The Direction Games: A One Direction Fan Fiction

19

19

   I remembered the walk back from Taylor’s final resting place as a fog. Not only was it a little hazy because I’d spent most of it trying to block out the world around me so I wouldn’t hear Louis’s screams, but because I couldn’t get the horrific image out of my head; of Taylor’s dark, glassy eyes staring back at me, unseeing.

   But she probably knew who killed her. She knew if Louis was around, I wouldn’t be too far away.

   Once back in the cave, Liam lay Louis down on his sleeping bag near the far wall, flat on his back.

   “Zayn, Niall,” Liam started, “Take the bow and go hunt. Harry can help me with Lou.”

   They both nodded, and I handed Zayn the bow and quiver of arrows. I watched as they left, leaving Liam and I alone with Louis.

   “Harry,” Liam continued, “Can you find me Danielle’s bag; it had bandages and the canteen.”

   I moved over to the wall of supplies, grabbing a red backpack out in the open, the pack Danielle had carried with her whenever we left the cave.

   He dug around inside and found one of the rolls of bandages, and the canteen he was looking for. He took one of the knives and sliced off a portion of bandage, which he immediately wet. “Harry,” he said in a commanding tone, looking me dead in the eyes, “Do what you were doing before.”

   I nodded briskly to his demand and held my hand out to Louis. Tears still fresh on his cheeks he took it a little more quickly this time. At the moment, his grip was weak, but I knew soon enough it would be replaced with the same bone-crushing strength I’d felt before.

   Liam proceeded to clean out Louis’s wound with the wet cloth, which forced him to clamp down on my hand with brute strength. But I endured it for him. I needed Louis to live, only because without him I would’ve never have come this far. And, he needed me as a painkiller, simply so he could find a way to bear the pain, and survive this devastating attack.

   Liam waited no time between cleaning and bandaging, tying the white strips of fabric around Louis’s thigh. Only when Louis’s strong grip returned back to normal and his pain-filled sounds and screams terminated did he release my hand.

   “This should do for a little while, but it needs to be treated with something else to help it heal,” Liam stated, “Expensive Capitol medicines. Very few sponsors can actually afford it.”

   I nodded to show my understanding. Things like these weren’t always available to every citizen of the Capitol, and were definitely unobtainable in the Districts. Only the wealthiest citizens of Panem, such as President Snow, had the money to buy such luxuries. There was a small chance we would get it at all during the games.

   “It may take us a while to –”

   Liam’s next words were cut off mid-sentence as we heard a heartbreaking sound; the loud boom of a cannon firing, a symbolic sound of again another tribute losing the game. All three of us here were alive, but Niall and Zayn were still out hunting. The cannon could have been for them.