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

Chapter 15

Peeta can almost read Alessia's mind, "A feast. Of course. Whenever there's been a day or two without any deaths."

Alessia gets up eagerly, "There'll be medicine there."

Peeta shakes his head, "Doesn't matter. You're not risking your life for me."

Alessia looks at him, "Who said I was?"

Peeta raises his eyebrows at the girl, "I know you want to."

Alessia responds, "Right. I'm gonna run into the middle of some free-for-all against Cato and Clove and Thresh. Give me some credit, okay?"

Peeta scoffs, "You're such a bad liar, Ali. I don't know how you survived this long." Anger flushes Alessia's face. She looks right through him, "You can't stop me, Peeta."

Peeta tries to find a reason for her not to go, "No. But I can crawl out of this cave and call your name at the top of my lungs until they trip over each other on their way to kill me. And I will. I want you to survive all this, Alessia."

Alessia just wants them to get through this so badly, "We can both survive. He said it. I'm not gonna sit here and watch you di--" She stops just short of saying it. Die. He eyes her. She tightens, frustrated... And marches out of the cave.

...just as another silver parachute, bearing a box, gently wafts down from the sky, landing at her feet. Her eyes light up; there must be medicine in there! Hope!

She opens the box... there is indeed a vial inside. Blue liquid. But she twists it open, sniffs it... And grimaces, furious, eyeing the unseen camera above, "Dammit, Haymitch!"

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

Haymitch sighs heavily. Effie is beside him. She looks over at his frustrated face, "Ignore it, Haymitch. She's lucky to have you." Haymitch shakes his head, "No she's not..."

Effie pats his hand, Haymitch much appreciates it.

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚

The vial is empty now. Alessia pockets it.

...then starts feeding Peeta with a spoon - strawberries, mashed into a paste. He's too delirious with a fever to notice. He sighs in relief, "It's good. What is it?"

She smiles, "Strawberries. The mayor's favorite."

Peeta chews it with satisfaction, "Oh. They taste sweeter than--"

Just then... a flash of recognition. And a semi-guilty look in her eyes. Peeta pauses, catching on... livid; he tries to spit out the paste. Alessia covers his mouth. And she waits... until his eyes start to hang droopily. 

Then he's out. She lays him down gently, even mumbles "sorry" without meaning to. Then she covers him.

Alessia peeks out from behind a tree after leaving the cave. Nine arrows are in her quiver. She puts the Night-Vision goggles on. Through them, she sees the Cornucopia, fifty yards away. Nothing moving...

...Until she hears two metallic clicks. Then a patch of ground opens up in front of the Cornucopia - something emerging from below on a platform... a table.

Four items on it; Two large backpacks marked "2" and "11". A smaller backpack marked "5". And a pouch marked "12".

There's medicine in there. Alessia knows it... But she can't be the first to risk bursting from the woods to run for it. She looks around. Where are the other tributes?