𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐞 ☦︎ 𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐧

𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐒 ☦︎ 13

I jump violently, a gasp escaping my lips as I roughly jerk my arm back, my whole body rotating to see who lies behind me. It is only then that I realise I've drawn the knife I was holding, and I intend to use it on whoever has just been stupid enough to try and stop me.

However, everything changes when my vision focuses and I see who it is.

Rue.

The very same girl that saved my life with the tracker jackers, the girl that reminds me irrefutably of my youngest sister, the girl I always feel the instinctive need to protect.

"Wha-?" I start to hiss, before Rue puts a finger to her lips to silence me.

"Shh," she whispers, her voice being carried over to me on the gentle breeze. "Just watch or you'll miss it."

What the fuck? I want to utter, as I frown in absolute confusion at the small girl in front of me with the big, brown orbs for eyes.

"She'll be here in a second," Rue whispers to me. "Watch. And then I'll explain."

I am still beyond confused, but I don't allow myself to question any further as I turn back to the Cornucopia, and the career camp, and the supplies. I do have questions in my head, however.

What's Rue doing here? What's she talking about? Who's 'she'? What is there to explain?

I get one of those answers in the next second.

Because all of a sudden, there's a flash of movement from the trees opposite the pyramid, and before I know it I'm witnessing Foxface sprinting towards the pyramid.

My head snaps to Rue's, but she shakes her head.

"Watch."

My head snaps back, just in time to see Foxface grind to a halt.

I watch, transfixed, as she begins to hop, skip and jump her way towards the pile, in a way that is clearly cleverly calculated and cunning. I am so confused I don't even know what to think by the time she reaches the supplies, stepping carefully on the ground.

She doesn't do my job, though. No, all she does is steal a few bits of food; enough to sustain her for a day or so, and then she begins to bound back out, in the same pattern she did before.

I cast my gaze over to the lookout. The boy from Three is clearly not the brightest of the bunch, as he's been sitting, oblivious, this entire time. By the time his head is twitching round to the side, checking eagerly for someone to impale with that lovely spear of his, Foxface is gone.

"There," Rue whispers, and I suddenly remember she's there beside me. I turn to look at her, and she looks at me. "Do you understand now?"

I don't just say 'no', because I never admit defeat if I can help it. But I also can't say 'yes', because I don't understand.

So what I do is I glance back at the pyramid. Or, not the pyramid, but the ground around it.

Of course I noticed the small piles of dug up ground around it. They're pretty obvious if you're looking, but... I never stopped to think about what those dug up piles meant.

My lips move faster than my brain and soon I'm whispering, to myself as much as to Rue. "It's mined."

And I don't see her reaction, or hear it, because I'm too caught up in my own thoughtd, but I know what they'll be anyway. Because I know I'm right.

The mines around the cornucopia were disabled after the sixty seconds at the start of the games where we were required to stand on the pedestals. But some way, somehow, the careers must have found a way to reactivate them, and plant them around their supplies. No, actually, not the careers, but the boy from District Three. That explains his input, as well, and why he wasn't killed on the spot.