Chapter 22

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Emilie POV
"What do you mean there is no way out?" I quietly ask him but he ignores me and turns towards Thomas.
"I remember" He mumbles and we all look at him in shock.
"What do you remember?" Thomas asks.
"You. You were always their favorite, Thomas. Always. Why did you do this? Why did you come here?" None of us knew what to say or do. We were all left in shock but it was short lived when we started hearing shouting coming from outside. We all run outside and leave Alby alone in his bed.
"Winston, what's going on?" I ask him
"It's the doors. They aren't closing!" He says as he runs.
We all look at each other with fear and worry and quickly rush over to the nearest doors and see in horror that it's true. I quietly look around the glade and see that the other three were open as well.
"Chuck, go to the Council Hall and start barricading the doors" Thomas quickly orders Chuck and with a quick nod he rushes off.
"Winston, Emilie, you two go with him" Newt commands us as well.
"Got it" Winston quickly follows after Chuck but I don't. I just look at Newt with fear and worry clear in my eyes. It doesn't take but a few moments for him to see that I'm still here.
"What are you still doing here Emilie? I told you to go with Chuck and Winston" He yells at me, but despite that, I give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Don't do anything stupid" With that his angry and worried eyes quickly melt away and are soon replaced with a warm smile.
"I promise. Now hurry up and go" I give him a quick nod and head towards Chuck and Winston. By the time I reach them I see the two struggling to lift up a giant log. I quickly go and help them pick it up and we take it into the council hall.
"It's about time you get here and help us you shank" Winston breaths out as soon as we drop the log.
"Sorry I just had some-" I was about to give them an explanation until I was cut off mid-sentence when we hear a loud and terrifying screech. The three of us run out of the council hall and see that the grievers have already arrived and had already started destroying everything that we have worked for.
"Holly shit..." Winston mumbles to himself and before we know it we see him heading towards the chaos.
"Winston, what the heck are you doing?!"
"I'm going to go help them! You and Chuck go inside" He yells back at us.
"WINSTON!!!" I call out to him but he doesn't stop and just keeps running. I quickly kneel down to Chuck.
3rd POV
"Chuck hurry up and go inside..."
"But Emilie-"
"No buts hurry up and go inside where you're safe"
"No Emilie-"
"You have to I'm going to go help them and I need you to stay safe..."
"But-" Emilie quickly stands back up, pulls out a couple of her knives, and starts heading towards the chaos.
"But I'm scared!" Chuck yells out and with this, she stops on her tracks and for the first time since she came back, she looks at him and sees the fear and terror in his eyes.
"Oh god..." She looks towards the glade and back towards him.
"I'm sorry Chuck I won't leave you alone in this so there is no reason to be scared I promise that I'll protect you no matter what," She says as she walks back towards and gives him a tight hug. When they let go they see their friends are making their way towards them with a griever close behind them.
"Stay close to me Chuck" He gives her a firm.
"Guys over here!" He yells out and soon enough they all run inside and quickly barricade the door.
Everyone quickly steps away from the door as the griever tries to break it but comes to no avail. Soon enough it makes its way on top of the roof and when it moved to one side everyone else moved to the other. Suddenly the grievers tail breaks inside and causes half of the ceiling to collapse on them.
"Is everyone alright" Newt calls out.
Emilie quickly notices that Chuck isn't close by her and sits up and frantically looks around only to find him unknowingly having his back towards grievers claw that looks ready to grab him and drag him away. Without even thinking she quickly gets up and runs towards him.
"Chuck!!!" She was able to push him out of the way just on time and causing the griever grabs her instead. But before the griever could drag her away, Thomas, Minho, and Newt grab a hold of her.
"Emilie don't let go!"
"Yeah, no shit!"
While everyone was trying to release her from the monsters tight grip nobody noticed that it was about sting her.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH" Suddenly Alby stood up and started hitting the griever with full force breaking its stinger and causing the monster to finally let her go.
"Emilie, you alright?" Newt asks her with worry clear in his voice while he carefully examines her for any sorts of injuries.
"Yeah, I'm fine," She says in a tired voice. Her eyes start to wonder until finally they, land on the broken stinger. She carefully stands up picks it up and gives Alby a grateful look.
"Thanks, Alby" He doesn't say anything and just gives her a nod.
For a moment there was nothing but silence but I was suddenly cut off when the griever suddenly came back and it grabbed Alby. Just as it was about to take him away he was able to hold on to something. Thomas rushes over to him and tries to get the griever to let him go.
"Thomas..." Thomas stops what he was doing and looks up at Alby.
"Take them home..." Is all he says before the griever finally takes him away.
"Alby!" Thomas cries out as he rushes outside in a desperate attempt to try and save him.
"Thomas no!"
"Don't stop!"
"Thomas!"
Everyone quickly follows him to try and stop him, but everyone abruptly stops when they step outside. The grieves were gone but everything was destroyed and from the looks of it everyone was gone.
"Where is everyone?" Thomas asks himself though he already knows the answer.
"Who's that over there?" As they look around they were able to spot a few figures approaching them through the thick smoke. But as they get closer they were able to see that it was fuming Gally and a few surviving gladers.
"Gally-" Before Thomas could even finish what he was about to say, Gally punched him causing him to fall to the floor. Everyone quickly grabbed Gally and held him back preventing him to hurt Thomas even more.
"This is all you, Thomas! Look around!" He yelled out.
"Back off, Gally!"
"It's not Thomas' fault!"
"You heard what Alby said! He's one of them!"
"One of who?"
"He's one of them, and they sent him here to destroy everything, and now he has!"
Emilie, Thomas, Teresa, and Chuck watch in complete utter silence. They didn't know what to say, what to think, or what to do. All they could do was just stand there in silence as they watch Gally yell and blame Thomas for everything that has happened. Suddenly Thomas grabs the stinger from Emilie's hands finally getting hers and Chucks attention.
"Maybe he's right" Thomas mumbles to himself.
"Thomas?" He looks up at Teresa, Emilie, and Chuck.
"I need to remember"
"Thomas-" Teresa was about to ask him what he was about to do but she immediately got her answer when she saw him stab himself in the leg.
'Thomas! No, don't!"
"Thomas!" Upon hearing both of the girls scream everyone stops what they were doing and turn to see Thomas suddenly fall to the floor. Everyone quickly rushes over to them to do what they can to help.
"Chuck, get the serum!"
After what felt like an eternity Chuck comes rushing back with the serum and quickly hands it over to them and they quickly inject it before he could start becoming violent.
"Alright everyone let's get him to the med-jacks" Newt commands but as if coming out of a trance Gally stops them.
"No! Take him, Teresa, and Emilie to the slammer"Gally's goons walkover to the two girls and pin their arms behind their backs.
"Wait! What!?"
"Let us go!"
Emilie was fully well aware that Gally didn't like her or trusted her that much but she honestly didn't think that he was blaming her for everything that has happened in the past couple of days.
"Gally let them go!" Newt commands but he doesn't show any signs of following Newts command.
"You know as well as I do that she has nothing to do with any of this!" There is a moment of silence as the two boys glared at each other.
"Let her go" Gally reluctantly orders. He then glares at Terisa and an unconscious Thomas.
"But take those two to the slammer" Without another word Gallys goons take the two away. Once they are gone, Gally looks at the few remaining gladers.
"You all have to make a choice now either join me or get banished with Thomas by sundown!" With that, he leaves and once he is out of site everyone starts heading off to different directions to either find a place to rest for the remainder of the night or to think about what Gally just told them. The only ones who stayed were Emilie, Newt, Minho, and Chuck.
"What do we do now?" Chuck asks.
"For now let's just go get some rest," Newt said.
"He's right from the looks of it we'll have a long day ahead of us" Minho agrees. With that, they all head towards the homestead and sleep for the remainder of the night.
-----
A small boy with curly blonde hair is high up in the trees looking down at the kids from district one and two or otherwise known as the career pack laughing about how they killed their latest victim. He quietly grabs his slingshot and aims it as far away from them as possible. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before finally releasing it causing some kind of noise and causing the kids below to go completely silent.
"Shhh everybody shut up..."
He shoots out another rock and makes it seem like somebody is walking close by and when he looks back down he sees them slowly standing up with their weapons in hand and a huge excited smile on their faces.
"I call dibs on this one!" One suddenly runs off.
"Oh no, you don't!" Another one yells out and the others start chasing after him.
As soon as they are gone Emilie swiftly jumps off one of the many trees and starts putting as much of their supplies as she can into her bag. Just as she was about to climb back up she spots a belt full of throwing knives on the other side of the camp.
Just as she was about to go and grab it she hears the boy that is still high up in the trees a birds call meaning that they are coming back. The boy sends out another bird signal sounding more urgent meaning that they are a lot closer. Though she didn't really need it since she can basically hear them making their way back. This doesn't stop her though, she quickly dashes towards the other side of the camp and grabs the knives and just barely reaches the top of the tree by the time they are back.
"Shit!!!" The boy from district 1 Almus starts going through the bags to see what was stolen and soon the others follow his actions.
"They took all of the food and medicine!" The boy from district 2 Coy exclaimed.
"Not to mention my knives!" Ellar the girl from district 2 cries out.
"We have more important things to worry about than your stupid fucking knives!!!" Coy yells out.
"Like you should be talking you were in charge of watching over our stuff!" Ellar yells back.
"Oh shut up already it's not like you were actually any good with those knives anyways" The girl from district one Blake, mumbles under her breath.
"What was that!"
"I said it's not like you were any good with them anyways!"
Soon the four teens are fighting amongst each other. Meanwhile, the two that are hiding high up in the tall trees smile and silently laugh at how easily they were able to turn them against each other. Soon with a quick motion the two leave and search for a safe place to spend the night.
"Haha did you see the look on their face?!" The little boy laughs while he's eating a loaf of bread that they stole.
"How could I not? Honestly, I can't believe-" Emilie was suddenly cut off when the game makers started showing today's fallen tributes.
It showed that both district 12 tributes have died and the guy from district 5 has died as well. When the images and music disappeared Emilie turns to him and sees that all of his happiness and laughter has disappeared as if it was never there and replaced with fear and sadness.
"Hey don't worry kid I won't let anything happen to you" He doesn't say anything and only gives her a small nod.
"Come on it's late so we should get some rest" The two finish the remainder of their food and climb up
One of the trees to sleep. Once they found a comfortable spot they secure themselves so that they don't fall. Just when Emilie closes her eyes he finally asks her something.
"Emilie..."
"Hmm?"
"Whats going to happen after the games?" She looks at him taken back. Out of all the things he could have asked her, she wasn't expecting that.
"Well like all the other victors you will take the victory tour, get to live in victors village with your family..."
"Like you did with your dad and brother?" He suddenly asks.
"Y-yeah like we did. You and your family won't go hungry anymore o-or have to worry about staying warm during winter or um work ever again..."
It was hard for her to say these things because she knows what it's truly like to be a victor. On the outside, it seems like a glamorous and easy lifestyle but in reality, it was a living hell one wrong move and the victor would suffer far greater than death. In the beginning, Emilie actually wondered if they would be better off dead. But in the end, decided against it and begged Connie and Cisco to watch over him when the games were over.
"That sounds great and all but what about you?" Emilie looks up at the fake night sky and wonders how something fake can look so beautiful. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she looks with kind eyes and a gentle smile and pats his head.
"You let me worry about that. Now go to bed it's late" She lays back down and closes her eyes.
"But I don't want you to die..." Is the last thing she hears before falls into a deep sleep.
'Splash'
Emilie suddenly wakes up when she hears water being lashed around. She listens carefully and quickly realizes that someone was walking by she then quietly wakes her friend up but by the time he wakes up everything suddenly goes quiet.
"Wh-" He was about to ask her what was going on but she covers his mouth before he could with one hand and pulls out a knife with the other.
'Snap'
Emilie quickly pushes the boy behind her and uses the tree and herself as a shield for him. She then quickly takes out a pair of night-vision glasses that was given to them by their sponsors. She looks around but doesn't see anything or anyone.
"Maybe it was just an animal or something," The boy says unconvinced himself.
"No someone is defiantly here..." She looks everywhere but can't see anyone.
"Hurry up and grab your bag" Emilie finally says after a long silence.
"If we hurry than we can maybe outrun the-" Suddenly someone grabs her by her ankle and causes her to lose her balance and fall off the tree they were on.
"EMILIE!"
But what could have been fatal or even deadly fall turned into a minimum to none when she was somehow able to fall into the deep swamp water. She quickly rushes back to shore but is suddenly once again met with their attacker when he suddenly lunges at her and starts to drown her.
"Oh no, you don't you're not using that same trick on me!" She soon realizes that it's the Lux from district 6 the same guy that she fought on the first day in the bloodbath. She tries to push him off of her the same as last time but he secured both of her arms and legs this time.
"All that's left is you and that kid and then just sit back and watch the career pack kill themselves off" She lashes around desperately trying to get him to at least loosen his grip on her but comes to no avail and soon she starts to slowly lose consciousness.
"Oww!" He feels sudden pain on the back of his neck.
"Stupid kid" When he sees that it was a rock he is suddenly hit by many more but still keeps a firm grip on her. By the time the boy ran out of rocks to shoot at him was when Emilie stopped struggling.
She stopped fighting him, stopped lashing around, and stopped struggling. Lux saw her body go limp and thought that he didn't have to hold her down anymore. He pulls her lifeless body of the water so that he could get a better look at her.
"Oh, such a shame that such a pretty girl like you had to go out like this" He removes a strand of stray hair out of her face as he smiles down at her as if proud of what he's just done, but his moment is soon ruined when he is hit in the face with a rock.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" The young boy yells out to him as he gets ready to shoot another rock at him.
"I can't wait to kill you!" Lux quickly get up and chases after him. The little boy runs away but is soon caught.
"LET ME GO!" He tries to fight him off but just like Emilie comes to no avail.
"Hold still!" Finally, Lux has a firm grip on his head.
He was about to snap his neck but before he could he is met with an unimaginable burning pain on his hand causing him to let go. When he sees that a small throwing knife was what caused his sudden pain he quickly looks towards where he left Emilie but instead of seeing her lying dead on the floor sees her holding two of her knives and looking at him with emotionless and merciless eyes.
"You just don't know when to quit do you?" He says as he pulls the knife out of his hand.
"You're going to pay for what you just did..."
"Oh yeah? Bring it on bitch"
Emilie throws two of her knives at him but he was able to dodge them as if they were nothing. He then dashes towards her with the knife in hand ready to stab her but she was able to dodge it just in time. Emilie quickly pulls out another knife and the two are soon swinging and dodging each other knives. Lux was eventually able to cut her on her eyebrow causing a lot of blood to flow out on to her right eye making it unable for her to see from it.
"Aww did I ruin that pretty little face of yours?" Lux says in a mocking tone.
He swings his knife at her again but she was just barely able to block it. Lux notices her weak stance and he kicks her in the stomach causing her to slam into a tree and to drop her knife when he sees this he quickly runs up to her and tries to stab her. Emilie was able to grab his hands and stopping him. But because she has a much smaller build than him she is slowly losing her grip on him and is starting to feel the sharp knife puncture her stomach.
"Looks like you've run out luck 'Little Bull'" He laughs as he calls her by the name the capitol gave to her father and then passed it down to her.
"Oww" Just as he started to draw blood from her he felt someone hit his back.
"LET HER GO!" The little boy yells out with a large branch at hand and hits him again and it causes him lose his grip and stance and giving Emilie an advantage and she kicks him off of her.
"Hide" Is all she says to her friend and he quickly climbs up a tree.
Lux quickly gets back up and glares at her and she glares back. For a moment the two just stand there trying to catch their breaths and deciding on what to do next.
"Ahhh!" He he runs towards her with every intention to finish her off. Soon there is a numbing pain and both of them are covered in blood.
Emilie let's go of her knife and slowly steps away from and looks at him in horror a small knife right at the center of Lux's chest. He drops his knife ad looks from the knife in his chest to right at her and gave her a small smile. It didn't hold any anger it was just a small bitter sweet smile.
"Good luck..." Was all he said before he fell to the floor and soon after the canon blew off.
Emilie looked at his lifeless body in complete horror. Ever since the games started she has never taken another tributes life. Despite everything that he has done to her, her friend, and all the other tributes he didn't deserve to be here or to die the way that he did. Nobody here in the arena deserved this kind of fate. She wanted to scream, cry, and curse at the game makers for this, but she knew that she couldn't.
After what felt like an eternity the sun finally started to raise and so did she. When she turns toward her friend she sees that he had already climbed down and looked at her with his eyes full of relief and sadness.
"Come on... The career pack will be after us now so we better hurry..."

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