10
The Victor
I woke up to a severe throbbing in my left arm. I looked down at it and gasped at the purple swollen quality it had taken on. I tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge. I tried my wrist, but still no response. I couldn't even get my fingers to move.
Great.
Whatever Hector had done to my arm, I didn't have the skill or the technology to fix it. Sitting up was painful, and so was drinking water. That's when I remembered that bone-crunching punch I took to the face and decided I was hydrated enough for now. My left arm felt like a foreign object sewn onto my body; I didn't like it. How was I going to win with a gimp arm?
A snap and a yelp told me that something else was caught in my snare. I picked up my trident and ran after it.
The orange palm trees
The steep riff
Rock that looks like a man
The indent in the cliff...
It sounded close, probably the rock that looks like a man. But by the time I got there, the net was broken and no one was around. I cut it down in frustration and stalked away. Then it occurred to me I had no idea who was still alive. After I'd passed out last night any number of canons could have fired without waking me. Now there was no way to be certain who was dead or alive.
Another snap. near the cliff I believed. I ran for it and saw the boy from six thrashing around inside. I felt bad for him, and for a second I almost put down my trident.
Not time to be weak, Fin.
I charged the net, and ducked under it, poised to strike. He caught my eyes and I froze, everything in me going numb.
"I'm sorry," is all I said before running him through the heart with my trident. I hated the way that felt, when your weapon breaks through flesh and bone. But it was fast. The life went out of his eyes instantly and the canon fired.
Well, I guess I knew for sure he was dead.
I also now knew that as long as they were in the net, it was easy enough for me to stab them just using my right arm, seeing as my left was rendered useless. I took the remaining scraps of my shirt from my backpack and made a sling so that my arm wouldn't be flying around aimlessly whenever I moved. It helped too, to have it cradled instead of hanging loose. I walked through the forest, trying to figure out where to go or what to do. I nibbled on a root that Carson had shown me, but it hurt to chew. These games would have to end soon or else I'd die of emaciation.
For four hours I walked, tried to get feeling back into my arm, and hid if I heard a sound. I checked all my traps; found one had caught an animal. But I wasn't going to eat anything if I didn't know what it was, so I left it. Who knew if it bit? I walked into a piece of the forest that looked broken and lived it. The ground looked disheveled, but nothing could have prepared me for the scene a few feet away. The leaves, tree trunks, grass, and ground was all splattered with crimson. The smell of old blood overwhelmed my nostrils and I gagged, backing away from the spot. What had happened here? Surely, whoever's blood that was, they were dead.
I cleared out of there as fast as I could, now paranoid of animals and beasts alike. The viewers were going to get bored soon, something was going to happen for sure.
I found myself at the edge of the forest, the perimeter between the plain of cooled rock and the trees. Goren was still out there, his back to the woods.
Well, what else do I have to do? He could be the only one left, for all I know.
I crept out to the plain, feeling self conscious about how open and visible I was. It anyone had a bow and arrow or even a good throwing arm with a spear, I was done. But Goren remained completely unaware I was there. I had to accredit that to my District once again; one of the first things my father taught me when learning to fish was how to focus my energy so that I can move without alarming other living things. I got so good at it; fish would swim unsuspectingly around my ankles, even though I had a trident just above the water waiting to impale them.
