Rising Flames

Chapter 18: Keys

Keys? Rushing from tree to tree, I search the ground looking for anything that might resemble a key. Maybe she didn't mean an actual key maybe she just meant a way out. Maybe...
The ground rushes past beneath me, and before I know what's happening I slip and plummet towards the ground, scratching my skin on bark all the way down.
Thud. Landing on the ground could have been more graceful, and more importantly, quieter.
I hear a rustle in the bushes around me, and I scuttle back to hide in the shadows of the trees, and just as I do so, a glint of silver catches my eye. It's embedded in the bark of a tree across the clearing.
Right next to the bushes that are hiding someone.
Skirting around the edge, I tiptoe slowly to the tree, before reaching around the tree, and pulling the metallic object out easily.
Looking at the object in my hand, my mind runs wild. It's an actual key. But what could I use it for?
Before I could think much more about it, the figure that had been hiding in the bushes to my right, leaps into view, rushing at me knife in hand. I run backwards, but a tree blocks my path, and before I can climb the tree, my opponent is upon me, knife at my throat. But that face, I know that face...
"Maysillee?" He speaks, voice cracking as he does so.
I squirm to get away, but he doesn't remove the knife.
"Thomas! Leave me alone!" I scream at him, hopping to scare him, maybe just get him to relax his grip a little. But he stayed there, not moving an inch, the perplexed look still covering his face.
"But I thought you would be dead already."
I chuckle hollowly. "Well, isn't that a reassuring thought."
He still hasn't moved, hasn't given me any way of escape.
"Well, um... Maybe you could just let me go then? Hmm" I knew I was pleading by now, but I couldn't think of anything else to do.
He stood there thinking about it for a bit, but didn't move a muscle. "But if I don't kill you know, someone else will probably do it later. At least this way, I can save you most of the pain."
Glaring at him, I speak with acid on my tongue. "What kind of sick logic is that?"
He took a deep breath, nodding to himself, and then began to push harder on the knife. I did the only thing I could think of doing right then, wether it was going to be effective or not.
I kneed him where the sun don't shine.
He groaned and keeled over, stepping backwards, very slowly. I breathed deeply, looking at him for a moment, before climbing the tree behind me and beginning to rush back to my tree den by treetops.

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Reaching my temporary home, I lean on the wall, and touch my neck, pulling a slightly bloodstained hand away. I place the key with my other supplies and edge outside. Spotting a bush my grandmother once told me was good for healing, I clamber down and remove a few leaves. Placing them on my throat, I feel instantly refreshed and calm. Grabbing a few more of the healing leaves, I reach back up to the branches I use to pull me up, just as I hear a slight ringing sound that I recalled from watching the other games.
A sponsor's gift floats down to me, ringing on its slow descent. The silver parachute so small for what seems to be such a large container.
Lodging itself in the branches of my tree, the parachute falls to the side of its parcel, glinting in the sunlight.
I click the casing of the gift open after (swinging myself up into the tree once more), revealing a small shoulder bag. Opening the bag, I don't expect anything big, but once I open it, I find small jars of medical supplies and a little note. The note reads:

Take care
- Mum, Dad and Haymitch

Smiling to myself, I organise the new resources, and place the little key into a side pocket. Removing a little flashlight from the backpacks I had collected earlier, I put it and a few food supplies in my bag, along with a small knife, though the thing honestly scared me now. Night was going to fall soon. I had a button to find.

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Climbing through strange trees at night was harder than I thought it would be. Shadows loomed everywhere, and tree branches hid other tree branches. Eventually, when I had just decided to turn back and start again in the morning, I heard a whimper in the woods near me.
Sliding down the side of the tree, I came to a soft landing on the forest floor. Still hearing the quite crying, I edge towards a fire pit that marks human error, for a fire is like a call to all the other tributes: here I am, come kill me!
At the edge of the clearing I stop in the flickering light from the fire, watching the scene in front of me for a bit. There was the button, silver and shining, standing tall at the side of the clearing. My way out was right there, but the people next to it were where my eyes rested. Suzanne and James sat by the fire, curled up. Well, James sat by the fire, Suzanne in his arms, a gash along her leg that seemed to me like it could be infected already.
I step further into the clearing before I really realise what I am doing. "What happened?" The words escape my lips before I can think about the consequences, and James whipped around to see me. I swear he almost hissed.
"She was attacked! What do you think happened?!" The venom in his voice is clear as day, and almost as poisonous as a snake's bite.
Edging back slowly at his words, I gulp before saying something I think I may regret for the rest of my life: "I could help."
He looked at me eyes suddenly full of tears and anger at the same time. "How and why would you help her? Huh? Answer my that!"
I step forwards again, approaching him like you might approach a frightened animal, hoping not to scare it away. "Just, just let me help."
He looked down at Suzanne who, for the first time, I realised wasn't asleep. She nodded at him, and he allowed me to sit by them at the fire.
I sat there for a while, treating her wound, but after a little bit, k realised I wouldn't be able to heal her entirely, not here or now. But I knew who could.
Stopping treating her, I reached into my satchel once more, pulling out the key.
I hand it to Suzanne. "Here. Take this, go home." Her eyes grow wide as she looks from the key in her hand to my face. "I'll find another one don't you worry. Now go home, heal up. And you..." I turn to look at James. "You have to run, run from here as fast as you can. This fire will have attracted a lot of unwanted attention."
Suzanne speaks to me for the first time, her voice cracking and tears in her eyes. "How can I ever repay you?"
"Get out of here alive..." I think about it for a moment. "Oh and one more thing." I lean down and whisper in her ear what I wished. She's nodding as I pull back. "Now come on, we have to get you to that button."
While I lift one of her arms over my shoulder, James does the same to her other arm. We all stagger over to the button, where Suzanne inserts the key into the slot and presses the button. A ringing goes around the arena once more, but this one is more pleasant, less deathly.
I turn to James. "We have to go. The button will only take one person at a time." He turns to Suzanne, hugs her, and says what I think is a goodbye.
A rustling erupts in the bushes behind us, as the hovercraft comes and picks up Suzanne. James and I turn slowly. And he murmurs something to me. "Run"
I turn and bolt, rushing straight up a tree, thinking that James is right behind me, but as I hear the clashing of weapons, and another canon fire through the air, I know that I was wrong. I rush back to the edge of the clearing and peer beyond the leaves, where I see James lying on the ground, not moving, with blood covering his front.

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The sight of James had been too much, I hadn't done anything to commemorate his passing. No flowers or anything, I'd just run, like he'd told me too. Looking up at the sky tonight. I see that there were two deaths today: a district 5 girl who I believe was 11 and James. They show Suzanne in a different way, as an actual video of her now. She's out, alive, and safe. Walking despondently back into my hut, I put a line next to another twelve, Suzanne, to symbolise that she is safe.
And after, I gauge out a five (the third five to be crossed out) and the next twelve on the list, representing James. A single tear runs down my face. I may have saved Suzanne today, but I'd left James to die, even if he'd told me to do it.
I remembered that both President Snow and Heather had said keys not key.
Further along the wall, I drew a tally mark. One key found, one life saved, so many more to go.