Cured (16 page)

“Okay smart guy, how do we cure it then?”

Felix shut up.

I groaned and rolled back onto the ground. I
couldn’t do this much longer; the pain was growing more intense by
the second.

“Let’s try the berries again?” Felix
suggested. I couldn’t think of a better idea, so we ground some
more berry mixture from the few that remained on the bunch, and
chewed them together. The relief was almost instant. The pressure
between my eyes lifted and the dizziness faded. I turned to Felix
who had a wide grin on his face.

“
I wanna take
some of this stuff home! Its like morphine, but you don’t need a
prescription!”

I giggled,
catching onto his brightened mood. 
My stomach grumbled. “Lets
cook.” I said to Felix, well aware that we should fill our stomachs
now in case the headaches returned. Felix agreed, and went to
gather cooking supplies. I gathered the rest of the berries and
wrapped them up in flax to keep them safe.

When Felix returned, his grin had been wiped
from his face, and his eyes were unfocussed.

“Fe…” I started, when he turned and ran to a
nearby bush before heaving and violently vomiting into the leaves.
I cursed and began to move over to him to rub his back when the
searing pain stabbed my temple again, causing me to fall to the
floor and grab my head in agony.

I looked at Felix who had fallen to his
knees, still hurling in the bush, whilst simultaneously rubbing his
temple. His face was a ghostly white contrast to a stark red streak
down his chin. I looked closer, trying to figure out what the red
stain was, then I realised that his vomit was a deep red. Blood.
The vomiting was not slowing. In fact, it was becoming more regular
and forceful. He was losing too much blood. He was dying.

For the next while neither of us spoke. We
were meters apart, but neither could summon the energy to move to
the other, so we nursed our own pain. Minutes or hours later, I
noticed that Felix had stopped vomiting. I prayed that he was
getting better.

“Fe..?” I whispered. No answer. I looked over
to find his eyes open but rolled back in his head. His mouth was
agape and filled with scarlet froth. “FE?” I yelled, starting to
crawl over to him.

I was going to have to give him more berries.
At least they would make him better for a while. I opened his mouth
and jammed a whole berry down his throat. Seconds later he sat up
and I sighed with relief before chewing a berry myself.

“Ave, what the hell is happening to us?”

“I dunno.” I laid my head on Felix’s
shoulder. “But the berries are working for less and less time. And
I really don’t want that headache coming back.”

Felix nodded in agreement “Last time I would
say they lasted fifteen minutes. The time before that was about
half an hour. So I would say we have less than ten minutes to solve
this.”

I shook my head. We weren’t even close to
solving it, and soon the berries would be ineffective, so it wasn’t
worth retrieving any more from the treetops.

“Think back to basic training, Ave. What did
the trainer say about poisoning other than the berry antidote?”

I tried to think back. It was only a few days
ago, but it seemed like an eternity since I sat in the corner of
the arena, pretending to be a diva and secretly eavesdropping the
trainer’s instructions.

I smiled as I remembered Felix’s fake panic
attack and thanked the heavens that I had pocketed those sedatives.
Without the anxiety pills we never would have completed the first
task. Not that it mattered now. Neither of us was going to make it.
As I daydreamed I felt the headache creeping back between my eyes,
and groaned. Maybe we should just sedate ourselves, and pass out as
we waited for death to take over. I dug my hands into my pockets,
searching for the last sedative pill. I hoped that half a pill
would be enough for Felix and I to pass out.

“What are you doing Avery?” Felix had curled
into the foetal position, feeling the start of the pain
returning.

“Lets just take these, Fe.” I pleaded. “I
can’t take the pain. I’d rather be unconscious whilst the poison
takes me.”

Felix closed his eyes in defeat. Oh god. I
had been expecting him to argue me on that one. I thought he would
give me some inspirational speech about not giving up hope. But
instead he squeezed his eyes shut and held his hand out for a
pill.

I pulled the miniscule cylinder out of my
pocket, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t the sedative tube
at all; it was a small black stick of charcoal. I had forgotten
about pocketing that back in training. I rolled it between my
fingers. What was it used for again?

“Hurry up Ave, I need the pain gone.”

“Fe…” I started to ask what the charcoal was
for, when he let out a cry of pain.

I thought back to the training. “Felix. You
know that charcoal you rolled over to me in training? I still have
it.”

Felix was clearly incapable of rational
thought. He was making animalistic noises and rolling around on the
ground clasping his temples.

“Poison…” I was talking to myself. “Charcoal
is a poison. If the right dosage is taken, it will induce vomiting,
and expel any toxins in the body.” I was sure that was what the
trainer had said, but how much was the right dosage?

Felix began convulsing, and his hands were
shaking rapidly. I was just going to have to do it. I snapped the
charcoal in half and crushed one half between my fingers, as nausea
overwhelmed me and caused me to wretch and throw up. I swallowed,
trying to suppress the vomiting long enough to feed Felix the
charcoal. I opened his mouth and dropped the dust down the back of
his throat, before closing his mouth again and waiting for him to
swallow. Finally, his Adam’s apple moved, and he swallowed the
dust. Phew. I lay on my back, vision fading, charcoal clenched in
hand. Please wake up Felix. Blackness.

Searing pain and nausea. So nauseous. Burning
my throat. I heaved and threw up again and again. My stomach hurt.
I kept convulsing. Heaving. Vomiting. I just wanted to die. I
needed the pain to stop. Vomiting. Vomiting. Make it stop.

Finally the blackness began to ebb away. I
was seeing blurred shapes. Loud voices. Slowly the nausea began to
subside. My vision started to clear. My stomach muscles were in
agony, and my throat burned as though I had been eating fire. I
groaned. Suddenly arms were around me, scooping me up, I was lifted
from the ground. Confused, I tried to blink away the fog, clear the
fuzzy shapes. I recognized Felix’s voice.

“Thank god. You’re back. Ave. Avery. Please
say something Ave”

I tried to speak, but my throat felt singed.
Instead I blinked my eyes. The shapes were clearing up and I could
make out Felix’s worried expression. He sat down, lowering me back
to the forest floor, and lifted my head onto his lap, slowly
stroking my face. God that felt good. The blackness returned and I
let it overcome me.

When I
finally came to, it was night, pitch black, and Felix was still
stroking my face. “Fe?” I managed weakly. Felix let out a huge sigh
and planted a kiss on my forehead. 


“Ave!” He cried. “God I though you were gone.
I thought I had lost you!”

I smiled meekly. “Welcome to my life.”

Felix let out
a chuckle. “You were so nearly dead! I am sure your heart stopped
beating. I didn’t know what to do. What would I have done without
you?”

I looked up at him from where my head lay on
his lap. “Now you know how I felt earlier.” I whispered.

Felix continued to stroke my face. “The
charcoal. You’re a genius, Avery. Seriously. I never would’ve
thought of the charcoal.”

I smiled. “You did think of it! You’re the
one who rolled it over to me at training. We would’ve died if you
hadn’t have had that idea!”

“No Avery. We would’ve died if you hadn’t
have though of it today and shoved it down my throat.”

“Agree to disagree,” I muttered, using my
mother’s favourite argument-concluding line. I sat up and shook my
head, feeling surprisingly good. “Are we sure it is over Fe? What
if it comes back again?”

Felix shrugged. “I’ve been fine for hours
now. It kinda makes sense if you think about it. Although Hercules
burnt the Hydra’s heads to keep them from growing, we couldn’t
exactly burn ourselves. And the only other way to kill the hydra,
was by poisoning it with its own deadly toxin. So poisoning
ourselves to get rid of poison actually makes sense.”

I laughed out loud. “I definitely didn’t
think of all that before I poisoned us. I just kinda did it.”

Felix looked at me strangely. “That’s the
thing Ave… There is something about you. You always just seem to
get the answer without even knowing what you are doing. I don’t get
it.”

“Its luck.” I punched his shoulder,
uncomfortable with the topic. Felix dropped it and passed me some
roasted vegetables. He really had been awake for a while if he had
managed to cook dinner. I scarfed the vegetables down, realizing
how hungry I was, and even got seconds before finally feeling
full.

Felix and I lay down next to each other. We
didn't speak. We both knew that the challenges would only get
harder, and we didn’t know when they would present themselves. We
would have to talk about them at some point, but for now I snuggled
into his broad chest and we tried to pretend we were back on
Olympia, laying in my bed, looking up at the artificial stars
projected on my ceiling.

Chapter 21

My eyes
snapped open when a loud whirring noise woke me from a deep
slumber. Felix sat bolt upright too, blinking rapidly, his
expression matched my own confusion. I looked around frantically,
searching for the source of the noise. My hair was blowing in all
directions and the whirring was coming closer. Finally getting my
bearings, I realised that the sound was coming from overhead. I
looked up to the sky and saw a huge vessel hovering above the
trees. Felix and I clambered to our feet, groggy with a mixture of
sleep and awe, staring at what looked like a flying submarine that
was coming closer by the second. The aircraft reached the forest,
but barely recognized any obstacle as it continued its descent
without hesitation, snapping trees as though they were mere
toothpicks, until the vessel settled on the ground amongst the
debris the landing had created. Once landed, a ramp lowered from
the side of the ship and a recorded voice boomed out from
inside,

“Felix Fidus and Avery Rose Optime. Please
board the aircraft.”

I looked to
Felix, who shrugged and reached for my hand. I took it, thankful
for the support, and we walked towards the ramp.

Once we
climbed aboard, I looked around for some sort of instruction. But
there was no one. We stood in an empty cubicle, surrounded by blank
metal walls. The voice rang out again, “The door to your right will
take you to your quarters. Enjoy the flight.”

Felix and I
looked at each other, confused. I had thought the whole set of
challenges would take place in the forest, and Felix’s furrowed
brow meant he thought the same. He squeezed my hand as the wall to
our right began to slide open.

The aircraft
was as enormous on the inside as it had looked descending down on
us a few moments ago. The main area was a massive open room, the
size of a ballroom. It was decorated like a ballroom too. The cream
coloured walls and floor were complemented by burgundy and gold
furnishings. A few chairs and tables lined the walls, and a huge
buffet banquet stretched over the entire back wall. My eyes locked
on a glazed ham that sat enticingly in the center of the table, and
I started to head towards it, mouth watering.

Felix tugged
on my hand and I reluctantly tore my eyes from the gorgeous ham. I
turned to face Felix questioningly, but he wasn’t watching me.
Instead he stood still, staring at the front corner of the room. I
followed his gaze and finally stopped trying to drag him towards
the food when I saw why he was frozen in place. The other new
Primes sat huddled together at a corner table. They had all turned
in their seats to stare at us. My eyes widened as my gaze fell on
Theo. Crap. Had he told them that we were imposters? His eyes were
locked on mine too, but his face was expressionless, there was no
way to tell.

I examined the rest of the Primes’ faces.
Cecilia, the blonde, was perched on smirky Axil’s lap with her arms
wrapped around his neck in an embrace. Clearly they had something
going on. Despite their loving embrace, their expressions were
hateful and aimed in our direction. The pair of them looked as
though they wanted to tear Felix and I limb from limb.

Ellina didn’t appear to be angry. Her
expression was more upset than irate like the others. I thought I
even saw a tear glistening on her cheek.

Farrah… I
scanned the circle of Primes again. Where was Farrah? I spun in a
full circle, searching the rest of the room for the seventh
competitor. No one else was there. Felix must have noticed at the
same time because I heard him whisper her name.

Felix and I
had been standing still for over a minute and had received no
greeting, just angry expressions. Okay this was getting ridiculous,
I thought. I knew I had acted like a brat at training, but that was
no cause for total rudeness! And what had Felix ever done to them?!
Fuming, I dropped Felix’s hand and wiggled my fingers at the
group.

“
Hi guys,
lovely to see you all too!” My voice dripped in sarcasm as I called
out to them, making eye contact with each person in turn. They all
quickly averted their eyes, returning to the circle they were
sitting in. They started whispering furiously, though Felix and I
were too far from them to hear. I looked at Felix, confused. He
shrugged and pulled on my hand, finally leading us toward the
banquet.