The Quater Quell: 50th Hunger Games

Chapter 22

           7 cannons had gone off since I left the feast. I'm guessing more tributes showed up at the feast after I left. I clean out a fallen tree and laid bedding inside. Hopefully nothing can get me inside here. I waited and waited but Dean never showed up. Maybe he's dead. Maybe the careers got him.

I replay today's events over in over in my mind. 

I really hope they didn't kill Dean. He is who I want to win if I die. Plus, that would only leave me left from my District.  If they did kill him, at least I wasn' the one who killed him. At least I didn't have to watch them kill my friend. The anthem begins to play.

         Apollos face is the first to appear in the sky. Wow....I didn't see that coming. Baldar and the other career that died at the feast. A few other faces show in the sky. But Deans face doesn't show. The anthem ends and the capitols emblem is projected into the night sky.

I strange feeling courses through my body and I breath, unaware that I was holding my breath. Dean is alive! 

   My relief is short lived, as an unnerving thought crosses my mind.

      "Wait a minute!" Lartens face never shown. Larten is alive! Oh crap. That means he will be coming back after me and Dean, full of rage and vengeance.

     I had to find Dean. Maybe he made it out with more than I did. My pack had a fair variety of supplies but not a lot of food or water. Just enough for me to get by for a day or two. I snuggle up in the damp log and drift in and out of sleep. I can't seem get comfortable and I can feel bugs crawling all over me.

     Luckily, I'm not a girly girl like my sister Robin, or id have committed suicide by now.

           That's when I hear a something scurrying in the bushes. A mutt? Larten? Demetria? Dean? Who could it be? I hold my breath and listen. Something heavy falls and curses. "Raven? You out there?" it whispers. Even through the whisper, I can hear the pain and struggle  in their voice. "Rave. It's me. It's Dean!" Dean!

        "Dean!" I cry out, wiggling my way out of the log. "Dean?" I call again but I can't see him. "Dean? Where are you?" "Raven! Help! You out there? It's Dean!" the voice is coming from the tree tops but I can hear him crashing through the bushes on the ground. I don't see any bushes moving. "Dean?" but he doesn't answer. "Raven? You there?" the trees still whisper.

        I look up and am surprised I didn't catch on sooner. It was a lone Jabber Jay. He must have heard Dean somewhere in the woods and is mimicking him. The Jabber Jay spots me and launches itself at me. I grab the sword Larten gave me and swing it back at the bird.

         "That'll shut you up" I snicker. "Dean!" I yell out into the darkness. I know I am risking it by shouting out and alerting the tributes my position but I don't care. I am ready for this nightmare to end, one way or another. With Lartens sword firmly in my hand, I light small torch and enter the dark forest ahead of me. 

  "Dean?" I call out again and again but to no avail. The sun is rising so I ditch my torch and head back to camp. I need to get to the mountain and hope that the snow is drinkable. Otherwise, I can just assume I'm dead already. But weren't you always? From the very beginning you were dead. You were never going to win. Just give up. I push the cruel thought out of my head and call out for Dean once more, as loud as I can.

   "DEAN!"

         "Rave?" a soft moan comes from my left.

 "Dean? Where are you?"

"Down here." 

           I find Dean laid against the trunk of a tree. He has covered himself with a thorny bush and mud.

 "Dean!" 

   I push the thorns away and embrace him. "I'm so glad you're alive! I almost had given up! What happened?"

       "Apollo came after me. I was shooting at him and he barrel rolled to miss the darts. He dropped his sword and then tackled me. We were fighting in hand to hand combat but he had me beat."

   "Then, some of the other tributes came out of the woods and were starting to steal all of the food and each other's packs. It was a serious blood bath. The boy from 12, Haymitch? He saved me. He knocked Apollo off for me. Then, I got a hold of Apollos sword and pierced him, right through his heart It was kinda cool." Dean laughs faintly and blood escapes from his mouth. He was beaten pretty badly.

  "You've seen Haymitch?" I was surprised. "I wonder why he saved you?" 

     "Me too but I'm glad he did. I think I fractured my ankle though, in the fight with Apollo." He grimaced. "Oh boy. Okay, well that's manageable." 

"Good one, Raven."

 "We gotta stay positive here. Hey, did you know there are only 16 of us left?" 

"Well hot damn. Hey, we might actually win this thing." he says through clenched teeth.

I smile back at him and say "Alright now cowboy, don't go getting loopy on me now. On the count of three I'm gonna stand you up. One. Two. Three!"

 Dean tries to hold back his scream and it comes out as a bloody muffled mess.

"Here, I still have some of that lab enhanced water left. It should take care of the pain and send you on your way to a fast heal." 

Dean gulps down the water and is almost instantly relieved. He can walk with only a limp and says he can hardly feel it. However, his eye is still almost swollen shut and there was no replacing the tooth that Apollo knocked out.

      We decide to continue on with my original plan to head to the snow, In hopes that we can melt it to drink. Dean had managed to grab some biscuits off of the table and a few oranges. He lost his poison dart gun but managed to pick up an iron mace.

 "Hey Dean?" 

"Yeah Rave?"

 "Did you see the anthem play last night?" 

Dean waited a few seconds before answering. "Yeah....I saw it..."

 I could tell in his voice that he wasn't happy that Larten was still alive. 

"Do you think we should be worried?" I ask after a few minutes pass by. 

"Of course. This is the Hunger Games. We should all be worried."