The Hunger Games: Camden Shepard

Chapter 15

My eyes shot open. Jacks face danced in front of me for a moment and then was gone. It had been nearly a week since Jack had died. I rolled over on my bed and sat up. It had been an incredibly lonely week. Lonely and painful. I didn't understand why the Gamemakers had let the Games go on this long with only two tributes left. I decided they were giving us both time to heal in order to have the best fight possible for the finale. My arm had healed fairly well, there was a thick scar that had formed, but the skin had healed. My side was not doing as well. The serrated dagger had gone about three inches into my side and then caught on my ribs, stopping it's forward momentum. It had cracked one of my ribs when if pulled it out. The wound itself had scabbed over now, but every move I made caused shooting pains up my side and through the rest of my body. My face had healed somewhat, I could see out of my left eye again and all that was left of the beating Eight had given me was a massive black bruise across the entire left side of my face.
Finnick had sent me a small bottle of painkillers and antibiotics. I was grateful for the painkillers, but they often made me drowsy and the true pain came with sleep. All of my dreams were nightmares now. If my days were bad my nights were unbearable. I would wake up in a cold sweat with one of my hands on a knife and the other clutched around my blanket, the same way I'd woken up the morning of the Reaping, but the dreams were so much worse. They had begun to follow me into my days, too. I would be rewrapping the bandage on my arm or side and suddenly I would see the knife, sticking out of my waist. I would be laying under the blankets on my bed, and suddenly they transformed into Jack and the boy from Eight laying on top of me. The loneliness wasn't helping. Without someone to talk to I was beginning to speak aloud to no one in particular.
Today's nightmare had been the worst. Instead of Eight killing Jack it had been me. I was on top of him, driving my dagger towards Eight, and then Jack was there, his lifeless green eyes stared up at me.
"This is your fault." He'd whispered, then he was gone.
I let go of my dagger and released the grip on my sheets. My head ached. I forced myself out of bed in the small apartment next to the field. I walked over to the small table at the front of the room and grabbed one of the water bottles. I drank the entire bottle, then another. My head was still throbbing. I had run out of food yesterday and hunger was definitely not helping my headache and sore body. I began my daily task of removing my bandages, coating my wounds with medicine, and rewrapping them with fresh bandages that Finnick had sent me. It was hurting to breath now and I was worried that my broken rib might pierce a lung. I wouldn't last much longer either way if I couldn't find food.
I was so sick of staying in this hell hole, so sick of playing the Capitols Games. So sick of living in pain and with instant fear.
This is it. The thought rang clear through my head. Today's the day.
The thought surprised me, but it realized it was right. I wouldn't last another day in the arena in my condition. It had to be today.
I began to gather my things and put them into my backpack, but realized it was pointless, I wouldn't be taking any of this stuff home with me. I took out the three throwing knives I had left and slid them into the pocket of my jacket. I put my last remaining dagger, the serrated one I took from Eight, in my boot and picked up my trident.
"Goodbye." I whispered to my room, and walked out.
My long blonde hair billowed in my eyes as a cold wind blew through the streets. Frustration overcame me.
Cut it off. The thought radiated through my body. I yanked out my serrated dagger, caught my hair in one hand and swept the dagger through it with the other. My hair fell to my feet around me and I stuck the dagger back in my boot. I felt liberated. I smiled to myself and let out a wild laugh. The Capitol can't control your hair. I laughed again. I'm sure I was a terrifying sight. A little blonde hair, holding a fistful of her own hair, wearing torn up, bloodstained clothes, laughing at nothing. Something clattered on the street in front of me and I stopped laughing. A snarl worked its way through my lips and I crouched down, trident in hand.
"Come on out Jeanette." I yelled. "I've had enough of this!" My voice took on a singsong tone. "You can't hide forever!"
After a moment a girl stepped from behind a dumpster. Her face was smeared with blood, her clothes were shredded almost worse than mine, scorch marks left a strange pattern on her right leg. Her long brown hair was pulled into a ponytail and her green eyes glinted furiously. In her right hand she held an axe, no small weapon, either. Instead of a wood chopping axe she was holding a massive embellished battle axe. Her long ponytail whipped back and forth behind her back as she took a step towards, her left leg dragged slightly behind her. I grinned and ran towards her.
Our weapons met with a clash. A metallic ring echoed through the streets. I'd just managed to catch her axe in the prongs of my trident. I shoved hard against her, knocking my elbow into her side. She stepped back. I took advantage and kicked at her, connecting with her left leg. She cried out in pain, grasping at her knee with one hand and swinging her axe at me uselessly with the other. I easily hopped backwards, away from her attack. She hobbled a few steps forward and swung again. I blocked the axe, but the strength of the blow caused the end of my trident to bump me in the side. I screamed as I felt the cracked rib dig into my lung. Hot pain coursed through me and I gritted my teeth in anguish.
The knives. I pulled a throwing knife from my pocket and fiercely threw it at her. She hadn't been ready to doge the knife since she was still trying to dislodge her axe from my trident. It slid easily across her face, leaving a deep cut from her chin to her forehead since her face had been turned when I'd thrown the knife. She dropped the axe and clutched at her face. I'd managed to nick her eye in the process. The trident felt heavy in my hand and I realized she's embedded her axe into it. The axe was longer than the prongs of my trident and there was no way for me to use it effectively anymore. I tossed it aside with the axe still in it. I yanked my dagger from my boot and dove for her. My rib dug I to my lung again, this time I felt something pop and air rushed out of me. I gasped and fell at Jeanette's feet. She was still holding her eye, but at the sight of my laying helpless on the ground in front of her kicked down at my face with her good leg. I rolled painfully to the side and she hit my shoulder instead. I stabbed ankle her with the dagger.
Again. I pulled the dagger out and stabbed again, but she was too fast. She pulled her leg back and began crawling away from me. My breath was too shallow, with one lung collapsed I knew I wouldn't live long. Voices swirled around my head. Three boys saying the same thing.
Win for me. Win for me. Win for me. One voice stood out particularly, it was the same voice I'd heard all day today, the voice that wasn't quite my own. I finally recognized it as Jacks. I had to win for him. He'd died for me. Slowly I began to crawl after Jeanette. I would win for them.
Jeanette had crawled onto the field where Jack had died. I was breathing heavily now and getting light headed from both the internal bleeding and lack of oxygen. The voices drove me forward. I crawled past the bloodstained patch of grass where Jack and the boy from eight had bled out on me while waiting for the hovercraft to arrive. I crawled after Jeanette past the spot where I had killed the girl from eight. I crawled and crawled until Jeanette hit the lake. The lake. The voice purred. The lake. Jeanette hadn't realized it was there. She turned around, her eyes panicked, as I crawled out of the grass. She rolled onto her back and kicked at me again, but I was too far out of reach. I pulled out another throwing knife and it caught her in the stomach. She fell onto her back. I threw the third one and missed her entirely. Frustration consumed me and I climbed on top of her. As I crawled over her I noticed her face was right next to the water. It was lapping at her ponytail. Jeanette took advantage of her position beneath me, and began to claw at me. She had long nails that dug deep into the skin on my face. She managed to miss my eyes and as her hands came toward me again I slashed with the dagger. It sank into her left hand and she immediately pulled away, the dagger still in her hand. Now both of us were weaponless.
The lake the lake the lake. Jacks voice hissed at me. I could barely feel my fingers and toes due to blood loss. My vision was beginning to go blurry and my head pounded. I wasn't going to survive this, but damn it if I wasn't going to win. With my last bit of energy I pushed Jeanette's head under the water. Yesss. The voice screamed. After a few moments bubbles stopped rising and a canon went off. Then the loss of oxygen and blood consumed me and I collapsed.