AUTHOR'S NOTE: I had fun with this chapter. Here we get to see Rue use an idea that she had had to begin with, and see how it plays out for her. Even without the rock that was Katniss, Peeta, Rue, and co are not pushovers. Everyone gets to be a little more awesome because it adds to the action.
Also... Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that the rocks and river might not actually have been there.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 13: Wits and Courage

Clove woke up on morning 6 to find Rue still in the tree, but on her feet with her slingshot pulled back, a knife in the sling. Clove recognized it as the one she had thrown at the smaller girl during the bloodbath. To her surprise, however, she saw Rue aiming at something to her left. A second later, Clove realized what it was, right as the knife whizzed through the air and severed the last connection that branch had with the tree.

"SHIT!" Clove bellowed, causing the others to jump awake and take off running. They all suffered some serious stings, including Rue, but the damage was done. The tracker-jackers began attacking all five tributes, and Rue definitely got a few nastier stings as she leapt from tree to tree to put distance between her and the wasps. Glimmer, however, was not so fortunate, being the closest to the epicenter of the nest's impact point. The wasps swarmed her, and within minutes, she was dead on the ground, and a cannon fired. Cato, Clove, and Marvel managed to get out alive, but the nasty stings they all got would put them out of commission a few days. Rue's stings were getting to her, and she was suddenly not sure if she was in the trees, or jumping from rock to rock now over a raging river of death. She did appear to be getting closer to the ground, and right as she jumped towards one final rock to land smoothly, she lost her footing and faceplanted against the ground instead, where she stopped moving. Maybe that hadn't been a rock after all...

She was lucky enough to be found first by Primrose and Peeta, who took her back to their current hiding spot—a secluded cave near the southwestern sector. They had taken refuge there after the career chase, and Primrose especially, was relieved when she discovered that Rue was alive.

Because of their injuries, the careers did not do anything over the next couple of days except for pull another tribute into their ranks. Cato stumbled across the boy from District 3, who promised to side with them if they spared his life.

"What can you possibly do for us?" Cato kept the boy within range of his sword in case he tried to run.

"I can dig up the mines," he smirked, "you want your cornucopia camp safe? Anyone who doesn't know where those traps are will get blown higher than District 13."

"Any funny business," Cato warned, "and it's done though—you hear?"

"Got it," the boy, Franklin, agreed. He did not really have a choice in the matter, but he would rather preserve his own life and die later rather than sooner.

True to Franklin's word, the District 3 boy was soon digging up the mines and reactivating them, before burying them in a tactical pattern around the cornucopia and the careers' supplies, which they naturally shared with him in return for his 'service'. All of them, however, including Cato, were still recovering from their injuries.

Primrose kept watch over Rue as the darker girl convulsed from painful nightmares, most likely induced from the tracker-jacker venom. She did have enough herbalism knowledge to know the remedy for the stings, which minimized the pain, but did not fully eliminate it.

Rue did not even wake up proper until around midnight or 1 on day 9, where Prim squealed excitedly, hugging her.

"I was worried that you wouldn't ever wake up!" she exclaimed. Rue was still a bit groggy, and as her body adjusted to being conscious, she realized that her arms most of her upper body was a little chilly.

"Where are we?" she whispered, squinting before realizing that they were simply in the dark, "has anyone else died? Is Peeta still alive?"
"He's out hunting for food, I think," Prim explained, "I don't think anyone has died since that Glimmer girl. You were completely gone during days 7 and 8… I was so worried."
"oof…" Rue groaned, shivering briefly. She bent her legs towards her body, digging her toes into the dusty floor of the cave that she realized they were in, "is it cold in here or is it just me."
"Oh!" Prim exclaimed, "I had to remove your shirt to check on that burn too. I don't think it reacted very well to the tracker-jacker venom."
"What's it look like now?" Rue's mind wandered to the potentially grizzly state of her back now. She could not feel any pain, and so it made her wonder if it was so grizzled and damaged that she could just no longer feel anything back there.

"It actually looks fine," Prim smiled, handing Rue her shirt as well as the dark jacket with the number 11 on the shoulders. "You appear to have made a full recovery back there. How does it feel?
"Normal, I guess." Rue put her hand on her back before putting her shirt on again, "Thanks."
Peeta seemed similarly pleased that Rue was awake by the time he came back with some food.

"We were worried about you," he admitted, running a hand through his hair like he seemed to do a lot lately, "the swelling seems to have gone down. Primrose really is the best in the business."
"Wow, how bad was it?" Rue tilted her head, leaning onto one of her hands,

"We found you passed out in the mud, covered in stings," Prim explained, "Peeta carried you back to our cave after I told him where you were, and we nursed you back to health."
"How are the careers?" Rue couldn't help but think about that District 2 girl, and how this Clove Kazera seemed almost frantically obsessed with murdering Rue.

"I think you got them good," Peeta chuckled, "we haven't seen or heard from them for days.

"Well, I don't think we can stall in this cave forever," Rue pointed out, "either the careers will find us, or the Gamemakers will try to flush us out. That was how I got burned in the first place."

"Someone's definitely the pragmatist," Peeta quipped, "what did you have in mind?"
"We need to attack," she declared, causing Prim to look down at the ground. "we need to find out what they are up to and make a move. We need a distraction force, and a saboteur. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself here. First let's find out what's going on at the cornucopia."

"Are you feeling alright?" Prim asked her, "you haven't eaten in a while…"
"Rue gave pause, sitting back down. Okay, so maybe she did feel a little lightheaded. She grabbed for her water skin and drained it.

"We've been keeping that full for you," Primrose added, "you've kept hydrated, but you haven't eaten since at least when you fell unconscious."
Rue thought about how long ago that was, and realized that they were bordering on three days now. Luckily for her survival at the moment, the dark-skinned girl was rather used to hunger back home. Prim tried not to think of whatever animals they had trapped, and so the trio agreed to cook and eat some of the meat, figuring that the cave would conceal the fire well enough, and that it was spacious enough to keep from smoking the squatting tributes out.

As they ate a few minutes later, Rue had to ask why they were up so late. Peeta explained that they did most of their movement in the quiet of the evening and that they remained elusive during the day. Rue was fine with this nocturnal style, and it actually prompted her to ask something.

"Do either of you still have my bag from the lake the other day?"
"Yeah, it's right here," Prim crawled to a corner, tossing Rue her sack. There was not much else in it except a couple of knives, a small, folded cloth, a wooden bowl, and an odd pair of glasses, but the latter of these was exactly what Rue wanted.

"After a bit of proper rest—hopefully not punctuated by more tracker-jacker hallucinations, I'm going to have a look around." She had no intention of sharing what her nightmares had been about, and so hoped that neither of the District 12 tributes would ask. Luckily, the only thing they asked about (Primrose, to be exact) was whether or not Rue had experienced this before.

"Twice," Rue answered, "Once when I was 9, and again when I was 11—and now yet again at 12. We had smoke to ward them off the last two times though, but even a couple stings can really do a number on ya. Just be glad that you didn't get stung."

Rue ate her fill before curling up on the ground like a dog and falling back asleep almost instantly.

"She's incredible," Prim admitted, watching Rue's frizzy hair flutter with the small girl's slightest movements. "How is anyone that brave?"
"I guess that's what the arena does to people," Peeta shrugged, remembering how Rue had (with some slight help from Thresh at times) stood up to the daunting career tributes in the training center, and then again how she had distracted the careers to allow Peeta and later Prim to escape while she took the hit from the tracker-jackers. One thing was certain though—Peeta and Primrose had an invaluable ally in Rue Keniye, and they both hoped that she would be able to outlast the careers.

KILLS THIS CHAPTER:
Glimmer Rambin, District 1-Killed by Rue

ALIVE:
Marvel Kain, District 1
Cato Salazar, District 2
Clove Kazera, District 2
Franklin Sterling, District 3
Thresh Dakara, District 11
Rue Keniye, District 11
Peeta Mellark, District 12
Primrose Everdeen, District 12