"So, who's left?" I ask. Rue and I ran for a very long time before finally stopping at some bushes we could hide in.
"I don't know, let's figure it out."
"The three careers, since Glimmer's dead," I say thoughtfully. "And I think Noah too."
"And also the District 5 girl," Rue adds. "I met her at training, in the edible plants and berries station. Her name's Jacqueline."
"So that makes five," I calculate.
"Then there is us," Rue says. I nod.
"And Peeta and Thresh."
"That makes nine of us. No one else?"
"I think there's one more, but we can figure that out later."
"Yeah. In the mean time, let's find something to eat," Rue suggests.
"Yes, I am starving! So, what should we get?"
"I don't know, let's start simple. Berries, plants, nuts, or maybe roots?"
"Sure!"
It's not too hard to find what we want, probably because both of us can identify these very well. Soon we're both back and our shoes are filled to the brink. Well, not to the very top but more than three quarters full. We decide that we are going to need water, so we let Bunny take the lead and we follow him as we eat the food we have collected.
Bunny is one of the best things that we have, because it's like a secret way to find water. It's his own habitat so he knows his way around. Our mini guide leads us to a stream, where we take huge gulps of water and wash up.
"I wonder if this is the same stream that we came across a few days ago," Rue says.
"Or how big this whole arena is," I wonder.
"Well at least life's getting better for us now," Rue says. I smile.
"Yeah. But you know, we shouldn't get too comfortable. Remember what happened last time?"
"How could I forget. The fire wall,"
After we had washed, cooled down, and eaten quite a lot of berries, we decided that it was time for a proper meal.
"Let's go hunting!" Rue exclaims. I bite my tongue. It's hard to see a hurt animal and just leave it to die, let alone eat it. But I know this is for my survival, so I go along. "Okay sure. So what are we gonna do?"
"We'll use the slingshots of course," Rue beams.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" I say and we take out the sling shots. We decide not to go too far, and come back to the stream.
"How are we going to communicate?" I ask.
"Mockingjays," Rue says. I look down at my pin.
"You mean these?"
"Sure I do. They can repeat tunes, so we can contact each other with these guys, and we can respond back, to show the other that we are safe."
With that, she whistles four clear notes. Beautiful. My four note reply isn't as awesome but it will do.
So both of us start hunting. Rue is excited, but me? I don't want to kill innocent animals. I remember, back in District 12, Katniss tried to teach me how to hunt. She shot a deer, and all I could think about was how I could help it and heal it once we got home. I know I'm not really the hunting type.
My burn starts to sting a little so I apply some of the ointment from the tin the Haymitch gave me. I eat a few berries, and that's when I spot a bird. I carefully take the slingshot and a stone out of the shoe. I gently put the shoe down on the floor and pull back the stone and then let it loose. The stone hits the bird and it falls on the floor. It's not quite dead and I find the arrow from my shoe- Rue has the knife- and stab the bird, and it quickly stops moving. I pull out the arrow and pick up the bird. And this isn't just a regular bird, it's a big bird. I start walking back to the creek, and I spot another one of these birds. I shoot that one as well. I use the arrow to kill it and then soon I'm back. I sit down and eat berries. I watch the water in the creek flow. Then I see a silhouette of a person walking towards me. I can't really make out who it is, but it's definitely not a career. They'd be in a pack, and this guy was way to small. If it is a guy. It could be a girl. Wait I think it's a guy. And he's cute.
Which could only mean one thing. It's Noah. I know he notices me when his eyes dilate. In one hand he holds a spear. In the other is a big water canteen. Would he kill me? I don't know. He walks closer and closer.
"Noah," I say to acknowledge him. I was hoping I wouldn't meet him in here.
"Prim," He replies back. I back away, this guy has a spear after all.
"Oh um, don't worry...I won't kill you," he says. I decide to trust him.
"What are you doing here?" He asks me.
"Well Rue and I've been...hunting," I say, showing him the birds I shot.
"Impressive," he says with a cute grin.
"How about you?" I ask, trying not to smile too much.
"Well, I've been taken in by the careers...They wanted my help with some tech stuff. I was suppose to fill this canteen," he holds up the canteen, "with water and bring it back to the camp."
"Wait, so we're close to the career's camp?!" I exclaim.
"Well yeah, just walk maybe a mile or so and you'll get there."
"Why'd you come so far?" I ask.
"Oh I don't know, I just wanted to come out a bit. Maybe I could do something. The career's don't feed me nor do anything for me anyways. I just keep guard of their huge pile at the cornucopia."
"The pile?" I ask.
"Yeah, after the bloodbath, they've taken the rest of supplies and piled them into a huge pyramid, and I helped them to set bombs on the ground, using the pedestals we were on," he informs me as he fills his canteen.
"Why are you telling me all this? You could be caught you know," I say. He shrugs.
"I don't know. You're nice, you're a good girl I guess. So I um, I trust you, so I told you."
"Oh well, thank you. Here, take some. You said you're not fed very well," I say as I hold the shoe in front of him. He looks down at me feet.
"No shoes?" He asks.
"Haven't worn them since day two," I answer.
Then there's a long pause as he eats some roots and berries.
"Well I better get going," Noah says.
"Okay. It was nice to see you," I say.
"You too Prim," he says with a smile. He gives me a hug.
"What was that for?" I say as I blush.
"We may never see each other again," Noah simply says, and then he walks back up the lake, supposedly back to the camp.
It only takes a few minutes for Rue to come back, and she has three birds and a rabbit. The rabbit's not dead, but the birds are.
"I was starting to wonder what was taking you so long," I say with a smile, seeing all the things she brought.
"Oh well, we'll eat the birds and keep the rabbit, to help us find water," Rue smiles.
"I've been keeping my bunny in my jacket pocket after I found that it was eating my berries. You should do that same," I tell her.
"Okay," she says and put's her's in her jacket pocket.
"So, do you know what these guys are?" I ask while showing her the birds.
"Grooslings," Rue says.
"Never heard of them," I say with a shrug.
"We have them in District 11," she tells me.
"So how are we gonna cook these?" I ask.
"A fire can be risky."
"I mean the career's would come and see us. Which makes me wonder, how far away are they from us?"
"Not far," I say. She raises her eyebrow.
"What do you know that I don't know?"
"Well...while I was waiting for you, I met Noah. He was just going by and well he's with the careers. He said their camp is only about a mile from this stream," I say.
"What!" She panics, but I just shrug.
"Well...I'm starving. Let's go deeper into the woods, set the fire and cook them, and run back to the stream where we can eat in peace, agreed?"
"Agreed."
So that's how Rue and I ended up walking back into the forest, leaving the stream. When we had walked for a long time, we stopped and decided to build a fire. I gathered wood, and Rue started to make a spark using sticks and stones. Soon we had a small flame and we cooked all of the groosling. Rue knew her stuff so I didn't need to do much. When finished cooking the last one, we put the fire out and started to move. We let the bunnies out so they can lead us back to the stream. We eat the delicious food as we talk with each other.
"So, District 11. What do you do there?" I ask.
"Well our industry is agriculture, so I work in the orchards."
"Cool, I didn't work in my district. We start working when we are 18."
"Oh. What do you guys do?"
"District 12 is coal so we just work in the coal mines."
"Do you get heat in the winter? Since you guys get coal and stu-" I cut her off.
"Nope. Unless we buy it, and most of us can't really afford it. Do you guys grow crops for yourself there?"
"Nope. All of it goes to the Capitol. If we try to steal, well then...we get whipped in front of everyone, not exactly the best thing ever."
"That's cruel," I say, thinking about home. Katniss hunts illegally and still gets away with it. Most Peacekeepers even buy her game. I guess District 12 is better to live in than 11.
"Our mayor is scary and cruel," Rue says.
"Our's, Mayor Undersee, is very nice. He has a daughter that's friends with Katniss," I mention.
"Katniss. So...do you think Peeta is really in love with her?" Rue asks.
"Well she's a great sister, so why not?"
"The way you talk about her, it makes her sound really nice."
"Oh yes she is a very nice sister. Do you have any siblings?"
"Yeah, five actually. All younger than me."
"I bet you love them."
"I sure do," Rue replies and starts blanking out on me, probably thinking about her family. I think about mine, back at home. Dad's gone, and Katniss isn't too fond of mother. Katniss loves me though. It's just that she doesn't trust mom, after she stopped being a good mom when we were young. I still love Mother; I forgave her. But Katniss still has a hard time. After Rue and I eat, we wash up decide to sleep. There aren't any of those hollow trees here so we decide to sleep on the floor together. We can't just sleep out in the open so we decide to cover ourselves with big leaves. We're pretty small so it's easy to cover ourselves. We sleep together, so we can stay warm from each other's body heat. The anthem starts and we look up into the sky. There's Glimmer and Marina.
"11 left," Rue says.
"11 left," I echo.
I turn my body so I am facing Rue.
"You know, we should really do something. Something exciting for the crowd. If we are just doing nothing, who knows what the gamemakers will send next?"
"I guess you have a point. But what would we do? "
"Well...I've been thinking, what is a big weakness of the career tributes?"
"Which is?"
"Well, they are always well fed. They don't know how to feed themselves, which we can do."
"But...they can feed themselves, with that huge pile of theirs."
I give a pause for a dramatic effect. "So we've got to destroy it."
~ A/N~ They've got to destroy it~! Dun dun dun, cliff hanger! Hope you guys are enjoying. If you haven't noticed, I named Foxface Jacqueline, haha. If you didn't catch that, that's the name of the actor who plays Foxface in the movie. I researched about her name and her name is "Finch", but I was just like, um...nice name? Yeah...I didn't really like it so I just named her Jacqueline. Plus, if you didn't know, a finch is a type of bird so I don't think it's a human name (sorry if you guys like the name Finch).
I already have everything laid out but I want to hear your thoughts. Do you think Rue and Prim will survive? Will they be the last 2? Will they kill each other? What about Peeta, Thresh, and Noah? Well you're gonna have to wait because we've still got quite a lot of chapters left. Comment with your thoughts on how you think it will end, and how you want it to end~! Love y'all,
-Monica