Trust Me

I wanted to scream, but I knew that it would be pointless. Even if someone heard my scream, it wasn't like they would help me. They couldn't. By the time I managed to even start to scream, I'd already be crushed. I tried to close my eyes so I wouldn't see it coming, but my eyes seemed unable to close, even to blink.

The ground shuddered with an intensely violent tremor out of nowhere, like a giant had slammed his foot down on the ground. The tree suddenly was jerked the other way, the inertia pulling it in the opposite direction as me. I froze as it landed with a loud crash, splintering off into bits and leaving visible gouges in the rock. If that tree could gouge rock, I didn't want to think about what it could have done to me.

And yet, that wasn't the most important thing on my mind. The ground had returned to its normal -- yet still violent -- shaking and shuddering, as if nothing had happened, but I knew better. The Game makers had saved me. They wanted me alive. And I knew why. How spectacular would it be for the finale if it was just Adri and I, the strongest alliance -- and closest friends -- to form inside the arena in decades? Wouldn't it be a wonderful show if we had to kill each other with our own hands?

They hadn't truly saved me. They'd just let me live a little longer, so my death could be more interesting and more brutal. I imagined that, by this point, Adri and I were the most well-known tributes due to our high scores, our alliance, and my own issues with the psychopathic Ingrid. They wouldn't let one of the stars of the show die by something as simple as a tree.

Though I knew I was just a pawn, I was grateful that they'd spared me. I needed to get out of the arena to find my mother at any cost, and even if it meant having to rely on the Game makers, I would take it. I had to use any means necessary to stay alive.

I rolled onto my stomach and hopped to my feet, the pack suddenly feeling like it weighed nothing as I flew through the trees. The boy from 7 still trailed close behind me, now warily eyeing the trees after he'd seen what had almost happened to me.

A wall of rock suddenly broke through the grass, raising up higher and higher. I knew the Game makers were trying to trap some tributes on one side of the wall, but I wasn't sure which side. My legs pumped with all the energy they had now as I ran towards the wall. I practically threw myself at it, landing just on top of it as it started to climb higher and higher into the sky. I sat with one leg on either side of the wall, looking down. The side I had just come from was smooth and flat rock, leaving no way for me to climb down or for the boy from 7 to climb up -- not that he could have climbed with his leg in its current state. The other side was a gentle grassy slope that would carry me to a smaller patch of trees. I noticed something peculiar. This barrier of rock formed a perfect circle in the middle of the arena, with the Cornucopia beaming proudly in the epicenter of the walled-in area. The Game makers weren't just throwing in a plot twist; they had effectively formed a smaller arena. Now, the tributes had no hopes of hiding from each other. We'd be forced to brutally slaughter each other before we were brutally slaughtered ourselves. The Game makers were trying to set the stage for a perfect bloodbath.

I already knew which side of the wall I needed to be on. The Cornucopia would have to be in the arena at all times, so that was the best bet. But what about the tributes who weren't on the inside of the ring? I cast down a glance at the boy from 7 to see that he'd arrived at the wall and was collapsed against it, panting for breath. His leg was spurting out fresh blood now, the wound obviously irritated from all the running. He didn't even try to stop the bleeding, he just stared down at it with a numb expression on his face. I knew I should have just left him there. After all, one less tribute to fight against was supposed to be good news for me. And yet, looking at him, I felt bad for him. He'd obviously given up all hope. Not only did the wound on his leg look like it would be fatal -- either through blood loss or infection -- but now he was trapped on the wrong side of the wall.

I grabbed the pack off my back and dug through it, pulling out a rope. "7!" I called, waving the rope above my head to get his attention.

He cast a glance up. "What do you want? Do you want to gloat? Or do you just want to throw down one of those knives of yours and kill me yourself, before the infection or Game makers can do it for you?"

I made a face. "That's not a very nice way to treat the person who's trying to save you." I said, pointing to the rope.

His expression lit up slightly, though he still looked hopeless. "Why should I trust you? How do I know you won't just get me up near the top then let go of the rope and let me fall to my death?"

A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the trees, and we both jerked our heads up to look for the source of the noise. It had come from the other side of the wall -- the same side that the boy from 7 was trapped on. There was another scream, though it was weaker, like whoever it was couldn't muster up the voice to scream again. Finally, there was a loud cannon blast, and a hovercraft zoomed by to pick up the body -- just a few hundred yards away from where we were.

"Can you really afford to distrust me? Whatever it was that killed that tribute -- and I imagine it's one of the Game makers creations -- it's not far away, and I'm sure it's looking to kill any tributes left on this side of the wall. Now, you can sit there and wait to become lunch for some kind of ravenous beast, or you can try to get your ass up here." I snapped. dropping one end of the rope down. It was a little short, barely brushing against the ground, but the boy was tall enough that he could grab on easily enough.

"I don't know..." He said, grabbing the rope with one hand and his pocket knife with the other. I wasn't sure, but I thought that he was trying to figure out if he could fight off the beasts himself. And with nothing more than a small pocket knife!

"Look, why would I try to kill you? You said it yourself, your leg is infected and those creatures are about to kill you. I don't need to worry about killing you myself. I'm doing this to try and save you!" I called back, my voice pleading now. I could hear snarling in the woods, but it didn't sound like a regular snarl. It was like a snarl and a growl and a bark, rolled into one. And whatever it was that made that sound, it didn't sound happy.

The noise seemed to scare the boy to his senses, and he grabbed onto the rope with both hands, tying it into a knot around his waist. The knot didn't look too secure, but we didn't have time for him to fix it. I wrapped the rope around my wrists several times, hoping I'd be strong enough to lift him. Even if I couldn't lift him all the way to the top, I hoped I could lift him out of the grasp of those beasts. I was about 30 feet above the ground now, and those beasts weren't meant to be able to climb onto this side of the wall. They didn't need to kill us off, just the ones who were too weak or slow to get onto this side of the wall in time.

I gave a great pull, leaning back as I tried to pull him up. I could hear his feet scraping against the rock as he tried to walk his way up the wall, using the tension of the rope as support. The rope dug into my hands, easily chewing up my skin, but I didn't care. I could worry about my hands later. His life was more important than my hand right now. I gave another pull, wrapping the spare rope around my ankle to keep it from sleeping. I could really have used Adri's help right now, I realized, but I quickly shooed the thought from my head. Adri wasn't here, and he was never coming back until it was time for him to kill me, so there was no point thinking about him. I leaned back and gave another great heave before wrapping more spare rope around my foot. I cast a glance down to see how he was doing, and he was doing surprisingly well for a boy with a mutilated leg. He was about 10 feet off the ground by now, though his leg was bleeding more violently now. He'd left a trail of blood on the wall as he climbed it, as well as the puddle he'd left when he was standing at the base of the wall before.

"Once you're up here, I'll see if I can find some kind of disinfecting salve in my pack." I promised him. At first I didn't think I'd be able to save him, but by this point, I was almost positive that he'd survive. He was already a third of the way up. Surely whatever beast the Game makers had created couldn't climb this high on a perfectly flat 90 degree surface.

I was about to lean back and give another pull when five dark shadows scurried from the clearing of the trees. They were fast like lightning, and I couldn't even see what they were until they stopped at the base of the cliff. They were bear mutations, I realized with a sinking feeling. Of course the Game makers would want to have a beast that fit in with the arena's theme. The bears looked like they had a bit of wolf in them, too, but there were non-animal parts too. Their irises were a fiery orange, glinting an odd red as they stared up at me. Their teeth looked like pure steel, and they had at least 5 rows of razor sharp teeth in their mouths. Their claws were at least a foot long, and their snouts were doused in wet blood -- probably from the other tribute they'd just devoured.

The beasts lowered their snouts to the puddle of blood on the ground and the drips along the wall. They began heartily lapping it up, snorting with pleasure as they tasted it. One of the beasts cast a glance up and spotted the boy from 7 and his bloody leg. The beast sniffed the air, relishing in the scent of fresh blood, before he let out a snarling roar. As if this was the command that they'd all been waiting for, all the beasts suddenly lifted their heads from the blood and reared back on their hind legs. They must have been 8 feet tall, and I knew we were in trouble. The boy was only 10 feet up, and these animals were 8 feet standing up with 1 foot long claws, plus they seemed to be able to jump.

"Hurry! Climb!" I screamed. We both had frozen in fear, but I wasn't about to let another person die because of me. The boy snapped back in focus and started scrambling up as best he could, but in his haste his movements were clumsy. His feet scraped uselessly across the rock, slipping off without giving any purchase to help him climb higher up.

"I can't! The knot's unraveling!" He screamed, panic in his voice. He clutched at the knot tied against his waist, and he was right. With each time he slipped and fell back into the rope, the knot seemed to loosen. "I don't want to die! Please, not like this! Please, please help me! Please!" He babbled, tears streaming down his face as his eyes widened.

I leaned back and tried to pull, but I stopped short as one of the beasts let out a hoarse kind of howl. I glanced down and saw the beast jump up surprisingly high, his claws easily shredding through the rope. The boy from 7 fell to the ground, staring up at me with wide panicked eyes. I heard a sickening smack as he landed on his back on the hard ground, and I could already see blood leaking out around his skull. I hoped that the fall had killed him, because that would have been a lot less painful than being torn to pieces by the beasts. The creatures lunged at him, tearing at him and sticking their snouts deep in his corpse as they tried to lap up the fresh blood spewing from him, and I heard a cannon fire off in the distance. I shuddered at the gruesome sight that was unfolding in front of me, and before I could stop myself, I hunched over and vomited. My stomach kept heaving, though there was little more food in my stomach to be regurgitated. After a few more retches, my stomach seemed satisfied that I wouldn't be able to force up any more food, and it seemed to settle, though I still felt nauseous and revolted. I heard the hovercraft whoosh past and pull the boy's body up, and I felt a tiny bit of relief as I realized that it was over. The beasts growled up at me and lurked at the base of the wall for a few more minutes, as if they were expecting me to fall over the edge. After a while, they began to slowly disperse, heading off in the woods in search of more tributes.

I leaned back and counted out the numbers, then double counted them to be sure. 19 tributes were now dead. There were only 5 of us left now. I remembered the earlier scream, and I quickly panicked as I thought of Adri, but I settled slightly as I remembered that it had most definitely been a girl's voice. I wondered briefly if it was Ingrid, but I refused to get my hopes up like that. I threw my pack back over my shoulder, giving one last glance down at the puddle of gore that had once been a boy, and I headed off down the hill. As soon as I was at the base of the hill, the hill suddenly started to sink. I ran back a few yards before turning to watch what was going on. The once gently sloping hill was now a steep climb up to the cliff. I realized that the Game makers wouldn't want to give us the ability to climb back up to the top of the wall in case we would try to leap over and kill ourselves or something. I shrugged it off, trying not to think about how bad things would have to be for me to try and commit suicide like that, and I headed off into the forest.

The ground was less rocky in this new arena. In fact, the earth beneath my feet seemed to be only soft soil and plush grass with no trace of the mossy rock that used to exist here. I furrowed my brows together in confusion. The Game makers weren't known to change the theme of the arena in the middle of the Games, but I shrugged it off. There was a first time for everything. Besides, it still was cliff-themed, what with the wall that was herding us in.

It was only about one or two in the afternoon by this point, judging by the sun's position, but my muscles were screaming from everything that had happened in the past few hours. I couldn't stop to rest, though. Now that I was alone, I had no one to watch for other tributes while I slept, and I knew that if I even stopped to sit down, I'd fall asleep. I decided to try and hunt and find water in the hopes that it might wake me up. The canteens in my pack were still full of water, but I didn't know if there were any bodies of water in this new arena. Before I used my only supply of water, I'd have to try and see if I could afford to waste it.

I came across a few squirrels and moles, and they were easy prey. I had been walking around for almost an hour and I'd collected a plethora of meat, but I hadn't seen so much as one rock pool. I hadn't even heard water trickling. I tried not to let it worry me as I sat down and started a fire, trying to imitate Adri's technique. The fire was extremely smoky, though, and I knew it would alert everyone to my whereabouts. I cleaned the meat quickly, hoping to cook it and get out of the area as soon as possible. Nothing was going right for me without Adri. I couldn't find water or start a clean fire without him -- what good was I on my own?

I roasted the meat as quick as I could, devouring it so quickly that I could barely taste it. I even stuffed a few scraps in my mouth without chewing them, storing them to eat as I left. I was like a chipmunk storing food away in my cheeks. I left the fire going in the hopes that it would draw other tributes to the smoke and away from me, and I left the cleaned bits of squirrel in plain sight. They'd know someone was here, and maybe whoever saw it would stay in case I came back.

Night was falling, and I felt more exhausted than ever. I hadn't found any water, and I was eventually forced to drink half of one of my canteens. I wondered how Adri was doing. He hadn't even taken his canteen. No! Don't worry about Adri, worry about yourself. A part of my mind snapped angrily. Of course I couldn't afford to worry about Adri when I could barely take care of myself. If anything, Adri was probably faring ten times better than I was. He only needed me to draw in other tributes, after all. Now that all the tributes were herded closer together, he wouldn't even need me for bait. Basically, he was fine and I was screwed.

I unrolled the sleeping bag and crawled in it as the air began to grow chilly. A cannon fired somewhere off in the distance, and I watched as a hovercraft zoomed over and scooped up a body right near where my fire had been. I felt my stomach churn as I wondered what had happened. Maybe two different tributes had gone to kill me, and when they found each other they'd started to fight. With every cannon that fired, the odds that it was Adri or Ingrid got higher and higher. I knew the Game makers would try to protect Adri and I from the elements so we could fight each other, but they couldn't protect us from other tributes.