The Capitol Games

Chapter 52

A loud sound jolts me awake.

"Tributes." Says a voice says. My eyes blink open. I feel light droplets patter onto my face. I squint against the brightness. I see bright green pines and a blue sky. "Today, at sunset," the voice continues, "the cornucopia will be destroyed. As a last hurrah, we are re stocking it with a myriad of gift and treats. We hope you make use of it. Good luck."

I blink against the light raindrops as I digest this information. My hands automatically feel for the ground, and I try to push myself into a sitting position. Almost instantly, I feel someone help me. I look sideways and see Finnick. He smiles at me, a familiar smile that I've grown up with.

"Hey," he says, "how are you feeling?"

How am I feeling. That's a good question. With razor clarity, I recollect the events from yesterday. Walking with Summer and Zeke, running after Laython, Zora dying. Fighting Jett, falling, Leigh carrying me away from the shower of parachutes. The next part is a blur, until I find my allies, and my concussion gets better. Then I remember learning of my paralysis, the medication that came from me, and the gut-wrenching agony that followed.

I very carefully, wiggle my toes. I touch my shins, then my knee. I can feel them. A surge of hope rises in me. Then I touch my thigh. I try to move my legs.

And then I burst into tears.

I can feel them. I can feel them, and I can move them.

The rest of my allies all realise I'm awake now, and they come over to me, all of them equal parts worried and hopeful.

Finnick lets out a short laugh, and wraps his arms around me. I try crossing my legs. They feel sore and stiff and uncoordinated, and I don't have too much sensation in my left leg, but they move! I can feel them!

I spot Addie come rushing over to me, beaming, and I smile back at her. Tears gloss her eyes, and she drops to her knees, and hugs me.

"This is a miracle," I breathe.

Addie pulls back and probes my thigh. "You can feel this?" She asks. I nod, which causes her to increase the pressure on my legs. "And this?"

"Ouch," I say, "but yes."

There's a round of laughter from my allies, and I look at all of them. Mayra, Kace, Summer who's integrated surprisingly well among us, Laython who's awake and smiling now, Leigh who looks relieved more than anything, and finally Zeke.

His smile is beautiful. When he looks at me, his eyes twinkle in that way that he reserves just for me. He walks up to me, crouches down, and takes my face in his hands. He kisses me, and I feel like I'm wrapped in a gentle, cool breeze on a hot day.

Everyone comes and talks to me then, and I talk to them gladly. Throughout it all, I keep pressing my legs, as if I can't really believe that I've gotten feeling back in them. Wasn't it just a few hours ago that I felt unbreakable pain course through me? Felt shock and despair and hopelessness about being paralysed? My left leg, the one that Jett hit me on, is admittedly worse than the right, but I don't complain. I sit on the moss, through the pitter-patter of the drizzle, as the rest of my allies plan to head towards the cornucopia. I offer to help, but they insist on me resting. They instead tell me to guard Leigh with my bow, so that's what I do. Leigh remains slumped again his tree from yesterday, and I remain sitting at mine, with my bow loaded. I wonder if I should talk to him, but I am spared from deliberation when Laython comes to talk to me instead. He's trying to be cheerful for me, but I can see the immense sadness in his eyes. Zora.

He tells me what happened yesterday. How he was tied to a tree, and how Zora found herself in the middle of those parachutes.

While hunting through the forest, Laython fell into a blacklock bush, and go pricked with it. Blacklock, the cousin of nightlock, works in a similar manner to the infamous lethal berry, except it kills you over seven minutes instead of instantly. Yesterday, Zora and Laython panicked, because they didn't have an antidote, when they saw a green parachute come fluttering through the sky. Laython shot at it from afar, and he and Zora went to get it.