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The buzz of trackerjackers came like an explosion. Prim scrambled to her feet, her reflexes moving her before her brain could catch up. No one else had seen the nest yet. Couldn't they hear the buzz? Sense the danger?

She filled her lungs with the biggest breath she could muster between adrenaline gasps. "Tracker jackers!" Her explosive scream shook her from her shock and she scrambled toward the first person who entered her mind. It wasn't Marvel. It wasn't Rue. It certainly wasn't Vixenette.

"Peeta!" He wrestled on the ground with Clove who had a knife clutched in her fist. Prim used her momentum and kicked Clove in the shoulder. That gave Peeta the opening he needed and thankfully, thankfully, he leapt up and took Prim's hand.

They ran. Someone screamed. A second cannon boomed and a sting shocked Prim on the back of the neck. She yelped, but Peeta dragged her after him. "Run, Prim. Run!"

She didn't need telling twice. "What about…our family?"

"Pray they survive." He wasn't going to rescue them. He couldn't. Prim couldn't. No one could fight off the tracker jackers. So Prim did exactly what Peeta suggested as she ran and her breathing echoed in her ears.

If there's anyone who hears prayers…please protect my family!

Another trackerjacker stung her arm. Her vision went blurry and, beside her, Peeta stumbled. Then they reached the lake. Prim didn't care if Cato was right behind her or if the lake was filled with poison, or if crocodiles would eat her…she tumbled into the water and let herself sink. The coolness crept straight to her stings, soothing them, eliminating the treacherous buzz of the trackers.

But she needed air within seconds. Her heart pumped too fast from the sprint. She spun beneath the water and popped her head up so as to face shore. A single tracker jacker hovered above her, but she dipped back under before it could sting.

In that short time above water, she saw bodies strewn about on the grass before the cornucopia. Two? Three? Four? A hovercraft was sending down a claw. Who died? The odds of it being a family member were high. Too high.

Beneath the surface she heard a jolted buzzing, like a fly caught in a web. She blinked her eyes open and spotted tracker jackers…diving beneath the surface toward her! No, that couldn't be right. They couldn't function underwater. She shook her head and the vision disappeared. The stilted buzzing continued and she went up for air. The single trackerjacker that had watched for her had tried to get her through the water. Now it was dead.

Her vision swam and her head pounded. The sky turned red and then flickered to purple. Creatures swarmed around her in the water, picking at her clothing, her skin. No, leave me...alone! She clambered for shore and crawled on to the scorched grass. Why was it scorched? Had there been a fire?

As she flopped onto the ground, her head connected with a boot. Ugh. So little energy to fight. She didn't want to fight, but she turned her head so she could see who stood above her.

"You killed me." The boy from 10. His voice echoed around her like they were trapped in a bottle. "You did."

She blinked and suddenly he was on the other side of her. "No, I…I didn't mean to…"

His eyes rolled back in his head and—another blink—he disappeared. The world swirled and Prim squeezed her eyes tight to keep herself from panicking. I didn't mean to... Consciousness fled and she melted into the darkness.

.

The Capitol anthem blared and Prim woke with a shriek. Her eyes flew open, landing her gaze on the pictures of fallen tributes in the sky. Glimmer and the boy from 10. No one from her family. She breathed easier and felt guilty for the relief coursing through her.

A hand clapped over her mouth and her scream slammed against the person's palm. "Shh, Prim, it's me."

Peeta. She spun and launched into his arms. "Oh, Peeta! You're okay! Everyone's okay!" Well, everyone but the boy from 10. And Glimmer. She should feel remorse, but she didn't. What was wrong with her? Was she a monster now?

He hugged her back and continued to speak in a whisper. "We need to go. I've been waiting for you to wake up."

That's when Prim realized she wasn't on the bank of the lake anymore. She was at the edge of the forest near the cornucopia.

"I would have carried you farther, but the tracker jacker venom made me weak. You were out a lot longer than I was, I think because you're smaller."

"Where are Rue and Marvel?" She didn't mention Vixennette. Prim had been wrong about her and she waited for Peeta to call her out on it. Vixennette had tried to kill everyone. She'd succeeded with two tributes. "And what happened to the other tributes?"

"Let's just go, Prim."

She shied away from his insistence. "What will we do then?" If they disappeared into the forest, she might never reunite with them. They would die—or she would die—without a good-bye. "We can't leave them, Peeta."

He knelt to match her eye level. "If we stay then we'll die, Prim." He wasn't saying they had to leave. He was giving her a choice. She stared at his face, holding his gaze. Why would this boy give so much of his life just for her? Why would he risk his own survival to protect her?

"You really love Katniss, don't you?"

He sighed. "This isn't about her anymore, Prim."

"It's not?"

"You're important to me, too, you know."

She shook her head. "I can't be that important. Not enough for you to die!"

"That's how friendships work."

"But that's not how the Games work."

Peeta's face broke into a smile, cracking the dried dirt in his cheek creases. "We haven't followed the rules of the Games from the start."

From the way he talked, it sounded like he was open to returning to the others, even if it meant his death. Prim cocked her head to one side. "But…do you still care about Katniss?"

Peeta's face turned somber and his eyes searched the air as though sifting through a visual Prim couldn't see. "Yes. I still care about her. Very much." His hands tightened on Prim's shoulders and she watched his face crumple. His left hand slid away from her and covered his eyes. He said nothing, just shook his head.

"Oh Peeta." Prim hugged him, though it felt like a poor form of comfort for whatever was going through his head. She'd had been so distracted by her tribute family that she'd neglected Peeta. He was family, too—moreso than any of the others. Would she endanger him to save the rest of her family?

Peeta leaned away and stood with his shoulders back and a new air of leadership, but his eyes were a bit redder than before. "So, Miss Primrose…what would you like to do?"

She gave one more glance back toward the cornucopia, her heart twinging inside her. "I'll follow you, Peeta." Deep breath. "Into the forest."

Good-bye family. Be safe.

.

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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.