Deadly Game - Chapter 23

Hey! So I decided to be nice and upload today even though I'm pretty exhausted, 'cause you guys are amazing!!! So many people have been begging me to upload - so this is for you!

That's Swan, D3 (Evan Rachel Wood) ---->

<3 Anna

Chapter 23

I sit by the fire with Axara and Faith. It has stopped snowing, but we still keep the fire going.

I'm about to pick up my backpack and search it for anything that could be breakfast, when Faith suddenly makes a surprised noise.

A sliver parachute with something hanging from it is coming down. It lands in the middle of us, close to the fire, and Axara immediately drags it backwards, away from the flames.

In a basket we find a great breakfast. Bacon, eggs, bread, butter, sausages, fruit, hot chocolate... We all look at it with wide eyes. In the midst of it all is a small slip of paper. It reads,

Congratulations for surviving to Day 4, Axara, Cassidy and Faith!

"Thank you," we all say in unison, gazing up at the sky, smiling at our sponsors.

We eat the bacon, fruit and hot chocolate, knowing they won't be edible tomorrow or later today. We cook the raw eggs over the fire, then eat them, too. I wrap the sausages and bread into the plastic wrap that surrounded the fruit, and stuff them and the butter-package into one of our backpacks.

When we've eaten, I look at the others.

"So, what are we going to do now? If I'm correct, there's nine of us left..." I say. "Should we split up?"

They look unsure. Then something flashes across Axara's face, and she looks determined.

"No, let's not split up. We're stronger together."

"So, what to do?" Faith asks, repeating my question.

The Gamemakers decide before I can open my mouth.

A loud crunch from behind makes all of our heads jerk up, and I'm immediately running into the cave, snatching all the backpacks and the parachute, tossing them to Axara and Faith who are standing in the opening of the cave. Our sleeping bags are – thank God! - already packed into the backpacks.

We run from the clearing, run for our lives in the forest.

And the trees keep falling behind and around us.

A branch that has somehow snapped free from a tree hits me in the already wounded shoulder, and I let out a low noise. It hurts, but I keep running.

Faith and Axara stumble beside me, but we keep going, running our fastest.

A tree falls beside us, and we quickly jump away, changing direction.

I see a flash of red in the forest beside me, and realize quickly that it's a tribute. The girl from 10, about my age, with the reddish brown hair-color. I think her name is June, or Lily, or something like that. Something that brings the word 'summer' into my mind.

Julily.

The girl trips, but she's quickly back on her feet. Soon she trips again, and this time she's not quick enough. A tree falls over her ankle, trapping her. She screams, trying to get away, but the tree is too heavy for her to move.

"Help!" I hear, but I keep running. I can't stop. The only thing I can do is to scream her name.

"Julily!"

Then another tree falls over her.

A cannon sounds.

I force myself to concentrate, to run, but it's hard.

Axara is limping slightly, but she's managing. Faith isn't as fast as we are, and she's starting to trail dangerously much behind. I slow down, grip her hand, then almost drag her with me. The adrenaline in my body keeps me going, and we run for a long time, until we've left all of the falling trees behind. We're now close to the mountain, so we decide to go in that direction

"So, top eight, how does it feel?" I ask, trying to sound happy enough, but I just sound emotionless. The death of Julily replays in my mind, and I still hear her desperate cry for help.

"I'm so glad we managed it this far," Faith says. "I'm pretty proud of myself."

"They will start interviewing our families," Axara comments.

"Yeah," I say, a wave of longing washing through me again.

We do not speak much, but we continue forward, walk for what seems like hours. Of course it isn't – according to our clocks – but we're so tired.

We decide to take a break, and sit down together in the snow. I pull out a few packages of energy-jam, and we eat. I lean back against a tree, and count on my fingers which tributes are left.

"Cassie, Axara, Faith and Andie. That's who we know for sure. Then there's Drew, Clarie, Marco, the girl from three – Swan, and the boy from 6. One of them is dead, but we don't know who."

"From what I saw through the snow, the person didn't have ginger hair as Swan does," Axara says.

"So, Axara, Cassie, Faith, Andie, Swan. Those are who we're sure are alive."

"Yes," Faith says. "Or, at least, I feel very alive." We laugh.

Then we hunt. I manage to get a squirrel, and Axara nails a rabbit with her ax. But the snowing has stopped, and since our camp-place is probably squished by trees – there's no going back there – we don't have a good place to start a fire in and cook our game. I'm not in the mood of meeting any other tributes today. All the running has made me death-tired, and my shoulder hurts. I can't even move my arm properly anymore. My coat is once again stained with blood, and we decide to take a break from hunting to re-bandage it.

"Do you want to search for a good place to spend the night?" I ask, though I doubt I'll make it far from here.

"I think we should," Axara says, looking worriedly at my shoulder. "I don't think you'll be able to move much, though, Cassie." Axara seems to read my thoughts.

"I'll manage," I say.

Faith decides to climb a tree and see if she can see anything worth noticing.

Axara and I wait as she quickly climbs to scan the area, and then returns to the ground.

"There's no signs of other tributes nearby, but I think we should try to get to the mountain. There seems to be caves. And it should only take us two hours."

"Correction," I say, pointing to my shoulder-blade. "Four hours."

We start walking, and I try hard not to slow them down. I have been in more pain than this, so this should be easy.

But it isn't. Part of it is the ankle-deep snow that makes it hard to walk, another the fact that we have to stop all the time and change direction. The big trees around us makes it really hard to navigate.

After two hours, I give up and take one of the painkillers from the first-aid package. I've tried to avoid it, 'cause we only have a few, but it's clear that I need it now.

Axara is still limping slightly, and when I ask she answers that she twisted her ankle when we ran, but that I shouldn't worry.

Faith leads the way, and she seems to be in the best shape of us all.

"Come on, we're already halfway there!" She says, trying to keep our mood up.

I smile.

Then she turns around and keeps going. She's been practicing with the weapon I gave her, and we've gave it the name 'Needle', just because we need to have a easy name for it. I was right – the weapon fits Faith. It's easy to handle, and long enough so that Faith won't have to go to close to her opponent.

Now she holds the needle in her hand confidently, swinging it back and forth while humming some song.

"What are you singing, Faith?" I ask, trying to distract myself from the fact that the painkiller hasn't started working yet, and my shoulder is throbbing with pain.

"Oh, it's just an old song we used to sing at home." She subject seems touchy to her, so I don't pry. She stops singing after that.

Really touchy subject.

I watch the snow-covered forest, wondering why I feel so at home surrounded by the coldness – me, who's never seen snow before! But my body enjoys the cold.

Faith turns around again to ask something, and keeps walking forward.

I see it a second before she steps on it.

The uneven layer of snow. It's darker than the rest, a little different.

"No! Don't step – "

The snow-covered ground under Faith's foot disappears, and she falls into a hole, a scream escaping her lips.

I see her tiny body fall through the ground, then hear a thump and a sickening crunch.

"Faith! Faith, are you alright?"

Axara runs to the edge of the hole, and I instantly follow her. The hole is not that deep, only about three meters, but still if you step into it, unprepared, it can be dangerous. It's not meant to kill, but to injure. Because suffering adds to the entertainment.

Faith is absolutely still, and I can see blood pouring from her back when I peer over the edge.

"We need to get her out of there!" Axara looks at me in panic.

The panic is close to taking over me, too, but I push it away, trying desperately to stay calm. Me panicking won't help Faith in any way. I grab the thick rope from my backpack, and then Axara's, too, tying them together with a secure knot.

I throw one end to Axara, and then let the other fall into the hole.

"I'll go down," I say, and dump my backpack in the snow. It's waterproof, so it won't get wet. And, besides, Faith is way more important than a backpack. The only thing I stuff into my pocket is a bandage.

Is this really a good plan?

I stop to think, and realize it's not. Axara won't be able to pull Faith and me up. Damn.

I grip the rope, running my hands along it. A distant memory of climbing a rope like this one comes to my mind, and I know I have no choice. It's been years since, but I can only hope I haven't forgot.

"Can you make a decent knot?" I ask Axara.

She nods. "I've made ropes when I was younger."

"Tie it around that tree." Axara obeys without questioning me. She knows that I have some crazy, almost impossible plan, and she accepts that I'm the boss right now.

I start making knots along the length of the rope, about thirty centimeters from each other.

When we're both finished, I don't stop to test our work. I trust Axara. So I grip the rope and start climbing down it, using the knots to get a good grip. My shoulder is aching, but I don't give it a second thought.

My body moves in the familiar patterns as I climb, and I'm surprised. But maybe this is something that you remember easily.

Faith is lying on her side, and as my feet touch the stones at the bottom of the hole, I realize that they're wet with her blood. I carefully turn her unconscious body around, trying to touch her as little as possible, until I'm positive that her spine hasn't broken.

She's hit her head hard against the rocks on the bottom, I can see it. There's probably inside damage.

The bleeding wound on her shoulder is what concerns me the most – excluding the inner damage. I wrap it up, moving her as little as possible.

I look at her for a moment, and realize that the situation is very dangerous. She's unconscious, and I don't think she'll come around anytime soon, so I have to somehow get her up from here.

Any ideas? I ask myself.

No. None. And that's the problem.

I kneel beside her. I don't think I can risk just tying her to the rope and having Axara drag her up – besides, would Axara even have the strength to do that?

Also we can't wait for her to wake up, 'cause I'm not sure she will. She looks pretty badly hurt.

I just kneel there, stroking a few strands of hair from her face.

"What am I going to do with you, Faith?" I whisper.