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

Chapter 13

Peeta jumps to his feet, "To the lake! To the lake!"

The sound is awful - buzzing mixed with screams. The Careers run blindly, chased by the swarm, each stung repeatedly as they flee. Peeta too, legs pumping...

But Glimmer and the girl from 4 are caught in their sleeping bags, quickly enveloped in a cloud of wasps. With the overwhelming buzz.

The girl from 4, half-insane now, runs into a tree, staggers, disappears behind a rock. Glimmer shrieks, tries to swat the wasps with that bow, taking dozens of stings; then she falls.

Her body begins to spasm, twitching madly. Then, death. The Tracker-Jackers depart. And an odd silence returns...

Alessia is alone, looking around for Rue but she is nowhere in sight. Alessia pulls the stingers from her knee and neck, then descends the tree...

She reaches the ground, bearing her backpack. Already, welts are growing from the stings. Her calf still searing.

She approaches the body of Glimmer, warily. It's barely human now - face distorted out of proportion. And still breathing. 

The tip of the bow peeks out from beneath her.

Alessia reaches under the faintly-breathing body to extract the bow. Glimmer's eyes flicker. Alessia avoids them, grabs the bow, then the ten arrows.

Their still clutched in Glimmer's first. Alessia tries to pry her fingers away. Glimmer holds tight - fighting, even now. Her face a balloon, blood and green ooze everywhere.

Alessia hears a cannon and sees a hovercraft descending not far from here to get the girl from 4. Soon, the craft will be coming for Glimmer - so this has to be done.

She grabs a rack and smashes it down on Glimmer's hand. The fingers release their grip. Alessia grabs the arrows.

Then, a shock; Peeta racing towards Alessia, through the branches. He's carrying a spear, his body covered in welts.

Alessia tries to stand, can barely do it, she lifts her bow.

Peeta makes it to her and yells, "Why're you still here?!"

Huh? Alessia is at a loss. Maybe hallucinating...

He continues, "Go! Now! They're right behind me!"

Sure enough, she hears the sound of the Careers, coming this way. Alessia studies Peeta - She thought for a moment, 'he came back here to save me???'

Glimmer tries to yell, still holding on for dear life. Peeta puts that spear into her chest. Peeta then turns around and looks at Alessia, "Run."

Urgency runs through his eyes. Alessia turns.... and runs.

Alessia, running blindly, fleeing. She hears another cannon. Up ahead is a pool. She gets there, drops her backpack, dives in - still clutching that bow and arrow...

A moment later, bow drawn, she surfaces - ready to fire.

But no one's coming. The woods are still, until they start to move in a hallucinating way, swaying. Suddenly, ants appear out of thin air, floating toward her. Images appear, wobbling; Her father collapsing as a guard has pulled the trigger, Snow standing next to him with a devilish smile. She sees her mother scream, coming up to the stage next, right in the Capitol. Alessia shuts her eyes. 

She opens them now seeing something different. Katniss standing in the town square. But suddenly all her limbs fall off in the Town Square. Alessia screams for her friend, thinking that all of this is real.

She then turns and sees Prim collecting berries quietly from a bush. Alessia looks closer and it's Nightlock. She screams again, but no sound comes out.