No Place Like Home

Part 22

The coil of wire was still there when they got back to the tree, and it was already nightfall.

There was no hologram in the sky tonight, nobody had died.

"Nobody died?" Dan asked. "At all?"
Phil shrugged and tied the end of the wire around a low branch, "Maybe the arena is bigger than the game-keepers thought."
Dan furrowed his brows, "But, hopefully this will all end tonight."

Phil didn't respond, he only carried on wrapping the wire around the tree, "Phil? Not that I'm worried or anything but are you positive this is going to work?"

Phil sighed and walked over to Dan, "Of course. Trust me, Dan. It's going to hurt, I'm not going to lie, but it's our only chance."

Dan looked down, but Phil held onto his arm and said softly, "I just want to give us our best chance."

Dan looked up and gave a small smile, "Thank you, you really are trying. And I can see that."
Phil smiled lightly, "Okay, now we don't have a long time left. So help me wrap this wire around."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Right," Dan said as they stepped back. "That should do it."

The bronze wire was wrapped all the way around the tree, at least 30 times.

"And there's still enough to shoot," Phil grinned. "And by the looks of it, we probably have about 1 hour left."

Dan sighed and said, "Well, I'm gonna go get some water. You want some?"

Phil nodded, and Dan walked away to nail his sile to a tree.
"None of these trees are letting out water," Dan said, confused. "I'm gonna go find a different clearing."
"It might be because the lightning will be effecting the rest of the clearing," Phil pointed out and Dan nodded.

"Just be careful," Phil shouted as Dan walked away, he waved back.

Phil walked to the other end of the wire, which was laid on top of a pile of wire.
Just as he picked it up, he remembered something from training that Haymich said;

"...and you have to remember, you and Dan are Capitol darlings, but that means almost everyone is going to be after you. And the other lot are going to want you as allies. You and Dan either kill everyone or no one at all...."

Phil sighed, they were about to kill everyone.
Every single person in the arena.

He wanted to hesitate, but knew that it was the only way Dan and Phil were going to get out together.

But were they really going to kill every single person, just because of a promise? So they could live?

Well, he remembered that that was the whole point of the game. But, Snow wouldn't be happy.
Hell, you could give that man every jewel and coin on the planet, and he would still give that evil frown.

He sighed loudly, his head was having a war with his heart, and he wanted it to stop.

Phil wanted to get out of the arena alive, but he refused to live without Dan.
They had formed more than just an 'alliance'.

Phil woke up from death for Dan. He defeated all laws of the Universe for Dan.Phil kept his half of the promise, now it was Dan's turn.

Just as Phil thought that, he heard grunting from not far away, and when helooked up, a flock of birds flew away, and into the night sky.
Dan was in trouble.

"Dan!" Phil exclaimed and dropped the wire, picking his bow up.
"Phil, stay there!" Dan yelled. "Phil don't move!"

Phil was confused, why did Dan show the signal, then tell Phil to stay at thetree?
Phil decided to stop arguing with himself and look for Dan.

If Dan was in trouble, the best thing he could do would be to help him out a little.

But the worst happened, when he heard Dan let out a scream that turned his blood cold, and his gut inside out.

"Dan!" Phil screamed.
Phil jogged through the jungle, screaming Dan's name.
"Dan!" he yelled. "Dan, where are you?"

Dan wasn't responding anymore, and Phil was terrified.

His heart pounded, "Dan! Goddammit, answer me!"
Phil ran through, until he came to a clearing.

His heart completely dropped when he saw a body laid in the middle of theclearing with curly brown hair.

"Oh, sh*t," Phil mumbled, and ran towards Dan, "Dan? Dan, Oh my, God. Wake up!"

Dan's eyes were closed, and his bandaged arm was exposed, blood pooling out thecut which seemed to have grown 2 sizes.
Dan also had a slash across his forehead, which was pooling blood down Dan's sickly pale face and soaking his hair as well.

"Oh, God," Dan was loosing blood, so Phil unwrapped his own bandage and found aclean part, then pressed it onto Dan's wound. "Oh, God, Dan, stop it! Get up!"

He put his head on Dan's chest, and heard a slow heart-beat.

Phil's stomach lifted, "You're alive."
He felt a little stupid afterwards, as Dan was still unconscious and probably couldn't hear him.

"Okay, Dan, you need to get up. Please, just wake up. You can do it, come on."

Phil was pleading him, and like a miracle, Dan's eyes squinted and blinked open.

"Phil?" Dan croaked. "Phil, what happened? Are you okay?"

Phil exhaled happily, even though Dan was the one on the floor, almost bleedingto death, he was the one asking Phil if he was okay.

"Yeah," Phil smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine, and so are you."
Dan coughed, "My head hurts."

"Yeah, it will do," Phil smiled, he was so happy Dan was okay. Well, alive atleast. "You got a pretty bad cut."

Dan started to lift himself up, "Dan, you need to lay down. Okay? Just calm down."
"No," Dan gasped and grabbed Phil's arm, trying to sit up. "No, Phil, they're here. The tributes are here. They ganged up on me, 7 of them."
Phil's heart began to fall again, "What? Dan are you saying..."

He couldn't finish his sentence, so Dan said it for him, "We aren't alone. Itwas a trap, for you to come for me, Phil you need to get out of here—"
"F*ck no," Phil snapped, brows furrowed. "Dan, it'll be a cold day in Hell before I leave you here on your own. No, you need to come back to the tree, and we'll figure this out, together."

Dan's eyes widened, and he shook his head, "It's too late."
Phil was confused, until he heard twigs snapping behind him.

Phil pretended not to hear, but a second before the tribute stabbed him, Phil had notched an arrow and shot the tribute.

He looked around, Dan was right, 7 of them were here, 1 dead on the floor.
And they looked angry.

"You are such an idiot," a guy with a trident chuckled. "I can't believe you fell for it."

"Oh, what a genius plan," Phil snapped back, after he notched another arrow and stood up, protecting Dan who had sat up. "pretend to kill my ally and then attack me as I'm helping him? Who came up with that? Huh? Einstein?"

This guy was not amused, as he launched forwards, trident towards Phil.

But Phil was smart, and had shot his arrow right in the guys heart.
The guy dropped to the floor, dead.

Dan was stood up a second later, pale as a ghost.

"Dan, get out of here," Phil demanded as he pointed his arrow at another tribute.
"Phil, I'm not—" Dan started.
"Dan, I'm not kidding, get out of here!" Phil cut in.

Dan hesitated, but Phil looked at him without dropping his arrow and snapped,"Dan, go! Go!"

Dan stumbled away, looking dizzy and not completely there because of blood loss.

Dan jogged out of the clearing, and Phil exhaled, looking back at the tributes.

"What a brave sacrifice," said another guy. "For an ally."

"He's not my ally," Phil smirked, "He's my best friend."