Chapter 29: 74th Hunger Games: Katniss and Peeta

[Summer of 74th Hunger Games]

After a troubled night, with most of us being bothered with nightmares about Rue being killed in various and cruel ways, we shared breakfast, but could not really eat much – the appetite simply was not there.

Eventually we gathered for the next viewing session in the morning, to watch day ten in the games. Katniss slept in, apparently not feeling a need to do something urgently, and later on she sorted her supplies, from her own backpack, Rue's pack and Marvel's bag. While there was some food left, it would not last long, and the 'girl on fire' decided to hunt again. She was able to shoot three little birds – of a kind we did not recognize – and roasted them, together with some of the roots Rue had collected earlier.

"How does she dare to light a fire with that much smoke?" Prim got concerned.

"Good question" I replied. "Maybe she figures that the Careers are far away."

The camera confirmed that, showing the Career pack – now only Cato and Clove – being indeed far away, but Katniss could not really know that.

"Marvel was my sister's first kill, right?" Prim suddenly asked.

"Why, I guess you are right about that" my father confirmed.

The morning session ended, and right after that there was a knock at the door. Three people dressed in Capitol garbs were outside, one of them with a camera and microphone, and a young lady with pink hair asked: "Excuse me, but is this the Mellark bakery and residence?"

My father nodded and told them: "Yes, it is. You are here for the family interviews, correct?"

"Yes, we are – may we please come in?"

Dad invited them to our big living room and introduced the family. Getting to Prim, he said:

"The young lady here is Primrose Everdeen. Her mother is not feeling well, and as she has been a friend of the family for a long time, she stays with us for the duration of the games."

My father had warned us about how to behave and that we'd better keep certain things for ourselves. For instance, we had decided not to make my relation to Prim public at this time.

The Capitol people asked all kind of questions, mainly about how we felt with having our son/brother in the arena, and we answered with a mix of concern and pride:

"Of course it is an honor to have my son being selected as tribute" my father offered. "But, he is really good at baking and decorating, and he will be missed."

"So you do not expect him to win?"

"Well, have you seen the injury he received from Cato? How can he win with his leg being wounded like that?"

"But how did he get an 8 as training score?"

None of us really knew about that, but I took this one: "He is very strong, and he has been used to carry heavy stuff, like sacks of flour, around in the bakery for years; that was probably good enough to impress the jury."

They also asked more about Peeta՚s baking skills, and my father proudly elaborated on that, saying that his youngest son was better than himself already in cake decorations. The team also accepted the offer to get a quick tour of the bakery and sampled some cake cups.

The next question was about our mother, and Dad quickly replied that they were divorced and that they could probably find her with her sister at the other end of the district.

Prim was also asked, and she did not need to pretend so much, when she stated that she was really worried.

"Do you know how your sister managed to get a training score of 11?" was one of the questions addressed to her.

Prim shook her head: "No, that was a surprise for me as well as it was for you, I guess."

I added: "Actually, how she got an 11 is something we'd also like to learn, but we will probably never find out, I guess."

Finally the interviewers asked about Mrs. Everdeen, and we truthfully told them that she was staying with the Hawthornes, but was not feeling well. That was of course an issue the interviewers had encountered in years before in other districts, and they understood. With that, we were left in peace again.

The afternoon viewing was not very exciting, and it was interrupted a few times to show quick snippets from family interviews in other districts. Rue's parents were shown, and they were both in tears. They held each other in their arms and seemed to be as concerned about their daughter as we were for our tributes. In the background we saw some children who were probably Rue's siblings, but they were not shown close to the cameras.

The Career parents and family, on the other side, looked less worried and more proud, seeing their kids in the Games as a big honor, and they told the interviewers about that. For our district, we saw part of the interview with ourselves, with Prim՚s mother and with Gale Hawthorne. Apparently, some people had mentioned that he and Katniss were very close, and somehow Gale and Katniss were suspected to be cousins. Well, they looked like they were, and they also behaved liked they were.

At the end of the day, not much had happened, when suddenly an announcement was made to the tributes in the arena as well as to all viewers. Claudius Templesmith՚s voice boomed down from above the arena, first congratulating the six tributes who were still alive. But rather than mentioning a feast, which was quite common at this stage of the games, with some special gifts provided at the Cornucopia for those risking to go there, he mentioned something none of us had expected at all:

"Listen up everybody – there's been a rule change in the Games. Under the new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive."

After a couple of minutes the announcement was repeated, and we looked at each other.

"But, that implies" Prim started "that Katniss and Peeta can actually win together!"

A smile started top spread over her face, but I had to mention the bad news: "Yes, but so can Cato and Clove."

"Why did they make such a change in the rules?" my father wondered.

"Maybe the idea of our tributes being in love is liked a lot by the Capitol audience?" Wheat suggested.

"That may be true for Peeta, but I don't think that Katniss is in love wit him at all" Prim added, looking somewhat unhappy about it.

When we started to view the games on the next day – day 11 in the games – Katniss was about to leave the forest and moved towards the stream again. We assumed that she was now, with the change of rules, actively searching for Peeta. She found a few older bloodstains, but no sign of Peeta, and neither could we. The gamemakers had to know exactly where the boy was hiding, as all tributes had trackers implanted, but obviously they decided to keep that knowledge to themselves right now.

Eventually Katniss called out Peeta՚s name a few times, and just when she had climbed down from a rock towards the water again, there was a hoarse and weak voice heard from seemingly nowhere:

"You here to finish me off, sweetheart?"

Katniss turned around quickly, but did not see anybody. Just the mud, the plants, and some rocks.

"Peeta?" the girl whispered. "Where are you?"

There was no immediate answer, and Katniss slowly moved along the border of the stream. Suddenly the voice was there again:

"Better not step on me!"

The poor girl was startled when she heard the voice so close to her and jumped back. She looked around, but still could not see anybody. Then a pair of eyes opened and a set of white teeth were shown as well. The zoomed in camera showed the boy hidden in mud and leaves and barely visible at all.

"I guess all those hours decorating cakes paid off." the voice, now seen to be to Peeta՚s, said. "Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying."

"You're not going to die," Katniss firmly told her fellow tribute.

"Says who?"

"Says me. We are on the same team now, you know, aren't we?"

"So I heard. Nice of you to find what's left of me."

Katniss got her water bottle out and gave him a drink.

"Did Cato cut you?" she asked.

"Left leg. Up high," was the quick reply.

"Let's get you in the stream, wash you off, so that I can see what kind of wounds you've got."

"Lean down a minute first. I need to tell you something."

Katniss leaned over and put one ear to his lips, and Peeta whispered:

"Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it."

It was really remarkable how sensitive the microphones were they used in the arena; we could even understand the whispering.

Prim squealed when she heard that, and Wheat hooted and shouted: "Way to go, brother!"

Katniss was shown laughing: "Thanks, I'll keep it in mind." However, she did not make an attempt to follow up on that suggestion.

The girl now tried to help Peeta to get closer to the stream, and it was soon apparent that the boy had big trouble moving on his own. The distance was just a meter or two, but Katniss had to drag him most of the way, eliciting a few cries of pain from him when his wounds touched the ground.

"Look, Peeta, I'm going to roll you into the stream. It's very shallow here, okay?" Katniss suggested.

"Excellent" he replied.

"On three," Katniss stated."One, two, three!"

She manager one roll only, stopped by his shouts of pain.

"Okay, change of plans. I'm not going to put you all the way in. Let's get you cleaned up. Keep an eye on the woods for me, okay?"

It took her some effort to start cleaning my brother properly, before eventually his clothes became visible again under all of the mud and dirt. She unzipped and removed his jacket and had to cut off his undershirt with her knife, exposing a few bad bruises on his chest, along with four stings from the tracker jackers. Katniss managed to prop Peeta up against a bolder, while she continued to wash away all the traces of dirt from his hair and skin. Fortunately she had a few of the leaves around Rue had used earlier on her to treat the stings, and she applied most of those to Peeta՚s stings now. Then she browsed the first aid pack she had taken from Marvel and found a few pills she forced Peeta to swallow:

"Swallow these!"

When he had obediently follower her instructions, Katniss continued:

"You must be hungry."

"Not really. It's funny, I haven't been hungry for days."

Katniss offered him some of the food she had, including the meat from the birds, but he declined and turned away.

"That's not good at all!" Prim shouted. "He must be real hungry, and if he does not want to eat, he must be really sick."

"Peeta, we need to get some food in you" Katniss strongly suggested in the arena.

"It'll just come right back up" Peeta objected, sighing.

Eventually the girl managed to feed him a few pieces of dried apple at least, and he appreciated that:

"Thanks. I'm much better, really. Can I sleep now, Katniss?"

"Soon; I need to look at your leg first."

Prim' sister now removed Peeta՚s boots, socks, and finally his pants. The wound from Cato's sword was exposed, and it did not look good at all. There was blood and pus and swollen flesh, and we could only assume that it must be smelling real bad.

Prim had seen something similar before when treating bad wounds together with her mother, like when a coal miner had had a bad accident, and she told us her opinion in an almost professional way: "That does not look good at all. Unless the wound is treated properly quite soon, he is going to die, I am afraid."

In the arena. Katniss tried her best to treat Peeta՚s wound, including using the last few leaves she had from Rue, chewing them and applying them. A couple of times during her treatment Peeta asked for a kiss, but Prim՚s sister always changed the topic.

Later on, after some rest and when the girl had managed to wash the boy's clothes, Katniss insisted:

"Peeta, we've got to go now."

"Go? Go where?"

"Away from here. Downstream maybe. Somewhere we can hide you until you're stronger."

The girl helped my brother getting dressed again, and they tried to walk together. But he could not make it very far on his own, even supported by Katniss. Prim՚s sister looked around, searching for ideas about what to do, when she suddenly moved into a specific direction, half carrying the boy with here.

At first we could not see what she had in mind, but when the camera zoomed in, a small cave was revealed. She covered the cave floor with a layer of pine needles, unrolled her sleeping bag and shoved him into it.

"Katniss" he whispered. "Thanks for finding me."

"You would have found me if you could."

"Yes. Look, if I don't make it back..." he continued.

"Don't talk like that. I didn't drain all that pus for nothing." Katniss objected his direction of thinking.

"I know. But just in case I don't..."

"No, Peeta, I don't even want to discuss it."

"But I..."

At this point, Katniss suddenly leaned forward and kissed him, effectively stopping his words.

"Was that their first kiss?" Prim wondered.

"As far as I know at least the first one we could see" I replied.

"You're not going to die. I forbid it. All right?" Katniss offered once the kiss ended.

"All right," was the weak answer.

Right when Katniss got out of the cave to look around and check the environment, another silver parachute came gliding down, right into the girl's hands. Opening the container in the cave, she found a pot of hot broth.

"Why couldn't Haymitch send some medicine for Peeta?" Prim asked.

"At this stage of the games, this would probably be way too expensive" my father suggested.

"Peeta!" Katniss called out in the cave again, and when he was slow to react, kissed him awake. Holding up the pot, she told the boy: "Peeta, look what Haymitch has sent you."

With some effort, Katniss managed to get some of the hot broth into Peeta and took only a few sips for herself. Peeta dozed off again promptly, and Katniss fed herself with some leftovers from the birds she had caught earlier. Dusk came, and the regular evening updates showed that there had been no further tributes killed during that day. That ended the day's viewing, end we had a discussion at home in the bakery. Wheat started:

"I don't get it; why did Katniss kiss Peeta now and not before? Sure her feelings haven't changed that quickly?"

"Look," my father replied, "after the first kiss in the cave they got that sponsor gift with soup. Probably Katniss has realized by now that pretending to be in love with Peeta increases the chances to get gifts considerably. Maybe her feelings change, too, but I do not know."

"No, her feelings haven not changed, at least not much" Prim offered. "I can see it in her face that she is only pretending. Nobody else but me would probably know the difference, though."

The next morning – day 12 in the arena – quickly reviewed the night's events, but not much had happened. Katniss had, during the night, felt cold and moved into the sleeping bag next to Peeta. A few times she had done her best to refresh his bandages, but it was obvious that Peeta needed proper treatment sooner or later.

The camera showed glimpses of the other remaining tributes. Cato and Clove were spending most of their time at the Cornucopia, even though most of the supplies were gone. Thresh still had a nice home in the wheat field, and Foxface sneaked around. None of them had located Katniss and Peeta.

"How do you feel?" Katniss asked Peeta in the morning.

"Better than yesterday. This is an enormous improvement over the mud," he says. "Clean clothes and medicine and a sleeping bag... and you."

Prim giggled.

"No more kisses for you until you've eaten," Prim՚s sister said when the boy pressed his lips on her hand.

Peeta was fed again and offered to keep watch, noticing that Katniss was tired and exhausted. After some protests the girl agreed and promptly dozed off.

We were given a nice lunch break, and shortly after the afternoon viewing had started, Katniss woke up again. She complained about sleeping too long when she woke up and treated Peeta՚s wounds again. The camera showed a close up, and his wounds looked liked more infected and worse, but there was not really anything Katniss could do.

Once Katniss had improvised for food preparation – she did not want to light a fire and used some water heated by sunlight and some hot stones – she asked Peeta if he needed anything.

"No," he said. "Thank you. Wait, yes. Tell me a story."

"A story? What about?"

"Something happy. Tell me about the happiest day you can remember"

"Did I ever tell you about how I got Prim՚s goat?"

Peeta shook his head, and Katniss started to tell the story. Of course, here in the bakery we knew about that from Prim already. Gale and Katniss had been able to track down and kill a young buck and managed to somehow drag it to the Hob without being seen by anybody. Rooba had paid a lot of money for that, more than they'd ever had before. Katniss had encountered the 'Goat Man', and one of his goats had been injured, probably by a dog. Prim had been able to treat the goat and nourish it back to good health.

"Well, I knew that goat would be a little gold mine," Katniss concluded the story.

"Yes, of course I was referring to that, not the lasting joy you gave the sister you love so much you took her place in the reaping."

"The goat has paid for itself. Several times over.

"Well, it wouldn't dare do anything else after you saved its life. I intend to do the same thing."

Before they had a chance to continue that conversation, trumpets sounded in the arena, and the voice of Claudius Templesmith was heard. As happened quite frequently at that stage of the Games, there was an invitation to a feast. He added:

"Now listen. Some of you may want to decline my invitation. But this is no ordinary feast. Each of you needs something desperately. Each of you will find that something in a backpack, marked with your district number, at the Cornucopia at dawn. Think hard about refusing to show up. For some of you, this will be your last chance."

My father sighed and said: "Maybe our district is going to have some good medicine for my poor son."

A heated discussion was shown between Katniss and Peeta. The boy insisted that they either both go to the feast or none at all, but Katniss knew quite well that Peeta would not be able to go, and she did not want to drag him all of the time.

"What am I supposed to do? Sit here and watch you die?" Katniss asked.

"I won't die. I promise. If you promise not to go" was the response.

Right after that, when Katniss checked the conditions outside of the cave, another one of the silver parachutes came floating down. At first the girl was excited, probably hoping for better medicine, but unpacking revealed a vial with sleep syrup. Katniss was able to recognize the fluid as they had a few times used it at home, Prim explained.

"What are they going to do with sleep syrup?" Wheat asked.

"You know, if Katniss is smart, she is going to drug Peeta with it, so she can go to the feast on her own" my father suggested.

That concluded this day's viewing.

Before we went upstairs, Prim asked:

"What exactly is a feast?"

My father replied: "For a feast, the gamemakers provide some additional supplies at or close to the Cornucopia. Some times this is just basic stuff, like food and water, and sometimes this is what individual tributes need most. For instance, there could be medicine for Peeta, or some tools for Thresh."

"That is nice of them" Prim smiled.

"Well, not really" my father objected. "The motivation is to get the few remaining tributes together and have fights between them, so that the audience is not getting bored. This is one way to get things happening again for them, and announcing such a feast happens in most the games once or twice."

"However," I added, "as the announcement said that there would be stuff desperately needed by the combatants, Katniss really should go; maybe there's indeed better medicine for Peeta."

The next morning's summary showed that Katniss had indeed managed to feed the sleep syrup into Peeta; he had probably not even recognized what it was he had been fed with. She had left him, camouflaged the cave, and packed a small backpack with what she needed. Right before dawn she was already sneaking towards the Cornucopia.

On that day, day 13 in the Games, the one with the feast, more tributes were likely to be killed. Right now, the tributes being still alive were our ones, Cato, Clove, Foxface and Thresh.

Dawn found Katniss safely hidden under a bush close to the Cornucopia. When the first sun rays pierced the clouds, there was some kind of disturbance. Like magic, a big round table rose from the ground, with four packs on it. Two large black ones were labeled '2' and '11', a smaller green one had the number '5', and a small orange one '12'.

Before we had time to register all of that properly, the camera showed somebody racing out of the Cornucopia, grabbing the green pack, and speeding off. Foxface must have been waiting there and had obviously reacted quickly, to make sure that she got what she needed without interference from other tributes.

Here in the bakery we discussed that Katniss was going to do. Was she going to also run for her stuff or wait? That question was answered soon; the girl also ran towards the table, but a knife came flowing in her direction. Just barely Katniss could deflect it with her bow. With a lightning quick reaction, she had her bow ready and sent an arrow into Clove, who had been the knife thrower. The other girl got the arrow into her left arm rather than her chest, as she had moved quickly, but at least that slowed her down. Right when Katniss had grabbed the '12' pack, though, another knife hit her, slashing her forehead and opening a wound which made some blood flow down her face.

Prim squeaked when seeing her sister injured, but of course there was nothing she could do.

Katniss staggered backwards, but somehow managed to send another arrow off. Nevertheless, Clove slammed into her and asked:

"Where's your boyfriend, District Twelve? Still hanging on?"

"He's out there now. Hunting Cato," Katniss replied, lying to Clove, and screamed: "Peeta!"

Clove jammed her fist into the other girl's windpipe, cutting off her voice.

When Katniss continued to struggle, Clove told her:

"Forget it, District Twelve. We're going to kill you. Just like we did your pathetic little ally... what was her name? The one who jumped around in the trees? Rue, right? Well, first Rue, then you, and then I think we'll just let nature take care of Lover Boy. You like that? Now, where to start?"

They exchanged a few more words, and Katniss was not able to do much, being held down by Clove sitting on her, but right when the other girl was about to start torturing her, Clove was somehow pulled away and screamed. Seemingly out of nowhere Thresh had appeared, holding Clove up. "Cato!" she screamed, and from far away, too far to help though, we could hear his response. Thresh hit Clove with a piece of rock, and while she was not dead yet, he turned around towards Katniss.

"What did she mean? About Rue being your ally?"

"I – we teamed up. Blew up the supplies. I tried to save her, I did. But Marvel, the boy from District One, got her first."

"And you killed him?"

"Yes. I killed him. And buried her in flowers. And I sang her to sleep."

The zoomed in camera showed tears of emotion in Katniss' eyes, and Thresh was apparently touched, too: "To sleep?"

"To death. I sang until she died. Your district... they sent me bread."

Thresh lowered the rock and pointed at her, almost accusingly: "Just this one time, I let you go. For the little girl. You and me, we're even then. No more owed. You understand?"

Katniss nodded, and now Cato's voice was heard again, much closer than before: "Clove!"

"You better run now, Fire Girl," Thresh said.

Katniss did as he suggested and ran into the woods, taking the orange pack with her. Thresh had taken both of the remaining backpacks and was gone, too, while Cato reached Clove and knelt beside her. However, the girl was basically gone by now, hurt too much by Thresh, and the cannon went off announcing her death. Thresh had also taken Cato's pack, and once the big boy had realized that, he went off after Thresh.

With obvious difficulty, due to exhaustion and her wound, Katniss made it back to the cave and checked the content of the backpack. There was nothing in it but a hard case with a hypodermic needle, and without hesitation the girl jammed the needle into Peeta՚s arm and slowly pressed down on the plunger. Once that was done, she dropped to the ground next to him, dozing off.

A brief sequence of Cato chasing Thresh was shown, but he was not getting close to him. This concluded the day's viewing.

When the screen went dark, I wiped some sweat from my forehead and said:

"Wow, that was quite an exciting day, and I am glad it's over."

"And with the special medicine," Dad added, "maybe Peeta՚s got a chance to survive now."

We gathered around the dining table for a quick supper and discussed the past events a little more, before we retired and went towards our respective beds. Overall, specifically with Peeta getting some special medicine, that day had not ended too badly.

[Author's Notes: Quite exciting again; please review if you like it!]