I wrote this as a Christmas gift for a friend of mine and decided to share it here too! I hope you enjoy it! Xx.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
She heard the countdown, saw her fellow tributes running towards the Cornucopia, and then into the woods, slaughtering as many people as they could along the way. It made her sick. How could she do this? She felt she would never make it back to Prim. She took took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened them only when a friendly hand clasped her shoulder. She turned her face toward Peeta Mellark, and saw in his eyes the same fears, the same dread. She nodded slightly, not breaking their gaze, and then slowly turned her head, staring back at the Cornucopia she knew held their weapons of choice. Finally stepping down from the pedestal that had brought her into this hell, she took Peeta's hand and began to back away from the golden monstrosity where the others were rapidly massacring each other. They would get their weapons, but not today. Today, they would simply survive.
As the two disappeared into the woods, Katniss thought back on the promise in Peeta's eyes, and silently vowed to keep a promise of her own. Should either of these tributes die, they wouldn't go down alone.
They set up camp in a small cave the pair had found. Katniss had disguised the entrance, and for now they were safe. Neither said anything. Peeta pulled Katniss close to him, and she rested her head on his shoulder as they sat on the cold cave floor. Katniss knew Peeta loved her, and she knew she wasn't coming out of this. So why not let herself love him too? Closing her eyes, she thought about all of the things she'd never do, the people she wouldn't be returning to. The world was ugly, she thought.
Nightfall came, and the two moved outside to watch the faces of the dead fly through the sky. There were nine faces that night, and both tributes were thankful not to be seeing the other on the screen. As the last face appeared, Katniss straightened where she sat, slapping a hand on Peeta's chest.
"She had the bow and arrow. I have to find it." Peeta looked to her and slowly stood, holding a hand out for her to take. He knew she was right. And so they went, off to find the bow, hoping not to die along the way.
They looked everywhere. They spent two days combing the aren and the bow was nowhere to be seen. To better things, they hadn't eaten since the day they had arrived. Finally giving up, Katniss and Peeta came to a halt in the middle of the woods. Running a hand through his hair, Peeta huffed and mumbled,
"Somebody has it, then. Someone killed her and took the bow."
That was bad news. Very bad news. Dangerous news.
"Then we have to find them," Katniss stated solemnly. Peeta knew she was right. Without a weapon they didn't stand a chance here. Death was inevitable, but they were going to fight it as long as they could.
"We should eat first, and rest. We've been up for days and we need to be strong if we have to go up against someone else. It can wait, Katniss. What's one more day?"
The question aggravated Katniss. What's one more day? One more day could cost them their lives. Did that really mean so little to Peeta?
Peeta saw the thoughts unraveling in her mind, and before they could get too far, he grabbed both of her wrists, causing her to meet his gaze. Her dark eyes were angry in her olive-toned face, and she tried to jerk away from him.
"It won't do either of us any good to go after whoever has that bow unprepared. We can't just lay down our lives on the third day of the games. We have to at least try to come out of this, Katniss. For our families. And if not for our families, then for each other."
And Peeta was determined that Katniss would come out of this alive. He was going to do his best to get her out of there, even if he had to be left behind.
She was silent for a moment, and Peeta worried she would go after the bow anyways, right then. If that happened, he'd have to go with her. Fortunately, she gave a released a deep breath, her shoulders slumping, and leaned into him, murmuring, "Okay. One more day. One day, and then we'll find it."
Peeta sighed in relief as he wrapped his arms around her, and carefully, the two began to make their way back to the cave.
But then Prim was there, standing in front of them, and Peeta's brother, and they were running towards them. Katniss was terrified. This is exactly what she had been trying to avoid when she had volunteered in Prim's place, but now she was there, they were both there, and as Prim and Peeta's brother raced towards the dumbstruck couple, an arrow flew through the woods, hit Prim in the arm, and another pierced the knee of Peeta's brother. And there were more arrows and then rocks being thrown too, and as Katniss and Peeta ran forward to protect their loved ones, they found themselves dodging the lethal weapons. The tributes screamed their siblings' names as they made their way towards them, faces pale, eyes panicked and burning with tears. When they reached their family members, the rain of weapons stopped.
Katniss held Prim in her arms, horrified by the amount of blood she was losing as the young girl frantically tried to pull arrows from her skin, but they were barbed and she was only making her own injuries worse. Katniss whispered desperate comforts into her ear and tried hard, so, so hard, to find a solution, to fix this, to save her, but she was at a loss for thoughts, for words, for anything that wasn't a feeling of absolute terror.
"Help me, Katniss, please, it hurts," Prim gasped, her breath becoming uneven and shallow. The girl shook in her sister's arms as Katniss choked, "Prim, why are you here?"
"The bow…" Prim garbled, "You didn't take it so-"
"So what? Prim? Prim, no!"
But it was too late for the young girl. Katniss watched as the life drained from her sister's eyes, as her body fell slack, and her lips fell open. She screamed her name, shook her, tried to bring her back to life. But it was no use. The archer shook as she cradled her dead sister in her arms, and took a moment to glance over at Peeta. His brother was still alive, but he was gasping just as Prim had.
"We brought it- brought-"
"What did you bring?" Peeta murmured, tears in his eyes as he held his older brother close.
"The bow," his brother whispered, voice strangled as he struggled to speak around the blood pooling in his throat. Peeta's brother tried to move his arm, tried to reach behind him and remove the bow that had been strapped there by none other than Mr. Seneca Crane, the game maker.
Peeta took in a sharp breath as he saw the weapon strapped to his brother, choking a quiet, "Oh, God," before beginning to cry soft apologies as his brother too, passed on. He clutched his brother to his chest for a few moments, sobbing openly, before he carefully reached behind his brother's back and withdrew the bow he and Prim had been forced to present to them.
Katniss watched him do it, and when she realized what had happened, she covered her face with her hands. This was horrible. This was awful. This was her fault. She hadn't gone to the Cornucopia, hadn't fought for her weapon of choice, had chosen to gone unprotected. And so the Capitol had sent it to her, directly attached to her worst nightmare. They wanted to see her fight, to see her die. She recalled Peeta's words "We have to at least try to come out of this, Katniss. For our families." Well, now, Katniss had no family left to live for. She knew her mother, depressed as she may seem, would never let the Capitol take her second daughter without a fight. Not when they had already condemned her first one. And neither would Gale. God, he was probably gone too. And Peeta's family- she couldn't bear to think about it. She knew the Capitol had taken whoever would have the largest effect. She knew there were no survivors. So the two tributes were alone in the world. No one was out there for them besides each other. As the two sat crying, sitting back to back with their relatives in their arms, a small parachute came down from the sky, landing beside them. Hesitant to open it, both stared at it for a while. Katniss didn't want to touch it. She didn't want a gift, any gift, from anyone, especially not the Capitol.
Slowly, Peeta reached out to it, his blood covered hands slipping around the silver canister attached to the parachute as he attempted to open it. Finally, he extracted a small piece of paper from the gift, a note. He read it and flung it away from himself, his tears coming faster as he began to repeat himself.
"No," he said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." Over and over, no, no, no. He shook his head violently, trying to forget he had ever read the words, tried to deny what was happening. He held his brother tight to him, remembering all the times they'd had together, like when his brother had taught him how to make a baguette, or the long hours they had once spent laughing together, just enjoying each other's company. And now he was gone, his whole family, probably, and the Capitol, they wanted- he couldn't think the words.
Slowly, Katniss reached out for it, picked it up, tried to ignore the blood stains Peeta's fingers had left. If she had thought this situation couldn't get worse, she was wrong. So wrong. She felt like she was drowning, she was absolutely appalled. They had killed her family, Peeta's family, and now- She shuddered. She must have misunderstood the words, read them the wrong way. But she hadn't, no, and she wanted to vomit, or just to die, as her sister had.
It was a note from Haymitch.
I'm so sorry, it said, I tried so hard to stop them.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, God, I'm so, so, sorry.
Take the arrows.
-H
Take the arrows. The Capitol wanted her to take the arrows, wanted her to rip them from the dead bodies of her fellow citizens of District 12, wanted her to mutilate her sister to save herself. She couldn't do it. How could she do it? How could they expect her to do it?
Katniss and Peeta sat there for hours, almost hoping someone would find them, but the Capitol had placed a shield around them for the time being. They were going to do this. There was no way out this time around.
Eventually, Peeta shifted onto his knees, and gently laying his brother before him, began his attempt to pull the arrows from his kin. He was making no progress, was only further damaging what was left of his brother. He tried desperately to pull them from his sibling, tears rolling down his face as he did so, and for a while all Katniss could do was watch.
"Peeta," she finally whispered, "Peeta, stop."
The blonde looked back at her, his eyes hollow, but his expression angry.
"They killed him, Katniss, killed both of them! I won't sit here and let them die in vain." As he said it, he continued to tug at the arrows, but they wouldn't budge, wouldn't move. Katniss sat, shaking her head as Peeta spoke, her breath coming in gasps as she started to choke again.
"Peeta, stop."
He whirled on her, ready to tear her to pieces if she told him to just let his brother lie there, but when he saw the look on her face, he knew whatever she had to say was much worse.
"You have to push them through," she finally said, and Peeta felt he would faint. How was it possible that this just kept getting worse?
Fresh tears coming to Peeta's eyes, he swallowed hard as he gave a nod, and then Katniss too, gently rolled her sibling onto the ground in front of her, beginning with the arrows in her poor sister's arms. It was hard work, bloody work, work that would haunt them for the rest of their lives no matter how short they may be. The two worked for hours, pushing and prodding and crying, always crying. When they had finished they were filthy, covered in so much blood they wanted to die right then and there. But just as soon as they finished, they heard the hum of a hovercraft approaching to take away the bodies of their loved ones.
Her tears having run dry, Katniss tucked the note inside the tight material of her shirt, and then bent down to hold her sister one last time. She separated Prim's hair into three segments, re-braiding the long golden locks that had been cut loose by one of the many arrows that had caused her death. When she had finished, she unpinned the Mockingjay pin from the outfit she had been forced to wear, and clipped it gently to the collar of the soft pink dress Prim had worn. Caressing her sister's face, Katniss leaned forward to place a loving kiss on her cheek, and then her sister was being torn from her arms by a peace keeper and thrown roughly into the hovercraft's lift. The tributes watched as their kin were lifted into the hovercraft, and as they went, they raised their hands in a three fingered salute. All across Panem, people did the same.
From then on, Katniss and Peeta were determined to win. If the Capitol wanted a fight, it was a fight they would get. Only it wouldn't be a fight, it would be a war. And not between tributes, between the people and their rulers. This was the end for the Capitol. It had been decided. Decided not only by Katniss and Peeta, but by District 12, by their fellow tributes, by the whole country of Panem.
While the District 12 tributes had been forced to tear their loved ones apart, the world had been forced to watch. The Districts, the Capitol, past victors, current sponsors, they had all seen it. Even the tributes who remained in the arena had been made to stand just out of sight, held in place by separate shields that had surrounded them for hours as they watched the sad scene between the citizens of the coal-mining district. And as Katniss and Peeta cried, something shifted within the citizens of Panem. This wasn't okay. This was wrong. The Games had finally gone too far.
And so when the hovercraft had gone and the shields had finally been lifted to release the tributes, those who had been forced to watch stepped out of their foxholes and into the sunlit area where Peeta and Katniss stood. The couple on fire looked at the tear stained faces of those around them, saw the hard resolve that festered in their eyes, and as the others offered salutes of their own, Katniss and Peeta joined hands, moving to stand between the tributes of District 4. As the rest of the tributes followed their lead, a circle was formed, and the fifteen remaining contestants of the Hunger Games made a silent vow to take the Capitol down swinging. But first, they had to get out of this arena.
Prim didn't know where she was, but she wasn't alive. She was, however, looking down on her sister, on her friend Peeta, on the outraged citizens who occupied her former country. She smiled as she took in the fierce look on her sister's face. She knew that if anyone could do this, it was Katniss. The girl on fire would set the world ablaze. And the boy on fire, he would help.
They stopped fighting and started searching. The fifteen allies found all the edible food they could, gathering berries, leaves, squirrels, for days and days, staging small battles to "keep the Games going." Currently, three tributes sported fake injuries. To the game makers, they knew, it looked like they had created a series of alliances that overlapped and conflicted. The game makers were waiting for this to come to light, for a true massacre to begin. But everyone else was waiting for a plan, a signal, anything to start the revolution. They were ready, from the Capitol to the "lost" Thirteenth District, Panem was readying itself to starve the government to death.
And it would start exactly where it would end: in District 12, where it belonged.