Disclaimer: I own neither book series

Chapter 36

Katniss pov

"Percy are you conscious?" Katniss asked, hesitantly examining the ragged barbs sticking out of his back. She brushed against one with her palm, and he let out a painful groan in response. Rue silently watched from behind Katniss.

"Percy can you understand me?" Katniss asked. He offered no response. Katniss looked back over her shoulder at Rue, "We need to see his wound better, do you have a knife?"

"Um I don't have a knife," Rue said hesitantly while rummaging through her bag, "but I do have this rock that I've been using as one?"

Katniss took the rock and began tearing through his jacket with it. She attempted to be gentle, but between the fact that the rock could hardly cut through the material and she didn't know how serious it was yet she was much more forceful than intended. When she cut through the jacket, Rue helped her remove it without tearing the barbs out, and Katniss got her first hint at how bad it was. His green t-shirt was soaked in blood so dark it almost appeared black. Katniss used the rock to also cut his shirt off. The thin material was much easier than the jacket was once she started, so Katniss simply ripped the rest off.

When she saw his back, she noticed scars littered across his body. She glossed over it to get to the immediate problem. When she saw the damage she almost threw up. Her mom used to treat people back home when they were sick or when they had accidents in the mineshafts. She hated seeing them then, and she hated seeing them now. A lot of the blood had dried to his shirt, so when she ripped it off, it seemed to cause the wounds to tear open again as fresh blood seeped from them. That was the least of her worries. His back was covered like a spider web of dark green veins that seem to had bee caused by the wounds.

"Poison," Rue said immediately. "We need to take those barbs out as fast as possible."

"We can't just take them out. It could tear open the wounds again," Katniss said.

"Believe me, if we don't tear them out now, then the poison will continue to attack his body until he dies. And judging from the way his back looks, we don't have any time."

Katniss tried to think, but there were too many scenarios and possibilities running through her mind. What if she tore the spikes out and it caused him to bleed to death? What if Rue's right and the poison is actively killing him? What if taking the barbs out won't stop the poison and he dies anyway? "How would you know so much about this poison anyways?" Katniss finally asked her.

"I've had experience with poison before." Rue explained, "back home we came across tracker jacker hives all the time working in the trees."

After hesitating for half a moment longer Katniss decided she had no choice but to trust Rue's opinion. "Ok. Help me keep his body still while I take them out. The more he moves, the worse it will be for him."

Rue nodded her head and rushed to his side to keep him still. Katniss slowly took hold of the barb. She was careful not to prick herself. He groaned as soon as her fingers touched it. She carefully applied pressure to the barb until it began to exit his body. He tried to thrash feebly, but Rue kept a firm grip on him. Katniss kept pulling until the barb was completely clear. He started bleeding more heavily from the open wound.

Katniss gave a weak smile. "There. Easy right? Only one left." She reassured him.

She repeated the process with the other barb. When it was clear, Katniss immediately took the ripped shirt and applied pressure to the wounds to stop the bleeding.

"I'll be right back," Rue said while rushing to grab her backpack and leave.

"Where are you going?" Katniss called as she left.

Rue didn't respond. She disappeared into the woods, leaving Katniss alone with Percy. Katniss didn't know if she would return, but she had no choice but to wait and find out. She had no idea what to do with this tribute now that she actually thought about it. Would he even be able to heal for the rest of the games? Would it be better for both district twelve tributes if Katniss simply killed him now? Why had she really done this? It was his choice to stay back and fight the mutt. Only one of them can make it out of the games anyway. No one would blame Katniss for not going back for him.

She suddenly felt repulsed at the idea that she was actually considering killing him right now. She blamed it on the games. That it could make anyone do things they wouldn't normally do. But a tiny voice inside was telling her that maybe this was her true nature. But she dismissed the thought almost immediately. After all she was only in this wretched arena right now was because she couldn't let Prim be apart of this horror show.

Before she knew it, Rue was back. She took her pack off her shoulder and unzipped the main pocket to reveal leaves.

"What are those for?" Katniss asked curiously.

"When treating tracker jacker stings back home we use medicine made from this plant." Rue put a few in her mouth and started chewing. After a few moments she took it out. "Move the cloth so I can put it on his back."

Katniss did as asked, and Rue put the glob of plant on one of the wounds. She then took some more leaves to chew on. When they had been sufficiently chewed, she put another glob on the other wound. "Hopefully these should help stop the bleeding as well." Rue said.

"What about his leg?" Katniss was pointing to another two wounds on his thigh.

Rue gave some leaves to Katniss while taking some herself, and together they chewed on them until they could be applied to him.

"We should flip him over to make sure there're none on his front either," Katniss suggested.

Together Rue and Katniss heaved Percy onto his back as gently as possible. Rue gasped in shock. It looked possibly worse on his front then on his back. He had five long bloody gashes coming from across his right should to his left hip. He had the same black spider webs spreading across his chest as he did on his back. Katniss took more leaves and applied them to the wound that seemed to be the cause of it.

"How is he still alive?" Rue voiced the question that Katniss was thinking herself.

"I uh… I don't know," Katniss said softly. A lump was forming in her throat from guilt.

More time had passed than Katniss had thought. The sun was already going down, and the anthem would soon be playing. Katniss didn't remember hearing any cannons, so no faces would appear in the sky that night.

"We need to stay on the ground tonight with Percy, so I'll take first watch," Katniss offered.

Rue was so tired that she simply nodded and went to sleep without complaint.