The Girl On Fire | Hunger Games | Peeta (1)

Chapter 12

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫

Haymitch just watches as Alessia falls to the ground, of course, Alessia in a heap...

He groans in frustration.

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚

Alessia is flat on her back, delirious. She feels her body completely limp, she can barely feel anything until her fingers slightly brush the ground. 

Mud. That means water. 

Her eyes snap open and rolls on to her stomach. She starts to crawl, urgently, trying to find the source wetting this ground. She crawls in the mud, like an animal.

Up ahead, a tangle of plants. She plows through it, to; and there it is, a pond. But she doesn't drink from it. Instead, she grabs her water-jug from the pack and fills it. She drops an iodine pill into it that she had found in the bag. She starts counting, "One, two, three, four, five, six..."

She continues counting. The patience is inhuman.

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫

Seneca, watching - along with 15 bored gamemakers. Seneca furrows his brow, "How long since our last event?"

One of the gamemakers, Betto answers, "Eight hours ago, sir. The girl from seven, behind the rock."

Seneca smirks, "Then we are due. On my signal..."

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚

Five minutes later, Alessia still waits before she can drink the water safely continues to count, "Two-hundred ninety-eight, two-hundred ninety-nine... three-hundred."

NOW she can drink. She empties the jug into her mouth, almost crying from relief. One long delicious chug. 

She refills it, drops another Iodine pill in. Starts counting again, "One, two, three..."

Until a thunderous sound snaps her head around. She quickly turns in horror -- terrified animals, bursting out of the woods in a stampede, coming this way. She looks behind the running animals, a wall of flames is behind them - mountainous, fast moving - a forest fire, barrelling at her. 

Alessia spun around and nearly trampled by the panicking animals. She turns, fleeing, carrying that jug like a football, her backpack bouncing and pounding on her back.

Moments later, everything around her is on fire, every tree... She dodges a burning branch, jumps over a burning log. But the tail of her jacket catches fire. 

She dives to the ground head-first, rolls over twice to smother the fire. Then, she's off again, running alongside the animals, their panicked screams adding to the terror. 

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦

Katniss and Prim watch Alessia suffer. It's unbearable, Katniss tries to cover Prim's eyes from seeing the terror. Around the two sisters, the whole class silent.

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚

Alessia gets to the other side of a huge rock - nothing burning within fifty yards of her. She sags back, gasping for air. Her lungs searing in pain, but she is unburned. She stuffs the water jug back into the backpack... until a strange thin hiss cuts the air. She looks up... as a fireball whizzes within an inch of her head, imploding on a boulder behind her.

This wasn't part of the forest fire. It was man-made, the size of an apple... and it was aimed right at her. She bolts up, sprinting away. Another hiss can be heard. She flattens herself to the ground as a second fireball surges over her, slamming into a tree, instantly immolating it.