A/N: Hey! I'm glad you all liked that last chapter. I really don't know where this is headed but I am going to make it dramatic, I can promise you that. So…let's see what happens! Haha. Hope you enjoy this one!

Rue POV

It's been a few days since Tori died. The first day afterwards was horrible. All of us were pretty much depressed. I can't even imagine how it is going for her family right now.

Even though it's been hard, we've still moved on and we have stayed alive. Last night, I had a nightmare, and I thought Cat was killed. I woke up and searched frantically around the trees until I found her, sleeping soundly with Beck next to her in the sleeping bag. On watch was Jade, Robbie, Peeta, and Katniss, as usual. Basically they watched for the first few hours or so, and ended up falling asleep. They only woke if there was a noise that sounded bad, and so far this system was working quite well. We all got our necessary sleep for the night, and we all felt safe.

Anyhow, everyone on watch was still awake, and Peeta noticed I had woken up.

"Rue," he whispered. I looked up to see him nod to Katniss, who was motioning for me to come up to her. I climbed like a monkey through the limbs of the tree up to Katniss's limb. Katniss took me in her arms, and the tremors began to rack my body.

"Shhh," Katniss whispered, tightening her grip on me and pressing her lips to my temple. After a minute or two, I calmed down a little bit.

"What happened?" asked Katniss, her soothing voice coming out again.

"I th-thought that Cat was k-killed," I said, stuttering unintentionally.

Katniss sighed, the word "killed" or anything close to it seeming to really get to her. I think it was because of losing Tori.

"She's right down there with Beck, sleeping. She's ok Rue," said Katniss, brushing my hair behind my ear. I nodded, indicating that I knew she was.

"I know…it's just…in these games, you never know. The line between nightmares and the Games is very thin, and sometimes it gets blurred," I said. Katniss seemed sort of surprised at my intelligence.

Katniss nodded, agreeing with me.

"It is, isn't it?" Katniss said. She sighed.

We sat in silence for a little while before Katniss started telling me stories. Stories of her district, stories of her stylist named Cinna and her mentor Haymitch. My favorite stores were about Haymitch. The first one was where he was drunk and told Katniss to stay alive as his advice for her. both of us chuckled when she talked about that. The other one, which was even funnier, was when Katniss got mad and shot the apple in the pigs mouth because the Gamemakers weren't paying attention to her. Haymitch, unlike everyone else, was amused rather than angry. He had said "Nice shooting, sweetheart." As Katniss told this, she was laughing. Soon enough though, we were pulled back to reality as I began to get tired again. I went back down to my sleeping bag and went back to sleep again.

It was now the following morning.

Cat POV

I woke up to bright light shining on my eyes. I sighed as I knew it was time to return to reality.

Beck was already awake and on the ground with the others except for Rue and I.

"Morning sunshine," teased Robbie from below. I scowled at him, but soon smiled. I couldn't help being happy even though the circumstances basically forbade it. I bet the Gamemakers were not happy about us being so relaxed.

I waved down at Robbie and went to go see Rue.

"Morning Rue," I whispered as I sat on the limb nearest her sleeping bag.

Rue opened her eyes slowly and stretched out. She smiled as she saw me.

We jumped down and went to the others, who were talking.

"So…what do we do now?" asked Peeta, seemly as bored as we all were. There was nothing going on.

"I don't know…wait. The Gamemakers are certain to set something off soon enough," Jade said, sneering at that last part.

We sat in silence.

"I know what we should do. We've been out for a day now…we need to go find a source," said Beck.

We had been very frugal with the water, drinking just barely enough to survive. We ran out yesterday morning, and I think all of us were very thirsty.

"Split up?" suggested Peeta. There were nine of us now, so three groups of three could go out and search.

Katniss nodded.

"Rue and Jade, you're with me. Peeta, Cat, and Robbie, you're another group. Andre, Beck, and Amelia, you're the last. I think that evenly distributes everyone," said Katniss.

We all nodded and headed off.

Beck POV

Andre, Amelia, and I grabbed a couple of the water bottles and headed off. We all had knives on hand.

We treaded quietly through the forest, trying to find any source of water there was. We trekked along for about 15 minutes with no success.

Andre muttered something under his breath and sat down on a log.

"We're so screwed," I said, knowing that lack of water would kill us pretty easily.

Amelia looked up at the sky.

"You know, some water would be kind of useful right now!" she hissed angrily.

To our surprise, a Capitol parachute came down to us.

Instead of water, it held a note.

"You're close. Keep going in the same direction," I read out loud. It was from Amelia and Andre's mentor.

Although we were tired, we scrambled to our feet and took off in a sprint in that direction. The water was soon spotted, and we were about to go get it.

Out of nowhere, the other six sprinted toward us, pausing only tell us to run. I looked at them confused until I heard the hiss of fire, and suddenly the forest behind us was engulfed in flame.

I grabbed the water bottles, and Andre dragged Amelia up from where she was. We sprinted again towards the others.

Suddenly, as the fire grew hotter and nearer, fireballs began to come at us.

I heard Jade scream something I'd rather not repeat as we kept running. I snickered as I heard her, despite the fact that I could be burnt to bits in a matter of seconds at the moment.

The smile was wiped clean from my face as I saw a fireball hurl towards Amelia.

"AMELIA!" I cried out. Andre turned, and jumped right in front of her.

I didn't need to hear the sizzling sound and the screams to know what had happened.

Tears flooded my eyes as I ran forwards, dodging fireballs and trying to breathe. The smoky air was really not helping.

Another fireball headed straight at Katniss. Fortunately, she was dodged it, but it grazed her calf. Peeta picked her up as gingerly as he could for someone who was running for two lives and carried her onward.

Finally the fire cut off completely. The fireballs stopped hurling at us, and it looked nearly as if nothing happened.

But we were in no way fine. The toxins from the smoke were taking a toll on all of us, not to mention Katniss's burn. And the loss of Andre and Amelia.

As soon as we got close to camp, the retching began. It wasn't just me, either. It was all of us. Let's not go into detail with that.

It took about five minutes for it to stop. We flopped backwards on the ground, coughing and in some serious pain. Especially Katniss, who was trying so hard not to scream as the pain in her leg worsened.

I knew we had to do something about that very soon.

"Andre…Amelia…where?" wheezed Jade, wincing as she did so.

Tears filled my eyes again, and I shocked myself by starting to cry.

"One of the fireballs hit them both. Andre threw himself in front of her to protect her, and it hit them, and-" I began, but I was cut off by my cries.

I wasn't the only one who cried. I think everyone did, yes even Peeta. he and Andre had been pretty close this whole time.

"We gotta go back to them. The canons haven't sounded yet, that means they might be alive, and the water is nearby!" Peeta cried out. As weak and tired as we were, we got to our feet somehow and headed back into that direction, taking the water bottles too.

We reached where Amelia and Andre lay, both burned beyond repair. You could see by looking at them that the burn was too severe for anything to be done.

We got there just in time, because Amelia was taking her last few breaths.

"You'll be alright," whispered Cat as tears streamed down her face. Amelia closed her eyes, and she was gone.

"No!" Andre said, or tried to say. It sounded strangled. He was so close to death.

"Andre. Andre, calm down," said Peeta. Andre took a deep, deep breath and looked up at him.

"You've been such a great friend. You mean a lot to me. To all of us. So did your sister," said Peeta, causing Andre to smile a little. As much as a person as hurt as he was could smile.

"Just close your eyes. The pain will go away soon," assured Jade, her soft side making a reappearance.

"Thank…you," Andre managed. We nodded.

He closed his eyes once more, and two canons sounded, signifying their deaths.

Despite our need for water, which was only a few yards away, we stayed for a moment to mourn over them.

Cries racked my thin frame. I tried to stifle them, to be strong for the others. But when little Cat put her arms around me and began to cry, I couldn't stop it anymore.

We all cried for what seemed like an hour before the wind of the hovercraft came. We scurried away towards the water, knowing it was time to pull ourselves together for the moment.

We all jumped into the water without thinking. Katniss moaned with relief as the cool water numbed the pain of her burn. The water felt good as we had been running in extreme heat for the past half hour.

After washing ourselves off and clearing ourselves of smoke dust, we got out and filled the water containers with water. Robbie put the iodine in them and we waited there, weapons on hand.

As we waited, I thought about the people we had lost. Tori.

Oh God how I missed her. (To that Bori fan who wanted me to do some Bori-mance, here you go.)

I don't know why, but seeing her, someone who was so weak yet so strong, had kept me from losing my sanity. She was fierce whenever she had needed to be, in any situation that needed her to be. She had a strong stomach and wasn't afraid of blood, so she could take care of anything. She had courage. Courage that to this day, I do not quite have.

And she had sympathy, compassion. She knew how hard it was for everyone. In that timeframe that I had been with her, she was always trying to crack a joke to make everyone feel better. She had taken care of the younger girls, comforting them, telling stories. She never failed to amaze me.

And now there's this weird emptiness inside of me now that she's gone.

Amelia…she was so young.

She didn't deserve what she got. What hurts the most about her death is the fact that it was the Capitol's weapon that killed her. I hope the Gamemakers felt a twinge of guilt when they realized they, and no one but they, had killed a young girl who could have had a life ahead of her. I hope they realized how sick and demented they were.

Andre.

Andre was truly an amazing guy. He had a love for his sister like no one else. He was also a great friend, a funny guy. He knew the world of music much better than anyone else did. Just the night before last, we had been sitting quietly and just listening to him humming a song. He taught it to us, and soon we were singing without a care in the world. I thank him for that, his ability to distract us.

The thing I admire the most about him was his last act; saving his sister. Sacrificing his own life in an attempt to save hers.

He is one of the bravest men I ever knew.

"The water's ready," said Robbie quietly.

We all shared the water bottles, gulping down a total of three each in three hours. We filled them up once more and headed back to camp, where food awaited us.

Katniss POV – 3 Hours Later

Night had fallen. We were all full with food and water. We were also all exhausted from the toll the smoke had taken on us.

We had decided it would be safer to move around to a different place, in case Cato or someone was planning on attacking us, if someone knew where we were. We found a cave underground and had settled down. I set a few traps around the cave to at least stall anyone who came around and tried to attack us.

The traps also helped us feel safe enough that we all lay down and went to sleep.

I couldn't sleep though. I kept thinking about Andre and Amelia.

I couldn't stop thinking about how Andre sacrificed his own life for Amelia. How much he loved her. I admired him so much for that.

I imagined that it was me and Prim in their situation.

I thought of how I would react to losing her…what I would do…how I would get on with my life. Outside of the people in this arena, she and Gale are the only two people that I hang onto like a lifeline. You might as well consider me dead if you take Prim out of my life.

I didn't realize I was crying until Cat crawled up to me in the dark.

"What's wrong?" she asked me, her voice reminding me so much of Prim's. a fresh set of tears appeared.

"Nothing…" I said, not wanting to drag her into anything.

"I'm not stupid Katniss," she said, taking me by surprise.

I sighed and began to practically pour my heart out to her.

The next thing I knew, her arms were wrapped around me and she held me tight as I cried until there were no tears left to cry.

"Are you ok now?" asked Cat. I almost said no, because I still wanted Prim to be with me more than anything right now. But for some reason, because I had Cat with me at that moment, I said yes.

Cat smiled a bit.

"Oh wow I'm so embarrassed," I said, realizing just how reckless and weak I had just been.

"Don't be. Should have seen me the night Tori died," said Cat, her voice lowering.

I forced a little smile.

"Let's go back to bed, Cat," I said, a sense of calmness coming over me.

Cat went back and laid down, and so did I. I fell asleep with an image of me and Prim in my mind and a smile on my face.

A/N: I don't even know what this. LOL. Anyhow, I hope you like it. Review please! The reviews really help me keep these coming. Thanks for reading!