The 65th Hunger Games - EDITING

Chapter twenty-eight

I look into the forest, fighting the tears. Even after what happened, I can't let myself cry. We are the only two left. All the others are dead.

Dead.

I think about Viviana's father, who probably saw everything as it was happening; I imagine him watching the scene as it is broadcasted live, completely helpless. I wonder if he's mad at me. I did what he asked and even more than that. I wonder if he's currently wishing that I would have taken his daughter's place. I did my best, but in the end, it doesn't matter because she's dead. Maybe it's better this way. As she said, she never would have made it; all she wanted was to at least survive the first day. I couldn't even help her do that. Anthos also left us. I didn't see him die and I'm happy about it. The last image I'll have of him won't be as horrible and gory as Viviana's. Every time I close my eyes, I can only see her and her throat being ripped open, her blood forming a puddle on the ground, her eyes forever tainted by the fear and the suffering. And Cedar... I can't even describe what I'm feeling towards is death. I thought he abandoned us, but he came back and sacrificed himself so that we could live. I didn't see him die either, but I heard him scream. Adenias was right, they took their time with him, they didn't end him right away.

I walk up to him; he's sitting on the ground, his face buried between his legs, swinging back and forth. As much as I'd like to grieve my allies' death, I have more urgent things to take care of. He's losing a lot of blood and his skin is already a lot paler. I gently put my hand on his shoulder to alert him of my presence, but he doesn't react. I don't know if he's trying to ignore me or if the recent events left him in a permanent state of confusion.

"Adenias?" I ask, shaking his shoulder harder and harder until he finally looks up, acknowledging my presence.

"Finnick, what... what happened? Where are the others?"

"Don't you remember what just happened? They're all..."

I don't bother to finish my sentence; he's not listening to me. I can see in his eyes that he's back into his own world, trying to escape the arena and all of its horror. I'll deal with the psychological damage later; right now, what I need to do is take care of his leg. I open my bag and empty it on the ground. I still have a sleeping bag, a knife, some dried fruits and some fresh ones, two bags of dried jerky and what seems to be Viviana's token. She mentioned it before the Games, but she never showed it to me. The silver chain ends with a beautifully detailed twisted shell encrusted with a piece of benitoite. Its deep blue color reminds me of the ocean. It used to be a really common stone back home until blue became the new fashion in the Capitol a few years ago. Now, it's as rare as it was centuries ago. We would need quite a few decades of natural disasters for it to come back to normal. Along with the seashell, a ring is attached to the necklace. By the looks of it, my best guess is that it's a wedding ring. It's encrusted with the same stones as the pendant. It's beautiful. I delicately put it back in the bag, as if I had looked at something I wasn't allowed to. Once again, Adenias groans in pain, bringing my attention back on him.

I try to search my memory for Viviana's advice in case of an open wound. Clean the wound, disinfect, apply pressure, wrap the wound, elevate the wounded limb. I don't know if I remember it correctly or if I forgot steps, but that's all I can do right now. I don't have anything to disinfect or any sterile bandage so I'll have to use water to at least clean it and I'll have to rip the sleeping bag in a long stripe. I just hope it won't make it worse than it already is. I walk up to him; he's still sitting in a fetal position. I can hear him whispering, but I can't understand what he's saying; it sounds like gibberish.

"I'm gonna try to help you, okay? It might hurt a little."

He doesn't react so I proceed to pull up what's left of his pants to reveal his leg. I hear him grunt in pain, but he doesn't try to move or push me away. Blood is still pouring from the open wound, but it looks better than earlier. The skin around the lacerations is really pale while the rest of the leg is reddish. It's way deeper than I thought and he must have lost an incredible amount of blood. I was wrong; it's far from being better. The bleeding slowed down only because his blood is becoming thicker. I'm still going to try but I doubt it's going to change something. I should make him bite into something so he doesn't hurt himself while I treat his leg.

"Can you bite into this please?" I ask him, holding out a stripe of the sleeping bag.

After a moment of silence without a reaction, I understand that he's not goingto do it by himself so I gently pull his head away from his legs and insert thepiece of cloth into his mouth without any reaction from him. It's like he's notaware of what's happening, almost as if he was already dead. His forehead ishot, too hot; he's not going to make it. His eyes are empty of any emotion andhe's looking in front of him as if he couldn't see anything but the empty, likeI wasn't there. I open one of the two water bottles we have left, wondering ifI should really use it, knowing too well that he is not even make it throughthe night. I shake my head before slowly tilting the container, letting aflow of water fall on his leg; I would never have been able to live with myselfif I didn't at least try to save him. He screams in pain as the cold liquidruns along his leg.

**Not related to Hunger Games but have you guys watched the landing yesterday? I'm glad both astronauts are doing okay! I was really excited to watch them come back to earth. Also, did you know that November 2nd 2000 was the last time all humans were on earth together? Since that day, there has always been at least one person in space. It's crazy to know that I wasn't even born then and therefore can't say that I was on earth at the exact same time as EVERYONE else? Is there someone else who finds space really interesting?**