No Place Like Home

Part 21

Dan exhaled, "Right, this should be far enough."
Phil turned around and found a small hole in the ground, "Down here."

Dan nodded and they both walked into the cave, both of their hearts pounding.
"Oh my, God," Phil mumbled. "I can't believe we're doing this."
"We have to, Phil," Dan said. "Otherwise we'll never get out together. And I promised you we would get out."
Phil looked down, "Okay, I know."
"Besides," Dan said. "Isn't getting a little cut better than dying completely?"
"I'll be the one to determine that," Phil replied. "After all, I'm the one who's gonna have done both."

Dan smiled, "Right," He took out one of his throwing knives. "I'll go first."
"You sure?" Phil asked, concerned.

Dan nodded and took his gloves off, revealing his forearms, "Yeah, then I'll show you it's... not that bad."

Dan was nervous, but he put the blade above the scar where the tracker was inserted.

He exhaled, and pressed the blade into his arm.
Instant pain shot through his arm, as blood started pooling out of his arm.

"Sh*t!" He hissed, and Phil winced.
"Dan," Phil said, concerned. "Dan, that's deep enough, the tracker's there!"

Dan shook his head, his face pale with pain, "No, it's not. That's only top, and—sh*t!"

He exclaimed when another sharp pain shot through his arm, and more blood poured out.

"Dan, it's fine," Phil said quickly. "That's enough."
Dan nodded and breathed heavily, he handed the knife to Phil and danced from foot to foot.

"Oh God," Dan breathed.
"Hey, hey, hey," Phil said and put a hand on his okay arm. "It's gonna be okay."

Dan nodded and smiled weakly, "Yeah."
Dan held his hand above the deep cut, before plunging his hand in.

He couldn't help but let out a god-almighty scream, it hurt like Hell.

But within a short minute, Dan had his tracker in his bloody hand and was panting heavily.

"Okay, okay," Phil said, trying to help Dan. "Okay, you did it. You did it!"

Dan nodded, and Phil started to wrap up his arm with a bandage.

Dan was now sweating and was putting pressure on his wound. "Okay, that wasn't so... bad. You know, once you get over the blood and the ringing in your ears; you'll be fine."

Phil smiled, "Don't lie. But I don't mind, because..." Phil walked over to bit of damp moss, and placed Dan's bloody tracker down. "...nobody is gonna know where we are now."

"You're forgetting it's all being filmed," Dan stated, and Phil walked back over.
"And you're forgetting that Evie and Matt from District 7 have some kind of 'star-crossed-lovers' thing going on," Phil said. "Haymich said most people are gonna be watching them."

Dan nodded, "Right, your turn."
Phil sighed and took off his gloves, and the rest is history.

Dan hated seeing Phil in pain, and Phil hated seeing Dan in pain. But it was the only choice they had.

"Are you okay?" Dan asked after he wrapped up Phil's wound.
Phil nodded, panting, "Yeah, I'm alright."

Dan smiled and walked over, placing Phil's tracker next to Dan's.

"Right," Dan said. "That's it. We have about 4 hours left. Maybe just over."

Phil nodded and exhaled, "Then we'd better go."

He started to walk away, but Dan said, "Phil," Phil turned and looked at Dan. "Are you sure you're okay? I just did that, and it was pretty damn painful."

Phil smiled weakly, "Yeah, I just have to get out of here now."

Dan nodded, and they walked out, leaving their bloody trackers behind.

"So was that worse than dying?" Dan asked as they walked back to the tree.

Phil laughed, "I think I would take that over being electrocuted any day."