trembled as she said them.
"Don't be sorry." Camilee picked up a corner of the blanket and tugged it over Maze. "You couldn't help getting your burn infected."
She sighed. "I wish we had some medicine or something."
She began stroking Maze's hair. The sensation brought comfort to Maze, and she felt her eyelids growing heavy at the action. Her body still ached and burned, but the feeling of Camilee stroking her hair superseded it. It gave her an anchor feeling to hold on to as she drifted off to sleep, the fever and infection sapping any and all energy remaining from their mad dash from the waterfall.
But before she could fully fall asleep, a familiar beeping noise filled the air.
Maze's eyes snapped open. Camilee's stroking abruptly stopped.
"Is that a sponsor gift?" Camilee crawled out of the shelter, leaving the door open. Through the opening, Maze watched as a small container attached to a silver parachute floated down into Camilee's outstretched hands.
"Please be medicine, please be medicine, please be medicine—" Camilee twisted open the container, then whooped. "Yes! It's medicine!"
Relief — as well as exhaustion — flooded through Maze.
She was saved.
Camilee withdrew a paper from the container, glancing over it. "Oh! It's a joint gift from both our mentors!"
Maze perked her head up. "Joint gift?"
Camilee read the instructions on the paper, then opened the container, withdrawing a needle and plunger in sterile packaging. The plunger was full of a clear liquid. "It's a shot. From Beetee. Looks like I put it in your right arm."
Maze couldn't help but give a weak smile at that. So Beetee was still watching — and looking out for her.
"Thank you, Beetee," she said.
Camilee pulled out a fresh roll of bandages from the container. "Haymitch sent some more bandages." She gave a dark chuckle. "Finally. I thought he stopped caring about me."
She crawled back into the shelter with the shot in hand. Maze shrugged her right jacket sleeve, still damp from the river, off and rolled her shirt sleeve up. Camilee went over the instructions one more time, took the shot out of its packaging, and inserted the needle into Maze's right upper arm. The liquid burned as it made its way into Maze's muscle and then dispersed. She could feel the liquid squeezing its way through her capillaries. The burning sensation faded after a few minutes, by which time Camilee had changed her bandage once again with the new ones.
"Speaking of your mentor, did you know he and my Ma were in the same class at school?" Camilee asked as she was putting the roll of bandages away. The corners of her mouth twitched up in mischief. "She said everyone was shocked when he won."
It took Maze a moment to get the joke, but once she did, she snorted. "Nice one."
After that, Maze took a nap, the exhaustion finally getting to her. When she woke up, presumably several hours later, judging by the twilight that had descended upon the arena, her sickness had abated, leaving only the gnawing of hunger and a slight headache.
While she was napping, Camilee had gone out and nabbed a medium-sized animal of some sort — Maze didn't recognize it — for them to eat. They sat around the campfire as they cooked and then ate it as night fell completely and the seal of Panem appeared in the sky to show the two fallen tributes.
The faces of the boy from 9, who Maze remembered from the start of the Games, and the boy from 12 — Camilee's district partner — lit up the sky for a few fleeting moments before disappearing.
Camilee gasped, then sighed when she saw her district partner's face. "Oh no. Not Paul. I wonder what happened."
"Were you two close?" Maze asked, despite having a good feeling of the answer. If he was close to Camilee, she would have mentioned him already.
Camilee, as expected, shook her head. "No. We mostly ignored each other. Which is fine. I think that's typical for most district partners."
Memories of Alt surfaced in Maze's mind. "My district partner didn't seem to like me. I don't know what his problem was. I didn't do anything to him."
Camilee took a bite of the animal meat. "Well, you're here, and he's not. I wouldn't worry about him anymore. From his interview, it sounded like he has plenty of people back at home to worry about him."
"True."
The two finished off their meal, then went to sleep, curling up together the way they did the night before. This time, Camilee smelled better.
The night heralded no new deaths nor anything of any novelty. The morning dawned, humid and heavy. When Maze and Camilee woke up with dry mouths, they were disheartened to find that their water bottle didn't have sufficient water to quench both of their thirsts.
They journeyed to the river to replenish their bottle, however, before Camilee could plunge her hand in, holding the water bottle, Maze stopped her.
"Wait!"
Camilee froze, crouching at the riverbank. "What? What's wrong?"
"What if the river still has the poison rain from yesterday in it?" Maze asked, her words rushing. "It rained heavy for several hours yesterday. The poison rain could still be in the river. Plus, do you think the Gamemakers would leave a resource like this untouched after an event like that? Especially after all this time?"
It was true. They had been in the arena for what, nine days? Ten days? Maze lost count a long time ago. The average length for the Games was about two weeks. The Gamemakers would want to start rushing things along to reach the finale. The poison rain yesterday was a clear example of that.
Camilee looked at the bottle, then down at the river flowing beneath her, considering her options. The water didn't look any different than usual, bubbling and winding its way through the landscape, but it could very well be designed that way. Designed to trick desperate tributes and let them drink burning water. Maze imagined that wasn't too pleasant.
"Let's test it." Camilee put the bottle aside, before sticking out her pinky finger and extending it towards the surface of the water. Maze watched with bated breath as she dipped the pad of her fingertip into the water, barely brushing the surface, before she hissed and jerked it back. "Ouch! Shit! You were right."
She wrapped her pinky in the fabric of her jacket sleeve. "Good thinking. You saved me from burning my entire hand and probably dropping the water bottle in and then losing it. Thank you."
Maze looked down at the water bottle, still enclosed in Camilee's hand. The bit of water that remained in it reflected the sun. Her mouth grew drier at the sight. "Now we don't have any water."
She remembered the dehydration she had gone through at the start of the Games and how awful it made her feel. Looking back, she couldn't untangle the sensations of dehydration from those of hunger, which she went through at the same time, but she knew both were unpleasant. Maze wasn't eager to find out how dehydration felt on its own. The thought made her heart twist in anxiety.
Camilee didn't reply for a few seconds, too busy staring down at the water bottle in her hand with a face Maze couldn't read. "No. No water. Unless—"
She looked up the hill into the woods. "We go back into the labyrinth."
"The labyrinth?!" Maze exclaimed, biting her lip to prevent herself from adding 'Are you crazy?' to the end of her sentence. "But…the mutt!"
"It's scared of fire," Camilee said, standing up from the riverbank. "I still have the lighter. As long as we have fire, we'll be fine."
She dusted her pants off. "There's supplies in the labyrinth. I found some food there the first time I went in. If there's food, there's bound to be water. If there's clean water anywhere in the arena right now, I bet it's in the labyrinth. The Gamemakers want to bait people in there so the creature can tear them apart. But thankfully for us, we know it's scared of fire, so we'll be fine."
"I don't know," Maze swallowed, remembering what had happened the last time she was in there. The creature tearing apart the boy from Four. The sheer terror she felt as the creature stared her down in the seconds before Camilee showed up. She never wanted to enter those tunnels again. She never wanted to see that monstrous creature again.
"You can bring the spear just in case," Camilee reassured her. "Honestly, it's a good idea to bring the spear anyway. There's six others left beside us and five of them Career. But I think our only option for water is to go back in."
The spear. The idea of having the spear with her alleviated some of Maze's anxiety. She remembered how naked and vulnerable she felt without it. She relented, giving Camilee a slow nod. "Okay. But can we be careful? The labyrinth gives me the creeps."
"Of course," Camilee replied. "We'll always be careful."
Maze nodded again, and the two set out towards the nearest labyrinth entrance — the one Maze had run into just two days before. They stopped by the camp so Maze could grab the spear (she really needed to start taking it with her everywhere — not taking it with her had screwed her over two days ago in the first place) and then they walked out of the woods and back into the pokeweed meadow.
"You know, I ate three of those berries the third day in the arena," Maze said as the two of them walked through the meadow, an attempt to make lighthearted conversation. "Would not recommend. I had a terrible time."
Camilee snapped her head towards Maze, eyes wide like saucers. "You ate pokeweed berries?"
Maze nodded. "Yeah."
"That's one of the first things a kid learns in Twelve," Camilee said. "Don't eat the pokeweed berries."
Maze groaned. "Did everyone learn about pokeweed berries except me?"
"Some people in Twelve use the young shoots to make a salad," Camilee replied, eyeing a particularly leafy bush. "You gotta boil it several times to get all the poison out, though. And even then, it still makes people sick sometimes. People only eat it when they're desperate."
Maze shuddered, remembering the stomach pain and vomiting from the plant. "Sounds unappetizing."
"It's better than you'd expect." Camilee gave a brief chuckle. "Trust me."
Fifteen minutes of walking later, they reached the ruins that marked the entrance to the labyrinth. They were as foreboding as ever, a gaping maw into the hillside.
Maze stopped short, grip tightening around her spear. Her hands, still red from the rain, ached as she did so. They didn't hurt as much as yesterday — the shot must have helped with the rain burns as well — but her hand still hurt when she moved her fingers too much and flexed the skin. When she had changed the bandage on her right middle finger that morning, the burn itself looked much less angry and inflamed.
Camilee picked up a fallen tree branch and, using the lighter from her pants pocket, ignited it. The flames sprang to life along the wood.
"In we go."
Maze swallowed, gripped her spear, and followed Camilee into the mouth of the labyrinth.
The layout of the labyrinth was unchanged since the last time the two had ventured inside. Same weathered stone walls and floor, same gaps in the ceiling that let patches of sunlight in, same claw marks along the walls and floor. Same corner that turned right. Same junction.
Same blood stain on the ground, where the boy from Four had been torn apart. His body was gone, but the stains remained.
Camilee turned right, down the corridor that Maze had run down when the creature had appeared and slaughtered the boy.
"Do you know where we're going?" Maze asked. Her voice echoed in the dim corridor.
"Kinda," Camilee responded. "What I did last time was turn right until I hit a dead end, then work backwards from there and make other turns. It helps so that we don't get too lost."
The two wound deeper into the labyrinth. At every junction, Camilee would turn right. Maze followed, not daring to say any more in fear that the creature would hear their voices and come to attack them. Even with Camilee's fire, she still didn't feel safe. The atmosphere of the labyrinth, with the shadows dancing on the walls and the dark, cavernous tunnels, did nothing to quell her fear.
After a while, Camilee stopped.
"Here, hold this," she said to Maze, passing her the makeshift torch. Maze took it, watching as Camilee went over to a wall and felt her hand along it. One of the rectangular stones jiggled as Camilee slid her hand past it, and she pried it off the wall, revealing an empty space.
She sighed. "Dammit. There was food here last time. I guess the Gamemakers haven't replenished it."
"So we'll have to find places you haven't been?" Maze asked.
Camilee nodded. "Looks like it."
The two continued even deeper into the labyrinth. The beams of sunlight from the ceiling became fainter and fainter as they wound their way deep underground. Maze was starting to understand why the trip up to the arena on her pedestal took so long. The arena was deep as well as large.
Eventually, glowing globs of what appeared to be some sort of moss appeared growing along the grooves in the floor and walls. This bioluminescent moss emitted a soft golden light just strong enough to let them see in the dark ahead of them, outside the reach of Camilee's torch. Maze reached out to touch some of the moss. The moss's light vanished wherever Maze touched it. As soon as she removed her fingertips, the light came back.
The two reached a two-way junction, creating a Y-shape.
"Let's go left," Camilee said. "This is where I left off last time. I think."
"You think?" Maze side-glanced at Camilee with wide eyes. "You don't know where we are?"
"I have a good idea of where we are," Camilee answered.
Maze squeezed her spear with both hands. "Maybe we should have brought our packs in case we got stuck here."
"It's only so big," Camilee responded, staring straight ahead into the left junction. "We'd find our way out eventually. Even if it wasn't where we wanted to be."
She walked forward. Maze followed behind her, on guard. Being in the labyrinth for so long was starting to make her anxious. It was far too quiet. Far too calm. Nothing like the fear and violence she had come to associate with it. She didn't trust the current peace. Not at all.
"Look out for anything suspicious, like a large or loose stone or something," Camilee instructed. "Something that could have supplies."
A few paces later, a dull roar reverberated through the corridor.
Maze's blood turned to ice. "Shit."
"We have fire." Camilee lifted the burning branch in her hands. "It'll turn around as soon as it sees it."
Up ahead several yards, illuminated by the moss, was a wall. The left and right walls of the corridor connected to it. They could walk no further.
"Dead end," Camilee declared, walking up to the wall in front of them and examining it. Her fingers ran along the grooves between the stones, looking for somewhere where supplies could be stashed.
Another roar sounded, this time much closer. Maze tightened her grip even more on her spear, fear coursing through her. "It's coming."
Camilee appeared by her side in an instant, holding the fire in front of them like a sword. She held Maze close to her with her other hand, gripping her shoulder.
They heard the thundering of its hooves first. Then, the creature came careening towards them out of the darkness, screeching a battle roar that pained Maze's eardrums.
In the light of the fire and moss, it looked even more grotesque. Before, Maze hadn't realized just how human-like its skin looked. There was a layer of hair on it, but no more than would be present on a particularly hairy human male. Its torso looked especially human, like it had been taken directly from one and then blown up artificially in some Capitol lab. It was this humanity that creeped Maze out the most. Not the large bull head currently roaring at her with pure malice in its beady eyes and a mouth full of fangs. And not its claws with dried blood encrusted on, even more than Maze remembered from after it killed the boy from Four. Or maybe they'd always been that bloody? She didn't know. She didn't care to know.
Camilee swiped the fire towards it. "Get!"
But the creature didn't flee.
It jumped back with a snarl, but it didn't turn tail and run the way it had before. Instead, it hovered back, watching the two girls and the fire. It got on all fours, scraping its claws and hooves against the stones like it was getting ready to attack.
"Fuck," Camilee hissed, before swiping again. "I said, get!"
The creature jumped back some more, before stepping forward and assuming the position it had before. Its gaze whipped between the two girls and the fire, and it let out another roar that sent a gust of foul breath towards Maze and Camilee. The fire flickered in the force from the roar, threatening to die.
They were trapped. There was nowhere to run. The creature had them cornered.
But Maze had her spear. Her spear, with a sharp, electrified tip. The tip, connected to a powerful enough battery to kill a human.
Maybe it could kill something human-like.
Maze looked at her spear, then at the creature.
She made her decision.
She couldn't let Camilee die.
She stepped back, out of Camilee's grasp.
Camilee looked back at her. "Maze! What are you doing?"
Maze didn't answer. She backed up until she was inches away from the wall, giving herself room to accelerate. She shifted her spear into position, bracing her hands and pointing the tip at the creature.
Camilee realized what Maze was doing too late. She shrieked. "Maze!"
Maze charged the creature. She ran full speed at it, right past Camilee, letting out a shriek of her own. The creature barely had time to turn its massive head towards her before it got an electrified spear skewered into its abdomen.
It was the creature's turn to shriek. It convulsed, letting out a shrill, pained whine. The force of her charge, plus the creature's convulsions, caused Maze to lose her grip, and she stumbled backwards, feet tripping on the uneven stone. Her spear remained stuck in the creature's flesh.
"Maze!" Camilee rushed towards her, managing to steady Maze before she fell on her butt.
"The fire!" Maze yelled over the creature's screams. Miraculously, the fire had survived the creature's roars. "Set it on fire!"
Maze didn't have to ask twice. Camilee nodded and then charged the creature herself, catching its loincloth with the flames. The cloth went right up in flames. The creature continued to scream and thrash about, not seeming to notice the new pain introduced.
The fire soon spread to its hair and flesh. An awful scent, like rotten meat being cooked, filled the air of the labyrinth, and the creature continued to shriek and shriek.
Maze and Camilee stood, arm in arm, and watched as the creature in front of them burned to death.
After a few minutes, its screams of pain stopped, and its convulsions became less violent as the creature's limbs went limp between convulsions. The fire spread over its body, burning away its flesh. A black, oil-like substance leaked from the creature's body, like it was some kind of disemboweled machine, spreading onto the gray stones.
Maze assumed it was dead. Unlike with the tributes, there was no cannon to signal its death.
The creature wasn't all too different from a tribute. It was placed in the arena against its will and made into a spectacle, where it was expected to kill other tributes (and it did) and it was able to be killed by a tribute (and it was). If the Capitol had wanted to make it unkillable, they would have. But they didn't. Instead, the creature died like any other tribute in the arena. And it didn't even get a cannon or its picture in the sky.
After a while, Maze walked over to the burning corpse, careful to avoid the flames. The spear still stuck out of its abdomen like a flagpole. She grabbed it and attempted to tug it out, but she must have stuck it in there good because it didn't give.
"Here. Allow me."
Camilee walked up beside her and yanked the spear out, before handing it to Maze. The tip was coated in the black substance, glistening in the firelight.
"Don't do something like that again," Camilee lectured. "That was reckless."
Maze shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah. Maybe. But—" she gestured to the burning corpse, "—it's dead. We killed it."
Camilee looked over the creature. "That's true. I guess we did."
She looked back at Maze, and she was shocked to see worry etched across her face. "Maybe give me some warning next time, though. I—you scared me."
Maze looked down at her boots. The black substance pooled around them, blending in with their dark indigo. "Sorry," she mumbled.
"It's okay. At least it's dead now and no one has to worry about it anymore." Camilee glanced down at the creature's burning corpse, a grave expression on her face. "Poor thing. That was a painful way to die."
"Yeah."
The two walked past the corpse and down the corridor, leaving the creature behind to burn into oblivion. The foul stench still hung in the air, and it was starting to make Maze's stomach turn.
She was glad to escape it.
