The 100th Annual Hunger Games

Chapter 29

"Fuck." Juniper muttered, spinning around to scan the forest.

There was no sight of Ash or Killian anywhere.

Wesley urged her to keep moving, it wouldn't do them any good to stay still and let the careerers catch up to them.

It was bound to happen eventually, their alliance breaking up, though Juniper wished it would've been when there were less tributes out there to worry about. Especially the ones from the career districts.

Juniper and Wesley sprinted through the dense forest, like deer being chased by wolves, though that wasn't that far off of a metaphor from reality.

A thundering herd could be heard behind them, and when Juniper glanced over her shoulder, she saw the careerers had almost caught up to them, closing the distance between them with every pace.

"CLIMB!!" Wesley ordered her as he grabbed her hand and wrapped it around the lowest branch of the nearest ash tree.

She didn't need to be told twice as she hauled herself up branch after branch, her feet slightly sliding every once and awhile when the slickness of the wet branch threw her off balance.

When she heard a cheer, she looked down and saw Wesley still at the base of the tree, surrounded on all sides by the careerers, with his back to the tree.

There were four of them, one boy in a white suit who looked as built as an ox, a tall thin girl in a turquoise suit with raggedy hair, another boy in a grey suit, and one Juniper recognized as Fayora.

Juniper immediately began to make her descent to the ground to join him as an orange beam of light lit up the dark sky.

It was as if it was in slow motion, Juniper's boot hit the ground as Fayora swiped her blade across Wesley's neck.

"I told you I would kill you." Fayora hissed.

Juniper and Wesley locked eyes when he spun around as he fell to the ground.
He managed to mouth one word before his canon announced his death.

Run.

Juniper bolted, her back against them as a column of green light blinded the careerers.

It was her fault. She didn't think to look back at him.
She should have known Wesley would've stayed on the ground if it meant to protect her.

His face flashed across her blurring vision, his wonderful beautiful face.

Blond curls that normally danced in the wind, were now stuck down to his face with the wetness of the rain, dried blood half washed off his face forming trickles of dark patches across his pale features.

His pale sky blue eyes now still.

And it was her fault.

She dug her heels down deeper into the earth to push more distance between the horrid place that would surely haunt her every waking day.

The ring on her hand glimmered, reflecting the light of the trees as she pumped her arms back and forth.

She glanced at her feet to see she had been tearing through a patch of small sunflowers, glowing with golden light like the sun.

Juniper's breath caught in her tightening throat as she bent down to pluck one from the damp earth.

She was sucked back into a memory as she remembered the one day Wesley had woven her a sunflower crown and called her a princess.

She crushed the blossom in her hand as hot tears spilled down her face and rose to her feet to keep going, she could tell that Fayora had recovered enough to yell at the other careerers that were with her.