Chapter 8: Friend in an Unlikely Place
The world is spinning as Katniss landed on the ground in the most undignified way. She makes a beeline for the bow clutched in Glimmer's hand as soon as her legs allowed her to stand, at least she thought she is. Why is it so hard to reach the damn body? It wasn't far from the tree when she last checked before the nest was dropped. The plan has worked better than she thought, in an almost unrealistic way, two bodies lay limply on the ground. Her first kills in the game. She should be remorseful, except she isn't. She isn't feeling much of anything except for glee as she makes way to her prize and that thought repulse her.
"Katniss, what are you still doing here! Run!" She spins around at the sound of his voice, but couldn't quite comprehend his words. Confused, she turns back to the body in front of her, wiggling the bow out of Glimmer's lifeless hand.
"Katniss run! He's coming back!"Someone is dragging her up by her elbow and shoving her towards the direction deeper into the woods. "The arrows, I need them." She croaks out as she struggles against the iron-hard grip. She feels disorientated from being forced up so quickly. The grip loosens momentarily before returning, she feels something strap over her shoulder, a familiar weight settles onto her back before she is being shoved again.
"Katniss, please! You have to go!" The voice begs urgently, so she listens to it and begins to make way into the wood, as fast as her jelly-like leg could carry her. She hears voices from behind her, shoutings she couldn't decipher and sounds of metal clashing against each other. But it all begins to fade, as she moves further into the forest. Her head is spinning and she's seeing doubles. It didn't take long for her to fall unconscious onto the ground, but just before her head hits the ground, the sound of the gong could be heard ringing throughout the arena.
Cato knows the moment he fell to the ground, heaving as hallucination dance around him that his fucked. He failed his mission. He glares angrily at the fallen body of lover boy, he should've known better than to believe him when he came to them with the deal, but he was desperate. The note that came with his first sponsor's gift as soon as the bloodbath was over took him by surprise. What surprised him even more is the request to eliminate fire girl as soon as possible, preferably before the game could progress further. He thought it was Brutus's idea at first, but a white rose petal decorated the beef stew in his gift and he knew then that it was not a mere request, it was an order from the president himself. He couldn't wrap his head around it, why is President Snow suddenly interested enough to intervene in the game, instead of letting it play out naturally, why fire girl?
His confusion didn't linger for long as the sound of his father's anguish scream fills his ear, of course, his father's death scene would be his hallucination. He catches a glimpse of the man that came to be his step-father standing back to him, with a sword in hand. Cato squeezes his eyes shut before he could watch the rest of his hallucinations play out, knowing what is to come, but the sound of his father's pain and his mother's plea is still too much to bear. Before he fell into oblivion, he drags his body to a nearby bush and hopes against hope that no one would find him or his allies passed out near the lake.
Katniss woke up alone feeling surprisingly good and refreshed, her only company being the whistles of wind through leaves above her. But a strange feeling of being watched washed over her as she tries to sit up. The blanket of leaves beneath her confirms her suspicion that someone has been watching over her while she rides out the hallucinations induced by the tracker jackers. The image of a certain dark-skinned little girl flashes through her mind, it could only be her.
She searches for her bow and arrows before gingerly rising to her feet, her legs feel study as she takes a few steps toward the tree where she spots a few strands of hair poking out from behind the trunk.
"Rue? Is that you?" She calls out quietly to the hiding girl, "You can come out, I'm not going to hurt you." A small head pokes out just enough for Katniss to see a pair of large brown eyes, looking at her with uncertainties and hopefulness.
"Did you help me while I was out?" Katniss asks, knowing the answer, "I feel so much better now. Thank you."
Rue's small face lit up at the words, "I found some of the leaves we use to treat bee stings back in district 11. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try."
Katniss held out her hand for the small girl in front of her to take, "It definitely helped, I remember my sister using these on me once." She feels a surge of comfort as the small girl carefully took her hands and allows herself to be led out to the blanket of leaves. "So how long was I out for?"
"A little over a day, your stings weren't that bad," Rue said while Katniss shuffles around her backpack for something to eat.
"No wonder, I'm starving." Rue giggled at her words. Katniss pulls out the last bit of her jerky, "What happened after I passed out?" Offering half of it to Rue, Katniss begins to nibble on it while Rue begins to relay the events of the day.
"It's been a quiet day, the careers are passed out by the lake last time I checked, although the district 2 boy isn't with them. But I think he's out cold too, so there's no death since the last three."
"Which three?" Katniss asks, remembering the distorted body of Glimmer and the district 4 girl. She thought she would feel guilty, now that the adrenaline has died down and she's no longer in the heat of the moment. But instead, it feels as if a weight has been lifted from her shoulder, their death means her odds of going home just got higher.
"The district 1 and district 4 girls both died from the nest you dropped." Rue glances at Katniss to see her reaction before continuing, "Your district mate didn't make it."
The strip of jerky hits the ground as Katniss looks up in disbelief, "Peeta didn't make it?" The feeling of guilt surges as she remembers what happened when she got off the tree. The voice had been Peeta. It wasn't a hallucination, he was real! Katniss tries to remember what happened next but the memory was hazy due to the effect of the venom.
"How?" She asks shakily, holding her breath to hear the answer.
"I wasn't there when you dropped the nest, but I think the district 2 boy did it since he isn't with the other careers," Rue says quietly.
It must have been the clashes of metal she heard while running away from the tree. Peeta must have tried to hold off Cato to allow her time to escape. Tears begin to well up in Katniss' eyes, how could she be so ungrateful of someone so kind, second-guessed all of his motives while they were in training and most importantly, how could he just leave before she could repay him for all that he has done for her. Now she will forever be in debt to the boy with the bread, for saving her not once, but twice.
"So it was all true? You two were in love?" Rue asks with worry written all over her face, "I thought you guys were just doing it for sponsors."
Katniss opens her mouth to answer, but couldn't find it within herself to lie through her teeth and follow the plot Haymitch devised for her, so instead, she told the truth, of the times Peeta saved her. She told the story of the boy with the bread, told how grateful she was, told the hope he brought to her and her family. She told everything she knew about the boy with the bread to the listening ears of the little girl in front of her, to the listening ears every citizen in Panem watching the game, in honor of the boy she is forever in debt to.