Chapter 7: The Final Battle
I feel like it is only a minute when Katniss shakes my shoulder. When I open my eyes, she's leaning over me and her braid tickles me on my face. I pull her down for a kiss. It's so good to be able to kiss her.
"We're wasting hunting time," she says when we break away. I answer her with a smile.
"I wouldn't call it wasting," I say and stretch. "So do we hunt on empty stomachs to give us an edge?" I ask.
"Not us," she says. "We stuff ourselves to give us staying power."
"Count me in," I smile, but she surprises me, when she divides everything we have left. "All this?"
"We'll earn it back today," she says and we both plow into our plates. Even cold, it's one of the best things I've ever tasted. In the end she scrapes up the last dabs of gravy with her fingers.
"I can feel Effie Trinket shuddering at my manners." she jokes.
"Hey, Effie, watch this!" I say. Then I toss my fork over my shoulder and lick my plate clean making loud, satisfied sounds. Then I blow a kiss out to her in general and in the end I call "We miss you, Effie!" I'm in such a good mood, that I can't believe it. Katniss covers my mouth with her hand laughing.
"Stop! Cato could be right outside our cave." she says.
"What do I care? I've got you to protect me now," I say pulling her closer to me. I love her so much.
"Come on," she says, she wants to go, but I don't until she gives me another kiss.
But as we go out of the cave, it's immediate change. It's like the cave was just a little holiday and now we're back in the arena, facing Cato, who's surely looking for us by now. Katniss gives me a knife and I put it into my belt.
"He'll be hunting us by now," I tell her "Cato isn't one to wait for his prey to wander by."
"If he's wounded —" she begins.
"It won't matter," I brake in "If he can move, he's coming."
"If we want food, we better head back up to my old hunting grounds," she says.
"Your call. Just tell me what you need me to do," I tell her. I have no idea how could I help her with hunting.
"Keep an eye out," she says. "Stay on the rocks as much as possible, no sense in leaving him tracks to follow. And listen for both of us." she's nervous about her loss of hearing in one ear. I can imagine that it is not very pleasing to lost hearing. Especially for a hunter. We're still a weird couple. I still limp, because my leg isn't all healed yet and Katniss's head isn't healed too. She still wears the bandage, just in case it would start bleeding again. We slowly move from the rocky stream to the forest covered in pine needles. After a while Katniss turns and looks at me.
"What?" I ask.
"You've got to move more quietly," she says. "Forget about Cato, you're chasing off every rabbit in a ten-mile radius."
"Really?" I say "Sorry, I didn't know." and I really didn't. I always admired how quietly she walks. I try to walk quietly, but it's no use I guess because after a while she turns to me again.
"Can you take your boots off?" she asks.
"Here?" Isn't it a little dangerous? What if I step on something? Well I guess that I'm really lost case in hunting.
"Yes," she says patiently. "I will, too. That way we'll both be quieter." and she takes her boots off. She speaks like she is making any sound while walking. After few hours, we arrive at her old camp, where she was with Rue, but she didn't shoot anything. I don't think it's her fault though. I can see that she's annoyed with my noisy walking. How would she appreciate her usual hunting partner now... She's looking at me, considering something. Probably thinking where to hide me so she could hunt and I would not get injured.
"Katniss," I say "We need to split up. I know I'm chasing away the game."
"Only because your leg's hurt," she says. Oh that's sweet, she's being kind to me. Even though both of us know that my hurt leg is a minor reason for being loud.
"I know," I say. "So, why don't you go on? Show me some plants to gather and that way we'll both be useful." I suggest.
"Not if Cato comes and kills you." she says a little annoyed with me.
I just laugh. "Look, I can handle Cato. I fought him before, didn't I?" she's looking at me with a worried look.
"What if you climbed up in a tree and acted as a lookout while I hunted?" she says, trying to make it sound like very important work. Oh good try, Everdeen.
"What if you show me what's edible around here and go get us some meat?" I reply with a same tone. "Just don't go far, in case you need help." I say, worrying about her. She just sights and shows me few plants and roots I can gather. She also teaches me a special bird whistle, which we will use to signal that we're okay.
So I keep digging roots, whistling our signal in periodic moments, receiving Katniss's signal back. It's really genius idea how to communicate. After a while I see some berries by the stream so I walk there and get some. I go back, put them on the plastic sheet and go back for more.
"Peeta!" I suddenly hear her cry. "Peeta!" it sounds even more desperate. I turn and run towards our camp. As I go through the bushes, I'm startled by an arrow which sticks in a tree just a few inches from me. I jump back and the berries fly out of my hands.
"What are you doing? You're supposed to be here, not running around in the woods!" she's angry.
"I found some berries down by the stream," I say, confused by her anger.
"I whistled. Why didn't you whistle back?" she snaps. Correction. She's not angry, she's furious.
"I didn't hear. The water's too loud, I guess," I say, go to her and put my arms on her shoulders, because she's trembling. Either she's so angry or she was scared.
"I thought Cato killed you!" she shouts at me.
"No, I'm fine." I hug her tight, but she doesn't say anything. "Katniss?"
"If two people agree on a signal, they stay in range. Because if one of them doesn't answer, they're
in trouble, all right?" I guess she was more afraid about me then angry.
"All right!" I say.
"All right. Because that's what happened with Rue, and I watched her die!" she says angrily.
"And you ate without me!" she shouts, when she looks at the little pile of food we have left.
"What? No, I didn't," I defend.
"Oh, and I suppose the apples ate the cheese," She says angrily.
"I don't know what ate the cheese," I say trying to be calm. "but it wasn't me. I've been down by the stream collecting berries. Would you care for some?" I show her a handful.
Suddenly we're startled by a canon. For some reason, Katniss looks at me with scared eyes like expecting me to fall down dead. Then a hovercraft appears a hundred yards or so away. What's left of Foxface's emaciated body is lifted into the air. I can see the red glint of her hair in the sunlight.
If Cato killed her just now, he'll be here in any second! I take Katniss's arm and push her toward a tree. "Climb. He'll be here in a second. We'll stand a better chance fighting him from above." I prepare for the fight, but she stops me and suddenly she's not angry any more. She seems calm and sadness is in her eyes. I don't understand her. "No, Peeta, she's your kill, not Cato's." That's even more confusing.
"What? I haven't even seen her since the first day," I say "How could I have killed her?"
In answer, she holds out the berries. I still don't get it.
"They are poisoned." she explains quietly. I just stay in awe.
„Her strategy was stealing food from others. I saw her few times." she explains.
"I wonder how she found us," I say "My fault, I guess, if I'm as loud as you say." I'm sorry for that.
"And she's very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Until you outfoxed her." she says a bit sadly, but with a slight smile. I guess she's just trying to be nice.
"Not on purpose. Doesn't seem fair somehow. I mean, we would have both been dead, too, if she hadn't eaten the berries first." I check the berries and then it hits me. Katniss recognized it. They way how she examined them... "No, of course, we wouldn't. You recognized them, didn't you?" she just nods quietly.
"We call them nightlock." she says and I still can't tear my look from them.
"Even the name sounds deadly," I say "I'm sorry, Katniss. I really thought they were the same ones you'd gathered." I could have killed us both.
"Don't apologize. It just means we're one step closer to home, right?" she says with a kind smile. But I can't help then be sad about Foxface. She died because of my stupidity.
"I'll get rid of the rest," I say and I'm just about to toss them carefully to the forest.
"Wait!" she cries. She pulls out a leather pouch that belonged to Marvel and fills it with a few handfuls of berries from the plastic. "If they fooled Foxface, maybe they can fool Cato as well. If he's chasing us or something, we can act like we accidentally drop the pouch and if he eats
them —"
"Then hello District Twelve," I grin.
"That's it," she says, securing the pouch to her belt.
"He'll know where we are now," I say "If he was anywhere nearby and saw that hovercraft, he'll know we killed her and come after us." this thought actually scares me. I don't feel like facing Cato again and I don't want Katniss to face him either.
"Let's make a fire. Right now." she begins to gather branches and brush.
"Are you ready to face him?" I ask quietly.
"I'm ready to eat. Better to cook our food while we have the chance. If he knows we're here, he knows. But he also knows there's two of us and probably assumes we were hunting Foxface. That means you're recovered. And the fire means we're not hiding, we're inviting him here. Would you show up?" she asks
"Maybe not," I say after a consideration. But Cato is much more bloodthirsty and arrogant then me. But he's not stupid.
One thing I'm good at is fires. No surprise when you consider I'm baker's son. So I coax a fire out of the damp wood in a blink of eye. In no time, we have the rabbits and squirrel roasting, the roots, wrapped in leaves, baking in the coals. We take turns gathering greens and keeping a careful watch for Cato, but as we anticipated, he doesn't make an appearance. Good for us. When the food's cooked, Katniss packs most of it up, leaving us each a rabbit's leg to eat as we walk. Katniss wants to go higher to the mountains, camping on a tree, but I doubt I could survive like that.
"I can't climb like you, Katniss, especially with my leg, and I don't think I could ever fall asleep fifty feet above the ground." I protest.
"It's not safe to stay in the open, Peeta," she says.
"Can't we go back to the cave?" I ask "It's near water and easy to defend."
I expect her argue with me, but to my surprise, after a long moment of thinking, she reaches up and gives me a kiss.
"Sure. Let's go back to the cave." she says and so we go.
"Well, that was easy." I comment jokingly and she just gives me a warning look. I understand her. Don't make fun of me or I'll pull you up on a tree.
So she takes her arrow from the oak trunk and we go back towards the cave. We decide to go in the stream since the water level has dropped. It is better, because we don't make any tracks and I think I'm also a little quieter in water. But still we're both very tired. We walk for several hours, both of us ready to fight if Cato comes. But he doesn't. The sun is hot and we're really exhausted as we arrive to our cave. It's becoming special for me. Kind of „home" in the arena. I almost feel happy in here with Katniss. We fill up our water bottles and Katniss sets a good dinner out, but halfway through, I start to feel my eyes closing heavily. Katniss immediately orders me into the sleeping bag and sets aside the rest of my food for when I wake. I'm dozing off immediately. The last thing I remember is how she pulls the sleeping bag up to my chin and kisses my forehead. When she shakes my shoulder, it's getting lighter outside. Did she let me sleep all night?!
"I slept the whole night. That's not fair, Katniss, you should have woken me." I protest.
She just stretches and burrows down into the bag. "I'll sleep now. Wake me if anything interesting happens." and she falls into her dreamlands in a few minutes. I eat my food and keep the watch, but nothing interesting happens. It's quite hot today. When she wakes up again, it's afternoon.
"Any sign of our friend?" she asks.
"No, he's keeping a disturbingly low profile." I answer.
"How long do you think we'll have before the Gamemakers drive us together?" she asks.
"Well, Foxface died almost a day ago, so there's been plenty of time for the audience to place bets and get bored. I guess it could happen at any moment," I say. I'm getting nervous about this. I have a feeling that it won't be nice. It never is in the end of the games.
"Yeah, I have a feeling today's the day," she says. I have that feeling too. "I wonder how they'll do it." she adds. Who knows. They have a lot of means and none of it is very pleasant.
"Well, until they do, no sense in wasting a hunting day. But we should probably eat as much as we can hold just in case we run into trouble," she says after a while of silence.
I pack up everything while Katniss lays out all our remaining food. When we're finished, we go out of the cave and I feel a little sad, that we're not staying here anymore. It felt like some kind of a safe heaven. We head towards the stream, preparing to wash a little, but we only find a bone-dry bed.
"Not even a little damp. They must have drained it while we slept," Katniss says after she put her hand into it. And as I think about it for a while, it hits me.
"The lake," I say quietly. "That's where they want us to go."
"Maybe the ponds still have some," Katniss says hopefully.
"We can check," I say, but I'm just humoring her. I kind of know, everything except the lake will be dry.
"You're right. They're driving us to the lake," she says finally "Do you want to go straightaway or wait until the water's tapped out?" I think about it for a while.
"Let's go now, while we've had food and rest. Let's just go and end this thing," I say. Maybe she doesn't realize it, but I can see the fear in her eyes. I'm afraid of Cato too. But as long as Katniss is alive, I'm okay. I wrap my arms around her.
"Two against one. Should be a piece of cake," I say, trying to make her feel better.
"Next time we eat, it will be in the Capitol," she says, hiding her fear.
"I bet we will," I smile back.
We stand there for a while, locked in a tight embrace, feeling each other. Then without a word, we break apart and head for the lake. As we travel, I think about something else than Cato. I must keep thinking about the rule change they did because of us. I kind of feel that it won't last for long. I can feel that they did it just to make this more interesting for the audience. I'm afraid that they won't let two victors go out of here. But if that will happen I know what I will do. I know who will be the one going home and who will be the one dying. I smile quietly for myself.
We reach the lake and Cornucopia by late afternoon. There's no sign of Cato. Just in case Cato decided to pull a Foxface (as Katniss called it) on us, we circle the Cornucopia to make sure it's empty. Then we cross to the lake and fill our water containers.
"We don't want to fight him after dark. There's only the one pair of glasses." Katniss frowns.
"Maybe that's what he's waiting for. What do you want to do? Go back to the cave?" I ask.
"Either that or find a tree. But let's give him another half an hour or so. Then we'll take cover," she answers.
We sit by the lake, in full sight. There's no point in hiding any more. After a while Katniss opens her mouth and sings some four tone melody. It surprises me, but I don't say nothing. I just enjoy her beautiful voice. All the birds which were singing before now stop curiously and listen to her voice as she sings it again in absolute silence. At first one mockingjay trills the tune back, then another. Then the whole world comes alive with the harmony.
"Just like your father," I say quietly, smiling for myself.
She traces her mockingjay pin "That's Rue's song," she says absentmindedly. "I think they remember it."
After a while something begins to disrupt the music. The mockingjay's voices rise up in a shrieking cry of alarm. That can't be good.
We're on our feet immediately, I have my knife, Katniss poised to shoot, when Cato smashes through the trees and bears down on us. He has no sword. In fact, his hands are empty, yet he runs straight for us. First arrow hits his chest and inexplicably falls aside.
"He's got some kind of body armor!" Katniss shouts sounding a little desperate.
Just in a second, Cato is upon us. I brace myself, but he rockets right between us with no attempt to check his speed. I can tell that he's been running for a long time. Not toward us. From something. But what? Immediately, Katniss starts to run away without any word. I look towards the forest and immediately I know why and I start my run too. It's kind of worse for me because of my leg, but I run for my life far away from them.
Mutations. No question about it. I've never seen these mutts, but they're no natural-born animals. They resemble huge wolves, but the can balance on their hind legs and there are more disturbing things about them. What wolf waves the rest of the pack forward with its front paw as though it had a wrist? Up close, I'm sure their more menacing attributes will be revealed, but I'm not eager to find it out.
I see that Cato is already climbing on the Cornucopia and Katniss has just arrived towards it when she twists and looks towards me. She seems like running back for me, but I can't let that happen. I'm about fifteen yards away from her and I can tell that those mutts are closing me. She shoots once, but there is so many I think it is pointless. I wave at her and shout.
„Go, Katniss! Go!"
She starts climbing it and I notice, that Cato is already up there, but for now he doesn't seem like a danger. He lies on his side at the very top of the horn, twenty feet above the ground, gasping to catch his breath as he gags over the edge of the Cornucopia. Katniss wants to shoot him. I finally reached the Cornucopia, but the mutts are almost at me. I cry out just in the moment Katniss wanted to shoot Cato.
„Climb" she yells at me and runs towards me. I try as hard as I can with an injured leg and knife in my hand. She shoots another arrow into the mutt just behind me. When I reach her feet, she catches my arm and pulls me up.
„Can they climb it?" Cato yells.
"What?" Katniss shouts at Cato.
"He said, 'Can they climb it?'" I answer.
The mutts are beginning to assemble. As they join together, they raise up again to stand easily on their back legs giving them an eerily human quality. Each has a thick coat, some with fur that is straight and sleek, others curly, and the colors vary from jet black to what I can only describe as blond.
They put their snouts on the horn, sniffing and tasting the metal, scraping paws over the surface and then making high-pitched yipping sounds to one another. This must be how they communicate because the pack backs up as if to make room. Then one of them, a good-size mutt with silky waves of blond fur takes a running start and leaps onto the horn. Its back legs must be incredibly powerful because it lands a mere ten feet below us, its pink lips pulled back in a snarl.
I see how Katniss's eyes are growing bigger and I can't see why. But it can't mean anything good.
"Katniss?" I grip her arm tightly.
"It's her!" she shrieks
"Who?" I'm confused.
"It's them. It's all of them. The others. Rue and Foxface and . . . all of the other tributes," she says with a terrified voice. I gasp when I realize what is she saying and I recognize the resemblance.
"What did they do to them? You don't think . . . those could be their real eyes?" she says with a trembling voice.
The mutts begin a new assault on the horn in a moment. They've split into two groups at the sides of the horn and are using those powerful hindquarters to launch themselves at us. A pair of teeth ring together just inches from us and suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my left calf and I'm yanked to the side. The only thing saving me from falling down between the mutts is Katniss's hand. She jumped to lie on the cornucopia just to catch my hand and now she holds it firmly.
„Kill it, Peeta! Kill it!" I hear her yell and I know she won't be able to hold me for long.
I stab the mutt with my knife as much as I can and after a moment it let's go of me and Katniss pulls me up. For a second, I'm lying on the golden surface, I can see Katniss shooting another mutt. I'm just thinking what to do with my leg, when strong arm pulls me up and I'm locked in Cato's arms, he's pressing his forearm against my neck and I fight for my breath. Katniss looks up only a moment later and her eyes are suddenly filled with panic. She has an arrow loaded in her bow in a second and it is aimed on Cato's head.
Cato just laughs. "Shoot me and he goes down with me."
Do it, Katniss! Kill us and save yourself! I try to tell her with my eyes, but the only thing I can see in hers is panic. As my blood is going out of my leg and as I'm losing air in my lungs I get a last idea. I pull my arms up towards Cato's and look at Katniss intently. She gets my look and I point at his hand. If she will be able to shoot him in there, I could shake him off me. She doesn't hesitate and in a moment, the arrow flies just inches from my head and pierces his hand precisely. Lucky her aim is so good even under this disturbing circumstances. He cries out and reflexively releases me. I slam back against him and he falls down. For a moment I'm sure I will fall down too. I already feel the falling feeling, but then her arms lock around my waist and she pulls me back up and I fall down next to her.
We hear Cato hit the ground and then the mutts attack him. Katniss and I hold on to each other, waiting for the cannon, waiting for the Games to finish. But it doesn't happen. Not yet. Because this is the climax of the Hunger Games, and the audience expects a show.
We don't watch it, but I can hear the snarls, the growls, the howls of pain from both human and beast as Cato takes on the mutt pack. I can't understand how he can be surviving until I remember the body armor protecting him from ankle to neck and I realize what a long night this could be. Cato must have a knife or sword or something, too, something he had hidden in his clothes, because on occasion there's the death scream of a mutt or the sound of metal on metal as the blade collides with the golden horn. The combat moves around the side of the Cornucopia, and I know Cato must be attempting the one maneuver that could save his life — to make his way back around to the tail of the horn and rejoin us. But in the end, despite his remarkable strength and skill, he is simply overpowered.
I don't know how long it has been, maybe an hour or so, when Cato hits the ground and we hear the mutts dragging him, dragging him back into the Cornucopia. Now they'll finish him off, I think. But there's still no cannon. No such luck.
Night falls and the anthem plays and there's no picture of Cato in the sky. The icy air blowing across the plain reminds both of us that the Games are not over and may not be for who knows how long. I'm feeling worse with every moment. I try to stop my bleeding leg somehow, but it is pointless, the injury is too bad. The mutt has torn out a pretty big chunk of my flesh.
Katniss turns to me and starts to inspect the injury. All our supplies remain down by the lake where we abandoned them when we run for our lives. We have no bandage, nothing to staunch the flow of blood from my calf, so I have only a little hope to survive.
But that's not a problem for my stubborn girl. Although it is freezing, she takes off her jacket, than strips out from her shirt and takes the jacket on again. She's shivering, but that won't stop her from trying to save me. She must love me then. It is absurd, that I smile in this moment of terror around us. She lays me down and inspects my leg closely.
„Bandage won't be enough" she says with a trembling voice. „I will have to do a tourniquet." I don't exactly know what does it mean, but I'm not resisting. She cuts a sleeve from her shirt and wraps it twice around my leg just under my knee, and ties a half knot. She uses her last arrow at ties it into the knot. Then she bandages the wound with the rest of her shirt and that's it. How can she proclaim that she's not a healer after her mother? I don't know, but I'm sure she is.
„Don't go to sleep." she says, her voice trembling. I don't know if it's trembling from cold or terror, but I expect both.
"Are you cold?" I ask. I unzip my jacket and she presses her body against mine as I fasten it around her. It's a bit warmer, sharing our body heat inside our double layer of jackets, but the night is young. The temperature will continue to drop I'm sure.
"Cato may win this thing yet," she whispers
"Don't you believe it," I say, pulling up her hood, but I'm shaking too. It will be you, sweetheart.
The next hours are agonizing for me. I even don't remember how I survived it. The cold and pain in my leg would be torture enough, but the real nightmare is listening to Cato, moaning, begging, and finally just whimpering as the mutts work away at him. After a very short time, I don't care who he is or what he's done, all I want is for his suffering to end.
"Why don't they just kill him?" Katniss asks terrified, almost pleadingly.
"You know why," I say sadly.
No viewer could turn away from the show now. From the Gamemakers' point of view, this is the final word in entertainment. It goes on and on and on and eventually completely consumes my mind. There will never be anything but cold and fear and the agonized sounds of the boy dying in the horn.
I can't help, but I start to feel weak and sleepy. Each time I start dozing off, Katniss shakes with me and yells my name so loudly that it echoes in my head strongly. Please let me die so you could go home. I start to think.
The only indication of the passage of time is the subtle shift of the moon. I start to show it to her, every few minutes so we would not think about dying or those mutts under us. It's our only hope now. And finally I can see the light on the horizon.
„The sun is rising." I whisper in my last energy. She looks up and sees it too. But as she lays her eyes on me, she seems scared and worried. Do I look so bad?
"I think he's closer now. Katniss, can you shoot him?" I ask. Please end this agony!
"My last arrow's in your tourniquet," she says and looks hesitantly at me.
"Make it count," I say, unzipping my jacket and letting her go.
So she takes the arrow and ties the tourniquet tightly. I feel tingling in my leg. She crawls to the lip of the horn and hangs over the edge. I'm scared that she will fall over so I grip her legs tightly and hold her.
"Did you get him?" I whisper as the arrow flies through the air. The cannon fires in answer.
"Then we won, Katniss," I say hollowly. I can't believe it.
"Hurray for us," she says, but there's no joy of victory in her voice.
A hole opens in the plain and as if on cue, the remaining mutts bound into it, disappearing as the earth closes above them. We wait, for the hovercraft to take Cato's remains, for the trumpets
of victory that should follow, but nothing happens.
"Hey!" Katniss shouts into air. "What's going on?" The only response is the chatter of waking birds.
"Maybe it's the body. Maybe we have to move away from it," I say. It's the only thing I can think of now, but I have a bad feeling. Will they really let us both go out?
"Okay. Think you could make it to the lake?" she asks
"Think I better try," I say. We inch down to the tail of the horn and fall to the ground. Katniss rises first, swinging and bending her arms and legs until she's warmed up enough to help me up. It is long and painful, but somehow, we make it back to the lake. She scoops up a handful of the cold water for me and brings a second to her lips.
A mockingjay gives the long, low whistle, and a hovercraft appears and takes Cato's body away. Now they will take us. Now we can go home. But again nothing else happens. That bad feeling about the two victors change is getting only worse. I feel terror flooding my body and my chest tightens with fear.
"What are they waiting for?" I say weakly. I feel that I will faint soon. My wound has opened again and is bleeding again.
„I don't know." she says and looks at me worriedly. Katniss is going for some stick for my tourniquet, when Claudius Templesmith's voice booms into the arena.
"Greetings to the final contestants of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. The earlier revision has been revoked. Closer examination of the rule book has disclosed that only one winner may be allowed," he says. "Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor."
I knew it! I can see how Katniss's eyes gets wider, as she realizes what does it mean. She stares at me in disbelief.
"If you think about it, it's not that surprising," I say, moving towards her and tying away my knife. She must think I want to kill her, because she rises up her bow at me, just in the moment when I throw the knife into the lake. She drops the bow and takes a step back. I can see the terror in her eyes.
„No" I say limping toward her „Do it." I hand her bow back.
„I can't." she says in a trembling voice „I won't" I can see the pain and panic in her eyes.
"Do it. Before they send those mutts back or something. I don't want to die like Cato," I say. If I'm gonna die in here, I want it to be quick.
"Then you shoot me," she shouts furiously, shoving the weapons back at me. I can see tears in her eyes, few of them already streaming down her cheeks.
"You shoot me and go home and live with it!" she yells desperately.
"You know I can't," I say, discarding the weapons. "Fine, I'll go first anyway." I say angrily, lean down and tear the bandages she made and my blood goes out even faster.
"No, you can't kill yourself," she falls to her knees right next to me, plastering the bandages back, with more tears sliding down her face.
"Katniss," I say calmly. "It's what I want."
"You're not leaving me here alone," she yells stubbornly and looks me in the eyes intently. That look is so painful for me. I can see the terror in her eyes, tears streaming down her face and her eyes pleading me to stay with her.
"Listen," I say, pulling her closer to me "We both know they have to have a victor. It can only be one of us. Please, take it. For me. I love you Katniss. You're my life and if you die, my life would be empty. I would have no reason to live it." as I look at her I feel that she's distracted by something. There's something more in her eyes.
She looks at me intently and then start to untangle something from her belt. A leather pouch. The one with nightlock. As I realize it, I catch her hand.
"No, I won't let you." I say angrily, looking into her eyes.
"Trust me," she whispers. I hold her gaze for a long moment. There's something different now. There are no tears any more. Just an intent look, telling me, that she has some plan. And then slowly I release her hand. She gets the pouch, then takes my hand and pours a few spoonfuls of berries into my palm. I look at it shocked as she pours same amount into hers. Is she really suggesting me a suicide for both of us? And then I get it. Don't let them change me. I want to show them that I'm not just a piece in their games. This is just a perfect idea. I meet her gaze and a small sad smile appears on her lips.
„On the count of three?" she asks. I just smile back at her and kiss her gently. I love her with all my heart. And now I will die together with her. If we can't go out together, we won't go out at all.
"The count of three," I say softly. We stand, our backs pressed together, our empty hands locked tight.
"Hold them out. I want everyone to see," I say. Let everyone see, that we're not just ordinary victors. Love always wins. I spread out my fingers, and the dark berries glisten in the sun. She squeezes my hand for the last time and I feel shivers going up my back.
„One, two, three." we say together. I lift my hand to my mouth and close my eyes.
The berries have just passed my lips when the trumpets begin to blare. The frantic voice of Claudius Templesmith shouts above them. "Stop! Stop! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you — the tributes of District Twelve!"
I spew the berries from my mouth, quickly enough to survive. Did Katniss make it in time too? I pull her to the lake, where we both flush our mouths with water and then collapse into each other's arms.
"You didn't swallow any?" she asks me.
I shake my head. "You?" I ask.
"Guess I'd be dead by now if I did," she says.
Then there's roar of the crowd in the Capitol that they're playing live over the speakers. I can feel how I lose my strength and I know I will faint soon, maybe die if they won't help me.
The hovercraft materializes overhead and two ladders drop, Katniss puts her arm around me, pulls me up and helps me to get to the ladder. The electric current freezes us in place. As the door closes around us, I black out and the last thing I remember is her arms around me and her scream.
„Peeta!"