I Won't Go Down Easily

Climbing the wall was a much harder feat than either of them had expected. Twenty five feet isn't that much of a distance, but vertically it definitely is, especially when your life is in the hands of a very weak, untrustworthy vine. But Aria and Ryan tried not to think about that.

Ryan was about three feet ahead of Aria; he had a lot more upper body strength then she did, and so he reached the top of the wall first. Aria saw it as her opportunity to momentarily stop and catch her breath. She looked down at the cracked stone pavement beneath her, trying to distract her mind from the burning in her arms. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. "Oh shit, Aria, you might want to come up here..like now." The panic in Ryan's voice was evident.

She decided to not ask questions and continue climbing; now was not the time to panic. The burning was growing more prominent in her arms and she was beginning to hear loud voices. Okay, maybe now was the time to panic. With only a few more feet left, Aria pulled herself up to the top, as Ryan grabbed her arm and helped her sit on the top of the wall.

"Is it the Careers coming this way?" She questioned, hoping she was wrong. But Ryan nodded, confirming what could possibly be the end of their lives.

"It's all four of them -- Cameron, Emerald, Jamie and Thalia." Aria exhaled loudly, shaking out her sore arms.

"Do you think they'll be able to see us up here?" Ryan bit his lip and looked down at the pavement before responding.

"I don't think so. It's almost dark, and it will be hard to see anything, let alone us, twenty five in the air."

Aria nodded in aknowledgement, taking a drink from her canteen and passing it to Ryan. She wished the edge of the wall was thicker, balancing on a little less than a foot and a half was okay for now. But if they were stuck up here all night, it would be a serious problem.

"Is that them?" Aria questioned, pointing out what appeared to be a group of four, turning down their corridor, but she couldn't exactly tell. Ryan also squinted into the fading light to the approaching figures,

"Yeah, it looks like it.." He trailed off, the Careers were directly below them now. The two of them were too high up to hear exactly what they were saying, but they could make out their loud laughter. For a fleeting moment, Aria felt envious of how loud they were, confident no one would try and kill them, they were far too intimidating. Oh, to be a physical threat. Aria let out a small sigh, taking the opportunity to survey the maze.

Each section was a little different than the one it was next to, contrary to her earlier belief it was all the same. There appeared to be four sections, altogether. The walls were much too high to see where everyone else was --with the exception of the Careers of course-- but something glistening then caught her eye. Water. It was in the section next to their current one, reflecting the fading artificial light. Aria nudged Ryan, pointing to what appeared to be a lake in the middle of the section. And of course that section was a dead end; making any attempt to get water very dangerous.

Ryan shook the canteen, revealing there was only a small amount left. It wouldn't even last through the night.

"We need to get over to that water, and soon," Ryan muttered, biting his lip and looking up to the almost black sky. Biting his lip appeared to be one of his nervous habits, Aria observed. She nodded in response to him, hooking the canteen back to her backpack.

"But how?" Beneath them were the Careers, who appeared to be making camp. Ryan followed her gaze. There was no way down. Unless..

"We could climb down the other side of the wall and go from there?" He offered. Aria thought about it. It did sound tempting and like a good idea. They know the exact location of the Careers, so they wouldn't have to worry about them. But..Aria ran her hand across her neck wound, she really did not want another encounter similar to that one. And there was still a lot of tributes out there.

"Or we could slide along the top of the wall to the water? Granted it will take much longer, but it will be a lot safer. That way no one can attack us." Ryan quickly agreed, releasing his bottom lip from his teeth.

"Yeah, yeah that's good." He said, almost smiling. He had a nice almost smile.

It was agonizingly slow at first, and it seemed like they were getting nowhere. Then, they fell into a rhythm. They would crawl along the narrow wall, their bodies just fitting, but with no room for error. There were a few times one of them would start to lose their balance, but they would recover quickly. It was still a long process, and they could feel the dark bruises forming on their knees, but it was safe. And that's what mattered.

While slowly moving along, the two of them tried looking below for food, tributes, or just anything different from stone. However, it was too dark now, everything was enveloped in perpetual blackness. The darkness almost made them crawl past the lake, if it weren't for the Panem anthem that came on. The dark sky lit up, flashing pictures of tributes who didn't make it past day one. The first tribute to show up was the girl from District 3, next was the boy from 5 that attempted to kill Aria. She glanced over at Ryan, his face was empassive but looked very white. But maybe that was just the light from the sky, making it look that way.

A total of nine tributes died, which was almost half. Both tributes from District 12 died, along with District 10. Ryan and Aria's partners from their districts were still alive. Aria thought about Seth, only fifteen years old and probably alone somewhere in the maze. Personally, she did not know him before the games, but she had seen him around at school and he was always happy. Now he's being scarred for life. It just wasn't right what the games did to people. What it did to families -- parents, siblings, grandparents. What it did to districts. They weren't allowed to mourn publically over the loss of their two citizens, but privately they always did. It always took a toll on everyone.

"By the looks of it, we go a few more feet, then we'll climb down and we should be right by the lake." Ryan stated, breaking Aria out of her thoughts. She nodded in response and followed him. Carefully, he tested the vines and began climbing down on the strongest one. It was a good thing both of them didn't weigh very much, because these vines weren't all that strong to begin with.

Going down was much easier than up; they were both hitting the ground within a minute.

"Do you see anyone?" Aria whispered. Ryan took a few steps forward and Aria followed closely behind.

"No, we're alone. But we should probably make this quick, I don't want to take any chances.." Aria handed Ryan the canteen for him to fill up and she got Iodine from her backpack ready.

"How long until we'll be able to drink this?"

"Back home we always waited about thirty minutes, just to be safe." Ryan nodded, and splashed some water on his face. Aria joined him by the calm water and followed suit. It was cool and refreshing on her hot skin. Now that Aria was actually sitting down on solid ground, she began to realize just how tired she was. Her eyes were heavy and felt dry. The night before she had only slept for about two hours, and it has been a long, exhausting day. "We should probably find a place to rest for tonight, while the Iodine sits in the water."

Ryan agreed, and they left the lake, taking a left out of the dead end, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the Careers. However after ten minutes of walking with their hands along the walls to guide them, they weren't finding anything. They hadn't even come across a tribute, or evidence a tribute was anywhere over there. It was quite unsettling, but then again the maze was very large.

Finally, they found the perfect spot, Suddenly, they felt a dip in the wall, and found a barely-there entrance, hidden by thick vines. It was a narrow space, barely big enough for the two of them, but it was the perfect spot to stay out of sight and get some rest.

Ryan and Aria adjusted in the small space and she put the backpack under their heads -- the stone was very uncomfortable. Aria's eyes shut easily, the heaviness of sleep began overwhelming her when Ryan's soft whisper brought her back into consciousness again.

"I killed someone today." His voice caught in his throat.

"But we're alive aren't we? If it weren't for you, I'd be dead, Ryan. And so could you, possibly."

"I know. But..you just don't know what it's like, Aria. I don't regret saving you, not at all." He paused, quiety sniffing. "I saw the life drain out of his eyes. He had a family..and now they are mourning the loss of their son. It's just unexplainable." Aria reached for his hand in the darkness and gave it a squeeze.

"You're right, I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like, I'm sorry. But at the same time.. thank you." He squeezed her hand back and she could almost imagine he was doing that almost smile once again.