ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 15 - Ʈɧɛ ʗɑƦɛɛƦʂ I woke up early in the morning to Peeta shaking me lightly. I don't know how I had even fallen asleep that night, but I dreamt of the faces of the tributes that had died that day before. Rue was already awake and was rationing out some dried fruit and berries that I had picked yesterday for breakfast. She handed me and Peeta them and we tucked into them slowly, savouring each bite. It felt so strange being with the two as a team. Not that we were a strong team. We were a team with no moves. No plan. What plans could we even make? I had no intention of killing anyone. I could see in Rue's innocent eyes that she had the same intentions of me. We all clambered down the tree and began the same thing as we did yesterday. Walking and walking further away from the Cornucopia, masking our paths as we went. As we were walking, it hit me how little I knew both my team mates, especially Rue. All I ever did was make assumptions about them. I considered them both as friends, but I didn't even know what Peeta's brothers names were, or even if Prim had any brothers or sisters. I looked at her small face. She was so young. Surely, if she had a sister, she would of volunteered for her? It was around midday as the sun was very high in the sky. It was blistering heat and we hadn't stopped all day. I was sweating so much that I felt like ripping off my shirt in an attempt to cool down. My mouth was terribly dry and I was parched for water. I hadn't drank since the very start of the Games with Cinna. "We need to find water." I said, my voice cracking a little from the dryness. Rue handed me her water bottle from the backpack she had retrieved in the bloodbath yesterday. I took a big gulp, barely even thinking about rationing it until we found a water source. "We're going to need some more and soon." I said after Peeta took the water bottle to have a drink himself, following Rue to have some too. We stopped in our tracks. "Well, which way shall we go?" Peeta asked. Like I had a clue. Rue crouched down to the ground and pushed her hand through the forest bed. "The muds a little damp. I say we go East for a little bit, checking the ground constantly. The wetter the mud gets, the closer we are to the water." She said changing the direction she was headed to East instead of North. Rue was quickly becoming the leader of this little alliance. It was nice. I bet the Capitol would like it. I bet Katniss would like it. Like that I found someone nice in the Games. Like that I was finding a friend before my death. A friend that I barely knew. With that thought, I decided now would be the best time to ask questions, while we had some time to spare and we weren't about to die in the next two minutes. "Rue, do you have family back in District 11?" I asked. She looked slightly startled at the randomness of this question but the smile that was sneaking on her face made it seem like she was happy I was taking an interest. "Yeah." She said, the smile growing. "I have a sister, and a brother. My brothers fifteen, his name is Freshen. My sister's nineteen in a few days… her names Gabriele." "They're such pretty names, Rue." I said. "What are they like?" "Freshen is just the boy who everybody loves in our District. Tresh and him we're such good friends. They played sport together over at our house in their spare time. That's how I know him so well." She said softly. "Gabriele loves to sing. Just like me. Whenever we're not working, we're singing. We sing to the mockingjays. They sing back at us too." Her smile formed into one of many feelings. One part of her smile was happy because of the memories I'd caused to erupt in her mind, another part of her smile was sadness knowing she may never get to have those memories again. "I have a sister too. Her names Katniss." I said. She already knew I had a sister, I was sure. "She used to sing with the mockingjays with my Father too." I gulped hard, trying to swallow any tears that were surfacing, but a few had escaped and were rolling down my cheeks. A firm hand squeezed my shoulder and I turned to see that it was Peeta's. His face was firm, possibly emotionless to the people watching, but I knew that face. I may not of known him very long, but his face was screaming emotions to me. Emotions of sadness. Emotions of his heartbreak. I placed my hand on top of his, giving it a tight squeeze back before I wiped my eyes roughly. "Have you ever heard them sing, Peeta? Have you ever heard them with Katniss?" I asked. He nodded softly, the memory playing through his mind as he spoke. "Once. I was putting rubbish in the bakery bins, near the fence, when I saw her sneak out a few yards away. I knew she was going to the forest. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I followed her." he said. "She would probably hate me if she had caught me following her, but it might have been worth it, to hear her sing to those mockingjays. It was beautiful. She sung light tunes, and they sung it back so delicately." He exhaled deeply as he finished his last sentence. I knew how he meant about it being so delicate. It was so beautiful when she sung to them. She rarely did sing to them because it reminded her of Father so much, but when did sing to them it was fantastic. Rue was quiet too. She was obviously thinking about how her sister would sing to the birds. It was a memory we all shared, even if the memory was slightly different for us all. I knew the camera's would be focusing on us right now. Listening to our personal conversations. Hooking the audience on our joined sadness. I wonder what Katniss would be feeling with Peeta and I talking about her in a way neither of us have ever talked about her before to anybody. We were walking in silence, engulfed by memories, until Rue came to a halt. She crouched down again at the ground and stuck her fingers into the mushy mud. I quickly remembered about how she had told us that the mushier the mud, the nearer we were to water. I smiled slightly. Water. Water. Water. Water is my new best friend. I was still so thirsty. "I think we're near." Rue said, matching my little smile. She picked up a handful of the mushy mud and then went to my back and placed it on my pack. I had completely forgot about camouflaging it. She rubbed it in until the orange wouldn't show anymore at all. It would do for a few hours until the mud dried, then we'd need some more, but right now I was just focused on the nearby water. I let Peeta cover up our tracks as our pace quicker in a hurry to find the water. Within minutes, we'd found it. I let out a small 'eek' as I rushed into my backpack to find my water bottle. Rue copied me and we both hurried to the cleanest part of the water to fill our empty bottles. It wasn't until I heard distant wooing that I realised where we actually were. We were at the lake, the open public lake that was only a mile or two from the Cornucopia. The excitement from actually finding the water made me forget to check where I was, and now I was at the lake, faced with a pack of Careers, walking confidently towards us. They were taking their time, as if they were trying to tease us with our own deaths. I looked at Rue. I was in a state of shock and so was she. I looked at Peeta. He was still covering our tracks one or two yards away. He hadn't noticed. I knew I had to shake myself out the shock coma I was paralysed with. With all my might, and the clutch on my bottle tighter than ever, I told myself Legs. Move. MOVE. MOVE. MOVE. They finally responded and Rue's did simultaneously. My legs were moving just as fast as they did at the Cornucopia, and that was pretty fast. I ran past Peeta within seconds, who looked dumbfounded as I sprinted. He quickly joined, sensing danger that was reassured with the Careers still wooing behind us. I looked behind me and saw that Rue had just overtook me but Peeta was still behind. The Careers had speeded up to a steady jog now. They were so confident, even though we were so much faster than them. I looked ahead of me and saw that Rue was now climbing up a tree. I followed her lead instantly. "Peeta, come on!" I beckoned at him, seeing he was not following so well. I waited at the tree trunk, putting my legs into position to climb until he had caught up with me. "Move, Prim! Move!" he said desperately, matching my position after I had climbed a three feet. Rue was safely up high in the tree and I was scrambling, faster and faster until I was up there. I stood gingerly on a branch that was thick, with Rue on one just above me. Peeta quickly went to a branch near us both. We were all desperately gasping for air when the Careers joined us at the bottom of the tree. I saw that there were five of them. The two from District 1 and 2, and the girl from 4. Why was she with them? She wasn't one of their special trained people, was she? She must have some sort of skill, else they would probably never allow her to be with them. "Got you now, angel on fire." The one I remembered to be Cato said. His allies began to woo some more. Cato looked at the girl with blonde hair from District 1, Glimmer, and pointed towards the tree. She walked to the trunk and sprawled her legs across the trunk and tried to push herself up the tree using her arms to pull herself higher. Rue gave a light laugh at her pathetic attempt to climb up, and her laugh got harder when Glimmer collapsed off the tree and fell, thump, on her back. "For Gods' sake, Glimmer." The short brown haired one said. She looked up at us in the tree. Her face was very distinguished, but she looked young. Only around fifteen. That couldn't be right. Why would a fifteen year old volunteer for the Games? Especially when the District1 and 2 kids are trained for this? Surely an eighteen year old should of volunteered. The girl then began looking around in her backpack she had slung on one side of her shoulders. She picked out a very sharp shiny knife and threw it in our direction – but we were so high up, it didn't even get within six feet of us. Cato then began to get angry at his allies. "Get out the way." He pushed the two girls so hard that Glimmer almost fell over, the younger girl kept her feet and gave Cato a dark scowl. If looks could kill, she would have everybody in the Games dead in a minute. Cato began to haul himself up the tree. He was physically stronger than Glimmer, but he fell to the ground quickly after only getting about five feet up the tree. "That's it." Glimmer said. She pulled out a bow and arrow that was sitting on her back. I hadn't even seen it. It was very sleek and was made from a light silver metal. She pulled the arrow on the string, but it didn't get anywhere near us. She was a terrible aim. Nothing compared to Katniss. Glimmer tried to shoot her arrows three more times, but the aim got worse and worse. "For God sake." Said the District 1 boy. "This is ridiculous. You guys all suck." "You try better then, jackass." Glimmer retorted. Wow, for allies they didn't really get on well. "I will." Said the boy. He snatched the bow and arrow off Glimmer and tried to aim. When he failed twice, he threw it back at her. "This shit thing is broken. Why is it even in the arena? It's crap." I gave a tiny smile to myself. I knew why it was in the arena. The Gamemakers thought I would of gone for it at the bloodbath, but I wasn't that stupid. They thought it was my weapon of choice – but I just got lucky. I still wanted it though. Badly. The District 4 girl, who had seemed to tag along with them all even though she wasn't one of their Career trained tributes, spoke. "Why don't we just wait them out?" she said. "They have to come down at some point. They can't stay in that tree forever. That or they starve to death up there." Ah. That's why they had pulled her on the team. She was clever. That was indeed a clever idea. It terrified me. She was right, though. We would. And they would wait until we would to kill us. Kill me. The girl who scored 11 freaking points. Thanks, Gamemakers. The Careers seemed to take to the District 4 tributes idea. It was the only idea they had that would have any chance of working. "Somebody make a fire." Ordered Cato as he sat down, pulling out some food from the District 2 girl's backpack. I pulled my gaze away from them all as they settled down with their fire and feast of food that were obviously from devoted sponsors. I looked at Rue and Peeta. Rue was looking around the forest, deep in thought. I knew she had some sort of plan ticking away in her mind. I was so lucky to have her on my team. She was so young – but so, so clever. She would get us out of this. Peeta was looking back at me, matching my stare. I gave him a light smile, and he met back with a similar one. "Are you okay?" I mouthed to him. "Better than ever." He replied, his smile increasing. "Get some sleep." I mouthed, seeing the bags under his eyes get darker as the night sky did. He didn't object and closed his eyes, wrapping his jacket around him. He fell asleep within seconds, his chest rising and falling slowly. His face looked so pale and young when sleeping. Rue tapped my shoulder lightly after a few minutes of me watching Peeta sleep. She beckoned me up towards her branch. It was a thick, sturdy branch which would easily hold our tiny bodies. Between us, we couldn't of weighed more than 120 pounds. She pulled out the thermal sleeping bag from her pack and wrapped it around us both. It kept us beautifully warm as we watched out the Careers in the night. Rue was still deep in thought as we slightly cuddled to keep even warmer with our body heat. I so wanted to know her plan. I knew it would be brilliant, just like her. My body relaxed throughout the hours and my eyes were feeling heavy. I felt myself slipping away into sleep, thinking of Katniss as I did so. I wonder how she was feeling. I wonder. I could only wonder. I'd never know. Her face appeared in my dreams that night. It was wonderful to see her.
ʗɧɑǷƮɛƦ 16 - Ʈɧɛ ՏǷօɳʂօƦ'ʂ ʟɪƒɛʂɑѵɪɳց Ǥɪƒʈ I woke up every hour that night. I was constantly afraid I was going to fall out of the tree and into my sure death with the Careers. After waking up from an unrested sleep three times, I decided to just stay awake. I watched as the fire from the Careers mini-camp dimmed out slowly and their light sleeping sounds echoed around us. It was so strange how they felt so safe here, in the middle of the arena in the Games, where right now as they were so vulnerable, anybody could ponce on them and kill them. But nobody was stupid enough to do that. They were Careers, and one of them were possibly more lethal than Rue, Peeta and I put together. It was just beginning to get light when Rue stirred from her sleep. She woke up pretty quickly as soon as she was aware of her surroundings. She looked at me with her massive round brown eyes. They were full of determination. Determination to get out this. She broke away from my stare and began to quietly unzip our sleeping bag and climbed out carefully, trying to make sure I wasn't wobbling off the branch we were both perched on. I tightened my grip around the wood as she was moving. Peeta began to wake too while Rue was packing away the sleeping bag in the backpack she'd fetched from the bloodbath at the Cornucopia. How long had I been in here? It felt like a year ago I was running away from the Cornucopia now, even though I knew subconsciously that it was only a matter of two or three days ago. It felt even longer ago that I had last been in District 12 with my mother and my sister – happy, and so much safer than I was here. I looked back at Rue, who was now sitting beside me, gripping tightly to the branch like I was. She was staring at the Careers who were still fast asleep. I could almost hear her mind ticking away, trying to think of a plan, how to get out this. I knew that if we didn't get a plan to get out of this, the Careers would not wait for us like they had said they were going to. They would get bored and impenitent and find a whole new way to kill us with help from sponsors giving them gifts of weapons to kill us with. "Have you got a plan?" I whispered. I heard the hope drip from my voice. "No." she said. My heart dropped at her words. All my faith had been put into her having a plan. She was so clever, I just presumed she was have a plan. The fact that she didn't just began to sink into me, and that death sentence seemed to be getting closer and closer to me. We sat for another few dragging minutes, until a parachute came floating down and landed into my lap. I looked in shock at my legs where the cool metal parachute lay, wondering what could be in there. I didn't need water right now – well I could do with some, but it wasn't desperate – and I didn't need food either, or a medicine. Haymitch must has thought of something to get us out of this and this was going to be it. I didn't know what was inside yet, but I looked up towards the sky and mouthed a small 'thank you', hoping he would see and realise it was for him and the sponsors who had bothered to waste their money on me. I guess getting a 11 in training had its perks. This was certainly one of them – but the group of people below me was certainly not. I unleashed the latch on the parachute and opened it slowly to see a small knife. Confusion spread across my face. What would Haymitch want me to do with a knife? Jump down and kill them all? There was no possible way of that ever happening. I looked over to Peeta, but his face just met with the same confusion. I looked to Rue, expecting to be met with the same, but her face had crept into a smile. She met my stare and her smile. "Get ready to run." She said quietly, snatching the knife out of my hands. Did she have a plan? I frowned, unsure of what she was talking about. She stood up carefully on the branch and began to edge her way towards the end of the branch. I thought she was going to fall when within a matter of milliseconds she had jumped to the neighbour tree next to us that was right over the Careers heads. It was shocked me how light and delicate it was she jumped. I knew if I did that, I would be very loud and probably fall on my back, wheezing and coughing. I wondered where Rue had learnt her talent of climbing trees and jumping from tree to tree. I watched her as she climbed down two branches until she was close a bee's hive. She began to cut through the branch, a few meters away from the hive that was almost exactly on top of the Careers mini-camp. It dawned on me as soon as the branch had been cut and the hive had exploded onto the forest floor onto the Careers camp, that it wasn't just a bee's hive. It was a tracker jacker hive. Tracker jackers were genetically made winged insects that's sting could give you serious hallucinations – or if stung a lot, could result in death. What Rue was doing to save our little team, could kill her. But it could also kill the Careers. It was the only chance we had. She was so brave. My legs began to work their way down the tree, and quickly ran as soon as I hit the ground. I heard two cannons boom as I ran. I wonder who was dead. I hope it was the Careers, and not Rue. Please not Rue. Peeta was not long behind me, running after me and away from the tracker jackers. I stopped after about 200 metres, knowing that the tracker jackers would probably be after the Careers right now and not us. And they would probably be after Rue too. "Rue." I said breathily. "Rue. Where's Rue?" I said to Peeta, my voice getting louder, more panicked. I began to run in the same direction. I heard a buzz of tracker jackers nearby, and slowed down to a jog. I couldn't see the Careers camp as the trees and bushes were concealing it, but I spotted Rue. She was unconscious in a tree above us. She must've jumped from tree to tree, realising it was her best chance of quick escape, until the hallucinations got her from any stings she must have got. I began to pray in my head that she wasn't dead. Without a second thought, I climbed up the tree. I was rushing so much that my feet were slipping off its rubbery bark, almost causing me to fall several times, but I soon made it to the branch she had so carefully left herself lying on. Even when she was being painfully stung my insects and going through strong hallucinations, she was still clever enough to make sure she would fall. I grabbed her wrist and felt for a heartbeat. Sure enough, it was there. It was slower than it should be, but it was there. I took a huge breath of relief. I began to look on her where she had been stung and took out the stingers from her skin. The sooner they were out, the better. They couldn't put any more poison into her body that way. I gave myself a quick smile as I was plucking the three stingers out from her body. I knew my mother would be proud right now – seeing the healer come out of me and being useful. It felt good. "Is she okay?" Peeta asked, startling me. I forgot about him. But he was there, perched on a branch underneath us, watching. "She's okay. She's unconscious, though. Her bodies trying to fight off the poison. She might be out for a while until she's okay." I replied, looking down at him and giving him a reassuring smile. "Have you seen what's in her hand?" he asked. I looked at Rue's left hand that was dangling slightly off the branch. I picked up her arm, feeling a heaviness in her hands. I saw that in her tight grip was the bow and arrow that Glimmer had. How must of Rue got that? Did Rue know about my bow and arrow minor skill? Also in her hand was the knife she had used to cut the branch. I took the two weapons from her clutch and rest her hand her stomach. I turned to Peeta. He knew about my bow and arrow minor skill as I had told him about it in the penthouse when I was upset over my private training session. His eyes light up as I held the bow and set of arrows in my hand. It was so light, and was made of a cool silver metal. The string was tied tightly on the bow and the arrows were sharp. I knew Katniss would deeply love this set of bow and arrows. As much as my father would of. Father. I thought. My heart panged for him. I missed him so much, even though I rarely spoke of him. I carefully slid my way off the branch, making sure Rue was still stable, and sat on Peeta's branch. I gave him the knife. "Keep it safe. You may have to use it." I told him. "Same for you." He said, nodding towards the bow and arrows. "I don't even know if I can use them, Peeta." I admitted. "Of course you can. Believe in yourself." He told me. "If you won't believe in yourself for you – believe in yourself for Katniss." I took a deep breath inwards at his words. "Okay." I said in barely a whisper. That day, Peeta carried Rue almost a mile away from where we had been before. We stopped in a very concealed part of the woods. Peeta put Rue in a bush and covered her with leaves. We both agreed that we should change her leaves twice a day until she regained consciousness. I hoped she would wake soon. It was dangerous to stay in one place for too long, but we didn't have a choice. We couldn't lug Rue's limp body around with us all day, and there was no way we could just leave her either. When we finished covering Rue with different leaves, I dripped some water into her mouth. Peeta and I then drank some too and then ate some dried beef and fruit between us, but we rationed it. We had to be sensible now. It was getting darker in the arena when we had finished eating, so we climbed a nearby tree that was in direct view of Rue. I took a first shift of watching out while Peeta had a little sleep. We agreed that I would wake him when the anthem showed us the deaths of the tributes today. After that, I would sleep for a few hours then Peeta would wake me again and I would try to hunt a little while he switched Rue's leaves around and kept watch again. I let Peeta sleep and the hours passed quickly as I thought of old memories. The anthem began to play and it caught me off guard, as I had been so engrossed in my thoughts. I shook Peeta gently as the Capitol seal appeared in the sky. The face of Glimmer from District 1 shinned in the sky. Her facial features on the seal looked so beautiful. Her hair was in two plaits and her eyes were sparkling with confidence. Now she was dead. It was strange, the feeling that overwhelmed me about her death. I didn't like Glimmer, as she had tried to kill me, but I knew somebody like her would have a real amazing life back home. A boyfriend, a big group of friends, a loving family. And now they would all have to grieve for her. I tried to shake these thoughts off me, as I knew it could have been me in the sky with my family grieving. I was too soft. Next, shone the face of the District 4 tribute. I began to think of her family too, before even realising I didn't even know her name. I didn't even know her name. How awful of me… I closed my eyes tightly and wrapped my jacket around me fiercely, trying to wash away all thoughts of the deaths that I had been a part of. I knew that tonight was going to be a cold night, as the wind was turning already. I so wished I could be in the sleeping bag with Peeta right now, sharing body heats, but I knew that our weight on one branch of this quiet thin tree would not hold. Peeta was a muscly boy, so he weighed a lot more than it may seem. I fell asleep slowly, knowing that tomorrow everything may change. Now I had this bow and arrow, anything could happen. If I get used to this weapon, I may have a chance. I was going hunting tomorrow morning. This would determine everything for me. If it turned out that my luck from the training sessions had come with me into the arena with the bow and arrow, maybe I could just try to go home. This bow and arrow was my only hope.