"Hey." Says Rue as I make my way up to her.
"Hi." I smile, but just barely. Misery reflects on her face and I know that I must have made the correct desision by deciding on not telling her.
She frowns slightly. "Did you find what you need?" What if she's also aware that if her wound isn't treated that death will soon fall upon her? Does she? Maybe, but maybe not. Hopefully not.
Quickly, I grab my bag off of my bag and take out some mint leaves, ripping them slightly so maybe Rue won't notice what type of leaf they are. "Yes, this should help." We climb down the tree together and she lays on the ground, her back facing the sky.
This couldn't be possible, I think as I yet again unwrap the bandages. The bleading is back and the infection has gotten worse. Never have I seen anything like this. I wonder what my mother is thinking right now. Would she know what to do in this situation? Probably, but then again, I know what to do, I just cannot find what I need.
To help her through the next few days, I lie, sparing her the truth and tell her, "It's really not that bad. I think it might be getting better." Once more, I wrap up her wounds, this time washing the off in the water first. When I am finished, I take our water bottles and fill them up from the creek. Now we are forced to wait thirty minutes again.
"What about your leg Prim? I haven't seen you fix it in a while." Right, of course. Rue makes a good point.
As Rue climbs back up her willow tree, I begin to unwrap my wound while I walk to the river to clean off the goze. Right as the gauze comes off, revealing the ugly gash, I want to faint. Not because I can't handle the sight of it, but because I don't want to end up with the same fate as Rue. Now we both will go painfully. Her first most likely, because her cut is much larger than mine and probably more infected too.
When I have finished, the sun begins to creep down over the horizon, shining in a magnificent orange and yelllow fireball. I stay down on the ground, practicing throwing my knife at random patches of grass. Once I have to start squinting to see, I head up the same willow and settle in just as the sun disapears.
All at once, the anthem booms loudly and a face illuminates the sky. Today, I only heard one canon fire. The radiant eye's and even skin tone of the girl from One shows high above the tree's before it leaves, along with the anthem.
I sip at my water, counting in my head how many of us are left. So far the death's were the girl from Three, the boy from four, both from Five Six and Seven and eight. Rye died right in front of my eyes so that is both from Nine and the girl from Ten. Leaving eleven of us left to fend for ourselves...
Soon Rue and I will be making that number even higher.