Dead Trees

Chapter 7

I met the eyes of the tribute closest to me, the boy from Eight, he held a spear in one hand and a pack in his other. His curly, black hair bobbed as he ran and had a sharp face. He was flanked by the monster of a boy from Two and the boy from Four who was dwarfed by his ally.

I looked at the worried look on the District Eight tributes face and the way the careers eyed him and realized they were not running for me they were chasing the boy with the spear. The bigger career was covered in fresh blood and fixated on his prey with a murderous look. The careers had not spotted me yet, their tunnel vision had taken control, I ripped off my jacket and wrapped it around the nearest tree and shimmied faster than I had in my life. The District Eight boy ran under me with the male for Two on his heels, the boy from Four however tripped on a small ditch and was left lying on his side directly under my tree, I did not dare to move higher in case I alerted him to my presence. The nearest branch was too high to reach so I clung to my jacket and hoped that the threat below me would move before I couldn't hold on. He got up and leant against a tree, rubbing his ankle; it looked like he would not be leaving for a while. A rip formed in my jacket and I jerked back slightly, I was not going to be able to hold on for long, I was going to the ground and if I didn't deal with the tribute below me, I was dead. I transferred both handles of the jacket to one hand and reached around for my axe which I had secured in my pants. The tear in the jacket was growing wider, it was now or never.

I let go of the jacket and raised the axe above my head, the boy looked up just before I brought down the blade into his skull. The force of the blow, splattered my cheeks and eyes with his blood and my face was thrust into his, a cannon fired to commemorate his death. I leaped off him, wanting to vomit, the face of the boy was unrecognizable with the axe going deep into his forehead, blood trickled out of the wound. I had done that, my first kill of the games. I didn't think killing someone would be this bad, I had seen and even performed amputations back home in the woods when people's limbs had been crushed by falling trees, I had thought that killing someone would be as simple as sinking an axe into them and moving on but I had desecrated this person's face, someone who was the same age as me, who had a family and friends in their home district, he had not even had a chance to defend himself. His arms and legs were twitching and this was what pushed me over the edge, I vomited and my skin turned pale.

I wanted to sit down and collect myself but there was still at least one other career nearby. The only cannon I heard was because of me so he might have still been busy with the boy he was chasing. I grabbed my axe and tried to pull it free from the boy's head, it was stuck, I put all my power into it but I still felt nauseous and my hands were drenched in sweat.

"Talon!" I heard, a yell through the trees, "I've lost him, where are you?"

I did not like having a name to give to the boy I had killed, but I was more concerned about the District Two tribute who was searching for me and I was even more worried about what he would do when he saw me standing over his ally's dead body. I wiped my hands on my pants and tried one last time to free my only means of defense from the body which had thankfully stopped twitching. It was too late, I saw the career run onto the path, he turned to look at me, his eyes widened and he developed a psychopathic smile. He began to slowly walk towards me tossing his sword between his hands, I tried the axe one last time and then remembered the tribute I had killed would have had a weapon. I saw a mace on the ground and ran for it but the footsteps grew louder and faster and I was pushed to the ground. I crawled and grabbed the mace but it was useless, the tribute stepped on my hand and began twisting the blade into my arm.

"Not a bad job you did on Talon here, I was planning to kill him anyway so you saved me a bit of trouble," his smile grew wider. He raised his sword above my chest, this seemed to be where my games ended. I kept my eyes open and stared at him, I did not want the people watching to think I was a coward. As he raised his weapon above his head I prepared for the end.

My face was showered with blood and I a spear tip had materialized through his chest, his eyes widened and his smile shifted to a gasp, the spear disappeared through his body and he fell onto me. I pushed him off, grabbing his sword and stood up, the boy from District Eight was standing a few steps away with his spear pointed towards me. I responded by pointing the sword towards him, if he made a move, I might be able to throw the sword but his spear would easily close the small gap between us.

He glanced at the District Four tributes body, "long day?" He said, his face unmoving.

I was quite confused, he could easily kill me, after the ordeal I had just experienced I would have preferred if he skipped the taunting and did it. "I'm keen to get on with it so let's hurry this up."

The boy gave a smile, "well I'll just get to it then."

This was it; I would have to dodge his spear and stab him before he could reposition his spear, "that's a nasty cut on your arm," I was starting to lose feeling in my arm and if he delayed this fight, I might need to attack first but that was a guaranteed death sentence.

"I can stitch it for you," he said. What? Why would he sew up my wound? Was I not his enemy? He took out some wire that I had seen at the fishhook station in the training center, I realized he was serious.

"Have you got any water?" I asked him, he licked his chapped lips. I held out my water bottle, it was still half full but if he was going to stop my arm from bleeding it seemed like a fair trade. He accepted the bottle, before putting his spear on the ground and held out his other hand, "I'm Kit" he said.

I shook his hand, "Blight."