A/N- Sorry for the wait, especially because it's so short, but I hope that you like it. Thank you for reading.
When Felix wakes me up the next morning, Katniss and Rue are walking through the forest and talking.
"What's going on?" I ask Haymitch groggily.
"They're planning on attacking the Career's base," he says. "The little fart had been spying on them, and she's giving Katniss information." I remember the boy from District Three rewiring the bombs that they'd put around it. Right away, I hadn't paid much attention to what he was doing because Katniss was by herself and I didn't figure she'd attack them, and Mia was one of them. Now, I'm worried about that.
"What are they planning?" I asked him worriedly.
"They aren't just going to burst in there," Felix says, but he isn't exactly confident in that statement.
"She's a smart girl," Haymitch assures us. Then we shut up so we can hear them talking.
Rue tells Katniss that the base is by the lake, and that all their supplies are in a huge pile about thirty yards away from where they've been sleeping. During the day, usually the boy from Three, the one who put the bombs in, guards everything.
"The boy from District Three?" Katniss checked.
"She really is observant," Felix says. I can tell that he's impressed, and I am too. Not many people would take the time to make note of something like that, but I can almost see the gears turning in her head, thinking about why a boy from District Three would be able to get in with the Career group.
"Yes, he stays at the camp full-time. He got stung, too, when they drew the tracker jackers in by the lake," Rue told her. "I guess they agreed to let him live if he acted as their guard. But he's not very big." Katniss listens to that, but she still doesn't think that it's quite right. I don't know how she'd make the connection with the bombs, but I hope that at least she uses more caution than she normally would be trying to get the supplies.
"What weapons does he have?" she asks.
"Not much that I could see. A spear. He might be able to hold a few of us off with that, but Thresh could kill him easily."
"And the food's just out in the open?" Rue nods. "Something's not quite right about that whole setup."
I look at Haymitch and shake my head with a smile.
"That girl is amazing."
"Don't get your hopes up too much," he growled. "She has guts, but I've seen her act rashly. Just hope that she doesn't lose her temper and rush into something that she shouldn't."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
"Katniss, even if you could get to the food, how would you get rid of it?" Rue asked her then.
"Burn it. Dump it in the lake. Soak it in fuel." She laughs and pokes Rue in the belly. "Eat it." The little girl starts giggle, and I share a look with the other two in the room. She's getting too attached, and that isn't good. "Don't worry. I'll think of something. Destroying things is much easier than making them."
After that, they start gathering roots and fruit, things to eat. I get bored and start wandering around the complex just for something to do. It didn't look like anything was going to start for a while, and watching tributes get attached to each other was too painful. Thoughts of Arowana were already starting to circulate in my head, and I can't help but worry about what's going to happen when one of them dies.
While I'm walking, I run into Johanna Mason.
"Good Games, aren't they?" she asks me sardonically. "It's going to be fun watching Katniss when someone kills her little friend." I laugh, not because it was funny, but just because of the way her thoughts were on the same page as mine.
"It's frustrating, watching her do that to herself. It's like they don't know." I lead her to a bench and we sit down.
"You did the same thing," she notifies me. I have to cringe.
"Yeah, and it was a mistake."
"But you met Annie out of it, so is it really so bad?" I have to smile at that, just slightly, even though I'm sure it doesn't completely touch my eyes.
"That depends. She would have been better off without me." Johanna puts her hand on top of mine.
"If you really thought that, then you wouldn't still be with her. Whenever there's something good, you have to realize that it'll always come with bad." I sigh.
"I know that. I do. I'm just thinking way too much about things that I shouldn't be." She smiles at me sadly.
"The Games tend to do that to people." We sit in silence for a moment.
"Why aren't you in the District Twelve room?" I ask her after a while. She shrugs.
"I'm with Eleven. Rue. Maybe I'll go back to Twelve later, but I don't like Haymitch." I chuckle.
"He isn't drunk."
"Yeah, that's what scares me." We start laughing, but a Peacekeeper walks up to us and insists (well, orders) that we get back to whatever rooms we're in.
When I get back, the two of them are just getting ready to separate.
"If all goes according to plan," Katniss is saying when I step into the room, "I'll see you for dinner."
Then the girl throws her arms around her, and Katniss hugs her back. I feel a pang in my chest, knowing that both of them can't survive.
"You be careful," Rue says.
"You too," Katniss replies. Then they walk away from each other.
As she heads towards the Career camp, things die down again, and I let my eyes wander to the screen that shows Peeta.
"He's going to die, isn't I?" I ask to no one in particular. They don't need to know who I'm asking about. There's only one 'he' in these Games that would warrant that question.
"I looks that way. The poor kid doesn't deserve," Haymitch muttered. "He's good, has the best soul that I've ever seen."
"It's the Games," Felix says, and that ends the conversation. I plop down on Haymitch's bed and watch the screens, but no one is doing anything, so I close my eyes, planning on napping, but just as I'm drifting off, Felix pokes my arm.
"She's there," he said. I open my eyes to the sight of Katniss is watching the Careers. Cato had just caught a glimpse of a campfire that Rue set. I'm guessing for a distraction. They must have come up with that idea when I was talking to Johanna.
The Careers are currently getting into a heated argument about whether or not to leave the boy from Three to guard the supplies or take him with.
"He's coming," Cato insists. "We need him in the woods, and his job's done here anyway. No one can touch those supplies."
"What about Lover Boy?" the boy from one asked. I'm guessing he was referring to Peeta.
"I keep telling you, forget about him. I know where I cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet. At any rate, he's in no shape to raid us." It's impossible not to see that worry on Katniss's face when she hears that. Great. She's gotten attached to two tributes.
"Come on," Cato said, thrusting a spear into the hands of the scrawny boy from Three, then leading them away.
At first, I'm convinced that now that they're gone, Katniss is going to just go barging onto the supplies and get herself blown to bits. She sits there and thinks for a long while, and just as it appears that she is going to get closer, the girl from 5, who I hadn't even noticed getting close, steps out of the forest. Katniss hangs back and watches.
I'm surprised when I see her start dancing towards the supplies, jumping up and down around where the mines apparently are. I guess that when I was watching Katniss, she was paying attention to the whole thing getting built. It's more than impressive that she'd have the whole path memorized, and I'm also relived, because I can see Katniss analyzing her every move. She now realizes that she can't just walk up and take everything.
The girl from Five grabs some food, then darts back away on the same path that she got there with. Once she's done, Katniss stares at it, obviously thinking. I'm just about to ask Haymitch if there's anything he could send her to tip her off when she whispers to herself, barely loud enough for the cameras to catch, "It's mined."
"She has an idea now," Haymitch told us. "Look at her eyes." When I did, they were shining devilishly. I felt myself smiling.
She takes a few cautious steps closer, raising her bow and loading it with an arrow. The first time, she fires towards the pile and hit's a bag of apples near the top, causing it to tear.
"She's a genius," Felix says, a very big smile on his face.
"Don't say that until she gets it to work," I warn him, although I'm thinking the exact same thing.
She fires another one, widening the hole. An apple threatens to fall. She fires the third arrow.
It catches the torn flap of burlap and rips it from the bag.
For a moment, the apples seem frozen.
Then, they all come toppling down at once, spilling across the ground.
Explosions light up the air, and the sound is almost deafening, even over the speakers.
But the supplies are now completely destroyed.