Chapter Two

I wake up, the sunlight filters into my room. My sheets are tossed around and there's some damp spots on my bed from sweat. My throat itches, but I dismiss that as a minor side effect of having a dry mouth. But I have an intuition that it's much more than that.

It's Sunday and my mother must still be asleep. I don't want to disturb her, because every waking moment for her is consumed in worry. I walk to the kitchen without waking my mother in the next room over. Maybe she's dreaming about my father whom I never met.

"Dang it." I say when I see the bandage that covers my left arm.

Stained red, the bandage barely clings on to my arm. Like me, it's had a rough night. I go to the bathroom to switch the bandages on my arm. Carefully, I peel the wrapping off my left arm, revealing a nasty surprise.

The red cut on my arm isn't bleeding, but puss is oozing out of the sides. The injury is coated with a waxy gloss, and the skin around the cut is inflamed.

I gasp and step backward, gaining no ground between myself and my arm.

I can't let anyone see this, anyone being both my mother and Kyan. Both of them will worry, and I don't want them to worry any more than they already do, with feeding a family and working all of the time.

I grab a new bandage to tie my arm in. Bandages cost money, so I feel guilty using them. I feel guilty using a lot of things that are hard to afford.

I pack myself a lunch and head out on the street where I usually meet Kyan. I wait there, noticing that I have a slight headache. It's probably just from anxiety, or a small infection in my arm.

"Lucy."

Somewhat surprised, I turn around only to face Kyan.

"Oh, hi." I say.

"You sound disappointed." Kyan says with raised eyebrows.

I turn red for no apparent reason.

"No, just relieved." I say. "You scared me at first."

"How's the arm?" Kyan asks, his eyes wandering to my bandaged left arm.

"Fine." I say.

We walk to the base and check in. My head is becoming increasingly painful. Kyan and I grab our weapons and head to our station. Minutes pass by and nothing exiting happens. As usual.

"Wait, it's Sunday. We have school tomorrow." I acknowledge. "Disgusting."

"At least we don't work as long." Kyan replies.

"Yeah, but I'd rather be working out here with you than in school." I say. Kyan is sadly one of my only close friends. I don't see him all that often in school.

"That is true." Kyan says. "Very true. But we only have one more year of school after this one, Luce."

I sigh. "You're right."

If we don't have school, then that's one less payment we have to make.

"It'd be nice if we got a few more wild dogs today." Kyan says. "The rest of the pack."

"It would be nice, but I doubt we will." I say.

Kyan smiles at me.

"Why are you always so negative?" he asks.

"I'm not always negative." I say, knowing Kyan's just being playful. Or is he? Am I always negative? Well, it's hard not to be when you live in this wretched country. I'm not very patriotic either. "Just sometimes."

"More like sometimes you're positive." Kyan says, leaning back against the fence post.

Now he's just trying to get on my nerves. Arguing doesn't help my throbbing head. Sweat lines my forehead.

"Lucilile? You okay?" Kyan asks me. There comes the usage of my full name, signaling worry from Kyan. Wow, we really have known each other for a long time.

I open my mouth, searching for a comeback, but the only thing that comes out is my breakfast.

"Gosh, I didn't think I was being that offensive." Kyan remarks, backing away from me as I wipe my mouth.

Then, he knows something's wrong.

"Lucy, you okay?" he asks.

"I'm fine." I manage, puking again.

My head pounds and my stomach twirls. What's happening?

"Lucy? Lucy?"

I fall to my knees and let out another spurt of upchuck.

"Look, I'm carrying you back." Kyan says, reaching down to me.

"No! No!" I scream. "It'll pass, it'll pass!"

I gasp for air between throwing up. Kyan throws me over his shoulder and walks back to the base.

"No!" No!" I cry, not aware of what I'm saying really.

My vision is blurry and I pound on Kyan's back. Sick, I'm no match for my best friend.

"What's the problem?" I hear the base manager say. We must be in the base.

"She's sick." Kyan says. "I need to take her to a doctor."

I have no strength to say anything. Much less, wipe the remains of puke that lines my mouth. Limp, I hang from Kyan's shoulder.

"You left the station unguarded?" the manager asks in a somewhat angry tone.
"She's sick." Kyan repeats, his voice rising.

The manager pauses. "Very well, I'll get another rotation out there. However, you need to come back once you've got her at the doctor. If you're not back in an hour or so, bad things may happen."

"Thank you sir." Kyan says.

We're in motion again. Time passes, I'm unable to calculate how much. Finally, we get into a building and Kyan begins talking to somebody. I can't distinguish any words, and eventually, it all goes dark.

I wake up on an unfamiliar bed, my head buzzing. Where am I?

"Lucilile!" my mother cries from a chair next to me.

"What's happening?" I ask.

"You're in the doctor's office." my mother replies.

Memory comes back to me. The sweating. My head throbbing. Puking. Hanging over Kyan's shoulder as he rushed through town. Kyan!

"Where's Kyan?" I ask, sitting up.

"They made him go back to work." my mother tells me. "He didn't want to go, but he'd lose his job if he hadn't."

It's too unfair. Kyan, so bravely rushes to save me, carrying me for miles as I threw up along his back, may lose his job because of it. If anything, I'd lose my job before letting him lose his. Even though it's unfair for me to lose my job because I was sick. What was Kyan supposed to do? Sit there while I threw up and passed out?

"What's wrong with me?" I ask.

"They don't know." my mother replies. "They gave you a little bit of medication, but they're running tests to see what caused all of that."

My mother and I both look at my arm before exchanging glances.

"Do they know?" I ask.

"Yes, I told them all about your arm." My mother assures me.

"What time is it?" I ask.

I hope Kyan's shift is over soon so I can talk to him.

"Two thirty." my mother replies.

Two and a half hours before Kyan gets off work, unless they make him work extra.

A nurse bursts into the room with a clipboard.

"Lucilile Evans?" She asks.

"Yes." my mother says, standing up out of her seat..

"We figured out what's wrong." the nurse says grimly. "Please, sit down."

By the tone of her voice and the way she suggests that my mother sits down, I can tell this is going to be bad. More than anything, I want Kyan to be here too. I want my mother holding one of my hands and Kyan holding the other. But I have to pretend to stray away from my childish fantasies, and listen to the news.

"Lucilile had been poisoned." the nurse announces.

"Poisoned?" my mother and I say in unison.

Who could've spiked my food with poison? Who would want to do that? I'm not saying that everybody loves me, but I can't imagine why somebody would want me dead.

"You said that Lucilile scraped against a tree?" the nurse asks.

The tree, what does this have to do with poison? I want to know who poisoned me!

"Yes, yes I did." my mother says quickly.

"We suspect that tree was a very rare, very deadly species that we had no idea resided in this area. But the poison from that kind of tree is in Lucilile's blood, and started with the infection of her scrape, so we can conclude that that tree was what caused it." the nurse says.

I close my eyes and try to picture the thorny tree that I had run into. I don't recognize it. This is all headed downhill.

"You said it was deadly." my mother says shakily.

"Yes, untreated, it can kill a person." the nurse says. Crash! I just hit the bottom of the hill. But I could be at the summit of another one.

"What's the treatment?" my mother asks.

I quickly pray for a miracle. It's a possibility that this poison has no remedy, and if it does, we probably won't be able to afford it. I hold my breath, anticipating the worst.

The nurse sighs. That's not a good sign at all. Please, just get it over with!

"Unfortunately, the cure is as rare as the tree that causes the poison." the nurse says. "It's expensive too."

My heart drops. We can't afford anything expensive.

"How much?" my mother asks, her voice becoming brittle.

"I'll bring in a bill." the nurse says, leaving the room.

I look at my mother. I'm too worried to cry right now. She takes my hand and we say nothing. Partly, because we're too scared to make any assumptions, we just need to hope that some good news will come. It's also partly because a lump in my throat allows no words to escape me.

The nurse returns again with a clip board.

"These are the expenses." the nurse hands the clipboard to my mother. "You'll have to pay for the treatment, then hospitalization, and whatever else is needed."

My mother moans and clutches her heart when she looks at the clipboard, defeating all chances of hope that clung to life inside of me.

"Do-do we get any discounts? And charities?" My mother asks, her voice fighting to remain at merely a waver.

The nurse shakes her head.

"I don't think your district could raise this money, if they could, I don't think they would." she says.

It's not meant to be a slam to District 11's heartless people, it's just saying that most people here have to struggle for food, and any money escaping them would be superfluously generous.

"This is a lot of money for even the Capitol." the nurse says. "If there was anything I could do, I would do it. But the Capitol isn't going to let you take this free or at any discount. And if any charities were to be given out, it would be to a child more likely."

"But she's seventeen!" my mother cries. "She is a child!"

"She won't be by the time the medicine would come in." the nurse says solemnly.

My heart sinks. I'm doomed.

"How long?" I ask.

"Pardon me?" the nurse asks.

"How long do I have to live?" I choke out, my face becoming an indifferent mask.

The nurse's eyes shift uncomfortably.

"There is a plan I think you can afford, that will keep Lucilile alive for three to four months." the nurse says.

Three to four months! I can't take this, I really can't. I never thought it would be me, the one who's going to die from a sickness. I never expected this. What can I do in four months.

My mother is losing the battle in fighting back tears. I'm too shocked to cry.

"Will she be able to leave the hospital?" my mother asks.

I couldn't take spending four months in a hospital bed. I'd just want to die first.

"Up until the final few days." the nurse speaks as if I'm not in the room.

"How long will she go untreated at all?" my mother asks.

I don't even want to listen to this. Can somebody please take me out of this room?

"Just a few days." the nurse says.

No! I don't want to live only a few more days! I had a whole life ahead of me! Why did I have to go into those woods? Why did I chase after that wild dog? Because we're poor. And starving. And it's the fault of the Capitol. Everything bad leads back to the Capitol.

"Ms. Evans." the nurse says. "Why don't we take care of the billings outside in the lobby."

They want to leave me, and I'm fine with that.

"Okay." my mother says, her voice cracking.

Then, the nurse bends over me to give me a shot of something. I stiffen, but don't reject. When the nurse and my mother disappear from the room, so does my vision.

"Lucilie, you have a visitor." a new nurse is standing over my bed, talking to me.

I look around, letting my senses and the shocking news coming whirling back into memory. Surprisingly, I stay just morose and unreachable.

"Who?" I ask.

The nurse glances down at her clipboard.

"Kyan Greene." she says.

Oh, no!

"Did somebody tell him already?" I gasp.

"Yes, he is aware of everything, he's been waiting here for the past hour. Since six o'clock" the nurse informs me.

I moan.

"I needed to tell him!" I cry. "I needed to tell him!"

The nurse shifts her weight awkwardly.

"Perhaps a different time is better for visitors." she says.

"No!" I shout. "Bring him in!"

The nurse walks to the door and opens it. Kyan flies into the room, pale and wide eyed. He stops dead in front of my hospital bed.

"Lucy." Kyan says, almost inaudibly.

He sinks to his knees, burying his face in his hands, and lets out a sob.