I had a fight in me. A new fight, not a fight like the Hunger Games wanted. I had a fight not to get revenge, I had no blood thirst, but it was still a fight. A fight to survive. A fight to thrive. A good kind of fight, one that didn't require killing. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.
After all, I was in the Hunger Games. I now needed to win for myself, Prim, Peeta, Haymitch, and maybe even Gale. I didn't want to hurt anyone. But I would have to, wouldn't I?
After I cried my heart out, I fell asleep. I woke up to the Capitol's seal in the sky, the anthem playing, but no new faces. Just Peeta's. I reached my hand up to the sky as if I could pull him out of the picture. Unlike so many others, Peeta smiled in his picture. I'm not quite sure why, but he was probably the first one in the history of the Hunger Games who ever smiled. Maybe he thought it would give others hope, but it did exactly the opposite for me.
The reality of Peeta's death finally set in for me. The smile on the boy's face filled me with dread; I couldn't protect him. I never could. I never would be able to now. I only wish he knew how much I cared for him, not how much I loved him, but that I did care. After all, he had to make quite an effort to act like he loved me the way he did. I wondered if anyone actually believed that we were in love.
I had had enough time to think. If I was going to move, I had better do it soon. It was night, so that was an advantage. No one would be able to see me if I kept in the shadows, and maybe I could get one step closer to winning the Games if luck was with me. I doubted it would be, though. It's not like I had been all that lucky at that time or ever, really.
I gathered my belongings and brushed myself off before starting my journey. I decided to try and find Foxface first. It wasn't for revenge, but I didn't want to kill Thresh in his sleep, if he was in fact sleeping. With Fo- I mean, Elvira, I had no problem with the somewhat cowardly move. I wouldn't strike her back though, that wasn't the amount of respect she deserved. After all, she did make it to the final three in the Games. Too bad I would have to make sure she wasn't in the final round.
I began to wonder when the Gamemakers would release some mutant or other. I assumed that I was the only one looking for a fight then. After all, I was the only one who had lost something dear to them; I was the only one who wanted to recover when Elvira took from me.
But I couldn't. The only thing that I could do then was to make sure Peeta would approve of what I was doing. Even though Elvira was the one who murdered him, he would want her to die a noble death for whatever reason. To be honest, I wouldn't exactly want to kill her in a pathetic way. I would make sure she had a weapon as well, even if she was sleeping. If I died killing her, that would be fine. I could tell Peeta sorry, Thresh would win. If it's not me, Thresh should win. I bet that he will win.
Without realizing it, I had been walking through the night. Not once did I feel tired or hesitate in which direction I should go. I was untouchable, the sun was rising just for me. I felt brilliant; the sun warmed my face, my footsteps couldn't be heard. I left no evidence where I passed, I was untraceable.
I should have known then that I shouldn't ever feel that good when hunting. Not ever. Not without Gale behind me, not without somebody watching my back for me. Gale would be disappointed. I could see him in that moment, shaking his head, whispering my name softly. When he glanced back up at the television, his eyes were blank and empty.
I cried out in pain as I was pushed over. Pain seared through my body as I felt several blades scrape across my flesh, into my shoulder. Someone was on top of me. I could tell by the weight that it wasn't Thresh. I turned my head to the right, and saw it wasn't Elvira either. It was a mutant.
It was one of the most gut-wrenching, bone-chilling things I had ever seen. Claws made of perfectly sharpened knife blades, three on each hand. The middle blade was serrated, the outer two double-sided. It came up to my hip; it was fast. Its eyes were pits, I couldn't tell if it had eyeballs or not. It was a disgusting color of brown and blue all mixed together. It had hair. I had seen that hair before. . . But it couldn't be . . . . could it? Its hair was the exact shade, style, and length as Glimmer's hair once was. That wasn't possible. The Gamemakers were messing with us, there's no was they would butcher the Tributes like that, right? Yes, that was it. It was a mind trick. A bad one which I wouldn't fall for.
I rolled over, crushing the thing on my back while doing so. I stood up and the thing fell off of me. As I loaded my arrow into the bow, I saw it smile at me. Yellowed, cracked, long, sharp teeth caught the sunlight and almost sparkled. They were covered in some sort of goo, I didn't want to think about what was on them. As the beast opened its mouth to bite me, I shot an arrow straight down its throat. It gagged and tried to yank the arrow out. It did after a moment or so, but it was too late.
Black blood oozed out of its mouth. The thing tried to catch its breath, but it only choked on its blood. The thing keeled over, retching blood and bile all at once. Then its body stopped and it disintegrated. Right in front of me, it turned to dust. I ran over to the pile and grabbed my arrow. I shoved it back into the sheath and headed for the nearest tree.
I climbed as fast as I could to the top. I looked out over the arena and found that Elvira wasn't so fat away, fighting two of the things. Those two looked like Rue and Cato. Rue. . . No, no, it was just a trick. I could kill it. It wasn't Rue. It wasn't Rue.
As much as I told myself it wasn't Rue, I didn't believe it. I shut my eyes tight and leaned against the cool tree bark. A piercing scream hit my good ear; my eyes flew open. One of the things had bitten Elvira on her right arm. Where it bit her, a gash began to form. At that moment, I knew what was on those teeth. Acid. As it burned through Elvira's arm, her cries became louder and longer. The things advanced on her. With her left arm, she managed to kill Cato's monster-person, but Rue's was still alive.
The thing advanced on Elvira, who was pleading for it not to touch her. She screamed at it to go away, to leave her alone. The thing slashed its claws across Elvira's face, catching one of her eyes. She screamed louder, if it was possible. Then all of the sudden, Thresh came barreling in, two knives drawn, and cut off the beasts' head.
I gasped before I told myself that it wasn't Rue. It couldn't be Rue. It wasn't Rue. I heard a rustling beneath me, and as I looked down to see what it was, I already knew. It was three of them. Clove, Marvel, and the boy from District 9 that was killed in the Bloodbath the first day, the one who coughed his blood in my face. I loaded my bow and hit Clove's beast. It hit the pit it had as an eye, but had no effect. The thing pulled it out carelessly and snapped it in half.
I grabbed a rather small branch above me and swung down, landing on top of Marvel's beast. I crushed it, and I twig lodged itself down its throat.
"So that's their weakness," I thought to myself. "I just have to wait for them to open their mouths and then they're gone."
I hopped down the tree, weaving through the branches. I could hear one beast trip behind me and the next moment, Clove's beast was falling past me, hitting the ground hard. It wasn't dead, though. It got back up and hopped up high, climbing the tree towards me. I turned around and saw that the District 9 boy's beast was having some trouble getting down the tree, it couldn't jump down as well as it could up. I swung myself around to the opposite side of the tree trunk. I jumped out of the tree just as Clove's thing reached me, I was about twenty feet off the ground.
I let my legs buckle beneath me, if I'd have locked my knees, my leg would have broken. I stood back up with a could of scars, nothing more. Once on the ground, I turned and glanced at Thresh, who was currently battling Peeta, the girl from District 4 that I dropped the Tracker Jacker's nest on, the girl from District 8 who started the fire, and a boy and a girl I didn't recognize. It looked like he was struggling, but he didn't notice me, so I decided to finish my own battle before I helped him.
Clove's beast hopped down from the tree, followed by District 9 boys'. As Clove hopped down, she opened her mouth and I let my arrow fly. By the time she hit the ground, she had already disintegrated. Now all I had to worry about was District 9 boy. It smiled, but didn't open its mouth. Maybe it figured out that I knew their secret, but it wasn't going to let me get an easy shot. I didn't have a knife with me, so I couldn't slit its throat. Just then, I remembered that Thresh had two knifes at least. I called out to him over my shoulder.
"Thresh! Their teeth are covered in acid, don't get bit, but when they open their mouths, shove a blade down their throats, or cut their heads off! Don't aim for their eye sockets, it won't do anything!" I shouted. Unfortunately, not only did I attract Thresh's attention, but also the unknown boy and girl's beast things.
"Thanks Katniss. But what is it you want?" Thresh called out as he cut the girl from District 8's beast head off.
"A knife!" I called back as I shot the boys' throat.
"Fine by me!" Thresh threw a knife at me. Luckily, I ducked out of the way in time. It hit the thing of the boy from District 9, cutting its throat open.
For a moment, I forgot that we were trying to kill each other as well. The boy's beast and I walked in a half circle, I didn't want my back to Thresh. I also wanted that knife, so I raced to the pile of dust and grabbed it. I slit its throat easily. At the same moment, Thresh finished Peeta's beast off.
I ran over to Thresh, and stood next to him.
"Listen, I don't kill you and you don't kill me until all these things are gone. Deal?" I ask him as I shoot the last thing's throat.
"Deal."
We shook on it and turned back to back, preparing for the next attack. I completely forgot about Elvira, who was crumpled on the ground, clutching her right arm, which was now only a stub.
I glanced at Thresh. "I'll do it, it's for her own good."
Thresh nodded, so I walked over to Elvira. "Sorry," I whispered, and cut her throat.
A cannon fired, and I hurried back to grab Thresh's hand. "Come on, we need to get away from here. Let's go somewhere we can have an advantage. Where would that be?" I asked.
"The Cornucopia," Thresh said without a moment's hesitation. And so we took off.