Chapter 5:

Katniss decided to check out the stream Clove had mentioned (finding nothing else to do while waiting for her snares). While she walked through the green trees, she thought about what she saw last night.

Peeta had made friends with the career pack and she knew Peeta was only being kept alive because of her. Still, she questioned his motives. Why would he confess his undying love for me and then join the effort that was hunting me down? Katniss thought.

The sun rose high in the sky and was searingly hot. Katniss started to feel thirsty again. Without Clove's gift of water, Katniss was sure she'd be dead by now.

The forest had no changes to it as she walked except for the same gradual slope that led downwards into a valley, the trees were the same and so were the bird calls. As the day wore on, Katniss found a cluster of berry bushes. She crushed one in her hand. Blood red liquid covered her palm. It wasn't something she recognised so she kept walking, not wanting to run the risk of being poisoned.

Katniss thought she was going delirious when she recognised the faint smell of lilies. That's when she found it, it wasn't a lake like Clove thought, but Katniss was delighted to see a small pond filled with water lilies.

It took a large amount of restraint for Katniss not to just stick her head in the water. Instead, she filled her empty bottle with water and put in a few drops of iodine to purify the water, then she waited half an hour for it to work.

After drinking some water slowly, Katniss began to feel much better. She ate one of her precious crackers and then realised how dark it had gotten. Katniss heard the anthem but saw no faces were displayed today.

Katniss buckled herself into a tree and slept soundly for the night.

Katniss' eyes shot open and she couldn't believe what she saw. A wall of fire was descending down on her. Katniss unbuckled herself as fast as her fingers would allow, grabbed her bag and dropped down from the tree. She wasted no time running as fast as she could. The fire hit her tree with the force of a stampede.

All around her, trees were engulfed in fire that spread hungrily as she ran further and further away. Burning branches cracked and fell in showers of sparks at her feet. Thick black smoke threatened to suffocate Katniss as she stumbled through the underbrush.

Her shirt clung to her skin with sweat, her bag banged against her back, and branches that materialised through the smoke whipped her face. But still she ran.

Katniss' throat burned and her chest ached with her intake of smoke. Katniss stopped momentarily to catch her breath, just as a fireball was lodged at her. Katniss was caught unaware and so she dodged it, but not in time.

Her leg was ablaze with flames and Katniss dropped to the floor and rolled around frantically to extinguish the fire. Her calf was bright red and blistered. Katniss got up, energized by fear and dodged the fireballs that the Gamemakers sent at her.

Eventually, Katniss dashed through the burning trees and their fallen, burning limbs to find herself standing in a lake. The water soothed the burn on her leg and she splashed her face with water to wash the blood and ash away.

Katniss stilled. She heard her pursuers cough, they were close. With little else to do, Katniss picked a high tree and limped towards it. Katniss winced and the feel of her sore hands on the rough tree bark but climbed regardless of her whole body screaming at her.

Katniss reached a low branch just as the careers catch her in their sights. Katniss grinned at them.

"Hey, how's it going?" She called cheerfully. That'll put them off a little.

It did, Cato responded after they all looked at her strangely. "Good enough. How about you?"

"Oh, you know. Been better I guess. But-" Katniss shrugged dismissively. "What are you going to do?"

Cato had evidently had enough talking and attempted to climb up the tree. Katniss turned and started to climb higher.

She heard Clove call: "Come on Cato! You are so close."

Katniss understood that statement to mean he was right behind her. Katniss tried wholeheartedly to speed up her climbing, but at this rate Cato was going to reach her soon.

"Snap!"

Cato fell to the ground and started cursing, Katniss had now got about twenty five meters high when Glimmer started to fire at her with a bow. Again Katniss was lucky, Glimmer was a terrible shot.

Katniss was quite happy with her perch on this tree, she was reasonably confident the careers couldn't reach her. As she was more than likely lighter than all of the careers and a certainly lot more practised.

Glimmer started to climb the tree and Katniss thought she'd take a stab at annoying them. She sat on the branch and simply waited.

"Come on Glimmer you can do it, you go girl!" Katniss called.

"Shut up!" She called. But Katniss had distracted her so much with her taunts that she lost her footing and fell to the ground.

"Better luck next time." Katniss said.

Glimmer got angry and attempted to shoot Katniss again. The arrow stuck in a tree near Katniss and she grabbed it and waved it above her head.

"Just what I wanted, an oversized toothpick!"

"Stop. You'll just waste our arrows!" Clove said to Glimmer.

"Why don't you just throw your knives at her Clove?" Marvel asked.

"She's too high up, I'd just be giving her a weapon if I missed. We should wait until morning."

"Yeah, we can wait her out, she's gotta come down sometime." Peeta called.

They all grouped together as if planning a conspiracy and then broke apart again. They must have agreed to set up camp here as they all stayed at the base of the tree. Katniss was okay with waiting, but she was unsure of how to get out of this situation.

It got dark. The careers were talking to themselves in quiet whispers. Katniss couldn't make out much of their conversation so she ate another cracker.

Soon, Katniss would run out of food and she'd run out of water even quicker. Katniss studied her surroundings once again until something caught her eye.

A silver parachute appeared out of thin air and drifted it's way to Katniss. She grabbed it hastily as if she were frightened it would disappear again.

Inside was some burn cream. "Thank you Haymitch!" Katniss said gently so the careers wouldn't hear, she doubted they had seen the parachute as they were so far below.

Katniss rubbed the cream gently on her leg as something else caught her eye. She had the feeling someone was watching her.

Katniss saw twinkling eyes look at her from a tree a short distance away. An arm extended and pointed to somewhere above Katniss' branch. Katniss followed that direction with her eyes until she saw the hive.

Tracker Jackers. Katniss grinned at the person in the tree. Perfect.

Katniss glanced down at the careers, some where sleeping, some were looking around but staying close. Katniss saw Clove sitting on a rock throwing her knifes into the tree trunks that surrounded her and then collecting them.

Rue had emerged from the leaves that hid her and looked at Katniss questioningly.

Katniss glanced down again and shook her head. "I need to talk to them. Can you make some noise to lure them away?" Katniss mouthed with signs that she hoped made her meaning clearer.

Rue stared, then nodded and disappeared.

In the distance, there was a fizzing sound, then some crackling sounds that broke the relative silence of the woods shortly after that. Katniss had never heard such a noise before, but it must have been loud as she heard it from all the way up in her tree.

The careers looked just as confused as Katniss, they all went off to see what the weird noise was. "Clove and Lover Boy, stay with Katpiss. Make sure she doesn't move." Cato commanded.

When Katniss was sure the majority of the pack was gone, she slid down the tree, mindful of her leg injury.

"Katniss, what are you doing?!" Peeta said urgently. "Climb back up, she'll kill you!"

"Peeta calm down, it's okay." Katniss said softly.

Clove ran up to Katniss. "Are you okay Katniss? You looked wounded when I saw you climb that tree."

"I got burnt, but it should heal up. Aside from that, I'm fine." Katniss smiled at Clove.

Clove wrapped her arms around Katniss. "I'm glad. You had me worried for a second." They pulled away from each other and Katniss met Peeta's very confused expression.

"Katniss, what's-"

"We don't have time for an explanation Peeta! I'm going to climb back in the tree and cut down a Tracker Jacker nest while the anthem plays. Clove you need to run, I think we may need to work together from now on."

"Because of my head-start when the nest falls?"

"Exactly." Katniss responded. "Rue's with us now so don't mistake her for an enemy."

"Got it. Anything else fire girl?" Clove asked.

Katniss shook her head. "I should get back now. I don't think Rue's distraction can keep them busy for much longer."

Katniss climbed up the tree again and found herself on the same branch as a few moments ago when the careers returned to the tree.

"Find anything?" Clove asked.

"No." Cato growled. "It was a firecracker, when we got there there wasn't anybody or anything. It was pointless. Did you find anybody that might have tried to loot our camp while we were gone?"

"No, nothing happened." Clove started juggling her knives out of boredom.

Cato sighed irritably. Glimmer went over to comfort Cato. Katniss thought they were a perfect match as they were both as dim as each other.

The anthem had started soon after that and Katniss climbed a little higher so she was at the right height to cut down the branch the nest hung from.

With the knife Clove had given Katniss at the beginning of the games, Katniss sawed at the branch in a backwards and forwards motion. As the branch began to move, the wasps began to stir. Katniss became more desperate in her efforts to cut the branch down as she knew these were no ordinary wasps.

As the anthem ended, the limb of the tree finally fell to the ground. The careers caught on quite quickly with what happened and fled, but Glimmer who had fallen asleep wasn't so lucky. She screamed and flailed around as the Tracker Jackers stung her until she stopped moving altogether.

Katniss in the midst of the hysteria, had landed on the ground and was trying to take the bow and quiver from Glimmer's stiff and swollen corpse. Her features were twisted and engorged, Katniss was sure she must have once been quite pretty, but she had no time to pity the dead.

Unfortunately, while she did this, Katniss was stung by a number of Tracker Jackers. She ran in a random direction and faintly recalled glimpses of greenery and foliage. She was in the forest again. Katniss felt light-headed and dazed and she began hallucinating. Katniss walked into tree trunks as she stumbled through the woods blindly.

"Katniss!" Someone shouted. They seemed in a different world to Katniss at this moment in time. She couldn't remember much at all.

Clove gripped Katniss' arms and said: "We need to move!"

Katniss' legs were clumsy and she kept tripping over her own feet, she would have face-planted the ground if not for Clove guiding her along.

Katniss was starting to feel sick and she started mumbling under her breath. "Just a little further, come on!" Clove said reassuringly. Clove saying that was more for her own benefit than Katniss' as Katniss was not fully there.

Katniss' legs gave out underneath her and she collapsed onto the ground.

Clove was cradling Katniss' head in her hands. "Katniss, stay with me! Please!" Katniss' eyes were getting heavy, she saw Clove look behind herself and then Clove picked Katniss up and carried her away.

Clove was saying something. Katniss could see her lips moving, but she couldn't hear any words come out of her mouth.

The last thing Katniss remembered before she blacked out was Clove's dark eyes and their small specks of green.