Into the Flames [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 37

The Capitol symbol shone brightly through the trees as we ran.  I looked up every few seconds, to see who was gone. I didn’t recognize any of the tributes except for Chase, but I didn’t really care about him. “How many were there?” called Willow.

“Eleven, there are only thirteen of us left.”

“Wow, we’re almost half way!”

“I know, at this rate, we’ll finish tomorrow!”

“It always slows down after the first day.”

“True,” I smashed into something and squished my nose against the warm surface.

I stumbled backward, “Watch where you’re going, that could have been Ethelreda and not me you ran into.” Woody looked down at me, his arms crossed.

“Sorry,” I backed away a bit. “Are we at our new site?”

“It’s just around those trees.”

“Well, let’s go!”

Woody nodded and led us through the bushes. On the other side, a rock wall stood with a little waterfall rushing into a pool. I walked toward the waterfall. I reached out to touch it, but as soon as I did, I saw something behind it. There was a hole in the wall. I walked around to the back of the waterfall. I small cave sat inside the wall. It was cool inside the cave, but it was small. I motioned the others inside. We fit perfectly inside.

“This can’t be real,” Willow ran her hand down the cave wall.

I shook my head, “It can’t be, but it is.” Woody laid out our single blanket and told Moose to sit there and rest. He did, but I could tell he didn’t want to.

I found a smooth area on the floor and lay down. Woody lay down on the other side of the room, Willow next to him. I closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to come, but it didn’t.  There were already eleven people dead, eleven innocent people dead, will I even live to see the daylight or will I die here?

My mind wondered to the career pack. I wondered what was going on over there. If Ethelreda was still getting over me leaving or if they were all asleep in nice warm sleeping bags. If I was there, would I be warm?

Two canons blasted and Willow shot up on the other side of the cave. I reached for my spear, but I could tell the shots were far off and that the killer wasn’t nearby.

I sat in silence, staring into the darkness. Who was just killed? Who was the killer? Of course the second answer was probably Ethelreda and the first was probably the last two people in the alliance we had attacked earlier. But then again, they hadn’t been too far from our old camp and this one was not much farther either, but they could have moved.

After what seemed like forever, my breathing slowed down and sleep overtook me.