[FINISHED] The First Annual Arrow

Chapter 18

                                                                                         Neve's Point Of View

    I hear a cannon fire, which startles me. I stand up quickly and see everyone sleeping. But where's Mary and Daren? I search for them, careful not to go out too far. But then something covers my mouth.

    "Yell and you'll be dead,"Olive's voice speaks threatenly in my ear.

    She shoves me forward and I start to walk. Not before long we're at the cornucopia where I see sleeping bodies. Olive giggles.

"Don't move,"she says fiercely with a giggle as I stand outside of the entrance of the cornucopia. Olive's voice is amazing and so is how she looks. But she wants to kill me. If it wasn't for this, we could've perhaps been friends.

A faded white light illuminates the arena, but it is still very dark. But at least people can see where they are looking or going.

"Wake up. I got her,"Olive says and I hear her kicking.

It's not long before all her allies come out. One of them catches my eye. Daren. Nothing can describe my anger towards him. If he's alive, then that cannon was probably Mary's.

"What did you do to Mary,"I whisper with gritted teeth and stare right into Daren's hard eyes. Olive giggles as she grabs both my hands and puts them behind my back.

    "What do you think I did?"he says with an evil smirk.

    "You killed Carlos and you killed Mary. I hate you!"I scream as I struggle to attack him. Olive is strong though, so I am still arrested in her arms.

    "Quiet!"Olive whispers angrily in my ear as she puts one hand over my mouth, the other keeping my body unable to run anywhere.

    "You're not going anywhere. You're gonna stay here as bait to get the others to come here. You better not try anything funny,"Mark says.

    For the rest of the night, they have me tied up in rope in my hands, legs, and then attach me to a tree nearby where Olive and Mark would guard me. Sound stops traveling as I get tired. My eyes almost drift to sleep when a kick hits me somewhere. I am too tired to know where.

    "Wake. Up!"Olive says as she kicks me awake. "Maybe your friends will come now."

    I open my eyes. The sun is up and it's bright again. It looks very morning and it's humid and fresh. The air smells cool and nice. It reminds me of one morning when my parents and I used to go to an ice cream place and then go play at a park. After my dad passed away, my mom doesn't like to go anymore.

    Four whistles note that a sponsor gift is coming. Once it lands, Mark goes and opens it.

    "Water,"he says.

    "I wonder how long it'll take your little friends to know your missing,"Olive hisses. "Oh look! Here they come!"

    She must have really good eyesight since, soon enough, my allies run towards the cornucopia. But they don't see us. They are facing the wrong way. They run to some trees where they disappear.

    Olive laughs. "That's smart."

    I try not to laugh too, because my allies looked pretty funny as they just run without looking at their surroundings. But I know something's wrong.

    "Olive, run! There's an explosive!"Mark hollers right before the explosive goes off.

Everything booms and my ears start to ring. My knives were taken away by Olive, so I had no escape of my ropes or the explosive. Olive, Daren, and Mark ran, but I couldn't run. Everything got destroyed and I ducked my head into my body as much as I could. A tree branch hit me in the head, but it was nothing compared to the huge impact of the bomb. Someone, though, runs and covers me before another explosive goes off.

Everything is black for a moment, but I eventually wake up. It looks like it wasn't long of my little sleep or faint thing. Maybe just even seconds or minutes. Everything calmed down, but many things were on fire. The trees, the beautiful trees are burning. I moved my hand a little and I noticed that hand was untied. I see a sword and grab it. I free myself and then look at the body. A cannon fires, which makes me jump a little. I turn the body over with a little gasp as I see who it is.

"No...Zander?"My voice is squeaky and tears are forming in my eyes. "Zander?" I shake him a little to see if he wakes up. "Zander! Zander, wake up! Zander!" I lean to his chest and listen closely to hear if he's breathing. I put a finger close to his nose, but no air touches my skin. My thigh hurts as I move.

Zander ran back for me again. This time was the last time he would do that...

"Zander,"I whisper, sobbing. I bury myself into his chest and hug him. I sob for who knows how long. He has scars and his face is kind of dirty, but behind that, he is still the loving and caring, intelligent and beautiful boy hat I know as Zander Macaly.

    I hear a hovercraft above me with its loud noise. I know they want his body, but I'm not letting go yet. "Thank you, Zander."

"Ms.Warefell,"someone speaks in a megaphone from the hovercraft. "We must pick up the body to take back to District Four."

"I'm sorry,"I whisper to Zander. I plant a little kiss on his cheek and stand up. Then I slowly walk away. I turn back around to see the hovercraft picking up his body. I clench my fists to hold back from not running towards Zander's body and shaking and pleading him to wake up. Just like Carlos did to Sky.

I hate President Harbor. He will pay for all these deaths...