A/N: I'm loving the wonderful reviews that I am getting. Thank you all sooooo much! All of the ideas in your reviews have stuck out to me and as of right now I will be using all of them.

Thanks to Gale Lover for the idea for this chapter and most likely future chapters. Sadly, you are a Guest user so I can't give you much in return but hopefully this chapter and other chapters after this will be like you pictured them to be. Thank you soooooo much!

Remember! Your reviews mean a great deal to me so REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. And keep the wonderful ideas coming.

I have decided that I will not stop the suggestions in one week like I said. I am getting such wonderful ones that I decided that it would be best to continue. And the rules still apply as does what I have agreed to do in return. Thanks!

Now on to Chapter 11!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own The Hunger Games! Although, I wish I did!

Chapter 11

The journey was long. So freaking long. I thought I would enjoy it. Staying out in the woods twenty-four seven. But after a while, it just gets old.

It's difficult with kids sometimes. There's always one that is complaining; they're cold, they're hungry. I thought it would be easier when we got out here; but it's not. We're still scrambling for food. It seems like that's our biggest problem. With it being the middle of winter, the only thing that we have been able to track down are white rabbits, and sometimes they don't even come out. We had only gotten one deer since we left, and that was over a month ago.

I glance around at my dragging family. We left at sunrise this morning and had been walking since. According to the sun it was almost four in the afternoon. Little Posy had retired onto her oldest brother's shoulders about an hour ago and I could tell that Vick, who was dragging along by his new buddy Haymitch, was most likely next.

I sigh. "Why don't we take a break?"

Everyone sighs and instantly drops their things.

"Finally!" Rory comments. And in reply, Hazelle smacks him on the back of the head. "Don't be rude! You're not the only one that is tired!"

We had all been snappy lately; even Hazelle, who I thought could never snap at anyone, was on edge.

Rory huffs and slumps down on to a blanket beside Prim. Last week was Prim's fifteenth birthday. I had been dreading it. Because now that she is fifteen it's like her eyes have opened and she finally sees the way Rory looks at her. And I had seen that look do many times; I just never knew what it meant until it was staring me right in the face.

"Hey! What's that?" Vick asks, his eyes suddenly wide. He points through the treeline and at first I see nothing but at closer inspection, I could see the outline of a small house.

"Y'all stay here," I say as I grab my bow. I turn to Gale, "Gale?" He nods and trails me at my left flank.

We travel through the snow and eventually get to what we assume used to be the beginning of the house's front yard. The house was truly a house. It wasn't huge but it wasn't small either. It looked like it had been vacant for many, many years.

We stepped on the front step leading to the door and the step creaked loudly, as did every step after that. The front door was hanging slightly ajar, as if someone had left in a hurry and had not intended to come back, and obviously they didn't. Come back, I mean.

Gale breaks the silence. "Stay out here," he says. "I'll check it out then come back to get you."

I agree because if I protest it will only end in a fight. That's how it's been for over a month. We've hardly even spoken to each other except when hunting or scoping out a new place like this.

Gale comes back a few minutes later after looking around. "C'mon," he says.

When I step in I find that the house is surprisingly warm inside. The house is a mess which only confirms my suspicion that someone was leaving in a hurry. In the living room books littered the floor, the couch, and the coffee table, in the kitchen shattered plates and bowls lied on the floor and table, and in the three tiny bedrooms clothes, clothes everywhere. There was an old, tattered suitcase on the bed in one of the bedrooms, only half full.

"These people weren't running," I say. "They were dragged out of here."

"If it was the Capitol, I'm surprised they didn't torch the place," Gale replied.

"We need to talk to our fathers, but I think that we should stay here for a few days," I say. "Just to replenish our health a little, you know, catch up on sleep, get warm. I think I saw a fireplace in the living room," I suggest.

"That's a good idea," he replies then leaves the room. I follow him and we are soon out the door of the house and back to our camp.

We were only gone a few minutes and we come back to see our fathers attempting to make a fire and our mothers and Haymitch trying to keep the kids warm.

"Don't bother," Gale says to our fathers. "The house isn't in too bad of a shape. It needs a little cleaning up though, but it shouldn't take to long. Katniss and I think that we should all stay there for a few days."

"There's a fireplace in there, too," I add. "And some clothes a few of us may be able to fit in. And books," I say turning to Vick.

"Yes! Let's stay!" he replies excitedly.

"Okay," our parents reply. "Just a few nights."

We spent the next two hours cleaning up the house and not long after, the sun set. The only light that we had was of the fire that raged on in the fireplace.

There were only three bedrooms with only three beds. We had decided that Vick and Rory would share a bed, Hazelle and John would share, and my mother and father would share. Prim, Posy, Gale, and I would work out the sleeping situation in the living room.

And that's how I spent an awkward night sleeping on a pallet in the floor with Gale while Posy and Prim slept on the couch.

"I want to sleep on the couch!" Posy exclaimed.

"But I want to sleep on the couch!" Prim complained louder.

"No!" Posy protested. "My couch!"

"How about you-" I begin. But I'm ignored.

"You don't own everything, Posy," Prim pouts.

"Okay, okay! That's enough, you two," Gale breaks in and they both grow silent. "You will both sleep on the couch."

"But Bubba!" Posy protests.

"No 'but's Pos," he rejects. "Both of you sleep on the couch."

They sigh in defeat. "Okay," they say in unison. It is not five minutes later when we find them both sound asleep on the couch with their arms wound around each other.

There is not much floor space in the living room, but somehow Gale and I make it work. Kind of. We are squished together between the coffee table and the couch and the only way we can fit is if I'm laying on my side with my head on his chest. And it's uncomfortable. Not in the way that I can't get comfortable, because it was really comfortable, but in the way that it's been between me and Gale for the past month. We can hardly stand to be around each other, so him having his arms around me was slightly difficult.

It came to the point where we couldn't take it anymore and he ended up getting up and taking the coffee table to the kitchen so we would have more room. He slept three feet away from me and I had never been so cold in my life.

Review! There will be more family time in the next few chapters!