Peeta POV:
No. No, no, no, no. She can't do this to me; she can't betray me for him. She stands there kissing the boy she swore was only her friend, for years I have suspected there was something but she always promised me she loved me but how long has she been saying that to Gale? I come from my daze and see Katniss running across the screen, she has tears streaming down her face and she looks terrified. I can tell she is mouthing something but I can't quite make it out. The cameras turn back to Gale who just stands staring after her knowing that if he chased her now, after what she said she would shoot him. But when the cameras come back to Katniss I understand what she was saying over and over again, 'I am sorry Peeta.' Again and again she said this and it just confused me more, she was running from a guy she kissed but she was sorry. Caesar Flickerman's voice was chatting about what had just happened with Claudius Templesmith and he said "Well, well, well. Maybe Miss Everdeen isn't as much of a fan of her young man back home as we first thought."
"No, clearly," Claudius chipped in, "Maybe we will see a spark during these games, my oh my! Romance in the games is something we really aren't accustomed to!" He laughs and then they carry on talking about our little love triangle before returning to scenes from the bloodbath. I don't know what to do though, I just slowly rise from my seat and walk to my room. My entire family silently stares at me; even my mother looks at me with sorrow in her eyes. First time for everything! She was angry when Katniss told all of Panem about us, I still have the scares on my back but now she looks like she feels sorry for me. Tears start to prickle behind my eyes and I rush to my room before they start to fall. I throw myself down on my bed and cry and cry until I can't cry anymore. Then I just lie there. I think at some point I fell asleep because when I look from my hands again daylight is flooding into my room and my bed sheets have been brought over my body to stop me freezing.
I crawl out my bed and change into something for school but I realise that I can't show my face at school. Everyone will know about the kiss and everyone will give me the same look that my family did and I can't be pitied because it makes everything ten times worse. So after getting half changed I crawl back between my sheets and sleep again. I watch that kiss in my dreams over and over, each time destroying one good memory I have of her as I replace it with that kiss.
Katniss POV:
I keep running until I am so exhausted that I collapse onto the floor. As I collapse I feel cool sticky mud slither over my body, each second I spend in the mud makes it that bit harder to get up until it hits me. MUD! Mud means water and water means life. I manage to recompose myself and walk towards the thicker mud, I pass by a couple animals on my way that I kill with my arrows, dark sets in before I hear the angelic sound of running water. My pace picks up until I can see it and before I really think about it I just collapse into the water, letting it engulf my entire body. I thought the mud was bliss but this is godly compared to that. I unscrew my bottle and fill it with water, as it fills the bottle seems to eject a yellow liquid into it, I panic slightly until I realise that the water is being purified. A timer appears on the bottle reading 31:42. It is so precise that I know this is complex Capitol technology. I replace the lid on the bottle and whilst I wait for the water to purify, I gut all the animals I shot.
After a pain-staking half hour I slowly drink the water, it is blissful and perfect. I understand now that even though things are bad back home, at least we survive on the food I can hunt, here for all I know the animals I shoot could kill me. Once my water bottle is entirely empty I refill it again. The countdown reappears, 34:12. I think about making a fire but the careers will be out and hunting me down so I eat a small amount of my food from the Capitol before climbing up into a tree to sleep for the night. If I stay out of their way I will be safe and each slither of safety I get is a lifeline. I find a sleeping bag in a hidden pocket in my backpack and nestle down into it. A cannon fires which means there is another death, another child dead. All I can think of is Gale and how he could be alive or dead and I won't know until the faces flash up in the sky.
I slowly fall asleep but after what feels like no time I am aroused by the Capitol anthem. All the fallen tributes faces will appear in order of their district number. The first face to appear is the girl one, this is shocking because careers normally last the longest, then face after face appears in the sky I hold my breath waiting for answers. The Capitol seal reappears and then darkness consumes the sky. A sigh of relief escapes my lips, he lives. I start to wonder whether I will see Gale again, what if the last time is saw him was today and we have to leave it like this? But soon I remember Peeta back home who will think that I never loved him and that I used him. I pray that in the round up tomorrow they will play this as I whisper "I still love you Peeta," I pause before saying, "Always."