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Hᴏᴡ ᴄᴀɴ I sᴀʏ ᴛʜɪs ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋɪɴɢ?
Hᴏᴡ ᴄᴀɴ I sᴀʏ ᴛʜɪs ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴀᴋɪɴɢ ᴏᴠᴇʀ?
Hᴏᴡ ᴄᴀɴ I ᴘᴜᴛ ɪᴛ ᴅᴏᴡɴ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴡᴏʀᴅs?
Wʜᴇɴ ɪᴛ's ᴀʟᴍᴏsᴛ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ғᴏʀ ᴍʏ sᴏᴜʟ ᴀʟᴏɴᴇ
The ruckus of these winged anomalies gave way to an almost stunning silence. My lungs suddenly seemed too big to fit inside my body, and the simple fact of having to breathe was a challenge. Those damn chickadees could have killed us, mere birds in front of humans. It was terrifying, but there was nothing simple about the arena in those days. The creators of the Games changed everything so that every leaf, every path in the arena became a deadly object. For a moment I had forgotten that when Alec and I were standing by the flowers. Alec.
- Alec ?
I was struggling to get up on my knees, this senseless escape into the lake had been draining and now that the adrenaline had been fully consumed, I doubted I could stand up without wobbling. Next to me, Alec uttered a kind of incomprehensible babbling. The nightmare wasn't over. How could I have been foolish enough to believe so?
Alec hadn't moved since I pulled him out of the water, he was lying on his back with his arms at his sides. Obviously I was worried, the modified chickadees had attacked us violently and everything happened very quickly.
- Alec ?, I asked again after I had managed to sit up straight.
To have witnessed the three tribes trapped in the pit and devoured by the roots was nothing compared to what I was seeing now. The chickadees had practically torn his neck, there was so much blood coming out of it that it was impossible to discern the wound. I was suffering from gagging, this couldn't happen to Alec. They had stood and fought together, he couldn't leave him now.
- Alec, please. Answer me.
In a futile attempt to compress the wound, I placed the palm of my hands on Alec's neck, but this only made the situation worse. The bleeding was getting better, but it wasn't the only thing that was getting worse - the boy's breathing was getting worse. I was choking him. His big hand grabbed my wrist to prevent me from making the situation worse, but as soon as my hands were no longer on his neck a new stream of blood came out of the wound. It was awful, I couldn't see anything.
- 'Low..
- No, no. Don't speak, keep your strength. We need to find a solution, we need to.
I had none on hand, I was prepared to die and not to see a friend die in the arena beside me. I needed Alec to give me a solution, to help me, and to tell me how I could stop the bleeding.
