My Hunger Games

Chapter Fourteen

"What?" the others yelled. Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake. 

"I wasn't kidding!" Jake said, afraid.

"What are we going to do?" Annie screamed. From the sky, pieces of the arena started falling down on top of them which would suggest that they were under some sort of dome, and trees began falling over. Niall immediately grabbed Annie, covering her head so that nothing would fall on her. 

"We have to think of a way out of here!" Karalyn shouted over the increasing rumbling of the earth. "We need to help Ashton. We're not letting him die!" She grabbed Luke's hand, looking at him. "Help me, please," she begged. Luke nodded, and together they pull him out of the tent just in time before a tree collapses onto it.

"What are- you doing?" Ashton asks. It's clear that he's fading further and futher away.

"Saving your life," Luke told him. Niall and Annie rush over.

"Annie, quick, give me the shot," Niall demands. She hands it to him as fast as she can. "This helped with Annie's leg, and there's still a little bit left. Maybe we can get some use out of it." Niall jams the needle into Ashton's arm, pushing the rest of the liquid into his blood stream.

"Ahh!" he howled in pain, writhing beneath them as they pinned him to the ground. Rhett was keeping a close watch on Jake, who made the rest of them extremely uncomfortable. Luke and Niall picked him up under the shaking ground.

"We need to get out of here," Jake tells them. 

"But how?" Rhett asks. 

"I have an idea, but it's risky," Jake says. "But first we have to get somewhere else! They have to destroy the arena section by section before it explodes. Come on!" They run after Jake hesitantly, knowing that this could be a trap, but cautious as to have eyes on him and weapons ready at all times. 

When they made it to the fall section, which wasn't in much better condition, they slowed down. The barriers had been torn down, allowing them to cross, but the ground still stopped shaking as if it were still separated, which it appeared to be. "Why are you helping us?" Karalyn asks, her dagger pointed outward at Jake. Jake puts his hands up in surrender. 

"Because I thought I wanted revenge, but now I realize that I'm no better than anyone else in these games. I never planned on killing anyone, and I know that I almost did, and I'm sorry. I don't want anyone else to die," he says. Luke seems to buy it, but Karalyn, not so much. "I have a plan on how we can get out of here, but it will take serious convincing."

The plan was genius. They were going to out smart the game makers, and fake a death. Because Ashton was the obvious choice to have faked, it seemed fool-proof. His body was especially cold, since he never bothered to cover up in the winter section. They were going to pretend as if the shot that Niall had given him wasn't enough, and Jake knew how to slow his heart rate to have him appear to be dead. At first, Karalyn didn't trust this either, and neither did Rhett, at first. But seeing as how it was their only option out of there, they had to play along. So that's what they did; they played along. 

Ashton was fake killed, left for dead. Niall shook his head, throwing the glass shot against a tree. It shattered instantly. Karalyn broke down, screaming, while Luke pulled her back. Annie buried her face into Niall's shirt, and Rhett and Jake stood off to the side, looking upset. At first, no cannon sounded. But after waiting, one finally did. The hovercraft to collect Ashton's body makes itself known, not even waiting for them to clear out. Biggest mistake they could have ever made.

Luke and Niall waited until the last minute to pull him away from the hovercraft's reach, and Annie and Rhett took out the men in the hovercraft, who fell aimlessly to the ground. At that moment, the ground started to shake and things started to fall, just as they had done in the winter section. "Quickly, up the ladder!" Jake yelled. The ladder had extended when the men fell. Annie had hit him so perfectly that he fell onto the lever which released it, conveniently enough. 

The others rushed over to it, and instantly started to climb up. As expected, there were other men inside. Luke took them out instantly. Karalyn and Niall helped him support Ashton's weight as they carried him up the ladder and into the vehicle. Jake, who had been the last to climb up, was still on the ladder. "Go! I'll climb up later. You have to go! There's a hole in the roof where the hovercraft came from, and you need to go out that way!" Niall took hold of the control, and got them moving. The plan was brilliant. Everything had gone perfectly so far. Up until that point at least.

"Take cover!" Niall screamed. Karalyn clung to Ashton's unconscious body as Luke threw himself over her, and Rhett and Annie huddled with them. Just as Jake had predicted, they blew up the arena just as the hovercraft was escaping. Jake hadn't made it to the top yet. 

"Jake..." Karalyn whispered. She freed herself from Luke's grasp and looked over the edge. Jake had gotten caught in the blow, and his skin was charred. But he wasn't dead. He was just clinging to life. "Jake, let me help you," she said, reaching for him. He shook his head. 

"Then let me go," were the last words he whispered before falling off of the rope ladder, and into the burning flames off the arena. The hovercraft escaped, and the hole closed. They had actually done it; actually beaten the Hunger Games. They won the games.