No Place Like Home

Part 8

This time, when Phil woke up, Dan was wide awake.
He was stood, looking at the jungle with furrowed eyebrows.

"Dan?" Phil stood up. "What's wrong?"
"Someone's coming," Dan said. "We need to go."
Phil paused, he heard twigs snapping and panting, someone was coming after them.

But in that moment, Phil noticed something that Dan didn't.

"Come on, Phil," Dan said sharply. "We can't just stand here, we need to leave! Or we'll be killed!"

"No," Phil responded.
"What?" Dan asked in confusion. "Phil, are you mad? There's someone after us."
"No, they're not," Phil said softly. "they're hurt."
"What? How do you even know that?" Dan asked.
"The pants, and the grunts," Phil replied. "They're slow, and in pain."
"All the better to give us a head start!" Dan exclaimed.
"Wait," Phil said as he saw a small silhouette. "I- I think that's Alyssa."
"Alyssa?" Dan asked, now willing to stay.

Alyssa was 11, she was the youngest to ever be in the Hunger Games, and probably the youngest to last this long.
She volunteered for her mother, who only had 3 limbs, as they had no synthetic limbs in District 10, where she was from.

"Are you sure about this?" Dan asked, worried, as the grunts and running got closer.

"Yeah," Phil said and notched an arrow. "Just be prepared if it isn't her."

Dan grabbed an axe and held it across his body, ready to throw it sideways. Phil held up his bow, pointing an arrow at the person running.

"Ready?" Dan breathed.
Phil nodded.

Less than a few seconds later, a small girl with a slash on her head, a large slash across her leg and bruises everywhere appeared and stumbled to a stop.

She was at least 3 foot 5", had long black hair in pigtail braids and big green eyes.
She was panting and had tears rolling down her face, and Dan and Phil looked at each other, then lowered their weapons.

She stopped and screamed once she saw Dan and Phil.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dan said and dropped his axe, holding his hand out towards the crying girl. "Hey, hey, hey, hey... It's okay. We won't hurt you, okay?"

She was still shaking and had tears rolling down her cheeks, breathing heavily.

Dan lowered to her level slowly and Phil put his arrow back in his sheath.
"We're not gonna hurt you, okay?" Dan flashed a dazzling and calming smile. "I promise."

Her breathing slowed down, and she smiled a childish smile back.

Once she was calm, Dan asked her in a soft voice, "Are you okay?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

"What happened to you?" Dan asked and put his arm on his knee.

She gulped and said, "I got caught by the careers and lost my knives. They tried to kill me, but I did what my brother told me before I left and played dead. They didn't believe me and started to chase me, so I ran, hoping to get some new weapons from the Cornucopia and ran into you."

Dan nodded and looked at Phil, who came and joined Dan, eye level with Alyssa.
"Do you know where they are?" Dan asked calmly. "So that we'll know if they're coming."

She thought for a minute and said, "Um, I think they lost me. I don't know, but they were pretty slow. I tried to get away quicker, but they cut my leg," – they all looked down at her bloody slash, soaking her outfit – "and so they'll probably by somewhere in this section of the jungle."

She was stumbling over her words, it was obvious to Dan and Phil that she was scared they were about to kill her.

"Well, I promise we're not going to hurt you. Okay? It's gonna be fine." Phil said, and Alyssa nodded and gulped. "What's your name?"