Chapter 46

Author's note: Sorry for the lateness of the update. It has been six months since I was finishing up another fanfic which is now complete. Updates will be more frequent.

Beetee's point of view:

Day 11 of the Games, 4:00 p.m. Arena time,

I watched the television screen as the top-eights families were interviewed.

In District 11, Rue and Thresh's families were spoken to by reporters.

Thresh's family consisted of a tall strong girl about his age maybe a year older or younger, and an elderly woman, maybe their grandmother.

"So," said the reporter, "How do you feel about your brother participating in The Hunger Games and getting all the way to the top 8?" said the reporter.

"It is my opinion that my brother nor anyone else should have even had to participate in The Hunger Games." said the girl defiantly. "But, since he did make it into the top 8 me and my grandmother are very proud of him, and we hope that he will be home too soon."

Rue's family consisted of five younger siblings and two parents. Unlike Thresh's family who seemed to have muscle on their bones, and the state of their clothing that they were halfway decently well off, Rue's family were wearing tattered clothing and the children seemed underfed. The oldest of the siblings, a girl, probably only a year younger than Rue, could have been her identical twin.

"What do you think of your sister making it all the way to the top eight?" asked the reporter to Rue's family.

"We're very proud of her." said one of the children. "She's the best. She's so strong. So fast. So competent. She will win and we know it."

Confident family. But I could tell they were just putting on a brave face.

The reporters in District 5 interviewed Josephine Ford's family. Her parents who were wearing tattered clothing and looked skinny said that she has a significantly higher than normal IQ, is very athletic, and they were confident that she would come home.

The career tributes families in Districts 1 and 2 expressed their extreme pride and honor at having their kids get into the top 8, and expressed that they had no doubt that their child would come home.

In District 12, the reporters approached Primrose Everdeen and her mother.

"So," said the reporter, "how do you feel about your sister getting into the top eight?"

Primrose Everdeen put on the most adoring smile and I just felt that one then couldn't help but love her.

"She promised me that she was coming home." said Primrose Everdeen. "And Katniss has never broken a promise to me."

The reporter then asked if she could interview some of Katniss Everdeen's friends. Turns out however that Katniss wasn't really that popular at her school. The only friend that they were able to find was a tall boy. Unfortunately this did not play well with the Capitol audience. This boy was way too handsome in the Capitol's eyes; too young, and too masculine, for right now the Capitol audience had their attention on the romance between Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. They immediately looked at this tall handsome boy as a rival for Katniss and Peeta's relationship.

The reporter turned to the camera and made a hand motion across her neck and told the cameraman to cut.

The live video feed then cut out for about 30 seconds...where it then came back on.

"Sorry about that folks." said the reporter. "We had some technical difficulties with the camera. I am here with Katniss Everdeen's best friend and 'First-Cousin', Gale Hawthorne."

Oh? Is it true? Or just a clever way to work in how this good looking boy could be her best friend without jeopardizing the Katniss/Peeta relationship?

He talked about how they always look out for each other and how the two of them together take care of both families.

"Where in the world did Katniss Everdeen learn how to use a bow and arrow?" asked the reporter.

Gail Hawthorne then simply told the reporter that he did not know, and that she probably just got lucky.

Peeta Mellark's family was interviewed at the bakery in the market and they expressed how they were proud of their son and that they hoped that he would be home soon.

The TV interviews for the tributes families ended there.

The live video feed then turned back to the tributes. The careers had looked through the wreckage of the supplies and apparently didn't find anything useful.

Katniss Everdeen was stumbling around apparently very disoriented.

Hours later night had fallen asleep and she had been unable to meet back up with little Rue.

The live video feed showed that little Rue had sighted the careers and had to take a different direction and then wasn't able to meet up with Katniss.


Day 12 of the Games, 10:00 a.m. Capitol time,

Katniss Everdeen, got up from her night sleep, and she seemed to be a lot more focused. Some medical experts that had been interviewed by Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith believed that Katniss had suffered some temporary hearing loss from the explosion at the Cornucopia.

After some examination of Katniss's movement, it was decided that apparently she had gone deaf in just one ear but not both.

"Katniss Everdeen! The Girl who is on Fire, burns on!" said Claudius Templesmith dramatically to the audience.

She went looking for Rue after she had gotten ready.

The live video feed said that Rue was also looking for Katniss. They approached each other's locations when Katniss gave off the four note tune.

The mockingjays begin to repeat the four notes. Eventually little Rue heard the mockingjays singing the four notes and she then whistle them back to the birds. A short time later Katniss began to hear the mockingjays singing it again. She kept moving towards one of their Rendezvous sites, but before she got there, Rue fell into a trap. It appeared to be a fishing net that had been set up by the career tributes. Rue then got scared and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Katniss! Katniss!"

"Rue?!" Katniss replied. She ran in the general direction of where she believed that the call had come from. The live video feed had shown that Marvel had broken off from Cato and Clove because they wanted to cover more ground. Marvel was quite a ways away from Cato and Clove. He then caught Rue in his sights. He was holding a spear, his primary weapon of choice.

He holds the spear in position in his hand over his shoulder, took aim, and threw it. And to everyone's horror I watched on the screen as the spear impaled little Rue through the chest.

Katniss had come into the area right at that moment where she pulled an arrow out of her quiver, fit it onto the string of the bow, took aim, and released the arrow. Less than a second later the arrow impaled Marvel right through the neck.

Marvel choked and then fell to the ground. The Gamemakers registered his bio-signs that he was not going to regain consciousness and his heart soon stopped. The cannon then fired

"BOOM!" went the cannon.

Katniss ran to Rue's side, pulled the spear out of her wound, and then cradled her head on her lap.

"Did you blow up the food?" asked little Rue.

"Yes." said Katniss.

"You have to win." said little Rue.

"I promise." said Katniss as tears poured down her face.

"Can you sing?" asked little Rue.

"Yes." said Katniss.

"Will you sing to me, please." said little Rue, final request from a dying person.

Katniss nodded while her voice hitched behind her sobs.

Katniss then began to sing what seemed to be some sort of lullaby. It was a pleasant soothing song that told the story of a meadow under at tree, a place that is safe and peaceful. She sang until little Rue's heart beat no more.

Even I couldn't help but sniff loudly as my nose we became running, and I had to wipe my eyes as they became wet. It's heartbreaking to have to watch this. Though I've watched it countless times over the years, this was different. Rue Talon of District 11, we got to know her on television a little more intimately. She was so innocent! It was too personal!

And the cannon sounded.

"BOOM!"

Katniss closed Rue's jacket to cover up her wound, then closed her eyes. Now she could be sleeping.

We watched the screen as Katniss then collected the white blossoms of some common weeds and placed them around Rue in an oval. Now it looked like she could be almost dressed up. A respectful funeral of looking beautiful in death.

Katniss took Rue and Marvel's items and went on her way. She gave a three fingered salute of district custom in a random direction and by coincidence she did it directly into one of the hidden cameras. It was clear she was directing her salute to District 11.

A few moments later she received a silver parasite from a sponsor. Inside the box was a loaf of tessera ration bread, the shape of a crescent moon. I knew that District 11 makes their tessera rations that way.

She holds up the bread in presentation.

"My thanks to the people of District 11." she said in a grateful tone of voice.

District 11 was the sponsor? I quickly did a check on the computer keyboard in front of me and it confirmed; several thousand District 11 citizen made hundreds of small donations for that loaf of bread that was intended for Rue. But when Rue died just before they could send it they asked for it to be given to Katniss.

Just then I received a beeping sound on my cell phone. When I looked at the caller ID, it said that it was Wiress.

I activated the EMP generator in my pocket that would neutralize video and audio surveillance in the room.

I answered my cell phone.

"Wiress?" I said.

"This line is secure." said Wiress on the other end. "I just thought I'd call and tell you. You know your system that you set up to monitor Peacekeepers Police radios in other districts?"

"Yes." I answered.

"About 1 minute ago, there was a massive 'workers-revolt' in District 11. The farmers that grow our food are hopping mad. Over one-hundred Peacekeepers are dead."

'And all thanks to Katniss Everdeen.' I thought. 'This is exactly what the underground resistance wanted to happen.'

"Thanks Wiress." I said to her. "Keep me informed."

I had turned my attention back to the screen. While at present nothing more was going on in the arena, The Capitol audience was doing a lot of talking. They were moved by what Katniss had done for a little Rue. But they were still interested in the Katniss/Peeta relationship. The camera then turned its attention to Peeta who was still by the river. He was still injured. And apparently had little to no strength to move. But everyone was still talking about the star-crossed lovers from District 12, and there were a lot of news programs and talk shows where people were saying that Katniss and Peeta should be able to leave the arena together and be together. That was a concept that would be difficult to wrap one's head around. The people in charge would never tamper with the Games.

And the Capitol gossip on that account went on for hours. Apparently the Capitol audience was completely oblivious to the fact that the district that grows all of their food was in the middle of a workers revolt.

On the Caesar Flickerman Show there were guests that were on the stage with Claudius Templesmith and Caesar Flickerman. The guest was a huge fan who was talking about Katniss and Peeta's relationship and wondering if they were to meet up before the Games were over, how far could they take the relationship before one of them or both of them was killed?

When all the sudden Claudius Templesmith interrupted everyone with a raised finger to 'please stop and be quiet', where he then put his finger to his ear as he looked into empty space for a moment, and then looked towards his teleprompter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have been asked by the Gamemakers to give some instructions to the tributes." said Claudius.

He then had a look of extreme confusion on his face as his flawless Gameshow host composer was broken. He leaned forward and pressed his finger down on a button that we all knew was for the audio broadcast system inside the arena.

"Attention tributes, attention." said Claudius Templesmith into his microphone. "Congratulations to the remaining tributes for making it all the way to the top-six. But now, there has been a slight rule change. The present commonly known rule that the last tribute standing will be the sole victor has been temporarily suspended. Until further notice the newly amended rules shall say that the last two tributes standing will both be declared victors if both tributes originate from the same district."

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Caesar Flickerman, "this means that if Katniss and Peeta are the last two standing then they can both be winners and they can both go home." he said with extreme enthusiasm at the idea of it, clarifying to people of the Capitol audience that may not have immediately grasped the concept.

And then there was a long drawn-out discussion about it on the show.

This was unprecedented. And at the same time it made no sense. It was as though the people who were in charge were just jumping on the bandwagon with the present popularity of the Capitol audience, but this had absolutely no sense of continuity; if they actually changed the rules of the Hunger Games then they would need to bring into question the rules of the Hunger Games of why they have never done this in the Games before, previous years, and whether or not this will now be a standing rule permanently for every following year from now.

There must be something more to this than that?

No matter, there was then a conversation of activity on the screen from Clove and Cato.

"Cato." said Clove. "This means that we can go home if we can finish off everyone else first."

"To Victor's in one year for District 2?" said Cato. "That would really bring a lot of pride and honor to our district."

"Then let's start tracking down our competition, and let's go home." said Clove enthusiastically.

But the Capitol audience had their attention focused on Katniss Everdeen. She had been sitting on the ground against a tree stump, sort of wallowing in misery. But after she heard the announcement she seems to have some renewed energy.

She then got to her feet and headed for the river. She searched around until she deduced where he was.

After Katniss reached the river, she found Peeta's trail of blood. She followed it. And when she got close enough Peeta signaled her and they were reunited. Katniss helped him up though he was still in a weakened state. They embraced like lovers and then she attempted to clean his wound.

She washed the stab wound from the sword in his leg with water, and then found it with some wadded up fabric as a makeshift bandage.

They found a cave nearby that would be relatively out of sight. And they settled in the cave for the long haul.

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