Under the Moon

Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"Copper!" I shouted as I sped toward him.

"Zeze, it's fine, it's just my arm! We can cure it once we get back! Now ward off Ray, Shona, and Reese!" he whispered hoarsely. I nodded and picked up the blow dart gun, randomly firing it at them. Of course, it was barely harmful to humans and only felt as though they had been stabbed by a large needle. Yet, it was still quite annoying and they eventually ran off to hide in their hiding place. I could finally tend to Copper. I pulled him up and made him walk back to our cave. There, I quickly turned on our forcefield to protect us and lay him down on the ground. I slowly pulled the knife out of his arm and used a whole canteen of water to rinse his arm. I could see the seriousness of the cut. A large, gaping gash ran halfway through his arm. I knew that he needed stitches. "Copper," I said, "You are going to need to stitch that up!"

"I know," he winced.

"I can do it now," I said, hesitantly.

"Just get it over with," he mumbled. I looked into our packs until I found the needle and thread. It was as though someone knew that the items would be used for medical purposes, since it was enclosed in a little compressed case full of alcohol. I rinsed my hands one more time, before I threaded the needle and let it puncture his skin. I had never stitched up a person before, though I had done many dissections for school and therefore had practice on sewing skin. I took a deep breath as I stitched crisscrosses over his wound. I saw Copper's face; he was wincing, biting hard on his lip, trying not to make a noise. I finally finished the last stitch and took a deep breath. I would not ever become a biologist or a doctor. I washed his stitched wound again, before wrapping the bandage around it. "There!" I said in a disgusted voice, "Done!" He nodded gratefully and flexed his arm, glad that it had been tended for so quickly. "Once again, you saved me, my hero," he told me, "I am forever thankful to your heroic deeds." I laughed at his little speech and said, "Let's have dinner!" He nodded and pulled the birds out of his bag. Right before Copper started plucking the feathers off the birds, I heard the Capitol's anthem play, and I saw the faces of everyone who had died today. I realized that there were only six tributes left. I couldn't believe so many people had died in only two days. It was horrendous. The only tributes left were Shona, Ray, Reese, the boy from District Twelve, Copper, and I. I wondered if Copper and I would be the last two left, but then I pushed that thought our of my mind.

About half an hour later, the meat was ready to cook, but we realized that we didn't have any matches. All that work had gone to waste. I felt terrible that Copper had killed those two birds for no obvious reason. Suddenly Copper said, "Our sponsors!"

"Copper!" I exclaimed, "Why waste their help on such trivial things? I mean, the ax was very useful, but you pretended it was for making me a cake! I mean seriously, a cake? How important could that be? How are you going to convince them that cooking two birds is necessary?"

"I'm saying it's for your birthday dinner, of course. We'll be awake until the midnight of the seventeenth to celebrate your birthday with this dinner. And come on, you know they loved my plea for the ax! I'll totally convince them!" he said, running outside to put a performance.

"I'm not helping!" I shouted, as I threw a piece of raw chicken at him, forgetting that the force field was on. Immediately, the piece of chicken bounced back at me. To my surprise, the outsides were slightly roasted. Of course! The forcefield could cook our food for us! Apparently, Copper realized it too, since he shouted, "Yay! Our forcefield can cook it!" I gasped. Copper had announced to all of Panem that we had a forcefield! It had been slightly obvious that there was one when the meat had roasted, but I was pretty sure no one had filmed the mouth of our cave. But of course, the confident, good looking guy from District One would be on film if he was out in the open. Copper must have realized his mistake since he blubbered, "Oops! Well maybe they thought we are talking about the other forcefield or that there already was one in front of the cave. They wouldn't know you made it!"

"Copper! You idiot!" I shrieked, "Even if they thought all that, they won't anymore! You just announced to everybody in Panem that I made the forcefield!"

I ran toward him and whispered to him so no one would hear, "Now they are going to kill me!"

"No they won't!" Copper fervently shook his head, "Not as long as I'm your ally!"

"What do you mean?" I wondered.

"He won't let them..." his voice trailed off.

"Who won't let them, Copper?" I demanded, "Why wouldn't the person let them?"

"No one!" he snapped, "I was thinking of something else!"

"What were you thinking of?" I asked.

"Nothing. Never mind," he said.

"Fine!" I huffed, "You ruined it all Copper! I hate you!" I began to sob.

"Zeze," he said hesitantly.

"Shut up!" I cried and ran past our cave and to the edge of the river. I had hope for winning, hope to see my family again. Copper had ruined it all. I had obviously outsmarted the Capitol, obviously defied their rules. They were going to kill me in the games, and if they didn't, they would kill me after I won. He ruined my chances of ever surviving again. I hated him. My thoughts were interrupted after seeing a soft blue light from the sides of my head. Shayne! Finally, someone I was glad to talk to. I knew that I shouldn't have talked to him in front of everyone on television, but I knew I was going to die anyways, so who cared? But I didn't want to get Shayne hurt for me. I sprinted back to my cave. Copper wasn't anywhere around so I hid in the back and switched on my earrings. "Zeze!" I heard Shayne's voice cry, "That idiot, Copper, why did he have to do that?"

"I don't know, Shayne! I'm definitely going to die now!" I sobbed. Suddenly, I heard a crackling sound. "It's coming from the girl tribute from District Three!" I heard a Gamemaker say, "And the other side traces back in District Three!" I gasped. "Shayne! No! They found out!" I cried.

"It's my fault, Zeze!" he said, "I shouldn't have called!"

"No Shayne, you just tried to help me!" I heard the Gamemaker's voice again, "Should we just kill her now? She's caused enough trouble already!"

"No!" another Gamemaker replied, "We have to ask the President first!"

"I don't think he'll care!" the first one responded.

"Yeah, but his son will. I mean, look at the way he fawns over that girl. It won't go so well with him once he becomes victor and reveals his true identity!" the other one said.

"Well it's definite Copernicus is going to win. If he doesn't, Snow is going to execute us all! That means the girl will die anyways!" the first one exclaimed.

"Yes, but it won't be our fault. Someone else will kill her," the other answered.

"True, but we have to do something about the boy. I'm sure Copernicus won't be too happy to know that he isn't the only one talking to her every day!" the first one said.

"Yeah, I'll tell the President about him. He'll probably take him prisoner. I'm sure he'll wait for Copernicus to decide what will happen to him," the other responded.

"Shayne! No! Shayne!" I called.

"It's fine Zeze! But Copper was President Snow's son? I had no idea!" he answered.

"I didn't know either!" I responded.

"I'm leaving Zeze," he said.

"I can't track the boy!" the Gamemaker cried, "The communication cut off!" Yes! Shayne was safe. I knew that Copper was related to President Snow in some way, but his son? I had no idea. I thought that Copper was a cousin of some sort or a nephew to Snow! No wonder why he had such great influence! He was the President's son! Why was he participating in the games? Why was he pretending to be from District One? I didn't understand what was going on. It was late and I should have gone to sleep. I turned back to the cave and sprinted inside. I immediately felt that there was something different about the cave. Then it struck me; it was entirely empty. Copper was gone and he had taken all our equipment with him. He hadn't even left a single canteen for me. My mouth dropped open at the thought that Copper was ready to abandon me and let me die all alone without even leaving me a single weapon to protect myself with.