30

Prim's first instinct was to gasp, which sent a gulp of water into her lungs. She choked. Then writhed because, if she didn't get above this river water in less than a second, she'd drown.

No! No! No! Anything but drowning. Anything but suffocation.

Vixenette pushed harder, shoving the rest of Prim's body into the river. A hand tangled in her hair and yanked her face out of the water. Prim tried to suck in a breath, but coughed instead. Vixenette slapped a hand over Prim's mouth. "Be quiet."

Prim coughed again. Air. She needed air!

They were both in the river now, the current carrying them away from the bank. Prim shoved Vixenette away and retched until she managed a thin forced breath past the constriction in her throat.

She flipped onto her back and scuttled away from Vixenette, pushing at the loose river bottom. Vixenette looked just as terrified as Prim felt. Prim didn't have enough breath to scream for help, but now it didn't seem like Vixenette was planning to kill her.

Vixenette held a single finger to her lips, grabbed a boulder mid-river and held still, peeking over the edge. Her bluging black pack floated on the water, held up by the waterproof coat she'd tied around it.

That's when Prim heard the voices moving away from them. Not just any voices.

Cato's voice. "They're close by. Probably hiding."

"We'll get 'em, Cato." Clove's voice. "We'll get 'em all."

"Thresh'll be tough."

Clove cackled. "No he won't. We'll just find the little dark girl and make her scream until he comes out of his hiding place by the lake. He was all big brother to her during training."

They were on the bank—the bank Prim and Vixenette had been on moments earlier. Prim couldn't see them yet, but she pulled herself behind a lodged log and yanked her black hood over her hair.

She put it together. Vixenette had shoved her into the water because she saw or heard Cato and Clove. That must have been it. She was saving Prim's life…right? It wasn't the best way to do it. She could have just covered Prim's mouth with her hand, but now that Prim realized Cato and Clove we near, she placed her trust back in Vixenette. If Vixenette had wanted to kill her, she would have. Prim had no strength and no fight.

The current pushed her flimsy body sideways and she clung to the log with her trembling fingers.

Fear. Not cold.

The refreshment of the water rejuvenated her, which was good because they'd probably have to flee soon.

Or die.

"Rue. Peeta," Prim hissed to Vixenette. She pointed in the direction Cato and Clove were heading. "We have to warn them."

Not speaking a response, Vixenette slid beneath the current and let it carry her, but she kept her pack floating atop the water. Why didn't she pull it under? It was a beacon like that!

Prim let Vixenette get a few yards downstream before she followed suit. They'd have to float past Cato and Clove. She didn't want to be near that black beacon of a backpack if the District 2 tributes spotted Vixenette. But, if she and Vixenette remained quiet and didn't splash, the rushing sound of water would them.

Prim let out half her air and drifted below the water. As she flowed, a captive to its whim, she squinted her eyes open. Sunlight flashed through the water above, winking and grinning. Innocent. Joyful. Even as her lungs burned, she didn't want to come up for air. She wanted to stay down there, playing a wink game with the sun in the silence of the river ride.

With one swoop of her arms, she got her head out of the water of a single half-breath. She didn't want to breathe too deeply or else she'd float.

Back down she went. She didn't have the energy or time to worry about Cato or Clove. If she was going to die today, it'd be underneath this lovely water, conversing with the sunlight.

How easy it was to hold her breath when she was calm.

What if she did die today? What would happen to her? She'd never really thought about it before. Mom said that Dad was just waiting for all of them. Prim liked the idea of joining her Dad somewhere…but was that just an adult saying – something mothers told their young daughters to comfort them? Was Dad really up somewhere, waiting for Prim?

Her calm fled.

She didn't want to die until she knew. Until she knew what would happen. Why had no one ever talked about this? They all said, "Twelve is too young." And Prim agreed! She'd barely started life! Was it really such a blink of existence and then…nothing?

No…there had to be something else. Something more. Otherwise, what was the purpose?

She poked her head up again, peeked at the bank. Trees. Green. She couldn't hear voices over the river, but it seemed like she'd been floating quite a ways. After a few more submerged floats, she risked a scan for Vixenette.

There she was, clawing her way onto the opposite bank. Prim swam toward her, remembering all too well how she shoved her underwater. Should she rejoin the little fox? Her heart thudded as she reached the bank.

Vixenette busied herself with brushing water off her black bulging pack. "I'm sorry."

Prim smiled, wringing the water out of her hair. "You saved my life." Right?

"I didn't mean for you to choke." Vixenette turned and her squinted eyes held back tears—or was that just river water? "Do you still trust me?"

Prim wanted to say yes. She really did. But she refused to lie. "I'm working on it."

That seemed good enough for Vixenette. She flashed Prim a shy smile, hoisted her pack on her back, and off they went into the forest. Running. Flying. Off to find Peeta and Rue before the Careers did.

They ran for an hour and the river water dried, turning to sweat. "Soon." Vixenette hardly sounded winded. "Soon." Her head barely tilted as her eyes darted side to side with every step for every minute, every hour. Alert. That's how she hadn't been caught yet.

Prim had a feeling that Vixenette would only get caught in the games if she revealed herself. She might just win this thing. And Prim's heart burned because of it…she wanted Peeta to win. And Rue. And…Marvel. Her whole family. Curse these Games!

Vixenette slowed and started studying the ground. They crept along. Her ears twitched at every sound—every bird flutter and snapped branch beneath Prim's foot. Like a fox. "Here."

Prim followed as they rounded the back of a mossy boulder. That's when the knife blade came out of nowhere, clamped in a small brown fist and held up against Vixenette's throat.

"Rue!" Prim dashed forward. "No!"

Rue's eyebrows shot up. "Prim?"

The words came out in a frantic rush. "Yes! Vixenette helped me find you. Please, she's on our side. She's part of our..."—she swallowed—"family."

Rue lowered the knife and just in time because a magnified voice startled them all and Rue jerked so violently her dagger would have slit Vixenette's throat then and there. Claudius Templesmith's voice congratulated those who had survived. He was saying something confusing. A rule change? A rule change!

"Under the new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive."

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To be continued...

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~If you like my writing, please check out my own dystopian book, A Time to Die (by Nadine Brandes), on Amazon~

How would you live if you knew the day you'd die? Parvin Blackwater believes she has wasted her life. At only seventeen, she has one year left according to the Clock by her bedside. In a last-ditch effort to make a difference, she tries to rescue Radicals from the government's crooked justice system. But when the authorities find out about her illegal activity, they cast her through the Wall - her people's death sentence. What she finds on the other side about the world, about eternity, and about herself changes Parvin forever and might just save her people. But her clock is running out.