The 25th Hunger Games (fanfic)

Chapter 36: The Games

Author's Note: Hey! This chapter is dedicated to IsaacGoden. Thanks for becoming my fan! Remember to vote on your favorite book cover, located in the chapter labeled 'CONTEST'. Enjoy and please vote if you like it!

Cody's face flikcks back and forth from hatred to grief to enraged. He finally chokes out a small, miserable sound and runs to his lost wife, now lying dead on the ground. He grabs her hand, tears dripping onto her shirt. He grips the arrow and pulls it out with all of his might, blood dripping off of it. He throws it near me, and I'm not sure if he was trying to actually hurt me with it or not. I carefully place it in my quiver, and because he's now begging Gret to stay with him, I have a moment for my chest to briefly heal and for me to rest.

"Please!" he cries out, pushing on her chest, anything to revive her. But it's too late. She's already gone. "You can't do this to me! NO!" His tears stain the ground, and finally, he gives up. Water streams down his face, and he gives a final kiss on her lips. He pulls back, wipes off his face, and turns on me.

"YOU!" he exclaims with clenched teeth and fists. He stands up and slowly approaches me, his fury blowing out on me. I gulp, and suddenly, the pain from my chest brings me back to reality. I scream out in agony and grab my ribs, doubling over. I look up at him from the ground. Neither of us have any weapons, but with me like this, it won't take much to do me off. Cody seems to have lost his words, so he just points a finger over at his dead wife. His trembling hand moves to point at me, so angry that he's literally shaking.

"You, you killed my wife!" His voice cracks, giving away his grief. He takes a shaky breath. "And now you are going to pay." He charges at me, fury showing in his face. He leaps at me, but without hesitation, Crystal throws herself at him. Mid-air, he is thrown across the clearing and lands on his back. Crystal flicks her head at me, urging me to get up.

"Get up! Hurry!" she screaches. Cody has regained his feet, and is staggering over here, breathing heavily. He has a large scratch on his forehead, dripping blood. I search the ground and find a blood-stained rock where Cody hit the ground. He must have landed on it. My attention turns back to Crystal, trying to grb my arm. She tries to pull me up, but I scream in agony and pull back. My chest feels worse than ever, like I can't even breathe. I grip it and tilt my head back, screaming out. I turn to look at Cody, standing a foot away from me. He spits on me, anger flashing from deep within him. I search his eyes, looking for a week spot. But he will not rest until he gets revenge for his lost wife. 

I gather up all the strength I have and begin to scramble backwards, ignoring the agoniing pain. Cody runs to me and jumps on top of me, pinning me down. My back slams against the ground and I cry out, calling for Crystal to help. She dashes over and sstries to pry Cody off of me, but it's no use. He pathetically pushes her away, and she falls on the ground. Cody smiles, grabs a nearby knife, and dances it over my face. He digs his knees into my arms, keeping me on the ground. 

"I'm going to have a lot of fun doing this," he mutters, imagining different ways for me to brutally die, each one more horrifying than the last. Finally, he digs the point into my cheek, and  makes one tiny scratch. He pulls it out, as if he was dissatisfied. "Now, how should I do this?" He points the knife at different points at my face, and finally settles for what I expect to be the most painful place of all: my eye. He holds the knife above my eye, and ever so slowly digs it further and further in. I scream as loud as possible, the pain overwhelming me. He hasn't done more than merely poked my eye, but it hurts like hell was unleashed on me. Finally, he has to bring the knife back up and punch me in the neck, silencing me. He grins down at me.

"Where was I?" He jabs my eye violently with the knife, but I dare not say anything. But he doesn't do anything more before he is tossed to the side, rolling over on his back. My eyes widen, until my right eye throbs. I put my hand to it and pull it away, finding it reddened with blood. I shiver and clutch onto it, looking through my good, left eye to see what is going on.

Cody lies on the ground five yards from me, coughing up dirt. He spits out a glob of blood  and grime, before looking up, past me. I follow his gaze until I find someone I never expected to see again. Atlas. Atlas glares over at Cody, threatening him with his eyes. He seems infuriated, but for whatever reason I don't know.

 "What's wrong with you!?" screams Cody, wiping his tongue with dirt. Atlas's eyes are filled with fire and hatred, directed towards Cody.

"Your wife killed her!" he screams. His voice sends shivers up my spine and shakes the ground with its power. "You're not the only ones who loved each other, you know!" Cody looks up at him in fright, but I see we are both confused. 

"What?" he manages out, sounding miserable. 

"I LOVED HER!" he screams, fighting for air. "And then you were going to kill this little girl? AND Zac!?" He roars out and then lunges at him, a sword in his hand. He swings it at Cody, but he rolls and Atlas misses him by an inch. The sword gets lodged in the ground, and Cody uses this to swing his knife at him. The knife slices through his wrist, and in a second, his left hand plops on the ground. He screams out and begins to tremble, blood gushing from where his hand was supposed to be. I am too caught up in the moment to realize this may be my only chance to escape. Luckily, Crystal is by my side in an instant, shaking my shoulder. This triggers my pain back, and I scream in agony. She winces but then points to the nearby shrubbery. It hits me, and I begin to slowly crawl back, each movement triggering my pain. Each movement sends a thousand knives into my chest. Each movement spreads the pain further and further throughout my body. Finally, when I'm concealed behind a bush, I stop to rest. I am struggling for air, breathing heavily, but it's hard to breathe. When I look beside me, Crystal is not there. My heart skips a beat, which is extremely painful, and I look through the leaves. Finally, I see her dashing on the edge of the clearing, sneaking  past Cody and Atlas, still battling. Atlas seems to be losing terribly, but for some reason, I want him to kill Cody. Maybe it's because if Cody's alive, he'll be hunting Crystal and I down. Maybe it's because Cody fooled Crystal and I, just so they could win. Or maybe it's because Atlas saved my life.

I suddenly realize that Crystal is hoping to stock up on as much food and supplies as she can. Her backpack is slung across her shoulder, while mine and Veronica's are in her hand. She reaches the three large piles and begins throwing various things into the packs. I see that she's stuffing mine with food, hers with weapons, and Veronica's with other survival supplies. When they're so full that she can barely zip them up and carry them, she hobbles back to me, unnoticed by Crash and Atlas. 

"Let's get out of here!" she hisses. I nod and begin crawling my way through the orchards, just hoping I don't come across some sort of animal, or another tribute. Crystal walks slowly beside me, as patient as she can be. She begins to rumage through Veronica's pack, and comes up with some sort of jar filled with a white cream. My head is hurting too bad to read what it is, and my chest pain feels like it will knock me over any second. She dumps half the bottle in her hands, rubs it in, and then lays me down. I collapse on my back, and she takes the fabric off. The bleeding has gone down a little bit, but it hasn't stopped. She mixes the cream into my bloodied chest, and I feel instant relief. The pain disperses instantly. I sigh out of relief, the cream easing down my pain until it's no longer than, replaced with a warm, nurturing feeling. I close my eyes and imagine I'm at home, relaxing on my own bed. I can hear Mom playing with Crystal right below me. I can smell Berta, our chef, cooking up a delicious batch of something. But when I open my eyes, I'm still in the Hunger Games.