The Survival Games

Chapter 11

  Now realizing that I was half hallucinating, I was starting to concern if I was talking to Montse.

  I was talking to someone that I couldn't recognize because of drowsiness and insanity. It could've been the girl I was planning to kill all this time.

  Or maybe it was someone that was closer than I had thought.

  The days that I didn't get much sleep were catching up with me. My vision was getting blurry again, I felt like I was drunk. Wobbling and losing my balance while trying to get from place to place. My eyes were about to just give up and force me to sleep. But I had to stay awake until dusk approached.

  Then all of a sudden, Blake was yelling at the others, calling them to help me. My vision was a complete blur, everything looking like a poorly painted picture. I felt numb everywhere, I couldn't feel my legs or my arms. I heard the sand shifting and heavy breathing, but I still had no clue on what was going on. Had I collapsed from a lack of something? Was I shot down?

  But why?

  I didn't hear Emily or Devon's voices while this was happening, so I got curious and concerned at the same time. Are they dead? Where the hell are they?

  "Why are you doing this to us? And why now?!" I hear Colt scream.

  "It had to be done eventually." A girl, not much older than I, replied. She could be one of the 2 people I thought were here: Kassy, or—

Emily.

  "Don't do this to her. To us. Please." Colt begs to spare me.

  "Colt, if they let you have your way, you wouldn't even be here competing in this."

  My vision starts to clear and the first thing I see is someone coming behind Emily with a diamond sword and full iron armor. But when Emily turns around, it's too late. They stab her straight through the heart and she collapses to the ground.

  She's not coming back, is she?

  "Wha- wha- wha-"

  "Kassy?" I ask.

  "Jayme!" She looks at me, "You could have died!"

  "Died? What?" All of a sudden a sharp pain shrieks through me and I smell blood. And from the side of my leg was an arrow dripping red, oozing blood and another dreadful scent. It wasn't from the blood, but from something else.

  Like.. Poison.

  "Ahhhh! Get this out of me!" I start panicking which doesn't help Kassy when she's trying to remove the arrow so I don't get anymore poison into my bloodstream.

  "Stay still and this will go by faster!" Kassy pulls out the arrow and the tip is covered in oozing liquid. When I look down at the wound, I feel light-headed and dizzy. The world was folding in and everything smothered into a black cloud of nothing.

  When I awaken again, I see everyone huddled over me: Julio, Devon, Emily, Blake, Kassy, and Colt. Is it strange that I'm always getting hurt and they're all protecting me? Or is that just my luck?

  "Wha- what happened?"

  "You fainted at the sight of your own blood," Kassy answers.

  "And Emily's....... Dead?"

  "Yep." Colt sighs.

  "So, who's left?" Devon checks the tracker that he stole from the cornucopia. Apparently there's a chest that has a tracker that tells you where the other tributes are and how far away you are from them.

  "Three girls from Washington, Massachusetts, & Pennsylvania, and two guys from Oregon and Florida."

  "Oh, okay." I take in a deep breath and I feel tired again. My body is swirling emotions, and I can't decide on how I feel because for a minute it's all happy with rainbows and glitter storms and nyan cats and then the next minute I just want to hide in the corner and cry. I break down and start crying right there. All of this stress and killing and everything was finally crawling back underneath my skin.

  "Maybe someone should keep her somewhere safe. We need her healed for the final fight," Emily suggests.

  "What are you guys going to do?"

  "Stalk the others." Devon answers.

  "Oh.. So who's going to protect me?"

  "Uh... Julio and Kassy can protect you. Colt and Blake could you go stalk the others?"

  "Wait, why aren't you guys coming?"

  "For... Reasons." Devon answered. What's he up to?

  "Alright then. C'mon, Colt." They get up and walk out of the cave. Which is another thing, why are we always ending up in the cave?

  Devon grabs Emily's hand and leads her to a dark corner of the cave I haven't seen until now. I don't bother to look at the corner after that, and I sigh.

  "You don't have to keep fighting if you don't want to," Julio quietly tells me. I realize that it's just us, unknown where Kassy went.

  "No, I have to make it to the end, Julio." He tries to lift my leg to rest on his pack, but I tense up and wince. "I know you're trying to protect me and help me but I have to do some things on my own, you know?"

  "Yeah, totally." He doesn't look at me. His eyes still look at his pack.

  "I wasn't trying to hurt you or anything. I just don't want you to have to take the blame over my problem."

  "But that's what you don't understand." He finally reaches my gaze, "I'd do whatever it takes to keep you safe. And if sacrificing myself is one of those, I'd do it."

  "I couldn't let you... I can't let you die for me. You can take the blame for me, but I'm not letting you die for me. You know what she's capable of, don't you?"

  "We don't know what they've got till we poke them."

  I heave a sigh and rest my head on his pack. The world slowly swirls to black when-

  AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

  I immediately lift my head up and look around. Nothing seems out of order, but then another scream emerges from the left side of the cave, where...

  Devon and Emily were.

  Oh god what?! I cringe at the thought and put my face in my hands and just groan in total disgust.

  Julio looks at the corner, "What's wrong?"

  "Nothing!" I turn around, "I- I mean, everything's fine. Why would anything be wrong?"

  He gives me a strange look, "Okay, then...." He sits on a large rock by me and sighs. "What do you think they're doing in that room?"

  "Something you probably don't want to know of."