Chapter 15

Sorry, I haven't updated for ages! This chapter may not be very accurate to the real thing; I couldn't get hold of the book to find out exactly how this bit happened so kind of made it up…(sorry Suzanne Collins) Also, I haven't written for ages so is probably not my best chapter…

I watch the Careers from the tree, biting my lip. The nest crashes down on them and, unsuspecting they immediately panic. Some are stupid, like that Glimmer from District 1. I feel a guilty twinge of pleasure as I watch her squealing, trying to fight off the wasps and screaming in agony every other second as the deadly venom stabs into her skin. Others – like Peeta, I am glad to note, do the sensible thing and run for the lake. Cato is with them, I realise, and I loathe him more than ever. Why does he have to be in the slightest bit smart?

After a few minutes of watching them, I finally decide it's too much and disappear back into the branches. Ten minutes later and the cannons are firing.

I'm not sure how long I sit there after that, wondering what to do with myself. I'm not hungry. I'm not thirsty. I have no stings. I am not dying. I just don't know what to do with myself – again. I am getting fed up of feeling so useless. Again, I'm on the verge of killing myself, just to get out of that horrible feeling. I look around: the only way to do it would be to jump, but the annoying thing is I've done that so many times before I might survive, and end up paralysed on the floor, just waiting for Marvel to come and stab me, which I don't want to happen.

Katniss has come back. She has a bow and arrow which I don't remember seeing before. I wonder if she's come to kill me with them: I certainly hope not. At that moment, I am certain I would rather die any other way than to be killed by her. The one I missed in the parade at the beginning. The girl on fire. Is she going to kill me here and now, I wonder?

The thought terrifies me and I recoil hurriedly, ready to fly from the branch if I need to. What comes next is totally unexpected.

'Hi.'

I look at her, puzzled. My eyes scan her up and down, narrowed into slits. She must think of me like some sort of animal, I realise as I do so. Then I remember that she just said 'Hi' to me. Katniss Everdeen just said 'Hi' to me. I take it in and stop analysing her, embarrassed. 'Hi.' I say back.

'Rue, isn't it?'

She knows that, I think, she's just trying to make conversation. Why? I nod curtly.

'Katniss,' I return.

'Listen, Rue, I've been thinking,' she says, 'you – you're a good fighter, you know, you got that seven…'

'I'm not killing for you,' I say defensively, 'I'm not killing at all.'

'I know that, I know that,' she says hurriedly and watches me relax a little. 'I was thinking…maybe if you wanted to…team up a bit. You know, help each other, kill – get rid of the Careers…'

'Like Allies?' my eyes light up.

Katniss smiles, 'like Allies. As Allies.'

Slowly, I decide to trust her. She seems to trust me, after all, so why shouldn't I do the same back? Then I look earnestly at her.

'I'm no good at anything.' I say. Why does she want to be Allies with me? Maybe it's a trick. No, not Katniss, she wouldn't…

'You are,' she tells me, 'You can fly! I watched you!'

I smile shyly.

'Hard to catch,' Katniss says.

I nod.

'Listen, I really, really want you to be my Ally.'

'Really?'

'Yes!'

I trust her. I nod: 'Ok. Allies.' And we shake on it.

'That means we have to help each other,' Katniss tells me, 'We have to do everything we can to stop the other being killed. Agreed? And we have to help each other to get rid of the other tributes.'

'I'm not killing,' I remind her.

'I didn't say kill,' she replies.

No, you didn't, I think, but for some reason everybody assumes that everybody means 'kill' here.

'What do you mean?' I ask.

'The Careers,' she says, shifting on the branch to make herself comfortable. She's got a plan, I realise. She needs my help. 'They didn't all die then, you know that?'

I nod. 'Peeta ran for the lake.'

'Clever Peeta,' she says unfathomably. 'Look, the Careers. They don't really know how to survive here. Not like we do. They rely entirely on sponsors for things like…'

'Food,' I say, seeing where she's going.

'Exactly. So,' she lowers her voice and looks around. At first I think she's looking for people, but then I remember the cameras that are everywhere. Why doesn't she want the Capitol to know her plan? Of course…it will affect the sponsors. 'What happens,' she asks me, 'if they have no food? We're not going to kill them, Rue, we're going to blow up their supplies! Even it out. Make them…'

'Play the Games,' I reply. I get it. 'Is that like killing?' I wonder aloud. Katniss shakes her head. I find myself agreeing.

'You'll have to do the actual blowing up,' I tell her. She nods.

'We'll discuss it in the morning.' She says, 'I just wanted to let you know.'

I notice she's wincing, and spot three Tracker-Jacker stings. I have an idea and reach for my bag, retrieving my leaves. I chew on them vigorously. She watches me, bewildered. I spit them out, and slap the green pulp down on her leg. I smile as I watch her puzzled face turn to a deeply relieved one. I can almost feel the poison being sucked out of her. I feel something lighten in my chest at the sight of somebody else's smile of comfort, which I haven't seen for so long. I have an urge to climb higher into the tree but I resist.

'Do my neck!' she begs, and I grin.

Fifteen minutes later, all of her stings are invisible and she seems a lot more relaxed. The anthem plays and I look away when she watches the faces of those who have died in the air. I take my socks out for the night and shiver. She sees me and I turn scarlet. I'm about to say I'm fine when she brings something out of her own bag.

'You can share my sleeping bag of you want.'

I gape at her but, before she can change her mind dive into the soft seemingly-luxurious fabric and bury my face into it, my mouth still wide open in wonder. I whisper 'thank you' and mean it more than ever, but I don't know if she hears me. I am warmer than I have been in days and want nothing more than t make the most of the opportunity, even if she is going to stab me in my sleep.

By the time she has strapped the bag to the tree and climbed in herself, and I have squeezed myself as far to the edge as possible in order to give her as much room as I can, I am asleep, thinking that this is the first day in the Arena I can call a close to-good one.