The Littlest Victor

Chapter 1

Katniss Everdeen dropped to her knees, gasping and panting for air. Beside her, Cato gasped, shuddered, and went very still, his eyes rolling back in his head. The arrows she had shot into him quivered as he died.

Rue stared at him, wide-eyed. Katniss managed to give her a smile; without Rue's well-placed rock catching him in the back of the head as he charged toward Katniss, he might have killed her before her arrows killed him. In the distance, the cannon announcing a Tribute's death fired.

"That's all there is, Katniss...except us, right?"

Katniss looked at Rue, struggling to keep her eyes focussed. The last few fights had really taken a lot out of her. "No, Rue. There's one more out there. She's really elusive, but she'll have to come out now. Let's go down by the Cornucopia. Wait for her in the open."

Trustingly, Rue fell in behind Katniss as they headed on down the trail. Katniss made sure to have her bow ready with an arrow nocked, as she scanned the woods around them for possible dangers. Even if most of the Tributes were dead, there were always nasty surprises in the Arena. Muttations came in quite a few varieties.

After a few minutes, they got to the open area where the Cornucopia stood. A little way away, the remains of the Career Tributes' food stash still smoldered from the effects of Katniss' attack. Rue looked around, her eyes big.

"Both our district partners died out here, didn't they, Katniss?"

Katniss nodded. Peeta had died first; he'd been caught in the scrum at the Cornucopia by Glimmer, the lovely, deadly Career girl from District 1. She had efficiently opened his throat from behind with a knife, leaving him to bleed to death as she snatched the supplies he'd risked his life for out of his hands. Katniss had watched from the edge of the woods. Having to see a boy she knew killed made what she later did to Glimmer...dropping a tracker-jacker nest on her, enraging the insects into stinging her to death...much easier. She just wished that the other Careers had died then; it would have made the rest of the Games much easier.

Thresh had gone down later; he and Clove had killed each other, Katniss thought. At least there had been two cannons, and their pictures had been projected in the sky that evening right after each other. Thresh had been much bigger, but Clove had been a Career; she was from the same district as Cato, and, like him, had benefited from the training her wealthy District was able to give those who were expected to volunteer for the Hunger Games. Absently, Katniss wished she'd been able to see that fight.

Straining every muscle, Katniss managed to scramble up on top of the Cornucopia, and reached down to help the much smaller Rue; the younger girl couldn't reach up far enough to get a good handhold. On top of the Cornucopia, they were safe from most muttations, Katniss hoped.

"So...who's the other Tribute, Katniss? That girl from District 5...the redhead?" Rue looked around them at the surrounding woods. "I haven't seen her since the beginning of the Games. She's really hard to find when she doesn't want to be found, isn't she?"

Katniss gave Rue a smile. "She's hard to find...but I did find her. You were asleep when they projected her face. She fell foul of a snare, and the Careers caught her before she could get away."

"Then who?" Rue scrunched up her face, thinking. "Near as I can count, we two are the only ones left." She gave Katniss a long, long look...then leaned back, stretching out her neck and closing her eyes, submitting to death. "I know you're trying to make it easy on me, Katniss. I forgive you. You've got your baby sister to get back to. Just..." she gulped, fear thickening her voice despite all she could do... "just make it quick, please?"

"Oh, I will. Quick as can be." Katniss reached into her pocket. "Let me be the first to congratulate you on being the youngest winner of the Hunger Games in history. Congratulations...victor!"

Rue's eyes snapped open, and her jaw dropped in utter shock. "Katniss! What in the world..." She saw what Katniss had had in her pocket. A handful of dark-colored berries. "Is that nightlock?" Then realization flooded her mind. "Katniss! No! No! Oh, please, NO!"

Before Rue could do anything, Katniss raised a berry to her mouth. "Rue...I volunteered as a Tribute to save my little sister. She's just about your age and size. I couldn't live with myself if I killed you. Why do you think I took such trouble about keeping you alive?"

Rue stared, paralyzed by sheer horror, as Katniss put the berry in her mouth and swallowed. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed, slumping backward and falling off the Cornucopia. Her last expression was a smile.

The cannon's roar, Claudius Templesmith's announcement of her victory...Rue never remembered those. When the Peacekeepers came to collect Katniss' body, she was clinging to it, crying and screaming at the top of her lungs for Katniss to wake up, to get up, to stop it, to please, please, please not be dead. It took three full-grown Peacekeepers to pry her away from Katniss, and she struggled and shrieked until she was sedated.