Uncharted Waters [1]

Chapter 24

Time flies by when you're inside an arena waiting for death to come pick you up any time. It has been three days since District 10's death, and nothing big has happened so far. The careers travel in a pack, hunting for other tributes. Mira couldn't sleep without one eye open every night, expecting that the boy who molested her would appear any second to finish the deed. 

She was lying down her body facing the edge of the cliff, where the sound of the sea could be heard from the bottom. She was looking at the fraud of a night sky, trying to count the stars in hopes that it would tire her out in hopes of finally getting some rest. She was physically tired, but her mind wouldn't let her sleep. It was as if it was on high alert, the idea of getting raped stayed at the deepest part of her brain tormenting her.

The sudden touch on her arm makes her gasp and flinch, remembering the time when the boy from District 7 laid his hand on her before groping a part of her body that had never been touched before.

"Hey, it's just me." She relaxes when she hears Destan's voice. She feels him sit on the ground behind her and continues to stare at the view in front of her. 

"Trouble sleeping?" Destan asks.

"Yeah." She whispers and closes her eyes to inhale the cool sea breeze. 

"You look tired." Destan states and Mira turns to face him. "I do?" She asks, looking up from Destan, who has his arms around his knees and he sits just a foot away from her. 

"The dark circles are kind of a dead giveaway." He smiles softly.

"Oh." Mira looks down sadly, the grass looking more interesting at that time than her fellow district partner. 

"You still look beautiful though-" He began, "Tired but still beautiful." 

Silence.

"How long has it been like this?" Destan tries to ask, but it takes a while for her to answer before she opens her mouth to reply. "Three days." 

Without taking her gaze from the grass, she saw movement from her peripheral vision and was met with Destan's broad chest. "Is it ok?" He asks for permission to make his next move. Mira appreciates the way Destan respects her personal space and nods in reply. Destan carefully wraps his arm around Mira who stiffens at first from the sudden contact but relaxes once she reminds herself that it was just her district partner. 

"Go sleep." He whispers and without another reply, she closes her eyes and lets sleep take over her senses.

That was the first time she slept soundly in three days. 

"Motherfucker!" The sound of furious voices wakes Mira up from her dreamless sleep. She notices the sun coming from the horizon and rubs her eyes before her vision completely clears up. She sees Stone crouched over what was supposed to be their stack of supplies, the boys looking over the damage.

"It's them, Ash and Willow. They're responsible for this!" Grace screeched before turning to Slate. "You were supposed to be on watch! How were they able to come this close to camp?" She asks almost in disbelief that two other tributes could get past someone as strong as Slate. 

"I took a dump, what would you want me to do?" He shrugs as if it was not a big deal. 

Grace was so close to pulling out her blonde hair and was pacing back and forth as if losing their supplies was the end of the world for her. Probably it was. 

"You could've woke one of us up!" She whined, pointing her sword towards Slate, who didn't even blink an eye. Stone on the other hand was quick to point an arrow towards the blonde and looked at her as if she was challenging her to make the next move. "Drop the sword girly, or you'd like your face to be showcased in that sky next." 

The tension was unbearable and Mira whimpered, automatically hiding behind Destan. It will be bad if the careers turn against each other this early in the games. There were still a few tributes left, counting the ones from District 7, which were also one of their biggest threats by now. Looking down, she notices that her anklet is not around her ankle, and fear takes over her when she realizes how she lost it. 

"Great! They even left flowers for us." Mira whips her head up to see that Grace is not pointing her sword at anyone now, but instead holding a bouquet of wild roses in her hand, the same wild roses she saw on their trap site a few days ago. 

Mira's face pales at the roses and falters. Destan notices this and looks back at her worried. Mira licks her suddenly dry lips and fear is clearly evident in her eyes as she looks up at Destan. 

"I'll kill them." Suave suddenly speaks up and takes off with his sword without another word. The others follow him and rush towards the woods in determination. 

They split into two groups to better their chances of finding their current threats. Mira is with Suave and Stone, and the three are on high alert in case anything happens. No words were exchanged, only the sound of the forest and their footsteps could be heard. Mira kept looking back, anxious at the thought of being followed. 

She felt like she was being followed. 

And she felt as if someone was looking at her. 

Just then a sound makes them all halt in the middle of the trees. They all look from different directions to locate the buzzing sounds until they see a huge swarm of tracker jackers flying toward them. 

"Run!" 

The trio ran in different directions, trying to swat the wasps trying to get close to them. Mira ran as fast as she could, hoping that the wasps wouldn't be able to get her. She knew about these types of wasps and how lethal they were. They were genetically engineered wasps that could either kill you or make you hallucinate. She didn't want either of that to happen to her, especially when there was someone dangerous out there who was stalking her. 

Unfortunately, a wasp was able to sting her on the arm. Then, another on the skin between the ripped part of her pants. The second one made her fall to the ground, and she tried her best to crawl away from getting any more stings. 

She was starting to get delirious already; her hair was all over the place and she was panting like a dog, trying to get as far away from the wasps as possible. 

Though she doesn't feel any more stings, she still feels the effects of the wasps trying to consume her.

She only sees the fallen leaves on the ground under her hooded eyes, until she sees a pair of boots blocking her view. She pants, looking up to see Finnick looming over her. 

"Finnick?" She whispers.

"Hi, beautiful." Finnick answers, crouching in front of her. "Help me." She whimpers and sees Finnick reach down to caress her cheek. 

"I will baby. You don't have to worry about anything ok? I'm here." He says, gathering a sweating Mira in his arms. 

"Please don't leave me." She cries in his arms. "I won't."

"You promise?" She asks, looking up at his gorgeous face in a daze.

"I promise, this won't hurt a bit." He says making Mira confused. 

What won't hurt?

"You dirty fucker!" Suave's booming voice breaks Mira out of her trance for a bit, and she notices that she is lying down on the ground with her shirt rolled up above her breasts, her pants rolled down to her knees and her hand flat on her stomach. She couldn't move and was looking towards a fighting Suave and Ash right next to where she was laid. 

She couldn't do anything about it and stared at them in a daze. Suave was on top of Ash by now, strangling him. She saw that Ash's face was turning purple and was starting to lose his breath. But just as he was starting to drift away from consciousness, an Axe flies from nowhere and plunges it right on Suave's head, and he drops to the ground lifeless, looking straight into Mira's blue eyes. 

A cannon fires.

She hears footsteps approaching her, and she only manages to close her eyes, waiting for the worst.