Into the Flames [Watty Awards 2012]

Chapter 40

“Waterlily!” I cried out. “No, please no. You made it this far!” I buried my face into Jared’s side, letting my tears fall.

“Mist, look!”

I looked back at the screen. The boy with the injured leg limped toward the woods where Waterlily had just fallen. As he saw her crumpled body, he ran forward. As he ran towards her, a tree cracked, falling towards Waterlily. I buried my face again, “Tell me when it’s over. I don’t want to see it.”

“Mist, that boy just saved her.”

“What?” I immediately turned to the TV. Sure enough, Waterlily had been pushed forward and the boy lay crumpled beneath the tree. The fire raged around Waterlily’s body.

“Waterlily!” I figure appeared on the other side of the tree. The other boy leaped over the tree, a picked her up. He ran with her back to the field and placed her a few yards away from the burning woods.

He took one of the backpacks from beside him, and opened it. He pulled out a little jar and smelled it. I shook his head and put it back in the bag and pulled out another. He smelled that one, but shook his head again, placing it back in the bag. He dug through the bags, but came up with nothing. He went back to the first bag and took out a bottle of water. He put a little on her burns before shoving it in the bag and putting it on his back. He picked her up and ran from the crawling flames. Just before the flames reached where they had just been, he set her and the backpack down and ran for the rest of the supplies. He reached them just as the flames engulfed them he grabbed them, rolling them in the ground and put them on, grabbing the spear.

In the distance, other tributes started emerging from the woods. The boy started taking things out of the two backpacks he had just brought over and started shoving the supplies in the biggest one. He crammed in multiple medicines, bags of food, and bottles of water, along with their single sleeping bag rolled up on top. The bag bulged with supplies, but he had gotten everything in it. He threw it on his back and picked Waterlily up again. He balanced her mostly on his left arm, picking up the spear in his right.

He talked to Waterlily as he ran, but his words were too soft to hear. They weren’t too far from the cornucopia when he put her down again. Ethelreda sat in the cornucopia, watching as the tributes neared. From the corner of the screen, you could see her readying her gallery of knives, ready to start throwing them.

A single knife flew through the air at one of the tributes. The tribute fell and the war broke out, just as Waterlily woke up.