Title: The Pageant of Death

Chapter: 9 of 19

Words: 3,368 of 61,217

I wake up and see that it's getting light. Gale is sitting next to me, chewing on the inside of his cheek the way he does when he's nervous.

"Time?" I ask.

"Twenty to eight. I figured I should let you sleep. There won't be much time once we're in the arena."

"Thanks." I stretch slowly.

"We need to shower and eat. Haymitch is already awake."

"Really?"

Gale nods, "Yeah, he looked in about a half hour ago. I think we're so late in getting up that he thought we'd killed ourselves to avoid the arena."

"That's a good plan to avoid being murdered," I nod.

"Let's go shower."

I nod, "I'll see you in a little while." I try to enjoy the shower, reminding myself that this will be the last time I feel warm, clean water for months. I wash thoroughly getting rid of any trace of my smell. Then I dress simply and head out to breakfast carrying the box with the last few cookies.

Gale and Haymitch are already eating. I sit down and hold out the box. Gale takes a fern while Haymitch thanks me before taking the last daisy and I have one covered in tiny primroses, it's slightly stale but still delicious. "So, any last advice?" Gale asks. He's wearing the fire shoes, tapping his feet fretfully as he eats, sending out brief spurts of flame with each tap.

"Stay alive, find water, be a team and tell me when you need something. With editing I might not see every time you ask me for something but I'll do my best. You've got a lot of weight right now: the city loves you and they'll pay for what they love. So ask me for help when you need it." We nod and share an omelet, some stew, some ham and goat milk. Haymitch continually tops up our milk and water glasses. "Be as hydrated as possible."

We drink as much as we can and then it's time to go. Effie comes out, still in nightclothes and hugs both goodbye. I don't like her touching me.

He brings us to where we're going to get picked up by a hovercraft. "Run like you're on fire; find water; stay alive." We nod before we're herded onto the craft.

We're injected with trackers and I can tell by Gale's face how irritated he is. It's bad enough that we have to kill people on TV for the Capitol's amusement now they're putting things into our bodies. I can almost hear the tirade he would provide me with if we were in the woods. But if we were in the woods we wouldn't have the trackers. Instead of saying anything I take his hand in mine. He squeezes it and gives me a tiny smile.

Then we're separated when we land and I release his hand, and say, "I'll see you in less than an hour."

Cinna redresses me and braids my hair. He puts my pin on my jacket. "I'm not allowed to bet. But if I could I would bet on you."

I hug him; it's not like Effie because I actually want to hug him. "Thank you for everything, Cinna."

"I'll see you in a few weeks."

I let him go and say, "You're amazing Cinna. Don't do anything to yourself. Don't dye your skin or tattoo your eyes. You're amazing just the way you are."

He smiles and says, "I never would. It's time for you to get into the tube." I step into the tube and he says, "Don't step off the pedestal early." I nod. "You'll be okay." I nod again and then the tube starts to move and I go up into the darkness.

Then I'm pushed into the light. I see Gale on his own podium. I look around. There's a piece of plastic, a backpack that has a sleeping bag strapped to it and a knife slightly further away that is stuck in the ground. The backpack is orange but the next closest backpack is too far away. I look to Rue and give her a thumbs up and give her a slight gesture toward the woods behind us and she nods. Gale mouths at me, "Okay?" I nod. We wait and watch the clock. When it finally gets to zero I'm off the podium and grabbing what's closest. I have the knife and plastic in my hands. The five from 9 makes a grab for my backpack. But I'm faster and it gets killed by a knife thrown by one of the tens from two. It throws another knife at me but I block it with my backpack. It sinks into the material. So now I've got two weapons.

Everyone else is going to the Cornucopia. I see Gale out of the corner of my eye doing the exact same thing as me but Rue is behind me now so I can't see her. I run as fast as I can toward the forest. I hear Gale's familiar feet but not Rue's. I glance back and Gale, who knows me so well, screams, "She's not coming don't slow down."

So I keep going. We fall into step and run for a couple of hours. Finally Gale says, "We're miles away. Let's take stock." We slow down, coming to a jog before stopping making sure we don't get cramps. He's out of breath and between pants says, "How are you breathing so normally?"

"I just made sure I breathed evenly." I shrug, "I weigh less."

"And you run everywhere. I set snares and wait; you're always moving." It doesn't need to be said, we both know it. He's talking to the people watching on TV.

We walk for a while before sitting down. I have the two knives and the plastic to catch water while Gale has a small knife and a loaf of bread. We dump out our backpacks on the ground. Mine is orange and I rub mud into it while Gale's is a motley green. We each have a sleeping bag, plastic water bottle, a bottle of iodine and a coil of wire. Then I have crackers, some dried beef, a pair of sunglasses that don't work and a wooden box of matches. Gale has some dried fruit, a pair of mesh metal gloves and a second, larger coil of wire in a tin. Gale is thrilled. "What's so great about the wire?"

"It's razor sharp." He puts on the gloves and holds the wire between his hands and moves it over the grass which is instantly cut down. "It will make great snares for non-edible hunting."

I start repacking our bags. "We should go."

"We're at least ten miles from the Cornucopia," he says.

"We can't stop. We need water and more distance."

"I know but we need bows. We practiced at the Training Center, they're better than slingshots. I think we should make bows now before we're dehydrated and it's still light."

I think about it and say, "Fine but you keep watch and I'll make the bows. You were okay at throwing knives in the Training Center." I take one of the knives and quickly pick the wood. I carve the bows and string them with the blunt wire then I carve us each five arrows.

"Did you see those beautiful bows in the Cornucopia?" he asks.

"I was too busy looking for what was closest to me."

"Golden, one each, perfect size, nice grips and full quivers."

"Good sign," I say shaving off wood.

"Why?"

"There were multiples of all the weapons the Careers like, one for each of them. The Gamemakers want us all to have our preferred weapons. There are only two bows which means they are meant solely for us. So whoever took them can't, really, use them against us. Did you see anyone in the Training Center use them?"

"No, but we didn't touch them when the others were there either."

"But they liked showing off," I test the angles, making sure I'm carving it right.

It takes me less than an hour. Gale moves the bow to his shoulder and gets a feel for it in his hands. He hits a squirrel on his first attempt. "And everyone thought when you said that you'd take care of me you meant you'd do the laundry."

I test my own bow and hit another. "I taught you how to use a slingshot and just made you a bow: I'm not washing your clothes."

"I taught you how to make a snare."

"Yes," I say, taking aim and breathing out slowly before releasing the arrow and hitting a squirrel, "So you don't need to wash my clothes either." We get three more; Gale skins them while I start the fire. It takes me a little while for me to get the flames going but eventually we cook the meat and split it between our packs. Gale buries their non-edible bits but puts the skins into his bag. "Ready?" I ask.

"Yes," we put our packs on and start to run, keeping an eye out for signs of water. After a few hours Gale is panting hard, "Catnip," I slowdown. "I just can't run as much as you. You're so fast and so light. Please, can we just walk for a while?"

I nod, "Okay."

"Have you seen any signs of water?" he asks.

"No, not yet."

"It might be good that Rue didn't come with us. I don't know if she could have kept up with you."

"I would run slower if she was with us," I say. "Why do you think she didn't come? We had a plan."

Gale is silent for a while, "We spent all week looking weak and hiding all our skills. Then we climbed in front of her and she saw there was more to us. And we told her we wanted to be a team. Then we got the two highest scores in the Games. And then, after all that, you twirled in a dress and giggled. She had to see how fake all that was. So she must wonder what our plan really is."

"I guess."

"She told the ten from 11 that she was coming with us so that she didn't slow it down. Maybe she just said it to make the ten from 11 feel better. Maybe she was never planning on coming with us," he says.

We're silent as we walk, looking for water. "I felt badly for lying to Caesar. He was so nice and I was being all bubbly and silly."

"You didn't lie to Caesar: you put on a show for the other tributes. Caesar was misled for an evening but it might save our lives. He's not upset."

"You don't know that."

Gale laughs, "He's watching right now. What do we do when we feel bad about something we've done?" he says it the same way he would to the little kids.

I look around at the trees and spot a camera from the way the light glints off the lens. "I'm sorry Caesar. If I sit on your couch again I'll apologize in person but I really am sorry. I never wanted to mislead you. I just needed the other tributes to underestimate me. Gale's hard to underestimate because he's so tall so I needed to be the weakness. I wear a dress twice a year: the first day of school and the reaping. I have never twirled in a dress in my life, I don't giggle and Gale doesn't really want me to get married."

"It would be awful for me if you got married. Who would help me feed my family?"

"I would still need to snare vermin, get things with my slingshot and collect edible weeds. I doubt anyone I marry would be able to feed a family."

"A Peacekeeper could," says Gale.

That makes me laugh, "He's lying about that, Caesar, there is no interested Peacekeeper. There are not interested boys at all."

Gale laughs, "Oh yes there are."

"He's lying," I repeat. We keep walking and it starts to get dark. "We have to get off the ground."

He nods and we look for good trees. Gale points to one, "Good?"

"Looks fine to me."

We scale the tree quickly. There are two good branches. We slide into our sleeping bags and I take off my belt to loop it around me. "What are you doing?"

"Y'know how we climb up roofs to talk by ourselves, away from the kids?"

He nods, "Sure."

"I fell asleep waiting for you and rolled right off it. A two story drop is nowhere near as bad as a fall from this high."

"Good idea," he does the same as me.

"Y'know, if this wasn't an arena, if this was just a place, it would actually be really nice." I open my bag and pull out some squirrel. I hand some to Gale, "Dinner."

He reaches to take it and says, "Tomorrow we find water."

"Yeah." We eat in silence, gnawing on the bones for the marrow. "I hope Rue's okay." When I'm done I put the bones in the outer pocket of my bag.

"She's smart and fast. She ran from the Cornucopia and I saw her grab a backpack. She'll be okay tonight." The sky goes suddenly totally dark, save for thin moonlight and Gale says, "I forgot that we're actually inside."

The anthem begins to play then the cannon goes off again and again, marking the deaths of the kids from the Cornucopia and then they flash up photos of the dead tributes. All the kids are there. So is the crippled boy from ten. I'm relieved we won't have to kill them. Rue isn't among them. We eat in the dark. "I wish she'd come with us. She'd be so much safer."

"We couldn't make her come with us."

"I know," I nod. "Do you think they believed it? Do you think the other tributes believe that I'm insignificant?"

"I hope so. Otherwise you twirled in a dress and giggled like a fool for nothing."

"I bet Posey loved the twirling," I feel myself smiling.

"Oh, can you imagine how much she must have loved that? All those times you've been too busy to play pretend. All those times you've said, 'No, sweetie, sit down and eat. I have to go to school, maybe later.' And, now, there you were on TV spinning and laughing with your hair and nails all pretty. All makeup and glitter: the girl she always wanted you to play at being. You even wore grownup shoes that sparkled instead of leather boots. She must have been screaming."

"Those shoes were painful. But do you think it worked on the others?" I ask. "They're not stupid and I wasn't supposed to score that high."

He shakes his head. "I don't know but if they come after us it's just going to make our job easier. They'll present themselves to die. Now, sleep. I'll keep watch and we'll swap in a few hours." I shut my eyes but I see a flicker though my eyelids and smell smoke. "What an idiot," he whispers and I open my eyes. There's a tribute who has lit a fire. I hear footsteps and reach for my bow. I unbuckle the belt and get out of my sleeping bag silently as Gale does the same thing. It's a bunch of tributes, the Careers, all six of them.

One of them says, "It's probably the idiot in the dress."

"How did she outscore me?"

"All giggly, stupid. What the hell did she do? How does a simpleton get an eleven?"

"Who knows, the sooner she's dead the better, her and the twelve. They make me nervous. They're both covering up."

"She's an idiot and he's disgusting: only a freak would kiss another boy. It should be illegal and everyone in the city acted like it was fine — good even — but it's revolting."

"I want to just wipe that grin off his face and cut the giggle out of her throat," the self-proclaimed vicious one says.

Gale and I are poised but I need them to look up. I see both our bows, golden and perfect, in dumb hands. Gale and I exchange a look, I silently open my bag and I throw the bones from the squirrel I ate down to the ground. They all look up and Gale and I start shooting. I only release two arrows; I only have five and it's all so fast that I only have time to get two off the string. I hit the one with my bow in the eye and the eight from 4 right between the eyes. Gale hits the male ten from 2, the one who said it was vicious, through the neck. It falls to the ground and drops Gale's bow. The others scatter.

Gale's arrow didn't quite kill the vicious one. It's still moving a bit, trying to get up. Gale aims to shoot it again, to finish it off. He misses and the arrow buries itself in the ground next to it. I take aim and shoot it through the eye; it stops moving immediately. "That, ladies and gentlemen, is how a stupid girl in a dress gets an eleven. She's been able to hit animals in the eye with a slingshot since she was eight. And it turns out bows are pretty much the same thing." Gale says to a camera near us. Then we climb down quickly and go through their stuff, grabbing food, rope, more wires and water containers. One of the containers is half full and, in the light of the moon, I can't tell if it's been treated so I don't take a drink. There's a small mirror on the ground and Gale picks it up, "That could be really useful."

"That's a token, Gale."

"Oh, did you see which one?"

"The one with my bow."

He bends down and puts it back in its pocket. "I'm sorry," he says gently, "but it's me, or Katniss or Rue who's going home."

We load the extra weapons into their backpacks and hook the packs over their arms. The fewer weapons in the arena the better. The one who had Gale's bow also had a huge sword. We climb back up our tree and see that the tribute with the fire ran in the confusion but its fire is still burning. The canon goes off three times. I search for the iodine tablets in my bag by feeling for them. "I wish I had a flashlight," I mutter as I grope for them.

"Catnip doesn't mean that, Haymitch, we don't need a flashlight. Don't waste a gift on that," says Gale quickly.

"I don't," I agree. "We're fine, Haymitch, save it for when we need something."

Gale sounds reflective as he says, "So, your act didn't work. But at least they didn't really know what we can do. I wish the other three didn't get away. They've seen a little of what we can do. And they're what really stands between us and home… at least Posey got to see you twirl in a dress. If her older brother and her favorite big girl had to go into the arena and miss her fourth birthday at least she got to see you dressed like that." He doesn't need to say that he is her brother or that she's turning four but, again, he's not speaking to me. He's speaking to the people outside the arena.

I finally find the tablets and drop one into the bottle. "I don't how long it takes for the iodine to work but we can have a drink in the morning."

"Great," says Gale as he shimmies back into his sleeping bag. A hovercraft comes and picks up their bodies. We sit motionless, watching it. I feel the same dread as I did that day in the woods. Once it's gone Gale ties some of our new rope around his legs and says, "Get some sleep, Catnip."