Sweetest Downfall

"I," I stuttered, sprawling myself backwards, pushing myself as hard as I could against the cave wall. Maybe it was a subconscious thought of mine, that maybe if I pushed hard enough, I could leave this cave, this arena, go home and forget these damned Games. But I couldn't. There were two dead bodies in front of me, and one very pissed off murderess.

"You have ten seconds," she demanded. "Ten... Nine..."

"I can help you survive," I spat out quickly. "I'm strong, I'm fast, and I'm a quick thinker. I can help you get down to the bottom four, maybe even the bottom to or three."

"I've been following you for awhile now. I've seen you poison your comrade. You can't be trusted," she sneered. I slowly pushed my back against the wall, my body slowly rising to its feet. I had to hunch over in the cave, but even though I was taller than the girl in front of me, handier with a sword, and had so much more will to kill than her, I was in no condition to fight her. I was tired and depressed and to be frank, I felt hopeless.

"You can trust me, you can. I had to poison Cyrus! It wouldn't have been too long before he turned on me and killed me himself. I was just keeping him weak," I explained. I tried looking behind her. If we didn't clear out of here soon, the aircraft would be here to retrieve the bodies and we'd be dead soon too.

"It's a good strategy, but how do I know you won't turn around and kill me in my sleep?" She asked, hands on her hips and the bloodlust still in her eyes.

"Because, just like I can help you, you can help me. It's obvious you can hold your own in a fight. Look, we can help each other down to the final two, if possible. And if that happens, you have my permission," I paused slightly, stumbling over my next few words. "You havoc my permission to kill me and win the Games."

Shay looked as if she were going to mull these words over for a bit, but outside a loud noise began to sound and we both knew what would happen if we stayed here any long. She stared at me for less than a second before giving me a curt nod. She'd let me live, but only because if she didn't leave we'd both die. I quickly grabbed my sword, Cyrus's and I's packs and my new teammate and I rushed out of the dark, damp cave and into the chilly forest.

Shay started running, to nowhere in particular I thought, and I had to struggle to follow. The fight had left me pretty sore and it didn't help that I was already tired from lugging Cyrus across the arena. But, I persevered and I kept running, chasing after her. Soon enough we couldn't hear the hovercraft and we were safe again. I collapsed as we came to a clearing. I fell to my knees -hard- and groaned in exhaustion. Shay didn't seem to care. She shook her head at me. "I should have killed you back there."

"I'm grateful-"

"Do not speak," she spat. "If this is going to work, we will only speak if need be. About strategy or getting food. Don't think that because I'm allowing this alliance to go on that I'm not still angered by you murdering my friend."

"In my defense, he would have killed Presh-"

"Well, I did that for him, didn't I? Now, if this truly is going to work, I need you to rest. You're useless to both of us if you're tired and weak. We'll set up camp. Go start a fire."

"Wait," I said, trying to stop her from talking. She had begun to ramble. It was a shame to see such a pretty young girl become so hardened by the Games. She'd killed two people, that I knew of, and she'd witnessed her friends dying right in front of her eyes. That changes a person and she was no exception. "How do you know you won't kill me while I'm sleeping?"

She grinned to herself. It was the kind of smirk that indicated personal triumph. "You don't."



I was actually very surprised that I even awoke the next morning. I hadn't gotten to sleep very easily, nor was my sleep anything but restless. Restless or not, it was well needed and deserved. I woke up feeling a tad refreshed, but also even more sore. My neck felt like it was on fire and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that they were hand-shaped bruises on my neck from where Cyrus had tried to strangle me.

Shay had stayed up all night, making sure I wouldn't wake up and kill her or have someone else come along and kill us both. She looked tired and worn out, but when I offered her an opportunity to get some more rest, she promptly declined. I sighed and put out the fire and packed the sleeping bags away. When I was finished I came to stand by her side. "Including us, there are six tributes left."

"What should we do now?" She asked, though I wasn't sure she really valued my input in the slightest.

"If I were any of the other tributes, I would be making my way back to the Cornucopia by now. Claiming anything that may have been left behind. Plus, with so few, it might be the next best place for us to wait out until the others come our way. When they do," I smiled. "We'll kill him."

"That actually isn't a bad idea," she admitted. "And even if there isn't anything left for us there, at best we could kill a tribute or two."

"Precisely," I said. After that, we started toward the Cornucopia. It was going to be a few days trip, maybe less if we moved fast, but I was confident it was a good idea. We started our trek through the forest, keeping a steady pace. We stopped a few times along the way whenever we heard a large rustling of the trees or grass, but it was usually a rabbit or squirrel. We would have killed them for food but our main goal was to make as much progress in our hike as possible, so we left them alone and kept walking.

About mid-day, we came across the noise of a running creek and I was very thankful. We were beginning to run out of water and plus I just felt so dirty all over. Shay said she was getting thirsty too, she we took off in the direction of the creek and as it came into view I felt relief flood all over. I quickly washed my face as Shay boiled some water to purify it. She then poured it into our canteens. For a moment we just sat there, drinking the water and sharing a few pieces of dried meat I still had left over.

Suddenly, there was another rustle in the grass. We expected it to be another rabbit but something much larger stepped out of the grass- a tribute. He was short and would come up maybe to my chest. He had dark brown hair and cloudy green eyes. His face was smeared with dirt and his shoulders were slumped forward. He was exhausted, weak. When he saw us, his mouth became agape. He shared a gaze between Shay and I, as though he hadn't expected his to be there. I half expected him to turn and run the other direction, but he didn't. In true spirit of the Games, he yelled at the top of his lungs and charged us.

My new partner and I leapt to our feet and charged toward the boy. We ran straight into the creek, water splashing against our pants and coming up in a flurry around us. I was surprised to find that the boy didn't have a weapon at all. He raised his fist to me, bringing it squarely against my jaw. I cursed in agony. After last night, it was felt like he was tearing the flesh from my face. I grunted and threw a punch at him as well. He staggered by didn't go down.

Beside me, Shay reached down and grabbed my sword from my belt and bashed the hilt into the tribute's head. With his mouth twisted into a painful O, he fell -hard- into the water before any scream could be made. Quickly, I dropped to my knees and held the poor boy under the water. Shay took the other side and held him down as well. He barely thrashed at all and after a few moments, he was still. Seconds later, the shot of a cannon went off.

breathing heavily from the fight, Shay and I left the water and gathered our things. We barely had started off back into the forest before she handed my sword back. I laced it back into my belt and grinned. We'd barely made any progress in our march through the forest when I spoke, "That was quick thinking back there."

"No. That was survival back there. You can be strong as you want in these Games. But, if you're smarter than your opponent, you can always find a way to take 'em down."

"That's true, I guess," I said. "We made a pretty good team."

Shay only frowned. "Just shut up and lead us to the Cornucopia."

And just like that, we embarked back to the very place these dreaded Games started.