Sunflower Seeds

Chapter Eleven

    The infection in my leg effects me quickly and I soon start to feel like crap. It's only about an hour away from sundown when I accidentally drift off for what feels like a few minutes, but when I open my eyes, it's dark and, of course, Niall isn't here. Again. I curse, but I can't move from the bench. I look at the wound in my leg and grimace. It's getting worse. I can feel that it's getting worse, too. I feel absolutly awful. I close my eyes again, and soon Niall's shaking me gently.

    "I got it." He says with a huge smile, holding up a backpack with the number Nine on it, but all I can see is the gash on his forehead that's dripping blood down his face. I frown.

    "You promised you wouldn't go!" I say angerly. "And now you've got this awful cut on your face. What did I tell you?"

    "It's just a scratch, I... I tripped." He tries to cover for himself but I can tell he's lying.

    "Don't you dare lie to me, Niall Horan. What happened?" I say forcefully. He chews his lip for a second.

    "I ran into the other tribute... it's the male from One... I think his name's Salve or something..." He says carefully, pulling the medicine out of the backpack. It's in a tin, like the berries in my first backpack, and it smells like manufactured mint. He carefully rubs the cream around my wound and I inhale sharply at the sudden stinging. Niall pulls his hand away quickly.

    "Did I hurt you?" He asks, his voice sounding worried.

    "No," I say through clenched teeth, "It just stings a lot."

    The pain quickly subsides to a warm, healing sensation, and it's like the infection is being sucked out of my body. I feel better almost instantly, and I can practically watch the skin aroud the wound change from the ugly black-green to a healthier reddish pink.

    "That was really fast." I say, looking up at Niall. I notice the cut on his face again. "Now it's your turn."

    "What? No, this is yours. It's just a little scratch, It'll heal soon." He tries to reassure me, but I've already got the medicine in my hands and on his forehead. His face screws up in pain when I smear it across the gash, but I know it'll go away soon so I don't say anything.

    Since his cut isn't as deep, it's almost healed completly within ten minutes. I think our problems are over until I try to swallow and realize my mouth is completly dry and I haven't had anything to drink in over a day. I frown and try to swallow again but there isn't anything to swallow.

    "I'm really thirsty." I say quietly. Niall frowns and grabs the backpack, digging around for the berries.

    "Have some of these and then we'll go find water." He tells me, handing me the tin of berries. I open it and pop one of the bright red fruits in my mouth, loving the feel of the juice running over my tongue and down my throat.

    "I didn't realize how thirsty I actually am." I mutter, shoving 3 more berries in my mouth. Niall laughs at me and grabs one of the berries, tossing it in his own mouth.

    I finish off half the tin before I'm satisfied enough to go out looking. We quickly realize that we don't know where we are and how we should even start looking for water, so we pick a street and head off in that direction, hoping we'll get lucky and stumble apon the forest. We start out staying in the shadows and out of plain sight, but after the last remaining tribute doesn't show himself, we let our guard down a little, walking on the rubble-filled sidewalks hand-in-hand. Not a word is exchanged between us as we walk. Every street looks the same, and we constantly hit intersections that look exactly the same as the intersection before. The only way we know for sure that we aren't going in a circle is the fact that we haven't taken any turns.