33
Prim's footsteps grew more and more leaden the closer they got to the cornucopia. They were minutes away. No more talking—not that they'd done much of it during the hike anyway. This felt foolish, and her confidence wavered with that understanding.
Foolishness.
Yet, if it was foolish, wouldn't Peeta have said something? Wouldn't he have stopped them from going? Or had he already given up on the Games?
Peeta threw out an arm and held a finger to his lips. They all stopped walking. Prim strained her ears, as though by thinking harder she'd be able to make out more sound. She heard it—so misplaced in the Games that it sounded almost feral.
Laughter.
Not happy laughter like around a bonfire, but sick laughter. Taunting laughter. The laughter that came before a killing.
Cato.
Prim halted her instinctual urge to flee. Rue led the team forward and they crouched behind the trees on the edge of the Cornucopia clearing. At least now they knew Cato wasn't tracking them, but Rue's gasp made this new situation seem worse.
The Careers had caught Thresh.
He stood in the middle of a Career circle, clotted blood covering his head and dripping into his eye. No ropes bound him, but neither did he have any weapons. Cato, Clove, Glimmer, the boy from 10, and—gulp—Marvel poked at him with spears or swords, like a sick game of monkey in the middle. Thresh lunged after some of the weapons, but the ring of attacks kept him at bay.
Cato laughed.
Prim's heartstrings wept when a brief grin crossed Marvel's face as he jabbed the back of Thresh's thigh.
Thresh was already weak, stumbling around and trying to grab a weapon. He'd go down with a fight, but that's what made all this worse—the Careers knew that and they wanted to whittle him down until he was nothing more than an exhausted plaything. Instead of sorrow, something else built inside of Prim. Something stronger, fiercer, and…dangerous.
Anger.
Before she knew it, she had her sling out of her waistband and sent a stone flying into the forehead of the boy from 10. She gasped—she'd only meant to hit his weapon-hand. He dropped like a felled tree and it launched the rest of her family into action. Rue burst from the trees with a scream, followed by Peeta who hurled a dagger. Foxface ran to the right, toward the giant pile of food and belongings. Prim stumbled after them, both horrified at what she'd done and ready to do it some more.
The moment her eyes met Marvel's, the smile vanished from his face. Something like fury, regret, and defiance jumbled behind his eyes. Cato spread his arms wide as though to welcome the charge.
Peeta bowled over Clove before she had a chance to throw her daggers. She hissed like a cat and scrambled back to her feet, but Peeta fought too close for her to get a dagger out. Rue tussled with Glimmer, which gave Thresh the opening he needed to break free. Two steps took him to Rue and he yanked Glimmer off of her, throwing Glimmer across the field like a ragdoll. Then...
...he went for Cato.
One on one with a beefy guy like Thresh, Cato didn't stand a chance, and he knew it. He stumbled backward, but Thresh advanced.
Prim didn't want to see them connect. She stood in the middle of the fray, unsure what to do. They fought all around her, but the boy from District 10 lay still on the grass, tripped over and ignored.
Had she killed him?
Had she finally cracked and turned into the monster she feared this whole time?
She had no more time than that to think. Someone rammed into her, flattening her to the ground.
Marvel.
He was on top of her in a flash, grabbing fistfuls of her coat and slamming her against the ground. "I hate you! I hate you! Why are you here?"
She refused to cry. He'd never understand the bond of family like she wanted him to. Maybe he was simply a killer and always would be. But he wasn't killing her. He was just…looking like he was fighting her. He shoved his hand in her face, pushing it into the dirt. "Just stay down, idiot."
Then he was off, running toward someone else. Prim breathed hard, trying to block out the mayhem around her. What should she do? A cannon boomed and she shot into a sitting position. Peeta! Rue! Marvel!
Her eyes found Vixenette first, who was very much alive and…wasn't blowing up the food. Instead, she wrestled with the ties of her stuffed backpack, her eyes flitting from the knot to the group of wrestling people, back to the knot again. Frantic. Fingers flying.
A crumpled thick blue tarp laid beside her on the ground, gathered possibly from the pile of supplies.
Prim rose to her feet. Did Vixenette need help? What was she trying to do? The backpack strand was loose. Vixenette pulled the strings free, yanked the top open, and then threw the whole backpack into the center of the circle of fighters before covering herself in the blue tarp.
A tracker jacker nest tumbled free of the pack and burst open.
.
.
To be continued...
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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.