A Blooming Rose (hunger games fan-fic)

Chapter 11 (Day 6)

Rose woke up to the sound of a scream. She sat up quickly, but found a spear and a sword pointed at her. She glanced around. Ash was in a headlock by the boy from 2. The boy from 4 and the girl from 2 were pointing the weapons at her. The girl from 1 had a knife at Loredana's neck.

"Don't move, Eleven," the girl from 2 said, "or your friends die."

"What do you want?" Rose asked.

You will come with us and not try to escape. If you do, we will kill each of you."

"Don't do it, Rose!" Ash said, but the boy from 2 cut off his voice.

"Quiet!" he ordered.

"What do you want from me?" Rose asked again. "If we weren't needed, we would be dead."

"You'll find out soon enough," said the district 2 girl. "Come with us and we'll spare your friends lives."

"Rose, no!" Loredana cried. "Don't do it!"

Rose looked at her friends. She knew she couldn't quite trust the Careers, but she did not want to risk her allies lives. She looked at the girl from 2.

"Alright," she said. "I'll go with you. Let them go."

The girl from 2 smiled. She pulled the knife from Loredana's neck. Rose relaxed for a moment, but froze the next. The girl from 2 had taken her knife and stuck it through Loredana's back. Rose could see part of it sticking through the front of her stomach.

"No!" Rose shouted.

The girl from 2 took the knife out of Loredana's back and threw it at Ash. The knife stuck in his chest and when the boy from 2 left go of him, Ash fell to the ground.

"You said you wouldn't harm them!" Rose said accusingly.

"I lied," the girl from 2 said. "These are dangerous times, Eleven. You really thought you could trust me?"

Rose stared at her friends. There was a cannon shot and a minute later, there was a second. Rose looked at the Careers.

"Where's your other member?" she asked.

"Sorrel?" the girl from 2 said. "He's back at our campsite. You'll see him shortly. Now, gather your things and let's get moving. We'll be carrying your weapons, though."

The Careers allowed Rose to stand up. She put her things in her backpack; her sleeping bag, medicines, the leaves she had found, the small food supply she still had. She put her bag over her shoulders and stood up.

"All set," Rose said quietly. "Shall we go?"

~

The group walked for hours, taking very little stops. Rose walked in the middle of the group, so she was always being watched. The Careers led her through the woods and they soon came upon the Cornucopia. They guided Rose safely passed it and into the woods again. After another twenty minutes of walking, they paused. Rose looked up and saw the ruins of an old town. Rose stared. The girl from 1 pushed her, forcing her to keep moving. They led her into the ruined town and towards a half collapsed building.

"You two wait out here," the girl from 2, whose name was Nilla, said.

She and the girl from 1, Osie, followed Rose inside the building. Rose looked around and gasped. The boy from 1 was lying on the ground on a sleeping bag.

"What happened to him!" she asked.

"Part of it was the Tracker Jackers," Osie said. "The other part was him trying to fight the illusions in the woods. Got himself really badly hurt."

"And it's your job," Nilla said, "to fix him up. You're the only one in the arena whose good with any of this medical stuff."

Rose slowly knelt down beside him. The boy had cuts and bruises on his face, arms, and hands. His jacket had been removed and was lying under his head for a pillow.

"Get to work, Eleven," Nilla ordered. "Know that you will be watched every moment you are here. Osie's starting watch."

Nilla walked out of the room. Rose could hear her talking to the boys from 2 and 4. Rose looked down at the boy, pulling off her backpack. She took the leaves out of her bag and put a few in her mouth. Rose glanced at Osie, who watched her carefully. Osie had a sting on her forehead and one on her neck.

"Do you want something for that?" Rose offered.

"With what?"

"Your stings. I can help the pain go down."

Osie glared at her for a moment, then knelt down by Rose so she could put the leaves on her stings.

~

Every time the Careers changed guards, Rose offered to help their stings. They each accepted the offer gratefully. Nilla was the only one who was hesitant for a long time before she finally agreed. Night fell and the boy from 4 was guarding Rose. Rose wrapped the boy from 1's wounds and applied new leaves to his skin. When she heard the anthem play outside, she knew who would be up there. Ash and Loredana. The only deaths today. Rose closed her eyes, trying to get her mind off of her friends.

"What's his name?" she asked.

"Who?" the boy from 4 asked.

"Him." Rose motioned to the boy by her side.

"His name is Sorrel. He's pretty good with a sword."

Rose nodded.

"He got a ten in training," she remembered. "What's your name?"

"Vanil. Yours?"

"Rosalinda."

The two were quiet for a few minutes.

"Would you have been able to save Tilsee, the girl from my district, if we had gotten to you soon enough?"

"I don't know. Some people die almost instantly from Tracker Jacker stings. She might have been one of those people. But if you had found me almost as soon as she was stung, then yes. I would have helped her."

"Why?"

"Because I care for others. I hate the idea of having to kill other people; I do whatever I can to help those who need my help. No matter who they are." A few moments passed. "You think Nilla will care if I nap at all?"

"She's not the one who's on guard. Go ahead."

Rose nodded and lay down a few feet away from Sorrel. Using her backpack as a pillow, she quick drifted off to sleep.