A garishly light blinded me as the elevator stopped. I scanned my surrounding, still blinking and noticed the other tributes that were standing on their platforms, most of them eager to start. Rue was standing two platforms away from me and to her left was…Gale. He seemed to be exactly as tense as I was, but when our eyes met he smiled at me. For a moment we just looked us in the eyes, then we heard the signal to start.

...

I ran into the nearby woods as fast as I could, forcing myself not to look back. I couldn't look at Gale while he was running towards the cornucopia, right into the arms of Cato and the other careers. I just looked round briefly, making sure that no one was following me, but I was alone so I kept running through the woods. After a while I had to stop for a moment to catch my breath. During my escape I had completely lost control of time and I couldn't say for how long I had been running. The boom of the canon echoed through the usually quiet woods and announced the death of a tribute. My heart was racing as I counted the canons, praying that Gale was alright. Nine booms. More than a third of the tributes hadn't survived the first hours. Please, don't let it be Gale, I kept murmuring, looking at the pictures that appeared at the sky.

They showed the girl from District Ten and my heart started hammering. I was so terrified that I had forgotten to count the fallen tributes. The pictures disappeared and relief was rushing through my body. Gale was alive and if everything had been okay he would be on his way. Now he only had to find me.

...

A couple of minutes later I started walking again, but my thoughts were with Gale all the time. I knew that I would just be able to breath normally when he was at my side again. My mood lit up at once when I saw the small river right in front of me. The cool water on my cheek seemed to boil away, but it was good to feel something cold on my skin. I took a sip of water and scanned the surrounding for some kind of shelter, but I couldn't find anything. While I was walking along the river I found a branch and started to make a bow. It wasn't even half as good as the one my father had made, but it was okay.

...

The position of the sun told me that it had to be late afternoon. Where the heck was Gale? What if he was hurt, lying somewhere in the woods, exposed to everyone? This fear took control over me and the horrifying pictures that were running through my mind didn't let me feel better as well. I ran along the river restlessly, looking for a sign of Gale, but he was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly I heard the twitter of a bird. It came out of nothing, but at least it was something familiar. I had often heard this sound in the woods of District Twelve, it was a mockingjay. It twittered three times, then it was silent again. My father had shown me how to imitate a mockingjay, but it took me a few tries to get it right. The mockingjay twittered a reply and I noticed that it was a little closer than before. I twittered again and tried to find one of the birds, but this time I didn't get a reply. Instead there was a soft voice, coming from a person right behind me.

"Hi there, little mockingjay."

"GALE!" I ran to the dark-haired boy and flinged myself into his arms. "God, I was so worried about you!"

"Same here. But it was alright." He wasn't hurt and he showed me the backback, a huge grin on his face. "Was definitely worth the risk."

"I hope so. But don't drive me crazy again, okay?"

"Promise", meant Gale and made sure that I wasn't hurt either. "Have you already found shelter?"

I shook my head. "No, unfortunately not."

He took my hand. "Okay, let's go then."

"Wait. What's in the backpack, by the way?", I wanted to know and looked at the thing in Gale's hand.

Gale sat down on a tree trunk and opened it. "A bottle of water, a rope, a blanket and…" He rummaged in one of the small pockets, "a small knife."

"Perfect! Exactly what I needed." I pointed at my bow. "I really need some arrows."

"Fine, then I will take care of dinner and you will make arrows, 'kay?"

"Sounds good, but don't go too far."

"Don't worry, I'll stay close."

...

I walked a couple of metres beside him, looking for some good branches for my arrows, then we took different directions. It took me quite a while to collect everything I needed for the arrows, but then I put everything in the backpack really satisfied and started looking for Gale. After a while I found a big leaf with a lot of supplies on it, so Gale couldn't be too far away. My eyes fell on the small berries Gale had put on the leaf. I bent down to eat one of them. Before I took them in my mouth I had a closer look at them and froze. I knew these berries. They were called nightlocks and they were highly poisonous…

"Gale!", I screamed desperately, but in this moment I heard the canon. No, that couldn't be…not Gale! I ran further, still yelling his name. I had to find him. There was somebody lying on the ground, just a couple of metres away from me. Damn, Gale knew the woods by heart, why did he eat these berries? Tears were running down my cheek as I got closer to the person on the ground.

...

"Honey, would you please stop screaming now? The others could hear you." I turned round, frightened and was suddenly facing Gale.

In the whole five years I had known him I had never been so happy to see him, not even once. "Damn you, Gale, you scared me to death. I thought you were dead!" My heartbeat started to normalize again and pulled him down on the collar of his shirt to kiss him. Then I heard a quiet sound.

"What is this?", I whispered to Gale.

"Maybe the cameras."

"Goodbye, privacy!" We slowly broke apart and I remembered that I still didn't know who the dead person was. I looked at the tribute on the ground. It was the District Nine girl.

"Did she eat the berries?"

Gale shrugged. "I guess so. She must have observed me."

I didn't have the chance to ask another question because there was a crackle in the bushes.

...

Within a second I had prepared my bow, ready to attack. Gale softly pushed me behind him. "I'll handle this. Cover my back."

I aimed at the direction the sound had come from and nodded. Gale tiptoed closer, separating the bushes abruptly. When I noticed the shaking person who had hidden in the bushes, I eased the grip at my bow.

"Rue?"

"Please, don't hurt me. I just wanted to go to the river." She looked at me, then at Gale and back, her eyes full of fear.

"Do you think we can trust her?", Gale asked quietly. I nodded. I felt like it were her eyes that were staring at me pleadingly and her shaky hand that was about to take mine. Prim.

"Are you alone?" Gale fixated Rue with his eyes and she nodded quickly.

Gale went a couple of steps backwards and I lowered my bow at the same time.

I couldn't hurt her, exactly like I could never hurt Prim…

"I could help you!", Rue said quietly while she was still looking at us rather scared.

Gale gave her a quizzical look, then she started smiling.

"Come with me."