Chapter 1: Katniss

2.2K 47 10
                                    

“You be careful,” I say to her.

“You too,” Katniss says. She heads in the direction of the Careers’ food stash and I am on my own again.

I decide to wait a few minutes before I light the fires: Katniss wouldn’t go near the food until the Careers had left even if they were there when she reached their area. I decide to spend a long time on the third fire; I’ll it so big that if they didn’t see the first two, they will definitely see that one.

After what I think is half an hour or an hour later though I have no way to tell, I light the first fire. I move quickly to the next fire, even though I know that they won’t reach me for another few minutes. I am not sure when to light the second, as I don’t want to give the Careers time to find me, but I also don’t want to use up the fires too quickly for Katniss to finish her job. Thinking quickly, I just go ahead and light it. With the trees, it may take them longer to find me. I can hear their voices this time, and it scares me so I climb a tree and travel to the third fire by tree.

But when I hear the explosion, I know Katniss had succeeded.

The Careers will be on their way back to their camp now to see what happened. It is safe to go back to my and Katniss’s base. I go back via the trees, it is safer. I see a boy from District 1, who seems to have made a trap. I would have been caught and killed if I had travelled by land.

I see a mockingjay, so I whistle the four note tune. I hear it echo from bird to bird going further away. I repeat it a few times to make sure she hears it. She doesn’t reply, but I’m not yet worried.

I stay in the tree for hours, whistling every now and then to see if she replies. In the evening, she still has not returned. From the top of the tree, it is easy to see the death roll. I am eager to see who has died today, to see if any Katniss killed anyone. The seal of the Capitol appears, then a boy from District 3. No Careers then. An unfamiliar face from District 10 appears in the sky, then the face of Katniss.

Katniss.

It hadn’t occurred to me she could have destroyed their food supply and still have been affected by the explosion until now.

She is gone. And I am alone .Even more so than before.

Rue's GamesWhere stories live. Discover now