Of Victors and Tributes

Chapter 15: Darts and Blades

"Are you okay?" Fairlie asks me, getting to her knees haphazardly. There's a long, shallow burn that starts on her neck and plunges beneath her shirt, and her hand is wrapped with fabric. Axel, on the other hand, hasn't gotten away with injuries so easily. His face is deeply burnt on the left side, one of his eyes puffy and filled with blood. He has bruises spotting his arms, and his pant legs are torn. I put two and two together and realize he has used his pant legs to wrap Fairlie's hand.

"Fine," I say, standing up, "but you guys look rough."

"I hope you have something to fix us up. I couldn't even see you. We're lucky Fairlie's a good shot," Axel says. I restrain myself from reaching out to touch his face, just because I've never seen anything so horrible before. At least, not in person.

"She hit 11 with a dart! Right in the neck, too," Meadow says, giving me a quick hug. I don't have time to hug her back before she backs away, smiling with slight terror and pain in her eyes.

"A dart? How'd you kill him with that?" I ask, looking at her. She plucks the dart from 11's neck.

"Poison," she says.

"We killed a snake," Axel adds.

For some reason, I feel the need to laugh.

"Here, let's get somewhere safe, and then we'll help you guys with your injuries. We have burn cream, you know," Meadow says, heading towards. . . somewhere. The direction we were heading in the first place.

"Heard on the grapevine that there wasn't any in the Cornucopia," Axel says coolly. He almost sounds angry about us having it, which is understandable. His skin is practically melting off his face.

"We stole it from the Careers," I explain. Axel and Fairlie both look at me, eyebrows raised. Fairlie looks pleasantly surprised; meanwhile, Axel looks shocked that I'm alive.

"Oh, it was hell. He got stabbed in the back for it," Meadow comments. This time, they both look at her. Unlike before, when Axel mentioned the killing of the snake, I don't hold back my laugh. It's a small chuckle, but enough for Axel to think I'm making fun of him.

"And how are you alive?" he snaps.

"Let's sit down," Fairlie interrupts, pointing to a large group of thickets that create the perfect circle to hide in. A making of the Gamemakers, I assume immediately. Nevertheless, we all struggle to crawl through the bushes and then sit down.

Eleven's cannon goes off.

"Oh. I guess the poison takes longer than we thought," Fairlie comments. We hear the noise of the giant hovercraft coming to pick up his lifeless body.

"Get out the burn cream," Axel says, ignoring her. I glare at him for a minute, but I begin spreading out what we have. They also have a bag, which Fairlie is carefully unpacking.

I take out the food and water first, going slightly slower then I would have if Axel had asked nicely. I get the burn cream out and hand it to Fairlie first, annoying Axel, but she gives it to him. I separate Meadow and mine's food, the greens and flowers and dried fruit and dried meat and the bird that we have yet to prepare. I also take out the medical kit and give it to Meadow so she can check for stuff that will help the other two. I leave everything else alone.

I expect Axel to selfishly hoard the burn cream and use most of it, but he is very careful and sparing, trying to make the very little he takes last long. I can tell it's difficult for him to touch the wound. We all sit in silence, watching his fingers maneuver, him flinch in pain or stiffen or bite his lip so as not to cry out. At one point, pus begins to drip out of his eye like sickly yellow tears, and Meadow hurries to hand him the gauze. Fairlie snatches it from his hand and holds the gauze underneath his eye.