"You did what?"
"I don't really believe it either."
"Keep your voices down!" Trinity juts in, her breath white in the night air. It's bracing, the kind of cold where the wind can hammer the breath out of you. We're huddled on the ledge over the cave; climbing up was terrifying but easier than expected, especially with the snow shoes. I'm trying not to think about coming back down.
Garth frowns at me, troubled.
"I don't like it," he snaps, twirling one of the knives around. I'm not stupid; I know there's no fooling Dayn, so I'm taking the smaller weapons instead. Although I want to go now. After Mars, I can't stay with the Careers any longer. Alice will be fine, and what does it matter to me if she isn't anyway?
"It was that or watch him being tortured," I point out.
"I think Faraday did the right thing," says Trinity. I don't know what to make of her. She has a weird ability to sound like she's interrupting whenever she speaks. She also looks constantly suspicious. But at the same time, she seems fairly practical. It's a District Three thing, I guess. And if Garth trusts her, then I do.
Outvoted, he scowls at both of us and flips the knife again, letting it drop the millisecond it's obvious he won't catch it. It clatters and all three of us wince and freeze.
Nothing.
One of them is snoring.
The anthem blares out of the sky above us, the seal blazing itself into the clouds, lighting up the arena over the vague light of the hidden moon. Is it me, or is the seal brighter? They've added a few tongues of fire around it, as well. It makes me shudder, though Garth snorts. Trinity glares at him, perhaps warning him to take this bit seriously.
Daisy, her face blank, is the first one up in the sky. Expecting it, Garth just grins to himself. Trinity looks at me; I point to Garth. She shrugs and turns her attention back to the sky. What was Daisy's last name? I can't remember.
Barely perceptibly, Trinity breathes a sigh of relief when Verona appears, staring into the distance. I suppose she was worried about her district partner, the boy forced into volunteering. Verona. How did she go? I hope that it was another tribute, not the Capitol, that got to her. I hope that she wasn't in pain.
Garth and Trinity watch me carefully.
Mars appears in the sky. I quickly look down, not wanting to see him. I don't want to be reminded. Mars and Ford. Neither of them wanted to be here. They had families, probably. Ford did, at least. 'I hope you're happy, dad'.
Don't think like that, Faraday.
"No Ona," says Garth suddenly. Ona? Oh, the girl. His district partner. Ella is long dead, what's left of her cold in the ground by now, though my insides twinge when I think about the way she died. Both Trinity and Garth have district partners still alive. This is the first time I've heard Garth mention her. Trinity's eyes widen in horror and she clamps a hand over his mouth.
I can't see anyone, but there must be someone there. It then hits me that they probably came out to see the faces. "Up yours, mockingjay!" roars Chuck's voice, rumbling off the mountain. He seems to have a personal problem with her. Or her memory, more likely.
"No rebels here!" Cinder yells.
"We will find you!" Chuck bellows, and none of us are in any doubt that in his head, he's talking to Garth.
Very steadily, Garth shuffles backwards, Trinity following him. Leaving for the night. Safe from the ire of the Careers for a day; it'll be me that takes the flak when Dayn inevitably discovers the missing supplies. I hold a hand up.
"Wait," I hiss, making my mind up on a snap decision and hoping the wind is too strong for my voice to carry far, "I want to come too."
Garth nods, his face impassive. Trinity narrows her eyes. "We'd better wait, then," she hisses, leaning forwards. I have to practically headbutt her to hear her. "Wait until they're asleep and take as much as we can. Hit and run."
Garth rubs his hands together gleefully.
Below us, Dayn is berating Chuck and Cinder. I can't quite pick up the words, but he sounds unhappy that they're advertising our position.
"Oh, don't be so uptight, Dayn!" calls Emerald cheerfully, deliberately loud, "We're Careers; they're not going to be silly enough to come and attack us!" It sounds like she's inside the cave. Scared of heights, if you can believe it.
"Don't give them any ideas," says Alice darkly, "You don't know what some of these lower tributes are capable of." Garth's face tightens, torn between agreeing with her and calling her a traitor, I guess.
"Too late," mutters Trinity with a wry laugh. Oh, the irony of the situation. The Capitol will be loving this. Bets must be pouring in.
"Everything okay up there, Faraday?" Cinder shouts. I nod, too tense to speak. Stupid. They can't see me.
"Yes!" I call back, hoping desperately that my voice doesn't give me away.
Eventually, after what feels like agonizing hours, the Careers go back into the cave. Soon, the snoring starts up again. Trinity breathes out, and I copy her. That could have gone horribly wrong. Garth grins at us. I swear there's a screw loose in his head. He doesn't seem to care about danger. Perhaps that gives him an advantage here.
"Lets wait a little longer," Trinity suggests quietly, "Just to make sure."
Below us, there's a distant sound that could be a cry for help.
Gemini hears it first, looking up at the fading image of Mars. Only a boy. The more time she spends in this horrible, bleak place, the more she hates the Capitol.
Where does she know the word 'bleak' from? It's in the back of her mind, but she doesn't know where she's heard it before. Either way, it fits perfectly. Now the sound of the anthem has faded and the sky is empty, there's only a thin film of silver light, barely better than the fog. It's a good job they haven't climbed anywhere.
A non-descript noise prods at her ears through the hood.
She pushes it down to hear better, ignoring the chill whirling around her ears.
There it is again. It sounds almost like a roar, but not quite. It could just be the wind howling through the gaps and crags in the mountain, but she has a bad feeling about it and Gemini knows her instincts are decent. The hairs on the back of her neck prickle, and not because of the cold.
Louis, leant back with his eyes closed, shows no sign of hearing it.
"Louis!" she hisses quietly. She doesn't know why; she just naturally keeps her voice down. He opens one eye, looking slightly reproachful. He's not exactly an expressive person. But at least he can sleep.
This reminds her that she's starving. Getting a kick at Chuck's ribs in the brawl was not worth the lack of sponsors. She feels weak enough that she could even be imagining the noise.
There it is again, and is it getting closer?
"Can you hear something?" she asks.
"Wind," he replies, leaning his head back on the rocks and looking up at the mountain towering above him, "Wind. You."
She assumes that's a no, then, and sits down uncomfortably. She's sure she heard something...
Louis is sure that she's imagining it. He can take hunger, well, better than she can anyway. He thinks it must be getting to her badly, because he feels hollow and drowsy. During the day he cramped up and had to stop for an hour until the dizzy sickness passed. But now he's got that over and done with, he can almost ignore it. Obviously Gemini can't.
She's stood upright, alert, with her hood down. Her ponytail is flat against her head. "I'm sure..." she stutters, looking confused, "I swear I heard..."
"Need sleep," he points out. He knows she hasn't slept much. Her eyes seem shrunken back into her head. Look what this place has done to them.
She doesn't react to him, looking all around. For a second, he thinks she actually might have heard something and he listens. But there's nothing, nothing but the endless wind.
Tomorrow, they need to push up the mountain and find food. He knows he hasn't been imagining it; he sees the bird every so often. Though it's probably roosting now.
Gemini, in what little light there is, has gone pale. He frowns. A strange smell pokes at the insides of his nostrils, clean and sharp. Like the rooms back in the Capitol.
Gemini's mouth is wide, her eyes turned upwards in an expression of absolute horror. She's completely frozen, one hand half way to her mouth.
His stomach sinks. He can hear now, a slavering noise, something breathing heavily and the occasional restless snuffle. There are no shadows in this night, but he knows that there should be a shadow falling across him. He forces himself to breathe deeply. Something is behind him. Something Capitol.
"Gem," he mutters, "What...?"
Ever so slightly, she shakes her head. Doesn't know, can't say. One of the two. Both. He can practically feel the creature's breath hot on his hood. His mind conjures up teeth, claws, slitted yellow eyes peering through the darkness.
To her, dark and light are one and the same. And this is a big meal she's found here, two things. Two bags of meat and blood. They're very still but she can see them, looking down at them.
"It...looks...like a...goat..." Gemini dares to say. Louis is looking up at her, expression amazed and horrified. She thought he was big and intimidating but that's nothing compared to this massive furry shape.
"Female," she adds; you can take the girl out of Ten but you can't take Ten out of the girl.
"Like that makes a difference," Louis hisses. Any moment now, it could pounce, and he's got nothing to defend himself with...
"It might be more docile," she suggests, though she knows it's useless. The goat has fixed beady eyes on her but she knows it's seen Louis too. Please don't let Louis die. Someone needs to make Ten proud and she knows she's not got it in her.
She doesn't want to die, either.
"Louis..."
He doesn't say anything back. He's thinking, too many things at once. He's hungry, starved nearly. No weapons, apart from the stick. Perhaps he could jam the mouth shut and run. And the girl, Harry's sister. Is she watching or is she too distraught? And there's a goat behind him.
Goat. He'd never thought a goat could be dangerous. Well, they can be diseased and you have to be careful what you feed them if you want good milk, but he knows without looking that this goat is properly dangerous. Deadly dangerous.
One of the three of them will have to move soon.
He makes it him, jumping to his feet and whirling around. His starved mind makes the world spin for longer than it should but he makes out the leaping, slavering shape just in time and he ducks. Not enough; something scrapes down his back and he yelps in pain, feeling his skin tear open. Gemini squeals and he hears footsteps but he can't tell whether it's coming towards him or away. The pain is nearly blinding and half of his mind detaches and starts worrying about infection. Claws. It must have claws. Hooves can't do that sort of damage. He crumples, off balance, and hits the ground at the same time that he hears four thuds skid into the ground. Gemini shouts something; his name is in the middle of it somewhere.
He has to get back to his feet, at least.
He wobbles as he stands, the wind ripping through the gash down his back, enveloping itself around his body. Blood dampens his back and he can barely see through the hunger and the pain. Hunger Games indeed, jokes that detached part of his mind. The goat is huge, absolutely massive, and facing him, though Gemini is grappling with its neck, trying to snap it. But it's too strong and the ranch girl is being tossed all over the place. He staggers forwards, shouting "Leave her alone!" in case it puts the goat off.
The goat tosses it's head and Gemini goes flying, crying out aloud, and lands on the ground nearby, still. Louis launches a reckless punch at the goat's temple, connecting with a satisfying sound, but the goat just shakes him off. He's cold, but he doesn't really register this.
Gemini looks up, dazed and bruised but nothing more than that. Louis is trying to fight the goat, only just managing to dodge the snapping bites it aims at him. She has to do something because he's hurt; dark blood decorates the floor.
Staggering, she snatches up a heavy stone and throws it as hard as she can.
With unbelievable luck, it clatters into the goat's temple and it keels over, unconscious.
Louis gawps, wobbling. She runs over and keeps him upright, watching the goat. Apart from ragged breathing, it doesn't move. They have some time. Louis is barely conscious, so she lays him down on the ground, peeling the blood-soaked clothes away from the wound, feeling slightly absent from the scene and acting purely on instinct. They need to move away from the goat, but it'll only follow the blood so she needs to deal with that.
"Stay with me, Louis," she begs as he moans. He's lost a lot of blood. The cut is jagged and runs from his shoulders right down to his backside. No time for decency. She tears off her jacket, trying hard to ignore the sudden bracing wind. She hadn't realized it was this strong. She wraps the jacket around the wound, wishing she had some disinfectant or something. If only they had sponsors.
"Gemini, it's cold," Louis mutters with a laugh.
"You've got a huge rip in the back of your clothes," she tells him, "I've covered it up with a jacket but you'll still feel cold."
"Blood..." he says. He's lost a lot of blood. And he might get hypothermia or something. She ignores it, just saying "Stay with me, please don't let go, Louis," until he stops asking.
She turns him over so she can see his face. He's white as a sheet. Whiter. She can practically see through him. No, not another ally. District Ten can't rely on her. They just can't.
The goat stirs. She hauls him to his feet, resting him on her shoulder, and ties the jacket sleeves to make the best bandage she can. He mutters something she can't understand.
"You'll be fine," she tells him, "Everything will be fine, Louis. Just stay with me."
"I'm right here!" he promises, "Look, you can see me!" He's losing it. He's heavy and it feels like they're going nowhere, but she has to keep going. She keeps talking to him.
He topples over; she just manages to catch him before he hits the ground. His eyes lock onto hers, and even though the rest of him is pale and in pain, his eyes are strong. Even after she knows he's gone, after his arms go limp and the blood stops flowing and the cannon goes, his eyes still seem strong. Her brain wobbles and she throws her arms around him, hugging him tightly. If she could give him all of her warmth, her blood, she would. Louis could win this. She can't.
Weeping, she lays him down on his back, crosses his arms over his chest and closes his eyes with trembling hands. She can't see the wound and he looks peaceful. Hopefully the Capitol will get to him before their goat. And she never thought she'd think that.
She stumbles on, numb and alone.
May the odds be ever in your favour, the writing had said.
Garth looks at Trinity. Trinity looks at me. I look at both of them.
We're on the thin path outside the cave. Inside, everyone is sleeping. I checked. And checked again. Garth has the sword. Trinity has the knives. And my aim is to grab as much as I can, including weapons, without waking anyone up.
A cannon goes off.
I absolutely have to do this, now. I can't stay with the Careers, not when there's so many of them and so few of us left. And Garth and Trinity?
Mentally, I shrug. Sorry, Fish. But I can't be certain now.
"Ready?" asks Garth, his expression shining. He's wanted to do this his whole life. This is why he volunteered.
"Ready!" hisses Trinity, gripping the knives tightly. Callie's angel is heavy. What happens when we die? Can I go back and keep an eye on Tara, Ma, Callie? Would I be able to see her grow up, marry someone else?
Garth and Trinity look at me calmly.
I sigh, steeling myself.
"Ready."