The Hunger Games: Death of the Mockingjay

Chapter 31

Steph and I carefully make our way down the steep grassy slope to the rolling dunes and head off back in the direction of the bunker. We start out across the small grassy hills but I can't help myself and look back up the mount behind us. Peeta stands with the same look of dread I've seen so many times when I've been forced to risk my life. Alek stands at his side and smiles at us before he turns away to join the others leaving Peeta stood by himself. I give him my best "don't worry" smile with a casual wave and head off after Steph.
We separate ourselves slightly. For one thing if we stay close together then we'd be a much easier target when we run into the Brotherhood. This way if they are short of ammunition, which we think they are then they'd struggle to bring us both down. Not far from the mount we stumble on a large area of sand in among the dunes. It's almost like a sort of bare area with no grass or dirt but one thing that is strange is that the sand is slightly damp, almost as if it's rained.

"That's weird, there must be something wrong with the arena" says Steph looking up at the clouds

"No I don't think so, we never saw any rain and if there was we'd of felt the dampness in the air"

"So what is it?"

"I don't know, but for now I think we should keep moving, we're running out of time" I say looking at the sun which is slowly creeping down toward the horizon.

We climb over the next dune keeping our profile low so we don't create too much of a siluette. Hi drop to the floor as a single gunshot rings out from off to our right. I know from the sound that it was a high powered rifle, probably a sniper I'd say. I crawl back away behind the dune for cover then look for Steph, I can't see her anywhere!

"Steph!" I yell, wincing at the sound of my own voice echoing across the dunes.

"I'm here" I hear her reply from a short distance away. I stay prone and crawl in her direction, only as I draw closer do I see her grimacing with pain.

"Hey" I say trying to stay positive when I finally find her laid out in the long grass. There's a bullet hole in her right thigh but it looks like the bullet passed right through. The problem is that she's bleeding bad. The only thing keeping her alive is her training back in the academy as she's already got both her hands pressed to each side of her leg with an index finger inserted in the entry and exit wounds. I wince at the pain she must be feeling, but the other more immediate problem is that she can't move without losing more blood, and we're both trapped behind the dune by a sniper that neither of us can see.

"Where do you think the bullet came from?" I ask

Steph frowns and thinks for a moment, like she's replaying what happened. "I'd say it came from that direction" she says nodding her head toward the far off forest. There's no way the bullet came from that far away the shooter must be hidden among the dunes somewhere.
I lay prone on the ground and crawl my way up to the summit of the small dune we're hidden behind. Using the tall grass as cover I peek through at the rolling grassy hillocks. To begin with I see nothing until I spot a small muzzle flash from the crest of a low dune about 200 metres in front of me. The bullet from the rifle whistles harmlessly over my head, it's obvious that whoever is shooting at us isn't an accomplished marksman, either that or they've got pretty bad eyesight. I look at the grass around me and take a read from it's movement, once I've got an idea of the wind direction and the distance of the shot I crawl back down into the valley of the dune for cover.
"Did you see him?" asks Steph through gritted teeth.

"Yeah I've got him" I say as I pull and arrow from my sheath.

"How you gonna get him from here, he's much too far away and if you stand up to shoot he'll take you out easily"

"Leave that to me" I say smiling at my friend.
I twist the head on the incendiary arrow to arm it then lay flat on my back and point my bow toward the sky. I need to be careful with these arrows. I haven't used incendiary weapons since the war and even then it was only on the firing range. When I pull the string back on my bow I've only a few moments before the arrow head catches fire automatically at which point I must release it. The amount of power and aim I need must be judged before I pull the string back to shoot, it's something that's slightly alien to me.

I close my eyes and try to paint a picture of the shot I need, based solely on what I'd just seen of the shooter. The angle, distance and the wind direction all must be taken into account. I make my adjustments, open my eyes and pull the string back. I wait a moment for the tiny flames to start emanating from the sides of the arrow head then release the string. The flames make a fizzing sound as the arrow screams off into the sky before it reaches the top of its arc and starts back down to the ground. Was I correct, is it on target and has my plan worked?

I hear a high pitched screaming coming from the dunes ahead of us. I quickly crawl up to the summit and look through the tall grass. Alek was right, the white hot incendiary arrows can set the tinder dry grass alight! There staggering through the flaming grass is a single individual, their body wreathed in flame as they stagger forward for a few paces before the screaming falls silent and  they drop to the ground. The sight makes me feel nauseous, the pain from the flames must of been excruciating. I mean, I'd been there when the capitol was bombed at the end of the rebellion, my sister was killed in the explosion and I was badly burned but that was nothing to what this poor soul had to endure before the end. I crawl back down to Steph and sit alongside her with my head in my hands. This arena, the terrible way people have lost their lives is nothing like any other Hunger Games. To be burned alive, blown to bits by the land mines or ripped to pieces by whatever crawls around in the swamps. Everything here seems to be built on terror, including the weapons we carry, there seems to be very few quick deaths here.

"Katniss......Katniss!" yells Steph breaking me from that vision of the human torch. I turn and face her.

"You've gotta leave me here" she says quietly.

"No, that's not happening, I'm not leaving you for the Brotherhood to find you"

"Katniss listen to me. I can hide here in among the undergrowth, believe me I know how to do it. But if you stay they'll find you and then they'll get me too. With this leg I'm no use to you but on your own you've got a better chance than both of us together"

"But what about your leg, you'll bleed out if I don't get you back to the others"

"Don't worry about that, I used an arrow shaft and my belt to make a tourniquet, it's at least stopped the worst of it"

I look down at her leg, her temporary fix looks incredibly painful but she's right about the bleeding. It has almost stopped. She's tightened her belt around her leg and then used an arrow shaft to twist it tighter.

I look at my friend in sorrow and she smiles back "you need to go Katniss, find the Brotherhood, lead them back to the mount"

I gather my things, nod at her and leave my friend behind.