We were just kids (Clove Kentwell)

Chapter 14

Iris jumped into the cold water as it almost put her into shock, but she pushed through and got to one of the paths that lead to the cornucopia. She pulled herself up just as another tribute did. Iris started sprinting towards the cornucopia grabbing an axe and turning around and slicing the guy in the stomach that was coming after her. She saw someone to her left and went to swing her axe but stopped when she saw Finnick standing there with a spear. "Good thing we're allies right?" Finnick smiled at Iris, "duck" Iris did as he said and ducked as he threw his spear and plunged it into another tributes chest. Iris stood up, "Where's Clove?" Iris asked scanning the area with her eyes. Finnick ran off but only to come back, "Mags found her over here." Iris sprinted with Finnick to see Clove fighting another tribute in the sand. Iris's stomach dropped when she saw her. She was doing hand to hand combat and Clove was against guy way bigger than her. He was on top of her and had his hands around her neck. Iris ran as fast as she could towards her not caring if she left Finnick behind. Once she got closer Iris saw that Cloves face was purple, she dropped her axe in the sand not wanting to hit Clove on accident. After dropping her axe far enough away she didn't even think about it, she just jumped on the guy making him let go of Cloves neck. Iris heard Clove take a deep breath trying to catch her breath. After Iris tackled the guy she got on top of him and punched him in the jaw. "COME GET HER OUT OF HERE!" Iris yelled at Finnick as she punched the guy again. Iris saw Finnick running over out of the corner of her eye and grab Clove taking her back to Mags. Iris let up her guard a bit to make sure Clove was okay but that a mistake because they guy shoved her off of him but Iris sprung back up. She put her fists up ready to fight but the guy had other plans as he slowly backed up. Iris took a step every time he took a step. The man bent down and picked something up but Iris knew what it was before she even saw it. He picked up her axe and smirked at Iris. Iris's heart started constricting again and she was barely able to breath. The man started running at her with the axe but she looked at his feet just like she did with Johanna. She saw that he was going to swing left so she moved to the right. As he missed Iris pushed his back making him fall over. She jumped on top of him but he quickly rolled them over. He smirked at her as he has the axe in his hand. But instead of using the axe he punched Iris right where the gash on her head was. It started bleeding again as the man smiled evilly down at Iris. He then picked up the axe ready to plunge it into Iris's skull. The axe came down fast and hard but Iris managed to move slightly to the side so it missed her by centimeters. He brought the axe back up but Iris was able to get one of her hands free and punch him in the gut making him roll off of her. She grabbed his wrist and started squeezing making him drop the axe. Iris kept ahold of his wrist and threatened to break his arm. She got really close to his ear, "Don't ever mess with my friends, now go spread the word." Iris said as she broke his arm. He screamed so loud it echoed throughout the arena. Iris let go of him making him fall to the ground and went and grabbed her axe off of the ground and started walking away, leaving him alive. She walked back as her whole group was just staring at her. "Well let's not stand in the open let's go." Iris said running the other way towards the forest.

Once they felt like they got deep enough in the forest they decided to take a rest. The cannons that Iris knew all to well started going off for all that fallen tributes. Iris sat down on a nearby rock and laid down her axe next to her as Mags laid down next to Finnick. Clove came and sat next to Iris. "Hey you okay?" Iris said turning to her and putting her hand on Cloves cheek and checking her over. "Iris I'm fine, but that gash on your head doesn't look so fine." Iris took her hand off of Cloves cheek. "You don't need to worry about me I'm fine." Iris said smiling at Clove. Clove gave her a worried look, "You can't keep doing that." Iris furrowed her eyebrows and dropped her smile, "Keep doing what?" "Helping everyone else but yourself." "Clove I need to make sure everyone else is okay so that they don't die when I could have done something about it." Iris said looking away from Clove. Iris felt Cloves fingers graze over her hand and then she intertwined their fingers. Iris looked down at their hands as she felt blood trickle down her head. She ignored it as she tried to focus on the soft and gentle touch of Cloves hand but one thought kept coming into her head no matter how hard she tried to keep it out. "So who's going on night shift?" Finnick questioned. "I will." Iris almost immediately answered. Everyone looked at her as she just put on a small smile. Finnick looked back at Mags and kissed her on the forehead as she laid down and tried to go to sleep. Iris felt Clove let got of her hand, "Goodnight" Clove said as she also kissed Iris on the forehead and went to go lay down. Iris looked at the ground in front of her then music started playing. Iris looked up at the sky to see the pictures of the fallen tributes as they flashed by. A picture showed up of the man that Iris broke his arm. She felt almost guilty for killing him, but he did try to kill Clove. Iris looked over at Clove who was still staring at the sky looking at the rest of the fallen tributes. Iris looked back up at the sky as the song ended. Iris's eyes lingered in the sky for a little bit before looking at the ground and picking up a leaf to have something to mess with. Iris looked around at everyone who was laying down. Her eyes went back to the leaf in her hand as she tore little parts of it off. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and she shot her eyes towards it just to see Finnick standing up and walking over to her. "Cant sleep?" Iris asked as she scooted over making room on the rock next to her. Finnick sat down next to her, "Of course not. But I have a question why did you want to take night shift so quickly?" "Well I don't usually sleep anyways so may as well put it to good use." Iris said keeping her eyes on the leaf in her hands. "I also didn't know that you had such good combat skills." Finnick said looked at Iris with an amused smile. "Yeah well going to be honest I didn't either, I guess my instincts just kicked in when I saw him hurting Clove." "You really love her." "Yeah you could say that." Iris said as she smiles to herself still looking at the leaf. "I thought the whole love story thing was just a front but when I saw the way you risked your life for her I knew it was real." Finnick said as he looked at the sky with a ton of stars. Iris just hummed in agreement as she kept smiling. "Well I guess I am going to put myself through torture again and try to go to sleep." Finnick said getting up. "Yeah good luck with that." Iris said as she smiled at him. He headed off back to where Mags was laying and he too laid down. Now Iris was fully left alone with her thoughts. Images of Max flashed through her mind, when they were having fun, when Max would hurt himself and Iris would help, or even when Max was just playing with his friends. Iris smiled as she watched him in her head run around playing. But then it was like someone shot him from above as he screamed then fell over lifeless. Iris instantly opened her eyes as a tear rolled down her cheek. She sat there in shock for a second then promised herself that she would never close her eyes again in fear of seeing him again.

   Iris stayed up all night as she saw the sun peaking through some of the trees. Iris decided to get up and stretch because she has been sitting in the same spot all night but she stopped herself when she was a tree in the distance get struck by lightning over and over. It got struck 12 times before stopping. Iris was a little confused for a second but decided to move on. She got up and stretched as she turned around and picked her axe up she saw some sort of fog slowly coming towards her. She stuck her hand out towards the fog as it touched her. Iris screamed out in pain as the fog felt like it sent shock throughout her body. "THE FOG IS POISONOUS!" Iris shouted as everyone shot up from their deep sleeps.  Iris ran over to Clove and got her to her feet as she saw Finnick picking Mags up. They all sprinted away but the fog was gaining on them. It got Clove first as she screamed and almost fell over but Iris caught her and kept her walking. As Iris tried to help Clove the fog also got to her making her bite her bottom lip to keep from screaming. She bit her bottom lip so hard it started bleeding. Iris picked Clove up as she started running. Iris heard Finnick scream not to far away from them. She saw him fall over making him drop Mags. "FINNICK!" Iris screamed as she ran over to him. She has to use one arm and try to get him back on his feet he groaned from the pain but Iris looked and saw the fog coming fast. "FINNICK YOU HAVE TO GET UP!" Iris shouted into his ear. Finnick forced himself up and tried to pick up Mags but dropped her again. Iris looked at Clove and set her down making her walk. Clove looked at her with fear, "You have to do this okay. We are going to be okay." Iris said as she picked up Mags and started running hearing footsteps behind her of Clove and Finnick. Iris ran as fast as she could and saw light coming through the trees. "WE ARE CLOSE TO THE EDGE OF THE TREES!" Iris yelled as she heard Finnick grunting behind her. Iris got through the tree line and onto the sand as she turned around and waited anxiously for Clove and Finnick to come out.

   A cannon went off and Iris had to keep herself from running back into the trees. Rustling came from the trees as Iris set Mags down and got ready for combat. Finnick came rushing out of the woods but quickly fell over and started shaking. Iris's heart dropped when she didn't see Clove come out of the trees. Iris ran back in to see Clove laying on the ground shaking out of control. The fog was not far behind so it took the rest of Iris's strength to lift her up and take her to the tree line. Iris tripped over a rock right at the edge of the trees and just threw Clove onto the sand as the fog came closer. Iris tried to get up and the fog shocked her making her fall to her knees and scream. She tried to get up once more but got shocked even worse as she completely fell over. She crawled towards the sand but the fog shocked her one last time making her unable to move. Iris looked up as her vision was all fuzzy and saw someone grab her hands and pull her out onto the sand. Darkness overcame Iris as she laid there on the sand shaking.