AUTHOR'S NOTES: The death sequence in this chapter departs a bit from the books, but otherwise, there was a certain idea that someone had that they got someone else to do for them in the books. In this fic, that character proceeds to use her own idea herself.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 12: Fallen Fighters

While Primrose, Rue, and Peeta did not stay up too late getting comfortable and healing Rue's burn, the career pack had settled in a bit earlier that evening, and thus earlier in the morning around dawn, they were back on the prowl. Clove's feet were still too sensitive to properly wear shoes, but her soles were not burned, enabling her to walk again since most of the primary pain had subsided. As long as no one touched her feet or shins, she would be fine.

Glimmer finally managed to help the career pack score another kill. They stumbled across District 8's McKenzie Lintz who was sitting near a fire. Almost without hesitation, the golden-blonde drew her bow, letting an arrow loose, which lodged itself squarely between the girl's eyes, killing her instantly. A cannon fired, although surprisingly, none of the tributes stirred.

The camp of that District 8 girl had nothing of any real value, and so the careers continued their hunt.

Unfortunately for District 12, the career pack eventually stumbled across them and their hiding place—and Clove was fixated on Rue.

"If they split," she growled as they charged, "we go for '11."

However, similar to the previous few nights, Peeta was well-used to surprise awakenings, even if he was not able to swing his mace and bash someone's head in.

"PRIM! RUE! RUN!" he shouted, knowing that trying to nudge them awake would just lose valuable time. He took off running the moment he saw Prim and Rue stir, and they needed no other warnings. Clove gave swift chase, although her speed was slightly inhibited by her injured feet. Luckily for them, she was the still the fastest of the careers, which enabled Prim and Rue to start putting distance between themselves and the careers.

"Follow me!" Rue ordered Prim, "How good are you at jumping through trees?"

"Decent," Prim shrugged, "right now? I'm probably the best there is." Her last statement was said as if to assure herself that she would not falter when the careers were right on their tails.

Rue found a low-hanging branch of a tree, which she jumped up onto, before letting it spring her higher into the tree. Prim followed suit, with Rue helping her up into a higher branch.

The good news was that Peeta had apparently escaped, for there was no cannon firing, and all four of the careers stood at the base of the tree. Cato grabbed an axe and began hacking away at the trunk.

"Get ready to sprint!" Rue warned, before running over one of the branches, using it to spring herself from tree to tree. Prim was close behind, although the careers were able to keep up with this method of travel a little easier. Prim and Rue jumped from tree to tree in a crisscrossing pattern, before they reached their temporary destination—a very large tree with sturdy branches. Prim lunged from the previous tree to the large branch, sliding a couple inches before she clutched said branch to stabilize herself. Rue grabbed it with her hands, using her momentum to flip around the tree branch a couple times before setting herself the right way up by gripping her bare feet against the branch's bark.

"There's no way you're going to chop this tree down!" she couldn't help but taunt.

"And I don't think it'll burn!" Primrose also taunted. This time though, Clove was unfazed.

"There's nowhere for you to run." Cato called out, "you can make this easy, or you can make it hard."
"Careful," Rue taunted as Clove's throwing knife whizzed past her ear. Had Rue not moved her face just in time, it would have likely gone straight into her throat. "If you want us to make it hard, I'm pretty sure we can comply."

"Fuck you both." Clove growled, "I'll knock the shit out of you AND the tree."
Clove was not sure what frustrated her more—the mere fact that Rue had the guts to taunt them, or the fact that this was the first time she was actually speaking to her. She paused, and remembered Cato's words from a couple days ago.

"You're the only one small enough to be able to use the trees…"

Clove grabbed her blades and stuck them into the tree trunk as she began her ascent. Prim started to panick slightly, but Rue kept her cool, letting her left foot dangle a bit.

"I wonder if she likes feet to her face." Rue mused, before testing that theory out as Clove nearly reached them. the District 2 girl flinched, sliding a bit back down before jumping back to the ground, throwing an offensive gesture and a loud swear word at Rue.

It seemed that the careers were going to remain fairly persistent about sticking around. Rue felt bad that Prim had gotten dragged into this mess, for she knew that the careers wanted her. She was the larger threat of the two, certainly.

"Prim?" Rue whispered as they watched the careers get comfortable below them, "if they stop watching us for any reason… I want you to run—got it?"
"Got it." Prim nodded slowly, "don't let them kill you though, Rue. You're too nice of a friend to die so soon, you hear me?"
Neither one of them wanted to think about the time when at least one of them would have to die, and so they focused on the here and now for the moment—while they were still friends.

"I won't," Rue promised, "but in the meantime, get comfortable—I'll keep watch."

Rue pocketed the throwing knife that Clove had launched at her earlier, and Prim nestled in to hunker down for the night. The anthem played, revealing the District 8 girl's face, but otherwise Rue kept watch until the careers fell asleep. In the newfound silence, Rue heard a faint humming noise, and noticing a tracker-jacker nest above her head in a nearby branch, she froze. She did not want to alert Prim of this.
However, a few minutes later, something else was scampering through the trees, if the noise was anything to go by. Rue drew her knife and prepared to fight off some creature.

However, instead of some creature or mutt, it was another tribute—that red-haired Finch Crossley girl from District 5. Even Prim was startled awake by this incident.

She seemed as equally surprised as Rue that they crossed paths in the same tree, but Rue's reaction was fairly dramatic. She whispered to Prim before kicking at the District 5 girl, causing her to lose her footing. The noise woke up Marvel, who whipped out his spear and, seeing a girl hanging from the branch, lobbed his spear at her, putting it cleanly through her back. Finch's grip on the branch loosened, and she fell to the ground, motionless. A cannon thundered, and by the time the commotion had died down, Primrose had successfully escaped, leaving Rue alone with the careers, Finch's corpse, and the ominous humming of the nearby tracker-jacker nest. Rue managed to use tree branches to shield herself in case Glimmer, Marvel, or Clove tried throwing things at her, but otherwise, she and the careers slowly drifted off to sleep without further incident.

Primrose kept running until she happened across Peeta, who asked what happened.

"Where's Rue?" was the next question he had asked after Prim had explained it all.

"She's in the tree still," Prim answered, "The careers are waiting for her at the bottom. That girl from District 5 died, and they are not going to relent till she comes down. That District 2 girl is still fixated on killing her."

"Then we just need to hope for the best," Peeta shrugged, "I don't want to try and risk either of us against those careers at full health just to try and save her."

Prim frowned, but understood Peeta's logic. In a 2-on-4, they would be creamed by the much stronger and more powerful careers. She and Peeta decided to hunker down out of the way, and hope for the best. If any other cannons fired, they just had to hope that it was not Rue's.

Rue did not seem fazed about being by her lonesome, but knew that she was in fairly dire straits. On one hand, she had no real way of attacking the careers unless she wanted to throw Clove her knife back (one of many that the girl surely had), and if she moved too much, she might leave herself open for one of their projectiles.

However, she glanced back up at the nearby tracker-jacker nest, and suddenly her mind went into overdrive as ideas began to flow. She crawled up towards the offending branch with the tracker-jackers and began sawing it in very precise ways and in precise areas. Clove's throwing knife was good for at least that. She was careful, however, not to cut too much at a time, as to not draw attention from the killer wasps themselves. After what seemed like hours, however, it was time to put her plan into action. The careers were stirring, but Rue had her slingshot out, with the knife loaded in it—and aimed right for the last part of the branch—which was keeping the tracker-jacker nest aloft.

KILLS THIS CHAPTER:
McKenzie, District 8-Killed by Glimmer
Finch, District 5-Killed by Marvel

ALIVE:
Marvel, District 1
Glimmer, District 1
Cato, District 2
Clove, District 2
Franklin, District 3
Thresh, District 11
Rue, District 11
Peeta, District 12
Primrose, District 12