Pregnant in the Games

Chapter 14: Stories

In the morning, the anthem played. It's what woke me up. Tetrick was awake already and staring up at the sky. He looked exhausted. I looked in the same direction as him. Projected in the sky, our fallen were being shown. The faces of everyone who's died thus far burned into my eyes. I recognized the guy that I killed yesterday.

"Some cannons went off late last night," Tetrick said. "7 people died after the fire. Meaning 12 are left. I've barely slept since I heard the cannons, afraid that Chris and Talon were dead."

"Or Jessica," I added, although we both knew that it wouldn't be too heart breaking to lose Jessica. We don't have those lose relationships that we do with Talon or Chris. "But they're not," I added as the anthem came to a close. None of the three were shown. 

"Meaning they're out there somewhere," He replied. 

"That's good."

"Maybe..." He said. 

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"Nothing." He looked away as if I hadn't spoken. 

"Should we get down from this tree?" I suggested. Clearly whatever he meant, he didn't want to talk about it right now.

"I don't know about that." He looked down at his leg.

I brought my eyes to his leg. Blood had seeped through the jacket. I hadn't even noticed until now. 

"Your leg!" I gasped, starting to untie the jacket. "You didn't tell me that it was still bleeding."

"Only a little bit. Slowly but surely. The other jacket definitely helped," He replied. 

I kept the other jacket in place, afraid of the stream of blood that may come if I untie it. When I got the first jacket untied, I was horrified at what I saw. The area around the cut was red and puffy. The wound, rather than red and pink, looked black. It's definitely infected. I put the back of my hand on Tetrick's forehead. Sure enough, it was hot.

"Your sick," I muttered, pain shooting through my heart. I hardly know Tetrick, but the idea of losing him... It's too much for me to even think about.

He shrugged. "No big deal."

"No big deal? Don't act all manly and tough. We're in the Hunger Games. No doctor is going to rush to your aid and fix you right up," I replied.

"Except for you." He smiled at me. I laughed a little.

"Except for me."

The infection actually wasn't a huge deal. It didn't seem to be too serious. Tetrick seemed to be alright. So we climbed down the tree and started walking. We were walking back in the direction of our tree house, hoping we could meet back up with the rest of our alliance. The trip was going to take us all day, since we have to walk around the chasm. No way either of us was going to cross that bridge again. 

We must've only been walking for ten minutes, along the side of the chasm, when I noticed that Tetrick wasn't feeling so great. He's pale. He's sweaty. His breathing is heavy and labored, as if he had just run a long race. I stopped walking and put my hand on his arm.

"You're not okay," I said. "Come on, let's go sit down." 

"No, we should keep moving," He protested.

"There's no rush. Come on." I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to the nearest log. It was very moist, but better than him still standing. I put my hand on his forehead again. Already, he felt hotter. The walking was too much activity for him too fast. 

"I'm fine, really," Tetrick continued to protest.

"Stop. You're not fine. Tell me how you feel. I want honesty, okay?"