The End; Always the End

Chapter six:

Now? No, they could easily kill me. At night, my shift. But we don't even know where we are, let alone where camp is. All I know is it's in a different direction. "Come on," I say. "We really need to get back to Adscoper." They agree, and we begin searching. Then, I see a glimpse of someone. I start over there, and there is Adscoper, all bloody.

"He's over here!" I say. Maaden runs over, and so do the rest. "What happened?" I ask. He's shaking, but there is a lot of blood on him, and I can't tell if it's his or not. The only cut I see is in his arm.I'm not sure if the rest of the blood is.....

"Someone attacked," he said. "They were really fast, but I got to stab them in their shoulder. It was a boy, and I think his name was Misha." I froze. The person I killed's ally. Maybe he knows.

"I'm sorry," I say to him.

"Why? You didn't do anything wrong," He said. I put my hands on my face to cover up. It's all my fault. Misha must know someone from the careers killed his ally. He must want revenge. But should I really tell them? Will it make them upset? Will they ditch me, or worse, kill me?

It doesn't matter. I'm leaving tonight anyway. "Misha...he was mad at me because....I killed his ally...."

"Loren, you're supposed to kill." Malishi says. "Don't worry. Misha, he'll be dead waayy before the time we split up, so we'll kill him, OK?"

I nod, but I'm not entirely sure I like this side of Malishi. It doesn't quite seem like others - I don't know.

"Are we going to eat?" I ask. The nod, and Maaden each gives us some bread. I'm very glad I have it, but I feel as if I crave meat.

I look at the sky, and I realize it's almost time to - um go to"bed." Not for me. But what if someone's awake when I leave? No, it's my shift. They'll be sleeping. But how am I to get the stuff, then leave without anyone noticing? It's not impossible, but it's kind of close. I'm mostly afraid of Alla being awake, because I don't trust her, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't trust me either. So I have to wait just a bit for EVERYONE to fall asleep.

When we're finished with our bread, we take our rests. I set up my sleeping bag, and I fall into a deep sleep. "Win it!" Isile is saying, "Come on!" The dream flashes. I see Alla stabbing Fugy, and throwing a knife at me. I dodge it. I run to tackle and kill her, but a knife dives through my back.

"Wake up!" Trishia says to me. "It's your shift!" I rub my eyes and stare into her deep blue eyes.

"OK, I'm going." I start looking around, like I'm guarding. About ten minutes in, I start to gather stuff, and I take my sleeping bag as slow as I can. I start walking slowly away. After I get a fair distance, I realize I took way too much stuff. I took both weapon bags! Well, I also got the random bag. Plus, the food and the healing. I look around, and I start climbing a tree in front of me, and the branches are very thick. I climb almost the very top. I lay out my sleeping bag, and I fall asleep once again, knowing I'm really safe.

When I wake up, I hear Trishia's frantic screaming. She's pretty far away. Like three miles, but she can scream. It's not a scream of terror. I bet they're looking for me - and the bags. I rub my face, and I put two bags in a big pack, and I set off. I have a knife in my hand at all costs.

As I'm going across the trees, I keep hearing a cold shivering voice saying "Loren! Help!" I turn around, and I see Fugy, hanging from a rope, with ice frozen on him. "Thank you...." he says.

All I can think of is Alco. He's got to be behind this. I remember Isile on a tree, and her foot got caught, and she was hanging like this. But I don't know about the ice. Maybe it's natural. I start to untie his foot -

"Hey, Loren," Alco. I spin around, knife in hand, staring into his eyes. He's only twelve, I'm thinking. "Trying to save a friend of yours?" His grin indicates he set this up for me. I'm impressed, probably because that's pretty smart, and he's not really known for being smart.

I scowl at him. "What do you want?" I ask.

"To kill you!" he said, "I knew this whole time that you'd get to him, and it would be perfect for me to kill you." He take out a knife, and I have mine in hand. "So....say goodbye."

I close my eyes, and I stab my own tribute from the same district in the stomach. He screams in pain. I feel my eyes with tears, regretting what I have done. "No - No, you're not going to die," I say.He can't speak, and I see him gasping for breathe. "Don't die!" I scream. "No!!" The tears come down my cheeks and the memories of his pranks flash through my mind. How he laughed; he shouldn't have died this way, not at all. "This - This isn't your destiny, no!" His eyes started to close. I shook my head, but the cannon fired.

I really want to avenge him, but how can I? I killed him, and it’s not like I could kill myself. My district wouldn’t like that. And, why should I avenge him? He did try to kill me after all.

I wiped my tears away. I'm going to win. For him.