The First Quarter Quell: A 'The Hunger Games' Spin-Off

An Act

    I wake up to the sun's glaring light, squinting as I force my eyes open. That's when I feel a sharp pain in the back of my neck. Note to self: sleeping against a tree is insufferable.
    Trying to ignore it, I check on Koko, who is still sleeping. I know she fell asleep after me because she was still awake when I passed out, but she should be waking up soon. If someone were to attack us and I couldn't get to her, she'd be caught off guard and...
    I go to shake her awake without another thought. I guess I should've thought about it a little longer because she jumps awake, swinging her fists at me. One hits me before I can block them, causing my head to jerk back.
    "OH!" Koko exclaims, startled after realizing it's just me. "I- I'm so sorry, Jay. I didn't mean to do that." She reaches out to help me, but I'm already reeling back towards her. "Are you okay?"
    "Uh-huh. Peachy." I respond, rubbing under my eye where she hit me. "If I end up with a black eye, at least it'll look like I've won a fight or something."
    Koko smiles and relaxes her tense shoulders. "Okay, great. I already feel better about it."
    "We need to get a move-on. Find water or maybe some food." I say, trying to focus on something other than the vision loss in my right eye. All I can see are auras in front of a huge blur of whatever's in the background. I'm lucky she didn't hit my left eye too cause, wow, she can throw a punch.
     "There's water everywhere. We swam in yards of it yesterday, remember?" She asks rhetorically.
    I've zoned out, still rubbing my eye. It's probably red at this point. I'm sure I've lost some sight in it already. I place my hand over my left eye to check. The auras have disappeared, and now everything's completely blurred. I look towards Koko, but I can't make out anything on her face, and it's impossible to focus on any specific thing. I look down, uncover my left eye, and lean back against the tree.
    "Are you alright?" Koko asks in a worried tone I haven't heard before. I look in her direction and smile again, but I still don't respond. "Jay?" she asks again.
    I give her a small nod, one you would hardly notice if you weren't paying attention. "Let's go get water."
    Without questioning me, Koko stands and begins to walk the way we came. I push myself up against the tree and stand up as well, following right behind her.

    When we get to the beach, we check around us to ensure no one else is there. Once we confirm it's safe, we head towards the water.
    Almost simultaneously, Koko and I come to a quick halt. "Oh my god," I say, unable to focus on the object in the distance. "Is that... no." I express, dragging out the last word.
    Koko doesn't make a sound. When I turn to her for an answer, she looks down, seemingly ashamed. "We have to help her. She's still there... still alive for a reason," she pauses. "He didn't kill her. Not completely."
    Suddenly, I begin to feel dizzy. Maybe it's because of my eye, I think, but I know that's not it. "Why us?" I ask, genuinely questioning what Koko's thinking about doing.
    "C'mon, Jay, it's just the right thing to do," she replies softly.
    I look back towards the lifeless body—well, partially lifeless body—on the ground, covering my right eye so I can fully make out the person. Without a doubt, the only person that could be is the scared little girl from the interviews. The little girl who deserved a better partner. Any partner that wasn't Levi Corwin. That little girl was none other than Peyton Monroe.

    Koko takes the lead because, at the moment, I don't have the same desire she does. Finish off a child? I couldn't. I can't. I won't. It doesn't seem to bother her though, she dives straight into the water without looking back.
    I begin to think the worst of her. A thousand different questions run through my brain and I work to reach her. The one I focus on is, why is she so eager to do this? It must just be that she doesn't want her to suffer, right? I decide to stick with that. She's not like that. Not like them.

    Swimming across a second time didn't feel as long as it did before. It felt shorter, or maybe faster. I'm not quite sure.
    When Koko got out of the water, she didn't waste a second to run over to Peyton. I was still behind her by a couple of yards so I was prepared to hear a cannon go off before I got out of the water, but I didn't.
    I finally reach the island out of breath and dripping wet. The first thing I notice is Koko. She's sitting in the sand, not far from Peyton, and simply staring at her, waiting for something.
    "What's wrong?" I ask when I reach her.
    She doesn't respond, again. She hasn't been very vocal recently. I guess it's the game. That would make the most sense at least.
    "You can't do it, can you?" I decide to ask.
    She slowly lifts her head, still not looking at me. Now I realize her eyes are filled with tears and her mouth is turned downwards, shaped into a tight frown. She shakes her head, eventually looking up at me in the process.
    "Do you-" I stop and clear my throat, feeling resistant to finishing my sentence. Taking a deep breath, I choose to continue. "Do you want me to do it?" I say, a bit under my breath, but not too much that she can't hear me.
    "Would you?" she asks, still looking into my eyes with that deep expression.
    I am so not ready to do this. I shake that thought out of my head, shifting my perspective. I have to do this. I look down at the girl and try to ignore her breathing. It's strange to know she's still alive, just unconscious and considerably wounded.
    I lift my spear, close my eyes, and thrust my spear downward. The sound of a cannon booms around me. "Okay. Can we please go?" I ask, eyes closed, trying to distract myself. I open my eyes to look down at Koko. She's crying harder now, sniffling every few seconds. "Let's go" I decide for us, seeing that she can't.

✶✶✶

    We get back to the beach and sit down on the sand, just like we did yesterday. I'm so sick of swimming across that water, it's extremely tiring and there's no way we can do that if we're running from someone.
    "Did you hear that?" Koko exclaims, cutting off my thoughts. She's looking towards the trees, scanning them up and down with her eyes scrunched and brows furrowed.
    "What?" I turn to her, still unable to see clearly out of my right eye. However, it is getting better.
    Koko stands up, breathing heavily from the swimming (and probably the crying as well). She starts heading toward the forest, keeping a steady guard around her.
    "Where are you going?" I ask, confused.
    "I think someone's here" she responds, and my heart skips a beat.

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