The Hunger Games- Prim's Story

Chapter 18

"Rue, relax, please!" He yells frantically. "This wasn't for you Rue! I'm getting you out!" He tries to cut the net without cutting her, but that's an impossible task. She's flailing around and is bound to be hurt.

"Rue, stop flailing," Thresh orders, and she tries to calm down a little more. She puts her hands on her heart and tries to slow her breathing, but I can see from where I'm standing, that she's violently shaking. Peeta sighs in relief and cuts her out. 

He lifts the net off of her and she scrambles out. She stumbles when she gets up, but doesn't stop to regain her balance, instead, she runs at me and envelopes me in a huge hug. "I thought I was going to die!" She stammers. I just hold her and try to calm her down. I stroke her hair and whisper the sweet words Katniss used to use to calm me down. 

Rue finally breaks away and runs to Thresh. I watch them for a minute and it's obvious that he isn't used to physical affection. He looks like he wants to back away, but he hugs her back. I run to Peeta and he picks me up twirls me around. He always does that to me when he sees me when he picks Katniss up for their dates. She always shows up at the door, then raises her eyebrows at us, like we're misbehaving children. He always smiles at her and asks if she's jealous. That's when she finally cracks a smile and he picks her up and twirls her around as he did with me. That always ends in a kiss, but I turn away for that. Sometimes. 

He hugs me too and asks how I found him. I point to Thresh and he smiles. Thresh makes his way over to Peeta and Rue runs back to me. She eyes me and we're both wondering the same thing. What's going to happen? She intertwines her fingers with mine. Thresh smiles and nudges Peeta's shoulder. "I guess we know they can catch humans now," 

Peeta laughs and says, "I'll try not to do that again. I heard a cannon, who was it?" 

"District 1 wanted to hang around after the Careers left the fire. But from what I saw they still had their food."

Peeta looks at Rue and says, "She got stuck, I heard her scream as I was leaving. I couldn't just leave her could I? She'd be found by someone."

Are they a team? I didn't picture Thresh teaming with anyone in these Games. "Or something," I pipe in. Peeta nods in my direction and walks over to me. "What happened? Before we found you?" I ask.

All four of us sit down on the ground and Rue and I wait for someone to explain. I really hope I'm not in danger right now. This could all be an elaborate plot against me. I could take Rue, but I'm powerless against a huge eighteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old. Plus I don't think I could kill Peeta. What are you thinking? I ask myself. How could I think that? I trust Rue and Peeta, and I think I trust Thresh too. I need to get out of my head. I fiddle with my fingers while Peeta asks, "Where should I start?" 

"Very beginning. At the Cornucopia," Rue answers.

"As soon as the gong rang, I ran as far away from the Cornucopia as I could. The District 6 boy got killed by Cato. His bag was inches from me. I grabbed it and ran for my life. I ended up in the woods for about three days. I found some roots and berries and ate those while trying to steer clear of the others. I had a knife and an extra jacket, but that's it. After the fire, I had to abandon that. On the fourth day, I came across a huge wheat field. I went in and got turned around. I found Thresh and followed him out. I thought I was being stealthy but-"

Thresh interrupts, "Anyone in a twelve-mile radius could hear you."  

Peeta grins and says, "Yes, so I was being stealthy and when we got out, he turned around and I thought he was going to kill me. But he had me follow him. We have this cave near a stream. He showed me how to catch some fish and we decided on a temporary alliance. From there, to sum it up, we set some traps and stored some supplies. We planned on destroying the Career's supplies and went over to the lake to spy on them and found out the District 3 boy found out how to rig the bombs again. We didn't get much information, but we had enough. So he was supposed to set a signal fire close to their base to get them away for a few seconds, he set one near our camp and another one halfway to the lake, and then you saw the other one, right Prim?" 

"Yes. But I don't think that they saw the other fires," I say matter-of-factly.

"I don't think they're really the kind of people that notice many things," Rue says. Then, quieter, "Remember the berries?" 

"What berries," Peeta asks, frowning. 

"We found nightlock and put it in a parachute during the anthem. They didn't suspect a thing until Glimmer and Marina tried it. It was all Rue's idea," I say, and smile at Rue. It's getting easier, though I can tell my smile's still very crooked. I don't think it'll ever be as pretty as it was before.

"Oh," Peeta says, surprised. Then he continues, "So I was supposed to set the bombs off, but I only started walking a little less than ten minutes when I heard Rue scream. So I ran back because I thought it was you."

He directs that at me and I'm happy that he wouldn't leave me to die. Peeta suddenly looks uncomfortable and says quickly to Rue, "Not that I would have left you to die, Rue. I swear."

She smiles at his discomfort and she laughs, "You got me out, didn't you? Even though I didn't really make it easy." 

He smiles and continues his story, "So then you guys came out of nowhere, and here we all are."

He looks at Thresh, who says, "Checks out."

We're all quiet and I break the silence. "So? What do we do now? How long does this temporary alliance last?" If it ends now, I'm prepared to run, to climb a tree, to do anything to get away. There're only seven of us left, and even though I probably can't win, I want to make my sister and mother proud. At least they'll know I've tried my best.

Thresh is about to talk but is silenced when we hear trumpets sound. Claudius Templesmith's voice sounds from overhead. He congratulates the seven of us that are left and breaks jaw-dropping news. There's a rule change in the Games. I'm skeptical. I don't trust the Gamemakers at all and I know their end intention is to kill all but one of us. Under our new rule, two tributes can win the Games if they originate from the same district. I look at Peeta with my mouth open in shock. His eyes are wide. I'm sure Thresh and Rue are looking at each other too, and the last two Careers. Cato and Clove are probably reveling in the news. They're a huge threat against a sixteen-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old boy. 

I wonder what brought this on. Not me and Peeta, we haven't been seen together since the beginning of the Games, unless you count being across each other at the beginning. Same thing with Thresh and Rue, I think. But she'd probably mention that to me. Maybe it was Cato and Clove. I wonder what they've pulled off to make the Gamemakers give us a rule change.

 But I couldn't care less. I can go home. Peeta can go home. We can go back to Katniss. I can hug my sister again. I can talk to her again. I'll be so rich, I could do anything I wanted. I know what Peeta's thinking too. He can go back to his Katniss. A soft smile graces his lips and my theory's proven correct. I wonder what she's thinking now. I bet she wants to be happy, but she won't allow herself to be. Not until we're both home, safe and sound. Even then I doubt she'll let her guard down, she'll be trying to protect us for years after this. I won't mind.

Everyone's silent. Rue and I are waiting for an answer after our rule change and Peeta and Thresh are mulling over their options. They look like they're communicating with their eyes when Thresh says, "There's seven of us left. Three teams. I don't want to be the one to shoot first."

Peeta doesn't look surprised, but I sure am. I didn't expect this out of Thresh. Peeta, yes, but not Thresh. But I don't think I can make large generalizations about Thresh anymore, I don't know him, I've never known him, and he's surprising when you start talking to him. "Me neither. We should sleep now, then tomorrow morning, we split our supplies fairly and go our separate ways."

We agree and Rue asks, "So are we going back to that cave you guys told us about?" 

They shake their heads. "We've got no stuff there, there's no point in making the long journey." 

We all climb into trees when the anthem sounds and the boys fall right asleep. Rue and I are on opposite sides of the same tree, we're both leaning against the trunk. "So what does this mean?" Rue whispers.

I pause. "I don't know," I say unhappily. I don't know anything, how this is going to work, where we're going to go, and least of all, how I feel about the situation. "I guess this is our last night keeping watch for each other."

I hear her shift on her branch and she asks, "Do you want to sit with me?" I nod and switch to her branch. We sit next to each other like we've done every night during these Games, and fall asleep, her head on my shoulder.