Early in the morning I woke up by the sound of splashing water. I tore open my eyes, propped myself up to my elbow and turned my eyes to the lake. Lan and Sylvari were frolicking around like children, hip deep into the water. Lan was holding up a fish triumphantly while Sylvari spattered water onto him. For some reason I wasn’t sure how I felt when looking at the whole scene. Then I noticed Oscar, just a few metres away from me, his gaze carefully trained on me.
“Hi,” I said, ignoring the look in his eyes. “Slept well have ya?” He nodded and yawned.
“Just the ankle nagging,” he murmured. “What about you?”
“Too, minus the ankle,” I smiled.
“Had a good conversation last night?” He asked, without smiling back. He was still examining me like I was some strange creature. Immediately I felt my defences rise.
“What is it to you?” I snapped. He inched back and frowned deeply.
“I’m sorry I was just… I don’t know. I’m sorry.” I hunched my back and sighed.
“No,” I breathed, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.” At that moment Sylvari and Lan ran out of the water, laughing loudly and trying to tackle each other. Well, what a happy little couple. I ignored them carefully as I started folding all my clothes into neat packages and pulled on my long underwear. It was smoking hot but I had my mind set on leaving as soon as possible. We were sitting ducks out here in the open, especially with Oscar’s bad ankle.
“What are you doing?” Sylvari asked as she made a new fire.
“I’m packing,” I answered without ever meeting her gaze.
“Why?”
“Because I’m leaving.” A heavy silence fell and I felt three pairs of eyes stare me down. I still refused to look up. “What?” I said. “Staying here is like begging to be found and killed. And with Oscar’s ankle it’s even worse. We need to move and find shelter.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Lan whined.
“Me either,” Sylvari added. Suddenly I jumped up and stared both of them down.
“You are such kids!” I yelled. “Well, if you wanna stay here, play around and then die, it’s fine by me! But I’m leaving, whether you like it or not.” I turned to Oscar. “So what’s your plan? You coming along or you wanna stay here with them?” Oscar was the only one staying expressionless, whereas I was only looking mad and Sylvari and Lan were kinda green and carrying scared expressions.
“I don’t wanna die just yet so I’m tagging along. No need to shout, I was on your side all along.”
“Good. Is your bag packed?” He nodded. Without further notice I tied the lasso to my belt, helped Oscar up and slung his backpack over my shoulder after attaching our bundles of clothes to it. “Are you coming or what?” I asked the other two. Sylvari and Lan glanced at each other.
“I’m staying here,” she said. “I’ve survived here for two days and I’ll keep it up until I’ve won.” What arrogance. “Sorry,” she added. I turned my gaze to Lan. He shrugged.
“Staying too. I think this place isn’t to bad.” My eyes turned dark and without another word I turned on my heel and gently took Oscar’s arm.
“I guess we’re the only ones left then. Come on, let’s go.”
Helping Oscar through the sand wasn’t easy and the pain in his ankle left him too breathless to speak, which left me alone with my thoughts. Normally walking numbed everything spinning around in my head but not today. Today this walking without talking was driving me nuts. The evening before Lan and I had shared jokes about the kids from 8 and he’d openly provoked the Gamemakers to push us into their direction. And now, all of a sudden, he was sticking with Sylvari? What was that all about? And more important, why did I care so much? Why had it it secretly enraged me to see them in the water, playing together? I hadn’t really felt anger but that was exactly how I knew I really was mad at them. Not feeling was for me the same as being angry. I didn’t understand any of it. I tried telling myself I was mad at it because the arena wasn’t a place to fool around but it didn’t work. I couldn’t convince myself that was it.
Oscar and I managed for two days in a row. After walking for hours under the blazing sun, drinking all the water we had and digging through the fish supply like crazy, we entered a part of the arena neither of had been aware about, meaning it was full of unknown danger. But also, it was a great place to track through and hide. There were hollow trees and small streams of water and every now and then we stumbled upon a tiny caves filled with berries.
“Let’s settle here,” I said after an hour or so of tracking. “We can climb up the trees quickly if necessary and I want to try those berries. I’ve seen many of them around.” Also, his ankle really needed some rest.
“You need to stop thinking about Lan,” Oscar said silently as he settled down, taking off his boot to take a look at his ankle. It was healing up nicely although I’d rather have seen him sit down for a few days. But I knew that was no possibility, and for the situation he was healing quickly.
“I’m not thinking about Lan,” I said as I ducked down and stuck my hand into one of the tiny caves. Only spiders and bushes were able to survive in a small space like that, and spiders weren’t anywhere on my fears list. I grabbed a hand-full of plants and then sat down next to Oscar, starting to carefully separate every piece of the plant from the other, putting the actual berries together, making a pile of leafs…
“Yes you are, I can sense it. Your mind has been wandering for two days now. But you have to let go. Sooner or later he’s gonna die anyway. You must not get attached in order to survive.” I noticed my hands were trembling and a lump had formed in my throat.
“I’m not attaching,” I said as I tried to finish my piles, but found myself unable to. “I’m not.” But I was, that was the whole thing. I hadn’t realised it before, until Oscar dared say it out loud. But that was crazy. I couldn’t be attached to a 17-year-old from a rivalling district. Not here, certainly not. And still Oscar was right. I felt betrayed by him that he’d left us to ourselves. I knew I could keep both Oscar and myself alive, but I’d been expecting, counting on his being here, us heading towards the kids from 8 together, and finishing them together. But now he was all the way back at the lake with Sylvari. I felt a pang as I thought her name. What was wrong with me? I sighed and just dropped everything.
“I… I need to think,” I said and got up. “Scream the second something’s happening and I’ll be right at your side.” I stomped off, making way too much noise, I ducked into the first hollow tree I could find. It was shaped to fit me exactly and inside the tree, I curled up into a ball. Images of my parents, people I’d know back in 10, even my annoying teachers, flashed before my eyes. Even Degenii was in there somewhere. Never had I missed anyone in my life, until now. Never had I felt more alone than here in this arena where everyone was going to die. I still wanted to get Oscar out of here, but I wondered too if I’d be doing him an actual favour. I’d seen the mentors of other districts often enough and never were they much of a pretty sight. Half of them had drinking problems, other were using too much painkillers... All had their own problems and trauma’s and you could see it in their eyes. It was horrible. If Oscar survived, what would he be heading to? Would he die from alcohol poisoning? And he’d have to train the next kids. Would he manage? In ten we’d never had victors before, but I could imagine how horrible it had to be to train kids, attach and then send them off to their deaths. I wouldn’t want to bare that burden no matter what.
While my mind was still racing, my eyes slowly closed and I drifted off into sleep. But it didn’t last long, because suddenly I was wide awake because of the sound of cannons. Someone had died and my heart skipped a beat when my mind considered both Lan and Oscar. I wasn’t allowed to wonder for long though, because close after that I heard a scream. I cocked my head and listened, and indeed, there it was again. Oscar. I rolled out of my tree, jumped to my feet and ran in the direction I’d heard the scream coming from. Too late I realised I was running in the wrong direction. Oscar’s last position had been south of the tree I’d been hiding in, and I was now running north. But that was where the scream had been coming from. It was impossible for Oscar to have moved so fast, especially with his ankle, so what was going on? And there it was again, the same scream. Something must’ve taken him there, I thought as I sped up, still carefully lifting my feet high enough, not wanting to get my feet caught by fallen branches and whatnot.
I wanted to shout his name but I kept myself from doing that, what if shouting meant running straight into a trap?
I heard it again and knew I’d almost reached him. And then I saw them, the career pack. That is, what was left of them. Ursula, Shine and the boy from 4. Also, they had the surviving boy from 3 with them. Before I could make enough sound to trigger their attention I shot up into a tree to see what was going on. They’d worked Oscar back-first into a hollow tree, one not much different from the one I’d been hiding in.
“You’re finished,” Ursula sizzled. “Milo, to prove yourself, I give you the honour of killing him for us.” Milo, that had to be the boy from 3. He was very small and I wondered if at home he’d even be strong enough to cut bread, let alone kill a person. “Go on, hurry!” The boy stepped forward, his threat lithe and stable.
“Funny,” he told Oscar with an icy voice, “I’m gonna kill you with one of your own knives. Let’s see…” His fingers wiggled and floated over the knifes tucked behind Oscar’s belts. And that’s when I jumped to attack. But as I landed, all of them, including Oscar, turned to me and changed shape, from their human forms to the freaking largest spiders I’d even seen. I’d always been okay with spiders, but not with these. They were life size and had about a million eyes and eight extremely hairy legs, and each had a pair of poison glands that nearly made me pee my pants. I was sure I was gonna die. Next to that, I felt extremely stupid far literally jumping straight into a trap. I should’ve known that was Gamemaker’s trick. Oscar couldn’t have moved that quick without help, and even with help or while kidnapped, he would still not have made it.
The spiders crept closer, their legs moving fast, their large glands clicking and venom dripping from them. I was dead, definitely. I inched back slowly, trying not to trip, but I did. With a loud smack I fell very charming down on my rear and had to force myself not to scream. I kept crouching backward, trying to come up with some way to escape or kill them. With one hand I reached to my lasso… only to realise it wasn’t there. I reached again and then tried my other side, but it was gone. Desperately I tried remembering if I’d still had it when I was running, but I couldn’t remember. Not that it would’ve been any use, but still.
My back hit a tree and I was stuck. The spiders closed in on me, towering above me, clicking their glands and dripping venom all over the ground. Whatever it touched sizzled and went up in smoke. That would no doubt also happen to me. That probably meant they weren’t going to bite me, because if I’d vaporize like that, there’d be nothing left to eat. My guess was they’d make a nice, body-fit cocoon around me to save me for later. That was my thought until I saw the front one, the largest of the group, the one who’d been Ursula just before, open her giant mouth and expose another tooth, one a lot smaller but dripping as well.
“This sucks,” I mumbled. I tried crouching around the tree, but the Ursula spider had me in sight and prevented me from running by placing her large leg right in front of me. Every single hair on her leg sparkled with electricity. I swallowed a lump, looked up and said, “Nice, nice spider! Please don’t eat me!” Of course, spiders aren’t known for their good behaviour, and this one wasn’t any different. It hissed, I didn’t even know spiders were capable of hissing, and attacked. I rolled to the other side, just barely escaping the dripping middle tooth. If I didn’t find a weapon soon, I’d be dead meat. I crawled up onto all fours and tried getting away underneath her. She seemed confused for just a second, but was helped out by another who kicked me away from her, rolling me right into the sight of a third. Well that wasn’t helping very much. This one appeared to have third tooth too and once again I managed to escape, but barely. It scraped my thigh, tearing my trousers and leaving me with the nastiest sting ever. I yelped when the sting turned into a burn, and the burning feeling tried consuming my entire being. The wound quickly turned from red to purple and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to survive that without a sponsor to send me anything.
I flipped over on all fours again but it was no use, the wounded leg couldn’t take even the slightest form of pressure, buckled and then I collapsed to that side. If my leg wouldn’t heal in an instance, I’d be dead, leaving Oscar all to himself. He wouldn’t make it on his own, I was sure of that. He was smart, yes, but his ankle was still sprained and he wasn’t in shape to run far enough, or even walk long enough. The tributes would finish him sooner or later. And if they didn’t, maybe those die-hards from 8 would.
The spider above me attacked one again, the tooth entering my arm, penetrating it and exiting on the other side. I screamed my lungs out and that scream got worse as the spider tried pulling back but was unable to. It was stuck inside my arm and anchored to the ground.
“Seriously, just kill me!” I screamed at the spiders, but all seemed kinda lost. With this one hovering over me, pinning me to the ground, there wasn’t a lot of space for the others to attack and finish me.
“Not so fast,” I suddenly heard coming from somewhere behind me. I heard a yelp from one of the spiders, then heard something whizzing through the air and enter the head of the spider above me. It was an axe. No one was able to weild an axe like that except for Lan.
“LAN!” I screamed. “LAN!” Then the spider pretty much collapsed upon me, it’s weight nearly crushing my legs. Good thing was, at least it seemed like a good thing, as he fell, the tooth stuck in my arm broke. Maybe that meant it was easier to remove.
“Just a sec, almost with ya!” I was probably going to die anyway, but at least I wouldn’t die entirely alone.
After a short time the crying of the spiders died out and two feet landed next to me. And attached to those feet were legs, carrying a boy I knew as Lan. At least, I thought so. Because by then I was starting to hallucinate and my tongue felt like leather, ten layers of it at least. It was dry and parched and pressed to both my palate and the bottom of my mouth. “Oh goodness Xan!” Lan whispered. He pushed the spider of my legs and then sunk down at my sight, gently brushing a strand of her from my face. He stared at the tooth stuck in my arm for a moment. “Okay, I’m gonna remove this thing but it’s gonna hurt. Don’t die on me, okay?” I nodded and mumbled something unintelligible. He rose to his feet, grabbed the tooth with both hand and pulled, groaning and heaving. I started crying but the tears burned my eyes so I stopped. Instead I just screamed, but that didn’t work either because my tongue was in the way. Eventually he managed to remove it, threw it away and sunk down again. He touched my arm, which was now swollen, shiny and a deep purple. The colour would’ve been lovely if it’d shaded anything else than my arm.
“Where did you come from?” I tried to ask, but it sounded more like wereducufu. Still, Lan understood and answered, “I came from the beach. I killed Sylvari, it seemed like a logical thing to do. Then I immediately made my way here. The Gamemakers must’ve helped me a bit, I’m sure they made another invisible border because one moment I was making my way through the sand, next thing I know I’m in a forest and I hear you screaming.”
“You killed Sylvari?” Or, more likely, ukidsyvri?
“Yes… That was my plan all along. I knew if we’d all stick with her or leave her, we’d end up dead before her. So I decided to not tell you and then kill her and get back to you and Oscar.” My mind tried wrapping itself around that idea, but it was difficult. I could hardly even see the difference between Lan’s face and the green background, let alone accept complicated thoughts. “Xan, where is Oscar?”
“Somewhere up north,” I mumbled.
“Okay, I’m gonna lift you, and I’m gonna carry you, okay? It’s gonna hurt but I need you to stay with me and show me where to go. You ready?” I nodded vaguely and he slipped his arms under my back and my legs, lifting me up.” I was to tired and numb to scream so I just let out a yelp and let my head rest against his shoulders. “Stay awake, Xan, I can’t do this alone.” He started walking, first slowly, then with a confident tread. Not before long we were zipping through the forest like we belonged there. Or like he belonged there. “Still the right direction?” he asked every now and then and I kept nodding. I remember the hollow tree I’d been hiding in before, then we passed a stream and there was camp with Oscar sleeping at the base of a tree. “Not too bright, if I wasn’t me I could’ve killed him now.” He gently put me down and then shook Oscar shoulder who woke up, appeared to have a knife in his hand with which he tried to attack Lan. “Whoa, calm down! It’s just me!”
“Just you?” Oscar shouted. “Just you who abandoned us and threw Xan out of balance.”
“I did not- wait, what? Xan?” Oscar glared at him, knife still at the ready.
“Does it mater?”
“Actually, it does not. Look.” He pointed at me and Oscar’s face fell.
“What have you done?” he whispered.
“I tried saving her, but I’m not sure yet if I’ve succeeded.” That was pretty much the moment when the pain became too much and I blacked out.