AUTHOR'S NOTES: Things really haven't been looking up for the careers for most of these games, have they? Not to say that Rue isn't a formidable and cunning opponent, but other external factors have helped stack these games against the career pack. This chapter is where that trend finally begins to change.
Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 16: Turning the Tides

Cato and Clove sprang up when the cannon fired, and instantly their heads cocked towards the sky, waiting to see where the hovercraft would fly in. Much to their disgust, they saw it coming south of where they were, which gave them a very shrewd idea of who had died.

"We make camp at the cornucopia now," Clove asserted, "I am going to draw that kid out if it's the last thing I do, and I'm going to rip out her entrails with my bare hands and strangle her with them!"

Clove's enmity towards Rue had been built up since the beginning of the pre-game ceremonies, where she and her larger partner would silently gaze and stare at the career tributes, almost as if they were wordlessly mocking them. To top it off, now that little girl had slain 4 tributes, which was the same number as Clove and Cato combined.

The two of them lodged themselves firmly into their hiding places as they lay in wait for the Gamemakers to start the feast.

"Killing is our business, and business is shabby." Clove complained, "let's move."
Cato nodded in agreement and the two tributes trekked towards the cornucopia as the afternoon wore on, and they lodged themselves

In the meantime, Rue trekked all the way back to where Primrose and Peeta were camping out, using the Mockingjay tunes both to indicate that she was alright, and to track their locations. The careers seemed to have not caught on what it meant, and thankfully Rue did not have Clove or Cato on her tail.

"Rue!" Prim exclaimed, seeming a little frenzied when she saw Rue, "are you okay?"
Rue glanced down at her clothes, realizing that they were smattered with blood, some of which was her own, and some of which was Marvel's.

"Huh?" she turned so her left ear was facing Prim, who repeated the question. It was in this moment that she realized the blood coming out of her right ear also meant that the explosion had knocked out her hearing. That might come back to haunt her later.

"What happened to your ear?" Prim was still a bit squeamish around the sight of blood, which Rue was smattered with, especially on the right side of her head.

"The explosion must have knocked my hearing out," Rue shrugged, "I can't hear you at all from that side The good news is that the careers are mad because their supplies are gone."
"Who was the cannon for?" Peeta grunted; his leg did not look so good.

"Marvel," Rue smirked, "Dropped right out of a tree onto his head. He never saw it coming. So needless to say, Clove and Cato are furious."

"Well sit down and rest!" Prim asserted, "you're a mess and you need attention! I've been busy with Peeta all day, and then you come in like this! It's terrible Rue. It's terrible!"
"I'm not fighting it," Rue chuckled, plopping onto the ground next to Prim, who helped guide the darker girl down onto her back as she went to work. Prim started cleaning the blood off of Rue's face and body, although there was nothing that she could do about Rue's destroyed eardrum.

Prim sort of became the 'team mom' of the group for the remainder of the afternoon, before sundown finally came and the Gamemakers finally made the announcement that the time of the feast had arrived. Clove and Cato, who had situated themselves at the cornucopia that day, were ready and wasted no time in taking the bag with the '2 on it. Cato contemplated taking the bags with the 11 and 12 on them, but Clove suggested they leave them there—to bait the others.

"My question," Rue quipped, "is what could I possibly need at this point, unless they can amazingly fix an ear or something. Peeta obviously needs medicine, and maybe we could all do with better weaponry or food… food is getting fairly scarce out here." She knew that the stuff she had taken from Marvel after killing him would not last more than a day or so. It seemed the careers only dealt with hunger on a day-to-day basis, and the freshness of the food would keep it from lasting much more than that.

"We definitely need to go and hopefully get Peeta's medicine," Prim insisted, as Rue finally sat up. She felt a bit rested, and while there was still something of a stinging pain in her right ear, she was otherwise feeling rather fine at the moment.

"I'll go," she volunteered, "I can snag both bags for us."
"but what about Cato and Clove," Peeta spoke up, "two on one doesn't seem like very favorable odds."

"I don't think you should be limping your way to the cornucopia," Rue quipped, "Prim and I can go, unless she'd rather stay with you. I think I could handle it myself."

"I can go with you," Prim offered, "two tributes are better than one."

"I still don't like the idea of the two of you going by yourselves," Peeta felt guilty about letting the small girls go up against the career tributes while he was still alive, even if he couldn't exactly stand.
"Well, if Clove's there," Rue began, "then if anything, I should be the one to distract them while you grab the supplies. Peeta definitely needs it, and if you both survive, you might be able to go home. You're not going to be able to go with us, Peeta—not on that leg."

"Thresh is still alive, you know." Peeta reminded her, but the topic quickly dropped, as none of them wanted to think about the time that would inevitably come, where they would have to say their final goodbyes. Two tributes might be able to win, but three was not in the question, especially from different districts. "And I'd be fine." He groaned as he tried to stand up, which kind of disproved his point, but Rue didn't say anything, and neither did Prim.

Right as Rue stood up to head out, a parachute floated towards them, bearing a number 12 on its side. Prim caught it and opened it, reading Haymitch's note, which was only comprised of two words.

"For Peeta." =H=

"It's for you," she handed the canister to him, which contained what appeared to be a simple soup.

"What about you, Prim?" he asked her.

"I've got Rue to help me." she reassured, "just eat it."

Eventually, Peeta was coerced into eating the soup, which, to Prim's surprise, ended up putting him into a light slumber.

"It seems like opportunity knocked," Rue noted, "I don't think he would have let us go by ourselves."
"He means well," Prim wanted to make sure that Rue knew this. "but let's go."
Primrose and Rue crept through the forest before coming across the cornucopia. There in the clearing were three bags—two with a number 11, and one with a number 12.

"Where's '2?" Prim whispered, "and '1?"
"I got Marvel this morning, remember?" Rue whispered, keeping to Prim's right so that she could hear what her fairer-skinned counterpart was saying, "and if the bags with the 2s on them are gone, that means Clove and Cato are nearby. Stay alert."

Rue stepped out into the open, approaching the bags with an odd sense of calm around her. She began whistling a tune, as if trying to alert the careers of her presence as she sauntered towards the cornucopia. Prim recognized it as a song that her father and sister used to sing before their mother learned the rather grim meaning of two of the verses.

Her decoy worked. Seconds later, Clove sprung out of the shadows of the cornucopia, knives drawn and ready to attack, a look of crazed obsession carved deeply into the contours of her face.

"PRIM!" Rue shouted, "NOW!"

Primrose made a frantic scramble for the medicine bag while Clove pursued Rue. Prim was not even in her line of sight—so fixated was she on Rue that nothing else even occurred to her. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of trying to strike the smaller girl was that Rue's reflexes were incredible. She evaded Clove's throwing knives, evading all but one, which lodged itself in her hair near her right ear. Had she had less hair, it could have very well left a much larger mark, and very well might have killed the District 11 girl instead.

What happened next was a confusing mixture of sounds. Clove heard a little girl scream, and then heard Cato yell, as well as a large roar from another tribute which could only be Thresh. The massive boy had showed up on the scene, and Cato was running with his tail between his legs, clutching the left side of his head with his hand. Thresh suddenly beelined it for Clove, who, cursing, abandoned her design to pursue Rue, who naturally beelined it right towards Thresh, aiming to put herself between him and Clove, successfully doing so.

"Get outta here!" Thresh called out, chasing Clove and Cato into the forest as he snatched up the larger of the two '11' bags. He was taking the offensive, and the careers were his prey. Rue heaved a sigh of relief for a moment, thinking the worst was over.

Her mind changed immediately upon seeing Prim curled up on the ground, in a pool of her own blood.

KILLS THIS CHAPTER:
None so far (Primrose badly wounded)

ALIVE:
Cato Salazar, District 2
Clove Kazera, District 2
Thresh Dakara, District 11
Rue Keniye, District 11
Peeta Mellark, District 12
Primrose Everdeen, District 12