The Hunger Games | Rilaya

A New Ally

I don't know how many nightmares I have.

How many times I watch my father die in the mines. How many times I see Prim dying of starvation, her face heavy with burdens that she shouldn't have. How many time I see Lucas being killed by a peacekeeper or my mom lying on the bed, drowning out the world around her.

Worst of all, the image of Cato killing Riley with the sword keeps replaying in my head, her blood curdling scream piercing the atmosphere.

When I finally come to my senses, I don't get up, just hoping that this was all a really bad dream. For some reason, Lucas's words from what seemed like forever but was really only about a week or two ago flash in my mind.

"We could do it, you know."

"What?"

"Leave the district. Run off. Live in the woods. You and I, we could make it."

But then, I'm suddenly thinking about Riley. She saved my life! At least, I think she did. I'm not sure what was real and what wasn't. For whatever reason, I believe that at least the part with Cato was real, making my stomach drop in dread.

Riley was hurt. Or worse, dead.

None of this makes sense. Why would Riley save me? Unless she was still working the whole 'Lover Girl' angle, but I don't think that's it. She would've known that Cato wouldn't have taken it very well.

Was she actually trying to protect me? If she was, then why was she with the Careers in the first place?

All of this thinking makes my head spin, so I decide to focus on the one good thing that happened because of the tracker jackers. I have a bow and arrow!

That's when I hear a twig snap. In one swift motion, despite my injuries, I turn to the sound, loading my bow and pointing the arrow at the source of the noise. I see the brown curls peeking out from behind a rock and I immediately throw the bow down, grinning at Auggie.

"You know, the Careers are not the only ones who can form alliances." I say.

For a moment, it's silent. Then Auggie slowly peeks the rest of his head out from behind the rock. "You want me for an ally?"

"Why not?" I say. "You saved me with those tracker jackers. You're smart enough to still be alive. And I can't seem to shake you away anyways."

He hesitates for a moment, then cautiously walks over to me, sitting down on the ground beside me.

"You hungry?" I ask. "I think I still have some crackers and jerky in my pack."

A small smile appears on his face and he accepts the food. We sit in silence for a while with the only sound coming from the chirping of birds and munching from Auggie. Finally, he says "I can fix your stings."

"How?" I ask.

He pauses for a moment, then digs in the pack he was carrying, pulling out a handful of leaves.

"Where'd you find those?"

"Just around." Auggie shrugs. "We all carry them when we work in the orchards. They left a lot of nests there. There are a lot here too."

"That's right. You're District 11: Agriculture." I state. "Well, fix me up."

I widen my eyes in surprise when I see Auggie pop the leaves into his mouth. He chews them for a couple seconds, then presses the wad on a couple of the stings on my hand, providing immediate relief.

Auggie continues to do this for the rest of the stings.

I notice a long burn on his arm. "I have something for that." I pull out the burn medicine, passing it over to him.