Revolt 13 | Y.Jw

| 20 |

The grass field was nowhere near as wide to walk through as the ice dunes had been. It had only been a question of a few kilometers before we had reached a new belt of fruit trees and berry bushes.

"You take the berry bushes?" Jungwon questioned as he pulled off his backpack and zipped it open, "you know which is poisonous and which isn't. I can reach the fruits."

He sent me a small mischevious smile at his comment as I only sent him a small glare. He quickly sent a glance over his shoulder and extended my arrow back to me again.

"For safety measures," he reminded and I immediately nodded, "we meet back here when we've gathered enough. Be careful... we'll talk things out tonight, alright?" 

I nodded quietly and he only sent me a small saddened smile.

I watched in silence as Jungwon disappeared in between the fruit trees. I had to force myself into the belief that everything would be fine and I just had to gather my berries and before I knew it Jungwon was back with a backpack filled with fruits. 

Every once in a while I could hear the trees and bushes from Jungwon's direction rustling. At first it had caught me off guard and I had called out to check on him. When he immediately replied with accidentally ripping off a branch from a tree I could breathe easily once again. 

When it happened again for the fourth or fifth time I didn't think twice about it. It was just some branch that had been in his way and soon I would see his shadow wandering about. However, what got my alarms going was a grunt.

"Jungwon?" I carefully called out and didn't get an answer.

I frowned in confusion and looked back towards where the grunt had come from. Something was moving, but I couldn't see what. A few more grunts came and I decided to slowly put down the berries in my hand on my jacket - which I had put down on the ground near the bushes.

I moved closer as I slowly tugged out my arrow from the waistband of my pants. Once I was closer I could hear blunt forces connecting to skin and grunts coming from someone in a struggle. 

From behind a tree, where I was hiding, I peeked out and glanced over at what was happening. I couldn't see everything. But a blonde boy was sitting across someone who was desperately kicking and throwing arms up to protect themselves. Hitting back and fighting as both combatters came with grunts of dismay.

I quietly tightened the grip around my arrow and it almost felt like I could see all the hidden cameras around us turn on for this very moment. I stepped closer with hesitance and soon it became very apparent what was happening.

One of the male tributes had tackled Jungwon to the ground. Around him laid scattered apples and pears as his backpack had fallen over just behind him. The other male tributes continued to hit down on Jungwon, who was desperately trying to either shield himself or hit back in return - much to no avail.

My hands were shaking slightly as I simply grabbed onto the shoulder of the male tribute and jabbed the arrow into the side of his neck. I remembered to immediately pull out the arrow as blood started gushing out. It had come as basic instinct and it was first when the tribute fell to his side and off Jungwon that I realized what I had done.

The other tribute started trying to get to his feet to get to me, but I only took a few steps backwards and before I knew it I had a tribute laying at my feet and a canon going off in the distance. I stared at the still body of the tribute for a few minutes before quickly rushing over to Jungwon, who had let his arms fall down over his stomach while he was breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" I immediately questioned as I brushed his hair out of his face.

"Perhaps we should stick together constantly from now on," Jungwon murmured and I let out a small chuckle as I looked him over, "I'll have a few bruises I believe..."

"He got you good," I hummed and let my fingers graze over a cut on his forehead and let it trail down over a bruise that was already forming beside his right eye.

"He did... didn't he," he whispered and closed his eyes tightly, clutching his stomach once again, a small grunt coming from him.

"What?" I muttered and quickly looked him over, "what, what, what?" I desperately called out and he let out a small chuckle.

"Got me good," Jungwon hummed in agreement, "real good..."

Jungwon hesitantly lifted his hands from his stomach. All bloodied up as he lifted his head slightly to look down at his bright red palms. Eventually his palms fell back down onto his stomach.

"Take the backpack and get to a safe place. Stay hidden until everyone else is dead," he quickly breathed out and furrowed his eyebrows.

"No, no, no. We can fix this," I muttered and reached out and pulled the backpack over to me, "I'll fix it. You fixed my shoulder, now I fix you."

I eagerly grabbed the first aid kit and opened it quickly. Rumaging through it with desperation. In the midst of my desperation a dinging noise echoed over the arena. Not like the canons, but more cheerful and happy.

"Attention all tributes. There has been a change to the rules. It has now been determined that this year the games can afford to have one male and one female Victor. Regardless of district. The Victors will share the winning Prize. This will be the only announcement."

I immediately started looking through the box more eagerly. If two could win now, we were going to give it an attempt.

"Ji... Ji..." Jungwon called out and reached out. His bloody hand sliding down over mine as I continued to eagerly dig through the box, "it's done. It's over."

"Shut up! No it isn't!" I yelled in return, "we can both win. We'll both win! Did he stab you?"

"No..." he hissed out and let his head fall back down onto the ground, "just a cut."

"Then it's not over!" I insisted, ignoring my blurry vision as I resorted to grabbing the small vial in my jacket pocket. The snow would've been melted by now anyways, "I can fix it. I can fix it..."

I quietly folded up the bottom edge of Jungwon's undershirt, looking at the deep and messy cut. I quickly sniffled and unscrewed the lid of my vial. My hands were shaking uncontrollably by now, carefully pouring the cold snow water over Jungwon's wound. Carefully rubbing away any dried blood or dirt from around the cut.

"Ji... it's over," he insisted and I shook my head quietly once again, "there's more boys than girls left. I can't stay alive until then."

"You can," I whispered and shook my head quietly, "we'll go home. We can go home. You have your mom... your dad... your sister. Imagine the wide smile on your sister's face when you step off that train when you get back to Twelve. Can you imagine?" I let out a sorrowful chuckle through heaving breaths.

"Yeah..." he sighed heavily as I managed to wash out all the dirt from his cut.

"I can fix this," I insisted and looked back down into the first aid kit, "just... I know I can fix this," I whispered to myself and grabbed an alcohol wipe.

"Sponsors..." Jungwon breathed out and first then I noticed the beeping from a sponsor gift falling from the sky and down straight into my hands I had extended out to catch it, "what is it?"

I let out a small sigh and clicked open the sponsor gift, a small note falling out from laying upon a shiny silver like box.

'You're igniting hope. This helped plenty last time

- Abernathy, Everdeen, Mellark, District 12'

I quickly unscrewed the small box in my hands and looked down towards the content. It was another sort of cream. Not like the healing cream we had used on my shoulder to help with soreness and ripping stitches.

"A cream..." I whispered and dried my nose in my sleeve, "and a note..." I murmured and held it up in front of his eyes, "it's your sponsor gift. It's from Twelve. They want you alive. You'll be fine."

Jungwon smiled slightly before letting his head drop back and his breathing slow down. Meanwhile I got to work on his deep cut. Disinfecting it, stitching it up messily and finally applying the cream.