No Place Like Home

Part 23

Phil only managed to shoot down the two tributes and was struggling with the other 5.

Phil had picked the katana up from the girl earlier and was fighting off the rest of the tributes with that.

They only had less than an hour before the lightning stuck, and Dan didn't have a bow or arrow.

"Give up, Phil," said a girl. "You'll never win."
"Not on his own," said a voice from the woods. They all looked, and Dan was stood.

He still had blood all down his arm and down his temple, soaking his hair, and he looked un-steady on his feet, but he had an axe and he looked determined.

"Oh joy," one guy said dryly. "Another toy to play with."

"Seriously?" another girl said as Dan walked towards Phil and stood next to him. "2 to 5? Really? You think you're strong enough to take on us?"

"Well," Dan said. "to be honest, none of you look very intimidating. I mean, you're like the 'Brady Bunch' with knives and forks, love."

All the jaws dropped, and Phil stared in awe at the warrior stood a few feet beside him.

"You are so going to pay for that, sunshine," a big guy said.
"Hey, what can I say?" Dan said and spun his axe in his hand. "The truth hurts, and so does an axe."

Whilst the other tributes hesitated, thinking about what Dan said, Dan had already thrown an axe and one of the other girls dropped dead.

"Phil, go!" Dan yelled as he grabbed another axe from his belt.
"What?" Phil asked.
"The lightning!" Dan yelled as the tributes ran towards Dan. "It's about to hit, go!"
"No, we still have an hour!" Phil said and shot an arrow, that missed a tribute by an inch.
"No, the keepers are speeding up the nights, remember?" Dan yelled and threw a knife at a tribute, which they ducked. "You have 3 minutes, I saw the thunder, go!"

Phil nodded, and turned to sprint away.
He ran through the jungle, breathing heavily.

He suddenly remembered this would be the last time they would see each other before the end of the game, and Phil wished he could say bye.
But they had plenty of time to say goodbye once they were out of the arena.

Phil heard grunting, and weapons clashing. But no cannons or screams, Dan was okay.
Or alive, at least.

Phil skidded to a stop when he found the big tree, he looked up and saw thunder swirling around in the sky.
It was almost time.

Phil grabbed the other end of the wire and started wrapping it around the point of an arrow.

There was about a minute before the lightning struck, and he saw Henry from the Cornucopia emerge from the other side of that tree.

"Henry stop!" Phil yelled as Henry started to run towards Phil.
"Phil!" Henry yelled. "We have to help Dan, he's with the other tributes!"
"I know that!" Phil snapped, and looked at the clouds above the tree.

30 seconds left...

Phil notched the arrow attached to the wire and pointed it at the sky.

"Henry, no!" Phil yelled, but the boy kept running. "Henry, stop!"

Henry was going to be blown to smithereens, as he had decided to stop and rest his hand on the wire around the tree.

Phil lowered the bow, "Henry, get away from that tree!"
The scrawny boy looked at Phil in confusion.
It was no use, 5 seconds left.

Phil pointed his arrow to the sky and let out a battle cry as the first strike of lightning hit the tree.

He exclaimed and let the arrow fly, before sprinting away.

The instant the lightning travelled down the tree and into the wire, the tree was blown to pieces.
And there was a God-almighty bang when Phil's arrow hit the top of the arena, sending pieces of debris and force-field plummeting downwards.

Phil was flown forwards, no matter how far he ran.

He screamed as the tree exploded, and Phil felt immediate pain throughout his body, as bits of flaming tree flew into him.

He was then thrown into another tree and exclaimed out before hitting the hard ground.

Phil heard screams and shouts from the clearing where Dan was, as pieces of the arena and tree smashed through the jungle, going through anything in its path.

The final scream was Dan's.

Phil didn't care though. He was tired, and his body ached all over.
He rolled onto his back and stared into the sky, only to see pieces of the sky falling; the arena was falling apart.

Phil smiled weakly, it worked. Their plan worked.
He just had to establish whether Dan was alive or not.

But that was all for later, it didn't matter now. Dan would be okay. Phil would be okay.

He closed his eyes for a while, he just wanted to sleep. His head ached, and he felt sick from the blow of the fall. He had been through this before, but last time he didn't survive.
But he survived this time. And so did Dan.

Well, he didn't know whether Dan was dead or not, but in his fantasy as he laid on the jungle ground, whilst the world around him was literally falling apart... they were happy.
They were alive.

All Phil wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep. Because what people don't realize is that there's nothing in sleep. No worries. No pain. No anger. No sadness. Nothing.

And that's all Phil wanted to feel, nothing.
But he couldn't, he had to live. For Dan.

He heard 7 cannons go off.
5 for the tributes, 1 for Henry and 1 for either Dan or Phil.

There had to be a victor, and that victor was either Dan or Phil.

Phil wanted to ignore that mistake, and live in his own mind, where they were both in District 4 together.
Happy.

When Phil opened his eyes again, he was floating with a bright light above him.
Either that was a hovercraft or he really did die.

But when he turned his head, he saw other Hovercrafts lifted other claws with bodies in them, and the arena was falling to pieces and on fire.

It was all destroyed, the tree were alight, the wall's falling and bodies littered, being pulled up into the hovercrafts.

This time, when he closed his eyes, he was okay.

He saw Dan's face, his smile, his laugh, his eyes and in that moment...
he knew it was going to be okay.