Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've been having midterms. But anyway, chapter 24 whoooo! Song credits to Survivor's Eye of the Tiger. Thank you for being such an awesome song. And shoutouts to everyone whose kept up with this story for so long. There is officially more than 2,000 views for this story, so thank you! And now, let the Hunger Games begin!
The next morning whirls by. Before I know it, breakfast has past, we've been flown to the arena, and it's a few second before the Games begin. Cinna appears and tries to be comforting.
"Is it too late to grab another muffin for the road?" I ask him. He laughs and gives me the mockingjay pin. It feels strange to wear, because it doesn't have any meaning for me. Not like it does for Katniss. Yet, for some reason, having it comforts me. Then Cinna takes my hand and squeezes it.
"Are you going to give me some advice for the arena?" I ask, confused about why we're holding hands before I'm about to be thrust into a bloodbath.
"No. I just want to give you moral support." He answers. I blink.
"OKAY then. Well, I'll see you on the other side. Wherever that is." I joke gruesomely. He gives my hand one last squeeze and I step into the elevator. It begins to rise.
"Ladies and gentlemen," A voice booms, "let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"
As the elevator rises, I quickly assess the arena, even though I already know what it looks like. Forest, lake, cornucopia. Katniss chose the forest, so that's what I'm gonna do. Now let's just hope I don't fall on my face trying to get there. Suddenly the gong rings out. I'm not ready. I jump and all the other tributes have started running.
"Well shit." I leap into action to make up for the lost time. Everyone else is preoccupied with the Cornucopia. I'm a few feet away from the woods. Suddenly I trip over a dead tribute.
"Where did that come from?!" I yell. I stand and notice a knife is now stuck in the tree in front of me. I swear it wasn't there a moment ago. I turn to find the tribute from District 2 aiming another knife at me. Ew, Clove. I really hate this chick.
"Yikes!" I squeak. I turn to run, but instead ram straight into the tree. I fall backwards onto the ground. As I sit up I see she missed again and instead hit the tree.
"Wow. The plot armor is working!" I sit up and grab the two knives stuck in the tree before escaping into the woods. I run until I'm sure no one is following me. I stop for a breather and try to figure out what to do next. My instinct is to find water. I'm about to sit up when an orange backpack falls into my lap.
"What. The…" I pick up the orange backpack. There's a spot of blood, but besides that it's good as new. I looked around but no one else was there. What? I look inside the backpack. There's a sleeping bag, a pack of crackers, dried beef strips, a bottle of iodine matches, wire, sunglasses, and a plastic bottle for carrying water. It's like Christmas. But where did it come from? Hmm…Oh well.
Now that I have supplies, I start heading downhill into what I assume to be a valley. Before long the sun has set. I remember Katniss strapped herself to a tree to sleep. I try to do the same thing. It's a lot harder than you would have expected. I try using the wire, which is too small to wrap around the tree. Then I try using my belt instead. It works a little better, but I can't tie it. Finally I give up and instead just sleep without tying myself to the tree.
I have the first peaceful sleep in a while. When I awake, it's still nighttime. To my confusion there's something feathery brushing against my face. Is that a bird? I move around to get out of the sleeping bag. Then I put two and two together. My suspicions are confirmed when I stretch out my wings. How did no one notice I had wings on my back? I'm not complaining though. Honestly, they're probably an advantage in the arena. I'm sure I can use it to escape or ambush someone or something. Although it'll have to be in an emergency because the Capitol has cameras everywhere. It's a miracle they haven't seen them yet. I'm telling ya, plot armor.
I climb down from the tree. Suddenly, I'm hit with the delicious smell of roasting meat and my mouth starts to salivate. I follow the smell. I'm surprised when nearly a hundred feet later I stumble upon a dead tribute the Careers must have killed. I cringe, and then I see the fire with a rabbit cooking over it. I feel guilty, but I wouldn't want the rabbit to go to waste. I eat it. It's a little dry, but good enough. I don't understand how I could have smelled that rabbit from so far away though. Then I realize that it must be from when I was a cat. Super smelling could be useful.
I decide to try out my newfound talent. I start sniffing for mud. Where there's mud, there's water. After a few hours of walking I find a small pond. That wasn't so hard. I purify the water with some iodine. I drink as much as I can, and then I fill up the plastic bottle. As I cap the bottle, I smell something burning. Not good. I turn to see a wall of fire descending towards me. I start running. The smoke fills my lungs. When I try to curse I start choking. I start to get ahead of the fire. Suddenly there's a hiss and a fireball nearly takes my head off.
"What!?" I yell. It's almost like the Gamemakers want me to die. I dodge the fireballs while having horrifying flashbacks of the fireballs in Phantom of the Opera. This time I don't have my ice wand to help me. I keep running. I collapse as a fireball skids across my right calf. I let out a string of curses. I force myself to get up and keep running. Finally I can't take it anymore and fall onto the ground. I wait for the fire to overwhelm me. Nothing happens. I look up. The fire has stopped. Thank you, plot armor.
Just as I'm able to stand up, I hear footsteps. Oh, come ON. I can't outrun them at this point, so I climb up the nearest tree. The Careers and Peeta appear on the ground below my tree. They see me.
"Is it just me or do you guys smell a little burnt?" I say, mocking them. I do touch a nerve, as I see them eye their charred clothes. Then one of them steps forward and begins to climb the tree.
"Oh you're coming to keep me company? How thoughtful of you." I say, mocking him as he climbs up.
"You can do it, Cato!" One of the other Careers yells. I start laughing.
"Haha! Cato! That's one of the most ridiculous names I've ever heard." I laugh at him. I seem to distract him as he grabs a loose branch and falls. He rubs his back and says, "Glimmer, you try."
"Glimmer? Are you kidding me? That's even worse than Cato." As I say this, she snarls and starts to climb.
"Who comes up with these names? It's almost like they're purposely bad." Glimmer gets distracted and then falls. When she's on the ground, she pulls out a bow and arrow. My eyes light up. That could be useful. She tries to shoot me but misses.
"Whoever named you must also have taught you how to shoot!" I'm having too much fun with this. I barely even notice my burnt calf anymore.
"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere." Peeta says, "We'll deal with her in the morning."
The Careers make camp below my tree. I sigh. As I look up I'm startled to see Rue staring at me.
"Ah!" I gasp. I cover my mouth and look down. The Careers didn't hear me. I stare at Rue. She points to something above my head. I look up to see a wasp nest. My face drains of all color. I look back to Rue, but she's gone. I remember Katniss's plan to cut the wasp nest so it falls on the Careers. I decide to try it. The worst that could happen is I fall to the ground, get stung by bees tracker jackers and then either die from the venom or the Careers. Or both. That's worst case scenario.
I decide to wait until dawn to start. While I'm waiting, a small parachute lands on a nearby branch. Attached to it is a silver pot, and inside that is ointment. I rub it over my calf, and the relief is instantaneous.
"YASS Haymitch." I say. Now I wait until dawn.
The next morning the Careers are all sleeping, except for Glimmer who is keeping watch. She's not looking at me, so I start to saw. As I'm close to being done, the bees tracker jackers start to wake up. I start to saw quicker. A pain in my knee lets me know that I've gotten stung. I jump in surprise as I cut through the branch. The nest fall to the ground as the bees tracker jackers swarm around the Careers. A few stragglers sting me as I climb down and make a run for it. I hear the Careers yelling and running in frantic circles. I start to run too, but I'm woozy from the stings. Finally I make it back to the little pool and submerged myself in the water.
That's when the hallucinations started. At first I'm convinced the Editors towering above me were real. One of them starts to strangle me, and then he just melts away. That's right. Melts away. By then I'm aware it's a hallucination. It's still horrifying. The Phantom and Raoul are there, Valentine and Jace, Blue Star, Fang, and Aslan. I even hallucinate that Nemo is here. That's a random hallucination.
After I awaken from the delirium, the stings have swollen a little. I gaze around. The bow and arrows that Glimmer had are lying next to me. I must have grabbed them and forgotten about it during my hallucinations. I give myself a pat on the back for being so smart. I drink some water to hydrate myself. Then I get up, stretch, and try to hunt for a bit. It's hard, even with Katniss's skills. It takes me about twelve tries before I hit a rabbit. I immediately feel guilty afterwards. I can barely eat the rabbit. Barely.
I'm in the middle of eating the rabbit (which needed a LOT of salt) when I look up to see Rue staring at me.
"Ah!" I yell, dropping the rabbit. "Don't sneak up on me like that." I say, clutching my pounding heart.
"Sorry." She says. She looks down at the fallen chicken.
"Don't worry. It needed salt anyway." I explain. I hear her stomach growl. "Oh…I think I have some crackers if you want." I hand her some crackers. She stuffs them into her mouth. Then she pulls out some leaves.
"Uh. I'm not that hungry." I say.
"No, no, no. They're for your stings." She explains.
"Oh." She applies the leaves onto my stings. It doesn't do anything at first, but after a while the pain starts to ease.
"So, you really know how to climb around those trees. You're like a flying squirrel." I say.
"You're pretty good too. You climbed up that tree so fast, I could've sworn you had wings." She says with a giggle.
"What? That's insane. Why would I have wings? That's not even possible. Did someone say I had wings? Did you see anything? What do you know?" I ask urgently. I grip her shoulders and shake her back and forth. She giggles.
"Haha. I have no idea what you're talking about." She says. I put her down. We stare at each other for a bit.
"Soo…" I begin. "You? Me? Allies?"
"Okay." So we share our supplies. Rue informs me that the Careers are camped by the lake and have an excess of food. My throat feels dry. I know in the book Rue dies trying to help Katniss destroy the Careers' supplies. I could go along with the plan and have her die, but not have my cover blown…or I could do something else.
"It's almost nighttime." I say, "We should find a tree." After we climb up and situate ourselves, I notice she only has a jacket.
"Do you want to share the sleeping bag? We should both be able to fit." I say. So she snuggles up next to me. She is soooo cute. I resist the urge to squeeze her. We fall asleep like that.
The next morning we talk while hunting. I ask Rue what her favorite thing is, and she replies, "Music."
"Music?"
"Yeh. We sing at home. At work, too. That's why I love your pin," she says, pointing to the mockingjay pin that I've completely forgotten about.
"Oh thanks."
"We use mockingjays to send messages. There's a special little song I do." She says, and then sings a four-note run in a sweet, clear voice.
"Oh that was beautiful." I say, honestly impressed.
"Do you sing at all?" She asks.
"Me?" I gasp, having flashbacks to the Phantom of the Opera. "I guess a little bit."
"Will you sing for me?" She asks. Oh. I should have said no. What should I even sing? I start singing the first song that pops into my head.
"Rising up. Back on the street. Did my time. Took my chances. Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet. Just a man and his will to survive! It's. The. Eye of the Tiger, It's the thrill of the fight. Rising UP to the challenge of our riiivaaaal. And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night. And he's watching us all with the eeeeeeeeyyyyyeeeee! Of the Tiiigeeerrr." I sing. I didn't even notice that I had started pretending the arrow in my hand was a microphone. I look up to see Rue laughing hysterically.
"That was fantastic." She manages, though fits of giggles.
"Thank you." I say, and take a bow.
"Is it from your District?" She asks.
"You could say that…"
"It's very beautiful. You're a very good singer." She says. I laugh because she doesn't know the half of it.
"Thanks." I say.
"So, what's this plan you told me about?" She asks.
"Alright." I begin. "So we make a few fires to lure the Careers out. While one of us is doing that, the other destroys the food."
"Okay. Sounds simple. I guess I'll be the one to light the fire?" She asks.
"NO!" I yell. She jumps. I calm myself. "Um. No. I'll light the fires."
"But how will I destroy the food reserves?" Rue asks. Hm. I didn't get this far in my plan.
"Well. Maybe you could…Hm…Maybe you could…throw some rocks at it?" I suggest, aware of how bad an idea that is.
"Rocks?"
"Okay. Nevermind. Give me a second, let me think." I pace for a bit, then remember something from the book. "The Redhead chick!"
"What?"
"The Redhead chick! She knows how to get into the Career camp and out. We should ally ourselves with her." I say. Rue looks hesitant.
"Can we trust her?" Rue asks.
"Probably not. But we don't need to trust her for that long, just long enough to take out the Careers, and then we're good." I say. Rue thinks about this for a while.
"Okay." So we head to the Career camp and wait for her to appear. It's nearly late afternoon when she does. The Careers don't even notice her sneak in and out of their camp, stealing food. I catch her scent (thank you super kitty-smelling powers), and then motion for Rue to follow me. We follow the scent for a while, until we come upon a small pond.
"Hm. The scent ends here, but I don't see her anywhere." I say to Rue. We turn to leave, when there's a flash of red, and the redhead chick has a knife to our backs.
"So, you thought you could just follow me to my hideout and kill me, huh? Sorry to disappoint." She hisses.
"NONONONNONONONONOOOO." I shout, just as the knife cuts into my back a little. She pauses.
"We're here because we want you as an ally." I say. She steps back.
"What?"
"We want you as an ally. You know the way around the Careers' camp. And we want to take them out." I explain. She narrows her eyes.
"Let's say I do believe you, how are you planning on doing this?" She asks.
"We still need to work out a bit of the details, but we plan on drawing out the Careers and then destroying their supplies. Only, we don't know their camp."
"What happens after we take out their camp?" She asks.
"We go our separate ways. Try to avoid the Careers. But this time, the Careers will be in the same position as the rest of us. Starving." I end dramatically. I wait for her to respond.
"Fine."
"Really?" I ask, excitedly.
"Yeah. But no promises about anything after we're done."
"Fine. Fine. That's GREAT."
"What you need to know about their camp is that they got that District 3 kid to rewire the mines to protect their food. If you could make the mines go off, without dying or letting them see you, you can destroy their food." She says.
"Alright. Would an arrow work?" I ask.
"Probably not." She says.
"Okay, what if you snuck in there, placed some rocks precariously on top of the food, and then I hit them with my arrows and they'll fall and set off the mines?" I suggest. She raises her eyebrow. Well, someone's sassy today.
"Fine. How about you come up with something better?" I say, putting my hand on my hip. Then Rue pipes up.
"What about these?" She asks, and holds up a handful of berries.
"I don't think those are heavy enough to activate the mines." I say. She shakes her head.
"No. These are called nightlock and they're poisonous. They look just like the berries the Careers have. What if we put these into the Careers' food, and wait for them to die?"
"Hm. That's actually…genius!" I say.
"I like it." The redhead says. "So I'll just slip these into the Careers stash?"
"Great. Let's do this." The redhead and Rue start to leave.
"Wait! We need a team name." I plead.
"But we're not really a team." The redhead says, rolling her eyes.
"Oh come on. Have some pride in your team! We're going to take out the Careers! Plus having a team name is great for publicity. You can put it on t-shirts, bracelets, anything! It'll be great, and I bet it'll get you a ton of sponsors." I say. Rue looks excited, but the redhead looks a little hesitant still. I let her think about it for a second.
"Oh, alright. Just nothing too ridiculous." She says. I fist pump the air.
"Okay, how about Team Underdog?" I suggest.
"Oh my god…" The redhead says while facepalming.
"Team Nightshade?"
"It's Nightlock." Rue corrects me.
"Alright, Team Nightlock? Team Girl Power? Team Berries? The Berry Buddies? The Three Musketeers? The Three Stooges? Oooo, how about the Bow and Arrows? Haha. See what I did there?" I say. The redhead still looks disgusted.
"How about the Mockingjays?" Rue says.
"Aww. That's adorable!" I squeal.
"That's pretty good, I guess. Better than any you were suggesting." The redhead says. I ignore her.
"Okay. So we're agreed. Ready? GO MOCKINGJAYS!" I say.
I hope you enjoyed it:) I promise I'll update really soon. I've already written the next chapter. And please keep reviewing because they make my day!