The Avox (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3- Reunited

*TURNS OUT CHAPTER 3 CAME SOONER. HAD PLANS THAT WERE CANCELED TODAY, SO I DECIDED TO WRITE :) HOPE YOU LIKE IT!*

“Peeta, this place is nothing but dust and dirt. You expect me to believe that there is a nation of people living here?” I ask him. “Not necessarily,” he says, “because there could be just a small amount of people running the Backup Capital, and it doesn’t have to be a whole nation. Snow-“ I stop him by plugging my ears and shutting my eyes to stop myself from hearing his name. Shudders go down my spine again. As I unplug my ears and open my eyes slowly, Peeta is already heading down to the arena with Layla. “Peeta, wait!” I yell to him. “There could still be dangerous traps there. The Backup Capital people probably realized that someone would eventually track them down after the arena blew up, and they probably rigged the place to make sure that they would never make it out with information about them.” I run towards them. “We will be extra careful, Katniss. I promise.” he says, and he grabs my hand and pulls me along-side him as he carefully steps down the hill. As we reach the bottom of the hill, Peeta takes out a bag full of rocks. He looks over at me and notices the strange expression on my face. “I thought we might need to build a fire, but I’m going to use it to make sure that there are no explosives in front of us.” he says as he throws the first rock onto the dusty, dented ground in front of us. Nothing happens so we all take a careful step forward. As we make it further and further into the arena, Peeta turns his head, and points off into the distance, his eyes big and wide. “What?” I ask. He take my shoulders and guides my a little bit further to that direction. And then I see it. I know what he means. It’s trees. The same trees that were in the arena when I first encountered the Hunger Games. We were back at the arena for the 74th Hunger Games.

“Peeta. Peeta, why can we see it now, and not when we were in this arena fighting?” I ask, my voice shaking. “Because,” he says slowly, “when Haymitch was fighting in his Hunger Games, he discovered that there was a barrier on every side of the arena. So, when you blew up this arena, the barrier was blown up too. I’m guessing that the barrier prevented us from seeing the other arenas, although I never knew that there were arenas next to each other…” “Peeta,” I say, “I want to go there.” “What are you talking about, Katniss?” he says. I don’t respond, but instead just start walking slowly towards the forested arena. I walk for a while, and notice that I didn’t hear Peeta object with me going towards the arena. I turn and see him and Layla following me quietly. I’m happy that they are coming with me. I would be scared by myself. When I turn back, I am almost at the arena, so I stop and wait for Peeta and Layla to catch up. “Ok,” says Peeta, “we have to be careful, because even though the beach arena wasn’t full of explosives, doesn’t mean that this one won’t be either.” I grab the bag of rocks from his hand and take slow, careful steps towards the forested arena.

After what seems like days of walking, I smell something familiar. Pine trees. Forest. We are here. We are back.

I surprise myself at that moment, because the first thing I do when I get to the arena, is run. I run for my life. Not that anyone is chasing me, but for my life. I run because I want to live all the moments that I encountered at this arena. The good ones, the bad ones. Everything. I wanted to see Rue again. I wanted to be with Peeta in the cave. I wanted those moments back. I don’t know how to get them back, so I do this stupid thing and I just start running around.

“Katniss!” I hear Peeta yell behind me, as I run around in circles around the Cornucopia. “Katniss, stop. Listen to me.” he runs over to me and grabs my hand, jerking me to a stop in my crazed running fiesta. “You need to get control of yourself. I know this place brings back the worst memories, but you need to let them go.” I shake my hand free of his, and try to calm down. Still panting, I look up at the trees. I remember sitting in them. Waiting for any noises that I heard. Noises that could possibly have ended my life in a split second. I close my eyes and breath in the fresh smell of the forest. Then, I start walking again. Now, into the arena’s deep forestry. I know where I am going. I am going to visit Rue.

Once I reach the place I set out for, I melt. I look at the leftover net that Rue died in. The net that the Capital left for tourists to gaze upon and say things like, “Look! There’s the net that Rue died in! Take a picture of me by it!” The net that people would smile at and be amused by. But that net means much more than that to me. It is the net that my friend died in. My friend, that helped my recover. She helped me feel less alone. This net, that people have been entertained by, the net that I am looking at right now, is the one barrier between Rue and I.

I can’t control myself so I immediately start crying. Not long after that, my legs cannot seem to hold me up, and I fall to the ground. And I cry. I just keep crying until my body is definitely out of fluids. Then, Peeta comes up to me, and reassuringly pats my head. I think he was trying to make me stop worrying. It is such a pathetic attempt at trying to make me feel better, that I find it funny and cute. I can’t help but let out a small whimpering noise to cover up a laugh that has been built inside of me. Peeta looks down at me like I am some kind of psychopath. First, uncontrollably crying, then laughing. I was definitely loosing it.

“Peeta,” I say, calmed down from my laughing/crying fit,  “this was the net that she died in…”  “Who is ‘she’?” he says, walking over to the net. “Rue…” I say, fighting back a tear. He looks over at me and gives me a look that says, “Stay strong, Katniss…” He suddenly reaches down and picks up the net. “Peeta, what are you doing?!” I yell at him. “Our lives have been all about making memories, so this net will bring us another one. And who knows, it might be useful!” he says. I don’t know if it is such a good idea to steal something from here, but I don’t care. The Capital killed my friend, and they can’t claim that what she died in is theirs. That would be sicker than they already are. Inhumane, is what they are.

 We set off deeper into the woods, and the deeper we go, the more memories come flooding back. We reach the lake that I washed Peeta’s leg up in after I found him wounded. Peeta lays down on the ground and looks up at the sky. He seems relaxed for a little bit, but then I see something stirring in his eyes. His pupils are changing size. They are growing. I know what is happening. Peeta is about to go mutt. I instantly run to him and pin down his arms and legs to the ground. He starts snarling and fighting me, trying to get me away from him, so he can hurt me. “Peeta! It’s me, Katniss! Your fiancé! Your best friend! Peeta the memories from the Games are too overwhelming here! Wake up! Stop!” I yell at him, but its no use. Suddenly, Layla comes up to Peeta with a large stick in her hand. I know what she is going to do, and I think it will be the only way to stop him. I give her a reassuring nod, and she whacks him on the head with the stick.  He instantly releases his grip on my wrists. Obviously something from him being knocked out made me feel dizzy too, so the last things I see are the tall, green trees whiz past me as I fell to the ground.

*MIGHT BE ABLE TO POST MORE TONIGHT, BUT NO PROMISES! I'LL TRY HARD!*