When he heard the canon fire twice he couldn't stop himself from running back. Through the branches and leaves he can see her, even with tracker jacker venom clouding his mind he knows it's her. She is kneeling next to a recently dead Glimmer whose beauty is lost behind the dozens of stings covering every inch of her flawless skin. She's been stung as well; he can see the swelling on her hand. He doesn't dare think about how many stings she procured in her attempt to chase the careers away from her. It was a brilliant plan but it seems to have backfired only slightly. Still, he knows that it could've been much worse. The proof is lying dead before him.
So he runs towards her, she's holding her newly acquired bow as if it were something absolutely unbelievable. The venom is already taking its toll on her, causing her to see things that aren't there. On the way to her, he saw several things he knew couldn't possibly be there. Trees dissolving into sand, rocks rupturing and spraying him with purple slime, and even bugs about 30 times their size that were capable of human speech. Once he reaches her he's yelling because he knows she won't pay attention otherwise. He's telling her to run, that Cato, Clove, and Marvel will be back any second, that she'll die if she doesn't get to her feet and MOVE. She seems to hear him, but it's as if she can't believe he's there talking to her. If she doesn't get up, neither of them will be able to speak again. He hears the bushes behind him rustling and he knows he's out of time. He grabs her by the wrist, yanks her to standing and shoves her away from the altercation that's about to go down.
"I knew it!" Someone yells behind him. He turns to see Cato, sword raised to strike. He's not as fast as Cato and he doesn't bring his spear up in time to defend himself and finds his leg to be in searing pain. The pain's so agonizing he can barely stand. Good thing Cato's been momentarily distracted by Glimmer's grotesque body as that gives him enough time to scramble to his feet and run towards what he knows to be the river. He can hear Cato yelling behind him, "No use running! You'll be dead in minutes!"
The sad thing is that he's knows that Cato's right. He feels the adrenaline seep from him; still, he trudges farther and farther up the river. By this point he knows that he's lost a lot of blood, at least a whole pint. And he's pretty sure that if Cato wanted to he could catch up and finish the deed. He doesn't manage to travel very far before collapsing to the ground. His knees hit first, hard. With effort he manages to twist so he lands on his back. He takes that time to check his wound. It's deep, very deep. He can see the white of his bone underneath the blood pooling. He swears silently to himself, he knows that he's not going to make it. There's no possible way. No more allies, no energy to fight off any enemies, and no Katniss. A girl that he loves more than anything, a girl he just risked his life for. And no way of knowing whether or not that she made it out of there… if she succumbed to the venom and is now lying dead, just like Glimmer and the girl from 4 he didn't bother to learn the name of. But there's no more canons, no helicarriers to remove the corpses from the arena, just silence. Silence and the gentle hum of the river. The sound is so soothing he finds himself falling asleep, 'If I'm going to die then at least let it be when I'm knocked out. And let it not be Katniss that does it.' He thinks to himself as he's overwhelmed by the darkness.
He's woken up the following morning by someone poking at his wounds. He winces at the extreme agony of it all and tries to fend of the perpetrator. It's no use. His back resists when he tries to sit up, his arms won't lift more than a few inches off the ground, and there's no response from his leg. He realizes that he feels as though the light sleep he procured zapped the little energy he had left instead of replenishing it. Someone is pushing him back to the ground so he doesn't fight it. If they're going to kill him, at least they're doing it humanely. He tenses up, ready for the fatal blow to occur.
But it never comes, there's just that insistent prodding of his few stings and his wound. Carefully he cracks open his eyes to see a little girl tending to his injuries, fatal and not, with an assortment of leaves and herbs. He recognizes the girl to be young Rue from District 11. She looks to him and gives him a weak smile. This girl doesn't belong in the arena, so kind and gentle, that much he knows. It pains him to watch her nurse his wounds. She even tends to the burn on his chest, exposing his flesh to the cold of twilight. A shiver rakes his body, sending even more pain through him. Rue looks at him and gently rubs some sort of paste into his burned flesh. No matter how gently she works on him, there's still that underlying pain. When she's finished she carefully places his shirt back into place and continues to mend his leg.
"This is going to hurt." She warns him. He nods, not noticing the stick in her hand. She shoves the stick into the wound, causing him to feel all sorts of pain he thought impossible. He doesn't know why she did that but now he sees she's digging out the wound of dirt and rocks. He places his wrist into his mouth to prevent him from screaming, his canines prove to be painful, nothing he can't withstand. Blood starts to trickle down to his elbow just as Rue finishes. She rubs some of her herbs into the wound then, causing some brief irritation before it brought soothing relief.
He tries to swallow but finds that his mouth is bone dry, "Thank you." He gasps.
She gives him another smile, "Your stings aren't as bad as Katniss'. Those should be fine; it's the leg you've got to worry about. I've stopped the bleeding for now, no telling what it's going to do in a couple of days, though."
Much of what she said passed right through him; it's the part about Katniss that stuck, "Is she alright? Where is she?" He says, trying to get up once more.
"She's healing. I've got her hidden deeper in the woods." She reassures her anxiety ridden patient. This causes him to settle slightly.
His entire demeanor turns from tense to relaxed as he talks himself out of a panic attack. But he soon realizes that he can't exactly remain out in the open with Cato and the others running around looking for the girl who nearly killed all of them, "Why did you save me?" He starts to ask, "I'm dead anyway, when the careers find me."
Rue just smiles, "Katniss will have a hard time pushing forward if you're gone. Besides, I don't want to tell her that you're dead when she finally wakes up."
"She hasn't, yet? Is she going to make it?" He asks, returning to a more panicked state.
"No and yes. There are leaves here that treat tracker jacker venom when chewed and applied directly to the sting. She's got some of that on her now. I'm going to leave some of them with you." Rue informs him, standing up and looking like she's going to leave. He tries to stop her only to find that she's gathering rocks, mud, and moss and placing it near him, "I hear you're good with camouflage." She casks a wink in his direction and before he has time to respond, she's gone.
Carefully he begins to work himself into the environment. It's nowhere near easy with the accommodations he has to consider with his injured leg. Other than that the rocks stick to his face with help of the mud and he covers himself with the moss like a blanket. It takes him a little while but eventually he's completely blended into his surroundings and the pain in his leg being reduced to what it was allowed himself the quiet ease of sleep.
It's days before he hears someone approaching, not that he realizes this at first. He cracks his eyes open just barely to see 'Foxface' zipping past. Behind her a ways is the boy from 3 who the careers ordered to guard their stuff. He finally notices that he must've been out for a few days because his leg is searing in pain again and all of the substance on him had dried considerably. This is when an explosion can be heard off in the distance, the boy from 3 looks behind him and curses to himself, running back the way he came. With the boy gone, Foxface comes back into his view, looking at the smoke from the explosion. He must've moved slightly because she suddenly had her eyes on him, daggers of a ghostly blue. She kneels down beside him, her face dangerously close to his. He has to fight to urge to squirm, to fight. That's when he notices the swelling on her cheek; she had been bitten by a tracker jacker. His hand moves from underneath the moss and points to a pile of leaves, "Use them." He says, causing the girl to jump back. Eventually she must realize that the boy in the mud was no threat to her because she approaches the leaves, not without caution, and examines them. She casts a glare at him, "It's for the sting, chew it and rub it in." He explains further. His voice is so void of life, dryer than the desert, and Foxface must've noticed as well since she is over by the river now, filling a small vile with water. She returns to him and places the container to his lips. She tips the water and he realizes how much he missed the simple substance. Breathing no longer pained him. She still seems skeptical about the leaves though, "Bring one over."
She does as he asks. He then lifts his hand out from beneath the moss and puts the leaf in his mouth. Her eyes grow wide, disproving that they were poisonous, and proving that he had no intention to end her life.
He spits out the chewed substance and rubs it into one of his almost all the way healed stings, "See? It's perfectly fine."
Gingerly she reaches for another and does as he did. You can see the relief on her face as the leaf zaps away some of the pain. She digs her hand into one of her pockets and places three berries in the vicinity of his mouth. He knows better than to trust her so she, again, does as he did. She places one of them past her lips and chews. When she holds them out for a second time he hesistantly opens his mouth allowing her to dump them in. He chews carefully and, again, he's surprised with how thirsty he is.
"Thank you." He says quietly, just as the sound of a canon resonates throughout the arena. Foxface looks towards the site of the explosion with her usual alertness so he starts to cover himself back up. That's when she surprises him again; she swats at his hand and does it for him. She places more mud on his face where it cracked due to his chewing and drinking, she covers him back up with the moss, and gives him a nervous smile. Then, like Rue, she's gone. Once she's gone there are two more shots from the canon and for some reason he hopes that she wasn't the cause of one of them. Through her mysterious essence there's a girl that's just as scared as the rest of them.
That night, he sees the three who perished. First, Marvel, the District 1 career tribute, then there's the boy from 3 and Rue, sweet little Rue, from 11. He actually bites back a tear when he sees her picture flash across the sky. Can't have his tears wiping away his camouflage. And can't have Cato and Clove hear him seeing as they were approaching from downstream.
"What are we going to do Cato? I don't know what's safe to eat in this godforsaken forest." Clove says to her fellow tribute.
You can tell just by the look on his face that Cato hasn't cooled down, "Why do you care? We're just going to have to kill each other in the end. Maybe I should just leave you now. You won't get far without me." He threatens.
Clove is slightly hurt by his words; even though she knows what he says is the truth, "I won't get far without you? All you can do is break necks and slit throats! I can actually aim and possibly kill something with some protein! Let's see you last the rest of the week without me." She threatens back in a huff. She starts to turn away when a voice can be heard all around them.
"Attention, Tributes. Attention. The regulations requiring a single victor have been… suspended. From now on, two victors may be crowned if both originate from the same district." The voice says, "This will be the only announcement."
And with that, Cato runs after Clove and swings his arms around her. Just those few words and everything the two had just said is completely void. They embrace as if they're old friends, perhaps they are. They're both Career Tributes, they could've trained together at their Academy in District 2. Still, it's a touching moment between the two seemingly heartless killers. Clove's even tearing up a little, "I'm sorry, Cato." She whispers.
Cato lets out a laugh, "I'm sorry, too." They pull apart, their hands being the only thing touching anymore, "Let's kill some more tributes!" He says, pulling Clove along as they head back towards the Cornucopia. The boy covered in rocks, dirt, and moss lets out an audible sigh of relief. That's when the announcement truly hits him. If Katniss can find him then they both have a chance to make it home. But… how can she find him? He's secured under a layer of grim that no human eye can hope to penetrate. Still, he dares to hope. Good thing too because not an hour later he hears the most beautiful girl whisper in the distance.
"Peeta!" She says. He can just imagine her, long black hair still in the braid she started with just a little bit messy, light grey eyes showing the ware of the games but still holding their usual ethereal beauty, and the body of a hunter pushed to a limit it has never known in her attempts to survive. He sees her off in the distance, testing the ground for remnants of his long dried blood. He almost chuckles, watching the girl he loves using all of her hunter's knowledge to try and find him. He wonders if she'll still want to join up with him once she sees his wounds. She won't live long with him as a crutch. Still, when she starts to head his way he can't help it, he quietly whispers…
"Katniss…"