Sweetest Downfall

Ari was softly shaking me and I slowly opened my eyes to see her eyes welling up in tears. “What’s wrong?” I immediately sat up straight, fearing for both her and my own safety. “Is someone close?”

“No, it’s my thigh, that’s all. It’s been burning for an hour now, it think it might be getting infected…” She sniffled and I nodded, when I was on watch I could hear her whimpering in her sleep and I was sure she could hear me doing the same because of my ankle.

“Here, let me have a look.” She helped me sit up and handed me the supplies. “Keep watch.” She nodded and poised her boomerang at the ready; I cut off the bloody bandage and gasped. Yellow pus was coming out of the gash and I could make out the whiteness of her bone, she gulped and started shaking. “Don’t look, keep watch!”

She couldn’t look away from the wound so I reached up and shoved her face to the side and in that moment we heard a branch snap. I looked hard into the bushes just in time to see an arrow come out and head straight for me, Ari leapt out of the way by instinct and I shoved itself through my shoulder and out my back.

“Micah, there’s two of ‘em right here!” A girl’s voice called out and the sound of two sets of footsteps could be heard crashing towards us.

“Ari get out of here!” I called out to her and threw a backpack at her, she looked at me with panic in her eyes.

“I can’t just leave you!” She forced the backpack back into my hands, the sounds of the footsteps were coming closer and closer and as I looked over to where the voice had come from earlier I could see the body of a lanky girl with gristly blond hair charging en route for us with murder in her eyes.

I forced the bag back into Ari’s hands, “I can’t run away, not anymore.” I felt tears well up in my eyes and another arrow was shot but instead of my shoulder again it landed just under my ribcage, it would have been a miracle if it missed one of my organs. I screamed in pain as Ari tried to pick me up, but there was nothing she could do.

“Hello ladies,” We looked and saw the girl with the bow and arrow in her hands, pointed straight at us and a huge boy with light brown hair and black eyes and in his hand was a trident that should have been Herring’s. His voice mocked us and he started to laugh, “You don’t even stand a chance! One has a hole in her leg and the other can’t get up and has two arrows in her? Please just give up now girls.”

Without warning he leapt forward and got hold of Ari, she was caught in his grasp while I was faced with the blond girl and her arrows. She shot a third into my thigh and I screamed out and in reply she laughed and jumped on top of me.

The four of us were locked in battle and all animals seemed to clear the area, the forest was only filled with the sounds of our war cries. I tried to choke the girl on me but she easily pushed my hands aside and took hold of my knife. I held her wrists in my own and fought her arms; she aimed the tip of the blade at my throat and was trying to push it down into it. I grunted and managed to push the girl off, I turned to the base of the tree, and just out of my reach was the double bladed spear. I scrambled to it but the girl grabbed hold of my bad ankle and the pain paralyzed me. It was like a sweltering wildfire was rippling up from my ankle and into my brain, she squeezed the ankle and the fire got hotter and hotter as her fingers clasped harder around my useless limb.

I heard Ari screaming my name and I turned and looked at her, she was pinned down by the boy and he had one hand on her jaw and the other was holding her hands above her head, his fingers were pushing in. I heard a crack and I felt a chill run through my body, he was breaking her jaw. A sudden burst of energy filled my body and I took my good leg and kicked hard at the girl holding my ankle and managed to kick her square in the eyes, blinding her. I grabbed my spear and turned to face her, she was clutching her eyes and blood was oozing out from her fingers. I let out a warrior cry and I let the blade come crashing down on the top of her skull; the body instantly fell and as I pulled the spear back out I looked and could see her brain slowly being drown by blood, her now dead eyes were purple and she was crying tears of scarlet.

I turned to now save Ari but as my eyes fell on her and the boy I saw her eyes. They were wide with fear and as I looked at the rest of her face I could see that she chin was now pointed, bruised and broken. Her teeth were pushed on top of each other, bleeding like I had never seen. She threw something at me and tried to scream out my name one last time but he boy took hold of her head and quickly turned it over, breaking her neck and killing her. I shrieked and lunged for the boy but he swiftly stood and my face was met with gory dirt. His left eye was swollen shut and blood was coming from his mouth, he smiled the Devil’s smile at me and leaned down to my ear, I was too afraid to attack and too much in pain to move.

“Don’t worry love, I’ll find you again,” and disappeared into the bushes.

Two cannons went off and I felt the emotions run out of me, I couldn’t bring myself to look at either of the dead bodies so a went back to the base of the tree and started to gather the supplies, I had to take the three bags and stuff the contents into one. I took all of the medical supplies, the two remaining beef stick packs, all three of the dried fruit packs, one flashlight, two of the four canteens, two of the sleeping bags, my spear, and the five throwing knives. I stuffed everything else into the pockets and or skin of the two dead bodies, When they take the bodies, they’ll take the supplies, then no one else can use them. I turned to limp away when a sparkle caught my eye, I looked down at the ground to see what Ari had thrown to me just before the boy had killed her. It was a small ring with the words, ‘We Live In You,’ engraved in the gold surface. It must had been a family gift, but the words couldn’t have been more true for me in that moment. I crawled over to Ari’s broken and bloody body and kissed each of her cheeks, tasting some of her dried blood in the process.

“I will avenge you, and I will avenge Herring.”

I walked downstream for the rest of that day, taking breaks whenever the pain in my ankle became too great. I pulled the arrows in my thigh and under my ribs out and cleaned and bandaged them as best I could and I had to push the arrow in my shoulder the rest of the way through. I bandaged that wound as well. I’ll be lucky if those don’t get infected… When nightfall came that night I saw four faces in the sky, one was the boy I’d seen charging for Ari and I when we’d killed the girl from eight, they were from the same District, and the other two were the blond girl who was from District 3, a girl from District 5 and then Ari, from District 11. That’s ten of us left…