Disclaimer : If I’ve said it before, I’ll say it now: I did not write the fabulous series of PJO and THG.

Percy’s POV

It’s probably way past midnight now. The other Careers have already fallen asleep. Glimmer is dozing off, jerking awake now and then. It’s her turn to take watch but I guess all the hunting and dodging the snowballs and icicles and all had really tired her out.

“ Percy?” Thalia’s voice whispers suddenly to me. “ Are you still awake?”

“ Yeah,” I say. “Sheesh, do you know that it’s dangerous to talk so suddenly when an armed man is near you?” She chuckles. “ Why are you still awake?” I ask her. We were careful to talk in hushed voice, so that none of the others would wake. Good thing we were lying close to each other.

“ I can’t sleep,” she says. “ I kept thinking that if I go to sleep in the Games, my chances at waking up would be close to none,” she admits.

“ You mean, you’re afraid one of them would kill you?”

“ Don’t you?” she asks me, propping herself on her elbows. “ I mean, Cato (she said this in a super, duper low voice) wouldn’t think twice about stabbing you in your sleep.”

“ Good point,” I say, rubbing my chin. “ Dang, now you’ve brought it up, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”

She snorts. “ It’s not like you were sleeping before.”

“ Maybe a nap would be sufficient?” I suggest. “ We’d need to be fully rested to face whatever they have in store tomorrow.”

“ Maybe,” she agrees, before adjusting herself so that she was right next  to me.

And I don’t know when I exactly dozed off but I did with Thalia close to me. It was a good feeling to have someone you – kind of – trusted in the Games. Of course, until the odds are finally against us.

But it was a mistake for us to fall asleep. We should’ve kept on talking, you know.

 Because near dawn, this huge, buzzing thing fell right in the middle of our small circle. And it burst. And it let loose a swarm of bees. No, not bees. Because getting stung by a bee wouldn’t kill you. Hornets don’t send you into near insanity. But tracker jackers do. They send you into near or complete insanity. Or even kill you.

And that was what that fell in the middle of our circle. A tracker jacker nest.

I leapt to my feet, not caring about anything else and sprint off to safety. I don’t know why I didn’t wake Thalia up or even grab her by the arm. I just…thought of myself. When I think about it back, it was selfish of me. She came back for me when I got stuck with the icicles. But me? I left her at the mercy of the tracker jackers.

Speaking of the nest falling on us, only me, Marvel, Cato and Clove had made it to the frozen lake (I didn’t know they had put a lake here..). It was a moment filled with panic. The frozen lake made it worse.  Hey, who wouldn’t panic if you were chased by a swarm of angry tracker jackers and the only place you are safe (i.e the lake) is frozen? Without thinking, I grabbed my sword (which was strapped to my waist along with my knife) and broke the ice, making a huge hole and jump in. Well, the hole was enough to fit all of us in the freezing lake. 

We stayed in the lake for a while, watching the tracker jackers flying everywhere, attacking anyone or anything that moved in their line of vision. We were freezing, Clove was on the verge of collapse either from the cold, or the tracker jackers’ sting, or both. But we held on, no matter how cold the water was. Because I think I’d prefer the water to being attack by the tracker jackers.

“ G-G-Glimmer a-a-and T-T-Thalia?” I ask through chattering teeth.

“ T-T-They didn’t m-m-make it,” Marvel sputters, rubbing his frozen nose.

“ W-W-W-We should g-g-go back af-af-after them,” I say, wading towards the bank.

“ Are you n-n-nuts?” Cato pulls me back by the collar. “ You could g-g-get killed!”

“ The t-t-tracker jackers are gone n-n-now,” I say angrily, wrenching my collar out of his grip. “ If you want t-t-to stay frozen a little longer, b-b-be my guest. I’m going back a-a-after them,” I tell him, before making my way to the bank. Sure enough, they didn’t follow. Cowards, I thought angrily.

Well, I wasn’t that brave too but I just had to make sure Thalia and Glimmer had managed to get away from the tracker jackers (which is like, not possible but hey, I can still hope..).

I check to see if the coast was clear from any other tributes (and free from angry tracker jackers) before climbing out of the lake. The cold nearly made me topple back into the lake. The light breeze felt as if it was happily torturing me, freezing me. No, I thought to myself, don’t just stand there. MOVE! Get warm!

It was a slow, hard work to get back to our campsite. My legs felt as if they were leads or blocks of ice. The cold was close to unbearable. The hard work didn’t make me sweating (well, it is the winter hemisphere) or even warm. In fact, it made me tired and all I wanted to do was collapse on the tree trunks and lie there. Maybe take a nap.

Drats. It’s hypothermia. Get moving, Jackson!, I yell at myself.

I wasn’t that far off from the campsite by that time. But what I found made me froze in my tracks.

It was a body, lying a bit farther from our campsite. She must’ve tried to escape to the lake too. But got overwhelmed with the tracker jackers.

And it was not just anybody.

No, no..this can’t be happening. I quickened my pace (believe me, it was painful) and I dropped on my knees next to her.

“ Thalia,” I whisper. “ Thalia, wake up,” I shake her body gently. “ Thalia, no. Please wake up.” I start to sob. “ Thalia, you can’t be dead.” She is already dead. I’m talking to a corpse. “ Thalia,” I say, placing her head on my lap. “ No..this is all my fault,” I say, watching as the tears fell on to her face. Her eyes stare back at me, wide open in terror and pain. “ I’m sorry,” I sob, as I gently lift her head and put it back on the ground. “ I’m really sorry I didn’t help you.”

She didn’t reply (thank goodness) or try to comfort me. She just lay there on the ground, her eyes wide open. The welts on her body did nothing but make me feel terrible. She suffered so much before finally dying.

“ Goodbye,” I say, and just like I did with Katie, I closed her eyelids and arrange her form in a position she usually does when she goes to sleep. After that, I got back to my feet. Time to look for Glimmer. But if Thalia, who almost nearly made it to the lake didn’t make it, I don’t think she would stand a better chance.

I stumble to the campsite.

And lo behold.

Katniss was on top of Glimmer’s body, wrenching the bow and arrows.

We stare at each other, waiting for the other to attack. But there was a huge welt on her cheek and neck  and her eyes were unfocused. The tracker jackers had attack her and she’s starting to feel the effects. Don’t know why but I could feel myself, too, feeling the effects of the stings. Hmm..didn’t know I got stung. Good thing it didn’t feel too bad.

“ W-w-what are you still d-d-doing here?” I hiss at her. “ Get moving!” I grab her by the arm and gave her a push. “ G-g-get moving!”

That was when I heard someone moving at a fast pace behind us. And I would bet my life that it’s Cato.

“ RUN!” I bellow at her. “ RUN!”

She finally took my advice and made a break for it before Cato arrives.

But I was the one he unleashed his rage on.

“ You let her go?!” he screams at me. “ You swore you won’t get in my way, Jackson!” he bellows, raising his short sword. “ And do you know what happens to traitors like you?”

Before I could answer, he stabs at my left leg.

I collapsed on to my knees, howling in pain. He didn’t take the sword out. Instead, he pushed it deeper into my leg. “ Stop! Stop!” I screech. He ignores my shouting and pushes it deeper and deeper into my leg. That was when the pain reached its max. The sword must’ve hit my bone because the pain then became too unbearable I was thrashing on the ground, my mouth open but no more scream would come out. It was that painful. And I couldn’t breathe.

Only then did he wrench the sword out of my leg.

“ That’s what happen to traitors like you,” he says, ripping a strip of his shirt and uses it to wipe the blood off. “ Seriously wounded and left to die.” He spats at me before leaving me on the ground, next to Glimmer’s body, bleeding. Clove smirks at me before hurrying after Cato but Marvel hesitates.

I was gasping for breath, feeling as if I had nearly drowned in the cold, freezing lake.

“ Go,” I manage to spit out. “ You don’t want to die for me.” Thankfully he took my advice and hurried after the District Two’s monsters.

I roll onto my back so that I won’t put too much pressure on my injured leg. But as I rolled on to my back, my left arm landed on Glimmer.

“ Oh, damn,” I mutter. “ This sucks.” I mean, you’re bleeding your life out and a corpse is lying right next to you. And Glimmer was on her side, so she was facing me. Man, that’s scary. I mean, she’s staring at me, with her eyes wide open and her mouth gaping.

“ No,” I say out loud. “ I am not going to die here. And I am not going to spend the night next to a corpse.” Well, I guess I have my mother’s fighting spirit because that’s the only thing that could make me go on. Well, beside the thought of spending the night next to a rotting corpse.

It was absolute torture for me to even get on to my knees. The sight of blood pooling around me and Glimmer  nearly made me pass out. But I grit my teeth and finally manage to stagger into a standing position. Okay, maybe I won’t make it that far but at least I must get away from Glimmer’s body so that the Gamemakers could retrieve her.

“ Come on, Jackson,” I mutter to myself as I limp away from Glimmer. “ Not far off, now.” Right. I can’t stay on the ground. Cato might change his mind, come after me and finish me off. So, my best bet is the trees.

I could scale the trees as good as Katniss or Gale. But in my state, I doubt I could get that high. Never mind. Better than being on the ground, I think to myself as I start to climb a really huge pine tree. And just as I expected, the pain flare up in my left leg. Maybe even worse than before because of the amount of pressure I’m putting on it now.

“ Just a little bit higher,” I tell myself, panting slightly from exhaustion and pain. “ Please don’t black out now,” I tell myself, because that’s exactly how I feel now. Blacking out.

After a lot of motivational comments and lots of blood pouring out of the wound, I finally made it to a thick branch, not too high and not too low. As long as Cato can’t reach me, I’m fine.

Now that I’m out of harm’s way, I could finally inspect my wound. The sight of the deep wound nearly made me barf. I bit my lips and rip a big chunk of my shirt before wrapping the wound carefully. I must not pass out. And since I must also not fall down, I decide to make some sort of belt from the pine leaves around me.  Weak, I know but at least I won’t exactly fall down. Well, not that easily.

Now, for my leg.

I look up at the sky and call out, in a really low voice, “ Okay, Haymitch. I’m seriously wounded here. Want to send me some sort of ointment or medication?”

Of course, no answer. But no medication too.

Dang.

Hmm…

Can I use snow?

No, Percy, I suddenly remember Prim’s voice, you cannot use snow. You don’t know if it’s clean or not. But you might want to wash the wound.

Wash the wound…hmm..

I scoot a bit to the right because there’s several icicles stuck to the branch on my right. This could be used to wash my wound. I think.

I snap the icicles off of the branch before scooting back into my original position. The chunk of shirt I used as a bandage was soaked with blood. That can’t be good. I slowly peel the piece of cloth of the wound…

…well, I’m glad I’m belted on to the branch. If not, I might have fallen off in shock. The wound, it had stopped bleeding. Well, it’s not pouring buckets of blood so I guess that’s good. But still, the wound is starting to feel a little bit as if it is swelling.

Good thing the ice is starting to melt.

I held the icicle above the wound and let the water drip on to it.

And the pain…

Oh, it was as unbearable as it was when the wound was inflicted.

It took all of my willpower not to scream my head off.

Well, at least the wound is getting cleaner as I rub the water all over my leg to remove the bloodstains.  That’s better. At least it doesn’t look as horrendous as it had earlier. I rip another chunk from my shirt to be used as a bandage. Good thing they gave us this jacket. At least I won’t be frozen to death.

Hmm..my weapons. I pat my waist, comforted with the thought that both of my weapons are with me. Safely strapped to my waist. I think I’ll take a nap….

…why does every time I doze off something bad happens?

I mean, here I am now, badly wounded, cold, frozen maybe, strapped to a branch in a tree probably sixty feet high and someone is leaping from trees to trees, coming closer and closer to me.

“ Oh, shit. Oh, shit,” I mutter as a dark shape flew from the tree on my left and landed right in front of me. “ Holy shit!” I nearly shout as the dark shape came closer to me.

“ Shh!” A small hand covered my mouth. “ You don’t want to be found by the Careers.”

“ I’ve been wounded by the Careers. Being found isn’t exactly my problem,” I told her. “ Rue? What are you doing here?”

“ Helping you, of course,” she says in a matter-of-factly tone. “ Stay still,” she says, as she open my bandage.

“ What are you doing? I just cleaned it!” I hiss at her.

“ With water from the icicles?” she asks, sounding amused.

“ What do you want me to use? Water from the lake? I barely made it up here,” I say crabbily. She giggles before continuing to observe the wound. “Hey, watch it!” I snap as she prods the wound and made me flinch in pain.  “ OW! Do you know how much pain I – “

“ I know,” she says, cutting me in midsentence. “ I heard your screams. I think the whole winter hemisphere, if not the whole arena, heard you screaming your head off.”

I stare at her, dumbfounded. “ Was I that loud?” I ask her, grinning sheepishly.

“ Very,” she nods. “ Who did it?”

“ Cato, obviously.” When she looks confused, I add, “ From District Two.”

“ Oh,” she says. “ Well, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. What did he use?”

“ His sword,” I reply, gritting my teeth as she touches the wound again. “ What are you doing?” I hiss at her.

“ Checking to see if it’s swelling or not,” she replies. “ And I think it is already starting to swell. Here, I’ve got something for that,” she says, pointing to something at my ear.

“ What?”

“ The tracker jacker sting? You don’t even remember you were stung by a tracker jacker?” she asks, as she pops some green leaves into her mouth and starts chewing.

“ Oh…I guess some of the venom worked out of my system since I was sweating and bleeding quite a lot. And I was busy trying not to bleed to death, so yeah, I forgot I got stung,” I reply, watching as she applied some of the chewed up paste on the sting. “ Oh,” I say, as the paste does seem to be leeching the venom out of me. “ Oh, that’s good!” I say happily.

“ Maybe we can use it on your wound,” Rue says as she pops another bunch of leaves into her mouth. “ To prevent it from getting infected.”

“ Okay. I’m not good with herbs or healing so I’ll let you do your work in peace,” I tell her, leaning against the tree.

She snickers. “ Well, that’s easy for you to trust me,” she comments as she applies the paste onto my leg. “ Pretend to be a healer and voila! You trust me.”

“ You’re not going to push me off of this tree, right?” I ask her, grinning.

“ If I had the intention, you won’t be alive now,” she replies, grinning back. Then, she got up as if she wants to leave.

“ Where are you going?” I blurt out, watching as she stuffs all of her stuff into a sack that was hanging around her neck.

“ Back to my hidey hole,” she says, looking surprised I asked that. “ Did you expect me to stick around?”

“ Pretty much,” I admit. “ We could ally up, you know. Protect each other’s backs,” I suggest. “ What do you think?”

“ Well, you do need medical attention,” she muses.

“ And I can protect you. I’m good with sword. And I can get us food,” I say, feeling a little bit hopeful. Maybe she’d agree. Oh, please…let her agree.

“ But you can barely move your leg,” she points out. I guess the disappointment showed clearly on my face because she burst out laughing. “ What a baby,” she comments. I made a face at her. “ Okay, I’ll stay with you tonight,” she finally says. “ And anyway, we’re pretty much safe up here.”

“ Yeah, we’re pretty safe up here,” I say, sinking back on to my back.

“ You’re not scared I’ll push you off the branch?” she asks as she sidles up next to me.

“ Like I can’t take on you,” I mutter back as we get ready to settle down for the night.

“ Dream on, Percy,” she snickers.

Then, we both fell silent as the anthem plays and the death recap for the day starts.

Glimmer came up first. I could feel myself stiffen with guilt and remorse. She maybe a little bit too full of herself but she was quite…nice, I suppose. And then Thalia came up. That was when I nearly broke down. Thalia had felt as if she really was my friend in the arena. She helped me when I was in trouble. And in return, I left her at the mercy of the tracker jackers. Well, at least she died on her own. Better she died that way than being killed by Cato for siding with me. Like Marvel had tried to do.

After that, the sky went black again.

“ Only two died today,” Rue comments.

“ I could’ve joined them. If Cato had stuck his sword in my chest,” I mutter darkly.

She stares at me in disbelief.

“ Okay, forget what I said. Let’s just go to sleep,” I say, pulling my jacket closer to me. “ Good night. And don’t push me.”

“ Good to know you’re scared,” she smirks, before closing her eyes and drifting off.

***************

I jerk awake the next morning…

Only to nearly fall down to my death…

Because Rue wasn’t next to me.

My first thought was : Cato found her!

Which was pretty foolish because we’re like so out of his reach.

But of course, I still expected the worst.

Until she suddenly appears right above me…

Nearly giving me a heart attack.

“ What are you doing up there?” I hiss at her as she nimbly climbs down to our branch. “ You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“ Keep calm, Percy,” she says carelessly as she took her place next to me. “ I went to look for food,” she shows me two fairly large eggs to me. “ You don’t mind them raw, right?”

“ I’m thinking no,” I say, grinning at her as I took the egg. I made a small hole on the shell and took long, deep gulps from it. “ Not bad,” I comment.

We finish our breakfast in silence.

“ Don’t you want to add our number?” Rue suddenly asks me.

“ Add our number?” I repeat. “ What do you mean?”

“ I mean, like finding more allies.”

“ Who do you have in mind?” I ask her as I lick the egg’s shell.

“ The girl from your district, Katniss.”

I smile at her suggestion. “ You’ve got good judgment, kid,”  She smiles proudly. “ The thing is, we don’t know where she is. And I’m not sure she’ll take me back since I joined the Career before.”

“ The we-don’t-know-where-she-is part I can handle. But the latter, you’ll have to deal with it on your own,” she says.

“ You drive a hard bargain,” I say. “ How do you know where she’s at?”

“ Well, she got stung by the tracker jackers. So, she must’ve gone insane for awhile,” she muses, “ and I’m betting she didn’t go too far from where you found her.”

“ Our campsite,” I remember. “ Can you track her, then?”

“ She must’ve made some path of destruction in that kind of state,” she shrugs. “ Would be piece of cake to find her. But I hope I’ll be the only one to track her down.”

“ I don’t think Cato and the others would try to track her down. She’s a dangerous fellow with the bow and arrows,” I say, thinking back how I had stumble on her wrenching the weapons out of Glimmer’s dead clutches. “ Nah, I don’t think Cato will be in a hurry to kill her. I think.”

“ Thanks for the optimism,” she snorts. “ Shall I go Katniss-hunting now? Might take some time to track her without being seen.”

“ Yeah, go on. I’ll be okay. I think the paste you made me had stopped any infection. And I think I’ve stopped bleeding,” I say, examining the wound. “ But it is going to be painful as hell, that I am sure. But I might move around a bit, just in case.”

“ Stay out of trouble, then,” she says before leaping – flying – to the tree next to ours, before disappearing.

“ May the odds be ever in your favour, Rue,” I mutter under my breath as I made my way down from the tree.

**********************

Venturing through the arena – the winter hemisphere, mind you – is bad enough.

Venturing through it on a severely damaged leg is another, what with the snow and all.

Every step I took nearly made me pass out from the pain. But the thought that Cato might found me if I stayed at one place too long pushed me forward. I will not let him kill me.

It’s nearly evening now and no signs of Rue or Katniss. I’m pretty much alone for now. And it’s getting kind of lonely with no one to talk to.

And my stomach is rumbling harder than before. I’ve had nearly nothing to eat since the egg for breakfast. That can’t be good. Hmm…

No rabbits, no squirrels. But I did spot some bushes that’s covered with berries. Frozen, of course. But berries, nonetheless. And I found some pieces of woods, large and thick enough to be a crutch but light enough to be carried everywhere. I fashioned myself one so that I could move a bit quicker.

After that, I feasted on the berries. Good thing it wasn’t the poisoned one Katniss always told me about. The, what’s the name now? Oh, yeah, nightlock. She said, the berry won’t even make it to your stomach but you’ll already be on the ground, dead.  That’s twisted, man. Really twisted.

 Night is falling and the anthem is playing. The death recap.

Zero.

Well, that’s good.

None of anyone I know is dead.

That could be a good thing because Rue  and Katniss are still alive.

But also a bad thing because the Careers are too.

When will the Games end?