Katniss
It was only a minute or so after I had proposed the ambush to Rue that I heard it. A disturbance in the forest. Rustling and ill-concealed footsteps running away. Much as this worries me, whoever or whatever it is isn't coming towards us, but the opposite, so I don't make a big deal of it, and nor does Rue. After a moment or so, she pipes up nervously,
"So how are we going to do this then?"
That's a good question, and I say so. And then I think about a few days ago, where that stupid girl lit up a fire, and was found by the Careers... that's when it hits me.
"We need a distraction," I realise "Something that will get the Careers on the other side of the arena straight away and give us a chance to take down whatever's there; their food, their weapons, whatever the hell else they've got."
"What are you going to do, take off all your clothes and run off into the woods and hope they follow?" Rue giggled, and I laughed, trying not to imagine that too hard.
"Well, the last person I saw naked around this arena was you, so feel more than free," I winked, but then pressed on before the thought of each other naked became too distracting, "So we light a few fires in the woods. The Careers will follow the smoke, then we'll muscle in on their camp and... oh, then God knows what will happen. I'll figure it out when I get there!" I decide, and we share a conspiratorial smile. But then Rue notices.
"Wait, you said "I"... you think you're going alone?" she says, indignant.
"Rue," I say softly, "I do not want you in any more danger than you're already in. Besides, you have an important job to do if we need that distraction!"
"No," she says, with a finality and authority that I have never heard in her voice before. "You're not risking your neck for me; I'm faster than you are, I'll be able to do whatever it is we need to do and then run."
"This is the Hunger Games," I remind her. "Every second of our current existence qualifies as risking our neck. And I promise you that at the first sign of danger, I'll turn around, run away, find you, find safety," I assure her. She only seems slightly pacified.
"Hey," the thought occurs to me, "How are we going to communicate?"
Rue points to a nearby tree. "See that?" I look in the direction that she has been pointing, and initially, I don't see anything, but when I look closer, the flash of a wing catches my eye.
"A bird?"
"A mockingjay," she explains. "That's how we'll communicate."
A mockingjay, I repeat in my head. There are mockingjays in the arena? I then say this out loud.
"Of course, they're everywhere. You get used to them in District 11; we see them all the time. When we worked in the orchards, I would call out to the mockingjays, a simple melody that they would pass on and repeat throughout the meadow to spread the message that the day's work is done. If you hear it, then you'll know I'm safe. The same for me."
"Brilliant! Okay, sing it to me," I command. When she does, it may only be four sweet, simple notes, but I can feel the beating of my heart, and I realise that the birds have stopped singing to listen to her. I don't say anything, and suddenly, I want to hear Rue sing properly, not just a short melody, but a proper song. But I don't ask, I just sit there and stare into her eyes. Two soft pools of brown look right back at me, and that's how we sit for a while. We don't exchange any words; we don't need to. Our eyes say everything.
Rue
My heart races like crazy, as I contemplate the thought that this could be it. Then, as the butterflies in my stomach begin to stir, I realise that our knees are touching, that Katniss is unconsciously moving closer to me, and a tingling sensation runs down my spine. Her soft gaze, her beautiful eyes, the chaos of her hair; I want every part of her as close to me as physically possible. We are barely inches away, and her scent, the smell of the forest, of the sweat that must line both of our foreheads; the smell of the hunter... it's so close.
A few twigs snap, leaves rustling nearby, and she jerks away, instantly alert for the intruder, and in that instant, I am more angry than I have ever known for whatever it was that broke that moment. Then we identify the cause of the disturbance; a rabbit comes close to our camp, maybe hoping for food. The only thing it gets is an arrow through its brain. Katniss had picked up the bow and shot the creature, and I am surprised to see a look of anger in her eyes too. And it's that, if nothing else, that fills me with hope, that maybe she wanted that kiss to happen as much as I did.
But we don't try anything again. Whether it's because we're both nervous of the moment being ruined again or we feel that it's time for us to get a move on anyway, I'm not sure, but we gather our things and clear the area in silence nonetheless. I start to wonder about the ramifications of this plan.
"What are we going to do with all the food when we get there?" I ask. She smiles tenderly, a reminder of the affection that still exists between us.
"Oh, any number of things. Throw it in the lake. Destroy it. Pee on it," she laughs. "Maybe just steal it and eat it," she suggests, placing a hand on my belly, hollowed by a lifetime without enough food. "It doesn't matter, it's so much easier to destroy things than to make them, you know." As she says it, I just hope that it isn't a metaphor for whatever connection we have.
When we're ready, Katniss is about to leave, when I stop her.
"Katniss, if this is the last time I see you..." I worry, and then wonder what I'm going to follow that up with.
"No, I'm not even going to let you consider that possibility," she winks, but she doesn't leave straight away. She walks right up to me and holds both of my hands in hers. They're unbelievably warm.
"Rue, here's a promise to you right now, and this is a promise I will never break: I am going to come back for you." She kisses me on the cheek and runs off before I can say anything else. I touch my cheek, too stunned to move, feeling the place where her lips touched me. After a while, I snap out of it and realise my priority now is to get moving.
When I find a clearing in the woods that looks about right, I start gathering wood, and set about lighting the flame, with it, igniting all my fear that I'm about to lose the one good thing left in my life.
Charlotte
The Careers traditionally stockpile the most food in the Hunger Games, and the Games are aptly named because, without food, you die. This seems too obvious for anyone to actually point out, but it's a fact that I need to take into consideration, because I don't know how to survive off the forest. And if I heard the two lovers correctly, they're planning on destroying the biggest food source in the Games. So I have to get some of it before they do.
The annoying part is, in District 5, all we do is work in poisonous factories and spend the rest of our time inside. So I never was any good at running, and nor are the majority of the District 5 tributes (my District partner didn't even last at the Cornucopia.) It's not long before I'm already having to stop for breath, but at least I got a head a start. I take a quick sip of some water I've been able to salvage, and then head straight off again, panting heavily. Fortunately, I wasn't that far from the Careers' camp in the first place, when I was watching the lovers. So it's only about another minute or two when I approach the end of the trees, and slow to a steady walk (I need it.) From where I stand, I can see all of them are hanging around, eating. Quite by coincidence, just a few minutes after I arrive, they disappear into the woods. No... it's not a coincidence, I realise. It's them. I look back and see the smoke in the sky, and realise their plan has begun, they've made a distraction. Excellent.
Before one of the two can materialise, I run out towards the camp, and evaluate their supplies. Just like I noticed earlier. Mined. I'm not exactly happy about this, but the thought of explosives doesn't fill me with terror either, I've worked with them before and I know a lot about landmines. It's with the greatest care, though, that I begin to trace a path towards the crate of supplies, careful to only put one foot down on the ground, doing some precarious balancing to make sure I don't step anywhere near the mines. It only takes even a slight disturbance to the ground around it to trigger them. I'm almost there when I begin to lose my footing, and feel myself falling. I squeal, I can't help myself, but when I place my hands on the ground to support myself, I find I haven't been blown to shreds yet. So far, so good.
I slowly get up and complete the circuit to the supplies, then take as much as I think I can carry without compromising my balance, stuffing it in my pockets and then rolling it up in my shirt as I get as far away from the mines, and the camp, as possible. Whatever's going to happen there, I have no desire to be anywhere near it.
Katniss
All I can do is crouch down by the edge of the forest and marvel at her ingenuity. The fox-faced girl outfoxed everybody, got around the trap that the Careers laid by the supplies, and stole their food without triggering a trap. I can only assume that there's some kind of trap there anyway. When Foxface has disappeared, I carefully make my way out towards the camp and start to think about just how this ambush is going to work. I know for sure that I can't repeat Foxface's complicated series of hops to get around the supplies, I need to think outside the box... or maybe find a way of getting rid of the box completely.
Culan
I don't need to spend all day wondering what I got myself into. I did enough of that at the training centre. But I knew that allying with the Careers was the only way I was going to stay alive; my skills are few and far between. So when I showed them how to mine their camp, I can only hope that that made me useful enough to live. Eventually, I'm going to start to have to think about escape, as I know this arrangement can't last.
Just please, don't anything go wrong right now.
And that's when I hear the explosions go off.
Rue
I've just lit the third fire when I hear it. The loud bangs echo for miles, and there are several of them in succession; all of them coming from the direction of the lake. It feels like I've been physically punched in the stomach, as the realisation hits me that if Katniss didn't get to safety, then she could be... no, don't think like that, she must've known. But how could she? I didn't know there was explosives near the Careers! Maybe she stepped on one by accident and...
NO. I block all of those images from my head, and know that the most important thing is to get back to her, to safety. But before I can move anywhere, they find me. There are four of them: the two from District 2, the one from 1, and the nervous boy who I think is from 3. Straight away, my first instinct is to run, but of all people, the one that restrains me is the boy from 1 with the bad leg. "Katniss!" I scream, not even sure if she's alive, let alone able to come to my aid, to fulfil her promise. I try to wriggle out of his grasp, and almost make it, but the brute from 2 is faster. He lunges with his sword, and the blade digs right into my thigh, where the pain is like no pain I've ever experienced before. Being whipped once upon a time was bad enough, but this is a pain that goes all the way inside, shoots through you like poison that makes you double-over and wish for nothing but death. When he pulls the sword out, it's covered in my blood, which pools at my leg when I slump to the floor, barely conscious. Barely... almost... slipping away from... no, I'm... no...
The last clear thought I'm able to muster has two syllables.
Katniss.