Rising Rebellion [#3]

Chapter 13 - Pain

Even before Sylvia told him to, John’s feet was flying. His hand was burning from being infected by the fog. Why he even did that, he wondered as he kept on running. The fog was moving in on him. John’s lack of water since this morning, combined with the fact that his artificial leg wasn’t exactly built to run, kept slowing him down. Nevertheless, he couldn’t remember running this fast in his entire life. His stump however didn’t like it. He was headed downhill which made it even harder for him to keep up the pace. He had to keep a certain pace to keep the fog behind him, but at the same time he had to make sure that he didn’t lose control and fall downwards. It could be the end of him.

His moves were sloppy, his legs were saggy and he had trouble putting one foot in front of the other in the pace that he needed them to. He swung the bow over his shoulder as he knew there would be no point in carrying it at this point. No arrows would be able to stop that fog from getting to him. His rapid moving feet was his only chance. But even his moving feet weren’t going to be enough. They were too tired and too heavy to keep on dragging. John kept on running. He was getting closer to an edge as he looked back and saw the fog was gaining on him. He looked forward just in time as he jumped blind over the edge.

He didn’t think the jump was going to be that long, or high, but it was. As he got over the edge, he saw that he had missed completely. He landed roughly on a downwards slope as he was rolling all the way to the bottom, dismounting his artificial leg in the process. As he managed to get up on his four limbs, he looked up as the fog was coming down towards him. It never seemed to stop chasing him. He quickly went looking for the leg as he realized it was gone. He caught sight of it by a root which was soon to be consumed by the fog. John jumped the best he could with his one leg to get to it. As he got there, the root was a little higher than him, and he had trouble getting to it. The fog was dangerously close as he finally got it and put it on.

As he jumped down from the small ledge, he started running again, but the fog had caught up with him. It was touching his back, causing him immense pain. The leg wasn’t properly on. He felt it while he was running, but at this point, there was no chance that he would stop and fasten it properly. He had to try and keep himself in front of the fog as good as he could, but he felt like he sank deeper and deeper into it. His back was on fire from pain and his arms and legs were also burning and making it harder and harder for him to keep on running. The fog seemed to be slowing down, but so was John. The unfastened leg, the dehydration and all the blisters on his body, seemed to be dragging him further and further down to the point where he just wanted to stop.

He got more and more unsteady. The fact that the leg wasn’t properly on, caused his stump to waddle back and forth to the point where John could no longer keep his balance. He stumbled on the ground and started to drag himself one meter at the time. The fog was still coming for him, but not as aggressive as in the beginning. For a shorter moment, the fog was on top of his legs and made it to his back before it back off. John groaned in pain as the fog was on to his back. He then took his chances and looked behind him to see the fog withdrawing.

He took a slight deep breath in relief. It wasn’t until now that he noticed how badly his entire body was shaking. It was in shock from the fog’s attacks. Just trying to move with his arms caused him too much pain because of the big blisters. As he was trying to reach for the bow, he groaned in pain as the blisters made it both hard on his arm and back, as his back took a big beating in the end. He then tried to find something solid to put his hands on as he was dragging his way forward. There was no way he was going to be able to get up on his feet without support.

After a while, he heard something moving above him. Something or someone was moving from one branch to the other. He tried to turn his head as much as his blisters allowed him to, and then looked up to see animals looking at him – animals resembling monkeys. He looked down as he aimed for a tree nearby to help him get up on his feet, even though he had serious doubts about it being possible. He remembered back to the previous years of the Hunger Games. Any big animals seen in the Arena were usually genetically engineered mutts that would attack the tributes. John thought these monkeys to be no different. As he got to the tree, he tried to reach the bow for support, but it hurt too much. No matter how hard he tried to ignore the pain, it just got overwhelming time and time again.