Rue was only five feet away, at most, in the next tree. Had she been there without me knowing it the whole time? At first I don't grasp what she's pointing at but then I looked up and there is a large hive. Flinching I looked back down at Rue. She was now holding up a leave to me and pointing at it. I cautiously watched her put it in her mouth and chew it. I only grew more and more confused as she spit it out and put it on a bump that I could barely make out on her arm. I couldn't lean any closer but with a spike of amusement I watched her fake roll her eyes in bliss and clutch her heart.
She giggled silently and then pointed back to the hive, then the Career pack below me. I smiled at her and at Rue's devious little mind. To show her that I understood I gave her a thumbs up. As soon as I did she grinned, and she was so cute that I almost missed it as she melted into the trees again, probably getting the hell away from here. I would if I were here.
For now I hunted for a tree near me with the leaves she'd shown me. I know what she'd wanted me to do now. I understood her completely and it made me a little sad that a child was forced to understand it. I was lucky. The leaves that she'd flashed me were on the tree beside me. Very, very quietly I shuffled my hands out of my bag and grabbed onto one of the branches that extended just close enough for me to grasp. I watched the Careers, to see if they were aware of what I was doing.
They were completely oblivious, preparing for the coming night instead of watching me. They most likely assumed that I wasn't going anywhere. I don't blame them because as of right now I'm incapable of moving out of the tree I'm in.
Quickly I gathered as many of the leaves as reachable, tugging nearly all of them off of the tree branch, just to be prepared. I tucked them into my backpack, conveniently close to the top. Once I had them secured I carefully observed the hive. There was nothing around it, no bugs but as I looked closer, squinting my heart started to hammer against my chest. I didn't need to see the bugs.
That is a tracker jacker hive. They are larger than regular wasps. Like the mockingjay's these things were enhanced in a lab by the Capital and placed around to kill people. I took shuttering breaths. These particular mutations where one of the most vicious that were made by the Capital. They have gold bodies and a sting that raises a lump the size of a plum and very bad. One sting can cause death in anyone not in good shape. Any more and you'll be seeing hallucinations through the wazoo. To many and it doesn't matter what shape you are in, you're going down almost automatically.
The Tracker part of the name comes from another 'enhanced' part of the wasp. Instead of what regular wasps would do, the whole you leave me alone I'll leave you alone, these wasps will hunt you down and kill you. The Capital destroyed the Tracker jackers nests around their city but the ones around the Districts were left as a reminder, and a punishment for going outside the gates. Not that I've ever gotten stung by one. Merely their reputation has kept me away from their nests.
Now though I see them as a weapon. The night has given me time, as the Careers decided against killing me right away. By morning though they'll form some kind of plane, or they'll hit me, or actually manage to climb the tree. Any way they do it will be bad. If I were to somehow drop the tracker jacker nest on to the Careers, who are by now huddled around a fire on one side of my tree, I can escape. How to do it though?
The tracker jackers themselves don't seem to be out and about, which is very confusing. Carefully, oh so silently, and with as much presecion as I can possibly manage, I haul myself up and into a standing position. I look and to my surprise none of the tracker jackers seem to be anywhere, would I wake them when I cut off the branch? I shouldn't. If my vague memory serves well the smoke puts out insects for a long time, and it's still smoking. Would the sawing that I'll have to do wake the Career pack though? If they realize what I'm doing they'll only move their camp, and that would only defeat the purpose.
Wait...it's getting dark so they'll play the anthem soon won't they? That will be my only chance. When that loud anthem plays I can saw through the branch, and hope that I don't wake up anyone. I tugged myself out of the backpack and carefully began climbing as best I could on the thin branches until I'm right beside the limb with the nest. I tugged my knife out of my belt loops and set it poised and ready on the limb. There still aren't any of the tracker jackers but that doesn't mean there won't be any when I start cutting. I can only hope that I can saw fast enough. I can hear a dull humm, very subdued for tracker jackers, or any kind of bug be it bees or wasps. The smoke must have really knocked them out.
Then the seal of the Capital flickers in the sky and as soon as the anthem begins playing I'm sawing away. It kills me, as the back and forth motion of the knife moves up my arm and already I fill sore but I can't let up. I continue on even as I note that there have been no deaths today. That's okay as for right now the audience will be happy that I'm injured, and that the Career's are about to get a rude awakening. When the music stops I've only made it three fourths of a the way through, not enough.
I'm stumped on what to do, and I looked around hoping some kind of inspiration will fall out of the sky. Right now, I could do it all by just my senses, but that may not be the best idea, and I haven't thought about what if the tracker jackers are to drowsey or maybe they get caught on the way down and I can't tell that they will? This is a dangerous decision to make.
In the end I decided to wait, so I climb back down to wait out the dawn. I twitched, almost groaning aloud as my thigh stings more passionately then before, as if it had just been burned at this moment. I inched carefully back to my fork in the tree, where my bag awaits again and I nearly sob out my feelings as I see what is waiting for me there. A small plastic pot attached to a deflated parachute sits neatly on top of my bag. I contained my excitement only through sheer force of will. I make myself wait until I'm safely on my fork again, belted in though this time I stay outside of my sleeping bag, to keep the leg visible.
Picking up the small pot I unscrewed it and inside was some kind of cream in a small jar. Curiously I stuck my fingers into the cream and frowned. What would they give me this for? My thigh burned and I looked down at it. It was the only wound I have. Cautiously I touched my sticky hands to the center of the burn and automatically my eyes rolled into the back of my head in relief. The constant burn in my leg was finally being soothed and I groaned as I smoothed the cream over the burned area until it was everywhere on it.
"Oh, Thank you Haymitch." I groaned reveling in the feeling of bliss coming from my thigh. I carefully, making sure not to waste any of the miracle stuff, capped it after smoothing the layer over my festering wound. With the pain gone I'm beginning to feel the effects of being awakened earlier. Without much thought my mind slips into a light sleep, always alert and ready.
So when a bird starts singing near me, my mind automatically wakes me up. When my eyes fluttered open I looked around me to see the trees. It didn't hit me until a few seconds pasted that I could see the trees. Sitting up, swinging my legs soundlessly to either side of the tree branch I examined my thigh wound. In the dull light of the dawning sky I could see the once horrific burn was beginning to fade. My leg still feels…inflamed but that burn is much deeper. I smoothed another thin layer over the wound before placing the pot securely into my backpack, which I carefully swung onto my shoulders with everything repacked into it.
What happens next would be quick and probably painful. I made sure again that I had a few leaves on hand to put on any of the stings. At least, I'm hoping that's what Rue meant for me to do with it. Before I start though I take a little time to eat some beef strips and drink a few cups of water. My stomach had settled but almost nothing was left in it because of my vomiting yesterday.
Looking down to the Career's I can see that they are all asleep, even the guard who they'd left awake last night had fallen asleep sitting on a rock, holding my battle axe. I wanted to rip her head off, to do something. I needed that battle axe. With the battle axe I could probably win this tournament with no questions asked. I'm very good with an axe and with it taking them out will be as easy as cutting cake.
Before I started sawing I looked again out into the woods. I couldn't see my little helper, but that didn't mean that she wasn't there. "Rue," I called softly, trying not to awaken the pack below me. Rue practically melted out of the shadows only a few yards from me. I held up my knife and made a sawing motion. The intelligent little girl nodded before disappearing. I listened carefully and I could just hear her swinging away on the branches of trees. That was clever. There were no other tributes that could accomplish that feat I bet, not even me. Rue was the lightest and the most accustomed to trees, being from the agriculture district.
I shook my head, trying to focus again. It was time for me to start, and if I didn't start soon the noise would be noticeable, or they would be up by then. When I was positioned in the correct spot, perfect for sawing the rest of the tree limb when I see something moving, on the nest. It's a tracker jacker. It's a little subdued, seeming to stumble but the brightness of it's color and the movement means they are awake, and dangerous. If one is awake, I'll bet my knife the others will soon follow.
Without having to think about I hurriedly started sawing through in the grove that I made yesterday. They begin buzzing in the hive and I begin to panic when I feel the sting of one right on my knee. I groaned but kept going, determined to do this. The others will come soon anyways, if I don't get them away from me and focused on another target. The moment my knife breaks through the branch I sling the branch away from me. It goes crashing through the branches below but it hits its mark, landing right in the mitts of the sleeping people below.
The hive burst open not unlike a piñata and I watch, unable to move as mayhem breaks out. I feel a second sting, on my cheek, and a third one on my neck. I flicked my hand, sending them away and then I fumbled with the leaves, putting them in my mouth to begin chewing them like my little helper did. Looking at the stings I have enough knowledge to know to pull the stingers out but the mutated wasp's venom is already making me woozy. Luckily for me my only injuries are these three as now the insects are focused on my enemies, on the ground.
The Careers have awoken and are stumbling away, some if not most are screaming and I understand even as I spit out the green goop of saliva and chewed leave and put it all over the stings. The sharp agonizing pain that had just begun to start stops and I let out pitiful moans of relief, even while I watched the chaos below.
A few of them, I can't see who they are for the pandemonium, have the good sense to drop everything and run. I hear cries from them to head towards the lake and I'm disappointed that they know to head to the lake. Even if it's mean and cruel, they started this, not me. All though, the lake must be close if they think they can out run the furious onslaught of the wasps.
There were two who weren't fast enough, Glimmer and some girl that I hadn't recognized. The girl got away, barely. She probably wouldn't make it to the lake but Glimmer was a lost cause. The tracker jackers swarmed in a mass around her, and I watched in disgust and still slight hallucination as they sting her and she clutches on tight to the battle axe as if it was her last life line, swinging it at them pointlessly. I watch as the pretty girl falls to the ground, twitches, screams, and tries to beat them away hysterically. Then she lies still and the tracker jackers zoom off to where they saw the others go. I hear the cannon sound but I'm not paying attention to it.
Instead I'm making sure no more of the foul things are here. I'm sure that they won't come back, as they are much more intelligent then insects usually are. They will probably give up, once they can't get into the water to the other careers, and start anew where ever they can, and it won't be here. Still I wait a long few minutes, taking care of my own stings which are already going down, and then climb down the tree. I'm very cautious, looking everywhere for a sign of the bright yellow backs of the tracker jackers.
Slowly and with great trepidation I find my way over to Glimmer. She's horribly looking and I have to clamp my hand over my mouth to stop the scream and vomit from erupting. The once beautiful, if not down right slutty, girl is now mangled and mutated by the stings on the girls body. She has red, large, to large pumps from where the wasps have stung her and they are nearly pulsing as the stingers continue to send the venom into her dead carcass. She seemed to be nearly twice the size she had been, and I tried desperately to grab the axe without touching her but her swollen fingers won't release the axe.
I pick up a stone and to my own horror break her fingers away from the axe. I grimace and grab the axe, stumbling away still a little woozy from the tracker jacker stings. They aren't nearly as bad as what caused Glimmers death but I had put the leaves on them before they were even 30 seconds old. Now I ran, clearing my head with the wind, so that I could make it back to my little pond, and I submerged myself, for both comfort, and to help get rid of the last of the effects left by the tracker jacker venom. I dropped the axe and my bag on the bank and I let myself soak up the water, but I wasn't given a minutes peace before I heard the sound of someone's stumbling feet in the brush. I quickly moved myself out of the water and to the axe.
If they think that I am going to let them take me then they are mistaken, I now have an axe. With this axe I could most likely kill all of the tributes in this place.
But the person who breaks through the brush isn't who I was expecting, Peeta. Why is he back here? Is he hunting me? But he is in no shape to hunt. He has three stings right off the bat that I can see, one on his cheek and two on his right arm, while now I spot another one pulsing by his ear. He will be a goner if I don't treat them.
"W-What?" Peeta asks the air, looking a little to my left. He must be hallucinating. I, in a split second decision, drop my axe and pull Peeta down, so that I could pull the stings out. He's to far gone to notice, already seeing things and he hadn't had the knowledge that I had so he didn't know to pull the stingers out. I hurriedly stuffed some more of the many leaves that I had into my mouth and began to work. The Careers would be in no shape to find us now, and if they tried I now had a chance of beating all of them without them even seeing it coming.
I tugged off Peeta's jacket and shirt and looked for any more stings, finding one on the right, or was it his left, side of his chest. He was lucky. I'm sure that if it had been on his heart he would not have made it no matter what I did. I pulled all of the stingers out and worked constantly but once the stings were taken care of I noticed he had fallen into an unconscious state.
I needed to find us somewhere to hide, just in case I was wrong and a few of the others made it without any stings, as unlikely as that is. There. Downstream I can see a burrow in the rocks, just a little ways away from the water. Had I been so in pain before that I had not noticed or had the gamekeepers decided that we deserved it? I heaved Peeta's moaning form onto my shoulders, via his arm, and began to slowly drag him to where I could see the awaiting burrow.
It was a long process, longer then I would have wanted it to be but Peeta was a growing man if I dare call him that and he was heavy. I didn't know why I was doing this. It would probably make me look soft but I needed to know why Peeta would betray me. He did know that if he killed me my sister would never forgive him right? I'm almost positive that he does love my sister but when he wakes I will have my answers.
Do you love it? Right now is when the plot line deviates the most from the story line. Peeta lovers beware. I hope you guys loved it and also this story has been nominated for the Energizer Work In Progress (W.I.P.) Award you should go vote for it. It's easy to find, just google that name. It can be voted on from now until November 20th 2012. Is it already passed that date? I don't know... I hope you guys loved this chapter. I was very pleased with how it came out.