The sheer pain of it left me incapable of forming any kind of explanatory sentence to you today. The break of nerves, of veins, of blood vessels, were too much for my fractured mind to comprehend. Something inside me broke as the knife cut cleanly through the side of my cheek. On top of my injuries, on top of Peeta's death, and on top of being sent into this entire situation, my cheek was now gone.
My screams only tore the skin more. I could hear her sadistic laugh as she practically ripped the dripping blade from my mouth. The blood dropped into my mouth, threatening to suffocate me, and I turned my head instinctually to the side and in the time I did her weight disappeared and I heard a crunch, and then a slam.
When I was released my body lifted from the ground in pain and I screamed again. All I could hear was the voice of a boy as my pain led on to an amount of immeasurable hurt.
"What'd you do to that little girl?" The man screams. I manage to see Thresh there. IT's strange as he's never lifted his voice above a murmur. I must be hysterical by now with the amount of blood I'm losing. My energy is now split between keeping my leg functioning, and trying to close the cut on my face, and then keeping enough blood in my system. "You kill her?"
"No! No, it wasn't me!" Clove tries to tell him as he dangles her above the ground.
"You talked about her, I heard you." Then a thought passes through his mind and he looks even more enraged. "Did you cut her up like you were going to cup up this girl here?" What was he talking about? Rue was still alive? Wasn't she? I can see bumps along his skin though. He must have gotten into something. He must have been insane by now.
"No, I-" She sees my axe resting in Thresh's hand and screams for her boy. "Cato! Cato!"
"Clove!" He's too far away. I want to giggle, or my body does but if I open my mouth I'll have blood going again. It's stopping, unnaturally fast but that's what my energy is for. I could only stare as my senses went wild.
Thresh wastes no time and brings down my axe into Clove's temple. I cringe with the amount of blood that comes out of her head. Thresh drops her, wrenching the axe out. I look at him, helplessly as he turns to me, with the axe raised.
"What was she talking about, about Rue?" He asked me, stepping forward. I risked opening my mouth just enough to talk.
"Rue and Peeta and I were in train-ing together." I rasped; quiet because I was incapable of anything louder. "We took care of her, taught her what we knew." I shrunk back to the ground. "Do it fast okay?" I just wanted the pain to end for a little while. It doesn't hit my mind that I won't actually die; I'll just be in more pain when I awake.
"Just this one time, I let you go." Thresh surprised me. He dropped my axe by my feet. "For the little girl. You and me, we're even then. No more owed. You understand?" He asked. I nodded as best I could. I watched as Thresh left. I understood owing someone. I did. Thresh runs to get his bag and I stumble up, holding one hand to my cheek, scooping up my blade and my bag with the other.
"Clove!" I can tell by the pain in that yell that Cato is close enough to see her dead body on the ground. I divert the energy keeping my pieces of mouth together so that I could use it to pump into my leg, so I can run. It doesn't help a lot, but it helps enough as I scramble away into the nearest part of the forest, conveniently the way I need to go.
I turn my head just enough to see Cato to get up from where he'd kneeled beside Clove and start running furiously after Thresh. In a few minutes of running, wiping blood from my cheek and holding them together with one hand, I hear the cannon for Clove, but I'm not done running.
Then I stumbled and fell to the ground. I moaned piteously, letting my energy divert some of its energy back to my cheek. She'd cut right through the side of my cheek and into my mouth, and the blood was too dangerous for me to lay flat so again I propped myself against a tree. I can't imagine that my leg was any better. The only way I could even run on it was to try and heal it some. It only reacted worse when I had to stop.
My pain was almost so much that I didn't hear the hasty trumpets, and the sound of Claudius Templesmith came on to announcing something else. A game change! I looked to the sky crying, tears that stung my slashed cheek.
"As of now, if the two left are of the same gender, then they can therefore win the Hunger Games."
It barely clicked in my mind why they were doing this, because they wanted Rue and I to win, the Capital must have thrown a real fit once they'd seen what had happened what must have been two hours ago by now. I screamed when some movement came into my view. I wouldn't make it very well if someone attacked me but the person made a shushing sound, and out from the bushes came my indirect savior, Rue.
After that I passed out, from too much shock, too much pain. I don't think I'll ever know which. I just know that I was really lucky that Rue decided to help me then.
I was in and out for a long time. Every time I woke up all I could do was scream, or thrash. When I was asleep I saw people around me dying, or myself dying. It all was so much pain. I couldn't stand being awake or asleep for a long time. I don't know how long it took, or what was going on all I knew was the last time I awoke my cheek didn't hurt so much, and my leg wasn't in as much pain.
"Are you awake?" I heard a sweet voice say and for a moment I thought I was at home, that I'd got attacked by a bear and that was why I was in so much pain. Prim and Mom were looking out for me, and the person holding my hand was Katniss. I was wrong.
The shadow that was over me was small, but it wasn't Prim. It was Rue.
I flinched and she shushed me.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Rue, remember?" Rue asked, and I went to tell her yes but she stopped me.
"You shouldn't open your mouth, its cut really bad, and could reopen really easily." She told me, moving away for a second and returned with some water. I took a few sips, moaning in my raw throat. I must have been screaming a lot. When she set my head down, as she'd held it awhile, I had to help her as she moved me to a seated position. I realized with a jolt that we were in my cave.
"Where?" I grunted out. I could open it enough to speak, as long as I remembered to be careful. Something was holding down my cheek. It was keeping it together.
"Let me explain." Rue said, and I watched her dab a cloth at my mouth and then glance at my leg. I looked to and stared. There was some kind of medal contraption on it. It looked medical, and like it was from the Capital. It kept my leg straight, and unmoving. A Brace, my mind drug up a name. It would keep it from hurting so much, and help it mend. The sides of the brace were on my bruises, and it still hurt to have them doing that.
"I was following you, and Peeta. That's how I know where this cave is. At first I was only following you, and then the tracker jacker happened. I lost you for a long time but I found you again two days before the feast." Rue's little voice explained. I stared at her, wanting to hear the rest. "I didn't know what to do, when you went out of the cave so I followed you again. I couldn't do anything about Clove, I'm really sorry but I don't have any weapons." I lifted my hand weakly and waved it away.
"Well, after they announced that they were going to let us win, I got to you as soon as I could, so I could help you. See I didn't…I didn't want to see you die so I'd left. When I found you the blood was really really bad. I tried my best to make you better. I even figured out how to get the thingy in your bag on you." She pointed to the brace and I nodded, unable to smile at her in thanks now with my cheek like it was.
"I had some string, or twine, or whatever it was, and a needle in my bag that I got, so I stitched it up. My dad was the doctor in District 11. I did it just like him and I tried my best to do it even but it doesn't look too nice. I used most of the first aid kit. I hope you don't mind." She pointed to where she'd strewn all of my stuff out. I felt like crying. This kid had probably saved me from so much pain that if I could I'd just hug her to death.
"How….Long?" I asked, it came out mangled but she understood.
"You've been out for two weeks. There have been a few fires, but the gamekeepers have been pretty mellow." She told me, picking up a bowl full of roots, greens, and some dried fruit. "They'll do whatever they want now that you're okay, so let's get some food in you." She seemed so happy doing this. She reminded me of Prim so much that I opened my mouth so she could put a little into my mouth. As she chattered away, trying to fill me in I listened closely.
"I had to feed you, and to take care of you but it was really easy. You only have to move your neck to get you to eat. It hurt you a lot at first, because you'd grimace a lot. I hope you'll be better now, because the wound in your mouth looks better, but it's still red." She told me, pointing at it and I half smiled at her. She was so energetic, much more then she was in the training area. Maybe she was just happy to finally have someone she could talk to again.
She has a pot, which she has set over some hot rocks its then that I realize it's really hot. She seems to read my mind.
"It's been raining a lot, a really heavy downpour. That red haired lady died the first day. I had to put up a lot of rocks, so the river wouldn't get in here." I jolted again.
"What?" I coughed, holding my cheek.
"Oh," She moved over to me, checking me over. She seemed to think I'd done no real damage. "She was probably drowned or something. I'd seen her once, where she was. It was a really big hole in the ground. I don't think she made it through that." She looked at me, pursing her lips. "You didn't like her, right?" She asked me, a little cautious.
"No…surprised." I tried to explain. She brightened.
"Okay then." She sits down beside me and smiles. I'm already feeling sleepy again. "You can sleep some more. You'll probably be out for a little while." She told me, nodding. There weren't a lot of us left, right? Rue, me, Cato, and Thresh. I fell into sleep again.
It felt like such a short time that I had been asleep, but when I woke up again it was thundering outside, chaotically. Then I fell asleep again, barely noticing the shaking body against me. My arm went around what my mind thought was Prim's shaking shoulder's before slumber took over again.
This time when I woke up it was for good.
My eyes opened and I was refreshed. The pain was normal, and it didn't hurt as much. I looked down. The brace was doing its job, keeping me still and okay. Rue must have been paying attention to her father, and my energy must now be focusing on my cheek because I could feel it closing up in my mouth. I could probably talk now without too much fear.
"You've been out for two days." I look over at Rue again and there she is like a little angel. Everything seems so fast, so close together. "There was a storm." She muttered, picking up another bowl. I raised my hands, taking it myself. The bowl itself was some kind of plant seed. A…coconut? I decided not to ask, and instead I began eating myself, brightening Rue's expression.
"You're okay now…right?" Rue asked. I opened my mouth, testing my cheek. Yeah. It was okay.
"I'm better." I told her, smiling. She let out a breath and I took a moment to observe my savior. She looked really young, Prim's age but by the lines on the corners of her eyes and the stressed way she held herself I can tell this hasn't been the funniest ride in the world for her either. She'll be okay I hope, now that I'm better. I want to help her now. I hate owing a debt to someone.
"Thank you, for taking care of me." I seriously told her, eating the plants she'd gathered for me.
"Your welcome." She said, picking up a handful of roots and berries for herself. I smiled. "Plus, I thought maybe if I took care of you, that you might want to team up?" She asked me, smiling. "I've been watching you and we could win." I put down the bowl that I'd completely cleaned out. I don't know where she got them, but oh well.
"I think so to." I agreed, ruffling her hair. She scowled playfully and tried to get it back in order. My own hair I didn't know about. It was out and about, having at some point been taken out of its twist. "Do you know what's going on?" I asked her. She shook her head.
"It's been really un-eventful here. I think somethings going on between Thresh and Cato that's making them let us stay here." Rue theorized.
"I agree." I told her, sitting back. She eyed me.
"Are you going to sleep again?" I snorted.
"No, I think I've slept about enough for my lifetime." I told her, feeling the cheek. It was still sore. If I was asked, I'd put it up to fast healing, Capital drugs, and Rue that it had healed so well, so fast. My leg though I couldn't get a read on it. All I knew was I could bend my leg, and it sent a shot of pain up my body, but not nearly as bad as before. It actually felt kind of numb.
"I used some pain killer from the first aid kit." Rue explained when I asked her why it was so numb. After that I asked questions about Rue. For lack of anything to do. It was still raining outside, I could both hear and see it.
"I lived with six siblings. I'm the oldest." Rue supplied.
"Do you harvest?" I asked her, curious.
"Yeah. I'm one of the only ones that can reach the tops of the trees. It helps my family since I get better pay for it." Rue said, smiling at my questions. She really was a grown up girl, just like Prim tried to be. "And Dad is the doctor at home. He get paid enough for that, because there are a lot of injuries."
"Your Mom?" I asked her.
"She works in the orange orchards, because she's really good at figuring out if something has some kinds of worms or even bad spots." Rue was very happy with her family. She was a good kid. "What about your family?" Rue curiously asked. I quieted.
"My Dad was killed in the mines." I whispered and Rue's eyes sparked with horror and recognition.
"Oh, no. I'm sorry, I forgot." Rue said.
"No, it's all right. Anyways my Mom's still alive. She isn't a doctor, but she's more of an herbiest turned witch doctor. People come to her when they need help and can't afford it. She always has some kind of remedy for them to." I smiled at the memories of my mother. "My sister, Katniss. She's my twin. We look a lot alike, except she's really gorgeous. Her hair's always in a braid, because she says we'll match that way. She likes to sew, when she can, so sometimes I spend a little extra money I get from my…job, and I get her some stuff to do it with."
"That's really sweet." Rue whispered, and I blinked.
"I suppose, but if I didn't she'd nag me." I exasperatedly said, making Rue giggle. "And Prim, she's our little sister. Really cute, with blonde hair from mom. She doesn't really like to be seen. She's terribly shy, and she kind of hates adventure. I think she fell off a tree when she was younger and Dad just picked her up." I laughed, wincing slightly when it pulled on my new wound.
"She sounds really nice."
"She is. You remind me a lot of her. That's why I trusted you, when we were in training." I told Rue, blinking out of my memories. "She liked to help people to, and she was really good at it, like you." I complemented.
"I'm not that good. You heal really fast." Rue waved it away.
"None sense. It was all you." I told her strongly. She was quiet after that, slowly snuggling in to me. The storm was dying down now, and the sun was going down. I could hear the rain hitting the ground less and less, and it was getting dark with only a little bit of clouds outside.
Then we heard the anthem. I looked out and moved over to watch, Rue walked over. And together we saw the death toll, Thresh. I breathed out in horror. That man had saved my life. I could never thank him enough for that. Never.
I turned to Rue and she looked extremely sad. There wasn't anything we could do. Except avenge Thresh, end every other person that Cato had killed for the fun of it. I don't think he ever did it because he had to. He did it because he wanted to, and because he was programmed to think it was fun. Maybe it was there fault to, his parents for teaching him to be this way. That's what usually happens in the Career packs.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. She shrugged. I hesitated once before getting on my good knee, bending the other in its brace so that I could embrace Rue. She tensed before sobbing into my shoulder. Something told me that when we hadn't been looking Rue and Thresh had made a connection. We probably hadn't heard the cannon because of the thunder and now we had been taken by surprise. I have had enough of surprises.
"Rue." I told her, looking her in the eyes. "I'm good enough to walk, and I think we can do something." I picked up my axe, which sat opposite me. "We should do something. Stop waiting. Cato's alone now, and with this brace my leg can take my weight now." I told her. Her eyes widened and she looked at me as I stood. It hurt but I was tired. We were so close to winning that I could smell it. I could do more than smell it. I could see it.
"But…"
"Rue, without Thresh, Cat is only going to be going after us now. He'll only hunt us. I've been around this area so many times that he's probably already looking for me here. What if we bring the fight to him?" I begged her. "I want to get you out of here alive. You didn't have anyone to volunteer for you at the reaping, so I'll do the job here." I told her, also picking up a knife and handing it to her.
"Okay." She whispered, taking the blade. In silence we gathered our stuff. I was pumped, my leg still hurt, but it would be nothing now. Because of Rue I was better. I was capable. Because of this little miracle I was going to make it through this, and save one life. Then I hear a beeping and I put my arm out, stopping Rue.
There is a basket, with a parachute flying down to us. I catch it in my arms and nearly cry when I see what is inside it, food. Good, Capital prepared food. I look down at Rue's face and I realized no one must have sent her anything, because she's looking now as if it's the greatest gift in the world.
I know what Haymitch is trying to say by it though. Wait.
"Rue, let's go eat. It'll be better if we wait until the morning anyways." Rue nodded enthusiastically and I smile as I take her back into the cave, glancing around the area, just waiting for Cato, the last one left to try and come after us.
He didn't. Instead I was opening a large jar of mashed potatoes. They have the sauvce on them, just like I'd told Caesar Flickerman that I loved. They've sent us more, rolls, butter, pasta, and even silverware. Rue and I are sure that whatever comes, we'll be leaving soon so we eat, staying slow so that we don't vomit it all up.
After we do eat as much as we can, we save the rest for breakfast and I gathered Rue up, without her asking and together, as it was freezing now, we laid in my sleeping bag. As Rue, the girl who had saved me, and made me her friend so soon, fell into slumber I thought of how thankful I was for her, and how much I couldn't wait to see Haymitch again.
Maybe, if I had a little girl just like Rue I could stand having children. They'd be really good at holding it all in, and what were the chances that my kids would get chosen for the reaping?
I fell asleep wandering.
Okay, one more chapter to go. I may not have to actually pull an all nighter for this! But I really want to get this done and there isn't much left to it…. I hope you like it! I actually have written the next one, and I'm going to post it.
I want you to know, in case you didn't read the other ones. This is the ONLY hunger games story that I am doing. There will be no sequel or anything like that. When I post this one and the next one tonight, that's it. No more. Don't ask for any either. It'll only make me feel bad.
Sorry to be short with you. I want to go to bed. The all nighter thing was just a joke really. I love sleep too much to be that obsessed with it.