Thank you to all those who favorited this story, put it on alert, and reviewed it. It's always nice to get feedback, good or bad. To Optimistic Pessimist that I am, I wanted to make sure that everyone could see April could exist away from Cato and still be her own character, so I'm glad you enjoyed it without him. If you read the original version of this, I'm sorry, I left out a huge detail that I meant to add in after the first draft! Here's the fixed version.

Disclaimer: Sadly, Suzanne Collins owns the Hunger Games and everything involved with it, but I own my characters. So, don't steal them. Please? Thank you.

I'm bulletproof, nothin' to lose
Fire away, fire away
Ricochet, you take your aim
Fire away, fire away
You shoot me down
But I won't fall, I am titanium

Chapter 14: Fire Away

Images of nothing floated through my mind, leaving me in a dreamless sleep, a blessing compared to the first few nights. My mind had been plagued with the boy from District Six, a face I never cared to see again, his expression haunting and face dripping with blood. Suddenly, I felt something hit my face but decided to ignore it; it was important to get as much sleep as possible. Another object hit my face again, jarring me from my sleep even more. It was then that I smelled it: the smoke. My eyes flew open as I looked around. The forest was ablaze, raging toward me and Katniss, flames roaring high. I immediately undid my belt and stood up, looking over to find Katniss still asleep.

"Katniss," I yelled as I hit her leg. "We have to move now!" It didn't matter if there was anyone around us to hear me; they were in danger of being burnt alive, too. We were the least of their worries.

She roused more quickly than I had, undoing her belt and following me down the tree. She managed to get ahead of me, having more experience in trees than I did. Moving faster to try and catch up, I missed a branch and fell, hitting the two remaining branches between me and the ground. I could hear my name being called, sounding muffled to my ears. It felt like I was laying there for an hour, trying to catch my breath, before there was a tug on my hand, pulling me from the ground.

We broke into a run, my bag barely hanging off of my shoulder. It felt like it was burning from the inside out, and I knew instantly that it had been injured in the fall. The adrenaline pumping through me was starting to lessen the pain, but I knew as soon as we made it out of danger that wouldn't last long. My first and only priority in that moment, though, was getting out of that hellish forest. Water was my thing, and fire and water never mixed well.

I was suddenly tackled to the ground and could only watch as a ball of flame exploded where I had been just a second earlier. With a silent thanks to Katniss, we continued running away from the fire, dodging flaming branches and more explosive balls of flame. The entire thing had the Gamemakers written all over it. No one had died since the girl in the forest the first night, and, as they say, idle hands are the devil's workshop. That made it all the more fitting that they would send fire.

Suddenly a tree fell in between Katniss and I, separating us as the fire raged around us. I, unfortunately, was on the wrong side of the tree. "I'll find another way around!" I yelled over the flames, taking off before she could acknowledge me.

It seemed like every path I found was already overtaken by fire, surrounding me more and more and keeping me trapped. Everywhere I looked was blocked by a tree, and I had to continue to dodge the large balls of fire being hurtled at me. If I didn't make it out of fire, I wouldn't last long; it would engulf me. I thought about jumping over some of it, but there was no way to tell if I was jumping into more fire or not. Finally, my eyes landed on a dirt path that was untouched by fire, and I made a run for it, hoping to make it out unscathed. That was when I heard the scream.

Directly down the hill from me was Katniss, backing herself against a rock while she held her leg. I could see from where I was that she had been burned, and that wasn't a good sign. She continued to examine her leg, and with her attention elsewhere, she was missing the large fireball headed toward her. I ran as fast as my legs could take me, tackling her out of the way. As soon as I made contact with her, we both tumbled down the hill, getting up as soon as we were able and started running again. The smoke was starting to engulf us, and I wasn't sure if we were running into more fire or away from it.

As soon as we saw the river in front of us, we ran as fast as we possibly could, both stumbling into it. I heard Katniss's immediate sigh of relief, wading over to her to see how her leg was. I could see it through clear water of the river, and it was easy to see how badly it was burned. When I reached out to touch it, a sharp pain went through my shoulder, and I let out a loud gasp. It was like it didn't feel right, and I hoped to whatever deity that I could think of that I was wrong about it.

"What's wrong?" Katniss asked, the water obviously giving her some relief. Her voice didn't sound as strained as I had expected it to.

"I think," I started, trying to move my shoulder again, only to be met with searing pain, "my shoulder is dislocated."

"Let me see," she said, moving closer to me and reaching out. As soon as she touched my shoulder, I sucked in a breath, trying to keep myself from screaming. She touched the joint multiple times, and I was sure if she didn't stop, I was going to cry. "I think you're right, but I can help."

"You know how to put it back in?" I asked, a little frightened by the prospect, but I couldn't leave it out of its socket for the entirety of the Games.

"My mother is a healer back in District Twelve. I've seen her do it before," Katniss said. Her voice was as uncertain as mine, and it didn't make me feel any better. Sensing my apprehension, she put a comforting hand on my good shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "I'm your best option right now."

It didn't take me long to think it over before I nodded. I stood in the shallow water as she moved away from me, slowly making her way to the shore and grabbing a long stick. She broke it into a small six inch piece, stripping the bark from it as she waded back over. I had only seen someone reset a shoulder once or twice but there were never sticks involved.

"What's this for?" I asked as she handed it to me.

"Put it in your mouth," she said, her eyes sympathetic. "You're probably going to scream."

I tried to take a deep breath but even that hurt. If she was right, and the pain was that severe, I was afraid that I would pass out. That was something neither of us could afford. Placing the stick in my mouth, I moved to lean against one of the larger rocks in the river when she asked. She took a steadying breath as she reached for my arm. The stick muffled the sound of my whimper. All of a sudden, her foot was lodged under my arm and she was pulling. I was honestly glad she didn't warn me before she started; anticipation was the worst part. The pulling wasn't too hard, but the pain was making my eyes well with tears and scream against the stick in my mouth. I was glad for it. If anyone had heard me really screaming, they would have found us for sure.

Then there was a pop, and it was over. I sagged against the rock, breathing heavily as I pulled the stick from my mouth. The pain was mostly gone, but it was extremely sore. It wouldn't be as much of a hindrance as it would have been if we had left it alone. We both sat there for a few moments, Katniss nursing her leg as I tried to rub the soreness from my shoulder. Once I had collected myself, I pulled my bag off my shoulder and pulled out my canteen, filling it with water; Katniss did the same.

I suddenly realized that the trident that was normally sticking out of my bag wasn't there anymore. In all the running and the getting injured, I hadn't realized that my pack had been slightly lighter when I was running through the forest. I kept digging, as if it would be deeper in the shallow backpack, but there was nothing but food and a canteen. Cursing under my breath, I looked through the water frantically and over at the shoreline, catching Katniss's attention.

"April, what is it?" she asked, and I could tell I was worrying her.

"I think I lost my trident…" I said, still looking around like I would spot it any second, but I knew exactly where it was. My eyes looked to the forest where I could hear the fire dying down. There was no way I could go back after it. I knew forest fires could burn at an insane amount of heat, and with Capitol created fire, there was no way of telling how hot that blaze had been. "When I fell out of the tree, I think it fell out of my pack."

I kicked at the shallow water angrily. I had gotten that thing fair and square and had felt so confident about my game with it in my hands. Without it, I felt powerless, and with an injured shoulder and the couple of knives that were in my pack, it would be harder to defend myself in hand to hand combat. I sat back down beside Katniss, and she gave my hand a squeeze. There was something about it that told me she knew exactly how I felt.

I wasn't sure how long we were there, Katniss dozing in and out of sleep, before we heard laughing and feet thumping against rock. The Careers and Peeta were about a fifty yards up the river, unaware to our presence. Katniss and I tried to move slowly out of the water, but Glimmer caught sight of us, alerting the others to where we were. We were out of the river and running in seconds. Katniss was limping, unable to put much weight on her leg, and I wasn't about to leave her behind for the Careers to slaughter.

"Think you can climb?" I asked as we reached a large tree.

Katniss took a moment to look at it before nodding and beginning her ascent. I followed right behind, able to the yells of the others not far behind us. The branches were narrow at the bottom, and I worried with every snap that one would give out under me. The tiny knots sticking out of the trunk were even harder to use. One of the smaller braches cracked loudly under my foot, but I moved my foot to the next branch fast enough before it could fall away from me. Katniss was still moving fairly slowly, and I didn't want to rush her because of her injury, but the Careers were gaining on us.

Their voices were right beneath us, and I looked down to see all of them standing at the base of the tree, and I heard Katniss stop climbing above me, stopping my own climb as well. When my eyes locked with Cato's, for a moment, he looked almost hurt before schooling his face. He was only angry after that, and I knew why; he hated Katniss to the bone.

"How's everything with you?" Katniss suddenly called down, and I couldn't help but laugh at the looks on their face, astonished that Katniss had even said a word.

"Well enough," Cato said. It was hard to tell if it was just his voice that was raspy from the smoke or if he was gritting his teeth at her. "Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste," she replied, fighting off a smirk. She was enjoying the situation far too much when our lives were on the line. I didn't know if Cato would kill me, but if Glimmer got her hands on me, one of us would come out of the fight dead. "The air's better up here. Why don't you come up?"

My head whipped around for me to look at her; I couldn't believe she was even goading him like that. We were both injured and moving far slower than we should have been. I started to open my mouth to ask what the hell she was thinking, but she gave me a look that told me to shut up and do as she said.

"I think I will."

Glimmer offered Cato the bow and arrow she was carrying, which wasn't going to do Cato any good. He was trained with a sword, and he told her so. My guess was she was just looking for an excuse to talk to or touch him. As soon as he rejected her, he began to climb, and so did we. Katniss is climbing faster, and I knew it was her adrenaline kicking in. I made sure to do my best to keep up and not look back down. It would only worry me more if Cato was gaining on us.

Then I heard a crack and a yell, my gaze landing on Cato just in time to see him smack the ground hard. I tried not to have a visible reaction, but I couldn't help the breath I sucked in. There wasn't much of a wait before he was standing and cursing Katniss's existence, but I couldn't look past the fact that I had been scared for Cato's life when he fell. Glimmer pushed past him, trying to make the climb herself. It wasn't long before branches were cracking and popping under her feet, prompting her to stop her pursuit. Once she was back on the ground, and we were a good seventy or eighty feet in the air, she began shooting arrows in our general direction, missing us terribly.

One of the arrows shot past the two of us, lodging in the tree trunk an arm's length away from Katniss, and she pulls it out of the tree and waves it mockingly at the five people below. I hadn't meant for the laugh that escaped my throat to be so loud, but I couldn't help it. The look on Glimmer's face was too priceless not to laugh at. Instead of continuing to shoot at us and miss, she huffed and stalked away from the tree to the rest of the group. Cato was visibly seething with anger; I tried to look at the others, but my eyes always landed back on him.

"Oh, let them stay up there!" Peeta yelled, glancing up at us for a brief second. "It's not like they're going anywhere. We'll deal with them in the morning."

Reluctantly, they all agreed, and I heard them say something about starting a fire before they all separated. Peeta stared up past me at Katniss for a few moments before walking away himself. I climbed the small distance between us before I was on the same branch with Katniss, who was slumped up against the trunk, all the adrenaline and boastfulness gone, exhaustion taking over.

"How's your leg?" I whispered, not wanting the Careers to know Katniss was hurt.

She merely shook her head as she cut open the side of her pants, biting her lip as she whimpered. There was nothing I could really do to help; she had said her mother was a healer, so I trusted her judgment. Reaching behind her, she pulled the canteen from her bag and lightly sprinkled some water on her wounds. They looked terrible, and I wondered if the smell in the air was from the burned flesh. There wasn't much sunlight left, and I prayed that we would have a solution to our problem by morning. There was no way we could stay up in the tree forever. The people below us wouldn't leave until we were dead.

Every so often, I would encourage Katniss to eat something, but she would always just shake her head. I didn't have much of an appetite, either, from the pain in my shoulder and being so close to death with the Careers below us, but I forced myself to nibble on some of the squirrel meat Katniss had cooked two days prior. The fresh meat would go bad before the dehydrated stuff that had come in my pack. I couldn't let my body get too weak in case we needed to make a quick escape, and I tried to reason with Katniss, but she couldn't force herself to eat, so I dropped the issue.

Katniss and I continued to sit in silence in the tree top. We couldn't risk doing anything drastic while the group below us lay awake. Along with Katniss feeling weak from the day's trials, I wasn't sure if she would be up to anything the next day, either. That was when I heard the same jingling we had heard just the night before. I knew Katniss heard it, too, because she was looking around for it as well, even through the pain in her leg. A sponsor package landed a few branches above us. I hoped that her mentor had sent her some medicine.

As I started to stand, I heard something below us. I looked down to see Cato at the base of the tree, motioning for me to come down. I knew it was a bad idea, one of the worst to ever go through my head, but I couldn't help but be curious. There were things in my head that involved missing him, but I didn't allow myself to linger there. Those were dangerous feelings. Feelings that could get me killed. Without thinking, I started to climb down but immediately felt a hand stop me. I turned to see Katniss's concerned face staring back at me.

"Are you crazy?" She hissed at me. "He could kill you."

"Katniss," I started, placing my hand on hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze, "he's not going to hurt me." I knew it probably sounded crazy to her, as well as everyone watching across Panem, but to me, it made all the sense in the world. "Plus, I'm not going to get close enough for him to try," I gave her a small smile before I moved down a branch. "Now get up there. I'm pretty sure that's for you."

I didn't stick around long enough for her to protest again. Climbing down the tree was definitely harder than climbing up. It was much darker, so I took extra precaution so I wouldn't plummet to the ground below. As I continued my climb down the tree, I noticed he was the only one now awake in their little makeshift camp. When I was about four feet out of Cato's reach, I perched myself on a branch and looked down at him.

"What do you want, Cato?" I asked. I tried my best to sound annoyed, but it didn't seem to work. He had been able to see through me since day one.

"I want to know why you're teaming up with District Twelve. You should be with us, and you know it," Cato said, and he was definitely better at sounding annoyed than I was. The light of the fire flickered over his features, making him look more upset than anything. "Whose team are you on?"

"I'm on my own team. Lest you forget, only one of us leaves this arena alive." Even though it sounded harsh, it was the truth. Though, I honestly wasn't sure I would be able to kill Cato or Katniss if it came down to it. "And as long as Glimmer is around, I've got no place with you guys. She would kill me the minute—no, the second I turned my back and you know it." I pointed at the healing cut on my cheek to emphasize my point. I looked around at the sleeping tributes. "And you teamed up with District Twelve, too, ya know?"

Cato scoffed. "We only teamed up with him to find her," he said, pointing up.

I looked up at Katniss, who was now rubbing something on her leg. I was thankful that her wound would heal now. It's not that she was useless with her injury, but it would make it harder to get away from the Careers once we figured out how to do so. I looked back at Cato, who was eyeing me curiously.

"Why did you team up with her?"

"She's a useful companion. She knows forests. That's her forte. It's come in handy, too." I looked back up at Katniss, who looked like she was now slouched against the tree trunk, before looking to Cato again. "Look, Cato. We both need sleep, because who knows when we'll come down."

"So, you're really gonna pick nature girl over us?" He asked, seeming slightly offended.

"I'm picking nature girl over her," I said, pointed at the blonde sleeping on the ground. I couldn't let whatever feelings I had for Cato jeopardize my life in the Games. As long as Glimmer was with them, there was no way I was leaving Katniss's side. She had saved my life during the fire and helped take care of my shoulder. I couldn't turn my back on her. "Goodnight, Cato."

I made the climb back up the tree. The higher I got, the more the branches were illuminated by the artificial light in the sky. As I continued to climb, I had to wonder how long Katniss and I would last up in the tree. There was maybe a day's worth of food left in our packs, two canteen of questionable water, and we had no real weapons of our own to defend ourselves with. If we were going to get away from them, it had to be in the next day or two.

"Did they send what I think they sent?" I whispered as I made it back up to the branch next to Katniss's that I had been sitting on. I could see that her wounds were glistening with some kind of substance, so I had been right that they had sent her medicine. "How do you feel?"

"Better. It still hurts, but it's a cooling relief kind of feeling," she explained, taking the rope out that she used every night to tie herself to the branch. I had been lucky enough to get a rope in my pack, too and followed her example. "What did he want?" She asked, motioning down with her head.

"He was offering me another chance to go back with them, but I said no," I said simply. I finished the tie on my rope and sank back against the trunk. "We should try and get some rest. I know it's hard, but we need as much sleep as we can get. Hopefully we'll both feel better enough in the morning to figure a way out of this."

Katniss nodded, though I could see in her face that it was going to be difficult for her to rest. "Thank you for sticking with me," she said quietly.

"I wasn't just going to leave you up here," I said with a soft smile before I closed my eyes. "We're in this together."

CATO OC CATO OC CATO OC CATO OC CATO

YIPPEE! The tracker jackers are next chapter, and I can't wait for it. As you can tell, I'm mixing parts of the book and movie together, because I love both of them. I hope you all are enjoying April's character as much as I enjoy writing her. Until next chapter!