The Hunger Games [Zarry/Zouis]

Hallucinations

The first thing Zayn noticed was the pain.

     The horrible, stinging pain erupting from his left cheek, then his neck, and the pain almost immediately made him woozy. He clung to the tree like an abandoned koala and vaguely heard the panicked screams of the Careers float up from under him. Slowly Zayn slid down the tree trunk, wincing and biting down the choked cry from the back of his throat because fuck, Tracker Jacker stings hurt. When he got nearer to the base of the tree, only Taylor was twitching and weakly flailing on the ground. Remnants of supplies and make shift beds were strewn over the place, and Zayn resisted to urge to vomit as large purple boils sprung up from multiple areas on Taylor's exposed skin. The once clear, white complexion was now littered with angry burgundy marks, and they oozed a sickening pus that threw up a horrific smell along with it. The girl from District 4 staggered off in the trees but Zayn reckoned she wouldn't make it to the lake. Taylor made an indistinguishable noise from where she lay on the ground before going completely still.

     The next was now nothing but a plain empty shell. All the wasps had gone off in a hunt of the Careers who had 'disturbed' them. Technically, everyone who died from the Tracker Jackers was a kill for Zayn, but he honestly did not want to think of it that way. The wasps would be gone for a while but not forever, so the raven scampered across the ground and made his way to the little pool he'd found refuge in earlier. He completely submerged himself in the cooling water, then dragged himself out onto the rocks.

     He was only lying there for about four seconds when he realised. He remembered Taylor, the revolting mess of what couldn't really be called human anymore, but still had her quiver of arrows on her back and bow in her arms. The arrows. He hadn't head the cannon shot yet, so her brain must still be trying to fight against the venom. He refused to let the arrows slip through his fingers again.

     Zayn bolted back to the tree where Taylor was last, and made it just in time to extract the quiver and bow from her slowly disintegrating limbs. The once beautiful, sparkling girl was now unrecognisable. Her arms and legs were swollen to three times their original size. The sting lumps had expanded to soccer ball sized areas that spewed putrid green liquid which pooled around her. When he pulled the bow out of her hand, Taylor's fingers crumbled. Her skin was a disgusting yellow and Zayn was willing to bet whatever he had in his stomach to throw up would look better than her. His mind was still hazy from the wasp venom, but he managed to focus enough to tug the quiver from her back, as her skin flaked to the ground like an acidic coloured snow almost.

     He heard the birds quieten and thought, that can't be right. I'm still here, fighting for the arrows. And then he saw the District 4 girl being lifted up. He gritted his teeth and looked back to Taylor with a grimace. I have to do this. But it was kind of hopeless really, he was hyperventilating now. It was nightmarish, how horrifying the whole thing was. He half wondered if this was a hallucination, but when he had to break some of Taylor's fingers with a stone to get to one of the arrows, he knew it wasn't. Zayn had just picked up the quiver of arrows and bow when he heard the thundering footsteps. The Careers have returned. They've come back and they're going to kill me now. He thought almost deliriously, and maybe it was a touch on the insane side because he reckoned he was seeing big orange butterflies now, though they could always be more muttations.

     He pulled out slimy arrow and positioned it to shoot. It was no use, his fingers were trembling and he couldn't even see straight. I can't do this I can't do this I can't do this. Zayn was helpless as the first hunter slashed through the trees, skidding into the clearing. Thanks to his blurry vision he couldn't hardly make out his hand in front of his face, but still the jolt of confusion ran through him when Harry appeared, yelling at him. Suddenly, the baker's son spun around and fucking punched Nick bloody Grimshaw in the face. Maybe the hallucinations had kicked in. Yeah. Probably.

     Why won't he kill me? Zayn wondered stupidly. Why won't he put me out of my misery and kill me now? Why. Won't. He. Kill. Me? Why is he yelling at me?!

     "Run Zayn!" Harry screamed, and Zayn flinched back, his mind taking eons longer to process the order than usual. He blinked languidly at Harry and realised, not for the first time, how pretty he was. His big green eyes that were anxious and frustrated, his large hands that were waving around frantically, his bulging arms that were so close to shaking Zayn himself- "Fucking run Zayn!"

     And that was when it finally sunk in. Finally sunk in that Harry, for some unknown reason that Zayn was too high on Tracker Jacker venom to understand, was trying to save him. Save his life. For another unknown reason, maybe this one wasn't so unknown actually, Zayn listened. He staggered back and ran through the thickets of trees. The last thing he saw though, was Nick whacking Harry across his head, loud enough that it rung in Zayn's ears for the next hour.

     Zayn held tight onto his bow and quiver as he stumbled through trees, bashing into one and tripping over every second root. He passed his pool, and entered unfamiliar forest. The butterflies began to enlarge to the sizes of houses then explode into a multitude of stars in vibrant colours and shapes. The innocent frog that he just whizzed past stood up and began to explain how to light a campfire. The leaves from the tree branches above him fell down and started to grow hands and feet and walk around like really fucking weird spiders. Everything was bursting into flames, or imploding into mini bombs of water that washed over Zayn like a tidal wave, but left him dry and unscathed. That deer was turning pink, that squirrel just became yellow, the trees began to bleed blood that sunk into Zayn's boots and splashed around as he ran. Ants and various insects began to crawl out of Zayn's blisters and he couldn't shake them free he couldn't. They crawled up his neck and into his shirt and pants so he ran to a tree that wasn't bleeding, and waited for death.

     Sick and disoriented Zayn was able to form only one thought. Harry Styles saved my life. Then the ants crawled up his face and bored into his eyes and he blacked out.