I forgot to mention this last chapter but there is a very amazing person under the username SecondLineIsTheBomb who actually came up with the idea of Thresh teaming up with Alicia and Rue with Peeta. Methinks you should ALL SEND HER LOVE! She is amazing. THANK YOU BOMB-CHAN!


I wake up before Thresh, and decide to let him rest some more. I locate the trap I made yesterday and find two rabbits in it. I make a small fire and cook the game on the coals. The smell wakes Thresh up, and I hand two large pieces and a leg to him. He stares at the food for a minute. "All of that for me?" He asks sleepily, as if he thinks he hasn't woken up yet and is dreaming.

"Of course. We might as well eat both of them now, there's plenty more around. C'mon, take it," I wave the meat around a little. He takes it, trying not to scoff the whole thing down at once. I poke the coals a little, letting the rest of the meat cook.

"You have any plans?" He asks, licking his greasy fingers.

"I want to see if I can find Peeta."

"You know…he could be dead."

I shake my head. "He isn't. I don't know how I know, I just do. I don't want to give up on him… What about you? Your district partner is Rue, right? She's still alive. Do you want to look for her?"

He nods his head after a moment. "We grew up together," he says unexpectedly after a few minutes of silence.

"What?" I ask.

"Back home. I grew up with Rue. My sister and I were told to help her out when she started out in the harvest. Six years ago."

I look down. "I'm sorry you two had to be put together in this. It's horrible."

"Well, we're in it now. There's no going back."

I stand up, stretching my good arm. Get some rest. How about we leave in a few hours? At sundown?"

He nods, lying down on the sleeping bag.


Thresh re-wraps my shoulder and we eat the rest of the rabbit and some crackers before heading out. "Do you have any idea about where they might be?" Thresh asks as we leave the field. We sprint across to the forest edge.

"Well, Haymitch, my mentor, told us to head for water. Peeta would probably try to find that first. What about Rue? Any idea how to find her?"

He shakes his head. "No. If she doesn't want to be found, she won't… Wait," his eyes light up slightly. He whistles. It's a simple four note melody. After a moment, the trees around us erupt with the same note being repeated.

I stare at Thresh, confused. "We use the mockingjays back home to send messages from the trees to the ground. Everyone that works there knows them."

"Mockingjays…" I mutter. We learnt about them once. They were hybrids of jabberjays and mockingbirds. Something never meant to exist.

I snap my head up in unison with Thresh when we hear another four-note tune sung by the birds. "Rue," Thresh breaths. We look at each other before breaking into a run. We run for what seems like forever, stopping every few minutes for Thresh to whistle. Eventually we come to a riverbank.

"They're around here somewhere," I mutter.

"Yeah."

We creep along the riverbank; Thresh watches the forest, I scan the water.

I still when there's a dry chuckle. "Here to finish me off, sweetheart?"

"Peeta?" I whisper.

We look around, before walking forward a little more. "Hey! Easy!" His voice exclaims. I glance at Thresh, who steps back. He's staring at the ground, and I glance down. His eyes appear in the mud and rocks, and my heart soars.

"Peeta!" I exclaim. His upper half pulls away, out of the mud. I drop to my knees, hugging him to me. I sob breathlessly into his shoulder with relief. He hugs me back as best as he could.

"Careful…" He mutters.

"What? You're hurt? Was it Cato?" I ask, digging out my water and helping him drink slowly from it. After he's hydrated, he nods.

"Upper left leg," he says.

I glance at Thresh, who is standing awkwardly next to me. "Can you help me get him into the stream? We need to clean this off him." Thresh nods, grabbing Peeta under his arms and lifting the boy out of the mud. He slowly helps him over to the shallow part of the stream, setting him down gently as possible. I kneel next to him, stripping off his jacket and shirt. I rub off as much of the mud from his shirt as possible and then use it to wipe the camouflage from his face and arms.

I start laughing as I clean him. He looks at me weakly, an eyebrow raised. "What's so funny?" He asks.

"You told me before we went into the Games you want to die as yourself, and I find you half-dead pretending to be a rock," I say, breaking into hysterical giggle-snorts. Peeta breaks into a huge smile, brushing some hair back from my face.

"Where's Rue?" Thresh speaks up. We glance at him. He's standing sort of awkwardly, as if he doesn't want to intrude on us. "We heard her whistling. That's how we got here. Where is she?"

"She went to go look for some more supplies," Peeta informed him as Thresh helped drag him out of the water. "She's a good kid; kept me alive pretty well without medicine or anything."

I look at Thresh. "If she isn't back by the time I'm done with Peeta, we'll go look for her, okay? I don't want you going by yourself."

He nods. "I'll keep an eye on the forest," he says, walking away. I pull off Peeta's shoes and socks then help him with his pants, inspecting the wound. I wince. It's deep, and from the looks of it, slightly infected.

"That bad?" he asks.

"You'll be fine," I reply, turning back to the wound. It makes me feel sick just looking at it, but Peeta needs me.

"Rue put these leave on it a while ago. To draw out the infection. There's some more in my jacket pocket," he says. I nod, crawling over to where I left his drying clothes. I recover the leaves and crawl back, placing the leaves on his gash. A small amount of pus runs down his thigh, I make a face but keep quiet.

I take out a roll of bandages and wrap his leg, then help him back into his clothes. Thresh helps Peeta to his feet and carries him down the riverbank. I direct them into a small, well hidden cave in the assortment of rocks. Thresh lies Peeta down on my sleeping bag and turns to me.

"She isn't back," he says.

"I know," I mumble, typing my knife pouch around my hips. I turn to Peeta. "We'll be back soon. Okay?"

He nods, and I start to get to my feet when he pulls me back down. Peeta holds my face, kissing me softly. I rest my forehead against his. "Be safe," he whispers. I peck his cheek and nod, getting up. Thresh leads me out of the cave, and we walk back down the riverbank.

Thresh looks at me, grinning. "So it is true, then?" he says. I roll my eyes bashfully and shove him. He laughs, shaking his head. We walk in amused silence for a while, following the whistles of Rue and Thresh. Until…

"THRESH! HELP ME!"


Hmmm…

Kind of short, I know! Sorry! I had a really hard time thinking about this chapter

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-Shinigami