Eleven

Poison

Authors note: Okay..... so..... I haven't posted in a while (again) because my school year just started and I have more homework than you could EVER imagine..hopefully some of you are still here to read... Hello? Anybody?.... and there's that thing with going on to FanFiction.net, but we aren't going to talk about that. ANYWAY, for those who are amazing and cool enough to put up with my writing and Sage, here's the much awaited next installment of 11!

          I open my eyes and blink. The inside of my eyelids burn my eyeball. I know this feeling. This means I haven't gotten enough sleep. I vaguely remeber a person and a streak of green light. I shake my head and rid myself of the thought. I can't afford to think like this. I swing my legs slowly over the branch and climb down. The others are munching on some spare dry fruit. I catch part of the conversation.

"-So, I think we should go look for some water today, seeing as we don't have any; we're running out,"

"Who suddenly made you boss?" I hear Rylan say indignantly.

"Whatever." Cypress mumbles.

     When I get three feet above the ground, I jump. And land with a very audible thump. I sit down and snatch some dried beries. "What about water?" I ask. Javier looks at me coldly. "I said, we are going to look for water today." I study him. Then I shrug and say, "Fine with me."

      A cannon fires. There used to be ten tributes alive. Now, nine. And six of these tributes make up our alliance. This won't be pretty. I brush the thought from my mind. I can't afford to think like that. I place one more dried apricot in my mouth and head off to pack. I grab my fanny pack and throw in my knife and my canteen.  I duck out of our only tent that stores our supplies and wait. Not long after, the others come out too. Javier surveys the group. "Okay, follow me," He calls over his shoulder as he makes his way in to the graveyard of trees behind camp.

         We make our way through the trees and walk around pointlessly for a few hours or so. Every time we hear suspicious sound, I jump. It's usually just wind or one of the others. Although I am pretty sure a branch fell off a rotting tree. Once or twice. Sienna stops and leans down to pick some apparently edible plants. Rylan and Asher look for some firewood and Cypress fiddles with her rope. We walk so far I swear we might bump in to a force field and die like Peeta Mellark. That part in the Hunger Games has obviously taken a toll on me. That's the reason why I gladly let Javier go in front of me. No hard feelings, though. We walk until finally, I hear it. The sound of water.

    "Guys. Did you hear that?" Rylan looks at us, suprised.

    "I did. I just thought it was me." I reply.

    "Where?" Javier gives us a penetrating stare. 

    I point west. "There."

       We head west, and sure enough, a little pond is sitting there harmlessly. I bend down and look. No worms, nothing. Just water. It's very deep, too. The water is a dark blue.

"Guys," I call,"The water is fine."

  Sienna comes over and examines the pond.

"Here, Sage. You go first. You found it, after all." Sienna smiles and nods.

    I uncap my bottle and lower my canteen in the water. The water looks so nice and refreshing, I lower my bottle and let my hand go in to the water. The water is cool, but not too cold. I feel a faint smile creep on to my face.

     Then, I see a ripple on the surface of the pond. That's just the wind, or something. That's when I feel the pain. A pain that shoots up my arm and travels through my bodylike an electric shock. Then, another. Then, another. Something slithers inside the pond, but I'm too shocked to think right. Tendrils of red travel up from the surface. My ears are ringing.. or maybe that's me screaming. I can't tell. My bottle floats up to the surface, floating around, and I start to lose my grip on reality.

As I turn my head, Rue appears. "Sage," she says, "it'll be okay." Her voice has an interesting echo to it. A figure creeps up behind her. It's Marvel. What's he doing here? "Rue!" I scream. "Run!" She doesn't listen. The figure comes out of the shadows. It's Katniss, holding her bow all srtung up and aimed at my sister. "Rue!" I scream louder. No use. Katniss lets her arrow fly and it hits Rue. "Why?" I shout. "Why?" Katniss dissapears into the trees. And then I'm falling, falling forever. Somebody grabs me and I thrash around. "No!" I say. "I won't!" Then I everything goes black. Just like that.

"Sage... Sage... Can you hear me?"

My eyes flutter open. "Yes," I try to say. "I can hear you." But no sound comes out. I blink. Sienna is sitting next to me. She notices I'm awake.

" You probably want to know what happened," She says softly. That is correct. "We think you got bitten by a mutt. A fish or a snake. You didn't take your hands out, so the mutts just kept biting. Your hands are really bad." That's why I can't move or feel my hands. I blink once, just to let her know I can hear her.

"Then you were shouting stuff. It looked like you were seeing things. We were yelling for you, but you couldn't hear us. You wouldn't come and take your hands out. So Rylan had to go and hit you with your sword and we dragged you away. We took you to camp. You were out for 3 days. We thought you died, but there was no cannon.

"The girls for one and four are gone. It's just boy form two and us, now." I nod. She smiles. Then I close my eyes.

Author's note: Just so you know, Sage didn't die.

I feel like I owe you guys. I'll be working double time for the next chapter.

Annie :)