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Rekindling

Chapter Nine

It only took a few minutes for me and Peeta to find the trail that Caesar Flickerman's rebellion group made from their constant back and forth from their campsite to other areas of the woods. We walked far enough away from it so that we wouldn't come face to face with someone leaving their camp, but close enough to keep it in sight.

I could smell the smoke from the campfire that they were still letting burn, and eventually we saw the orange light flickering on the leaves of the trees closest to them. When we heard voices near the trail, I lifted my bow to shoot whoever was making their way out into the woods, but instead felt Peeta's hand on my shoulder, pushing me down behind a row of bushes.

He pressed his index finger to his lips and shook his head at me. I didn't know when he wanted to start this fight we would eventually start, but I figured right now would have been the perfect time. He didn't seem to agree. When the voices faded, Peeta very quietly whispered to me.

"I'm going after those two," he explained, glancing over the bushes to see if they were turning around or not. "Climb one of these trees and start picking them off while I'm gone."

"You shouldn't go alone," I said, not remembering anywhere in our plans to split up.

"We can't kill these guys so close to camp or they'll all come out at once," Peeta said. "Go on."

I couldn't protest because he was already making his way away from me and any loud noise from me would have given the people impersonating the old Capitol's Peacekeepers a reason to leave their camp. I stayed behind the bush, not moving even when the branches scratched against my face, until Peeta disappeared into the darkness. I made my way a little bit closer to camp. A group of all males wearing those tight white uniforms that the Peacekeepers used to wear were sitting around the fire, eating food from cans and off of the ends of sticks.

I picked a tree with small knots in the trunk to climb, even though the branches were higher up from the one I climbed earlier. I knew that if one of those guys found me in the tree, they'd be too heavy to climb up after me. I slipped on the first try up the tree, scrapping my hands further, but made it to the lowest branch on my second try. Once I was a few branches up, I straddled the branch I would remain on, locking my ankles together so that I could use my bow and not have to hold onto the tree.

From my spot, I could see the camp perfectly. Whoever these people were, they had been there for a long time now, because they had an organization system clearly designated. Their food was tied up in a tarp, hanging from a tree so that animals couldn't get into it. I could have easily hit the rope dangling the food over the ground, but knew that there would be no point since these people, unlike the Careers, didn't have the ground lined with explosives. At least, I hoped they didn't.

A good ways away from their campfire, which was at the center of their camp, was a small makeshift building, built with construction wood. It looked like it had gone up in a matter of hours and wasn't very sturdy, but that was probably the place they slept in since they weren't the type to sleep on dirt. I rolled my eyes at the thought, wanting just one of them to step away long enough so that I could shoot them just for being annoyingly Capitol-like.

From where Peeta and I just walked from, I heard a muffled groan, and then a shout that was cut off mid-scream. Only one person from around the campfire seemed to notice, but they simply looked over their shoulder in the direction the noise came from, and then turned back to their can of beans. The people sitting around the campfire didn't seem interested in doing much of anything other than eat, and since I couldn't just shoot one of them off of their tree stumps, I had to wait for one of them to move.

Luckily, it was only after a minute, when the fire was starting to get low that one of them had to get up to pick some wood off of the pile stacked just a yard or so away from my tree. The same person who had heard the scream from the woods and responded only by turning away, stood up from his spot in front of the fire and made his way to the wood pile.

He walked so lazily, just swinging his arms back and forth on his way, which made me angry considering what he was out here doing, who he was impersonating. Even the Peacekeepers who once wore his outfit did their job with more finesse, even if it was a terrible job, created by terrible people. His personality bothered me, even though I never heard him speak or seen him out of that outfit before in my life, but someone who walked around as if all of this was just some normal, everyday happening, couldn't be good. So, when I shot him, right between the shoulder blades once he was behind the woodpile and out of view from the rest of the people, the twinge of guilt I felt only lasted a minute.

And after that minute was up was when everything started. Someone came running down the path Peeta and I had been watching, shouting something, screaming about an enemy, which caused the people around the campfire to all jump up at once, running around like a bunch of crazy people. Their campsite might have been organized, but their battle plan, or whatever they were calling it, was not.

I picked the person off who was running toward the camp, watching him fall flat before he could say anything to the people he was trying to warn. I didn't see Peeta, which I expected since the person I had just killed was running from someone. A few more people who hadn't been around the campfire rushed out of the shack. Most of them were half dressed in their Peacekeeper uniforms, so my assumption about that being the place they slept in was right.

I loaded my bow again and shot the arrow into the center of the camp, shooting another person and sending everyone running away from where the body dropped. I could see the panic on their faces and see them searching the trees and the sky to find me. Unlike their white uniforms, my black outfit hid me in the darkness. I shot one more bow at the group of people picking up their weapons from near another tree. If they would have had their weapons with them before my arrows started flying, they may have been able to do something.

It was just when my arrow sunk into another body when I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I nearly fell from the tree as a result, but clung to the branch when I lurched forward. A knife stuck into the branch I was sitting on, which I saw when I went to reach for my leg. I squeezed my shin with all the strength I could muster while I yanked the knife out of the tree. Below me, I saw the glimmer of someone's eyes reflect in the moonlight and could hear the clawing of hands and shoes against the bark.

I had to use my sense of hearing to target whoever was at the base of the tree and sent their knife back at them, hearing the impact of it before catching the outline of them tumbling from the tree. The person was still rolling around on the ground, groaning as he fought death, when I made my way to lower branches. I knew that someone would find me in the tree if they saw him lying just below it, so made my way down.

I tumbled onto the forest ground when I slid down the trunk of the tree. I was right next to the person who had sent the knife through the branches of the trees well enough that it hit me. He stared right at me as he lay helplessly on the ground and mumbled something to me.

I sat up from the ground, crawling backwards so that I was creating a distance between the two of us just in case he was faking it. I knew that he wasn't though, as I watched him from behind the tree I had just jumped from. He still kept his eyes on me while I moved around, and then his mouth formed into a recognizable word.

Bitch.

My lips slowly moved upward, a feeling of amusement flooding my body. Maybe, if he had used the word please I would have ended his misery right there and then by pulling the knife from his chest, causing him to quickly bleed to death. Since he wasn't a tribute thrown into the same game as I was, there because the Capitol forced him, I turned to leave him to die a slow and painful death.

I stayed low to the ground and made sure I was behind a tree more often than not, and kept my eyes on the camp. The people who were frantic when my arrows were shooting into their makeshift home were calmer now that no arrows were shooting at them, and they were looking at maps and collecting equipment. From my spot, I counted eight people, which seemed manageable compared to the number of people we started with, which was twenty two, like the number of tributes Peeta and I were up against in the Games.

I snuck my way closer to the camp, around near the tree that held the food. I knelt on the ground and lay flat so that I could see what they were doing from under a bush. Peeta still had yet to make an appearance, or give me a sign that he was okay. I didn't see him when I was in the tree, and knew there was a chance that he was hurt since from my spot above everyone else I heard him kill one person and killed the other one myself when he attempted to come back to camp.

My heart raced when I realized that the person I heard being killed could very well have been Peeta. I assumed it was one of the Peacekeeper impersonators since only one came back, but the other one could be with Peeta now, torturing him for all I knew. The idea of Peeta being dead made something inside of me snap. I guess it would be fair to say that I went a little bit crazy, because I found myself leaping up from the ground and running right into the camp.

The group of men hurriedly coming up with a plan or explanation of the arrows coming from an unknown vantage point was startled to see me. None of them even had time to react as I sent two arrows in a row into the group, killing each person they hit. The others either ran off in different directions or set their sights on me, wanting probably to be the one to kill me.

One of the men coming toward me, knife waving wildly, was much younger than the rest. He seemed to be either in his late teens or early twenties, and his strong build showed me I had something to worry about. The men who chose not to run or come after me stood shocked in a huddle, watching what was happening in front of them. I thought for sure that their hatred for me and Peeta would have trumped their fear and they would be helping this guy kill me, but apparently I gave these people too much credit.

I shot another arrow at the guy coming after me, but he ducked to the ground before it could hit him. I took that opportunity to kick at him as hard as I could and connected my foot with his chest. Blood splattered onto the dirt below him and when he looked up, the blood was coming from his mouth. He stabbed at the air, trying to get me as the other people standing around doing nothing finally decided to do something. They ran for the tree where all the weapons were sitting and took too long of a time picking them out.

I kicked at the person again, swinging my bow at him so that maybe I'd send it through him if I used enough force. He grabbed my ankle, the one that had been cut by the person who found me in the tree, and yanked me to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me temporarily as he dragged me across the ground. I flailed harshly to try to break free from him, but he kept dragging me, faster and harder.

I gripped at the ground, hoping to find something other than dirt to grab onto, but found nothing. As he pulled me toward the shack, I was just able to see a knife soaring at another one of the Peacekeepers and hoped, as I was thrown into the room, that the knife belonged to Peeta.

The man who had dragged me into the shack knelt on top of me and wrapped his hands around me neck. I could hear the other people outside screaming and fighting, but couldn't tell what was going on because the door was closed. The man shook me, but then slowly let go when I beat my hands against his arms.

I was breathing so fast that I thought I was hyperventilating as the man peered down at me. I didn't know what he was doing. He could have killed me by now, but he was acting as though he too was catching his breath as he wiped blood away from his face. He kept his knee pressed into my chest to hold me down.

From under him I could see his arm wrapped in a tight bandage, and he wasn't wearing the Peacekeeper jacket that everyone else was. He must have been one of the people who were sleeping when I started the panic. I punched at him, trying to free myself before his weight crushed my ribs. When he looked down at me, shaking his head, I stopped just for a second.

"Calm down," he said, laughing slightly.

His expression was completely different from what it was when he went after me with his knife waving. He was sweating, which I could see seeping through his shirt and wetting his blonde hair. I didn't understand how or why he could be telling me to calm down under the circumstances, so swung at him again. He stabbed his knife into the wall so that it was stuck by the tip of the blade and let up the pressure of his knee.

He peered down at me for a minute again and seemed to be studying my face. I was so out of breath that I let him, and took the time to get my strength back. Something crashed up against the door and shook the entire shack.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, so confused as to why he wasn't acting like the psycho he was outside.

"I'm not looking to kill you," he said.

"Oh, right," I said, shaking my head. "You're saving me for Caesar."

"Nah," he said, shrugging.

I looked at him with what I knew was pure confusion. He grinned slightly and reached under his shirt, pulling out a gold necklace from under it. The pendant dangling from the end of it just confused me more. My mockingjay symbol, the one that was used for the rebellion hung from his neck.

"Why aren't you killing me?" I asked.

"I'm just waiting for Peeta to kill those idiots," he replied.

"Peeta…" I whispered, looking at the door again when more shouting came from the other side. "This doesn't make sense."

I punched at his knee so that he would get off of me. He lifted his knee and let me sit up, but stayed by the door as if making sure I didn't get out. I grabbed an arrow from my sheath and readied it in my bow. He looked at me with raised eyebrows and put his hands in the air.

"How do I know you're not going to kill me?" I asked him.

"Because you knew my brother," he said.

I squinted my eyes to get a better look at him, but only saw a young kid with blonde hair and a muscular, powerful build. I couldn't figure out anyone from my past that looked related to him.

"Cato," he said when I didn't say anything.

My eyes widened, realizing that maybe the blonde hair was what made them similar. I shook my head still, not sure. If he really was his brother, then he should want me dead more than anyone. I killed Cato, after all.

"You should want to kill me then. I killed Cato," I said, scooting back so that I was against the wall.

"You didn't have a choice," he said with a look of disgust on his face, the same look that anyone who hated the Capitol always got when thinking of the Games. "You had a choice to let him suffer, though, but you didn't."

I lowered my bow and looked at him skeptically. He leaned against the door and crossed his arms over his chest. His chin was pink from the blood that had spewed out of his mouth and the bandage on his arm had a dot of red on it from the blood that seeped through it.

"What happened to your arm?" I asked him.

"You should know," he said, rolling his eyes at me. "You did it."

"When?"

Unless in the time he dragged me to the shack he had bandaged his arm up, which definitely didn't happen, I couldn't figure out how I could have possibly done that to him.

"You chased me in the woods near your house a few weeks ago. Shot me with one of your arrows."

"That's your fault. Why were you watching my house?" I asked him, angry.

"To make sure you weren't about to walk into a dangerous situation," he replied, jingling with the knob on the door. "It was probably best that you went after me and not one of the others who were watching you from the woods."

"How many others?" I asked him.

"Two or three that day," he said, shrugging as if it weren't a big deal. "Most of the people here are all about preserving themselves and took no interest in saving me from you. I'm sure when they saw you charge after me they ran and hid until the coast was clear."

"You're working with a bunch of cowards," I said, standing up from the floor.

A shooting pain came from the flesh wound on my leg and I lifted my foot from the floor to relieve some of the pressure.

"Well, you don't have to say that twice," he said. "I'm going to check on what's happening outside, but stay here so you're not a target. I'm sure they've forgotten about you in here by now."

I took a step forward when he opened the door, hoping to see Peeta in the moment the campsite was visible, but I only saw the legs of someone lying dead near the door as Cato's brother stepped harshly on top of them. When the door shut behind him, I felt more panicked then I had when he dragged me into the shack. I had a bad feeling about being in here alone, so ignored what he said about staying in here to be safe. I grabbed the knob of the door, but when I twisted it, the door stayed closed, securely locked in place.

I kicked at the door a few times with my good leg, but the pain from my cut increased as I steadied myself with that leg. I limped my way to the knife that he had stabbed into the wall and yanked it from its spot.

"Katniss!"

I spun when I heard Peeta's voice, but that wasn't what scared me as I stepped away from the wall. At the far corner of the shack, right where the corner touched the ground, I could see the wood charring from something burning on the outside, and I knew, as I frantically hacked at the door with the knife that if I didn't break out of here soon, I'd be burned to death.

Literally, the girl on fire.

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unknownbyhim22