The Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen Blogs

You just Got Tracker-Jacked!

I'm sure that everyone in Panem has watched the complete chaos that took place over the last few days. By now, all of the Careers are probably out to kill me. It all started after the Gamemakers' synthetic fire.

My right calf and both of my hands still felt like they were on fire, even after I'd soaked them in the pool. The position that I was in was painfully dangerous, for I was completely open to any sort of attack, and I was definitely too weak to defend myself when I was all alone and unarmed.

I knew that in past Hunger Games, there have been surprising and sudden events, such as fires and avalanches and countless other natural-yet-unnatural disasters. I understood that the Gamemakers do this so that the people watching the Games aren't too bored, but that doesn't excuse my anger. The majority of it was directed at the Gamemakers, but part of it was aimed at myself. I should have kept better watch. I had a hunch that the Gamemakers would cause something crazy to happen; I should have stayed up all night so I would have been able to avoid the fire.

However, I knew that dreading about my past decisions would not help my situation. I heard footsteps; they were coming from the Careers, which included Peeta. I half-scrambled, half-dragged myself up a tree, but the Careers and Peeta had already seen me. One of the tributes, Glimmer from District 1, pulled out a silver sheath of arrows and shot one in my direction. It was clear that she was really bad at archery, and I felt both annoyance and jealousy flash through me as I saw her clutching that bow and those arrows. There was only one bow and only one container of arrows in the arena, as far as I was aware of. I felt like the only reason the Gamemakers put it in was because they knew about my talent. So seeing the girl holding those items really made me upset. I told myself that I would get that bow and arrows, if it was the last thing I did in the arena.

The Careers eventually decided that if they went to sleep on the ground and one of them kept watch, I wouldn't be able to attack them. They wouldn't be able to reach me either because they were all way too big to be climbing trees.

I was trying to sleep when I saw the flash of eyes in the darkness, coming from the next tree over. By now, you all know that the eyes belonged to Rue, the female District 11 tribute. What you don't know is that as soon as I saw Rue, I knew I could trust her. She reminded me too much of Prim for me to think that she wanted to kill me. And she didn't want to hurt me, because she warned me of danger by pointing to a nest a few feet above my head.

This nest contained tracker jackers, which are a species of genetically-modified wasps created by the Capitol. Their strings are deadly. I knew that I needed to get away from the nest before the wasps stung me to death. I made a plan to saw off the branch that the nest was connected to using my knife. The nest would fall onto the Careers, and hopefully allow me to get away.

I realized that if the tracker jackers stung and killed some of the Career tributes, I would be responsible for their deaths. Even though I was put in the Hunger Games to kill, it still felt wrong to imagine actually doing it. I guess I assumed that if I did win the Games, it wouldn't be because of my victory over the other tributes, but because they would've picked each other off by themselves. However, I knew it was necessary for me to survive in the arena, and killing others was the only way to do so. I would just have to accept that, even though I didn't want to.

After a long time, I finally managed to saw off the branch and the nest. It landed on the pile of sleeping Careers. They instantly woke from their slumber, slapping their faces as they tried to avoid the tracker jackers. Even though my face and neck hurt from three stings, I managed to climb down from the tree. Some of the Careers raced away towards the lake, and the swarm of tracker jackers followed them. I hoped that if some of them did die from the stings, it would be quick and not too painful. Even though hurting the other tributes to promote my victory is necessary, I don't really want to deliberately harm others, no matter how much they anger me. All of the Careers ran away, except for Glimmer and another girl. Their stings seemed very bad. I watched as they fell to the ground, dying from the stings.

I tried not to feel too guilty as I ran away from them, but I couldn't help thinking about how their families watching them die must have felt. They probably wanted me dead, and honestly, I couldn't blame them. What I had done was inexcusable. I was pretty far away from the girls when I realized something: the bow and arrows were still there! I could go back and grab them, then run away again!

It was a struggle, but I finally managed to pry the bow and quiver of arrows from around Glimmer's body. Suddenly, Peeta came crashing through the trees, screaming at me to run away to safely. I was stumbling out of the clearing when Cato appeared. He looked like he was ready to murder me, a sword raised high above his head. I darted away and ran for my life.

I fell to the ground and went to sleep for several hours before I woke up a few minutes ago. The tracker jacker stings hurt terribly, and I don't have any medicine to cure them. My next biggest concern is what happened to Peeta. He saved my life by arriving a few seconds before Cato and by telling me to run. I can't imagine what Cato will have done to Peeta, but I don't think it could be anything good. If you're watching this right now, you probably know Peeta's whereabouts. I just hope that he's alright, wherever he is...