Death Wish - The Hunger Games

Fourteen

C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N

A B O R N K I L L E R

At that specific moment I didn't know what to do. In every situation I was always thinking ahead, strategizing, but now everything was just blank. I could only focus on this foreign feeling of someone holding my hand... and me silently hoping that he wouldn't let go. But I knew that letting go was what was best.

Removing my hand from his, I smile before standing back up. "I wasn't exactly taught how to decipher what's deadly or not back in Two. Defensive and offensive fighting was the only things I really learned," I explained as I began to walk away from him.

"But survival skills are crucial... I don't understand why they don't teach that too." Freyer frowns, easily keeping up with me as I walk over rocks and fallen logs.

"They expect killing to be more crucial. That is the whole point of this." I say, motioning around us.

Approaching a large bush, I look at it's petals, now unsure if I could even touch it. "It's just a bush but not edible," Freyer tells me with a chuckle.

Before I could respond, the snap of a branch catches my attention. Quickly taking out my knife I find two other tributes approaching. Neither one of them looked like they were going to be friendly and they knew exactly what they were going to do. "Run. Get back to Dahlia." I tell Freyer, nudging him with my elbow.

"What about you?" He mutters.

"Like I said, I've learned a lot of fighting skills. Now go," I say before focusing all of my attention on the approaching tributes.

Rushing off, Freyer is out of sight before neither one of them knew what was happening. "I have a feeling I'm your real target, yeah?" I smirked, tightening my grip on my knife.

"You think too highly of yourself," the girl stated. Her hands carried what looked to be a tube of some kind, but upon further inspection I could tell that it was a blow dart. Just one hit from one of those darts and I'd be down and out, giving them time to kill me.

"Are we just going to talk or fight?" The guy next to her grumbled. Unlike his partners choice of weaponry, he carried a metal bat, it's shiny surface reflecting off of the artificial sun's rays. It's once clean surface was now rusted over by blood and dirt. These two are playing a dangerous game and they know exactly what they're doing.

Watching the two carefully, I'm able to move out of the way just in time as the girl blows a dart my way. The dart lands a few feet away. Next the boy runs at me, his bat raised over his head. But this approach only left him vulnerable.

Moving past him I'm able to slice his side with my knife, his groan the only sign that I managed to hurt him. "Diago!" The girl cries out, knowing that her partner was now injured and not as capable to protect her as before.

Unable to get out another dart in time, I'm quick to snatch the tube from her hands and throw it to the ground. Grabbing a fistful of her brown hair, I throw her to the ground as well. Looking at the two tributes I find myself struggling to make a move. I was trained for this- to kill. These two weren't, which was exactly why I was able to defeat them with only a few blows.

Taking a deep breath, I guide the blade to her throat. But the one thing that stops me is the face of Freyer as he steps out of the woods. It's obvious that he couldn't figure out whether to be scared or happy that I managed to survive past these two tributes. Looking at the boy- whose name is Diago- on the ground, he quickly notices the blood seeping from him wound and staining the sand and dirt underneath him.

Struggling against me, the girl cries as I tighten my hold on her and bring the blade closer to her throat. Freyer knows that I had to kill them. He knew that without their sacrifice neither him or Dahlia would be able to go home. And I also knew that I couldn't keep looking at him; or I'd forever be afraid of what he would think of me.

So before he could say anything to stop me, I press the blade hard against the girls throat and quickly jerk the blade across her skin. I knew that I cut her just from the look across Freyer's face. Looking down at her, I watch as she falls to the ground and grapples at her throat hoping to somehow be able to breathe again. But all hope is lost when her body stills and the sound of a cannon fires.

Stepping away from her and approaching the guy, I crouch down as he continues to keep his hand pressed against his wound. "Why'd you have to kill her?" He whimpers. "She had a sister waiting for her."

"We all have someone waiting for us don't we? But they all know that they may never see each other again," I explain.

"I've heard all about you, Saffra Wilshere. No one's waiting for you back home. All they care about is the victory, not you." He says, his mouth leaking drops of blood.

Maybe that was the one thing that I've always known as true. They all weren't waiting for me but instead the prizes that came with my return.

So maybe that's why I didn't move. And why I didn't comprehend what was going on around me. And also why I didn't realize that this whole time, Diago was reaching for the dart his fallen partner had shot off. The dart that I thought so carelessly of now stabbed through my stomach, causing everything to become fuzzy and disoriented.

"Saffra!" I heard Freyer yell. I could feel his arms securing me, keeping my head from hitting the hard ground.

But the next thing I heard was something I thought would never happen. The sound of a blade cutting through flesh was the last thing I heard before everything was gone.

By which leaving me in the dark, unsure whether or not I lived or died.