Chapter 7:
They walked for a couple more hours, as twilight began setting over the arena, just managing to find a concealed enough tree. They cooked the meat on hot embers of a low burning fire, making sure it didn't get too big, before eating quickly and disposing of the fire and carcass before scaling the tree, each lost in their own thoughts and waiting patiently for the anthem to begin.
When it did, Katniss could barely stand to look at the sky and see the girl that she killed, instead she trusted Gale to keep count of how many tributes were left.
"There's only ten of us left." Gale stated without any infliction as Katniss numbly nodded her head.
"The career pack hunt at night." Rue murmured quietly.
"So that leaves us with the Careers, Thresh and us?" Gale murmured confused.
"They have a pair from District ten, they guard the Cornucopia when they are out hunting." Rue explained.
"We need to think of a plan." Gale stated as Katniss shot him a look.
"A plan? What can we do? Rue needs to rest her leg Gale. The plan is to keep to what we are doing." Katniss spat as Gale looked at her in shock.
"Fine we do that for a couple more days, and then we go after them." Gale stated taking a breath, looking at her still pink cheek and feeling guilt.
"Go after them? You don't know what you are saying!" Katniss stated urgently, her mind haunted over the girl that she had just killed, and she knew in that moment that the girl whose name she did not even know would always be with her.
"It does something to you Gale. Killing a person does something that can never be fixed." She whimpered as he leant toward her.
"It was either you or her. You have to remember that!" Gale stated as she shook her head.
"She didn't even have a weapon Gale."
"But the career pack will, Katniss. They will kill you and me and Rue and wont even care." Gale stated his eyes wild and crazed, she closed her own eyes and rested against the rough bark of the tree, pulling Rue to lean against her.
"We have time to think, we will think of a plan when Rue is better." Katniss muttered effectively ending the conversation.
The next couple of days passed in the same fashion – the atmosphere around them all was tense and awkward. They ate silently and moved to different locations of the arena. Katniss was closed off, still reeling from the death of the girl that she had killed. There had been no canons since that time, and she worried that the Game makers were going to get bored with the lack of action.
Rue's ankle was getting better as the days progressed; they had been winding a tight piece of fabric around it which seemed to be helping her.
"I have been thinking." Gale murmured in the evening as Rue slept not far from them.
"You're right, we can't just go after the career pack. They are talented and will just kill us off. But they have a lot off supplies don't they? I thought, if we could just get rid of their supplies somehow maybe that would help us? I can bet they don't know how to hunt. Maybe it would happen naturally. Starvation, desperation?" Gale stated, his arm resting against hers as she nodded her head thoughtfully.
"We could go to the cornucopia, watch them. Set a few diversions and then get in there. It would be perfect, Rue is nearly healed. She can live off in the trees like she was doing, and in that time we would split up." Gale said carefully as Katniss looked up at him in shock.
"I'm not ready for us to split!" Katniss said louder than she intended before slapping a hand over her mouth, as she and Gale looked around themselves and listening.
"I'm not either Catnip." Gale murmured, gently tucking a loose piece of hair behind her ear. "We won't, not yet at least, let a few of the careers die, and then we will split."
"I can't do this without you." Katniss murmured as Gale sighed silently.
"You think I can?" Gale murmured leaning in and quickly pressing his lips to her own as she gasped, pulling back in shock.
"Gale?" She questioned softly as he smiled at her.
"I had to do that, Katniss. At least once."
"What's happened between you two?" Rue asked the following afternoon, as Gale went to hunt leaving the two of them alone. The tell tale blush was still on Katniss' face even hours later.
"Nothing." Katniss breathed as Rue looked at her with a raised brow.
"Something." Rue sang in a pretty voice as a near by Mockingjay repeated the pitch, Katniss hadn't noticed them at first, but the arena was full of them. Had learnt from Rue that there were a lot of nests in the trees and which tree to avoid because of them.
"He likes you, you know?" Rue added with a grin as Katniss blushed further.
"He does not." Even as Katniss said this she couldn't believe it.
"Gale told me." Rue said as Katniss looked at her in shock, she giggled quietly to herself whilst nodding her head. "Do you like him?" Rue persisted as Katniss rolled her eyes.
"Its, he's Gale." She stated as if that were enough explanation.
"You do! You like him too!" Rue stated excitedly as Katniss tried to silence her.
"It doesn't matter!" Katniss muttered with a shrug. "I've never thought about him that way, but last night he kissed me."
"I knew something happened!" Rue stated excitedly with a wide grin making Katniss laugh. "So do you like him?" Rue asked getting to her feet and stretching her nearly healed ankle.
"Gale's my best friend Rue." Katniss said with a shrug, she tried to think if maybe he had kissed her back at home, would things had been different?
"He told me; it was the summer after you met – that he realised he liked you. He saw someone flirting with you and he didn't like it." Rue admitted wistfully, standing the way Katniss always noticed, leant forward with an excited smile on her pretty face, arms tensed at her side.
"That's not true, no one has ever flirted with me." Katniss scoffed from her seat on the floor as Rue smiled wider.
"He told me that you didn't even know when someone was flirting with you or liked you! Which made it all the better and harder for him!" Rue stated as if it was the biggest surprise. "Gale's in love with you! Katniss and Gale sitting in a tree!" Rue pointed up to the tree that they were sleeping in just the night before, laughing joyfully to herself. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" She sung as Katniss put her finger to her lips, trying to look severe and only laughing alongside with her, a feeling so very foreign to Katniss blooming in her chest.
"First comes love, then comes marriage-" Her singing stopped short with a pained gasp and Katniss looked up suddenly, watching as the smile fell from Rue's face as she fell to her knee's.
"No." She muttered, the air leaving her lungs and making her gasp from the shock and pain. Katniss looked up to see one of the Careers from District two – Marvel she knew his name to be, a smile on his mean face. She pulled an arrow as fast as she could, but it was too late, an arrow made off wood and stone went flying through the air well before hers was even ready and went straight through his eye, killing him quickly.
Katniss flung herself to Rue who was laying on her front gasping for breathe. Gale came running from the tree line, preparing another arrow and waiting expectantly.
"We have to go!" He shouted, pointing his arrow, his breathing short and shallow.
"I'm not leaving her!" Katniss screamed, looking at the severe knife that was embedded into her back. "You're okay Rue. You're okay. I got you." Katniss murmured to her as the girl quietly sobbed between wheezing breathes.
"Please?" Rue gasped out, a hand motioning toward her back before dropping to the ground in pain. Katniss bit her lip, and pulled the knife out from her back as fast as she could as Rue groaned in agony.
"I'm sorry." Katniss sobbed, turning her over and onto her back.
Katniss watched as Rue cried softly, her eyes closing more than they were opening.
"Please Rue, stay awake!" Katniss cried holding onto the girl and rocking her.
"Katniss." Gale said quietly, tears falling from his own dark eyes. "Katniss, she's gone."
Authors note : Oh God! I loved little Rue :( Hope you all enjoyed this impromptu chapter! My very talented sister read my story earlier, and swore at me for the ending - So hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as she did! I was planning on waiting until Monday but I just couldn't help myself once again! Feel free to leave me any reviews, I love them!
Also my sister used to write a lot of Fanfic, so feel free to check her out : Carla-p She wrote a lot of X-men fanfic, which was awesome!
Until next time!
