The 45th Hunger Games: The Tribute of District 4 (Watty Awards 2012 completed)

Chapter 24

We were properly rested, Slate and I. We went on looking through the forest, looking for trails and rehydrating.

It had been Boone that the girl from District 3 was allied with. She weakened his opponents and he used his strength to end them. I didn’t know if they were any worse than the Careers were.

Keegan’s trail was the easiest to find, especially with the violet light from the sun coming up giving us illumination. Her blood kept dripping, because of that foot she lost. She was weak, obviously.

She was losing blood and she was probably just waiting to die. I bet she hoped that if she was lucky enough, Slate, Boone and I would all just kill each other and she would emerge as the victor. I wouldn’t give her that kind of luck.

When we found her, we knew that she would be harmless. She had her hand wrapped around her ankle to keep the blood from flowing, and she kept tightening her tourniquet.

“How would you like to die, then?” I asked tauntingly.

I wasn’t the only killer in this arena. So many tributes had plotted against the Careers. We had also been killed off one by one, so did that make them any different? I was in here because I had no choice, and my only escape was to kill everyone in my way. Did wanting freedom make me a bad person?

“Just let me bleed to death,” she said hatefully, glaring at the two of us. “I hope Boone gets the two of you.”

“Okay then,” Slate said, taking a step toward her. “We’ll just have to forward the pace.”

He took a stab at her arm and she yelped in pain, letting go of her missing foot to hold on to the blood that started to gush from her arm.

“Why don’t we even this out as well?” I took Slate’s sword and cut off her other foot, just as cleanly as Boone cut off Xavier’s head.

“Do you feel like you want to bleed to death now?” Slate said, smiling and raising an eyebrow. “You were the one who asked for it.”

Keegan couldn’t control herself as her entire body was racked with sobs. “No. Just please. Please get it over with.”

“Just a tiny cut and it’ll be all over.” Slate took one of my knives, placed it under her chin and neatly sliced a line on her neck.

Her face was pale and there was no way that she would be alive in more than a minute. It seemed cruel to take out my wrath on this girl, who had done nothing, wrong to me, really. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew that I wanted someone else to feel as bad as I did now.

Slate and I turned our backs, and sure enough, after a few seconds, the cannon fired.

“One last tribute to go,” Slate said darkly, and we headed up the slope as the water rose.

It was getting higher faster. The only place that we could end up was at the cliff. We started at a slow walk, but the water eventually reached at our heels and we started at a run. I wanted to get to Boone before he drowned. Drowning was not a death that he deserved.

Slate got shoved aside just as we were in range of the cliff. Boone was badly injured and he had a limp. His calf was bleeding, even after his efforts to staunch it were evident.

“Looking for me?” he jeered, showing his teeth, which was covered with blood. “I know a way of you two being together! You can both just die!”

He took out his sword and started hacking away without real strategy. Slate held him off, and I tried to find weak areas as the three of us headed up towards the cliff. The water almost consumed the entire island.

Boone blocked one of Slate’s advances, and he kicked him in the abdomen, which made Slate stagger a few feet back ankle-deep into the water. Without second-guessing himself, Boone hit my face and I fell on my back. The trident was a few feet away from me. I took out my knives but Boone overpowered me, and it took all my strength to keep the knife away at least an inch away from my face.

Slate pulled him off and stabbed him behind the other knee. “I would really love to kill you, but I’m giving that honor to Serena.”

He pushed Boone down onto his knees and forced him to look up at my face.

I took my trident and smashed it onto his face until it buried deep until his shoulders. His eyes bled and with one last look into my eyes, he fell.

The water stopped rising. The cliff was about ten feet high from the water, and it was the only piece of land left.

Slate and I watched each other for a long time. I have watched so many sunsets with him for the past few days. This was the first sunrise that I ever had with him. It would be the only sunrise I would have with him.

“What are we going to do?” I whispered. I was at the edge of the cliff. If he attacked, I was ready to dive in and stay as long as possible.

He stood right in front of me, with my own knife that Boone had an inch away from my face only a few minutes ago.

“I know,” he said, his answer different. “I’m going to protect you from anyone who wants to hurt you.”

There were so many things that I couldn’t control in this arena. There were so many different events that played out that didn’t happen. The scenario that happened next was not one that I had predicted.

Slate shoved the knife into his stomach and twisted it, all the while standing and looking at me in the eye. During the last seconds of his life, he gave a weak, “I love you,” before he lost his balance and fell over the cliff.

I was surprised, but my body quickly dove after his falling one, with tears in my eyes before I hit the salty water.

I clung to the empty shell of this boy, who, in the end, I wouldn’t kill. This boy kept his promise of protecting me, even from himself, and died the only honorable death I’ve seen in this game.

But there was nothing else left of him, except his blood that spread in the water, and my tears that had mingled with the salty ocean.