Fire is Raging On (A Hunger Games Fanfic) [#Wattys 2016]

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Gale's POV

The countdown begins. Sixty seconds before the gong. The Cornucopia sits in the middle of the circle of Tributes. I can see Madge standing two people to my left.

I look around at the arena, at my surroundings. There is a mountainous region replete with small purplish stones. There is a marsh miles away in the opposite direction of the mountains. The temperature is warm and the sky is partially cloudy. As I look back at the mountains I can see a river runs through them. Immediately surrounding me by the Cornucopia is a flat plain, ideal for running without tripping.

I look back to Madge, trying to catch her eyes. Her eyes instantly find mine and I nod in the direction of the mountains. She uses her peripheral vision to look in the direction I nodded. She meets my eyes once more, and I know she understands.

Thirty seconds left. I look back at the Cornucopia. We'll need supplies to stay in the mountains. Madge will need supplies to stay up in the mountains until everyone else is gone. I can see the abundance of supply packs waiting to be taken in the Cornucopia. I'll have Madge get a head start at getting up into the mountains while I try to get some supplies.

Ten seconds left.

Maybe I'll try to get some weapons to defend us as well.

Nine.

The other Tributes are getting ready to run.

Eight.

I get ready to run.

Seven.

I take a deep breath.

Six.

My eyes zero in on one of the packs.

Five.

Not the closest as someone is guaranteed to go for it, but right in the middle of packs.

Four.

My eyes flit back to Madge.

Three.

She's angled to run to the mountains. Good.

Two.

My muscles tense in anticipation.

One.

One more deep breath.

The gong sounds, a loud echoing sound. My feet move forward at an instant, toward the Cornucopia, toward the objects locked in my sight. As I run toward the Cornucopia, I see Madge running towards the mountains. But she stops. She looks behind her and finds me. I shake my head at her.

I run into something hard. I almost lose my footing, and I struggle to regain my balance. I look up and find myself face to face with District Three's Hostus Lucan. By the look of it, when we collided it made him lose some of his balance as well. Our hands reach the pack in front of us at the same time. A knife whizzes past my ear, gently nicking it and slicing into the side of Hostus's neck. I feel the small trickle of blood trail down my ear and onto my neck. I know it's only a small amount of blood, especially compared to the blood now trailing down the side of Hostus's neck. By the looks of it, the knife got an artery. The amount of blood he's losing is too much. But it's a chance for me to get away. I grab the pack and make a run for it. I hear footsteps running behind me, and I sprint faster.

I spare a glance behind me, at my proposed savior. They did save me after all from getting into a bigger fight over the single pack I've managed to get. The footsteps I heard behind me are Vibius Messala from District Four. He's not following me though; he's descended on Hostus. Blood now covers most of his side, and even from this distance I can see his eyes glazed over from the blood loss.

While I've been busy looking at Vibius surely ending Hostus's life, I don't notice the obstacles in my way to Madge and the safety of the mountains. My feet lose their purchase in the blood saturating the ground. I fall forward and feel something hard under my knee. I reach down and grasp it. A bow with a sheath of arrows. It's covered in blood, but that hardly matters. I swing the bow over my shoulder along with the sheath. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a single arrow lying on the ground in the grasp of Tansee Lowwood. I try not to dwell on it as I pull the arrow from her dead hand and push myself off the ground running. I can hear the sounds of fighting still in the background, but I push myself harder towards the mountains.

Covering the mountains, beside the purple colored rocks, are trees. Great for cover. As I reach the edge of tree cover, I feel someone pull me to the side. I gasp instinctively and pull the bow from my shoulder before notching the arrow. I instantly stop upon seeing who grabbed me, Madge. I sigh in relief letting the bow relax.

"Are you okay?" she asks in a whisper.

"Yeah, most of the blood isn't mine," I say, turning back to the commotion still going on by the Cornucopia. Most of the blood covering me is that girl's, Tansee Lowwood, from when I slipped in the blood surrounding her lifeless form.

Fixing my gaze on the Cornucopia, I see several bodies strewn about the ground with many of the living Tributes still fighting.

"Let's go," I say to Madge.

"Go where?" she asks, as she follows me through the trees and over the odd colored rocks.

"High-ground. I could see the traces of a river through the mountains from the Cornucopia. We're going to go up there for now, far away from everyone else."

We trek a good hour or two before the cannon starts firing. It's so much louder here in the arena than on the TV.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Eight dead. Sixteen left besides Madge and myself. Tonight we'll see who is gone and who is left. I keep pushing Madge and I forward until we break through the final trees and find the river. We're on high ground. The river runs back down the mountains, cutting through. We can't stay here right along the river. More Tributes are sure to follow the river right along up to here, looking for others in search of water.

But surely we have some time to get some water and go through the pack I've got. I also need to wash the now dried blood from my skin and clothes.

"Madge, why don't you start going through the pack, while I wash this blood off," I say stepping toward the river.

I don't bother with taking my clothes off as they're caked in blood as well. I jump in fully clothes and feel the cold current rushing past me.

Madge sits down by the bank and begins sifting through the pack. "Here, we'll fill this first," she says handing me a half-gallon bottle.

Dried blood flakes drift off my skin and clothes, and I wave my hand in the water to clear them away from me while I fill the bottle. "Is there any iodine in there?" I ask. We need iodine to purify the water. It's not that we still couldn't drink the water, there's just a higher risk of us getting cholera.

"Umm," she sifts through some more stuff. "Is this it?" she holds up a small bottle.

"Yes, put a few drops in here," I hand her back the bottle of water and climb out of the river. "Here, let me see what we all have."

~FIRO~

"We need to get going," I say, standing up. Madge and I have been resting along the river trying to gain some strength we desperately will need in the coming hours and days. Night is about falling and we need to get deeper in the trees and mountains. As we stand to start making our way to find shelter for the night, the anthem begins playing as the sky lights up with the Capitol seal. It's time to see who has survived and who is gone for good.

I figured I would update now that I thought of it and because it is Saturday. I found this writer tag on tumblr and I'm going to do it for FIRO. It will be up on Wednesday. -- Alexis