Chapter 11
I guess I had fallen asleep, because I woke up to the sound of the birds again. I looked outside the crevasse and saw a figure just sitting there, keeping watch. At first, I thought it was Liam. Maybe I had dreamt it, maybe he was still alive. "Liam?" I called hesitantly. "Rue, it's me. Jacob. Liam's gone." I looked at him, with sad eyes. "Oh. Why are you here?" I asked, fighting back tears. "Well, my ally died. Your ally died. I figured you weren't going to come looking for me, so I came back here. I know there are only seven of us left, but I'd like to be your ally, if that's okay with you." I thought about it for a minute, considering my options. I could say yes, and risk losing someone again, or I could very well win. If I say no, Jacob could kill me right here, right now. He could be that much closer to home. "Sure. I'll be your ally. But what happens if it comes down to the two of us?" Jacob smiled. "I'm not going to kill you. And you're not going to kill me. That's all that matters." I looked at him, puzzled. "But, we're not fro-" He put his index finger over his lips, as to tell me to stop talking. "Just trust me."
Since my two options are either to trust him or die, I decided to trust him. "I didn't want to tell you this, but I know how Liam died." I looked up at him, wanting to hear more. "You do? How?" Jacob sighed. "It was, it was that Nicholas kid. From 2. Liam went out to kill him, to put your mind at ease. Things didn't turn out... Well." My heart sank. All my hopes that it was a natural cause, that no one hurt him, gone. Nicholas has killed me. He has already won.
"I have to kill him." I said to Jacob, the anger in my voice rising. "He needs to know how it feels. To be killed. Inside, and out. He killed Liam on the outside, and me on the inside. Now it's his turn. He's not making it to the top 3, I can tell you that." Jacob smiled a mischievous smile. "Wonderful. I have a plan."
I have to admit, Jacob was a little scary. He had so much strength, and he has such evil plans, it was hard to think that he was really trying to help me. But I could tell by the way he held me at night while I cried that he was not going to hurt me. And plus, we had known each other beforehand. Victor's parties, I had even seen him once when I went to the games with my parents. So I guess I was safe.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" I asked as he sharpened his spear on a rock. "Here it goes. So we find Career camp. Step one. Then we lure them away from camp. Step two. While they're gone, we set up some kind of booby trap that will kill them. All of them. Be it a tracker hacker nest, some old land mines, anything really. As long as they die. And I'll let you have Nicholas. You know, if you want." I looked at him, worried that the plan might not work. "That's a great idea, but how do we pull it off?" Jacob laughed, then stopped suddenly and put a serious look on his face. "Easy. We pull a Katniss."
At that very moment, a parachute came floating down from the sky. I picked it up, and read the note that mom and dad had written. The note read:
Pull a Katniss: Here's a bomb. -Mom + Dad
I opened the tin to find a small grenade, along with a remote that most likely controlled it. I can only imagine how much it must have coated. Then again, people like a good show. "Jacob!" I called, "Your plan. It'll work. And I know how." Jacob looked at me and smiled. "Excellent." He said, rubbing his palms together. Now you see why he scares me.
"Okay, so we set off the first fire at about noon, right? Then once the careers start leaving, I'll send a mockingjay signal. Then run back to the second fire closer to the career camp. Once you set that one off, send back the signal, and I'll know to hide. Distance yourself from the fires and career camp as much as possible, and I'll catch up with you later. Then we'll celebrate. If all goes well, we should be down to three. Oh my god. Three?" Jacob just stared at me, his mouth hanging open. "Wow, girls do talk a lot. It's not just mom. Imagine that." I frowned. "Jacob, this is serious! There will only be three of us left! What do we do after it's just us?" Jacob sighed an annoyed sigh. "I told you, we'll cross that bridge when we get there." I tried to act okay with the plan, but it was worrying me that it might come down to the two of us. And then where would we be? One of us dead, one of us a victor. And that, only fate would decide.
