The Hunger Games: Retold

Chapter 14

I stare blankly at the spot where Rue just disappeared. Did I imagine that? My gaze sweeps around the camp, none of the others seem to have noticed anything at all. Everyone is settling in and getting ready for dinner. Cato hands me a packet of dried fruit and a water bottle. Dazedly, I take them. It's too surreal. Seconds ago I was preparing to slit his throat. I risk a glance upward toward Katniss and see that she has gone suspiciously still.

"Ready to do this, Lover Boy?" Marvel asks with a sly grin.

I'm clenching my knife in a white-knuckle grip. I have no idea what's going on, but this is obviously not the time to launch an attack. "I just want it over with," I mumble.

He actually looks sympathetic and grunts agreement. "Do you want me to do it?" he asks.

I'm saved from answering by the seal of the Capitol appearing in the sky as the anthem swells through the gathering dark. All eyes turn upward to see if anyone was caught in the fire. I turn my head just slightly and see Katniss is not in her sleeping bag. What is going on? She isn't climbing down, I can see the trunk is clear all the way to the bottom. Did she go even higher? Why? And how does Rue figure into it? I'm baffled and beginning to panic. I think I may have missed my chance to act. With no idea what is happening, I have no choice but to trust Rue and Katniss know what they're about.

No faces appear in the sky tonight, apparently everyone made it through the inferno alive. I wonder what sort of shape they're in, though. Katniss looked pretty banged up, but Rue didn't seem harmed. I only saw her for a second though. That leaves the girl from 5, Bril from 10, and Thresh. I think Thresh is probably the biggest threat after the Careers. Are they close, or were the Gamemakers satisfied with setting us on Katniss for now? I can't figure what Rue is up to. If she's working with Thresh, or anyone else, she could be setting a trap. But if that's the case, why warn me off? She should have been happy to see me take out, or at least slow down, a couple Careers as I meet my own end.

I have no idea. The best I can do is keep the Careers from noticing Katniss is out of her sleeping bag. "Hey, Marvel," I say casually. "You're pretty good with your spear. Think you can out-throw Clove with her knives?" And just like that a contest is on. Marvel and Clove have a natural animosity and the competition is fierce. The rest of us try our hands as well, but Clove and Marvel are unquestionably dominant. Cato declares Clove the winner when she zips a blade, in the dark, into a small hole and skewers the cowering rabbit within.

Peering up through the darkness, I see that Katniss is back in her sleeping bag, and seemingly asleep. It's driving me crazy not knowing what is happening, but she seems content to wait and so I will too. Marvel is posted as guard and the rest of us settle in for the night. They are sleepily making increasingly silly plans to chase Katniss out of the tree in the morning, and I tuck my head deep into my hood and zip my jacket up tight, resolved to keep watch through the hours. As the night deepens, Marvel is fading fast. He is understandably exhausted from the eventful day and I watch carefully as his head bobs and his eyes droop. Finally, he is slumped against the tree trunk and his breathing is deep and even. I slide my hand toward Marvel's pack, lying open within reach, and silently feel around inside. I find what I'm looking for and carefully draw it out. Watchful eyes on him, I slide the night-vision glasses on and scan up the tree toward Katniss.

She seems fully and deeply asleep, her face slack and mouth drooping. She looks so different, relaxed and peaceful. I peer around the trunk, I can't see anything unusual. I shift my focus to the next tree. There, up a little higher, Rue is huddled tightly against the trunk, curled in sleep. I can't make out what they are planning. Back to this tree, I search up into the branches, higher than where Katniss is strapped in, and then I see something. An animal? A nest? A- a hive! It's a wasp nest, and the branch holding it is frayed and split near the trunk. She must be sawing through the branch to drop it on us! I quickly turn my head away and slide the glasses off, I don't want anyone else to think of looking up there. Shakily, I replace them in Marvel's pack and turn over on my side, staring into the darkness.