Chapter Twelve

When we woke up the next morning, we crawled down to the berry hole in the tree. Taking out a handful of berries each, we ate. It was only after the food did I realize that I was thirsty. Really thirsty. But I don't remember any lake…

"Hey, Rue, have you seen any water?" I asked, licking my lips.

"Here," She said, handing me a plastic bag full of water. "I got it near the Cornucopia. Spare it… the Careers are camped out next to it." She said. I took a sip, then a bigger one, then a gulp, not realizing that I had almost emptied the bag of water.

"Hey!" Rue grabbed the bag from me. "Too much!" she looked at the bag, and sighed. " Okay, no big deal. Now, we just have to sneak past the Careers and fi-" she was interrupted by the blast of the cannon.

"I wonder who that was... Anyways; we just have to sneak past the Careers, who hate us, and get some water, all while not running out of this," she examined the bag, "drop of water we have left." She smiled grimly. "Piece of cake."

"I…I'm sorry." I mumbled. "I was just so thirsty…"

"It's fine." She said. "Let's just start out before it gets too hot to continue." She started to walk.

"Wait, what about the berries and sleeping bags?" I asked.

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot." She said sheepishly. "I'll climb up, and you stand below the tree. I'll stuff everything into the sleeping bag, roll it up, and toss it down to you." She started to climb up the tree.

"Okay." I watched as she squirreled up the tree, and grabbed the sleeping bag and stuff everything into it. She shimmied down the tree ten feet or so and stuffed all of the berries in it, then tossed the bag down to me. I caught it and set it down as Rue jumped off the last branch to the ground. I took off my over shirt and tore off the sleeves, and then tied them all the way around the bag so that I could carry it on my bag.

"Ooff!" Wow, it was heavy…

"Okay, let's go." Rue said, and started off. I followed. We walked, on the ground. It was horrible. I had to carry that heavy pack… it was at least a hundred degrees, and when we had walked at least three miles, I couldn't breath.

"Hey…hey Rue. Can…can you take this…now?" I huffed.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry. I didn't realize that it would be so heavy. Okay, here…" she yanked the bag onto her back, letting out a small, "oomf!" as she did it.

"Heavy." She said, and I nodded. Rolling my shoulders, (they cracked several times,) I breathed a sigh of relief. Scratching at mosquitoes, we started walking again.

After about an hour, I was eaten alive. I scratched like a madman, to no avail Argg! It was driving me insane! Rue looked over at me. She was sweating buckets.

"Maybe we should, you know, eat." She painted. "It'll lighten this thing." I nodded, and she dropped the pack, and started to crack her shoulders. "I didn't know berries could be so heavy!" she complained, and started to eat. I noticed the bug bites on her, too. I winced. I think that big one's a beetle bite. Sitting down, I reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of berries.

"This isn't going to lighten the bag much," I said, looking at the hundreds of berries left in the sleeping bag.

"I know. But at least we get food and lighten the bag a few ounces." She gave me a dry smile. We ate in silence for a few minutes. And then Rue looked up and stifled a gasp.

"What? What is it?" I asked looking up. That's when I saw the nest. "What's wrong?" She pointed to the nest.

"So? I've seen tons of those nests."

"I know. So have I. But we've seen them during the day. The bird that lives in the nest is called the Duskcatcher," That's original I thought, "It only comes out a dusk. Which is…"She looked at the sky, "In about an hour or two. Anyways, it's a failed Capitol experiment for the war. They were supposed to attack when no one could see them, and they were a deep, deep blue. They attack using their wings, they were poisoned, their wings beat up to a hundred beats every five seconds. So, they would fly over to you and beat their wings in your eyes. People would close their eyes, but it would also go onto your skin. The poison in their wings would fly off into your eye, traveling and coating it. The poison would then spread into the brain, causing paralyzes, but only in the mussels, which you would be in for a couple of days, depending on your size. If the poison was on your skin, it would just sink in, and cause paralyzes on whichever limb the poison landed. While you were paralyzed, the poison could mess up your senses. Making you go blind or deaf." Geez. "But the big word there is could." She said.

"So, do they track you? Like the trackerjacks?" I asked, remembering the nest outside of the gate around the Salem. Katniss had made me stay inside for three days until the Peacemakers finally cut it down.

"No, they go by smell. To evade them, you dive underwater and they get confused. Sometimes they fly into the water to follow you, and then they drown."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"There were nests in the orchards." She said, looking up at the nest.

"Why were they failed?" I asked, following her gaze.

"One of them had a disease, and it caused it to molt its feathers. The feathers, by the way, had a special type of gloss on them to keep the poison off their skin. So, this one bird had the disease that caused him to molt. Before he died by the poison, he infected other birds. And then, they almost all died. Of course, they mated with the other birds in the woods. The poison factor eventually went away, but they kept their speed. Even without the poison, those birds really hurt you if they beat your head with their wings." She winced. "But, because this is the Hunger Games, I expect them to have the poison in them still. We should get going." She stood up and hoisted the bag into her back. We started off.

After about another hour, Rue suggested that we climb a tree. Up we went, and set out our camp. It was only after I fell asleep did I hear Rue scream, and wake up to the beating of five or ten Duskcatchers' wings.