Instincts tell me to yell, but I know that will only make things worse.
Think Prim, think! I chide myself. Then I remember my conversation with Rue yesterday. Three knocks means danger. I knock thrice on the side of the tree. I knock hard, wanting to be heard. I crawl out of my tree and the heat is so hot that I immediately start to sweat. I can hear Rue as she crawls out of her hole.
"What's happening!" She panics.
"I don't know, but one thing's for sure, we gotta get out of here!" I answer as we both grab our shoes. I check to see if Bunny is in there, and luckily he is. He's still sleeping, safe and sound.
The fire wall is coming from the direction of the stream. We are going to have to leave this place.
"Don't you think we should drink some water? We might not see any for a few days," Rue says over the sound of trees burning.
"Yea, but we better hurry!" I yell. We both take sips of water and make sure Bunny drinks up too. Then we run. We run away, the fire behind us. Ready to burn us to our death.
"I hate those gamemakers," I mutter under my breath.
"Prim, we're on camera!" Rue scolds.
"As if I could ever forget," I sigh. We keep running. There is no stopping.
"I feel like I'm going to collapse!"
"Me too, but we really have to go!" Rue exclaims.
"I can't, I'm so tired!" I manage to say. I'm really really tired. I seriously think I'm gonna collapse soon. Rue sighs.
"Get on my back," she says.
"No, no. You'll be tired," I say as we keep run, well more like jogging now.
"Well then we gotta run!" Rue exclaims.
I drag myself across the arena, trying to keep in step next to Rue. My only possessions- shoes, slingshot, and our furry friend. I start falling towards the ground, and I collapse. I remember falling hard, and then everything going black.
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Katniss' POV
Prim! Prim no!
I watch the screen as a wall of fire chases Prim and her ally Rue. They are having some sort of conversation as they run, but you can't hear their words. You can only hear the roar of the fire. Both of the little girls aren't wearing their shoes and are carrying them. "Oh well, I guess the weight of the shoes would slow them down," I mutter under my breath, trying to be positive, which I am terrible at.
What is going to happen to Prim? When will the fire wall go down?
What about Peeta? I watched him with the career pack yesterday. That traitor. People from Twelve never ever run with the career pack. I am so frustrated. With both Peeta, and Prim being in the games. I hate the Capitol. I absolutely, most positively do.
*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。*・。
The next time I open my eyes, I feel a sharp pain on my leg. I'm on the ground and I start to stir a bit as I hear a voice.
"Are you up?"
It's Rue. I try to sit up and fail horribly.
"Yeah. But I'm not really feeling too well. What happened?" I ask.
"Well, you kinda fell and uh, collapsed. You were on the floor, and the fire wall was behind us. I didn't know what to do. I only had two hands, so I had to leave your shoes there. I took the slingshot out and transferred it into mine. Oh and Bunny too. Then I had to heap you up on my back, and well, carry you. I ran for quite a long time, and I was tired. At one point I wasn't running fast enough and well the fire wall caught up and...and then...I'm so sorry Prim~!" Rue says and bursts into tears. "I couldn't even think properly, and the wall just came closer and closer. Your leg...your leg caught on fire and I didn't know what to do!" She cries.
"Rue, it's okay," I say, and I want her to stop crying. It makes me feel sad that my friend is crying.
"It's not your fault."
"But it's not okay! I burned your leg!" Rue cries out again.
"Sh, don't cry. I'm fine. Really. You saved my life. You have nothing to be crying about."
I let her cry for a bit.
"Rue, I think we should get going," I say. She nods.
"You really are okay?" She asks. I nod.
"I'm fine." I stand up, with Rue's help and she hauls me up onto her back, since I can't walk properly. We travel, hoping that we will be able to find some water again. Rue walks for a long time, and I'm worried about her. She's going to be tired. It's not that I'm super heavy; I'm actually quite light. But it's hard to walk even without a person on your back. We keep walking, and eventually Rue stops.
"Ok, I think we will have to rest," Rue says.
"I'm so sorry that I can't walk," I say.
"No, it's not your fault. It's okay."
Just then, Bunny falls out of his shoe, and starts to hop away.
"No come back!" I say, but of course he doesn't return. He's not a dog. Rue lifts me up and starts to go after the rabbit. It doesn't seem to be running away from us, but rather looking for something. Rue follows the rabbit, and I try to make myself as light as possible. Rue and I are ecstatic when we find what Bunny was looking for. Water. He had lead us straight to a small pond.
"Water!" I exclaim and the two of us squeal excitedly. We're still quite young.
Rue picks up her pace and lets me down when we reach the pond. I get into the water, with a little help from Rue. The burn on my leg and thighs sting. But I know that this is what I need to do. I need to cool it down. Plus, there could be infections so it'd important to let things wash out. While doing so, I take gulps of the water, quenching my thirst. Rue does too. Then we hear voices.
"Woohoo!"
It's the careers. Rue and I look at each other in panic.
"Over there!" she says as they start running over to the pond. I scoop up Bunny who is still drinking. Rue and I scramble out of the water, this time only with one shoe, the two slingshots, and Bunny.
"Look, they've got a bunny! Oh how cute!" The District 2 girl says, mockingly.
I don't even have time to be mad at them. I usually don't get very mad at people anyways. Rue and I run as fast as we can but we know that they are faster than us.
"What are we gonna do?" I whisper as we run.
"There's just one escape route, and that's up," Rue says. I send her a are-you-kidding-me glance then look down at my leg. We're still running by the way.
"We have to!" Rue exclaims. Then she bends over, picks me up, and hoists me up to a tree. I climb as best as I can for a girl with a bunny in her hand and a burnt leg. I am determined though, I have to survive this thing. I look down and see that Rue has started to climb up as well. We keep climbing, until we hear the voices of the careers just below us. Oh, I forgot. The careers and Peeta. The District 4 girl is with them too, a career I guess, since Four sometimes has careers and she's with the careers.
"Hey Primrose! Hey Rue!" The District 2 boy, Cato, calls. Considering that the angles for Rue and I are both bright, cute, innocent girls, I decide to answer back using those traits.
"Hey guys!" I say with a bright voice and smile. I wave at them, like they just arrived at my birthday party. They snicker.
"We're coming to get you," Cato says and starts to climb. Rue and I both climb up a few more branches, but we eventually stop. Cato isn't much of a climber. We know when he falls off and lands on his back, on the floor.
"That's gotta hurt," I say, to no one in particular. That just makes Cato angrier. He get's his knife and throws it at us. I duck, and it gets wedged on a branch just below Rue.
"Thanks for the knife!" Rue exclaims as she bends over to retrieve it. She then puts it into the shoe.
"Oh let me get them!" Glimmer exclaims and starts to climb. She's a lot better than Cato, but still fails to get as high as us. Those careers are all pretty big and well fed, so the branches just snap and can't hold their weight. Just as she falls, she tries to shoot us with an arrow but fails miserably, and so we end up in possession of one of her arrows as well.
The careers (and Peeta) get together and talk in whispers. We can't hear them, but they're clearly planning something. That's when Peeta speaks up.
"Just let them stay up there. We can sleep here and deal with them in the morning. It's not like they can go anywhere."
The traitor speaks the truth, I think to myself. We are literally trapped with nowhere else to go. The other careers give it a thought.
"I guess we could sleep here and deal with them tomorrow," Cato finally says. They start to take things out of their packs. Sleeping bags, food and all sorts of goodies. The don't really fall asleep right away. Rue and I just watch them, without making any sounds. Bunny has fallen asleep, and his body heat is warm against my hands.
I watch as Cato sits down getting ready to sleep, and Glimmer comes over and leans on his shoulder. The District 2 girl, which I soon learned was Clove, is throwing knives at lizards. She looks over at Glimmer and Cato, and a frown forms on her already scary face. She quickly shakes her head like she's clearing her mind, then goes back to killing lizards. The District 1 boy, Marvel, is already asleep. Peeta just flips over in his sleeping bag uncomfortably, and Marina from Four is just going through her pack. Eventually, all of them fall asleep.
"What are we gonna do!" I whisper to Rue, after knowing for sure that they are all asleep.
"I don't know, but I don't think it's possible to sleep up here, or go down there,"
"Are you saying that we should just stay up here and spend the night?"
"Well, what other choices do we have?"
Rue and I have a quiet conversation, very very aware of the people below us.
"I don't know...do you have any way to escape?"
"Well I can probably jump onto the other tree over there, but then I'd have to leave you," Rue says.
"If that is our only choice, then maybe you can do that," I say. Rue looks at the tree near by, then back at the tree we are in. Then suddenly her mouth opens into an O and hangs there. She points up. We didn't think things could get much worse but they clearly did. Above us is a nest with ginormous bees.
~A/N~ Ok, I know I posted the last chapter like literally a few minutes ago but uh...the more the better right? Yes, the name of the District 4 girl is Marina. It's not in the book or movie but it's been confirmed. Go google it or something. Also, I have a question for you guys, Glarvel and Clato or Clarvel and Glato? Personally I like Clato. I think Glato looks good as well, but just isn't realistic. Clato is more so in the Hunger Games books (like when- nvm, spolier -_-) while Glato is in the movies (the night before Glimmer is killed, she sleeps on Cato's arm). So...are you Glarvel, Clarvel, Glato, or Clato? Comment down below~!
-Monica