Dead Trees

Chapter 11

I gathered my supplies and picked up my two axes, I was tired of hiding, there were two tributes left aside from me and Kit, the screams we had heard last night was male so Cove was still alive and that left one of the boys from District One or from District Twelve. I walked in the opposite direction Kit had gone, all bets were off, if we saw each other from now on we were obligated to attack each other and I had no interest in that. I headed in the direction of the cornucopia, there was still at least one career in the game and that was their territory, I might be able to sneak up on them and dispatch them if I could find them without being noticed.

When I passed the place where I had met Jolt, a shiver went down my spine, there were signs of a disturbance but the body had been collected, I quickened my walk to leave the place behind. I felt confident but I tried to stay alert, I did not want to die in the final four from a surprise attack. I was snapped out of this thought when I saw a splatter of blood on the trail, I approached it cautiously, very confused I had heard no cannon, it was fairly fresh and I thought I would have heard the struggle that had created this, my eyes followed the blood trail until they became fixed on a tail tucked behind a shrub. I grabbed the tail and pulled out a lizard which had been gutted and drained of its blood, a trap. As this thought entered my mind a knife entered my arm sending a sharp pain through it, I turned around and saw the District One boy preparing to throw another knife, I had been such an idiot, I should have run as soon as I saw the tail but my curiosity had gotten the better of me. I took off down the gravelly path. I heard the career's footsteps close in pursuit and heard another knife plant itself into a tree near me. Another knife hit my pack, causing it to spill out its contents, that was the end of my chance to wait out the rest of the tributes, I glanced back and saw my pursuer stumble on the water bottle that I had picked up on the first day of the games but he regained his footing and continued his pursuit.

I had no idea how long he would be able to chase me, I was going to have to try to deal with him, my arm still had a knife sticking out of it and I was starting to lose feeling in it, I spun around and let fly one of my axes, a cannon rang out, but the axe had connected with a tree a few feet away from him. He responded with another knife which also missed. Kit or Cove had died.

My focus on outrunning him compounded with my speculation about who had died and I failed to realize where I was leading him, these trees and paths were familiar, I had been here before, I could hear the tops of the trees rustling above me. I still had one axe left, I didn't know how many knives my pursuer had but if we got into a melee, I wouldn't be able to use one of my arms which ached as I ran. I rounded a corner and turned around, waiting for the boy to turn the corner, I took a stance which would give me the best accuracy with my throw and made sure that I had a good grip on the axe with both hands.

The boy rounded the corner and his face went to one of shock as he realized what was about to happen. I let out a grunt and threw the axe, it carved into his thigh and he collapsed on the ground, screaming in pain, fixated on the axe sticking out his thigh. Now I was defenseless having used both my axes in the pursuit but I might have been able to pull it free and finish him off. Before I could even step forward, however, a small creature dropped down from the tree, it looked like a small grey bear, I would even call it cute. The bear approached the tribute curiously as more bears dropped from the trees. The tribute gave a weary smile at the bears, as if to say 'please be friendly', this smile quickly turned to an expression of panic as one of the bears latched onto his arm and another jumped on his neck, he began to scream and try to brush off the swarm of bears that had attached themselves to his body. I gave up all hope of getting my axe back and began to run I didn't want the bears to get bored and divert their attention to me. I ran for the cornucopia as the screams were cut off by a cannon. The next cannon would signify the end of the fifty-seventh Hunger Games.

I had to stop running, my chest began burning and I began to take deep breaths. I bent over and tried to regain my breath; I did not want to be hyper ventilating for the final showdown. In an instant the air got hotter and I found it harder to breath, I looked back and saw that a huge forest fire was raging behind me, I had no idea how the fire had gotten so violent and widespread without me noticing, more confusingly the fire wasn't even charring the trees, they were completely unmarked despite the intensity and size of the inferno. It was travelling towards me quickly, I shed my backpack, it didn't have any food anyway and if I was ever going to drink water again it was not going to be in this hellhole.

I sprinted from the wildfire and realized it was guiding me towards the cornucopia, it was an invention of the game makers designed to force me into a showdown with the final tribute; Kit or Cove. Cove was by far the strongest tribute, she had gotten the highest training score and had been a killing machine in the bloodbath, Kit had killed both the District Two tributes despite them being almost double his size, one of them he didn't even kill with a proper weapon. I felt guilty hoping that the cannon had been Kit's, Cove would of course be a harder fight but I had reason to kill her, she had killed Maple, she had tried to kill me several times, Kit had saved me more than once and I had allowed myself to view him as a friend.

I stepped out of the trees into the clearing and saw a figure at the opposite end of the open field of the cornucopia. A tribute with shoulder length black hair and a trident in hand, so Kit had died. I put the grief out of my mind, not letting myself regret hoping he was dead, or thinking about the moments we had shared in the arena, the next few minutes would decide whether I returned home in a casket or as a victor. There was something else, her right side of her face was speckled with blood and I noticed a small pin poking out of her closed eye, Kit had done me one last favor with the needle I gave him. Cove let out a war cry and charged at me with her trident, I had no weapon but I had a plan, I began to charge at her, starting to think I might have gone slightly mad in this arena to be charging the strongest tribute without a weapon. As I was just out of trident range, I picked up a rock and threw it at her head, it hit her directly in the face and as she was recovering, I dived at her lower half, tackling her to the ground. I was immediately reminded of her proficiency for wrestling in the training center as she flipped me onto the ground and prepared to bury her trident into my face. I moved my head of the way and punched her hard in the forearm causing her to lose her grip on the trident. A tree fell behind us which caused her to check behind her, I took my chance and punched her in the face, this only made her angrier and she put her fingers on my eyes and started pushing down. The pain was more than anything I had felt in my life, I was terrified that my head would explode. I desperately punched her in the side trying to get her to loosen her grip but she was determined to crush my head. The pressure in my head was immense as I felt around with my hand attached to the arm I could still feel and felt the rock I had thrown into her face. I gripped the rock and with my remaining strength bashed it against her head, she hadn't been expecting it as it came from the side that the needle had blinded her to, she fell off me with one hand on her head. I stood up and tried to overcome the intense pain in my head and eyes, she had already recovered from the blow to her head and fixed her eyes on me.

I saw in the corner of my eye the fallen tree that I might be able to push her over and knock her to the ground, I slowly rotated around her so her back was to the log and she reacted by turning to face me, she hadn't charged me yet, probably trying to wait till the pain in her head subsided. I ran at her and she ran back at me, I slammed all my weight into her and pushed her, I expected her to fall over the tree but instead she stuck on it and shrieked. I stepped back and saw a thick, sharp tree branch poking through her stomach, she struggled to get herself off it but she was secured tightly to it. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she tried to wriggle off which caused her to groan in more pain.

She had killed my district partner and my closest ally not to mention the countless other tributes she probably murdered, I had all but won the games and I had avenged all of them, I should have felt triumphant yet all I felt was pity. She was scared of death as any of us in these games would have been, beneath the strength and savagery was a kid who was one year older than me. She refused to stop trying to get off the branch despite the pain it was causing her. I picked up her trident, probably the weapon she had used to kill Kit, I don't know if I was doing it to put her out of her misery or to save myself from having to watch her slowly die but I raised the trident and pierced her chest, she let out a final gasp and closed her eyes finally going still.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winner of the fifty-seventh Hunger Games!" A disembodied voice proclaimed and the forest fire subsided in an instant.

The ordeal of the games had ended but the nightmare was long from over.