The Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen Blogs

The Item that I Desperately Need

It was hard to believe that the Hunger Games were almost over. There were only six of us left: me, Peeta, Foxface, Thresh, Cato, and Clove. When it gets to late in the Games, it's normal for the Gamemakers to hold a feast near the Cornucopia. The main point of this is usually to get the tributes closer together so they can fight, but this feast was a little bit different.

Claudius Templesmith announced that there were going to be different backpacks at the feast, and each backpack had something that each tribute badly needed. At first, I felt suspicion roiling within me. Dozens of what ifs went through my mind. What if there weren't really any backpacks by the Cornucopia and it was all a sham to get the tributes to fight each other? What if I ended up dying in the bloodbath? I definitely knew there would be fighting, whether I wanted it or not.

I considered not going to the feast and all; it was what Peeta wanted me to do. However, I knew that the backpack would contain medicine for Peeta's leg, and I would not allow him to die if I could prevent it. I wasn't sure how I could go to the feast without Peeta following me and trying to bring me back to our cave. Luckily, Haymitch sent some sleeping medicine to me. I fed it to Peeta with a combination of herbs. At first, he thought it was just some herbs, but right as he was slipping off to sleep, I saw him realize what I'd done.

As I walked to the Cornucopia, I thought about the look in Peeta's eyes when he came to the conclusion that I'd drugged him. It was real betrayal in his eyes, pure and true. At first, I was concerned about what would happen if Peeta wanted to end our alliance because of what I'd done. On second thought, however, I knew how grateful he would be to me if I managed to get the medicine and heal his wound, which was still badly infected.

I was getting closer to the Cornucopia and I felt true fear set within me. Cato, Clove, Foxface, and Thresh were all strong or clever enough to kill me. What if I didn't make it out alive? I told myself to stop thinking like that. I would escape with the backpack on my shoulders and without a scratch on my body. I had managed to escape the Gamemaker-created fire, kill two of the Careers with tracker jackers, and destroy the Careers' food supply. I felt a newfound courage and strength lift my spirits.

I waited in the bushes several hundred yards away from the Cornucopia. At the crack of dawn, a table with the backpacks arranged on it rose up out of the ground. In a flash of red hair, Foxface zipped out of the Cornucopia, grabbed her backpack, and raced away into the trees.

I felt a twinge of jealousy at Foxface's cleverness. Why hadn't I thought about hiding in the Cornucopia? That was a perfect plan. Not for the first time, I thought that the odds of Foxface winning the Hunger Games were highly in her favor. I deduced that her plan was probably to wait for the other tributes to kill each other while she hung low and defended herself with clever tricks and schemes. Even though Foxface was my enemy, I admired her strategies. I hoped that I wouldn't have to be the one to kill her.

Foxface was gone and I knew that if I wanted to get out of the area fast, I needed to get my backpack quickly. I dashed towards the Cornucopia, and only my hunter's instinct warned me that a knife was whizzing through the air, about to hit me on my right side. Clove had thrown the knife, and without hesitation, I aimed an arrow right in her direction. I reached the Cornucopia and shoved District's 12 tiny backpack up my arm. I was about to run out of there when another knife whizzed near me, grazing my forehead. Clove pinned me to the ground. She was way too heavy for me to push her off of me. Warm blood dripped into my eye, clouding my vision. She taunted me, and she even had the audacity to mention Rue. My whole soul blared white-hot with rage. How dare she mention Rue?

Before I knew it, Clove's weight was lifted off of my body. I looked up at the person who had saved my life. Through the red blood filling my eye, I saw the blurred image of Thresh. I watched with shock as Thresh smashed Clove's skull inward with a huge rock. No medicine in the Capitol could ever fix that. Clove instantly fell towards the ground, dead.

Next, Thresh turned towards me. I was terrified that was going to smash my head in next, but instead of killing me right away, he asked me about Rue. When I responded that she was my ally and that I sang to her before she died, Thresh released the rock and let me go, saying that he was even with me. Since I had cared for Rue, he thanked me by letting me leave safely.

As I raced away from the Cornucopia and towards the cave, my mind was filled with thoughts about what had just happened. Thresh had just broken the rules by allowing me to live. He was supposed to kill me. But he didn't. Even though he said that he would only save me once, I couldn't help thinking that if it came to it, I didn't want to be the one to kill him.

I'm almost approaching the cave now. I just hope that the small backpack contains something to help Peeta's leg, like medicine. I don't know what I will do if Peeta dies. He and I have formed a special bond that I don't want taken away. I can't imagine going home to District 12 without Peeta at my side. I know that the people in the Capitol are probably eating all of this romantic stuff up, but I don't care.

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