The Runaway Victor | Book II

Chapter Twenty-Two | Bloodshed

The hike past District Eight was beyond exhausting. Quinn felt like she was practically running in circles, trapped inside the arena. The Capitol ships being whatever sort of challenge that was in the arena, one she couldn't predict. On multiple occasions, a Capitol ship went over them but didn't do anything. But then that made the few times they decided to attack even worse. They could barely rest, they couldn't keep worrying about Marcus and Jules. They were safer than Quinn and the others were anyway, they had gone to District Three. Then they must have had the map deactivated so the Capitol couldn't find them.

But Quinn and the others knew that wasn't really a good option for them. They were so close to District Twelve. They were so close to District Thirteen. If they deactivated their map, true the Capitol wouldn't be able to find them but neither would Thirteen when they got to the pickup zone.

So they all kept watch for ships and kept going towards District Twelve. Quinn didn't remember much of Twelve. She remembered the distinct smell of coal near the mines, but that was it really.

"Do you want to take a break from carrying that pack?" Kal asked as he stepped up beside her.

Quinn looked up at him and shrugged. It had gotten tiresome carrying it. So after a moment, she accepted the offer and slipped off the pack and handed it over to him.

"Thanks,"

"Figured it's one way I could help."

Quinn smiled a bit, "Are you happy that Hannah and you are going to Thirteen too?"

Kal was quiet for a moment, "Not sure," he paused. "From what we heard about it the first time Orion's group stayed with us, it's...different from Nine."

"I haven't heard much of anything about it," she replied. "Who knew a lot about it?"

"Wade and Marcus."

"Oh..." Quinn said softly. Both of them were gone, neither of them were there for her to ask. She didn't blame herself for what happened to Wade, but Orion and her were separated from Jules and Marcus because of her.

After a moment of silence, whatever Hannah and Orion were chatting about was the only thing that really caused any sound. They weren't talking loud enough for Quinn to be able to hear and understand, but it was still something to listen to. Last time they had checked the map, they were maybe only a mile away from Twelve. Which was hard for Quinn to believe, looking back at District Four on the map that she was already that far from it. She was that far away from Annie, Mags, and Finnick. Every once in a while she would get a twisting, suffocating feeling in her stomach at the thought of one of them being held accountable for her running away.

Suddenly Quinn snapped out of her thoughts when the ground shook violently beneath her feet. It was a familiar feeling. The group of them looked to the sky in front of them then behind them-- all around them they saw nothing. Until they heard a loud explosion from behind them, then they all began running ahead. As the explosions got closer to them, Quinn could hear a wave of bullets being shot down into the ground. This hadn't been the first air raid since they got out of Nine, but the bullets were something new.

Quinn could feel her heart drop and do flips in her stomach. Part of her hoped they had gotten through, they were on the home stretch. Quinn began running through the woods that they had been making their way through for days. This had become almost...normal, running from the Capitol ships that weren't out to just catch them.

The four of them ran, almost tripping over the uneven and soggy ground from the brief rain storm. Quinn could hear the moist leaves beneath their feet, but as soon as the Capitol ship swooped around near them to make another round. They only knew the general arena that they were in, but they couldn't be sure exactly where they stood. And the ships stopped if they got close enough to a District, so hopefully nobody from the Districts would know about what was happening just outside the fences.

The ground came to an abrupt stop, there had been a few trees that had fallen at some point, making a ridge or sorts of them to scramble over. For the first time ever Quinn mentally thanked the game makers for all of the stony ridges in the arena, climbing still wasn't her best skill, but she was more than capable of doing it. Just as she got to the top, the ground shook violently beneath her feet-- forcing her to practically fall onto the fallen trees and hold on to them until she could steady herself. Once she was steady again, she looked to see only one person behind her-- Hannah.

"Where are the other two?!" Quinn asked sharply, Hannah looked up at Quinn her face was red from sweating but her eyes also looked red and puffy. "Hannah?"

"O-rion, he told me to go--"

Quinn straightened herself up and held out her hands to help Hannah up onto the trees. If Orion told her to go, that meant one of two things-- one, he had things under control. Or two, he didn't. He wouldn't put Hannah in danger like he had Ciruss and Wade-- he wouldn't want to go ahead and leave her and Kal.

"Stay here, okay?" Quinn said as Hannah steadied herself on the otherwise.

Hannah stared at her for a moment, but the sound of Capitol engines coming back around. But then she nodded, her eyes were still puffy, and fresh tears looked like they were about to over flow and run down her cheeks. Quinn turned and climbed back down on the other side and started running yet again.

As the Capitol ship made its way around, the wind from it bent the tree tops. Then after a moment it seemed to ascend higher into the sky before releasing a bomb. It didn't land too close to her, but it landed close enough that she could see the ground break away, and the violent shake of the ground made Quinn paused to reestablish her balance.

"Orion!? Kal?!" Quinn called out, but her voice was drowned out by the Capitol ship flying quickly back towards from wherever it had come from. "Orion?!" she shouted again, this time there was nothing to drown out her voice.

Quinn didn't go much further before she found the two of them. Orion had propped himself up against a tree, cringing in agony. But the sight of what used to be Kal made her stomach drop to the ground, and she felt like the food they had eaten a few hours early was going to make a reappearance. Quinn forced herself to look away from Kal's mutilated body that started at his shoulders and went up to his head. Instead she hurried over to Orion.

"What happened?" Quinn choked out, crouching down in front of them. "Where are you hurt? Can you walk?"

He cringed as he moved even just a bit, "My back," he replied through gritted teeth. "I only got hit by one bullet." he added.

"You have to get up, Hannah's not far, and Twelve isn't either. We've got to be close." she replied, "I'll take the backpacks."

Orion didn't seem to even have the energy to try to say something in response. So while he began to slowly pull off his backpack, Quinn held her breath and turned around and took a step towards Kal's body. The straps of her backpack was seeping with blood, just the sight of it made Quinn want to hurl. But that was supplies that they could use.

Quinn slowly moved Kal's arm so she could pull off one strap, and then the other. Her hand grabbed a spot that was covered with something more than just blood, and Quinn turned her face into her elbow as she tossed it towards Orion's backpack, which she easily picked up and put on her shoulders. Then she gave Orion both her hands and helped pull himself up off the ground. As soon as he could he leaned against Quinn to keep himself balanced.