Rue's Games

Chapter 6: Feast

We eat before it is dark and get into the sleeping bag straight after. It is really cold, even though it is a tight squeeze in the sleeping bag (Thresh is much bigger than me). I keep feeling, falsely, that after this we’ll have won. It feels like that, but it’s not. We’ll have just gotten past an obstacle. There are four more deaths before we are safe.

Neither of us sleep very well. Whenever I close my eyes, I see Katniss’s face. Thresh tosses and turns, and leaves the sleeping bag after a few hours to give me a better chance of sleep. I don’t.

When we get up before sunrise, we realise that we planned yesterday’s meals, but didn’t think about this morning. There is a little meat left, but Thresh doesn’t trust it so we throw it a little away from the cave so no one can trace us. We pick a few more berries, being careful not to take too many from one bush. I eat a few of the mints I was sent to give me more energy, but Thresh doesn’t so he can save his insulin.

In case we fail.

He gives me his knife.

“I can probably handle Cato or anyone else without my knife, but I’m not sure about you. You’re the smallest out of everyone.”

I take the knife. But I still don’t want to have to kill anyone.

As we are leaving, a cannon goes off.

“Who was that?” I ask.

“We’ll soon find out.”

As we get to the Cornucopia, I see a long table, laid out in front of it with several bags on it. The ones marked 5 and 1 are medium sized and green. Our one and District 2’s ones are black, theirs large and ours small.

I am scared to run over as I suspect everyone else is waiting and watching for the first person to go, like a class full of students, waiting for the first person to hand in an exam paper. Not that anyone had taken many exams in my District.

Foxface seems not to care whether she is exposed, and runs right up in front of everyone, grabbing her bag without stopping like a relay runner.

“It must be the District 1 boy that was killed,” said Thresh. “He wouldn’t have been able to take on Clove and Cato himself. And I’m pretty sure he could have killed Foxface, she hasn’t killed anyone yet I don’t think. Take the District 1 bag too. Even if he’s alive, there’s two of us and one of him.”

“I’m going?” I ask anxiously.

“If you go, everyone will think you’re on your own. If they attack you, I’ll protect you.” He looks straight at me. “I promise.”

I believe him.

I run as fast as I can. I reach out to grab our bag, but stop.

Clove is coming out of the Cornucopia. She must have slept there, or got there in the early morning.

“Too bad Lovergirl isn’t here anymore,” she sneers.

I pull out Thresh’s knife.

“Ooh, got a butter knife? Know how to use it? Course not, they don’t feed you anything in 11, do they?” she pulls out her knife. More like a sword. “Maybe I should show you how.”

“Thresh!” I call out.

I step away from Clove and turn quickly, to see him writhing on the ground where he was standing a minute ago. His side is bleeding through his clothes, and Cato is walking towards me.

Now I don’t know where to turn. Thresh is injured, Clove and Cato are on either side of me. I pray that the Gamemakers with unleash some sort of beast to scare them away, but with a stand off like this they won’t need any more help to get more television viewers. My last hope is Foxface, but I know she is long gone. She wouldn’t help me anyway; she’s trying to survive just as much as I am.

I duck down as Cato swipes his hand at my head and hop out of the way of both of them. I see Thresh has stood up. He can’t have been hurt to badly, which is a relief. If I could just make it to the trees, I’d be safe. But I don’t know if Thresh will be.

“Thresh! Go!” I yell. My heart sinks as Cato is about to go after him as he staggers away. But Clove interrupts him.

“Leave him! We can kill her at least and save him for later!”

I know I have to distract them until Thresh is far enough away that they won’t be able to find him. I don’t know how long that will be. What if he collapses and can’t go any further?

I run around the Cornucopia to the lower side. They both had their guards down when Thresh was here, but now they only have to worry about me they are very good fighters. My skills, however, lie in climbing so I climb up the Cornucopia. It gradually gets higher so I do too.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I get to the top.

I’m lucky that neither of them is particularly clever, or else one would have stayed at the bottom in case I fell and the other would have followed me. They both followed me, which means I can jump down.

Unfortunately for me, it is a lot higher from the top than it looks from the bottom.

I could try to land on the table with the backpacks, but I don’t know if I’d be able to land on it properly or just trip over it in mid air. I’ve jumped down from trees higher than this, but never in life-threatening situations so it wasn’t as nerve wracking before.

Cato and Clove seem to be a little scared of heights, and are now crawling on their hands and knees. Clove is still holding her knife. She swipes at my foot, and suddenly I don’t get to decide how to jump.

I just fall.