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chapter 14

Rage fills me as none other than Jack Odair retreats from his kill of Tigerlily. I check the wound in her back. The axe had gone deep into her spine.

"Hey, you're gonna be okay," I tell her, tears streaming down my cheeks. I lay her on her side. She smiles faintly and says, "Eve... I'm not going to live."

My heart breaks as I sob harder and I slowly bend down to kiss her cheek.

"Win," she mutters, and the cannon fires. More tears roll down my face. I close her eyelids over her eyes, as if she's sleeping. Then, as the hovercraft lands, I turn away and wipe my bloody hands on my jumpsuit. I run for what seems like hours. Soon enough, I'm face to face with the Cornucopia. I wear my binoculars around my neck, and I instantly feel no burning from the sun. I rush to the hole in the ice and splash cold water on my face, and reality hits me: I'm alone. Everyone in my group of allies either was killed, used for the plan, or left. That meant it was only me, Jack, Seth, and Dracon left. I thought about Tigerlily's last words: Win. That was clear as day to me. But I knew what that entailed: killing.  

* * *

The snow seems to have grown colder, or maybe it's just me. I decide to look through the backpack Tigerlily had grabbed for me. The 13 on the front shimmers as if made from silver. I open it and find a flask, some bread, a rope, and medicine. I tear off a piece of bread and stuff it in my mouth. Even if it was stale, I didn't realize how much I missed it until it was in my mouth. I save the rest for another time and grab my dagger. I search for any sort of food, and I take a wrong step into the snow.

"Ow!" a voice says. "Geez, Eve! You almost broke my nose!"

"Mandolyn?" I say in disbelief. Just to be sure, I inch away from the spot I was standing. A girl with red hair, pale skin, and green eyes stands up from the snow.

"You bet," Mandolyn Evensong says. Her lips are blue from cold. 

 "How did you survive?" I ask, handing her a piece of bread.

"Luck," she says casually. "I was sure I was going to die, and so when the cannon fired I thought it was for me. You guys left me here because you also thought I was dead. I

received a sponsor with medicine and a note from my mentor. I took the arrow out and put the medicine on my wound. I cut my tracker out and a cannon boomed. I splattered my blood in the snow. Because the Capitol is now run by the Rebellion, they played along with the fact that I was dead. I've been hiding from everyone now, and I've been camouflaged under this snow for a few days."

"Why didn't you come find us?"

"Too risky." I give her more bread, which she eats slowly.

"You need water," I say, taking the flask out and checking if there was any in it. Dry. "Stay here."

"Okee Dokey." 

* * *

I scoop water into my flask from the hole. Luckily, the clouds were hiding the sun so I didn't need my binoculars. I creep back to Mandolyn and we share the water.

"What happened to the others?" she asks. I sigh and tell her everything that had happened. My voice breaks as I tell her how Tigerlily is dead.

"Oh god," Mandolyn mutters, throwing her dagger at a tree, conveniently stabbing a squirrel in the chest. Dinner. Mandolyn pulls out her fire starter, grabs some dry sticks, and starts a fire. I reach up and take the squirrel and the dagger out of the tree and start to cook the squirrel over the fire. Mandolyn stops me so she can skin it first, and I feel sort of stupid. I'm still in shock about the fact that Mandolyn is still alive. But here she is. And I'm grateful for it. Now I won't be alone in the arena.

"Dinner's ready," Mandolyn says, handing me some of the squirrel. I bite into it and juice from the meat runs down my chin. Mandolyn takes a bite, makes a face, but swallows.

"I know," I say, referring to the meat. "But it's all we've got."

"Yeah. And stale bread."

I laugh.

"And stale bread."

She smiles sadly and places her food on the ground.

"I miss Tigerlily. And Lila. And Caroline. And Candace." She lays her head back as the Arena darkens.

"Me too," I say, laying down next to her. We gaze at the fake stars of the Arena, and it would have been a nice moment if we hadn't been in grave danger.

"I'll keep watch," Mandolyn says.

"No. The last time you did that you were almost killed," I remind her. "I'll keep watch. You sleep." She doesn't look so happy about that, but nods. 

* * *

The Arena at night is disturbing. You never know what might happen to you or your allies. I stand, knife drawn, pretending to be confident. I check on the sleeping figure of Mandolyn to make sure she's actually asleep. After a while of guarding, I hear a small squeak come from one of the trees behind me. I whip around to face where I heard it, and there, in a tree, was a small bird. It squeaks again, and I stare into its eyes. Suddenly, it dive-bombs me. I duck and wake Mandolyn as swarms of the small birds come flying from the trees. She says something to me but I can't hear her over all of the squeaking from the birds. Mandolyn screams and I see a peck on her neck. One of the birds had gotten her. Blood spills from her wound and onto her hand. I push her down and cover her while the birds attack us. A bird pecks my hand and it immediately starts to bleed and grow. Poison. The birds were poisonous. My hand bubbled and became a large, painful, mass of pus and poison. And then they're gone. They stop squeaking and just disappear altogether. I help Mandolyn up and she leans on me. I carry her back to our camp where I desperately rummage through my backpack for the medicine. I rub it onto my wound and it immediately starts to heal. I lift Mandolyn's chin and rub the medicine onto her bite on her neck. She lets out a sigh of relief as her bite heals. And that's when I know: This was all very real.