Welcome to the twenty-first chapter of the Untold Hunger Games.

I'm back, back again. Hello beautiful peoples. Did you miss me? It's been so many years since I last updated this story. Covid has come and almost gone. Life has gone on and I've become older, but I never forgot about this story.

I'm not going to be updating weekly like I use to. Too much pressure to put on my poor brain. I will be updating when I can. It might be tomorrow, or next week, or next month, even next year, but I am determined to continue this journey. I love this fanfic, I return to it often in my mind, but I always forget to write it down, until now.

Anyway I talk way too much, let's get on with Chapter Twenty One of the Untold Hunger Games.

I was surprised to wake up to the sun high in the sky. It was morning already? Why hadn't Peeta woken me up?

I looked over at him, he was still on his tree branch, bundled in his own sleeping bag, an expression of deep concentration on his face. He was looking in the direction that Glimmer had run off in.

"What's wrong?" I whispered, looking in the direction he was. I wasn't surprised to see the remaining four Careers setting up a camp just out of bow shot. Well at least out of bow shot for them. If I wanted to I could have shot them all down without missing, but Aurcula's death had left a sour taste in my mouth and I didn't want to feel it again.

I looked at the spot where she had fallen, her body was gone, probably picked up by the body remover in the night. They used to keep the bodies in the arena but after a potential victor started eating his victims the Capitol quickly implemented a system of body retrieving hovercrafts and killed off that tribute in a rockslide, "Oh no." I whispered.

Peeta looked at me, his eyes nervous, "What? Did you see them move?" He asked looking back towards the Careers.

I shook my head in answer, "No. No… I forgot to mark Aurcula. I never marked her with the symbol." I said. I knew it didn't seem all that important, but it seemed like a dishonour to Aurcula's death that I didn't mark her shoulder with my own blood.

"Oh," Peeta exclaimed in amazement, "Don't worry too much. I marked her just after you fell asleep. I knew I had to before the Careers came back, and you were too tired to do it. Although," he whispered looking down at his hands, "It was a little difficult to climb back up. I scratched my hands up pretty badly." He explained showing me his scraped and bloodied hands.

I laughed, despite it being completely uncalled for in this situation. I guess it was a way of coping with everything that had occurred in the past few hours, "You're bruised, bloody and most likely have a sprained leg and I've got an incredibly painful burn on my leg that won't heal without good medicine. What a pair we are." I explained to him after the look he had given me from my laugher.

Peeta leaned back against his tree and chuckled at my explanation, "Yeah, we do make a sorry pair." He sighed, turning to smirk at me, only for his expression to suddenly change. He looked past me, "Is there something in the trees?" He asked, squinting his eyes as he strained to look at whatever was in the trees behind me. I turned as much as I could on my branch, looking in the same direction as Peeta.

I couldn't find it at first, but then I saw he was right. High in the trees on a branch much higher than ours was a small figure with frizzy black hair and dark olive skin, "Rue?" I whispered softly under my breath.

That remark had surprised Peeta, "Rue? Why the hell is she so close to the Career's camp? She could get spotted." He whispered, looking nervous for the young girl we had easily befriended.

As I move to get a closer look at our young ally, I clutched my teeth in pain. The side of the sleeping bag had brushed over my leg and despite the strips of cloth that were tied around it, something Peeta must have done last night. The wound strung something awful.

I looked to Rue, hoping she hadn't seen me wincing, until I realized, to my surprise, that she was pointing at something. I looked in the direction of her finger, where she was pointing to was three branches above my head and the sight made me freeze in panic, "Peeta, look up and don't make any big movements." I whispered hoping not to disturb what I had seen.

Peeta was confused at first, but as soon as his eyes had fallen on the third branch he froze as stiffly as I had just seconds earlier, "Tracker Jackers?!" He whispered, fear brimming in his voice.

I breathed in a shaky sigh and nodded, "Yeah, and here I thought this tree was the perfect base." I muttered, looking back at Rue to thank her with a quick gesture. She had just saved me and Peeta from a fate worse than death.

Tracker Jackers were vicious mutations, or what we in the Districts called mutts, which had been created by the Capitol during what we unaffectionately called the Dark Days. They were large wasp-like mutts that had been genetically modified with a poisonous sting that made their victims feel the most excruciating pain, and that wasn't all. Small doses of the venom caused hallucinations and memory loss, many people who had suffered from the effects usually couldn't recall what had happened to them before or during the events that had led up to them being stung. They were perfect living weapons to deter anyone who wanted to enter the Capitol uninvited. I had learned about them when they were used during some of the previous Hunger Games. Unfortunately higher doses of their venom had always led to the death of the victims, a fact many a tribute had found out the hard way.

"We need to leave this place. Soon." I muttered, looking down at the Careers and then back at Rue, who was also looking down at the Careers. Then, as if she could feel my gaze, she looked up at me and pointed to the Tracker Jacker nest before she made a sawing-like motion with her hands.

"Is she suggesting what I think she's suggesting?" Peeta asked, the tone of his voice obviously saying he didn't agree with Rue's idea.

Rue pointed to the Careers and then back to the nest, making the sawing motion again. I nodded once I knew for certain that what she wanted us, or just me, to do, "Yes Peeta." I grabbed my knife, and started to climb up to the branch above me, "I'll do it."

Peeta grabbed my hand before I could start climbing, "Are you insane?!" He whispered loudly, "If you get those things angry you won't just get stung by one or two. The whole hive will attack you!"

"Yeah I know that." The sound of the determination in my voice was more palpable than it had been in years, "But this could give us an advantage over the Careers. If they get the full brunt of the attack we could seriously handicap them for more than a few hours if not a day. Heck, we might even kill them if they get stung enough times."

Peeta looked shocked, letting go of my hand at the word kill, he obviously didn't like the idea of causing more deaths, anymore than I did. I looked at him with a serious expression on my face, "If we don't seriously maim or kill them now they'll just find a way to climb up this tree and kill us themselves." I pointed out, in response to his expression, "We don't have any other choice."

The defeating sigh Peeta let out answered me. He knew what happened to tributes who remained pacifistic during the Games. They always died in mysterious ways; avalanches, floods, vicious mutts, sudden poisoning from food that had been safe the day before. The Gamemakers never wanted a pacifist for their victor, they wanted a killer or at least someone who gave them a good show.

Peeta grabbed our things, quickly stuffing the sleeping bag into my bag before grabbing my bow and quiver and slinging them over his shoulder. Finally he pulled me in for a hard kiss, "I don't like this at all." He said after our lips break away, "But you're too stubborn to convince not to do this. So I'm only going to say this once." He looked me straight in the eyes, "You die or get severely injured and I'll never forgive you for it."

I nodded, "I'll be careful, I promise. Now go. They'll swarm the second they hit the ground and I can't guarantee they won't try to attack up here too." I told him as I started climbing up to the branch being careful not to disturb the nest until Peeta was safely on the ground.

I waited until Peeta was completely out of sight and Rue had disappeared before slowly and carefully began to use one of my daggers to start sawing at the tree branch. Unfortunately despite how carefully or slowly I moved, the Tracker Jackers still saw me as a threat and several began to sting me. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. It was as if the Tracker Jackers were stinging me with a warning shot, which I'd never known they could do. I didn't back away though, continuing to saw at the branch. The branch was almost ready to snap when the stings started to get worse.

I could feel the terrible pain burning in my neck, arms, hands and face, but I didn't stop, Just a few more seconds, I thought to myself just as the branch broke with a loud SNAP, falling straight to the ground just feet away from the oblivious Careers.

Cato's head had shot up and turned in the direction of the nest just seconds before the swarm flew in a rage at the nearest living beings, the Careers. I could hear their shrieks loudly in my ears, remaining above to avoid the swarm until the last possible second.

The four of them were running for their lives as the angry Tracker Jackers stung every inch of the skin they could find left unexposed. I watched the carnage high above in my tree, though I couldn't tell what was real anymore. The venom was obviously starting to affect my mind.

I didn't realize I had fallen. I felt the pain, no, the burning. If fire were liquid, then it flowed like the blood in my veins. Instead of pumping life it consumed ravenously. The inhuman cries of something being tortured filled the air, shrieking in my ears. I willed myself to turn my eyes to look around, to find the source of that tortured sound. Only to realize, it was me. I was the one making that horrible sound. I struggled to stand like my legs had been glued to the earth. Sinking. Falling. Drowning?

A vine wrapped around my ankle. "No! No! I will not be captured!" I thought, no screamed. The words echoing. The trees are getting closer. Closer. No, stay back!

I lashed at the vine. My nails like claws. "What?! No. No. You're dead!" I scream. Glimmer's swollen face stared blankly at me, "I just killed you!" Her smile formed. A grin too wide.

"No. No! You're dead!" I screamed again, scratching at her, hissing cat-like. The dead girl moved closer. I tried to push her away. Push her back. Stay away!

The trees got closer. Darkness closing. Too dark. Too dark… was the last thing I thought before my mind became overcome and I fell back into the void's embrace.