Author Games: Vengeance (The Punished, #2)

Yukana and Adonis' Time

A shallow stream trickled down the slight slope of the land, its cool water winding through pebbles and plant stems. From an aerial viewpoint, one would never see the thin strip of blue, but Adonis Rune was lucky enough to find it. The majority of the Games hadn't gone so well for her until just recently. The gash on her left arm was turning slightly yellow from infection and her muscles ached from the daunting journey towards the force field, but she continued to press onwards.

She found the stream by complete mistake, tumbling over her toes into the refreshing water and lapping as much of it up as she could. Undoubtedly, the Capitol was laughing at her from their plush couches and high end bar stools, but Adonis didn't care. Without water, you die.

As Adonis laid upon the smooth pebbles, letting the water rush through her hair, a pair of steely, blue eyes watched from above. Her calloused fingers were clenched tight around the hilt of her dagger as she studied Adonis from high up in a tree. Yukana was a rather inquisitive girl and she wasn't going to approach the frightening but fascinating girl unless it would somehow benefit her. For a moment she almost decided to let the strange girl leave and disappear into the undergrowth, but once she saw Adonis grab her backpack, Yukana's mind changed.

Since losing her backpack in the spider incident, she was seriously lacking supplies and if she didn't get some soon she was going to be another forgotten face in the sky.

"Hey, you! Wait!"

Adonis tensed as the words reached her ears. Her immediate instinct was to sprint as fast as she could away from the voice, but someone who was aiming to kill her probably wouldn't give away their position first unless they were a fool. Knife in hand, she turned around and scanned the trees for the gril.

"I'm right here. Adonis, right? District Eleven?"

Her eyebrows pinched in disdain. How did this girl know her? Once again, she pondered leaving, but she just couldn't pass up the opportunity to make an ally.

"Yes. What do you want? And don't move one inch down that tree until you give me an answer."

The girl smiled at Adonis. There didn't appear to be any malice in it, which made it feel even eerier.

"My name is Yukana," she said. "I want to be allies."

Adonis's jaw clenched. "Why?"

Yukana shrugged. "Because you're the first person I've encountered that hasn't tried to hurt me, you have supplies, you're not a Career, you're a girl- I trust girls more than boys- and I'm lonely. Aren't you lonely too?"

Adonis deliberated for a long moment, and made up her mind. "All right," she decided. "We can be allies. But if you turn on me, I swear I will hunt you down and kill you."

Yukana shrugged once more, unfazed by the threat. "That's fair enough, but you won't have to do that, because I won't turn on you."

They walked together without much conversation. Occasionally they shared a few remarks on their experiences thus far, but mostly they walked in quiet. Yukana wasn't sure what the other girl was feeling, but she knew that walking silently with another human being beside you felt a thousand times better than walking on your own.

But eventually Yukana tired of silence, and when that happened she filled the void. Adonis didn''t talk much, but Yukana thought she listened, and she had a lot to say. In the comfort of being with another human, she almost forgot entirely to keep an eye out for other threats.

When the earth started to quake, Yukana didn't believe it at first. She was certain that it was just a trick of the mind, some unsteadiness in her feet.

"We need to find cover," Adonis said over the rumble.

"Where?" Yukana asked, her voice barely audible.

Instead of replying, Adonis rushed to the nearest tree and started to climb. Yukana understood that this in itself was Adonis's way of response. Once Adonis reached a solid branch, she turned around and extends a hand to help Yukana up, as all the branches were too high for Yukana to climb on her own.

But it was too late. Just as Yukana reached to climb, the earth unleashed all the quaking in its power. She fell back against the ground.

She rolled back and forth. Every muscle of her body was focused, avoiding this falling object or that, staying away from cracks in the ground, and overall just trying to stay alive.

The quaking of the earth faded so slightly, and Yukana thought that they must be safe. She managed to shakily rise to her knees.

A sickening crack split through her ears and blotted out Adonis's distant cry of warning. A sharp shadow descended and Yukana hardly had time to move before it hit.

The branch missed her head by a few centimeters, but it didn't miss all of her. It fell down hard on her leg, drawing a scream out of Yukana and shoving her to the ground in one fell swoop. In one second, she was trapped.

"Yukana?" Adonis called in a hissed whisper. "Yukana?" In the distance, some kind of mutt growled, and cannons fired.

When the black stars faded from Yukana's vision, she hesitated. If she called for Adonis, her ally might be able to come and help her get out. But her cries might draw the attention of whatever monster she could ravaging the arena not too far away.

It was a lose-lose situation. Yukana's heart pounded with the pressure of the decision thrust upon her. She wracked her brain for another option, but there were none.

Suddenly, she realized it was nearly silent. Adonis was no longer calling for her. That could mean either one of two things: Adonis has given her up for dead, or Adonis is too far away for Yukana to hear.

Either way, the choice was made for her. No help could be coming from her ally now. She wouldn't make a choice, so it seemed nature made it for her.

Yukana burrowed into the ground beneath the branch that pinned her leg in place. If she's going to be here, she thought, she might as well try to hide from anything that went past. After all, if it didn't know she's there, it couldn't attack her.