Chapter 10

"Psst" My eyes shoot open. "Pssst!" What the… I look around until I see a person in the tree close by me. It was Rue! She points upwards above my head to a hive. When was there a hive? I look back up towards her and she points down towards Cato's group.

OH! I get it! I nod an okay and and I check to see if my burns were ok before moving. They were perfectly healed, so I got my knife and started to climb up towards the hive. I was nervous and scared because I knew what were in the hive. Tracker Jackers. They were big, poisonous beez.

I took my knife in my hands, and scooted closer to the nest and I started cutting the branch. The branch was small, but very thick. I tried to go as fast as I could because the Tracker Jackers were getting alarmed by the vibrations. They were all buzzing and swarming around me. I had to look down to make sure they didn't wake up.

"OW!" My neck felt like I got stabbed with a hot needle. I got stung in the neck and my throat started to pulse like crazy! I kept trying to saw through the branch, but these damn beez wouldn't leave me alone!

As I was about to cut through the entire branch, the beez decided to just attack me. I was getting stung in my neck, and my hands. I just kept cutting. Then i heard music to my ears. SNAP!

The branch finally breaks and the hive plummets down on them! They all jump up and start to scream and run in opposite directions except one. Glimmer was thrashing and screaming as all the Tracker Jackers swarm around her. I climb down, but then I start to feel dizzy. I lose my footing and fall the rest of the way down on my back. It literally knocked the air out of me.

I had to force myself to get up before I got stung again, but it was hard to move when the woods felt like it was spinning. I tried to shake it off and keep running but the dizziness wouldn't go away! My vision started to blur in and out as I was now walking through the woods.

I then see Glimmer's disfigured body laying on the ground no longer thrashing. She had giant bumps all over her body and her skin was blue. I see that she still had the bow in her hand, so I took the opportunity to grab the bow and the arrows on her back. As I was trying to grab the bow, her hands wouldn't loosen up on it, so I had to yank it. As I did, I could here her bones crack and brake because of the poison in her body.

"GO! GET OUT OF HERE!"

I hear a strong voice yell. I look behind me to see Thresh. He runs towards me with a sword in his hands, but I'm too tired to move. He, to my relief stops in front of me and yells.

"GET OUT OF HERE JOURNEY! GO!"

He lifts me up and then I start to run like he told me to as he goes the other way.

My vision starts to go black and I can't see anything. I start to freak out and and scream for help.

"Help me! Help me please! Somebody please!" Then I trip over something and I land in what feels like mud. I start to cry uncontrollably when I hear my mother cry… wait. My mother? She's not in the games!? I start to crawl to wear I hear her, and the crying turns into a laughter. A very annoying laughter that can only belong to Caesar Flickerman.

"Not only are these Tracker Jackers lethal folks. They produce powerful hallucinations. HAHAHA! I love it!" I can hear him say. Then all of a sudden I can see again. Only I'm not seeing the woods. I'm seeing the dusty wooden floor of my house.

"I'm so proud of you sweetheart. You are doing something that you can actually achieve. You can die." My mother says as she's rocking back and forth in her rocking chair.

"N-no. Mom you d-don't mean that!"

She just stares at me with a bottle in her hand. I realize that she's drunk.

"MOM! Mommy!" She still doesn't say a word just looks at me.

"Mommy please talk to me!" She then slaps me across the face and then I black out.

A bright light shines through my eyelids and wakes me up. My mouth feels dry and I feel strange. I feel something strange wrapped around my hands I look to see it was leaves. They were all around my neck and my hands. 'Who did this?' Then I remembered Thresh helping me up. Maybe he did it. I look around to see if he was here, but all I saw were my bow and arrows.

I heard rustling and I looked up to see a small shadow behind the moss filled tree. I knew exactly who that was as I came even closer to the tree.

"Rue?" I whisper softly not wanting to scare her. She shrinks back a little only leaving the side of her curly hair peeking through.

"Rue it's okay. I won't hurt you." I say giving her a soft smile. I was really good with kids mostly because I have a little kid brother. She steps out a little hesitantly and then smiles up at me.

"Are you hungry Rue? I can hunt." For once I actually saw her give a full smile and I felt like I just made a new friend.

I made a quick snare and caught a rabbit. It took awhile skinning it, but at least I finished. Rue helped make the fire by collecting some wood. After I was done cooking it, we ate mostly in silence.

As I was about to finish my first piece, I look over at Rue and see her finishing her last piece. I started to feel bad for her because she must've not eaten in awhile, so I offered my last piece to her.

"You can have if you want. I'm not that hungry." I say. She shakes her head no.

"No I'm okay." I smile as she reminds me so much of Prim. How Prim would always decline something when deep down she wanted it.

"It's fine. Here take it" She then smiles and grabs it then starts eating the small leg.

"Thanks for saving me." I say. I knew she was the one who put those leaves on my stings.

"No problem."

"Hey, so what did I miss when I was out?"

"Well you were asleep for 2 days so you didn't miss a lot. The girl from 1 and the boy from 10 are gone." I nod my head.

"And the boy from my District?" She smile and blushed. Ohh she has a crush on him.

"He's okay." She says. I smile as she says that, but it falls when I remembered that he was a traitor. "I think he likes you." She tells me. I look at her dumbfounded.

"W-what makes you think that?" Her smile grows.

"Well Thresh told me that Gale ask him to protect you the day of the games. And the day I was in the tree watching you and Cato's group, he kept looking up at you in the tree. All night to be exact." she mocks.

Now it was my turn to blush. Oh crap.

"I thought he was a traitor." Now I feel bad about all those hateful thoughts I had about him these past few days.

"No he isn't. And is it really true about you and him being an… item?"

"Well… (I don't know what to say) what do you think?" I said with a giant fake grin I played on my face.

"So anyway, where is Cato and his little group?" I tried to change the subject.

"Down by the cornucopia. They have all their supplies piled up in this great big pyramid" As she says that, by mind pops up an idea.

"Ohhh, that's sounds tempting" We both give devious smiles and I tell her all about my plan, which is to blow up their supplies.

We decided to do that tomorrow since it was getting dark and we laid in a very big log, so nobody would see us. As Rue was sleeping, I had to make a decision. Kill myself to let Rue win, or if the time comes...kill Rue. As I looked down at her face I knew that I just couldn't kill her. I would give up my life before killing this girl. She is too kind, too gentle for her to die.