The Tribute and the Victor

Chapter 18

That morning I noticed that the wind had picked up incredibly compared to yesterday, the sand began to lift from beneath our feet and into the air. "It's a sandstorm!" Calix yelled. As he quickly packed away our things. I woke up Raven who seemed remarkably better compared to yesterday. His wound had almost healed and he seemed more alive. He quickly jumped out of his sleeping bag, rolled it up and helped Calix pack the rest of the things up. We sprinted across the burning sand away from the direction that the wind was blowing. The more the wind picked up, the more we ran. We must have been running for what seemed like hours until finally Calix dropped to the ground covering his face. "There's no point in running!" He yelled. "It's getting too strong!" And he was right. No amount of sprinting could outrun this sandstorm. "We'll have to huddle up and cover our eyes and mouth!" He told us. "Out here in the open?" Raven said, he clearly didn't like the sound of this. "What choice do we have?!" I screamed as I huddled up beside Calix. Raven still remained where he was stood. Refusing to cooperate with Calix's idea. Calix wrapped the two sleeping bags round us both and remained very still. Ignoring Raven completely. We stayed huddled up for the next couple of hours until the storm had passed. When we looked up from our tightly wrapped sleeping bags, the weather was back to normal. Hot dry, still and bright. I looked round to see where Raven was but he was nowhere to be found. "Maybe he wandered off somewhere?" Calix suggested hopefully. "He couldn't have done...not in the middle of a sandstorm!" I exclaimed. "Well I never heard any cannons go off.." Calix muttered. "I didn't say he was dead" I muttered back."Look!" Calix shouted as he ran towards something in the ground. "Footprints!" He exclaimed. "That means that he must have walked off after the storm otherwise his footprints would have been blown away" he said sounding almost exited. Just then he picked up his things and started to follow the footprints. "Wait! What are you doing?" I questioned. He looked up at me strangely as if I had said the stupidest thing in the world. "What do you mean 'what am I doing?' I'm going to find Raven!" He said almost shouting at me. "Haven't you thought of the fact that maybe he left for a reason? Maybe this was a sign to tell us that he wants to break up the alliance? After all Calix, there is only 7 of us left!" I shouted back at him. "You just don't want him in our alliance. I knew you didn't from the start. Well guess what? I didn't either! But he saved my life and I owe him for it! If he hadn't of killed Lance, Lance would have probably killed us! He's the reason why we're still alive now!" He yelled at me. I swallowed and took a step back. "Yeah, but he's also the reason why Zander's dead." I muttered. "Is that what you think? That Ravens the reason why Zander's dead? Well that's something you've got very wrong there Darcy. The capitols the reason why that boys dead. The capitols the the reason why we're going to die!" He hissed. And with that, he stormed off ahead of me, following the footprints. After a while I decided to follow behind him. Hanging my head in shame at what I had just said. I wish Caleb were here to hold me and tell me everything was going to be alright. I missed him so bad it hurt.