Glimmer's Story

Chapter 7 - Katniss and a Terrible End

We wake up with the moon high in the sky and grab our packs, ready to get tribute hunting. Marvel, Peeta and I head off into the forest. All the tributes must be hiding because we don't see anyone all night. At dawn, we hear someone creeping around in the bushes to our left.

"Shhhh!!" Peeta whispers. "Someone's there!"

We hide in the bushes and as our targets push through the bushes, we jump out and point our weapons at them. Unfortunately, our targets turn out to be Cato and Clove.

"What are you doing?" Clove shouts!

"Hunting tributes!" I shout back. "What did you expect?"

"So wait," Peeta says before either of us can shout again. "Were we hunting each other?"

"I guess we must have been," Cato says. "Glimmer, Clove, stop arguing. All the tributes nearby will be able to hear us!"

Suddenly, we hear a roaring behind us. We all turn and see a huge wall of fire in the distance, heading towards us.

"RUN!" Marvel shouts.

We all sprint away from the fire as fast as we can. It is quite a long way behind us but we don't wait for it to catch up to us. We want to stay as far away from it as we can. The Sara runs up to join us from wherever Cato and Clove sent her to observe from in their little group. The fire seems to get closer and closer to us. I trip over a tree root and get a small burn on my arm but I keep running because I don't want to die.

After a while the fire stops coming at us. Another tribute must be nearby.

"Are we all ok?" Cato asks. Everyone nods. Everyone got a few minor burns like mine so we decide to find a river or stream.

"Down there." I say and we all walk down together to the river.

It's just our luck that when we get down to the pool, Katniss is already there. She sees us and runs as fast as she can back up the bank. She isn't running as fast as she was on the first day so she must be injured. Fine by me. Makes it easier for us to kill her. We all chase after her and are starting to close in when she picks a tall tree and starts to climb. By the time we reach the base of the trunk, she is quite high up the tree. We grin up at her, ready to climb up and kill her.

She seems to realise something the longer we stand under the tree grinning up at her. After a little while she smiles.

"How's everything with you?" She calls down cheerfully.

We are shocked. She should be trembling and pleading for us not to kill her! Cato decides to play along with her little show.

"Well enough," he says. "Yourself?"

She comments that it is a bit warm and invites Cato to climb up the tree. Apparently the air is better!

"Here, take this, Cato," I say and offer him the bow and arrows.

Cato pushes away the bow and says that he will do better with his sword. He begins to climb but as soon as he hoists himself into the tree, Katniss climbs higher. No offence to Cato, but I think the branches will break before he gets that high. I am proved right as the branch Cato was standing on cracks and he flails as he falls to the ground. He hits it hard before standing and swearing.

"You have a go then, Glimmer," He says as he sees my trying to stifle a laugh. "See how far you get."

"Fine," I say and begin to climb the tree. I climb until the branches begin to crack under my feet. I decide to stop then because I don't want to land hard like Cato did. I managed to get higher than Cato though!

When I get back down, I look up at Katniss and she seems to be laughing at us. I grab my bow and arrows and struggle with it until I am able to shoot it. I miss. The arrow lodges in the tree near Katniss so it wasn’t too bad. Katniss grabs the arrow and waves it above my head, teasing me. How dare she!? We regroup and talk about what we are going to do. Just as our conversation is about to break into a full scale argument, Peeta steps in. Just like he always does.

"Oh, let her stay up there. It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning." he says. Good idea. It's getting dark anyway.

We set up camp and Cato assigns Sara to first guard duty and then for me to take over.

We all settle down to go to sleep. It feels like no time has passed before Sara wakes me for guard duty. I stay awake for a little bit, leaning against the tree but I get too comfortable and start to drift off…

I wake to cries of "To the lake!" and a very loud buzzing. As I open my eyes, I feel a sharp burst of pain on my leg and see trackerjackers everywhere! Peeta, Cato and Marvel bolt straight away with Clove following. I scream for them to come back and help me but no one does. I try to bat the giant wasps away with my bow but it does nothing.

I fall to the ground and the hallucinations start. It is terrible. I watch my family and friends die. Everything I have ever feared comes to mind in this moment. It feels so real. And the pain is excruciating! After what feels like years, everything goes black and the last thing I think is that I hope Katniss dies.