Jeopardy: The Fourth Quarter Quell

Wound - Liam

Liam

My throat is furry. And my hands. My arm even feels furry on the inside, which is weird in a really disgusting way. Sort of the same way that First Aid was dull as fuck until they started showing slides of some really nasty injuries people had got in the mines. Blood and gore all over the place.

Emmy used to say it was horrible, that somebody got a drill core jammed in their foot and the first thing that anybody had thought to do was take a picture. You're not even allowed to take your own stuff into the mines so they'd probably had to run back out, pick up a device and then run back in. The guy could maybe have died.

And I just thought all that in her voice, with the emphasis in all the same places she did, and it aches and there's no fucking drink here to soothe it.

Come to think of it, why is everything bobbing up and down? And why are there other voices?

"He was a good brother," the voice of the girl from Seven sobs, "He was always looking out for me..." Personally, I reckon she's overdoing it. She hasn't shut up about her bloody brother even though she's the one who brought him here. And in the moments that I've been awake she's been complaining about being told what to do. She should try living in Thirteen, where they won’t let you take a shit or breathe if it isn’t written on your arm. And her voice is so shrill that it sets my teeth on edge. And they feel furry too.

I run my tongue along the back of them but it seems too big for my mouth even though it was the right size yesterday. How long has it been since I had a drink? A week at least. Got to be. I went off it for a few days before and it wasn't anywhere near this bad. My stomach twists and turns every time I jolt up and down. My furry arm feels like someone has nearly sliced in it two.

Oh. Right.

Running, not sure why, people screaming everywhere, and then a white blinding pain in my arm and blood everywhere, and everything went foggy. Next thing I knew, Rhea was crouching over me under some kind of ledge...

"Rhea?" I try to say. Except my tongue is still too big and it comes out more like a very tame growl. The jolting stops briefly, and her voice comes from right by my ear. The other appears to be resting on something that thankfully isn't furry but annoyingly doesn't seem to be providing anything to make the pain stop or my stomach stop crying for alcohol.

"You're awake."

No shit. But at least she sounds like she cares, unlike the voice of the girl from Seven which huffs like...some sort of animal. Are there animals in these woods? If there are, they're probably deadly. Fat chance that the Capitol would give us some nice cuddly squirrels for company.

Traces of  sleep start to slump away from my body so I can take things in; my legs are in the air with something holding onto my thighs, my hands are twined together in front of me around something that smells soft and sort of powdery, and my arm hurts like hell.

I decide to try opening my eyes and find that this doesn't solve anything.

I’m looking out at trees, and they’re still jolting. There’s a kind of rhythm to it, almost like walking, and somebody is ahead hovering in and out of my vision. It doesn’t help the sick feeling one bit. I’m tempted to close my eyes again.

“How’s your arm?” asks the powdery-smelling thing that I’m clinging on to. Must be Rhea; that’s her voice. Well it’s not Kestral – and what kind of name is Kestral, anyway? – because her voice sounds like it’s all coming through her nose, and it’s not the girl from Seven because her voice is a few tones higher than anybody’s normal voice, and it’s not Jakob because Jakob is a boy.