Prim's Games

Chapter Fourteen (Prim)

It has been two days since Marvel forced me to kill Glimmer, Cato and Clove. Rue and I have been hiding out in the trees ever since. Hiding and out of sight. We realised a few days ago that Marvel had killed all the other remaining Tributes, so it was just me, Rue and him now.
Rue's teeth chatter nervously,"Do you think they'll start to herd us towards Marvel?"
I nod. It is bound to happen eventually, but there must be something stopping the Capitol from doing so.

A spear suddenly implanted itself into Rue's leg. "Aaaarggghhh!" She screamed. I quickly pull it out and scan the landscape below.
Marvel.
"Run!" Rue screams through her tears.
"But what about you?" I ask.
She doesn't answer with words, instead she shows me a sharp piece of branch in her hand. I know she is trying to say that she can defend herself.
"Go." she says weakly.

So I run. Through the trees, escaping from Marvel. I'm not allowing myself to think about what will happen to Rue, but obviously she wanted me to survive. And is going to distract him while I get away. The only thing keeping me going is the knowledge that by the slight chance I make it through, I'll see Mother, Katniss and Buttercup again.

When I think I am far enough away, I huddle between the leaves of the surrounding branches of a tree and try to fall asleep. As my heavy eyelids slowly fall shut, something pulls them back open.
The sound of a cannon being fired.

I sob, Rue was surely dead. And I'm next. It wouldn't take long before Marvel finds me and with no weapons, I had nothing to defend myself with. Death would soon welcome me in its arms, just as it had with the other 22 tributes.

I could jump from the tree and fall to my death, but instead I sit and cry. For hours and hours it seems. But the anthem of Panem stops me after a long while. I look up, hoping to see Rue's face for the last time, but what I see instead shocks me more than anything had done so before. Marvel's face lights up the night sky, not Rue's.

Before I can even think I am running, back to where Rue last was.
How could Marvel be dead? What did Rue do to him?

I am forced to stop for a moment to catch my breath. Curse my lack of fitness. If this was Katniss she could keep running! That thought pushes me beyond my limits. Soon enough I'm back at the scene. What I see is definitely not what I was hoping for. Rue is lying in the same spot, unconscious, possibly dead. And there is blood all over the ground far below. Rue must have pushed Marvel with her legs, and sent him falling to the ground.

I kneel down beside Rue and check for a pulse. What I feel is so faint that it appears that she is hanging on to life by a thread. From my medical background, I'd say she only has a few minutes left. It must have been from the blood loss from the spear.

Trying to stand up, I lose my balance and suddenly fall over the side of the tree.
I scream, but stop knowing no one can help me, I would die, just like the other tributes. With grim satisfaction, I realise what this means. When I hit the ground, I will surely die, and Rue would be dead in mere seconds, meaning there would be no surviving Victor.

The Capitol had finally lost.

Thump.